2020-06-11 PPS School Board Special Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2020-06-11
Time	17:00:00
Venue	Virtual/Online
Meeting Type	special
Directors Present	missing

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Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

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  Special Meeting Notice 6 11 20 - Google Docs (217025e0245d427e).pdf Public Meeting Notice and Agenda

Materials

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Minutes

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  20 06 11 Special Meeting MINUTES (4e72df96d1eb135f).pdf Minutes

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  2020 06 11 Special Meeting Overview (f04dd6d8c538a352).pdf Overview

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Special Meeting 6/11/2020

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board meeting of the Board of Education for June 11th 2020 is called to order the purpose of tonight's meeting is to consider complaint number 2020 - three lodged by mr. and mrs. maken in response to the discussion at the meeting on January 21st mr. and mrs. maken agreed to extend the time for a board decision we're now coming back to consider the complaint and staffs responses to the issues raised in complaint number 2020 - 3 in response to the discussion at the meeting on January 21st mr. mrs. maken agreed to extend the time for a board decision welcome mrs. maken the purpose of tonight's meeting is to consider this complaint in accordance with board policy four point five zero point three two P your district sets forth the specific procedure for resolution of formal complaints by students parents or guardians and people who reside in the district in order to resolve formal and informal complaints in a fair and timely manner some of the content raised in the step three complaint is subject to an executive session specifically under ARS one nine two point six six zero two B for complaints about a public employee we will first address in a public meeting the components of the step three appeal that are not complaints about a public employee we will then move into executive session under RS one nine two six six zero to be when we discuss those public employee complaints following the executive session we will return to a public meeting to vote on this appeal missus making you'll have five minutes to provide your comments to us tonight following your comments we will take the next five minutes for board members to follow up with questions for you or for staff so welcome and please feel free to begin all right thank you so much I'm just not sure at what point it goes to executive session because there's a number of issues that are all our dissatisfaction with a variety of PPS employees throughout the complaint process mr. Stellwagen do you want to specifically go through how you have looked at the various different concerns raised within this one appeal and what are subject to discussion in executive sessions and what ones we can start out with I'm sure miss mica I think there are some allegations specific to the principal and his performance specifically and those would generally be a obviously a complaint about a public employee and that would be something we would typically address in an executive session if there are other general complaints just about the responses and so on I don't know that that would need to be addressed in executive session but if you do have specific issues that want to want to address about a certain employee public employees performance or issues you have about their specific response and ask that you know that you hold those until you're done with your initial presentation and then we can move to executive session and then you could proceed with those those issues in executive session if that's okay yes for a public record as possible if I refer to Burnet administration does that keep it something that can be on public record I think that's fine if it's just in general - a response you feel like you receive from the district or from the verne administration if it's specific to mr. Kieffer's performance that's something we should probably address an executive session that yeah is that distinction clear I get it I get that it's a little murky but if you're really getting specifically to his performance as principal then that's like I said is appropriate and it's like to be a hurdler in the executive session if it's dissatisfaction with action or responses by district leadership or Verna leadership then I think that that is fine too to address in your general statement okay raishin and then that way we'll just stay in public session that's fine I think if it it like I said if it becomes an issue where I if we feel like you're talking specifically about performance and it would be appropriate to be heard in executive session I may interject him and ask you to clarify or ask that we take it to executive session okay okay and then if I'm referring to someone else who's part of this process like dr. MOBA Keene or mr. quillery am i also say can I not say their name no it's fine if they're if you're just addressing the fact that they responded and this is what they said and I felt like it wasn't sufficient that that that's that's different than saying you
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know this person hasn't performed appropriately or I'm men happy with their performance and I want the board to consider their actions that those are there's a distinction there I hope I'm making clear does that does that resonate all right thank you okay well first of all my husband Ephraim akin said he's choosing not to participate in this today he says he doesn't want to fight racism based on the rules of a predominately white system they're probably my terms but what I have to say is I want to thank the superintendent for the current strategic plan that's come out where he set a goal for black students of 60% proficiency it's sad that that's a good thing 60% but I know that in our district it's a lot lower than that so thank you to the superintendent for that I want to reference back to mr. Ron Herndon who published an editorial back in August of 2019 and he said they or he demanded that anyone who's going to be writing curriculum for black students should have an 80% success rate teaching black students and I thought that was very notable for mr. ron Hearn and I thought that was something we should think about and I think the curriculum the district is written by just whoever feels like writing it like they put out general calls like hey who wants to work on the new GBC and anybody can show up and I think we should look at that who is writing the curriculum who's guiding the curriculum for our students when you know which students are not being served and curriculum of course is just one piece of how we need to better serve students to narrow down at Vernon I've seen the goals being set is like 32 percent from grades 3 to 8 for math proficiency and so anything about numbers that are up around 60% and 80% and now we're looking at like the goal is 32% it's heartbreaking in mr. I'm sorry it's mr. quick well I see a doctor or mr. should I refer to him hello miss Menken how are you oh you can call me Craig that's fine with me thank you not your last name is it Cuellar here quotes a Cuellar Cuellar home okay I think yes ma'am so yeah I mean you cited some statistics in here about like growth and like looking at the growth in Fernan and saying like I think it was in math maybe they grew by 3.8 percent but it's out of 61 students that's maybe one or two students so again calling that growth is just heartbreaking because we're not serving those students and I think one of the solutions offered was more testing those students I'm just gonna swing over to my handy stack of books I got here at home that I love to read on equity and none of those books says more testing as the answer for black students we need to test to track what we're doing but more testing is also heartbreaking it's almost a 2/6 that we looked at in these different reports showed the enrichment programs the after-school programs in Vernon just in one year getting like 8% more white so again what is happening at this school when we say there's work to be done but the district has trust in the administration that we're doing the work working with mr. Logan and working with Keely Simpson but what is happening at the school there's reference to the affinity groups of parents and I raised this issue in an email there's a texting system that the school can send out to parents to try get involvement this year as a parent would like to and again any texts inviting us to have any kind of participation or input yeah and the last month there's two tax in tow please help support the PTA please become an officer of the PTA so this is a resource of the school that could very well be used to support black student academics and it just being left on to us the black phanie group of parents for black students as the report says this may be four to five people who attend it said once there is maybe 12 people attending at least two of the meetings in the year was cancelled it's just a resource is going that test there's mention of improvement science methods which is interesting and I talked to somebody's teaching that at PSU and improving science my understanding is told from the business community where it's look to the end-user look to the customer and find out what they want so then we should be again asking students and parents what's working for you as a parent of a black child iPad no one's reached out to us to say what could be working for your student so what does the deal with improvement science is it just something that the professional educators get to go to conferences and trainings and put on our resumes to patter resumes like not gonna curse but we know what this is it's not reaching the end user you're not asking the students and parents and finally
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I've got to get to this word of disruptive mr. Coyer in your report you said that it was valid to use this word it was valid for dr leung bik need to interview the PTA president and that interview resulted in the word disruptive being used against my husband three times and now it's getting repeated back and you said Jenny Tanner's investigations show that that was valid and that is a lie again I hate Mike when my husband uses the word lies hurts me I'm uncomfortable the white person won't cope with this conflict and I should apologize to him finally I'm finally getting it he's right this is full of lies if you look right back at Jenny Chandler's document she said it was not appropriate for Doctor Who to contact the PTO president she said she gave two rationales and they were both proven false so mr. Cuellar you put the lie back into your report so once again my husband is disruptive and he is the person who's fighting racism and we talk about retaliation then we say that district continued to just let this go there's retaliation against our family and it seems like well what's the big deal nobody's firebombing your house but I'll just tell you in the last month my stepsons mother tried to join the Vernon PTA Facebook page which says it's open to parents and community members so it says hey parents and guardians she lives in the community she is my daughter's brother's mother now maybe in white communities that's not considered family but in many communities of color that is considered family there's not a word for it in the English language but that is family they will not let her join the page and they're giving endless ridiculous excuses about why and they're claiming that's not a PTA page but it's run by the woman who is the communications director of the PTA so let's stop saying it's just run by annual parent volunteer okay and on top of that this week there was an even sent out by the PTA saying we are canceling our meeting out of respect for the gentleman who was murdered and I said canceling the PTA meeting what meeting I didn't get notice of a meeting I'm a PTA member where was this notice of a PTA meeting it's not in many of the principal's emails it's not on a web page Facebook page I didn't get a text I'm a PTA member so what does PTA meeting that you guys are cancelling out of your gate great respect and I wrote them an email over a week ago what's this meeting they're canceling that you guys didn't invite me to or maybe it's just a simple mistake and for a week they can't write me back and tell me where is this meeting that they're canceling and then again maybe that's just a small piece of retaliation and exclusion but please take a look at it take a look at that it's exclusion and it's discrimination and there's a white person I hesitate to say I'm being dissed cunegonde but it's over the issue my husband is a black man complaining about racism in the community and it goes on and on and on and y'all aren't doing anything about it you're talking about reports of testing and percentages and small incremental change or maybe one word black kid can get an education super disappointing but I'm learning it's not supervising yes that's all I got Thanks any questions um first I just want to recognize your point about the goals which are also reflected in our borer board goals for student achievement was important for us to express our goals in terms of growth but I don't think anyone holds those stated goals as our aspirations for our children and I I agree with you I cringe every time we look at it it's just a way to measure our growth but I just want to really appreciate your point there that there's there is no ceiling on our expectations for our kids I just want to recognize that okay to our board do we have questions of staff or of mrs. Meighan I have one question and Miss Macon I appreciate you showing up and I hope that you're feeling fully heard what is the the text system that's being used and is that updated and is there some reason like some parents are on it and some parents are not I'd be curious to learn a little bit more about that system I think I know about it from a parent perspective but I always got the text so I assumed everybody else got the
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text can you shed some light on how that's how that list is populated and do you think you've captured everyone in your community yeah thank you for the question so remind was something that was rolled out by the district as we went into distance learning and so it actually started becoming auto-populated through synergy throat so through the records that we had in the system we weren't actually using that text system previous to the distance learning piece we were using mess for email but it had not been using it as much for SMS because it was not something that he had found that was consistent were successful so since we have them one into distance learning we started using remind more regularly and it's a great tool and we definitely if it's a our disposal for moving forward we definitely plan on utilizing and moving forward do you have a good idea of how many what the percentage of parents that are subscribed to that service but like do you know how many what your open rate is you have any way of knowing who's that included yeah the interesting part is so remind now like in the old format a lot of people experience that where you had to like send a text to a number or you had to accept the the one that's set up now actually everybody my understanding and David maybe knows about this in more detail but my understanding now is everybody is a part of that and they could choose not to receive the messages anymore but it's to my understanding everybody's getting those and I think the barbs point that's what the message that she received was was something that went out to the entire community as those remind messages had for for that kind of thing where we're doing that daily and that's been recent in the piece where she'd mentioned it I think what she was saying is some people utilize that as a tool where you could create a list and then add people to it but they have to text like to a number to say that they're joining and I think there was some reference to that because I think you would to her point that somebody said that it was too much work or it was hard that wasn't a school thing I think it was somebody that was in that meeting who had said about adding them and barb to clarify that in terms of what her experience was around that but that's we're just now starting to use remind of the school messenger piece that's a new thing in this because is that 100% of your families or is that anyone that has a cell phone yeah my understanding as it goes out to 100% of the families that are able to get that semester test and if somebody else has some clarity on that that that's what my understanding is yeah director the past this is Shawn for achievement school you everybody does get those message as long as their information is correct in the in the student information system so it's pulled from that database so as long as the phone numbers correct everybody would get it and there are reports that are generated that show numbers that were kicked back so that the school can incorrect or reach out to get correct information from families that's been a little more challenging in this in this last ten weeks because of you know schools closure but normally it'll be much easier to correct that information thank you okay just a little bit more about using texting as a communication tool for families since distance learning yes remind has been variable doubt district-wide look before that some teachers are using that and before that there was just the good old-fashioned texting my daughter just finished second grade kindergarten she had the courage to go to riddler and they had a pilot program about attendance in every nation mister class they would send a text you gotta miss school every day she came back the next day we're happy your daughter came back to school and periodically your daughter is at 95% attendance so that was a pilot program I'm not sure what kind of resources it takes to do that but just because we didn't have remind more than 10 weeks ago doesn't mean there's not other ways people have been able to use texting to communicate with parents which with cell phones was a primary way to do it and I did mention in a email that I'm not sure if everyone saw it but in the fall I went to a parents of black students meeting and I there was only more parents there and I said why don't we ask the office to use texting and send a message to all the parents of black students but the next month meeting and the response was something like that's kind of a lot of work not to mr. keeper but someone else thumbs down so um can I call you barb okay I think question if when I looked through the complaint and I think our first response and I was at me with a static or somebody else when I looked through with the district's first
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response it's clear that we miss some information and in other cases it wasn't responsive and but following on that the district had Jenny Chandra research some of the issues that weren't fully responded to in the first response and there was an acknowledgement of a host of issues that you had raised as well as an apology from the district and an apology from district was from February and my question and this builds a little bit of along the dialogue that we had last time that given just how we have to meet now where these virtual meetings that it doesn't seem the same when you get a trailing response that acknowledges some issues that you had raised and correct some information that we hadn't got right or hadn't fully responded to in in our first response and so my question to you is what in what Avenue would that feel responsive because I get when I look through this whole file and you know buried in it there is an acknowledgement of some of the initial issues you raised which i think is you know I want to acknowledge that the staff did acknowledge the issues you raised around student growth around just racial disproportionality and some of the after-school classes and some of the classes what would that look like because I feel like the district has in some way acknowledged in is it the way it was acknowledged or is it the format or is it you know just this is you know every type of communication is not to the standard we want them to be and you know now that we're into code virtual environments um yeah well thank you for reminding folks that several things were point out errors or miss readings miss speakings i mean dr. o admitted she didn't read our complaint and she wrote a stuff to response and tried to say she didn't receive it and someone had to dig back and show that the email went to you and how are you writing something where you didn't even read the original complaint so it's it's pretty hard I don't know I mean things are acknowledged like we have a lot of work to do these statistics are not great whether it's academic or whether it's participation by race that's being acknowledged and then it's like we're working on it we have these plans you know I think it'll be acknowledged when we see the scores jump up when we see students of all races proportionally participating in things that can actually benefit them academically and then when we can get some response to things when we're family seeing retaliation a little bit by a little bit and there's no yeah and I think treating students like as numbers to and not really looking at that in the school climate and sometimes that's a hard thing to capture in a report so I mean I think we'll be happy we'll be satisfied when we see not just talked about changes but changes thank you I have a question for I don't know if this is you dr. bird or Keely or Carl but with regard to the district's the the relative autonomy of the PTA can you just comment on the degree of influence or control that the school or the district has over the activities operating in the name of a school pta sure so good evening again mrs. Meighan I do want to mention about the PTA complaint that you mentioned when you were speaking about people not being able to join the group and so I did send a letter to the PTA leadership last week asking them to change the name of that Facebook page because even
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though it does say in the information section that it's not an official PPS page I can see how that it does use the name Vernon IB community tool I think is what it's called so I did send that request to them and they have reached out so I have further discussions planned with them so that we can make some progress on that however the PTA is an independent organization so they are not they are not part of the school district so we have asked them to make that change and we'll keep you updated on that progress I also chair constant if I can just reference one more thing that this is making talked about in the in the report that you've got I just I just want to first of all acknowledge that yes the district has made mistakes in the investigatory process some of the people on my team are responsible for that and I apologize for that and however when in the report that you received dated June 4th from dr. Claire those were just summaries of all of the investigation that was not saying that we agreed with it that was just a summarized summary for you to just kind of go over the history of it it was not - it was not intended to restate that that it was a fact it was just a summary of the previous reports and then the recommendations came at the end so I just wanted to just acknowledge those mistakes and also talk about the report - making it's Greg I just wanted to reiterate what dr. Byrd said what was stated in that summary for the board was read was just restating the former the former responses into one document so the board had the information on one document it was not us saying at all that mr. Meighan was disruptive at all we were just we were just completely reciting what was initially written in the form of reports and that was also why we also attached both the Jeannie Chandra's reports as well because Jeannie Saunders reports absolutely clearly illuminated a lot of missteps in the investigatory process which dr. Burt and I then had to address through accountability measures to make sure that those mistakes would never happen again I just wanted to acknowledge that miss Macon and very very very sorry for the way you and your husband and your family feel during this time especially during this process we are continuing to try to do better and improve the process so it's absolutely more service oriented for our families first and foremost and we're working on that and you have our commitment on that but I just also wanted to restate that as well miss make it but thank you I appreciate that but in light of a previous board meeting where Julia said that board members are not required to read all the documents to prepare for a meeting to say that Jenny tenders thing is attached but this document says disruptive and mr. Meighan was not removed from the PTA meeting as if he was claiming he was when everyone claimed he was we're not claiming he was so I mean I I see what you're saying this was supposed to be recaptured but he never any tender we buttered it but this doesn't and so if a board members like well here's a nice all I have three to six pages instead of 40 they're gonna read this and this makes it sound like he's disruptive and he's lying about he's accusing mr. key for something you didn't do so that's just the and I realize you have a lot of things other to do other than write these reports but well no miss bank and you bring up a very good point and I think that's absolutely something that we will take into consideration for how we can make sure that we're illuminating the factual information of all the reports into a more succinct occupant so it's it stands face first in terms of what all the reports share you I am taking that feedback and I work with our chief of staff to make those revisions in our process but thank you for that do we have any other questions from the board before we go into executive desist the executive session to discuss the other aspects of this complaint so I have one other question it may not even be a question that could be answered now but I think it's it's good of a broader framing question because when I when I look at they're sort of - you know a number of areas and where you see essentially some segregate racial segregation or disproportionality of involvement but they involve two different categories of activities and one are like school-based activities so choir or classes that happen during the school day ones that you know the district has full control of and this can be fully accountable for what's what's happening in those classes
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and you know who we encourage and support to be in those classes and then there's this other category that have been raised Cheswick success babo the books in which we have less control over because they're partners with the districts that are providing those services and I say I don't know that it's fair to ask for a response of you know how do we in cases in which we have less control I don't know it's fair to be asked in this form and expect an answer right now I think it's worth thinking about because I do think we fully accept and are accountable for what's happening during the school day with our classes but these other groups that we you know sometimes we're providing case we're providing contracts and a you know the access to the students and facilities how do we sort of elevate and lift up you know our values the same way we would or things that are happening during the school day and I don't know if it's a question for Craig the superintendent for Shawn yes so I would say thank you director no words um yes so the after-school programming is is run by a CI as we all know and that's a partner that we've had that's worked in the district for many years but that is not that's not to say that it's devoid of our input in our oversight that those are activities are happening in our schools and there's a coordinator to the school that we work with to talk about current programming is generally based on student interest and I'll let principal keeper talk about the process that they go through to identify those activities but it is a it is a partnership so we do give input to the to our partners and I'm ensure that the programming is it meets the needs of the students at the school and generally after school programs they really are driven by student interest so if for the program to be successful there have to be a certain number of students that participate so a viola mr. keeper tots particular process at Vernon excuse me just a second I just want to clarify miss making do you want to do you want to specifically address aspects of the complaint that pertain to mr. Kieffer's performance in which case we'll need to recess and go into executive session and probably need to do that now or or not if not we can continue this discussion I don't if you want to AB we're absolutely prepared to do so but I wasn't it wasn't entirely clear to me I think let's stay in this session I'm the problem is with the institution leaders of institutions have a heavy responsibility has shifted when it's not serving the students but it's the whole institution it's the administration and everybody including myself as a sir okay and then I also wanted to ask board members did you have any questions specific to the concerns about principal Keifer that would acetate going into executive session or is everyone comfortable if we continue the conversation I'm comfortable continuing I also want to say about the bucket drumming program if if that's such a problem and it's not a problem for most of the members of the community that participate in the program it's it's ironic that we would want to challenge a program that's so popular for you know our african-american students why would we get rid of that so I'm happy continuing in this session or deferring to what everybody thinks but I do want to bring that up because that program is important to the kids that participate in the program and if we're gonna be student-centered then we need to talk about you talk about who's hurting my plate yeah the buckets are a violation of PPS policies just because you guys have been doing it for a long time that doesn't mean that it's okay and for you to speak out on that on an issue where white kids are playing instruments is pretty sad okay we'll see you later now if you look at it I could give you the policies that they are violation up if you don't recognize what the policies are just because sei is doing it that doesn't mean that this is viable to do it says everything in the policies and in the programs that we have to increase
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everything to make the test scores and make it equal to black people or the kids that's B&S failing it's a violation of policy and the DOJ will see that is if you guys want me to cut I can send you the policies that is a violation not just because someone's black they don't mean it addictive violate the policies that's the same thing you guys use miss Jefferson rape case you guys said it was okay because touching little girls was a part of policy it's not a black belt it's a part of black culture touching cutes is not a part of coach playing buckets are not a part of black culture you said that you guys said that in the report so the soda bottle report clearly mentions that it's not cultural it's not artistic these are all of the things that were written into that you guys originally said it's not cultural it's not artistic it's not what was the other one from probably not from far away it's not it's not so there's no reason to have it in there just because somebody liked it let's make it better can the kids can also eat cake all day my daughter would like to eat sugar all day that's not right so you would have the kids in there eating cake all day just because someone gave it to him so you have to think for the in betterment of people in the community your kids are not playing buckets nobody own here your kids do not play it but so why are you having two people that look like the people that fell in and tested most in these programs where's your where's your high expectations for the kids that's all I'm putting a Kia cabins together do we have any other questions from the board or ms Macon are there any central pieces of your appeal that you feel we haven't addressed I'd just like to reiterate the same thing yet their response from I think mr. Keefer and others has been like it's a student interest or people in the community are giving us a hard time saying that it's important to the families and again just like because something is important I mean bigamy was important to wormans we still pass law saying that's not okay for those it's not when we analyze it not the same this isn't becoming victim II it's bucket drumming correct but the the argument is something that they like the kids like it's based on choice and so just basing on choice is not something that that that alone is not something that we should have in the schools after school just because the kids like it we otherwise video game playing we're not doing that um I actually had a question that Ben was gonna follow on about before we went into discussion about whether we need to go into executive session or add one more thing to that the idea of just because they like it because anything that students can benefit from bucket drumming they can benefit from real drumming from African drums from drumline anything that they benefit whether it's leadership working in a group physical movement anything they can benefit from bucket join they can get that same benefit out of playing drums that then they could take into another venue or drums where they feel like hey the society values me they're giving me something of value they're not giving me a three dollar piece of plastic and we have to give kids something that shows when we value them thank you Ben I had had the question about the after school and I think Sean gave the overarching like here's that here's the district's sort of framework and maybe it Vernon the things that you and the staff are doing for things that we don't control this in the classroom but after school just there were you know questions about the Battle of the books and again I don't this isn't just a Vernon issue I think this is it this is a broader PBS issue but did you speak to the Battle of the books the you know chest for success ways in which Vernon can have after-school programming that or support after-school programming that serves all of our students yeah I want to make sure to clarify a few things I mean it's a regular part of the annual review of sei programming they reach out to families they connect with students and they try and do they really do try and have it be about student voice around creating those enrichment opportunities and that's what they're supposed to be
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as enrichment opportunities the kinds of things that you've talked about that you then get folded into the school day so we folded our band program into the school day because we didn't feel like enough students were having an opportunity for that so we actually created that opportunity within the school day which tripled the number of students who are able to participate and also made it a lot more diverse and I will agree with barb if you look at participation that were not satisfied with with with different things like specifically Oregon Battle of the books and chess for success not being as proportionate in terms of the community and so you know the question is like so what do you do and you know that's it that's a little bit more challenging in the sense since students are choosing you know we do teacher recommendation teacher outreach trying to have push it out to different families around conversations around different things to participate in but ultimately people sign up for those opportunities so we do look at that and honestly that was something that happened way back in 2015 because there was a concern that was brought up by Ephraim and Barb about bucket drumming back then and we did we worked with sei to try and look over that and see you know what what the concerns were we always do that I mean as a as a white male leader in a school I recognize the privilege that I have and I recognized the need for my myself to reflect and learn and also to think about how we can make sure to hold racial equity at the center of the work that we're doing and so it is challenging and you know to Barb's point about you know incremental gain or growth I mean if you look at the growth percentiles for the last several years you know ours went from being lower than a district in like 23rd percentile for I think it was like 20 27 and a half percent our growth and the district's like 33 and a half to the this past year being like 58 percentile of growth and the reason why that is important is if you maintain a high growth percentile what you do is shift right you start to see those gains and I don't disagree with her we want it to be more than one or two or three kids we want it to be lots of kids we want it to be the majority of our kids and so that is incremental and that's hard because this there is urgency around this work and so we recognize that and it is a district-wide piece and it's forced me to do a lot of reflection director Brenda Edwards I mean I you know looked at literally and you all can do this to the state report cards for every single school in the district that has a high number or a high percentage of african-american students and of all of those schools in math in particular there are only a couple that have had growth in the past three years and that's not good enough so this definitely is a district-wide issue and even though we've had some growth it's not enough so I don't disregard that and I will say and I appreciate Barb suggestion around this we won't make better use of remind because I do agree that cell phones are key communication tool for families Thank You principal Kiefer I think we're going to have to come to a close here and to a vote unless there's and not any other pressing questions all right then the board will now vote on resolution number six zero three zero resolution to uphold or reject the superintendent's decision on a step three appeal complaint number 20-3 do I have a motion so moved second director to pass moves and director Bailey seconds a motion to adopt resolution six zero three zero director phones down yes oh just one second um before we vote I also I want to recognize I think that director to pass we'll go ahead director Broome Edwards what were you gonna say I think director DePass is going to offer I had a friendly amendment or a statement on behalf of the board after we vote but I'm sorry director berm Edwards did you wanna yes I would like to have the resolution amended to add some some language in the upper section and then some findings that reflect I think the staff summary we received has some acknowledgments and also some recommendations and to include that in there as a indication that while we're the decision is to uphold the superintendent's recommendation that
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we're also acknowledging some things and I don't know if I can hand it I don't we we haven't voted yet on whether or not to uphold or reject the superintendent's right decision director de pasty you want to bring forward the language that you had and add it to the resolution or yes what excuse me I'm having problems going back between my screens and make sure I'm unmuted I have some I have some edit I would like to add if I may so let's table let's table the resolution that we have now regarding our vote on the appeal and I'd like to move that we consider an amendment by director to pass do I have a second second director burn meds were brimm Edwards seconds okay Michelle okay so in the very top piece above the resolution I'd like to acknowledge that the district acknowledges the racial disproportionality in the makeup of students participating in various school and some programs and will work with the vernon community to assure that all students have access to programs that enrich their learning and that had to do with just being a little bit more explicit in our language about the disproportionality but also recognizing i think that the kids are drawn to this program largely because of the leaders of that program in the after-school program and so it's it's valued its valuable to the Choate to the students and we can work to with the community to ensure that all students have enrichment programs that are you know culturally sensitive and enriching the last piece was just in the in the resolution to add the language that says the board acknowledges that the district in its February 21st 2020 letter to the Macon's apologized to them for a chant that occurred during a school assembly while it was not planned supported or encouraged by Vernon staff school and district leaders are responsible for the activities that occur in our buildings and school sites and for insuring that inappropriate incidences are not repeated so as district leaders just to acknowledge the buck stops with us we we take full responsibility for for how we handle this and to apologize for the Macon's to the Macon's thank you thank you very much so I'm sorry yeah I'd like to add one other thing in the resolved part and this goes again to you know continuously approving and being sort of on the record that we support that so that we I would like to add in the resolve part that the the board supports the implementation of the recommendations made to address the issues raised in the complaint I I have a question about that Julia just because isn't that by upholding this print an honest response isn't voting to uphold saying we support the recommendations in the superintendent's response I think we should be explicit about it that we supports the implementation as a recommendation there are some very specific items in there so I I think um let's vote on the amendment that we have on the table which is directed to pass this amendment that includes the piece about the enrichment activities as well as an apology for the harm that was caused during the performance during the school performance I'd like us to vote on that and then we can revisit whether we want to add something else that just reinforces the commitment that staff has made have made all this your concept I'm sorry I just from a process standpoint and I apologize if I missed I know we've all been getting a lot of emails about budgets so I don't know if this came around earlier I haven't seen these amendments in writing I did I did see that director to pass there was an email just from right before this meeting that had some of this language so I was as she read I was able to to read along but it's challenging since we're not in the same space to sort of look at a piece of paper is it possible to get before we
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vote on this just to get the actual written language either put up on the screen which I would be fine with shared or or emailed quickly by Rosanna to those of us before we take a vote I apologize I just I I heard it I think I support it I I just want to make sure director de paz do you want to paste those in the chat um I can paste them in the chat I it's it's pretty ugly if I share my screen I don't need the public I don't think the public can see the chat though so I so maybe maybe we could share the screen or even if even take a take a minute just to clean it up just a minute I can clean up what I've got and I also think it'd be good for the public just to see as well absolutely i'ma show I can also post it do you have the resolution with my edits in it I do that would be fine with me I'm tech challenged I had a question about the language of where it says the buck stops with the board because there's quotes and then there's dots and then I'm not sure where the quoting of the letter ends and the continued narrative of the amendment is so that was my one question about the language you're looking at the earlier email they made some edits at about five minutes before our meeting and so we can just somehow get a screenshot up what you read which is what's on the table yeah so my question has to do with we're quoting that letter from switching between Queens February 21st and so there's there's a quote from that letter but there's no end quote so I'm not sure when the quote from the letter stops okay so that was my question so I have the email that Michelle sent out okay because wouldn't everything you know the thing that got that's removed is I'm not concerned about the dot dot I'm concerned about where the quote from the letter stops is it that hole is it the whole thing then after this occurred here in assembly is all of that a quote from the letter that went out on February the 21st there's no end quote I think is would it suffice for you and others if Michelle just read again exactly the two components of her amendment even describing punctuation on it or I think I can share my screen I'm just trying to figure out how to do it I'm on I'm on learning curve um present now just a moment can you see that no no obviously not Google meat proficient I think it's pretty it's pretty succinct I think for me it's not I'm just trying to work out the process but you're Sears to amendments I think you want to read them again for us to digest them again verbally then I think we're good to go okay so the resolution says the Board of Education upholds the superintendent's decision of the step-free appeal as the final decision and supports the implementation of recommendations made to address issues raised in the complaint the district also the board also acknowledges that the district in its February to 2020 water to the Macon's apologized to them for a chant that occurred during a school assembly quote while it was not planned supported or encouraged by Vernon staff school and district leaders are responsible for the activities that occur in our buildings and school sites and for ensuring that inappropriate incidences are not repeated end quote as district leaders the buck must stop with us we take full
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responsibility for the harm we've cost I'm sorry we we take full responsibility for the payment this costed family and the way that we've responded to you while an apology may not make you whole we want you to know we are deeply sorry the the district also acknowledges the racial disproportionality in the makeup of students participating in various school and fun programs and will work with the Vernon community to assure that all students have access to programs that enrich their learning and I'm happy to put a copy of this and say not in the chat but is there a better way for me to share this can you take a vote now unless anybody feels uncomfortable with understanding exactly what it is that we're voting on in terms of an amendment to this resolution well I share concept I don't mean to be difficult with that like that what was just read was not actually the original amendment from director to pass and it sounded like it also included the amendment from director brim Edwards so I just want to be really clear about what we're voting on but that was not and some of the words were a little bit different than I think the first time so yeah I agree I really need to see it in email so maybe just drop it in the chat and then Rosanna could grab it out of the chat and put it on the screen and we'll do that and it's taken us it was it different I mean it seemed to me like it was different - is that correct different because I reversed the order in which I read the two statements but I'm I'll look for it now I'll paste it into chat and then and I'm also having connectivity issues it looks like so and truck right while you're doing that I can maybe answer director Scott's question you asked when did the February 21st apology ends and it ends the word repeated that at least the quote from the apology that was sent to them and then the rest after that is new language does that make sense it does make sense but it is it's okay but it is a meaningful distinction in this that were in this so this is not repeating in an apology that was previously made in a response this is a new port apology that we are making here correct so you have cracked the February twenty first letters the maken and then it start the quotes start with while it was not and that goes on there should be an in quote after the word repeated that's what that should be attributed to and then what Michelle read after the word repeated is you're correct a new board apology so to be clear the disrespectful action and the misstep we are referring to is the well I actually let me ask that question what is that specifically referring to a chant that happened during a school assembly the children's response okay so that that particular section is all contained it's a bow of the the chan and the response it's not it's not a separate apology and a larger larger issues no it's specifically to the February 21st communication to the Macon's was had a section about the chant with the acknowledgement from the district that we have ownership of that because it happens during a school assembly you know in under under the sort of framework of a district event so end quote after the word repeated that just appeared that's the part that comes from the staff report and then what follows is a apology from us the board and it looks like that got cut off huh look like Nicole I didn't paste the whole thing it's not your fault director to pass it only allows you to pay so much text so if you copy the rest you should be able to get it in there
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thank you I always think it's me so just a moment thanks for your patient patience as district leaders the bus the buck must stop with us while an apology may not make you whole we want you to know we're deeply sorry we apologize for this disrespectful action and we'll learn from our missteps the district acknowledges the racial disproportionality and the makeup of students participating in various school and son programs and will work with the learning community to assure that all students have access to programs that enrich their learning Oh Roseanne you even put it in the form of a resolution I think that that's Cara doing that here a way to go this is still what we have on the table now is this amendment everyone had an opportunity it's on the table so now would be the time for any further discussion on the amendment itself I don't scream we be enlarged at all but it's really tiny well I do believe it is a faithful recreation of your what you pasted oh look at on screen missing I think that was the and it's also missing the end quote after repeated end quote and there I am my glasses on there we go thank you oh wow okay so it looks like the curd needs another [Music] its quote ended repeated you don't need the ellipses just put a period there yeah the ellipses were because there was more to the apology and the actual twenty-first letter but it actually was talking about students so it really should just end there and then under the resolution part doesn't it just stop the Board of Education upholds the superintendent's decision of the step three appeal that's the final and then just Lea's amendment comes in right now we're just considering this amendment that we see above so if we have her further discussion but actually just a process question wouldn't our the apology be in the resolved not in the recitals that's a parliamentary I think question yes I think it's I think it's fine I mean first of all let's just approve this as an amendment and then we'll go back to the underlying resolution which is asking whether or not we uphold the superintendent's decision which will include okay I think that's the wrong order though I think I think we should have I think though that's that's part of the reason not part of the recitals you'd be either way but let's let's approve this language and then we'll get back to the underlying resolution and we can decide where we want to put it all in favor say sorry just to be super clear we are only considering this first paragraph from the board to learning not considering the part that says resolution or below correct correct and we are not voting on the superintendent's recommendation all in favor of this amended language please indicate by saying yes yes any opposed please indicate by saying no okay this amendment passes by a vote of 7 to 0
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all right now back to the underlying resolution that is asking the board to uphold or reject the superintendent's decision on a step 3 appeal complaint number 20-20-20 - 3 let's include the amended language on the in in the resolution six zero three zero not the recitals guys director constant I was just going to speak to that form is for director broom Edwards I I think that's correct David would put it in the resolution yes just like we're ready to do yep we have this done so all in favor of upholding the superintendent's decision please indicate by saying yes actually Amy remember you said once we adopted the language that I could come back to the the other issue so before we move to voting on the whole resolution so we have us we have a staff report with a series of recommendations it sounds like people may not want to put in to me it would make the resolution stronger therefore supporting the implementation of the staff recommendations if there's not if there's a preference for board board members not to put it in there the other thing that I could do is I guess ask dr. Cuellar who is the drafter of the staff summary who is and this is could be a replacement I'm happy to do this is who's accountable for these implementing these recommendations that is in your staff memo that would be the day because the makings have said the thing they want is less words and more actions and so these are the recommendations which I do think address many of the issues they raised yes ma'am I would completely agree and I would refer that to dr. Berg as the one who is accountable for all of our schools and PPS okay I don't need to have it in the resolution but I think it's important that we acknowledge that there's recommendations and implementation and that there's an accountability for them being implemented agreed I think this is part of our broader conversation on the complaint process too that the board wants to be able to check back in to commitments that are made in the complaint process that points in the future so just just good practice exactly my point check on Stan we talked about that kind of system where we agree to come back to look and see what kind of progress has been made at some point in the future and I'm still not sure whether that system exists or not so that we can take that offline but [Music] let's see how we can make this this happen definitely with the complaint system complete fraud but but a number of issues that might not rise to a complaint that come up and we've expressed concern there or and/or interest and a year later psychic oh yeah what happened with that and that's we need to change that right sorry Misaka yeah I was gonna say I think there's some interest in I mean there would definitely be I would be interested in figuring out how to track and measure you know where we are along that spectrum in terms of implementing some other things that staff recommended what are that six months out or do some type of a process evaluation or some way to measure where you know measure impact terms of these changes were making so that's not normal job but I'm interested in following the conversational yeah all right voting now in resolution 6:03 zero to uphold or reject the superintendent's decision on step three appeal complaint number 20 2003 sorry my son is calling [Music] all in favor up holding the superintendent's decision please indicate by saying yes yes and he
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opposed to upholding the superintendent's decision please indicate by saying no all right the motion passes by a vote of sorry about that of seven to zero misses making I want to really thank you for your time and your thoughtfulness and I do hope that the process and the steps that the staff have identified both at the building level and the commitments that our district staff have made really do respond to the the important issues and questions you've addressed at Vernon and we will we will be paying attention as a board to progress there and in always school climate do an achievement health and well-being of all our kids and families there so thank you for your time and board members as you all know we need to reconvene ASAP for our budget eating as Maxine is anxiously awaiting us she's really lonely all right thank you everybody thank you all I know there's been a lot of thank you miss

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)