2020-06-08 PPS School Board Public Hearing

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2020-06-08
Time	18:00:00
Venue	Virtual/Online
Meeting Type	town-hall
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Budget Town Hall - 6/08/2020

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all for June 8 2020 is called to order the Portland Public Schools Board is now convened as the Budget Committee the purpose of this convening is for the public to receive an overview of the superintendent's proposed budget and for us to hear public testimony this meeting is being audio streamed live on channel 28 will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the district website for replay times this meeting is also being audio streamed live on our PBS TV Services website I'd like to introduce Danny Ledesma senior racial equity advisor who will ground us and lead us through a land acknowledgment thank you so much Danny hey person resume good evening at Portland Public Schools we knew that in order to address pernicious opportunity gaps we have to be explicit about race we also know that we must be aware of our history past and present so that we can be intentional to not bad oppression into our culture and classrooms our history of inadequately certain black and Native American and many students of color does not reflect the type of community we aspire to be instead we strive to be a community that expresses the fundamental right to human dignity for every person and student especially in our plans and in our actions we also know and believe that by generating an equitable world we must build an educational system that identifies and ends all means of oppression as chair constant said my name is Danny Ledesma I'm latina and I'm from the Hickory a band of the Apaches Multnomah County and Portland have been my home for 18 years I'm proud that our community strives to strengthen our relationships with the Native community and Native Nations a symbol of this commitment is a land acknowledgement these statements bring visibly visibility to the first peoples of our collective home this statement is to provide information and contacts while also encouraging all of us to reflect on our current day relationship with native people in native experiences we acknowledge that we live work and play on the traditional land of the Chinook Clackamas Kali Puja multnomah Vasco Catholic Tualatin and Malala we also know that many other tribes made their homes along the Columbia and Willamette rivers we honor their history and acknowledge the sacrifices they made let us also acknowledge the robust present-day federally recognized tribes of this area the Grande Ronde Siletz and calots in addition I would like to acknowledge the Chinook Nation who has been seeking federal recognition for many years the urban Indian community is made up of tribal diversity that originates from around the country representing 400 tribes the urban Indian community has a vivid history made up of people whose journeys have brought them to Portland by ways of forced displacements or seeking more opportunities today these tribes and communities celebrate their heritage showing resilience and tenacity that would be greatly admired by their ancestors we encourage every person to reflect on their own history to understand the history of colonization and genocide and to support indigenous sovereignty priorities and actions this acknowledgment is one step that we can take to improve our support of indigenous communities in the area like to now introduce Claire Hertz our deputy superintendent of operations it boss violence bringing light and demanding racial justice cleric do you mind starting all over again sorry yeah I'm sorry Claire we couldn't hear you when you
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first began thank you okay I'm wondering because I am out in the week okay great I'm gonna start over thank you for letting me know Thank You Jonathan for letting me know it's not just a meet problem we also say their names why do we say their name Portland Public Schools recognizes that racist violence both physical emotional and systemic are daily and Justices for black indigenous and people of color in our community racism institutional cultural and individual continues to impact all of our lives on a daily basis and as a result we must constantly be reminded and say the names of victims lost to violence bringing light in demanding racial justice today and every day my name is Claire Hertz and as Daniel Edessa mentioned earlier I am the Deputy Superintendent of business and operations Thank You deputy superintendent Hertz and dr. Cuellar you'd like to introduce yourself so I'm gonna continue we would also like to start this evening by saying and remembering the names of black lives that had been lost to racist violence in this country George Floyd a mod armory titi gully Michael Brown Tamir rice quenice Hayes Eric garner Yount a Keller Stefan Clarke Sandra bland hundred James Trayvon Martin Keaton Otis Jason Washington Patrick Kimmons here at Portland Public Schools we know and demand that we continue our steadfast strong and united commitment towards making it absolutely clear in our words and actions that black lives matter we remember these names in so many other black people here in Portland and across the country who are no longer with us physically these names serve as a reminder that we must do our part to create the equitable conditions we need to need so that every black person in our community is seen heard and supported we stand in solidarity with black communities here in Portland and across this country who once again finds itself heartbroken angered and we are compelled to action in response to the continued murder of black people across the United States Thank You Claire as a school system we are committed to living in to our commitment to racial equity and social justice one that centers our black and Native American students we are committed to calling out and eradicating systems of oppression and correcting the wrongs of our country's racial sin which them back to the founding of these United States we are ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with our black community who continue to be central to building this nation fought and continue to fight for a more just and equitable opportunity here in Portland and across the United States within PBS we will learn and partner with our black elders and listen to our young people to address the wrongs that originated 153 years ago when the Portland Public Schools Board of Education denied access the one of two portland public elementary schools the william brown's children becoming the first known recorded case of racism against black children in the Portland Public Schools yesterday today and tomorrow let us live up to these three important words black lives matter thank you thank you deputy superintendent Cuellar deputy superintendent Hertz and Ms Ledesma Thank You superintendent for having such a committed focus for your entire leadership team on racial justice race and really grounding this budget proposal in serving our black and brown kids and staying in alignment with our strategic priorities and our visions superintendent Carrillo would you like
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to begin the discussion for the public by rolling out your budget proposal Thank You chair constan good evening directors Thank You Danny Claire and Craig or an appropriate reminder this isn't just about submitting a fiscally solvent plan it's about making sure reflects our values to our listening audience thank you for staying engaged I want to appreciate all of our stakeholders educators community members students this process didn't just start a few weeks ago this has been I would consider all the opportunities when we've had to listen to our community hopefully each budget cycle our board is finding an increasingly more transparent more detailed more explicit plan that reflects the work that we need to do in particular I want to acknowledge and thank a racial equity Community Partners students and parents for providing the feedback to this proposed budget thank you I also want to acknowledge this moment that we're living in and from our sphere of influence frankly or how can we do our part as educational leaders to address these racial inequities that continue to hold our nation down in our schools and not make sure that there's equitable opportunities and outcomes are there so I think I share the same motivation that so many of our educators do so I think you can continue to count on us that the dis budget just like all of our plans now and moving forward continues to Center the lived experiences of our students that we do an increasingly better job of considering our proposals through racial equity and social justice lens we hope that they are reflective of those conversations in that dialogue it was expressed desires that we identify and break down those systems of oppression especially for our black and Native students so that they I do have those opportunities and we can better ensure that they thrive both in and outside of our classrooms and there's no silver bullets and doing this work in public education I also know from my 25 years in a large urban districts and visiting so many others it often means that we need to continue to place the very close attention to knowing our students to engaging in positive relationships to think about how the classroom experience helps integrate the wisdom of our community the skill and creativity of our educators and that we as a school system support in a coherent way with the kinds of tools and professional learning and coaching and resources that will support differentiated instruction for every one of our students that acknowledges their diverse learning their racial identity and their differences so tonight you're gonna hear from I think other Campuzano from The Oregonian calls it the rotating cast of characters so you're going to hear from a number of the district's senior leaders they're gonna walk you through our in the proposed and reduced budget I want to say up front I want to appreciate all of our community stakeholders for their input our board directors and staff just a short time ago two months ago it was a very different scenario staff has been really working overtime chasing target as our financial situation gets increasingly more clear we're able to be more specific I think you've begun to learn board you know we were originally facing a fifty seven million dollar cliff representing hundreds of key people that we need to run this school system and you're not gonna find that that's the situation we're in now so I also want to express my appreciation to our labor partners for together acting early to make sure that as a school system we preserve the talent that is going to allow us to do this work moving forward so I'm gonna turn it over to the staff at this point and I think Jonathan Garcia is gonna take us off Thank You superintendent
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Guerrero good afternoon or good evening board and community my name is Jonathan Garcia the chief engagement officer so as we're putting up the PowerPoint the superintendent just gave us an introduction of what you will see but I actually want to take a step back to two years ago when our community began what we now know as a visioning process to really define our destination to really define our North Star where is it that we want to go as a community what do we what do we want for our students for our graduates what do we want for in our educators and educators and in our adults and then what do we want for the system and and over the course of a year you know with with it all galvanizing a year ago actually a June 2019 is we came together and and and develop and define PBS reimagine preparing our students to lead change and improve the world so as we think about our vision our vision is our directional our direction it's what the community has said is it's important for us and in our vision you will see four components our core values really these are the beliefs that will guide our actions and towards our collective vision our graduate portrait this is the skills knowledge dispositions that we expect all of our students should have by the time they leave our school system and we know that in order for our graduates to possess those skills in those characteristics we need strong educators who possess similar essentials similar characteristics that our graduates do and when we say educator in art and art context we mean everybody folks that are in the classroom outside of the classroom community partners parents business leaders etc we when we say educator essentials we're meaning who are the people that are supporting our students each and every day and lastly and you'll hear a little bit more about our system shifts in our vision our community identified 11i shifts that we have to make over the next decade and to really really realize PBS reimagine and so what you'll hear over the course of the next few slides with some of my colleagues is how we're operationalizing you know our approach to reaching and realizing PPS we imagined so so with that I just wanted to set the context that you know and the superintendent shared earlier you know this budget that folks are about to see is a reflection not of one week not of one month not of three months but a combination culmination of years listening to our community centering the voices of our students and really making sure that we're meeting with a commitment to racial equity and social justice so as Jonathan talked about the North Star that we're being guided by and and sort of we wanted to be really clear about the approach that we want to take to get us there so we want to be explicit about how this work is done and we want to folks to know that we're using a targeted universalism approach and we recognize that when we talk about resources when we talk about investments that these conversations can in fact be polarizing and the conversations can get trapped in where we're focusing on this or that or zero-sum mindsets and our intention in talking and using the approach of targeted universalism is that it really helps to bring to light the way in which we want to operationalize our values around racial equity so that every student is served and so that our board goals and the graduate profile of our vision are achieved and so are we believe that our targeted universalism approach supports the distinct needs of students of color while also acknowledging that everyone in our system is mutually interdependent and so what targeted universalism means is that we set universal goals that are pursued by targeted processes and targeted strategies to achieve those goals so within a targeted universalism framework Universal goals are established for every group for every students but the strategies that are developed to achieve those goals are targeted and they're based upon how different groups are situated within structures culture and across our district to obtain the universal goal targeted universalism is goal oriented the processes are directed in service of that explicit universal goal and it is in using that approach that we were able to think about how we can come to our theory of action in order to advance towards the vision we looked at our
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current state to develop this theory of action we utilize this theory of action to provide focus and to Center our decision-making on the experiences of student of color and be very clear that our theory of action explicitly calls out institutional and cultural racism that's embedded in our system and prompts us to take action that really disrupts and attends to the barriers that hinder us from reaching our goals and our theory of action is one of the most clear expressions of targeted universalism we know that it has also has the potential to bring about some some intense feelings for those who may not be used to this definition or who may not see themselves explicitly called out but I want to remind people that it goes back to our targeted universalism if we can remove barriers for students who are experiencing the most barriers in fact we strengthen the system and so I do want to spend some time if you don't mind I'd like to read our theory of action if we braid racial equity and social justice strategies into our instructional core work with our students our teachers and content and build our organizational culture and capacity to create a strong foundation to support every student then we will reimagine Portland Public Schools to ensure that every student especially our black and Native American students realize the vision of the Graduate portrait so it's on this foundation of our approach in our theory of action that we intend to move to move deeper into the conversation I'll turn it over to our next speaker our executive chief of staff stephanie Soudan good evening and thanks to the leadership of the school board and the engagement from our community we have our community's desired destination Danny just shared with you how we plan to approach and operationalize our work to make criminal steps towards our North Star it is that next step in our process that we presented to the school board on May 26th emerging strategies and actions that will guide our decisions and financial investments over the years to realize the vision for our graduates and the larger learning ecosystem as part of the strategic plan we plan on leading with a deep commitment to racial equity and social justice centering students most in need in our resourcing and strategic decisions being clear transparent connected and accountable to becoming an equitable school district that a student-focused responsive to student needs and proactive about promoting a culture of continuous improvement and professional learning transforming our curriculum and ways of teaching so that students can find the unique spark and enjoy and learning motivated to continue exploring ways to stay engaged in their classrooms continuing to push the creation and building a physical emotional and mental safety for students staff and families and cultivating the skills and knowledge of our educators and staff to better support our students your meaningful professional development opportunities we commit to and plan on diversifying our workforce so that our young people see themselves reflected in front of their classrooms and in the hallways of our schools our next phase of work will focus on the engagement and input of our educators and students to identify and prioritize strategic action steps that will advance our educator essentials portrait and as you see board this is really important that we crown our work in the ways in which it ground our budget and the conversation about our budget in the work and the long term work of our organization so what you're going to see if you go to the next slide please what you'll see is a or the course of the next slide what you'll see is our investment plan everything that you just heard our commitment to racial equity commitment to our students our commitment to student success well you what we hope you see as over the killer's for the next few slides from our colleagues is that we're deeply committed to this work that we're really committed to our students that were truly committed to our racial equity agenda that were truly committed to making sure our our schools our cinemas of success and learning that our students graduate ready to leave change and improve the world so without further ado I'm going to turn it over to our deputy superintendent Claire Hertz who's gonna walk us over through the numbers and then a group of folks are gonna walk us through what are these numbers actually mean and what do they mean for the lives of our students so I just want to confirm that I'm being heard just want to make sure that you guys can hear
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me yes we can thank you so much so next slide please so as we look at this year's budget you can see we we've had a a changing evolving environment so we want if you could go back one slide please we've had a changing environment so I'm trying to thank you very much and we have current year and 1920 you can see that overall we have 760 million and resources for operating our schools and so the largest component of that comes from our state school fund at 503 million and then we've had our high school success funding from measure 98 for 11 and then our voters have passed our local option levy for additional classroom teachers at 97 million and then additional revenue coming from federal and state grants and many other rental of buildings and interest income things like that making that 760 million so as we prepared for 2021 if you go to the second row in this chart you'll see what we thought we were going to receive pre Cova we pandemic and you can see that we were expecting about 829 million that included 39 million from the Student Success act and when you get now down to the third row the bottom row this is our current expectations you can see our state school fund has dropped to four hundred and eighty seven our measure in ninety eight to eight million our Student Success fun drops to 25 million but I will point out that is still twenty five million more than what we had last year as this was the first year for that investment and then we've also received Kerr's Act funding at about nine million and then in addition the local option levy remains whole and then our other revenue has remained whole to date so that we are looking at twenty million more over this nineteen twenty year to a total of 780 million or the 2021 school year if you would go to the next slide this is how we've reconciled our our budget you can see that we have lost from the HEC economic forecast due to in the recession we have lost fifty seven fifty eight million dollars overall this is how we're going to offset those we have a total of 19 million dollars between furlough days and the hiring and purchasing freeze so we've saved that money from this year and carrying it forward into next year as a fund balance that will then be able to be used to get us through the 2021 year and then we've also received the 8.7 million in Kerr's acts that will help offset that and then there are reductions that need to be made we'll make a twelve million dollar reduction out of our general fund you'll we have an original list of items that included the thirty-nine million for the Student Success act funding si a and reducing that by thirteen point six five million but still keeping we still have coming an additional twenty five million over last year and then also reducing our high school success funds by four million and at this point I'm going to turn it over to dr. Byrd all right good evening everyone as deputy superintendent hertz indicated we do have some reduction from our expected funding but all is not all the news is not bad in fact we believe that our budget is a reflection of our values and we have even though we're making budget reductions who actually have more positions next year in the system than we have this year so these new positions are aligned to our vision and based on feedback from stakeholder groups throughout the year and throughout the district specifically what we'll see in our schools next year is will continue the very important work of providing academic and social/emotional supports to our our most underserved students including our black and Native students we're also happy to be able to close gaps in arts and career tech pathways and the Roosevelt and Jefferson cluster so the students will have a more aligned experience from kindergarten through 12th grade in arts and career technical ways and we're also very pleased to continue the work of redesigning our
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middle school experience so that those students in grades 6 through 8 will have a more robust experience and opportunities to explore their interests before they enter high school I now turn over to Danny ledesma thank you so as dr. bird said we are investing in our values but it's not just our values we're also investing in our in our belief and the ability and promise in every student and it's this belief in our students that calls us to invest in really tangible high leverage strategies that positively impact student success so the investment plan for the next school year will be dedicated to continuing to implement key student focused and student-led initiatives in several areas that we believe will accelerate the shifts Stephanie mentioned to transform or curriculum and pedagogy to build a culture of physical and emotional safety and a racially a racial equity aligned and integrated system so some highlights of those include that we're going to increase our funding for our partnerships with racially with culturally specific organizations in research research-based and effective racial equity social justice strategies these include services such as family engagement wraparound services mentoring and leadership extended day and enrichment activities positive student identity development and crisis response and what's what's really key about these investments is that they're executed by culturally specific organizations that are that that that have staff that reflects the rich diversity of our student body when we talk about mentoring we're not just talking about an adult we're talking in adults with the same lived experience someone who is of the same race as the students that they're working with and who comes from the community and understands that experience and can really accelerate our strategies around student success in that way we're also increasing funding and support for students of color to participate in leadership opportunities such as participation in affinity club in in affinity groups and clubs and conferences so that so that they can really realize their potential be supported in their leadership development and in their their cultural cultural identity development so that they have a positive and affirming experience at school which studies show lead to increased academic success and as you all know we've heard from our communities from parents from teachers from principals our students are in need of supports and so we really want to make sure that we are increasing access to social workers in schools and so wearing we're increasing our ratios there we're also improving our counselor to student ratio and every PBS middle school and we're resourcing the development of a social emotional learning curriculum that not only infuses racial equity and social justice but all so thinking about how that is combined with trauma-informed care into our classrooms and so it's it's in it's in these places where we're making a deep investment and in our belief and in students ability to succeed with that support and those wraparound services that that they need I'm going to turn it over to our next speaker who is dr. Keely Simpson good evening thank you Danni to add to what Danny and and Sean just said what will look different in our schools next year is students in schools in the Jefferson and Roosevelt clusters will have access to complete arts pathways from kindergarten through twelfth grade for example students at beech and Chief Joseph elementary schools have access to both music and are at their schools and then also a talk leader in middle school and Jefferson High School that's just one example of a feeder pattern students and four of our middle schools Tubman ugly green Beaumont and George will have access to more electives of their choice as we pilot a new schedule with seven periods instead of six these schools also have DLI programs build language immersion programs so this will allow students and DLI classes to have an additional elective we will also be providing additional resources and curriculum development for climate justice English as a Second Language and health and physical education in addition there will be increased support for bilingual families inclusionary practices for special education and expanded access for early education and finally there will be targeted supports intervention and staff at our schools with the highest needs which includes our multiple pathways to graduation programs and our schools identified as needing comprehensive support from assessment also referred to as our CSI schools we hope that you see our core value using system shifts and these investments and our students and in our classrooms I'm now gonna turn it over to Joe la Fontaine to provide more details about how we will invest in high school
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student success thank you dr. Simpson in November of 2016 Oregonians past the high school Success act we commonly refer to as measure 98 measure 98 was aimed at doing three things for our students which was in prieser college readiness reduced dropout increased dropout prevention and expand the career technical fields and provide more opportunities for the students with a particular focus our historically underserved populations well our measure 98 funds for this next upcoming year is a slight reduction we are still able to actually target all of the work that we have been doing in our high schools and had success with we have a high school strategic plan a high school success plan I'm sorry that focuses on these things before you now we will continue to implement culturally sustaining pedagogy and curriculum as well as foster healthy equitable school climate and culture through MTS s measures this is work that's being done across all of our high schools and our MGP sites we'll also continue to enhance CTE quality and integrate with core academics even expanding some programs in light of the cuts and every student for post-secondary successes that we take very seriously and creating pathways for all of our students to have opportunities to take advanced coursework our high schools with a slight reduction will still be able to support support all of our goals we have in our high school success plan for the next coming year I'll now turn it over to deputy superintendent dr. Craig Cuellar hello thank you so much mr. LaFontaine one of our core missions and vision is centering and the investment and our people and our human capital in our professional development and culture of learning which will continue to reflect the importance of our people who are the foundation of our districts in service to our students we are proposing key investments to increase support and develop staff and alignment with our plan we believe in the power and potential of our human capital and endeavor to stoke the creative fires we need in our classrooms our school campuses the central office and in our community we believe these investments will accelerate the shifts to a connected and transformative school district through system-wide learning in a racial equity aligned culture and system with an intense focus on diversify in supporting the talents in our system through recruitment retention and employee social-emotional learning with that I would like to go ahead and turn it over to mr. Danielle good evening the proposed budget includes funds to support our ongoing capital improvement program most notably Kellogg middle school or new Middle School in Southeast Portland will be completed in this coming year and Madison High School will almost complete in the fiscal year next year both of them will be ready for students at the fall 2021 also Benson Polytech and the local pathways program will break ground next year and begin construction and Lincoln High School will continue in construction and start pressing that project convertible in addition to those four very large projects we literally have hundreds of other construction projects and our robust health and safety program will continue to make progress and I believe I will pass it back to dr. Clair thank you so much Dan this slide here captures and summarizes everything that we have been hearing through our system shift work throughout this budget presentation the main point here is that we are making sure that our investment areas are aligned to our community identified system shifts and here this slide clearly articulates in terms of all of the areas that we are looking at ensuring that we are meeting the marker in need for all of our students and staff and community around student success our human capital and our safety modernization across all of our five system shifts and but that's I like to go ahead and turn it over and miss Ledesma so as deputy superintendent hertz reminded us we do have an anticipated shortfall given what's happening and so we will need to make reductions in order to we needed to make reductions in order to balance our budget and I want to take us back to our approach of targeted universalism and the way that we try to prioritize our spending plan so that it's aligned to the tangible steps that we outlined in our system shifts and in
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our beliefs and our values about our students so we wanted we wanted to make sure that our reductions were made to areas of staffing and materials outside of the focus and priorities outlined in the in our emerging strategic plan and so it meant that while we prioritize investments that directly supported students we didn't offer across-the-board reductions instead we used an equitable approach that did not overly burden or benefit single student groups schools and departments it also means that despite the magnitude of reductions we understand that we need to preserve sufficient centralized office capacity to achieve our goals and the system shifts and the support for school communities to be able to maintain the strength of our of our organization and so as you look at this slide you'll see that we made cuts not only to we propose reductions not only to school staffing where there's five million dollars in reductions that are proposed that impact Vice Principals classroom teachers and elementary PE teachers but we're also proposing reductions to Central Services and you'll see that those central service reductions are are more that are than what we're proposing to schools and those impact in the office of the superintendent are business in finance and operations are instructional in school communities legal and risk management and external relations this is never an easy task when we look at our reduction but we wanted to be transparent about our approach and we wanted to make sure that folks knew that while we would love to be able to approach a budget where we weren't looking at reductions the reductions that we did take were just outside of what we really want to focus in on and it's it's never fun to be part of those reductions but we recognize that if we're going to Center our our aspirations and if we're going to Center our improvement work at the district around the lived experience of our black and Native students we cannot ignore what our community what our students what our families and our teachers and principals have talked about in terms of a need for targeted supports a need for us to really prioritize at school communities where students are really needing the most targeted and directed interventions so I'm going to turn it over to our chief of student services and support Brenda martynuk Thank You Danny good evening I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the fall reentry work and how we're going to reopen schools as we wait for guidance from the Oregon Department of Education we're really leaning into the work and making sure that our students especially those in our community that have been most impacted by school closures are supported we therefore have been making budgetary decisions based on those needs we have established a multi district work group with four other large districts in the state of Oregon to share and focus our fall reentry planning our Emergency Operations Center has been working since March 3rd in order to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff in light of our new pandemic reality we are now in the planning phase for our fall reentry and what that will look like in order to do that we must work cross departmentally with the instructional core at the heart of all of our decisions especially for our most marginalized students and those students who are struggling with mental health and the increased anxiety that we hear about in the media and with students and families in a few weeks we'll be asking for feedback from you through a variety of surveys so that we can hear from students staff and families in regards to their experience what has worked what hasn't worked your ideas your concerns in your hopes for next fall while we're planning for the future we must also be grounded in our current reality this means we're continuing to provide meals at our meal sites and will have limited summer programming we have online resources for our racial equity and social justice work our mental health supports food housing and additional supports for specific needs we want you to know that we are very busy working to ensure that our all reentry will be planned with safety for our students and staff which will be at the heart of our plans that the racial equity and social justice work is at the forefront of all of our work and all of our thoughts into planning for this and that we'll continue to prioritize instruction as
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the foundation of our educational system while braiding in social emotional and trauma-informed supports so with that I am going to turn over the time to Esther one of our regional superintendents good evening we have more in common and there is also a whole lot of strength in diversity we have more alike than we are different therefore it is commendable that bps has elected to address the issues of racial equity and social justice for all students especially our black and Native American students the thrust of this work is anchored in the targeted universalism approach that allows us to meet the needs of all students while also closing the achievement gap what does that look like set a different way it is just great instruction great instruction is tked in our ability to interpret standards and determine what supports are expected for students to learn and be able to do by the end of each grade level we must have the ability to assess the skills and backgrounds our student bring to the classroom so we can backwards map and with intention of closing the opportunity gap the achievement gap and the equity gap even as we accelerate learning for all students we must plan and deliver standards-based lessons that provide us the opportunity to integrate student cultural needs and their background experiences so that every child does see themselves as belonging in the classroom it will require that our teachers and our site administrators know their content and their resources their students and their assessments and that they're able to translate that and produce students who are savvy and able to move forward with the experiences that we have a task force this will lead us to having this will allow us to have a transformative curricula it will enable us consummate a system-wide learning approach it will also create a process of culture a culture of physical and emotional safety for all students and it will ultimately lead us in strengthening the diversity within amis and creating an atmosphere of respect for all additionally desire of having everybody be clean some educational skills and educational essentials and radit which we will be met in the process of accomplishing and implementing all these standards with that said I won't hand over the slide to dr. al-nab'in I thank you so much I will take it from here again this was the picture dr. Esther Oh Malcolm Ian she's our area assistant superintendent and so so so just to wrap up we wanted to share with our community that folks are welcome to provide written testimony the school board you can do so by sending an email to budget 2021 at bps net the board is taking action to approve the superintendent's proposed budget on Thursday they will move forward to adopting aboard a budget on June 23rd as Deputy Superintendent Claire Hertz mentioned we will continue to monitor changes at the state level that will impact our budget for 2020 2021 and so with that check on stem we can turn it back over to the school board sorry about that thank you so much we will now move on to public testimony we have I believe we have 717 people who have joined us virtually tonight to provide public testimony we have unfortunately just two minutes per slot for public testimony miss Bradshaw would you like to explain the guidelines will they will those chiming in for public testimony be able to hear some indicator that they're close to their time or that their time is out sorry I thought I needed myself yes there will be a timer and there won't be
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a sound from the timer one time's up okay can you please let us know who hat is joining us first to provide public testimony yes you have janae green welcome welcome to all of you welcome miss green thank you very much hi my name is Gina green I'm a junior I've been stung I'm here to talk about the importance of retaining black staff members at Jefferson every school and PPS regardless of budget cuts as a young black woman I value the experience and perspective that black staff members bring I know that all staff members want to see succeed by hearing a black staff members say that they care I know that they mean it but everything going on right now more than ever we need black presents in our schools black staff help us process microaggressions and ways to navigate a system that is not made for us but the recent passing of Student Success act I thought they would be able to hire more black staff staff members but due to Kovan 19 we were losing soda to black staff members who have had a huge impact on my school experience were funded but from the SSA miss Brittany y nice homes miss Warren our student success advocate has had has been a huge support in my life since freshman year she helped me find my place at my school she has helped me advocate for myself with other staff members she holds me to a high standard high standard and make sure I don't settle for anything less than I'm capable of I know that when I'm going through stuff high school I can always go to her office our relationship is built on trust and care miss Holmes our students a tennis coach has been a support system for bucking me with the resources that I need at home she has made sure that I had the tech supports like a hot spa and a Chromebook and that they functioned properly when I was having an issue with the t-shirt I do I could speak freely to miss Holmes and feel safe both of those women experience perspective and support that I can never get from a white staff member but that Dame I honestly don't know how I or other black students will succeed in this school system that was not created for us thank you so much for taking the time thank you for your testimony thank you scream we have Melinda Gail welcome miss Gail thank you my name is Bob Linda Gail I'm a parent of a senior who's graduating this year on a modified diploma and also a rising junior I'm also a teacher I signed up tonight really just to remind you of the reality that I can see you're hard at work out and already know our budget really needs to prioritize direct student supports at every turn we know strong interpersonal connections between students educators and counselors those MTS has strategies that you mentioned earlier are central to learning and even more indispensable given the current political health crisis distance learning classes can feel hollow they can feel the pleading at times I feel like there's a river gorge between me and the students I'm reaching out to I can still connect with them but small class sizes are essential because the screen amplifies the distance between us I notice the difference when class size is 30 instead of 20 the camera shut off students disengaged they feel unheard if we believe class size can flex because we're online we're going to be sacrificing those interpersonal connections and really connecting with our young people by phone or meat can take four to five times longer than it would if I was with them in person in my class empirically I'm seeing freshmen at our school boys and the year with incomplete and those students receiving special education services and our historically underserved students are considerably over-represented in that group I hope that you'll see this is a time to prioritize those direct student contact roles and I know you're doing everything you can to maintain those positions I think the district priorities around GBC or system-wide program supports regardless of how important they really are need to hit a pause while we elevate the need to directly hold our young people close every dollar that you can put into direct student contact rules is needed right now and everything else to me can wait until we have more stability I know you're making hard decisions thank you for all the work you're doing on behalf of our young people thank you so much miss Gayle and the screen amplifies the distance between us maybe one of the truer statements of 20/20 thank you so much and we have Elly McClure Baker yeah Baker are you with us yeah can you hear me Reid yes we can thank you so much all right um thank you I'd like to start by being director to pass decision the district's definition of safe team and for emphasizing that communities of color
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have a different definition of what feels safe however I was frankly disgusted at the dismissal of that question and I'm here today to ask that the safety of black and brown students be a lens through which all budget decisions are made students families and communities have told us for generations that one key to say for schools is having educators of color we know that the world is not safe for our students when I see a budget proposal that's increasing funding for assessment and testing in the middle of a global pandemic and a national emergency in response to continued police murder I can't help but be disappointed and feel skeptical of your commitment to equity for the past few months two of our most valued staff members at Jefferson who work endlessly to provide targeted supports a Student Success advocate and coordinator have been unsure if they have jobs moving forward this happens every year we want to see better prioritize the permanence and protection of our black and brown educators and community partners that are not enough for a funding sources arrive Rjay coordinators Student Success advocates parent educators and culturally-specific community partners are the jobs that our students need the most these are the people who have made distance learning possible and picked up the pieces of every failed district system in the budget presentation about cultural shifts as a community wondering at the end of each year whether those that support our students the most will return to school creates a culture of scarcity instability and fear is this the shift that you're going for him you say that having a caring adult is key to student safety and yet at the end of every school year students are left not knowing if they will ever again see the adults they've come to trust culture does not shift from investing money and top-down professional development standardizing curriculum through initiatives like GBC or surveying communities for the 100th time and continuing to ignore them Jefferson High School has made tremendous progress towards closing the achievement gap we know what we need and ask that you invest in it in a sustainable way so we don't have to fight for it every year thank you thank you miss Bradshaw Thank You Natalie fair evening I'm a school psychologist said said in elementary thank you for your leadership of PBS and for your work and reimagining the anti-racist equity driven district our community deserves we are on our way as you make difficult budget decisions we ask that you please maintain sa funding for the three additional School Psychologists FTE to our CSI schools Thank You superintendent Guerrero chief Martinek and senior directors Marissa Cooper and Loveland for collaborating with us to envision this initial step into the board members and PPS leaders who express support and met with us this fall we also ask that PPS reconsider the overall staffing cuts to our group we included more information and recommendations and our written testimony staffing school psychologists appropriately can help address the injustice the injustice is that many of our black indigenous linguistically diverse families of color experience in PPS unfortunately we're currently staffed in a way that severely limits the supports we can provide with most of us serving at least two schools here are some highlights when we're staffed appropriately thanks to our principals at sitting using a social justice lens I proposed and collaboratively trained staff in an MTS s process that builds teacher skills and facilitates early identification of needs and supports for students and families this doesn't part reduce the need for more intensive interventions and resulted in overall 2.2 decrease in special education over identification a Lincoln High School Jim Hanson and his team implement evidence-based group mental health interventions in school and in PBS HD which have led to significant decreases in student depression and anxiety Jim and his team also deliver school-wide anti-bullying on your side prevention instructions that is essentially eliminated student death by suicide we are key complement to school counselors and social workers our training in the areas of mgss core academic social emotional wellness consultation data inform decision-making and mental health is among the broadest and deepest of professionals in our schools and we are woefully underutilized asset and PBS now more than ever our school communities need us we want to attract hire and retain many more school psychologists who identifies people of color we believe staffing appropriately as a step to accomplish this thank you very much for your kind attention and we look forward to receiving your decision and guidance regarding these issues thank you so much Lily Cooke hello thank you my name is Lily I'm the parent of a PPS student and I want to say I've been so impressed with the way that PPS has been working to remove the barriers of education that's addressed with PPS reimagined it makes me proud that PPS has been able to provide meals and computers to students
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and families who need them and I'm so grateful we have a board who advocates for marginalized students I feel there's another group of vulnerable students who also need advocacy and support and those are our students with special needs for my son the support he's received from special education services has made a huge difference for him academically he thrived when he had a team including a parent educator to provide direct support to him but since we've moved to the virtual format he hasn't received any services at all other than a single session of speech therapy and he's falling far behind so like many kids with disabilities he needs significant adult support to succeed he needs that team and that pair of educator and I am just one person and I and many parents of children with special needs we we kind of feel abandoned by our school system right now especially since the schools have closed yes sorry he's in that car with me I understand that budgets are tight and probably about to get even tighter but the school system has a mandate to accommodate children with special needs to provide them with the resources that they need to stay integrated in that mainstream classroom and currently we are failing those students but you guys have the power to do something about that these are very vulnerable students and most of them have not received an education since the school closed and they will fall even further behind if their cuts to special education they're gonna have to work very hard in the coming years to get back on track so I give you cleaner train funding for special education supports particularly peri educators make it a priority to get students with special needs the support that they need thank you thank you miss Jenny Whitcomb do you mean Jenny we can't hear you you're on mute looks like she just I mean Jenny we can't hear you Jenny Carol why don't you call the next person and then Jenny will come right back to you okay Mindy Pesek that's close enough that's close enough I appreciate these the try there I am astounded by honestly everyone's responses so far from our district and from parents and staff and students I really I'm really handed to the student earlier because I must take a lot of courage to join this and this is my first time speaking out I had a little speech prepared and now listening to everyone I have just more questions because it's like more of our community members know more than I do with what's gonna happen and I just I just wonder like the last caller was that I know it's not I don't know who else is talking but it sounds like there's two of me just hear from you okay so I just wanted to share that if you imagine a student that working yet yes I think it is working I I think Jenny Jenny we can hear you but we went on to the next person to provide testimony so as soon as she's finished we'll come back to you I just wanted to ask board members and the rest of our community to imagine a black or brown student who has an intellectual disability who throughout the school year even though with the provided supports and community in our school it's not able to make much progress and it really struggled attending school and then to think about how now during this period they are suffering they're they're struggling with meeting basic I'm their mom is as cancer their stepdad Lester job their dozen presenting their girlfriend she did on them and broke up with them and now is having you know difficulties with drug and alcohol and I
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know that we are going to be getting more support for mental health in the way of social workers however I don't think special education teachers can do this job alone I don't think our teachers can do their jobs alone and it really does that whole community and as we look at the budget proposal as I'm hearing from the other members of community wondering if we can change possibly support those students that are most vulnerable those who have been having the most difficulty accessing school and really focus on we're gonna say that it's teachers in their instruction than giving them the support so they're not overwhelmed with over thirty five students on their caseload trying to literally drive over to their house to get them excited about school so I appreciate you all and appreciate being part of this district and this community I'm hopeful that will make the right choices for our students thank you for taking the time to join us miss with a KUB are you with us you honey okay Carol let's try one more person and we'll keep trying to see if Jenny can join us we go to the next person yes Julia Stephens yes hello good evening my name is Julia Stevens I am the president of the organ Society for health and physical educators I am also honored to be an elementary PE teacher right now in Portland Public Schools it is an understatement to say that this pandemic has caused educators to rethink how teaching and learning will occur when students and staff return to school it is the position that professionals in the field of health and physical education that the curriculum and instruction of this subject area now more than ever is critical to support the mental social emotional and physical needs of all of our students I'm here to speak as it is incredibly concerning to hear and see that the budget that is currently proposed will include a 1.3 million dollar reduction of elementary elementary only physical educators and physical education instruction within elementary schools in Portland Public what is currently proposed on page 15 clearly overly burdens a specific Department within our school district empowering students especially at the elementary level with the skills needed to make healthy choices for themselves their families and communities is going to help us move forward and ensure that learning is going to continue especially next year healthy students our students with strength of mind and body healthy students our students are going to be able to learn again I am the president of the Oregon Society for health and physical educators and we've really appreciated how PPS has been focusing on teaching and promoting important life enhancing health education skills as a PE teacher at the elementary level I have always felt that PPS especially the PE commute has always strived to teach students the necessary skills to maintain their physical mental and social emotional health and thanks to this community and these leadership folks our lessons and our activities are helping families and communities stay healthy especially during this time I want to thank you for your time and your consideration I really look forward to seeing what's going to be adopted for the next few years and more importantly how physical literacy is going to continue to be a part of Portland Public Schools of beliefs and values thank you so much thank you very much miss mythic um we'd love to hear from you okay can you hear me now you can thank you okay my name is dr. Jenny with acum I'm the program administrator for health and physical education in Portland Public Schools I am also the parent of a PBS middle schooler I'm here to speak on behalf of the k5 students who will have their physical education time reduced to sixty minutes a week when the Centers for Disease Control American Heart Association in shape America recommends 60 minutes of physical activity per day and Oregon State law requires 150 minutes per week beginning the 2020 2021 school year while I realize difficult cuts must be made I'm afraid the burden of both the budget deficit is falling overwhelmingly on physical education teachers while the cuts from the general teaching pool represent a half percent reduction the thirteen point two FTE reduction to elementary PE represents a 17 percent reduction to our program alone I could
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cite hundreds of studies which are engagement and physical activity during normal times let alone during Kovach for children and adolescents monitor to vigorous physical activity and exercise during the day are associated with elevations in self-esteem improved concentration and depressive symptoms and improvements in sleep according to PPS data from our youth risk behavior survey in 2019 a staggering 33.7% of PPS 9 through 12th graders report feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for more than two weeks in a row this percentage was equivalent for all racial groups and all grade levels perhaps you hear this number and believe it's further proof that we need more counselors and social workers in our school it is but it's also proof that we need to do more primary prevention work and that is the health and PE side of the house all of the health education standards and standard four of the PE standards are directly aligned to the Kassel competencies additionally both physical education and health education offer daily opportunities to practice social-emotional learning skills in real-life situations I'm someone who's dedicated my life to the health and wellness of others as well as engagement and anti-racist education through health physical education and sport I am the one who has to look at my teachers and tell them that there is still hope to convince them they are valued and supported through what is a very difficult time I can't go back to them without making this statement because I'm responsible for them and to them and I take this responsibility very seriously thank you thank you dr. Whitcomb Tanisha Dawson hi I'm here can everyone hear me again perfect my name is Tanisha Dawson and I'm here to speak on the behalf of the step-up program and how important they are I have two kids one is graduated and the other ones currently ending her junior year at Franklin and they have both been part of the step-up program with will Fernandez and his staff and they are crucial for our students our black and brown students and they are black lives matter they are there for those kids and those families to support them through everything mental social emotional they provide a community for those kids in the schools that they're in a safe place for them to go they advocate for them with their peers and their students I have had step up members meet me for staff meetings that I was not comfortable to walk in if they were not by my side and they sat next to me advocated for me made me feel comfortable and made sure that my voice was heard on ears that otherwise it may not have been heard this program is so important to the future of our kids and to kids graduating and I hope that everyone understands and and knows that the step-up program is a crucial part of Portland Public Schools and I would love to see it in every school for all students to experience because what it offers is truly priceless thank you so much miss Dawson thank you miss Dawson next we have been Hildur welcome hi thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak I looked at the budget today and I want to say thank you for prioritizing CSI schools I have been in Portland Public Schools for ten years I've had nine different principals and I've seen a lot of different situations so first off I want to say thank you Guadalupe Guerrero and the school board and district administration for making making this happen because I know this is not easy but also as a school counselor it means absolutely everything that we told CSI schools foremost as a bilingual school counselor I want you to know that I will be able with two school counselors at Scott to run evidence based groups consistently without being interrupted because teachers have sub shortages and principals have emergencies I will be able to continue delivering culturally responsive and grade-level and developmentally relevant SEL social-emotional lessons I will be able to identify an address basic community needs clothing he rent support and mental health and other health supports I will be able to do better and I want
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you to know that I am very very very grateful my name is Ben Hiltner I'm the school counselor at Scott school and I look very much forward to not being the only one thank you Rosario already on oh okay hopefully I'm okay first off I would like to thank the board for granting me with the time to offer my testimony I would begin by telling you that equity cannot just be done at the school level by educators it needs to be done across levels from from the board members the chief of Department superintendent and administrators policy change must be supplemental to equity work next I would like to give you the picture of my school which is Scott we are a title one school we offer free lunch to everyone in my experience with TPS over the past six years we have had at least five different administrations so there's lots of change as for my classroom picture where do I start year after year my classroom transforms into an intensive care unit where my students many needs have to be addressed by myself as I have no one else to turn to I have to be very strategic with the literal resources that I have in order to provide a culturally responsive teaching practice to all my students in terms of equities issues before I do that I like to talk about the steps taken by our district to let go of all police officers and I asked that for your next steps you considered hiring more full-time school counselors social workers psychology and trauma-informed mental health workers in media at school needs for my school according to bps guidelines all schools classified as tli and title one are entitled to a bilingual reading specialist however this hasn't been the case for high school and ibid there for the past six years another thing that I implore to you is that we get to keep our two instructional coaches our students do serve this I just don't know how I can go on with running this intensive care unit year after year after year I'm glad to see that within the budget you allocated for more counselors and more social workers I I would like to see that at the elementary level not just at the middle school level you know Scott students who believe that having at least two full time school counselor I can go on and on about the studies and another thing that I would like to have is I would like for you guys to because reconsider courageous conversations to be back in full mode this was a program that was working specially for teachers of colors so why get rid of it in closing so before I do that because I just I just looked at this budget and I'm trying to to look at it from an equity point of view and I just sad that five million dollars will be deducted from from schools compared to only 0.2 million dollars from the superintendent's office I like to know where the equity is in this in closing I would like to remind the board that our students cannot wait for this change to take effect please consider how your decision to not find all these vital positions and or programs well further at trauma to our historically underserved students along with widening the achievement gap once again equity work cannot just be done at the school level by us educators it needs to be done across levels from the board members to the chief of Department to all the different superintendence that we have in administrators policy change must be supplemental to equity work thank you thank you thank you Terry Johnson good evening superintendent cadet Oh Board of Education and fellow administrators my name is Terry Johnson executive director for open school step up I appreciate each of you for providing an opportunity for me to make public comment this evening also a preachy appreciate each of you for the heart and thoughtful work you put into this very daunting task of budgeting and the miss of a pandemic our step-up
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program serves approximately 300 students at Roosevelt in Madison and Franklin our student services include tutoring mentoring counseling and home visits we also provide some alternative slots for some PPS students at our open school East Campus in East County as well the reason I want to to make comment tonight is to thank you all for staying focused on centering and prioritizing students of color in this budget seventy percent of our students are students of color and they are the population who have been most impacted by kovat school closures our students have lost family members to this virus and their parents have lost jobs and housing our students have been faced with a very difficult task of trying to adjust the distance learning while seeing their families devastated by economic loss and the loss of loved ones this is the time where we have to pull together as a community and pour additional resources and two efforts to support our black and brown students to help them make up learning loss in reading and math it's also imperative that we add social-emotional supports so our students can have access to social workers and mental health professionals we need the support now more than ever especially since we are also now coping with the recent horrific murder of mr. George Floyd and fighting police brutality against black men and women open school step up is in the trenches working with students and their families upp s reinforcing our community partners like sei Latino Network Eric oh and Naya thank you so much for prioritizing our students of color and staying committed to closing learning and opportunity gaps for our most vulnerable students who will be future leaders when we give them the right supports your approach to building this budget and preparing for next school year shows you believe black lives matter thank you Thank You mr. Johnson Anthony Castaneda mr. Carson Anna I think I saw him on before mr. Custer Nana are you still here I see him speaking or trying to speak but we can't hear him mr. Castaneda he just said to come back to him okay Cara let's go to our next person testimony we'll come back to you I have three people who signed up who I don't see here but I'd like to call their names just to make sure that I'm not missing them and that would be the last people besides mr. Castaneda Cathy Thomas Rachel will get bitter Belinda Regan okay if you want to try again okay I think we can hear you mr. customer you can hear me now we can yes okay good sorry about that no problem everyone Thank You chair constan members of the board members of the community and superintendent Carell and again thank you for going through this tough process especially in light of the impact of copán 19 and they anticipated budget shortfalls and recent events given those the two network asset the school board and community to reaffirm and uphold their commitment to educational equity we know that the system and the design of the system is inequitable and exclusive and doesn't serve and often doesn't serve many of many students of color and that is why investments in programs and services that serve black brown and indigenous students are more important than ever living with a racial equity and social justice focus we must continue to expand community partnerships for culturally specific student and family support for meaningful investments we know that CBO's like Latino Network play an
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integral role in the personal and academic lives of our young learners so network Latino networks proven programs are designed to ensure that the Latino lionex community has access to programming that's beep speaks specifically to our cultural needs scipios not only bringing valuable resources to the Portland Public School District but also over a century of expertise in leverage G linguistic assets of our students research shows that our students are more successful when the educators when they identify with the educators and curriculum taught in the classroom along with our partners like own networks racial equity and social justice application details our organizations expertise and capacity to build on the skills and assets of our students served by the district and with that and for those reasons urges PBS to adopt a budget that reflects the core values centering students that have historically and currently are underserved thank you for your for your leadership during this heavy time you know coming with our districts children thank you so much for joining us so I believe that concludes our public testimony for this evening is that right Miss Bradshaw we haven't seen any of those other people reappear I have not okay thank you so much everyone who took the time to join us tonight we have a few minutes left and wanted to just touch base with board members to reflect on what we've heard tonight as a reminder to the public you can send any comments or questions on this proposed budget to the email budget 2021 at PBS net board members as you all know we will be deliberating on Thursday so I think everyone has been in the process of sending questions to staff seeking clarification on different points of the budget I'd like to just remind our board to please try to finish doing that by midday or so tomorrow I certainly by close a day tomorrow and I think we'll just go around one by one and touch base with the board to reflect on what we've heard tonight director Bailey would you like to start us off sure thanks the chair can stamp thanks everybody for sending and for testifying which you know as some people alluded to is is not easy for some folks I appreciated hearing from a pretty broad cross-section of people appreciate pretty much I heard unanimous support for an equity focused budget which is I think what we what we have I and I've heard this in other venues as well concern for when school does commence again a number of our students have lost ground and we will we have the resources to help them catch up not only well among our historically underserved students I heard again concerned not only for students of color but also in a partly overlapping group students receiving special education services which had been a real challenge to deliver over the last couple of months I you know was glad to hear that recognition of additional resources especially for our our neediest schools our CSI schools and I'm sure we'll be talking about PE teachers it's always tough making cuts and and that's a tough thing to cut but it's all tough I'll stop there Thanks Thank You director Bailey appreciate that um Belinda Regan I believe has joined us now so we'll pop back to her for your comments and testimony Belinda are you there yes I apologize I just tied up and realized oh my goodness oh thank you I'm delighted to be here tonight I'm very happy with the results of the budget as it affects our bargaining unit or the
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Portland Federation of school professionals we are often the ones who are you know face the most cuts at the end of every year and I'm I know that there will be cuts and I'm sad for anybody who is laid off or loses a job or has a position reduced I also find it difficult for I know it's difficult for schools and for departments central offices to see cuts but I have to be very honest and I'm also just very pleased that while there will be cuts to our bargaining you know there won't be as severe or serious as they have been in the past when we've seen some years up to 200 people cut so I want to thank Claire and her finance team for working so hard we are a good bang for your buck that the classified folks so we're delighted if we can continue to work in our roles to help support classrooms and to make certain that the kids are getting what they need in the schools and so I appreciate everybody's efforts on that behalf of getting this this our roles in a little firmer position this year than they have been in the past thank you thank you so much and speaking of working so hard now that I see your face I'm happy to have the opportunity to extend my gratitude and I believe our gratitude as a board to our incredible Nutrition Services staff please let them know how appreciative we are of all their efforts and the miraculous job of keeping our children fed during this difficult time I know that they will appreciate hearing that they are not however part of our bargaining unit they are SEIU but we we do work closely with them they infect our campus security agents are working with the food service people at each of the 15 sites and have been since the indemic began but you're right the food service people have been real stars through all of this and I appreciate our brothers and sisters at SEIU tremendously for the good work that they've put forth yes thank you okay thank you for joining us tonight yeah thank you so much we will go back to the board director to pass it would you like to comment on tonight yeah I I of course I have a little comment I really appreciate the community members taking time out of their Monday beautiful evening twos to be with us and share your concerns particularly for miss Greene who from Jefferson it was great to have a student voice in the room you're you're the future so we definitely want to listen I am thankful for the superintendent and staff or minimizing the impacts of the budget shortfall which could have been and I think we might have anticipated to be quite a bit worse than they actually are so in spite of the fact that we have cuts what we have left is a budget that reflects our commitment to racial justice I'm really heartened to see that and discuss it on Thursday and just looking forward to what that looks like on the ground in five years I think it will be really exciting to see what this focused attention on racial and social justice in this momentous time in history like we have an opportunity to really right this ship right now and I feel like we're moving in the right direction thank you thank you director Lowry I just echo everything that director DePass said and especially want to thank the student from Jefferson for taking the time to speak tonight Thank You director bream Edwards you're on me sorry about that I want to say that I also appreciate just the sort of broad spectrum of voices we heard tonight parents students teachers or labor representatives some people that have multiple hats both teachers and parents and I think what I will take away is really the interest and focus on seeing our students especially those that have
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been underserved and that also I think one of the things that I'm thinking about in terms of sort of how we look at the budget if we're going to be hiring more counselors social workers teachers and specific areas that what I heard both tonight but also in the focus groups of the week or the weekend and the end of last week was the importance of staff of color to our students and that made me think about if we have regional positions how critically important it's going to be that we changed the trend that we currently have in terms of under-representation of people of color and critical staffing positions so I'm hopeful that we behold that that value through the recruitment and retention of those staff and I think it will make a huge difference I hope the board is going to spend some more time thinking about just as part of the budget process about ovid and who has disproportionate Italy lost think we heard a little bit of that tonight and you know how we can work to really accelerate student learning for those that have lost more disproportionately the others that have earned lost critical supports so hope that someone called that's focus on budget dollars on that and then finally I will say you know I was really disappointed I think lots I had to hear the voices of two of our physical education teachers and our school education and health Tosa about the points of yeah I think in a budget in which we have an increase in the resources losing in services and moving moving backwards and boarding schools you know I think I think we can do better and I hopefully help we can because that doesn't seem to be that's an opposite direction of so thank everybody for showing up tonight and sharing their thoughts Thank You director Scott would you like to share any reflections on what we've heard tonight yeah no thanks thanks for the opportunity I'll sort of second so a lot of the comments that we've heard from the board so far I mean you know in terms of what we heard and thank the people who came out to testify tonight I've done a lot of budget hearings in my times but actually the people who testified are incredibly well knowledgeable about the issues and really well first and it's just it's it's it's great to hear those perspectives so I really appreciate it I really heard dr. Bailey I think sort of captured it when he let off there's a real desire for us to continue focus our focus on racial equity continue our focus on on students of color particularly black and brown and indigenous students that's something that the district has done I believe with this budget proposal but to hear that from the community as well and their desire for us to continue that is important that I'm glad you know I think this is this is a really interesting budget year we were poised for a pretty large influx of resources that's not going to be as large anymore but we are still seeing some you know resources coming in and we're having to make some some cuts from what we thought we might have to see and I really I appreciate what so far has been the balanced approach that I think we've taken with the budget proposal that's on the table and I think that like some of the other some of the people talked about and some of our board members have talked about there are you know some areas of concern but but overall I really appreciate the very targeted focus of this budget and what it's achieving and and really trying to focus on student achieve and how do we move student achievement forward and and you know and then finally this the the focus on classroom supports and the desire of our community continue seeing that I think is is really important as well so I look forward to the discussion on Thursday I know we've got a few more questions that will come around to and have some more conversation I appreciate people coming that testify I'm sure constan can I have just a moment of personal privilege nurse I'm gonna I think if I'm allowed is that can people see that that so I wanted to share a picture of my nephew Jamison Lamoreaux who graduated today from Wilson high school and he's a Wilson graduate he got to pick up his diploma of course I wasn't there we've got this great picture of him in the van with his family as and we got a video of him walking across the stage and to get
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his diploma and wear his cap and gown and you know in light of kovat I mean it's really challenging with our seniors of not getting some of that opportunity but I really appreciate what the district did to give these kids as much of an experience as they can and I'm just really proud of Jameson and I was really looking forward to being at his graduation as a school board member but I figure this is the next best thing I can do at least one of our meetings embarrass him by throwing his picture up he's going to Montana State in the fall I'm just really really proud of him and I think as most people know but in case you don't know Wilson graduate was almost 30 years ago so and I have a son who's a freshman at Wilson in Cosmo so it was just an exciting day and I really wanted to share that moment thank you so much and thank you to all of our teachers and all of our our staff that have been working to make these crazy virtual graduations still still special and important for our see I know there's a lot going on behind the scenes to give our kids some sort of a graduation so director Scott thank you so much for sharing that all right director Moore would you like to share some reflections really we can't hear you we can't hear you so you can tell board members even after all our meetings are still struggling with the mute button no I think it's more of a Wi-Fi situation I will share some thoughts and if you have a different way if you have a way to switch your platform or something we can see if we can come back to you otherwise we'll look forward to hearing from you on Thursday but again I just wanted to say I think it's pretty remarkable that given the pretty dramatic shift in resources that we anticipate this budget process we are making really strategic cuts that prioritize services in our classrooms teacher mr. Hilda Hilda nurse testimony about what how it will change the life of his students it's got have another counselor in the in the building is pretty remarkable so personally I'm really gratified to hear about the deep investments in social emotional learning for our students in school psychologists counselors and school social workers we do you know I look forward to having a robust discussion on Thursday night I do have some questions about the proposed cuts to PE and looking at how we might lessen that impact especially for our elementary school students as a mother of three boys and PPS I understand what dr. with the chemist talking about in terms of the importance to social emotional well-being of that that movement tired so I look forward to to learning more from staff about how we might address that and again it's just I feel very lucky that we have such a clearly articulated set of strategies both in terms of our commitment to our racial equity and social justice framework but also in terms of having our vision in place and being able to refer back to the system shifts that we've talked about it has created the framework through which we're looking at this budget so none of these decisions seem or these proposals seem arbitrary they seem like an expression of the values that we as a district are hanging our hat on so I feel I feel really grateful for that even even when the decisions are hard so thank you everyone Rita can you give it another go can you hear me now yay yes we can sorry about that yeah I won't stay much more I agree with most of the comments I've heard I just think it's I guess two things I think what we've heard tonight and during the focus groups last week there seems to be a pretty Universal endorsement of the of the strategy of targeted universalism where we Center the the needs of especially
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african-american and Native American students and and keep the focus on investments for the neediest schools and and the students who need the most supports so that's that's very heartening I think and I agree that it's PBS is at a very different position for this recession than we have been in the past because we actually have a vision and we have a strategic plan and that has not been the case in previous [Music] recessions so I think that's going to make it there is still going to be some difficult decisions and and some of them are going to be painful but we at least can make informed decisions about where to put scarce resources and I and I guess the only other thing I would say is it's worth acknowledging the the grief that a lot of people are experiencing two months ago we were talking about historic investments in public education and and we were talking about a budget that was going to be bigger and better than we'd ever seen and two months later I think it's still a good budget but it's it's it's what we're not able to have the party that we all wanted to have and and finally I want to thank the the staff for the remarkable job you've all done in converting a 58 million dollar deficit into a twelve million dollar shortfall [Music] I'm enormous ly impressed I suspect you're all going to need several days to catch up on sleep at the end of this and I appreciate all your efforts Thank You D thank you all right any further questions board members please get them to staff at your earliest convenience and we will reconvene this discussion on Thursday night thank you to everyone else who joined us tonight so valuable to hear your your insights and opinions and this meeting of the Board of Education of Portland Public Schools is now adjourned take care everybody thank you everybody

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)

2020-06-08 PPS School Board Public Hearing

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Event 1: PPS Board of Education Budget Town Hall - 6/08/2020

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