2020-07-14 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2020-07-14
Time	18:00:00
Venue	Virtual/Online
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Regular Meeting 7/14/20 (starts @ 51:22)

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this board meeting of the board of education for July 14 2020 is called to order for tonight's meeting any item that will be voted on has been posted as required by state law this meeting is being streamed live on Channel 28 and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the district website for replay times this meeting is also being streamed live on our PPS TV services website Welcome to our viewing audience thank you for joining us today is the first board meeting of the 2020-2021 school year now that we have passed our budget tonight is our final opportunity to discuss the development of a 2020 bond package before asking staff to prepare prepare a scenario for us to approve at our next meeting on July 28th we will also hear an update on the latest re-entry planning and preparations underway vote on the revised search and seizure policy discuss renaming and redefining our spaces and vote on the board leadership but first off tonight is the swearing-in of our new student representative Nathaniel shu um well like many things this year this is the first virtual swearing-in of a school board representative I'm quite certain um Nathaniel let me let me get so that I can see your face where are you just a moment please there you are hi sorry my error welcome um thank you please repeat after me Nathaniel I Nathaniel Shu do solemnly swear I Nathaniel Shu do solemnly swear and I will uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States and of the state of Oregon that I will uphold the laws so that I will uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States and of the state of Oregon and Faithfully discharge the duties and Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of director of School District number one J of the office of director of School District number one J Multnomah County Oregon Multnomah County Oregon to the best of my ability to the best of my ability congratulations Nathaniel we are delighted to welcome you um and we I think I speak for everyone when I say we really look forward to working with you this year and I think we're going to hear from you in just a little bit with a student representative report the first of many uh thank you um and actually I believe I um expressed intent to cancel the student rep report this time okay makes sense so you haven't been able to get with your DSC but we'll just look forward to um hearing from you uh next time but thank you for being with us congratulations again thank you superintendent Guerrero would you like to provide your report I would and uh hopefully we all have a technical snap through and we can get uh my few slides posted uh but I will start by saying congratulations to Nathaniel uh your voice is going to be critically important as it always is to hear from our students uh appreciate you dressing
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the part for the evening so Roseanne uh do we have a deck to post I'll start by saying good evening directors and good evening to those that are watching our live stream uh thank you for joining us I understand it's a beautiful summer evening out there by here um you'll see in this first title slide a picture of a young scholar reminds us how much we missing our students um I'll keep it short but I we do have a number of important agenda items we'll be covering this evening with directors uh I just wanted to briefly comment on on each of these topics knowing we're going to go into a continued uh more deep conversation uh so the first topic is slide the bonds so we're going to go into further detail about the proposed Bond investment package for November uh I think directors will note some areas of continued refinement responsive to the board's last discussion recalling just this past Thursday evening so staff has been quite busy during yesterday's work day and today uh hopefully you'll see many of those suggestions reflected in this proposed package which includes some key curricular and Technology Investments uh we continue to believe that giving ourselves uh flexibility uh to do the work that we know is most important and that the community is most excited about so whether that's technology upgrades or emerging work to realize racial Justice for our black students uh through ideas that are are still emerging uh as we as we dialogue about the concept of the center for black student Excellence we see immense possibility and potential to advance our community's vision PPS reimagined while making real strides to to Center our love for this uh City's black children uh and that's why I'm eager to get to the discussion tonight uh where I think we're almost there uh I believe we have the incredible opportunity to advance deeper learning for students through curriculum and instruction uh while resourcing Innovative curricular work um like black African-American studies in schools computer science for all a tangible move forward with Middle School redesign part of that including the experiential learning that we've had discussions about and portfolio and authentic assessment and really supporting many of our special programs moving forward these are these are some of the things that are exciting to me and I think are going to excite our stakeholders our students and families so and again we're very grateful for the very positive early polling results and the investment that our voters are prepared to make on behalf of the children and PPS so that top except on the agenda we have another important topic coming up this evening uh I know that we if we go to the next slide I know that we're continuing to hear from from students and community members and certainly our directors uh demanding uh that we really take a Critical examination um at the names that our schools are are named after in our portfolio uh in some cases uh it's clear that they seem to venerate problematic historical figures uh whose leadership includes a legacy of deep racism and colonization the racial Uprising that's happening on the streets of our communities LED in part by the energy of young black native use the color black and Native use of color has raised our Collective Consciousness about uh about the way in which our institutions both big and small pay tribute to polarizing or historical figures so at PPS uh you know this takes place in the names of school campuses and uh some would say even the district's own headquarters um and PPS like the other two larger urban districts that I've worked in has had school communities named after persons of questionable character and we're now in a new era so young people today uh are really demanding that much more from our institutions and uh the dispelling of wholesale venerational racist figures uh it really should be a thing in the past so like many community members and and certainly your advocacy directors we're hoping for uh supporting a quick resolution here
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but we also know that the meaningful dialogue that we want to have goes much more Beyond uh the names of our campuses there are many more deeper complex issues of which that name is is a symbol on top of a much bigger Iceberg of cultural and institutional racism so as this system's leader I want to ensure that we sustain the long-term culture and systemic change that creates true conditions for racial Justice here at PPS later our senior advisor on racial equity and social justice standing Ledesma she'll be presenting the work that we're preparing to commence which includes what we obser is a meaningful process to really engage in this deeper dialogue around these issues of racial Justice that are anchored in our resj framework and our plan that really aims to promote more culturally responsive pedagogy and really centers on our students lived experiences so it's a really big topic and it's a really important one and we look forward to that conversation later this evening and then the third topic um I I hope that everybody saw uh what we think was a more comprehensive communication this past Saturday afternoon uh regarding our ongoing fall 2020 uh re-entry planning so our planning teams and there's a very a bunch of Staff involved here and many stakeholders uh thank you to board Representatives who are listening in and participating in those conversations but we're trying to be really dutiful about the Oregon Department of Ed's blueprint requirements for uh opening of schools or contemplating the continuity of learning this coming fall PPS along with our four larger districts in Oregon are working as a collaborative group we are getting technical assistance from District Management Group and outside uh consultancy group to help us think through uh as districts think about opening campuses uh uh what are all the detailed considerations we want to make sure and be attentive to so we're going to continue working also with our neighboring districts as well as those larger districts uh one benefit of being a member district of the Council of great City Schools is that we're in regular contact with the other 75 large urban districts in the country uh we have made an additional effort to consult with public health experts uh we're staying in touch with the governor's office and the Oregon Department of Education we just had another dialogue just this afternoon to really talk out loud and share uh some of the barriers challenges and our thinking are to really try to land on the safest options for the return of our students as well as our employees so we're going to continue to to work as critical thought Partners as we think that through I think our broader Community understands that this is a very fluid uh situation this is a pandemic there's there's no superintendent's manual for uh but we want to be responsible and Prudence uh as we think about the health and safety of everyone so that's going to continue to be our key consideration um and of course our core mission is to think about the learning of our students as well as supporting their social emotional needs especially those that have been disproportionately impacted and I'm referring to our black and Indigenous students our students of program so we know that there are differentiated needs there uh I'll include there our students with special needs uh we're thinking about them uh and no matter what school looks like this fall we're going to continue prioritizing uh the primary supports and the basic needs that our students and families have that includes supporting them with making meal distribution and any technology needs that we're addressing those so uh I just want to reiterate we know that families want to know our plans we shared a major update this past weekend with families and staff and we are going to remain committed to providing those regular weekly updates as we get clearer and also as um as health authorities and and other uh recommendations out there become clear to us so that we can plan accordingly so you're going to listen to many more details later um but I just I also want to underline that PPS will only reopen school buildings if it's safe to do so uh if we can't safely open school buildings uh all teaching and learning for every student will take place virtually or online uh until it is safe to begin coming back to school so uh I know that that may not give everybody a big reassurance that we won't have the traditional uh School opening but certainly uh all reasonable Minds can agree uh our first priority is keep everybody safe while we think about uh how we structure learning uh as we open
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the school year so stay tuned for more details there uh I'll just end with you know reitering these are extraordinary times and even while we we deal with last slide please uh this pandemic uh we still have important business uh that takes place every uh summer so we're continuing to prepare for the school year or whatever format that takes place uh We've continued with identifying uh leaders for our school communities uh I think uh we're almost close to having a full roster of school principal set for the school year uh I think there's just a couple assistant principles that we're uh interviewing um and we're excited to to share with you our continuing uh to announce many of those School leadership positions I'm glad to report I I think it's a uh it's a talented balance of internal and external leadership appointees uh who are going to be leading our schools so uh with that professional learning continues to take place as it does every summer uh it's just happening virtually uh we're going to continue with our annual summer Leadership Institute nobody looks forward to it more than me uh and we'll think about how we get creative this time so that we have a chance to reconnect as an organization and the particular Challenge and the call for leadership that we're facing as we open the school year so we'll look forward to sharing more of those details and upcoming meetings but for now that concludes my remarks thank you thank you so much superintendent there are many complex challenges on our plates at the moment thank you for that report and now we will move on to student and public comment before we begin public comment I'd like to review our guidelines the board thanks to community for taking the time to join us and attend this meeting virtually and provide your comments to us we value public input as it informs our work and we look forward to hearing your thoughts Reflections and concerns our responsibility as a board is to actively listen board members and the superintendent will not respond to comments or questions during public comment but our Board office will follow up on board related issues raised during public testimony guidelines for public input emphasize respect and consideration of others we request that any complaints about individual employees be directed to the superintendent's office as in Personnel matter if you have additional materials or items you'd like to provide the board or superintendent we ask that you email them to public comment at pps.net please make sure when you begin your comments that you clearly state your name and spell your last name you have three minutes to speak you'll hear a sound after three minutes which means it's time to please conclude your remarks we appreciate your input and thank you for your cooperation with Bradshaw do we have any people signed up for public comment this evening or student comment yes we have a couple students we'll go first welcome Dave are you with us hello hello there you are yes my name is David uh d-a-b-a-i-d-o-c-h-e and it is all last name no first name hello and may I start say yes thank you all right I introduced myself first to you in my traditional language it is also a way of honoring myself and my history hello everyone my name is David and I'm going to be a senior at Madison High School I'm a part of the Madison indigenous Alliance and I'm here to speak with you today about the impact of current Portland public high schools names have on me as a student of color let's look at Portland's foundation in 1844 Oregon was declared an all-white state which was strictly enforced the effects of these past laws in organs constitutions can still be seen today in your school's lack in indigenous people of color student body at Madison we have a very diverse student body and I want all my peers to feel like they belong and are proud of our schools and that the schools are proud of us but these names hinder this not only for PPS students but Portland as a whole people of colors concerns and propositions are constantly being overlooked and put on hold this has been a continuous issue within your school system I do mean your school system I do not feel like this is my school or represents me to its best ability going back to the early 80s students of color in Cleveland High School fought for the name change of the Cleveland Indians there was also a recent recent issue with Cleveland's dance team name carrying the name of one of our sacred ceremonies this is just a carryover of
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the 80s name change not being thoroughly addressed this should not have taken almost 40 years I want my voice to be heard when I'm telling you that all your high school names should be changed this action should happen as a collective and not by not one by one or any trial periods I would like Portland Public Schools to listen to me to listen hear and take action once other students of color such as myself bring forth their voices and real concerns within PPS like offensive names artwork within our schools and wrongful or misleading historical historical depictions there are eight of nine main Portland public high schools named after white presidents these are presidents who not who do not have the best history with black indigenous people of color I want to be proud of Madison and my school's name but the knowledge of who James Madison was lingers on my mind when I walk into school every morning when I attend games and attend other school activities just think his name is the first thing I see every day before I enter the school doors and start my day of learning this is the building that is preparing me to be a productive human and schools are supposed to be molding our future what kind of future is people are PPS schools molding the names of the schools carry the states and men's history along with them and even more in the eyes of our b-i-p-sc students and staff this action could happen all at once and immediately not in waves or a pilot run we are here now and we are currently a part of your school system we deserve more than a test or Pilot run of school name changes who would that benefit who is PPS trying to appease it would not be your POC students that would only be putting us on the back burner and telling us our voice and telling us our voice and us as a people are not valued and our voices are not heard I'm here today to ask you to finish what you started in the 80s and change eight of the nine school names and other other campuses names allowing the students all students to be proud and feel included within their own school and that the school is proud of them thank you thank you very much Miss Bradshaw me under student testimony yes if Jaya probasco Mitchell welcome hi can I begin yes go ahead whenever you're ready my name is Jaya probasco Mitchell I'm a rising senior at Madison High School and co-president of the PC Justice Club and then by the communicare project I want the ppa's school board to give their support in the club's efforts to change the name of the school from James Madison to a name that properly represents the students and teachers at my school attending Madison High School has been a very positive experience for me but knowing the history of my school name is disheartening because there's still that lingering history of racism and slavery in all parts of the country and it feels like a constant reminder that my people are still not truly free I want to be proud to explain the name of my school instead of feeling ashamed of having to explain that the person my school is named after is part of a group of people that practice slavery when I can still see the effects of the aftermath on my people today and every day in America I won't truly feel comfortable being anywhere where white supremacist culture is allowed I don't want to feel like that in a school that I attend and my parents pay taxes for I want to give black youth for school to be proud of and that makes them feel like they are worthy and powerful people showing them that they are that there are no limits to what they can do with a different name empowering all students but specifically students of color I can see that being possible in 2019 the peace and Justice Club did a poll on changing the name with our student body and we got 40 percent of students responding and 87 supporting are changing of the name we also came up with James Madison I'm not sorry Madison Washington her name um to change the name he was a man who took over a slave ship and freed 138 enslaved people but we want the voices of the community and the whole student body to be part of the process of choosing a name the time to change is now there's no reason why the name of one of the most adverse schools in the state needs to keep the name of someone who owned 150 slaves keeping the name will be allowing the microaggressions towards an oppression of students of color to continue black students and other students of color should feel comfortable with the name of their schools because the history of that name is one of Freedom empowered the people not one of Oppression and dehumanization this is a chance for Madison students in the community around us to be able to come together and choose a name that represents our core values at the school
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with those values consisting of community respect education equity and diversity keeping a name that does not fit these values is offensive to the whole student body the Madison Campus is being rebuilt right now this is the perfect time to change the name to a new campus on a new campus to welcome all students back I think changing the name of Madison would make PPS leaders and truly diversifying the schools in Oregon and will allow all students no matter what race or ethnicity to feel Pride for the schools that they attend work can take this chance to lead a process that respects the voices of all you involved it is time for the district to allow youth voices to be heard and to help us use the power to make changes um in future Generations remarks then is it done no go ahead and finish your remarks DPS can truly help students by letting youth use our power to make the changes we want in our school district and further equalize and diversify it in our world this is possible by having your help following through with our ideas and proposals thank you thank you can be Felicia Blackburn hey can you hear me yes yes excuse me yes um I'm hearing a lot of things um yeah but there's a terrible Echo and it's it's hard to understand you is there anything else you can do it sounds like that it doesn't have a telephone computer computer both on on the computer um sorry about that okay thank you Karen do we have any other students no more students we are in just general public and I have Brady bennon hi um I'm Brady bennan b-e-n-n-o-n um a history teacher and peace Club advisor at James Madison High School can you hear me we can welcome go right ahead okay as my students were learning about the origins of America's slave system several asked why James Madison who enslaved over 100 people is our school's namesake instead of someone who tried to end slavery embarrassingly I had no answer I realize now that pps's school naming is part of a nationwide disease that honors and uplifts white supremacy and it's time to change that some say we cannot judge past leaders for racist actions using a modern lens saying that ignores that there were many from Madison's era who pushed to end slavery like Governor Morris who spoke of abolition at the Constitutional Convention but the Founding Father we brand are uniforms with is the one who rewarded slave states with more representation the one whose compromise extended the slave trade for decades and legalized hunting of escapees like animals as Plantation owner he sold family members away for punishment or profit and spent incredible effort to track down escapees when the leader Tecumseh unified indigenous peoples to hold on to the remaining lands of the Ohio River Valley Madison said they were Savages and sent the Army to attack PPS proclaims Madison is the one worthy of our veneration and generations of students alumni parents and community members are taught to Revere him how did the school come to be known as James Madison in the first place context is everything in 1957 when our school was built Arkansas governor Orville fabus used the National Guard to Bar black students from Central High School in response to the naacp's victory in Brown versus Board of Education white American institutions moved to reassert white supremacy
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in 1957 the Army Corps of Engineers drowned celilo Falls destroying salmon runs the lifeblood of Columbia River Native American tribes our schools naming that year was just one more brick in the structural reinforcement of white supremacy so when students walk under the words James Madison High School they do so to the rhythmic drum beat of racism that pervades Society the racist inculcation continues unabated even as the school board passes resolutions in support of black lives matter how must it feel to be a black or brown student hearing teachers claim they support black lives learning our school's values while we hypocritically honor a man who codified slavery and actively participated in genocide what must it be like to organize your peers in a fight to change the school's name in time for a new building only to be told that the process will likely take three to five years long after you'll sit in the new seats that bear the stamp property of James Madison High School at what point does this extinguish the idealistic hope of a young mind and ossify the reality of being as ibram X kindy argued stamped from the beginning like those classroom chairs turning it around how must it feel to be a white male student walking through the doors of a school that proclaims hero status to a white male slave owner what subtle messages of white privilege and superiority permeate that young mind how does this contribute to the arrogance the kneel on your neck Above the Law mindset of tomorrow's White Law Enforcement Officers Desmond Tutu said those who are neutral in situations of Injustice have chosen the side of the oppressors follow the advice of the 4200 signers of the petition calling for changing our school name it's a great way to show that you do not choose the side of the oppressor foreign thank you very much and thank you for your work Alicia yes do I sound better now we can hear you perfectly thank you okay my name is Alicia Blackford b-l-a-c-k-f-o-r-d I knew that our students would do an outstanding job outlining why Madison High School needs its name changed so I'm instead going to spend my time focusing on the district procedure for all building and Facilities name changes we all have a role to play in dismantling white supremacy in our school system the school board and school district have a huge role to play and it starts with creating policy that supports the work of our bipoc students family staff and their accomplices it means you need to go through all of your policies and procedures and make them Pathways to equity rather than bureaucratic roadblocks to change students at schools across the district have been trying In Pockets to create the to change the names of their buildings for years we heard since the 80s they ran into our hurdles creating created by policy that slowed or stopped their momentum they had to wait for a nationwide movement for black lives to get that momentum back and to get to where we are now the school district and School Board is made up of educated adults who all claim a commitment to racial Equity we all already know the harm that it can cause a black student to go to a school named after the person who originated the three-fest compromise we don't need to wait for students to be harmed right petitions and come to us to tell us about the harm they've experienced not to mention that in the process of creating these petitions our students and alumni of color have been exposed to more of Israel from Angry white people we know the Erasure of black and Indigenous students culture and history that happens in curriculum in our buildings and we can all make the logical connection of how continuing to have our buildings carry these names only adds to that Erasure so why spend all the time and energy that was spent to make board policy 2.20.010 for naming School District property and then sit back and wait while knowing this harm and Erasure is continuing the school district has the ability now and has always had the ability to reach out to schools and offer a name change and then facilitate a restorative inclusive process for choosing a new name that honors our students their history and the history of this land do that this process you are putting schools through is sucking the energy and life from people who need to be giving their energy to other areas the students who are forming committees to push these name changes through are powerhouses and they are the same students who had to put energy into pushing the district to remove sros from our buildings and fully adopt our sort of practices and the same students who are organizing their peers to strike for climate Justice and to March for black lives imagine how much more they could accomplish with the district and board on their side changing racist names is an easy thing to do it's low-hanging fruit if you make this harder how are we supposed to get onto the real work of equity School renaming is just one example of the ways the district needs to use its power to get out of the way how many board and District policies are there I counted there are 351 plus three draft policies one of which is still open for public comment which I only found by Googling PPS board policies and
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then a whole bunch of clicking I also urged the district to get input from students and families about how to make public comment both more accessible and a process they can feel they Trust go through these policies and directives and break down the barriers lift up by POC students families alumni and staff and don't make them jump through hoops and red tape when they're working to create the schools we all deserve you Ms Bradshaw do we have further public comments yes we have Megan Graves hi uh I'm Megan Graves and that is spelled m-e-a-g-a-n-g-r-a-v-e-s I'm an alumni from Madison High School may I begin hey go ahead the alumni of James Madison High School call on you to change the name of our alma mater in 2020 no school should honor the legacy of a slave owner and ignoring the harm that such a school name causes detracts from The District's Equity goals and damages communities of color our school's mission statement affirms that all students will access an engaging and inclusive education defined by diversity and respect our alma mater is one of the most diverse schools in the state of Oregon and we take pride in that diversity we also appreciate the openness support and inclusion seen in our students staff and faculty members we value education but our education must be defined by this diversity and the multitude of perspectives and experiences shared through remote Mutual deep-seated belief in our respect and equal treatment of each other however our school is named for James Madison the fourth President of the United States and writer of the Constitution whose Legacy as a founding father is completely overshadowed by a long vile history of bigotry against black people and Native Americans Madison owned over 100 slaves he created the Three-Fifths Compromise cementing systemic oppression into the Constitution through the racist ideology that black people were less than white people as President Madison referred to indigenous people as being perfidious and Savage and he unleashed the United States Army against Native Americans during the Battle of Tippecanoe after which he seized their land and forced them to flee West avoiding their rightful claim of the land James Madison's racism and cruelty even extended after his death when he expressly stated in his will that none of his 100 slaves be freed Madison's actions as a founding father and as presidents are embroiled with a deep irreconcilable prejudice an enmity towards people of color in America James Madison was a man whose life and career was marked with bigotry and racism while hypocritically touting the American ideals of freedom and equality we can no longer honor a man who so represents the hatred that targets so many in our community we demand that our school be renamed to appropriately honor these ideals and to honor and support our community staff and students a petition has been circulated in support of this name change and has already garnered the support of 4 200 people while this leather has been signed by 119 alumni only when we are represented by a figure who embodies our values of diversity inclusion and Equity will our students and Community feel safe and proud of our school now is the time to take action as institutions across the country re-evaluate their own racist practices as Confederate statues are removed and as millions of Americans rise up against white supremacy in our society Portland Public Schools has an opportunity to be a leader rather than protecting the status quo of institutionalized racism we urge you to do the right thing leaving Madison High School now and affirm that black lives matter right here thank you thank you we have Colleen Ruland hi my name is Colleen Ruland r-e-u-l-a-n-d I have three children in Portland Public Schools a high school student a middle school student in a Grade School student I empathize with the terribly difficult and hard decisions that you are having to make and the countless hours and sleepless nights that I know you are spending that being said I appreciate and implore you to continue to put in the work we have children who are experiencing a trauma and being negatively impacted they're not at risk for an impact they're being impacted at a time in which their brains are developing and the consequences are lifelong while I constantly hear it's just a year of change or a year of sub-optical Education I would propose that we have a design principle that this is a full year of brain development that will have a ripple impact on the rest of their life in reviewing the fall 2020 proposed plan there's a few places I would like to
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comment on the first is sports I ask that you please coordinate with pil to achieve the best possible scenarios where students can be present for The Limited days they may have in in-person school and still be able to participate in sports sports are a critical component of physical and mental health for many children I can't find PPS specific data but across Oregon for adolescents at least one in three play sports that's nearly a hundred thousand high school students who have been impacted not at risk for a bit an impact but who have been impacted the Aspen Sports and Society program shows that 40 of Youth 6 to 12 so Middle School play sports so again every single one of those kids is being impacted if the proposed model is kept I ask that you please work with pil to consider sporting events to be held on Wednesday and at times that don't require a child to have to miss school particularly from my high school high schooler who attends a school for which there are no on-site facility facilities for his practices or games I fear the games will be maintained and he will be asked to pick between academic and sports and that seems particularly cruel and unhealthy for a child the second is please maintain great cohesion within the high school cohort model I understand this is so logistically important difficult but I employ you to consider models by which the split days maintain a full grade these children have been socially isolated from their grade level peers for half a year and to extend that to a full year seems dangerous in terms of their social emotional development I'm concerned about the viability of completing a full year of an IB class in three months it saddens me to see that missing from The Guiding parameters with any priority placed on how to ensure children whose needs are to be academically challenged in this environment lastly I appreciate greatly the parameters you set forward related to social emotional learning and the health of your children I greatly hope that ode and PPS look at the data that demonstrates the relatively low risk of child to child spread and think about the positive value and impact on development of children in order to have social interaction and coordination thank you again for your time your heart and your commitment to our children and the unprecedented time thank you for joining us Sheamus Linsky thank you my name is seamusky l-y-n-s-p-y and I'm a parent of a class of 2020 Roosevelt high school graduate and a rise in the 8th grader at George Middle School up here in St John's I'm here today to talk with you about the inequities of Roosevelt High School of the Roosevelt high school modernization project and the board's continued failure to deliver Equitable Services the most underserved schools in the distance over 19 in the black lives matter movements have been reflecting a lot about what we can do each and every one of us to reverse the Decades of discrimination up in St John's a local artist has painted the phrase black lives matter in bright orange yellow letters on the street just under our iconic bridge and in each of those giant letters there's a brief passage chronicling Portland's racist past it starts with the story of the first black American to visit Portland Clark slave York and it goes all the way up to 2018 with this blow quote students of color stage of sit-in at Roosevelt High School to protest following diversity and Rising our inequality Rising inequality this Roosevelt students know that they're being treated unfairly PPS board planned a modernization for Roosevelt that was millions of dollars less than any other school built for fewer students and with less Cutting Edge stem classroom space than any other and this was a conscious decision and it's shameful after much much pressure from the community and a little bad press for the board the board finally agreed to make up for some of that inequity by adding 10 000 square feet of additional stem CTU and traditional classroom space the community had to push further for you to find the money to actually move forward and break ground this fall but it still leaves Roosevelt too small for current enrollment objections and with less classroom space than every other modernized PBS High School Everyone likes to talk about battling systemic racism this board came to Roosevelt last year and told us no no no those past decisions were made by the previous administration we're different We Care that you continue to make decisions that reinforce systemic racism look at Jefferson we took the recent 2020 Bond survey and unbelievably one of the options is to delay Jefferson again there wasn't an option to delay Wilson or Cleveland just Jefferson that's unconscionable what do Roosevelt and Jefferson have in common anyone they have the largest population of students
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of color in the district by far and Roosevelt is given the least money and space and Jefferson has put last history is now you're making decisions to uphold systemic racism now do you want to be racist or do you want to be anti-racist you're discussing changing some school names to address past racism that's something it's a start but that should have been done long ago real change is giving students of color a quality learning environment at least as nice as that what the white dominant schools have got changing names is just window dressing is the inequitable treatment continues do you want our support for this next Bond you need to stop repeating the mistakes in the past and actually prioritize equity for our most underserved schools build out Roosevelt to at least the standard of the white dominant high schools and prioritize modernizing Jefferson next not last you can fix the past now if you actually thank you thank you so Gerald's questions welcome hi thank you for having me uh my last name is spelled s-c-r-u-t-c-h-i-o-n-s is it okay for me to begin yes please do please do okay um I'll speak on behalf of current historically underserved PPS students and families as well as former PPS students and families who have experienced systemic racism within our district I am a former social studies teacher at Harriet Tubman middle school as well as the co-organizer of the student-led Harriet Tubman environmental justice Club in addition I am a parent of two PPS students one who attends Harriet Tubman in late June I began circulating a petition to remove the name of Robert Blanchard from PPS headquarters although there is no statue of Mr Blanchard I find it offensive and disrespectful as well as do so far up to 1200 other signees that his legacy is on the PPS headquarters that his name represents the Legacy PPS as well as our board represents nearly 50 000 students and families as well as many former families that were traumatized by pps's mandatory busing system of the 1970s students like Tina Williams and Lisa Arsenault Blanchard's resolution 3553 the Blanchard plan implemented mandatory busing of African Americans to predominantly white schools Blanchard's ideals Mount to an assimilationist racist ideology and it also supports a thought that black kids could only improve themselves by attending white schools I thank you to Mr Ron Herndon Reverend John Jackson and former board member Steve Buell as well as herb cawthorne for beginning to dismantle the racist system of mandatory busing and firing Mr Blanchard and learning Mr Blanchard's actions towards Portland's African Americans I find it again highly disrespectful to his to allow his name to remain on our district headquarters after reading an email I see that the first bullet point of PPS 2020 plan says prior to our prioritize our bipoc students and engage groups who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic which in my mind and many others include systemic racism at being a pandemic here in the United States and around the world so I ask again that you hold yourselves accountable as board members and if it is your intention to begin to wrong to right the wrongs of PPS and build trusts please start here remove his name from our PPS headquarters and allow students to come up with a name that represents our cause in ppps which should be education Injustice payment and into the prospective boycott Blanchard stated responsible Negros will not pay attention to this boycott meaning responsible negro will remain submissive matters of inquiry and Injustice is that a statement you want to represent thank you very much thank you that's all the public comment okay thank you very much thank you everyone who joined us this evening superintendent Guerrero our next um item uh speaks to the process that you and your leadership team are proposing regarding uh consideration of renaming many of our schools and I know this is something that is very important to you personally so would you like to introduce this item I would um I think public comment tonight has warmed us up and uh provided uh quite the transition here for Danny Ledesma
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who is going to provide our directors with an update on our proposed work in this area so uh we definitely want to hear from the board or how best it would like to be involved and I would like to continue to stay informed on our progress as we commence so Danny oops uh good evening uh chair constant Vice chair Moore and directors thank you so much for the opportunity to uh talk a little bit about uh some of the thinking behind uh our naming and defining PBS places um I believe uh the fabulous Roseanne Powell is going to help me with a slideshow um but before I get started I do want to take and take a take the opportunity um to thank you for a couple of things I think that um we are where we are tonight uh because of a lot of the work that you've done uh on policy specifically around the naming policy that's that happened uh two years ago and I believe that it's this uh this policy work that you've done that's really sort of paved the way for us to think about that next level of administrative work to be able to remove some of the hurdles and the barriers that you've heard testimony about today and I think the other thing I want to um to thank you for you know I want to thank you personally and certainly I know that my colleagues at PPS feel this I do you really want you to know that I do feel your support for our work around racial equity and social justice um I had the opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the the nation who sort of have similar roles to me and when I shared the amount of support that we have from the board that really allow us to sort of push push on changing our system uh people people recognize what uh how special and unique that is and so I just wanted to um thank you for all the work and support that that you do because we certainly are going to ask you to continue to uh to make sure that you're holding us accountable to pushing our system to achieve much more racial Justice and as you've heard from um as you've heard from our test our public testimony and as you hear from every day the stakes are rather High the impact of our cultural and institutional racism have a direct impact on our students on our black and Native students and I can I can say with a lot of confidence that our super superintendent our leadership team we're all very committed to moving and disrupting uh that so that our students can um achieve the the vision that our community help layout so I'm going to go through a quick slide deck um and then uh sort of open it up for some feedback and questions but I'd like to start with um what we would like to do is in response to a lot of the the feedback that you've heard and that really is around um how do we create some um wholesale change uh that is responsive to uh the urgency and uh the energy of our young people who want to see uh who want to see change um and I I would say that um I was I was not in my head vigorously with all of the the testimony um and feel excited about uh being able to work in collaboration with the folks who testified especially our students because I believe that we have a process that can really achieve some of the change that folks are Desiring the one caveat though is that um I'd like us to think about how we um how we make sure that we as we are changing names that we avoid the Trap of that being a gesture and really try to think about how the name changing processes are anchored in our larger work around racial equity social justice in community engagement and in our work with uh work to be more student-centered so I'm just going to quickly go through to the next slide which just reminds us that you know our um we've done a lot of work around racial equity and social justice we're not where we need to be but this work is something that in order for it to sustain has to be embedded not only in each individual uh in our culture and in our systems and so the next slide our community uh helps lay out our vision which we were very familiar with uh the thing that I'm really proud of our of our of our community and our work is that in each key element of our um of our vision there is a clear unequivocal um statement on racial Equity from our system shifts to our educator Essentials and our graduate profile we are ensuring that student we want to make sure that our not only in our core values around racial Equity but that we are really trying to build a system that has that all in there so the next slide um we have been embarking on an emerging strategic plan where we're focused on our system shifts and chief among that system shift is how do we make sure the racially aligned systems and structures uh within our district um next slide
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um and so the work that we've done really resulted in our theory of action that says that if we if we integrate if we are Cog if we are intentional about um making sure that we are integrating strategies that we know are effective for uh for uh for racial Equity with our instructional work with the business of teaching and learning then we believe that we can uh achieve great things at PPS particularly for our students of color our black and Native students because by doing this work by integrating these strategies we're really living out that uh that value of targeted universalism we're removing barriers for folks who experience them the most to be able to build a stronger system for for every student so next slide um so uh so so you know we did some big visioning we did some bit we're thinking about our system but What Lies Beneath that is a lot of planning around uh that has to do with our racial educational Equity policy um the implementation of our updated racial equity and social justice lens where we're developing a shared analysis a common muscle if you will to really interrupt our decision making to ensure that we are thinking about how to create the most opportunity for racial Equity at PPS we have as you know a framework and plan that centers around five key areas in the next slide I want to show you two places uh where I think that um where this work is is important and you know I want to um before we talk about the specific goals our approach has always been about an organizational development approach it is true we need individuals to to to be aware of our own privilege of our racial identities and to be aware of of problems however um it really is in that building of culture that shared critique that shared analysis that is going to help sustain the work that helps us build on um our racial school system that is that is underpinned by racial equity and the the one there's a link to uh in the in the slideshow around culture and what we've committed to at PBS under the superintendent's leadership is really try how do we interrupt white supremacy culture and you heard quite a bit of um of testimony about how Insidious it is how it impacts so much of our of our work at PPS and so that application of our racial Equity social justice lens is about making sure that we're interrupting those narratives those stories of racial inequity so that we are moving towards a culture that can sustain Justice but equally important and this is where you know we we have some more dialogue to do is that when we look at the tenets of white supremacy culture one of those tenants is about reacting like this that everything is urgent and because the majority says go then we go and what we're proposing is that while we can collectively say that there are things that we need to improve upon one of the key ways that we can interrupt white supremacy culture is to in fact slow down to be reflective and to Anchor our work and our values and our shared understanding of how to move forward together and while there are things that we agree on there are multiple perspectives and I'm not saying that those perspectives are all right but as a system we have to be able to base our decisions and be able to contend with those multiple perspectives in a way that's inclusive that honors our students of color particularly black and Native students and helps point us into a direction where we're where we're building on a collective and that takes a little bit of time so um one of the things that we want to Anchor our process in into the next slide are two places from our framework and plan uh that focus on student voice and student identity development and affirmation so we really want to make sure that our that students uh that students feel empowered um in District decision making so that they have opportunity not only to discuss how they experience school but they can express a multitude of viewpoints even if they're counter to what dare I say it the superintendent might think at the time or our Deputy superintendents but that we really want them to sort of be part of the discussion be part of the dialogue with all of their viewpoints and be able to provide feedback and um and uh leadership on how to on how to move forward on important issues we believe that by cultivating and and sort of enacting those goals around student voice that in fact identity development the key thing that veneration of problematic figures gets to gets that sort of uh has a potential to have a negative impact we want to make sure
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that students develop positive social identity a positive cultural identity and research says that one of the best ways to develop that positive cultural identity is to be able to participate in advocacy and be able to to celebrate and and tell those stories of their experience another goal that we want to make sure that we're anchoring this work to in the next slide has to do with uh with teaching and learning right we heard uh great examples of our educational leaders talking about um history and we heard students talk about their their understanding of that of that history and their critique of that history and so we want to make sure that our work is really grounded in instruction and curriculum that is culturally responsive that does have instructional practices that are supporting that work so what's in a name you say we say a name has to uh our naming process should include at the procedural level at the administrative directive level should be anchored in our goals that that sort of uh really affirm and include and take take the um the cues from our student leaders and that is anchored in our instruction in our curriculum so the next slide is uh this this idea of culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy we throw this a a lot we throw these terms around a lot and I I think that part of our culture is building more common understanding of what this means but one of the ways that we want to make this um this work around naming and defining spaces more powerful and more connected to our graduate profile is to make sure that what we're really looking at that second tenet of cultural response to pedagogy that disrupts the idea of eurocentric or middle class forms of discourse knowledge language culture and historical uh interpretations as normative right that we're that students are prepared to do that disruption and that's part of our of our instructional model at all levels at all schools so that the um the critique of names is is sort of embedded in that pedagogy the other thing that I I point to is thinking about critical race theory is this concept of counter story tell of counter storytelling that removing the name of a problematic figure is one piece of changing the experience for our students of color but also providing opportunities in our curriculum and in our instruction for students of color our particular black and Native students to have the opportunity to tell the counter story to tell their specific experience and history so that they are better prepared to counteract racial inequities and it goes back to that um that that goal around positive cultural identity if students are engaged in this positive counter storytelling their cultural identities are more likely to be affirmed and they'll be able to have a more positive experience and it's our belief that so um next slide um so what does this mean I we sort of walked you through as quickly as possible about some of the work that we're doing around racial equity and social justice what does this have to do with our name right so we've talked about how we have a policy around naming that that gives us quite a bit of opportunity to make name changes but as you heard from uh testimony this is something that has to happen school by school and site by site and our superintendent has sort of charged us with um sort of thinking about what is a process where we can really improve those procedures and those protocols that come out of our administrative directive so that we can in some cases Fast Track names that need to be changed in a more comprehensive way but also include more of that connection to culturally responsive pedagogy to critical race Theory to our goals around racial equity and social justice and most importantly where students are actively participating in in that so that they are doing all the things that we've got to witness tonight so um the next slide um you've heard this background you know we we we have problematic historical figures that are venerated in our schools for example Wilson we heard um really powerful testimony about how problematic the besc is um and throughout our throughout our state throughout our community there are so many problematic historical figures and not only do our students attend the wall not only are they inside the walls of these schools that venerate these figures by naming them but we've heard that they seldom get to see or learn about other bypoc leaders uh black or indigenous or people of color um only in the last five years has Oregon as a state adopted um legislation requiring ethnic studies or even tribal history as part of Core
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curriculum and what we know is that as a system culturally responsive instruction is not consistently practiced and often School communities lack a counter narrative that's told by our students so we do have a policy and we're what we're proposing is to focus on our administrative directive um to to engage in a process next slide please um where we're heeding the call to action we heard from students who talked about the uh Madison's not on this list but we've heard and you've heard particularly from Folks at Jefferson at Wilson at Lane Alliance Kellogg there's so many uh School communities who are wanting more and we've we've also got to witness the summer powerful student advocacy um the nod to to my favorite Blazer um the next slide so what we propose to do is to try to have a process where we are integrating all these Concepts around racial equity and student voice uh into a process that looks at the administrative directive uh that tries to strengthen the administrative directive um in a in a way where we can uh hear the concerns of the of the students that we heard today and try to come up with a more streamlined and easier process that again is anchored in some of our values see if you click on the next slide um so we're going to continue to operate on these uh principles we want to make sure that we're centered in racial Equity that this is not only student-centered but that the process is student co-led um we're going to apply Equity centered or liberatory design we'll talk a little bit about that what that means uh we're still very much engaged in culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy and that there's coherence and Alignment uh so that you're not hearing about this great process that happens over here and something that's less less impactful over there um and ultimately we want to make sure that we're moving and preparing our students to lead and more or more just world as outlined in our graduate profile and our vision so next slide so uh we want to utilize equity center design many of you are probably familiar with human centered design which basically takes an empathetic approach to designing uh processes where a multitude of perspectives can be heard hoping to come out with a more inclusive and effective way to look at policy procedural or protocol changes so um the folks at next Slide the folks at Harvard I know at Stanford excuse me have taken that sort of classic human-centered design oh the superintendent's so mad at me it's not it's not Harvard it is Stanford um apologies to all the Harvard graduates um the the Geniuses at Stanford though have taken this human-centered design and anchored it in racial Equity what they propose are a design process that not only has methods to be able to achieve tasks but really gets that sort of like changing mindset and I want to sort of look I want you to reflect on some of the testimony that we heard from students and from Educators and community members and think about how the the empathy interviews can help to build more relational trust that can help us Embrace complexity um that can help us focus on self-awareness that can help us recognize where there might be bias so that we can make sure that we're that we're sort of moving beyond that so the next uh the next slide so this is just an example of what this could look like here's our process because students are not in school and we want this to be student Pro student-centered we're going to propose a launch in September where we're going to ask a sort of diverse Committee of students and staff and community members to help kind of refine this charge to look at the current administrative directive and procedures and uh to start conducting some interviews with folks to see what's not working what is not um what's not compelling and sort of how we can improve the administrative directive so that ultimately we can facilitate a more impactful renaming process um we will uh sort of employ case study methodology so uh the Wilson High School has their renaming folks have triggered the administrative directive so we're going to go ahead and use their uh utilize their experience to draw some lessons they've got really strong student leadership at Wilson just like at Madison and other other places so we hope to sort of learn from what they're doing we anticipate that by as as soon as the end of this year that the Wilson renaming will be completed at the same
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time in our third phase we'll be asking the committee to brainstorm uh new and revised solutions to be able to accomplish those high level goals that you've got to hear a lot of testimony about and will propose some changes and propose those to the superintendent one thing that I'd like to comment on is that it's it's possible that um the the purview of this committee may move beyond the administrative directive at which time we would like to sort of think about how we can continue to engage with the board and the particularly the board policy committee to make sure that if there's additional uh changes and or uh you know maybe even new policies that come out of this that that were sort of nimble enough to be able to to to to engage quickly um and then uh at the at the sort of tail end of the process we'll ask the committee to make sure that they're thinking about how we have a um adaptive review process um so that we're we're continually checking in to make sure that the the process is meeting its goals and is continuing to work so next slide um so we're proposing that the team uh is consistent consists of students um and and we believe that it's important to have both middle school and high school students um and uh we want to make sure that we're thinking not only of sort of like typical leadership but they're also thinking about cultural clubs we got to hear from a couple of those members from Madison which is which is thrilling to me um and then we want to make sure that we have staff that is um broad from all all areas of the of the organization that includes our you know sort of our community engagement team which is which will be leading this effort as well as like our instructional team like office in teaching and learning our school performance team and comms there's there's meant much more we want to make sure that facilities and our office of school modernization is also engaged um and then for partner I think we would we would want to start with some of our our partners for racial Equity but there are certainly many uh Community organizations that would that would want to take certain have expressed some interest in there so I would say my my um I believe this is the last slide um so my main my main takeaway uh one of the things I hope you take away is that we're trying to be as thoughtful as possible we'll also um responding to the energy that's in our community about these name changes uh we want to make sure that we are disrupting our own culture at PBS um so that we're um we're not sort of responding to to the thing of the day or doing the easy thing but that we're really being intentional about not only getting to the um to the name change but also seeking to figure out how we can also change the student experience so that it's much more affirming so that their participation in leadership is driving processes like this and that we can learn from that and that we're also anchoring our work in um the the culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy that we want that we believe can make a difference for our students of color ultimately in achieving our board goals so um I know that was a lot of talking and so I think I wanted to kind of sort of ask the board for two two pieces of of guidance um the first piece of guidance I'd like to ask you is um you know sort of any feedback or advice that you have for for myself and all of the staff that will be engaged in terms of this process um knowing that this is uh this is work this is work in our administrative directive so it falls just beneath your policy purview but we still want to make sure that you know we're taking your your good your good advice and that your experiences are really honored and and certainly through your own uh Dialogue on the policy work we know that you've got a lot to share there and then I think the other uh question I have for the board is um as the process evolves um you know what can we do to make sure that you are because you are definitely hearing from constituents from our community about these issues um how can we really make sure that you're that you're um that you're communicated with effectively about what's going on and if you have maybe a discussion amongst yourselves about how you would like to to sort of like be engaged um in this work so I'll turn it over to to you all thank you for the time thanks Danny it's director Lowry um I you and I have this conversation yesterday on a about this work but I I think that um as a white person I often want to fix it and make things better and I I really appreciate this process because I think it it seeds seats the decision making in the community and the idea that student
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I mean I think we've heard from our amazing student leaders tonight um what I'm worried about in this process is that we'll we'll try to do it so quickly and change the names so we feel better that we don't actually take this as a learning moment to really challenge those deeper systems that permeate like I think the names are a symptom of white supremacy and that by doing this process we're actually getting to the deeper work um that yes we will change the names but sort of here elevating student voice talking through a recess path um will make more significant changes I really appreciate um the work and the plan you've outlined because of that I think the thing I want to know like the rubber meets the road so we heard from Madison tonight and I see in the face of where Wilson lands so as we look at this timeline like what do we say to Madison the the young people who spoke tonight like when are they going to have a new name um and when can we kind of say the timeline looks like we'll be this will be sort of worked through and resolved by you know 2025 like give us a sort of uh Target that we can help people know that that we are being responsible at the same time as we're doing this slow and well we are being responsive and there is some urgency to the work yeah thank you thank you for that director Lowry and thanks for uh I think the um the question I would I would pose to the uh to the Madison community and and we've been working with our school Sean bird uh on this is we're we're respected respectfully asking our school communities to take a healthy risk if you will and to uh pause for a moment on this um in hopes that uh in taking that pause we'll be able to come up with a much more streamlined process um to be able to do uh quite a few name changes uh at the same time so that's the um that is the the healthy risk that we're asking them to take and I think that um even I mean given what what I heard and am hearing from leaders um we're really well positioned to get a group of um participants in this committee who want to bring a lot of um really powerful um powerful input and Leadership into this process and so I'm really hopeful about the impact that this can that this can take and I think that um what we're saying is you you may not be able to get want now but we think you can get something um equally as meaningful later that that you can you can drive and be a part of so that's the I think that's the healthy for asking folks to take I want to jump in and um say that I really appreciate the work that's the thinking that's gone into taking the longer View and the slower approach um because one of the characteristics of white supremacy that how it shows up in organizations is this sense of urgency and I know I live in a traditionally like historic black neighborhood and there are just like on my morning walk there are hundreds of signs and Chuck sidewalk talk and signs in people's doors and windows about black lives matter and yet there's no black people in the neighborhood anymore and so I I want to say agree with the approach the slower approach and I also wanted to encourage you to reach out to alums for example I mean because alums are going to be very tied to the names but I know just for an example Jefferson went through this renaming process two years ago with the help of the neighborhood association and it was the alums that shut the project down or or or or decided to keep the name of Thomas Jefferson I think if we would go back in fact I know if we would go back to them today because I just talked to one of them today their their thoughts have changed and so I appreciate that this is an internet process that we need to slow it down um you know we're not doing the process to make people feel comfortable we're doing it you know with the best intentions of coming up in the process that works for all of our communities and so I just want to say thank you for your work there thank you go ahead Julia okay um great well thanks for the presentation um I do think names mean something and I like that this presentation connected the work um this particular work to our racial equity and social um social justice work and connects it to the new vision and the emergent strategic plan and student
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voice I think those are all um great things I I guess as somebody who um I'm going to take the Long View I'm going to go back to my previous service on the board um in 2002 the community community members called for I'm changing of the names of some of our high schools um and then three years ago um there was when the board was responding to a complaint about the mascot at Franklin and we went through the process and redeveloped a new policy at that time people ask us to consider changing the names of the high schools um so it's not it's not a new issue at the time three years ago um obviously it was a um we'd had significant turnover on the board a new superintendent we just developed a policy um but I think it um there's been a conversation happening in our community for a long time about um the names and what and what they mean and I'm glad to see the student activism around the names um in terms of process I think it's important that the board the superintendent jointly commit to embarking on a comprehensive Community view of all of our schools and facility names um and share a road map with the process I think some of the student testimony tonight and teacher testimony maybe calls them to question whether there's a commitment to do a comprehensive review or what the board position may may be or what the staff's position may be so if I were looking at the slides on the presentation I would just move up one step to like a phase zero to have a sort of level setting of um a agreement of um the superintendent with staff leadership and the board leader the board leadership the board um agreeing that this is a process we want a comprehensive process we want to go through um because I I really like the focus on the administrative directive and getting students engaged in that piece of it and the learning opportunities um because actually I think frankly um our community will be shocked um when they understand some of the some of the individuals who are honored every day by our school system um but I do think we should back up and not um I don't believe that we should be passive and just be getting updates um I think we should um signal our support for a comprehensive review um use the the process that the superintendent um and staff have outlined to get student engagement um but we there may be school communities that um are in a school with a name um that we all think that we all knew what that individual had done would not support having that name but there may not be an active student community community community or community members who call for us to have a change but that doesn't mean that that school should still have the same name um so I just think we should take a more comprehensive Approach at the very beginning and it's fine to start with once I'd support starting with one school and then then iterating from there and taking learnings from that but I think we should indicate the very beginning that you don't we're not going to count on schools to have to and students and teachers to have to competition the board um in order for their potential to be a review so I think this is a good foundation I would just add a step at the very end of the process of our board policy it does come any renaming comes back to the board and um I think to me that's those are the two places where the engagement at the very beginning sort of setting set in the framework and then when we get the recommendations on the back end hopefully um with um full student engagement and we'll have a student Community um that is empowered engaged and know a lot more about our local history um uh you know the good and the bad and that we all have schools that are that are students and our school Community Support so that that's my feedback on the process and uh director remembers I don't mean to disagree with you I do just want to clarify that the process that is um that that I want to just make sure that I was clear that while we're using Wilson as a case study the idea is is that this would be a comprehensive review of all
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of the sort of like names and spaces and uh we I've listed those uh schools um uh as a as an example of sort of what we had been hearing it clearly you know not comprehensive because you know we didn't have Madison on there so apologies for that so I just wanted to clarify yeah I guess I'm I'm just thinking of um um I believe the working administrative directive obviously is definitely um a staff or extreme I'm just the the work plan and it starts with a proposed process to amend the renaming of the administration administrative directive versus like clicking up a level um we're gonna undertake a comprehensive review um so I'm glad to hear you say that's what the intention is I think we should just state it um so that we're clear so as people come in and you know I think there's a way to address some of the urgency with uh yeah we're going to do it and we're going to do it in a thoughtful inclusive way um and it's comprehensive but you may not get that from this unless we explicitly stated and I think it's it's good for our community here that there is support for that so you don't get to the back end of the process and um it'd be like cool where was the board or you know how come this isn't moving ahead um so again I'm trying to look at what they're the right roles in the in the process um so I think we're in agreement so uh this is Andrew I'll go ahead and jump in um um thanks Danny I really appreciate the presentation and the briefing earlier this week and um I'm going to Echo a lot of the comments that we've heard from from board members so far um what I really appreciate is the focus on deeper change as a number of people have said names are really important but the deeper change in in a school system and breaking down that systemic racism breaking down the white dominant culture um is is more important and that's what's really going to have an impact on student achievement and particularly student achievement of our black and Native and students of color and so um I think the the fact that you've taken this moment which is really important and you've you've you've grounded it in something larger um I think is is where we're going to get the sort of systemic change you know we've heard tonight uh before an email um you know I talked to people about about the desire to move quickly and I understand that desire and and I want to I I want to assure people who are watching um the board is very much in support of this work and so um I think sometimes when we start talking about these processes we do get a little bit of this this this feedback of like why aren't you just moving more quickly I mean we could introduce resolutions tonight that change names of schools um but I think I think we miss a really important component right and you've you've outlined that of really involving the the communities that are most impacted and that's one of the things I I heard a lot um when I was running and a lot of people said you know if if you if you get this C you have to promise that you're going to come back to to our community and talk to us and listen to us and involve us um and I want to make sure that that I'm true to that I want to make sure the district is true to that so I I really the process is really exciting I think I think we're hearing I'd like to hear from some more board members as well I think we're hearing about board support for this process moving forward um just getting to director Broome Edwards you know comments um I I actually would be a little bit um I think that the district's outlined a really good process I think you're hearing that overall support I agree with her comments about making sure we're clear that there's going to be a systemic review um because a comprehensive review because I think that is important to communicate I think that's what we want to see I'm a little nervous about any sort of formal board action and I will tell you why um local um uh leaders of color particularly black leaders have been convening a call every Friday with elected officials over the last few weeks in this moment and um really talking about the need to make change and the need to make concrete systemic change that the type of change that we're that we're really talking about here and that your process is laid out one of the things they said very very early on was that it would not be appropriate for elected officials to get credit or try and take credit for the changes that are being made and and I think that comes from a place of it it has been so long that we haven't done this that um and and they obviously weren't talking about just renames they were talking about everything right all these sort of global changes and they were saying you know standing up particularly White you know leaders such as myself standing up now and saying oh oh look I support this I want to take action what would really sort of be inappropriate in this moment and that really struck me um and and it's got me really thinking about how this is a moment for us to to lead but but not lead through sort of the traditional like like being out there in front but more lead through the overall support um for processes and so um anyway I've just been I've been marinated on that for a couple weeks and and and it just sort of it highlights it a little bit here in terms of what what's the what's the what's the right approach for the board versus the the staff and obviously our our we have to be supportive and I think that's what you're hearing tonight and that's certainly where I am I want to move and I want to move quickly and I
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want to be clear as much as I think the process is important I do also think we need to to be clear about what our timelines are and then be accountable to the public for those timelines um because I think that's an important part of this as well but um but I also want to make sure that we are um uh I don't know if the right term is leading from behind or leading in support um of of these efforts as they move forward so thank you for for saying that and also I was like how did you get the memo about the that team meeting on Fridays you're in the know but thank you for uh yeah we need to be supportive but not take credit for um the work that that proceeds um Danny wanted to um again thank you and and uh I thought Julia did uh director from Edwards did a great job of summarizing the real positive context that this is happening in um and two things um well I appreciate being careful and deep going along we also have an opportunity with Madison um reopening in the year and it would be pretty sweet to open with a new name um so it just just wanted to put that out there um and you know hearing the testimony of our students also um I feel the tension of hey we've been on active on this and now you want to process it some more um I think we need to keep that in mind going going forward um and the second thing is could you uh again we heard some compelling testimony tonight about uh the Blanchard Center uh could you uh speak to um the challenges we face around that name in terms of the building somebody else on staff yeah um before I get to the Blanchard Center I do want to um I don't I'm I I don't want to geek out on this and and Shanice Clark our director of community engagement is is gonna sort of already already has like so much um deep content around this but but I do think there's an opportunity for both Madison and um some of the other schools that are sort of um uh that are getting rebuilt uh to to kind of be part of that that part the prototyping I don't know if you saw that on the um on the the design process but there there comes a point where after you do the case study after you sort of look at that you can you can do some prototyping so without presupposing the outcome of the process because I you know I do want there to be some you know I want the people to be able to to run this there is some opportunity and we've talked a little bit about this of we could maybe use Madison and and maybe Kellogg as a as a prototype so um in that process so I think there's I think there's a ways that we can have lots of wins in this um as to the Blanchard site I understand that as part of uh as as part of an employment settlement and and tell me uh our general counsel is large we'll just do a hook I misspeak but I understand that um the the renaming of the Blanchard site is um made even more complex because of a settlement with the Blanchard family and so part of that nope okay Danny this is director constem I had asked general counsel large to look into this matter a couple of weeks ago and I think they did some fairly exhaustive research so um Liz would you like to share what you learned in that sure I can get to the chase pretty quickly there was a settlement with the family but to the we've gone down every possible path and some pretty credible ones and I we're not finding any evidence that there's a restriction on the name of the building which has had a lot of folks or for a long time but actually I don't I don't no evidence that that restriction exists oh that's awesome thank you oh um director Bailey I I uh agree with you that oops excuse me um I agree with you about Madison and how compelling that is that we have this incredible opportunity for rebranding if you will with a brand new school so um I do want to just put that very pragmatic plug in for Madison and Kellogg um that it would seem a little um it would seem like a missed
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opportunity to have that process lag from their our great celebrations and the whole all the hope that's embodied um by the opening of those new schools so I just um want us to to consider that in this process and otherwise really want to thank you um Danny and Shanice and superintendent Guerrero for um really thinking more deeply and thoughtfully about how we can connect this process to empowering our students particularly empowering our students of color and really connecting it to um teaching and learning um and I think I agree that we want to we don't want to leave the onus for the the advocacy um to our to our students we want to make it very clear that we actively support these efforts and um that um considerations are not going to lie unattended to just because a school Community isn't actively advocating um so um appreciate appreciate this process and all the complexity that it Embraces and um it's it's one more thing that um contains both Challenge and opportunity in Virtual land in terms of public engagement and in terms of um empowering our students to lead on this so I had one other thing I wanted to just add I'm sorry can I um I haven't had a chance to weigh in can I go ahead and get it go after you um so I I actually wanted to um kind of speak to what what you had mentioned uh director brim Edwards um I think that I think the board has um has played a role in facilitating um this process by changing the uh the policy in 2018 that outlined a um a series of value statements about the kinds of names and mascots and signage and logos and mottos that um would be consistent with the values espoused by Portland Public Schools um and and administrative directive was developed to align with the with the new policy and um so I think to a large degree the board has um already fulfilled a good portion um or a significant role in creating an environment where or creating the the processes um that will allow this renaming um to occur and my understanding is that some lessons were learned from the Franklin pre uh renaming process um so the administrative directive may need some um some changes um but in addition to that what what Danny is bringing um what she's talked about during this presentation was um really going much deeper into a process of um durable change within a school Community um and um I will never say that symbols are not important I think they're enormously important um but just changing a name um is not necessarily going to change the student experience and um the process that's being outlined tonight is I think going to allow School communities to really engage in a thoughtful intentional deliberate inclusive process um to um to address the conditions within schools um within School communities that are that have often um limited opportunities for some of our students and and I think it's an opportunity that we we cannot miss um so I even though there is um I mean I I completely agree with everybody who has talked about the tension between um making stuff happen and doing the the really deep work that
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is going to produce really durable change in school cultures and in systems um there that tension is going to be there and um I I have I have confidence that the the staff are aware of that tension and that they're going to be working um diligently to to balance those two um so I'm I'm very happy actually to hear that this the naming process is going to be um a more comprehensive and um and richer conversation within School communities and I think it is going to help um Advance the cause of improving equity for students who have been um poorly served by this District so that's all thank you yeah so the last thing I was just going to say but I guess I'm going to respond a little bit to direct Moore's um comment about the board already playing a role so as chair of the committee um at that time and obviously you were a member of the committee as well as we I think spent a lot of time and I think we have um there's a couple tweaks I'd make but I think we um did a pretty good job on landing on a process um and it was with a a lot of uh feedback and um the one thing I would just say is like creating a process it doesn't in fact begin a comprehensive review it you know we what I would say is one of the things you know looking back on it um maybe it it's more one-off like you have to you have to petition to start it um to start a process and that means like every building like who would be petitioning at Blanchard or you know if there's nobody at Lane who wants to petition to get rid of the name of you know a segregationist upper middle schools who's going to do that so the the the policy is not um it's a good foundation but just it in and of itself doesn't begin the process or provide for a comprehensive review but the last one I wanted to make is um that I would just encourage us to be very public in the process um so the comment that they're hearing a lot of support from board members tonight um what I would say is like tonight's the first time there's been any sort of discussion so about the the topic by the board as a whole and with the staff um so Inc sometimes when we have individual conversations or private conversations not private but just individual conversations that aren't in a public meeting um the community doesn't get the full sense of the board's perspective so I I think it's really important on something like this and it's going to be important because like believe me there everybody's not going to agree with all of these changes um we're hearing um from advocates for the changes but there will be other people with different perspectives and I think it's just important especially if we move ahead that um we're being completely transparent in the process by which we're going through this because at the end of the day you know the best most sustainable way to make change for something like this is to be very transparent in your process and people at the end of the day they can disagree with how where you landed um but they can't argue you didn't have an inclusive transparent process so that would just be my last thing is as we look as you look at the um the the sort of the work plan or the timeline to just make sure that we have that um be open and transparent what what the process is in the various milestones you know there's an amazing tool and in fact there's a number of amazing tools that allow uh for organizations to have an online presence for a specific project uh the one I'm the most familiar with is bang the table they offered the city of Portland free uh use of their software for two years they have a place that has a project Landing site I'm not a sales person for them by the way I just know about that one there's multiple vendors but you can have a project site a landing site and then a place to take in comments a place to update the public on the work that's happening currently and it's once you get the once you get the site set up and you update it it's a great way to or one tool that you can have in your toolbox to help keep everybody updated that wants to know about it and it does reduce some of your responding to emails Etc so just a suggestion that we have a a project a place on our website that we have project updates that people can go to because this is a very hot topic right now
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that's great thank you for sharing that director depos yeah yeah as we were speaking our community engagement director Shanice was sort of like oh it has so many ideas for how we can really kind of be transparent about that so I appreciate all those comments any further board discussion on this um I know that we will be hearing regular updates and have opportunities for input in this process and Nathaniel is there anything you'd like to chime in on this conversation um I don't think there's much I can say that has it hasn't already been said um just like to say that um I think that it is critical that we begin this process and that we reach out to all those who we need to obviously students and stakeholders at Large and you know we are cannot let that process of reaching out take longer than it needs to we need to be aware of that you know the longer that we sit on this issue the you know the more time that students continue to go to school in a school that is named for someone who does not yeah yeah you get what I'm trying to say right yeah yeah and I'm sure that the District student council will play a significant role in this um as we move forward forward so we look yeah look forward to hearing back from you about how those conversations are going too so Danny thank you very much for your work and for this presentation and for you know being courageous enough to um suggest uh maybe unconventional but very thoughtful approach um superintendent Guerrero is there anything you want to say to conclude this conversation I've really appreciated uh director's comments uh it's clear that um both we as as a District administration as well as our board of directors um share some share core values around uh not just the names of our schools but not uh but availing ourselves in the teachable moment uh to really get at those uh more systemic um issues that that we know that there's been an outcry for more dialogue around I think uh we will end up at the outcome that we all want to see that we heard again tonight and certainly that folks have been advocating uh to see changes and I'm confident that we'll find more appropriate uh respectful and [Music] um affirming uh names for the places where we want our students to attend so appreciate the the conversation and I know that our community engagement team thank you Danny also uh for outlining this process and making explicit connections to our racial Equity agenda we'll keep everybody up to date and we'll be as transparent as possible about how the conversations are proceeding and I know it'll grow exponentially uh from there once we get a facilitation and a process down with this first one so thank you thank you very much um we're coming back at you next for um an update all on the incredibly important work that you have been leading with your team on what fall of 2020 is going to look like for our students and our teachers um this weekend PBS families received communication with shared preliminary plans for this school year and tonight we're looking forward to hearing your update um on re-entry which we know will continue to evolve and is very dependent on the The Daily changing and evolving health conditions so um could you brief the board please on where we are and also how your teams are are structured into making sure that every every corner and every base is covered with regard to not just our our structure of reopening school but our student well-being generally so we certainly committed to keeping directors [Music] um um in the loop about how this pandemic and our school opening plans um continue to proceed so uh and as we shared previously we're we're not doing this alone we have lots of critical thought Partners uh supporting us with that from other larger the districts around the country um here in the state and a lot of Staff uh I have to give credit to for being very thoughtful about a lot of nuts and
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bolts that maybe folks wouldn't think of that have to be attended to so we have a little bit of a lineup to walk through some of those pieces um which includes our chief of student supports Brenda who's kind of uh playing a coordinating role for us internally or with Dr player Deputy superintendent instruction in schools because they're such a communication component here we also have David Roy on the line and we think it's important to hear from our school leaders and how they're absorbing and assimilating the guidance some of the preliminary plans and the task of populating a a blueprint that has been asked of us from the ode so we have the the esteemed Mr Curtis Wilson uh junior from Benson Tech here joining us as well this season and making it appearance so I'm going to turn it over to Brenda and she'll guide us through I think a short slide deck that we have for you yes uh thank you superintendent and uh thank you uh chair con Sam and board of directors uh good evening to our community and all of those who are are listening tonight uh the fall 2020 re-entry uh is uh is something that um there's there's no blueprint for and so we are planning and listening uh to health professionals uh and Educators and uh National experts uh all all across uh the nation uh in order for us to provide a healthy uh start to the school year uh provide uh well-being for our students and our staff and making sure that we are connecting and building relationships uh with all of our students specifically our students who are most marginalized specific we are black and Native youth so next slide please what I want to do is go over the art guiding principles this is really what has been guiding our re-entry plans uh from the very beginning so what what we need to do is make sure that we are centering all of our decisions and all of our thoughts and plans on racial equity and social justice based on uh that core work that we're doing we're focused really on three uh areas uh one is to ensure the health and wellness of our staff our students in our buildings two is to strengthen it strengthen and innovate the instructional core and three is to cultivate that connection and relationship all of these are crucial in order for us to successfully open up in the fall next slide please what we have done to date is we have organized ourselves into five work groups uh one uh is our instructional and social emotional learning component we have operations our resources our stakeholder and engagement and then care for children what we believe in these five work groups is uh by assembling these teams and having teacher and principal advisories engaging with our community specifically our black and our native students our black and Native families and and other marginalized groups we're going to really be able to get that feedback and input in order to make sure that we are providing the the best services for our students regardless of location and so I I do want to reiterate that a little bit uh in regards to what the superintendent started out with at the beginning of the board meeting that we will uh continue to provide excellent Services uh to our students and our families we just don't know uh for certain right now if it's going to be in a hybrid model or virtual learning and we will only bring students and staff back when it is safe to do so and so one thing we've been doing next slide please is aligning our work to the eight components of the ode blueprint guidance so for tonight's discussion we're going to talk about the first three uh which uh chief of operations Dan young has been really leading that work in those first three and then we will turn it over to principal Wilson at Benson Tech
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so we can really get a look at how that looks on the ground day to day and in a high school perspective and then we will finish with our communication plan and how we're going to continue to roll this work out in a meaningful day where we're really engaging in communicating with our staff and our communities so Dan I will turn it over to you thank you Brenda and good evening everyone so what I'm going to do is talk a little bit about the process that the operation group has organized around in in achieving submitting the blueprint and getting the schools ready for students so we've identified five key deliverables that need to be completed between now and when staff and students return to the buildings and those are completing the ode blueprint creating standard operating procedures for all of our new functions creating site-specific plans that will show how our sites will be modified by the sports path for students and physically changing those spaces and ordering materials and products and contractors and going out and making the physical changes and then training staff on what those new procedures were so if we had uh our as much time as as we'd like we would do these more in a linear fashion but because we have a compressed timeline we're effectively doing all these at the same time so what we've done is the way that we've organized is we have a large operations group it's an inner Department group that includes District staff and site staff as well including teachers and principals of about 40 40 individuals and we meet every week but we've also identified 12 sub teams or subgroups that are looking at specific tasks or functions related to the operational components uh I will read all of them but some of those teams are building capacity team that's looking at uh how many staff how many students can we safely fit into our buildings our individual site plan team looking at every site plan a transportation team looking at the transportation functions are routing on a safely transport students how to get students off the bus safely how to get them back on the bus at the end of the day supplies procurement and distribution with the new model there's going to be lots of new materials cleaning supplies so how are we going to procure those and how are we going to distribute all those uh to the sites plus the number of other teams we have a very compressed timeline to complete all of these deliverables as an example from the operational side we took our first crack at the first draft of the blueprint and sent that out for internal review here about 10 days ago we're looking to have our second review done this week we expect to have the first draft of our probably first 12 standard operating procedures done and distributed for internal review this week all of our site plans have been distributed out to all the sites and purchases we're talking about that a little bit too we're looking to get all that feedback this week and have a first draft of those plans uh uh by this week or that might be into next week and we're also just making assumptions and looking to get out in front of things we've ordered lots of materials already we've ordered desks we've ordered signage uh we've ordered PPE and we're also standing up a beta site so one of our schools where we can go out we can do walk-throughs we've been bringing buses out to sites to see how Transportation might function out there we've moved Furniture in classrooms so we can see how the classrooms might operate signage Etc so all that information uh will feed into the blueprint and on the screen you can see what those first three components of the blueprint are and within these uh components here's we're going to find our protocols for items such as social distancing and I plan to achieve that the symptom screening how are we going to stream staff and students as they come into the building every day our meal service plan how are we going to serve lunch and breakfast as students are on site how are we going to distribute meals to students who aren't on site in our hybrid model cleaning protocols mechanical systems how those are going to operate amongst many others I'd point out that most of these functions if not all of them are very heavily influenced by the state's safe learner's plan and musd's communicable disease management plan that has been a great tool we are relying on these tools that we have to give us specifics uh how we and how we want to operate that of course has to turn into you know a broad plan into actual changes and functions on the ground and I think Curtis is going to talk about what that's going to look like a little bit thank you next slide time
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Curtis did we lose Curtis I can still see him but I can't hear him Curtis here on mute I can see that he's still talking but I cannot hear Curtis principal Wilson we may need to have him call it in yeah uh Curtis can you call in thank you you want to move on to someone else first Brenda or shall we wait no I think what we'll do is um I'll go ahead and start with the uh re-entry uh the progress to date and then Curtis just let me know when you're uh in uh so uh so our re-entry progress to date um I just wanted to talk about uh how we're progressing uh in in the blueprint so we again have two uh processes right we have our ode blueprint that we have to submit by August 14th which includes a plan for every school then we also have the continuing reopening of the school district that will continue past August 14th so so the progress that we're making is for both components of that so there I just wanted to highlight eight things um I could have probably listed 100 more on here but we did complete our analysis for physical distancing measures with all of our school buildings that just was completed on Monday we have finished our assessment of our busing capacity um we have also uh looked at how we're going to review the blueprint process with our principals which is what uh Curtis will be talking about um our communicable disease management plan is in its final draft uh I also want to talk about um that we will be meeting with other experts in the medical field uh we'll be talking with them and having them help us also guide our work to ensure that all of the things that we plan to do are reviewed by multiple medical providers and that we're doing an ongoing consultation with them and also making them available for other staff teachers and potentially the community to engage with the other things we're doing is uh making sure that um our our surveys are all finished and completed that we have professional development that will be outlined in modules for our staff to feel safe when it's time for us to re-enter the buildings and that we are in collaboration with licensed child care providers to look at how we can meet the needs of families who need to get back to work and for our staff teachers and other staff employees who need child care in order to provide virtual instruction hello Brenda can you hear me now yes okay if you go back to slide six that would be okay go ahead wow okay all right so uh again thank you everyone good evening so um as I said I'm Curtis Wilson principal of Benson Tech and I've been charged with uh just talking about what I've been doing at the building level in regards to um trying to figure out how to get the buildings back open based on the um ode guidelines that were sent to the district and then filter down to the principles well first of all I am on a few committees that have been uh charged with trying to figure out this whole blueprint building level opening so I am on the PPS re-entry advisory committee and I'm on the PPS operations work group committee and I'm on the DM group steering committee and all those groups are in charge of just trying to figure out what is the best way or mechanism to open up the buildings that will allow our kids to stay so with that being said um what have I been doing on the building level um I'm working right now on a site playing for our buildings per ode or the e-guidance and what we're trying to do is be able to show that
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we're going to be able to mitigate the spread of covid-19 if it worked its way into our building by having protocols in place that will be I guess a safe Avenue for our students and then once we figure this out in our site plans that the district has sent to us we'll be able to share that information with District officials and again these are all the principals who have been working on these site plans and then the district will try to figure out our buildings to be safe based on the guidance that there's even from the principles um some of the things that we have to figure out that I've been working on I spent the last week trying to put this together over at Benson was for example um bus loading zones where we're going to drop off kids in the morning um to come into the building um where it's going where is the parent drop-off and pickup spots going to be for kids um where is going to be the the main entry way that students will be allowed to enter the building because again trying to get all the students into one access point we're also going to now think about secondary interest into the buildings as well because we can't have students coming into the building from all over the building we won't be able to manage that at all so right now I've been trying to figure out you know they come through the front door and then we have a couple of uh front doors in the front of the building as well that we can use these pop-ups for our kids um a big big one was how are students going to move through the hallway um we've been trying to figure out can we make our hallways be a one-way I guess access point where students would actually just walk one way throughout the entire ability um that took me a couple of days to walk Benson and kind of really see could our students do that and our hallways at Benson are pretty big to where I could make it or where our students could do a one-way and worst case we can also have a two-way as well and so I've pretty much set up in my site plan most of our hallways are going to be one way now again because they're going to be walking a long way but they will be able to go one way and then we have a certain areas in the building that the hallways were just too narrow that we're gonna have to make those two ways and we'll have to figure out how to deal with that as well other issues that I've been working on with our site plan was the health student screening that we'll have to put in place as students are coming into the building we've got to be able to check them to make sure that you know they're not sick um they got to be able to sign in once they enter the building and then as we can notice just from visually looking at students that they may seem um not well we have to put together an isolation slash quarantine room where we will have these students away from everybody else as we try to figure out what's going on and contact their parents and et cetera et cetera so we've put that in place in our buildings um and then the big one is the classroom capacity based on social justice you know students so for example in Benson's sitemap my rooms for the most part got reduced from holding about 30 to 35 kids with the social distancing that is now in place we're now able to hold about seven to ten so we got to figure out what is that going to look like knowing that my classroom has been cut into a third pretty much as far as students and the teacher that can be in that room that's going to be a huge thing to figure out um converting our learning spaces as needed that are non-traditional like the gym the cafeteria the band room into more spaces where kids can go and learn because it's looking like now we may have to use other parts of the building to be teaching since we can only have seven to ten kids in certain spaces throughout the building I do have the luxury of having a lot of shops over at Benson so worst case I can turn some of the shops into actual classrooms as well and we'll have to figure that out as support and identify spaces for example Child Care um you know we have kids who uh who have kids and so for the most part if they need to bring those kids to our building we gotta have a place set up for them as well so again these are just the peripheral things that we've been working on as principals with our site plans trying to figure out how to make it safe as possible for students to enter the building and be able to still access learning based on the covid-19 that we have to deal with right now so that's just kind of a snapshot there's a lot more that we're still working on but that's kind of where we're at right now as uh principals working with our buildings thank you Curtis uh all right uh next slide please uh we talked about that um if you go into the next one uh next steps We are continuing to partner with our district uh to include a focus on special education discussion which will happen
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next week uh and uh planning around multiple different components of our re-entry plan including uh virtual uh programming we're also rolling out engagement opportunities that Jonathan Garcia will be rolling out in uh in coordination with Shanice and their team we're finalizing the communication the communicable disease management plan that I already talked about uh we are finalizing some learning options to include the online or the virtual programming and then we're we need to identify our high risk populations specifically for health concerns and develop plans for how we accommodate those students so next I will turn it over to David Roy our director of communications and he will go over communication plan and that will be the end of our presentation and then we'll be open for questions thank you thank you Brendan good evening everyone uh I just want to take a couple of minutes to sort of talk about uh communication plan and what we have planned and what our approach is um in support of fall 2020 so much like spring uh with covet and with uh you know all of us having to suddenly uh shift in very big ways um in closed schools we're mindful of sort of look and feel of all of our messaging as it pertains to to fall uh in March we transitioned into being this sort of one stop location uh for resources and information related to covid into school closures to health information meal sites housing assistance access to technology uh and sort of gateway to much of what comprised our distance learning platform that our instructional teams uh coordinated and hosted we're taking a similar approach for fall you saw the logo at the front end of this presentation you probably saw a version of it on the message that went out Saturday we want all re-entry messaging to be easy to find easy to identify uh and look like it's part of you know sort of this larger Continuum of comprehensive messaging and information uh you know our Focus remains on updating and informing students staff and families and making resources and supports known uh we're committed to a weekly Cadence as a superintendent mentioned uh we had our first major message go out last Saturday and we're committed like during the Spring as we were committed and as we always are to reaching every family uh we you know now more than ever it's incredibly important for us uh and for information to be accessible for us to be proactive in reaching out to families so that they know the latest information uh and and how it might affect their students and so what does that mean uh a number of things including multiple platforms we know and there's no one answer when it comes to platforms so that's why you will often see when we have something important to share especially if it's family and student facing uh that may be by email but also web and social and text and robocall uh in a number of other uh platforms it certainly means language access I think I've mentioned uh in a previous meeting I think last year we translated uh about 4 000 messages and Communications during the school year uh and we are now looking at ways that we might be able to expand our language access capacity uh include including possibly increasing the number of supported languages by the district and so we'll have more to come on that hopefully sooner than later and can share that with you uh as you know uh our translation and language access work from translation and also interpretation is very important to us and it's something that we've been able to leverage to share resources with other districts with government entities uh so that they can uh they can have a broader reach uh with their constituencies as well and then uh you know trying to ensure that we're reaching every family also means working with and leaning on a number of our community-based and culturally specific organizations especially as it pertains to connecting with black and Indigenous families and families of color and so uh partnering with and staying close to to Danny Ledesma and and Jonathan Garcia and Shanice and a number of uh and then really our language access team as well is they have feelers and connections out in the community and so working with those great organizations who can reach their constituencies that have so much
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overlap with our school communities is another way that we really uh is really important to us to make sure that everyone who needs to know what we're having to share gets that information um and throughout we really do strive to be informative but also in my team I'm sure rolls their eyes uh and behind my back when I keep saying but a warm and welcoming right we want our information to be accessible we want it to be easy to digest we don't want you know this can be really intimidating when we share information about what we're doing when it comes to Public Health constraints even the technology piece can be intimidating to families and so we really try uh to make sure that uh that's not the case and that it's digestible accessible uh and again warm and welcoming uh so as far as the plan I think uh what I would like to share is really kind of next 10 days and then beyond that uh over the next 10 days just really briefly many of you have seen uh a number of what we kind of think of as Flagship pieces that other districts uh especially across the country have shared with their district and school communities over the last couple of weeks three weeks uh and so I I think in the next week to 10 days you will uh see that we will have delivered that flagship piece for PPS about fall and about re-entry and what I mean by that is a large you know anywhere from 20 to 50 pages that is downloadable that we uh upload to our website that we share through email that can be updated but is still even with updates the sort of the messaging of record and kind of the communications piece of record for the district as it pertains to this I think what we will uh what we also plan in that window of the next 10 days is video uh we know that uh uh obviously video has a lot of advantages that other platforms do not so you'll see a lot of that and then I think when you we get beyond that 10 days and land the flagship pieces what you will see is we'll continue to inform we'll continue to update continue hopefully to do the things that I've talked about but also begin to transition more to supporting onboarding and orientation for all audiences so that's students that's our Educators and it's our families as well and I mentioned this example earlier but uh we don't necessarily we're not necessarily relying on parents to help fifth graders with their math but we do need parents of second graders to help their second grader whether we are all online or a hybrid model access the technology be able to reach a teacher that sort of thing so we we are really really getting ready to support all of the functions who are involved with that internally at PPS so that we can get their onboarding information and their messaging and all of the important information they need to share with families and that will look like some of what you saw in Spring including one page there's an infographics and multimedia and TV and utilizing uh this fall for sure our television station and then also our YouTube channel uh so that all you need is internet access to see that and then you know finally I would just say we are again ready to support make sure that we're getting everything out there that needs to be we have a lot of work that's coming we're ready to a partner with all the appropriate functions and departments with our neighbor districts districts across the state and others we're all facing the same challenges right and we're all seeking the best way to reach our audiences uh so you'll see a lot more coming again this week and Beyond but just wanted to give you an idea of what our approach is as we look at the next few months and going into the start of the school year so thank you thank you uh and then if anybody has questions we're happy to do so or move on with the agenda however you'd like to do that move on and then we can go to questions for each of the each of the various areas together do you have more to your agenda on re-entry Brandon nope that was it okay okay excuse me I misunderstood you um so yeah let's open it up for board questions I think um first superintendent I'd like to come back to you because to me one of the most critical elements here that we heard about is um really preparing for a very different kind of virtual learning than we saw in the spring that was so heroically pulled together in just a couple of weeks but um really a um much more engaged
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and much more accountability um in the in the academic program for the fall so I don't know superintendent would you like to speak to what your expectations and and hopes are regarding just the way student learning will be delivered in a virtual environment um you know whether that's part of the week or all of the week sure I'm happy to sort of start a description there but certainly we'll invite our CIO or our chief of schools or our Deputy to to round it out um just to wrap up um the communication that was sent on Saturday I think what we tried to present is you know really the three options that are out there for school districts one that contemplates five day a week full day just as ever before um I don't think there's anybody that's contemplating that right now uh as something that would be healthy or safe uh and yet we see States and districts around the country that are actually piling forward with that or I think at their own Peril um secondly there's there's a hybrid uh model that the districts are working hard at um being able to implement uh observing health and safety protocols and physical distancing the only way to break down the full student body is to serve only a portion of them so cohorting students um to lower the class size per se into student cohorts uh means they could come on on the campus for probably two days a week so what we've described to families is one preliminary um plan well entails a cohort of students who would come in Monday Tuesday and the second half of the class that would come in Thursday Friday which would afford US Wednesday an opportunity to address some specialized uh instructional needs uh to case manage students to make sure everybody's staying engaged and then just as importantly making sure that our teachers have enough time to really engage in some training and collaboration on their lessons and then the third option is is the full virtual so no one's back on campus um and that we rely on a technology platform to really organize the teaching and learning and so we know we're going to have to be prepared with that model because regardless of the changing circumstances everybody will be engaged in some level of virtual learning but we also have had this short summer to try to pull off something school districts have been working for years on and that's to adapt to using technology as the backbone for organizing learning which requires the infrastructure the hardware the connectivity but just as importantly what you do with it in regards to the content and how you organize lessons and so the vetting and the curating of a lot of curricular material so that it's high quality and so that students have the opportunity for in-class instruction as well as are able to manage more or less independently for for students when they're not on campus or the other parts of the week so there's a lot of challenges in there depending on the age group of course you heard us talk about the desire to differentiate support for certain groups of students we know that our special needs students in particular they already are in smaller classes if it's possible to bring them in not two days or four days a week or that's something we're interested in pursuing but we are in a fluid situation here so we have very you know we think conservatively proposed a later start date so instead of just before Labor Day we would push off bring in our first cohorts of students so the 14th of September it's becoming increasingly increasingly appearance that maybe that's not even realistic so we may have to push that off a little bit further but we're really relying on the status of health and safety recommendations from from the authorities so we're going to stay in consultation with them but I'm just giving directors and the broader Community a heads up that Beckett very much changed to a later date um there's also an advantage to that we can deploy the bandwidth of the team here and everybody that's involved with developing that virtual backbone the additional time to really be ready to not just reconnect with our students which will be a new class for our teachers but also become familiar with
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with those online curriculums but before I get too deep into that I want to have direct uh Deputy Cuellar speak to that and other members of our team thank you superintendent and um thank you chair constant for surfacing the question I just want to reiterate uh what superintendent Guerrero was saying is um it's it's going to be of most important um that our virtual platform is absolutely going to be focused on on being a rigorous um at Tech enhanced optimal learning environment for students um this is going to look extremely different it has to look extremely different than how it did in the spring um in the spring this was something that happened it was spontaneous it happened extremely quickly and we had to be able to react and respond but also under extremely um supportive and and loose guidance from the ode moving into the fall semester we know that that experience is going to look different for children and for staff especially in a virtual environment and also in a hybrid environment our focus is going to be virtual because even in a hybrid environment just like the superintendent stated with a cohort model you're still going to have half of your students experiencing a virtual online learning experience and then if we have to Pivot let's say we do like soup to the superintendents Point whether we start off virtually for an extended period of time or we start off with a hybrid and we have to Pivot to a virtual our staff and our students and our families will be ready to we'll be ready for that experience um the the idea of it with all the planning and preparation right now in the summer is that we don't have to take an exorbitant amount of time to be able to stand this up I think that the team has gone through a lot of professional developments um they've we've gone through a significant amount of training to be prepared for this moment we have we have time this summer we've been working in various work groups um just like Brenda martinet talked about earlier in the presentation we have principals we have teachers and we have number of staff that are involved in lifting up this very very important work but I want the focus to really be centered on the virtual experience because that's going to be extremely important a lot of the variables that are going to look different now is you know taking active attendance you know grades are going to look different it's just not going to be a pass or fail you know you know now how are we holding everyone accountable for making sure that the learning experience is robust for every single student I'm really really also important to this model is is the way we're making connections with students that's really really important um and and I know that was touched on a little bit during the presentation as well but with that being said I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to our chief academic officer Dr Valentino who can talk a little bit more about the mechanics of the virtual learning model and and kind of what is being thought around in that work good evening um so as has been shared there is a if a structure um and the system in play that will allow for us to implement the instructional program virtually and so it is premised on the idea that we will ensure that the continuation of our scope and sequence in the course subject areas as well as the other areas it maintains maintain the standard um that was in place prior to the the pandemic we we will be housing all of our curriculum on the atlas platform like we were prior to that the these units and lessons were co-created by both central office and by teachers uh and in fact they have been shared across the district with teachers beginning to share the resources we will be providing um the digital backpack for the first time that includes a digital toolkit of applications that are both within the discipline the subject areas but also generics like rule book that will support the the teaching practices is the planning and the student tasks that will be generated as part of the instruction there will be um support for teachers through professional development on the practices that introduce and expand interdisciplinary methods but that also create for opportunities for students to engage in project-based learning work based learning more authentic learning experiences these are things that we learned from the spring closure that there are these opportunities that allow for the individualization of instruction more directly we will continue to be using the Seesaw platforms because um for K5 because there was a familiarity there and so we're actually adding now Pre-K that is also going to be offering online instruction to canvas for K-12 and so part and part of the professional development for teachers will be based on the canvas
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platform where they will be uploaded on our pepper learning management system we will have enhanced teaching learning options for our teachers and tasks for our students believing that students are going to be engaging in a full day schedule of both synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning experiences over the course of the summer as has been said we're going to be working through the month of August with professional uh development for our teachers to ensure that as we enter into the virtual environment that our teachers are prepared with the tools that they will need to do to effectively do that and so our Focus has been on kk8 but uh Dr Byrd can speak to the high school as well Dr Bert all right good evening everyone I also want to just talk about a little bit about summer school we have a fantastic group of principals and teachers in our CSI schools that are planning uh summer programming and uh part of that will be virtual and part of that will be to work with families to show them and expose them to the tools that we have so we make sure that we're connecting with all of our families and setting them up for success in the fall in the event that we would have to either start virtually or go virtual at some you know or for their virtual experience so we want to make sure that we are reaching families and working with as many families as possible and that towards the end of July beginning of August uh before school starts also give us a chance to work with the students who we didn't um always connect with uh last spring so that we can begin to close those uh those academic gaps in terms of our high school program uh for the fall we're working with our high school principals to um ensure that uh that those uh students are set up for for success as you may know normally high school students take eight courses uh at a time it's an A B schedule alternating blog schedule um that um we believe is difficult to manage for most students in this type of environment given the uncertainty of it and also given our experience with students who were who had ended the year with incomplete grades last year that are continuing to work to make those grades up so we are um working on uh modifying that schedule and offering it for my four schedule students would still take eight classes throughout the year but they'll take four in the fall and then four in the spring there are some uh as you may imagine there are no schedules perfect and there are complications with pretty much any schedule that you uh propose but we are working uh out those uh issues particularly for students in IB programming that are required to be in the course during the at the testing time so we're working with the administrators at Cleveland and Lincoln High School on those issues and also for students who are taking AP classes we want to make sure that they are prepared for the exams in May so we will have some some options for this who take the class in the fall and they wouldn't have it in the spring so we'll have some lab classes or something to to assist them and prepare them for the test um so we're troubleshooting that right now with our principals and uh um as we uh move forward towards the towards the fall semester um those also the other issues if we are going into a hybrid um situation that we're troubleshooting with our principles is the size of our high school is obviously is much larger than our elementary schools so how we work out those cohorts is really important um you know Grant has a student body of nearly 1800 so even dividing that in two is going to be challenging uh to um you know to do half the student body like you can do in the K8 grade so we're working on principals as as Curtis uh mentioned earlier he's uh all of them are working there are plans for their building to see how that would work and so every High School will probably look a little bit different although we're going for as much consistency as possible we'd have to tell the plants to each School so that's our preliminary uh thinking on high schools and we'll have more updates uh coming soon so I hope chair that answers your question and giving directors more of a description about the kind of experience I just I want to manage all of our expectations there is no substitute for in-class face-to-face instruction and the relationship that gets cultivated between our students among our students and the adults and so anything anything other than that is is sort of a core substitute but we're going to do our best uh to ensure that there is a continuity of learning uh that's our goal uh we know that we wanted to have an elevated sense of rigor uh and quality of experience for our students to an improved fashion that Memoir was experienced in the spring um but that that requires a lot of
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careful planning and a lot of deliberate lesson planning with our Educators and many of those conversations need to happen at the school level uh the direction of our principal our our central office task is to make sure they have the resources the platform the material the online content to give that guidance so that there is a default lesson plan Monday through Friday That's A New Concept generally whether you're virtual or not uh so this is only accelerating that work moving forward so uh more to come uh this is a very as I said at the beginning a fluid situation uh we know that virtual is is going to be something by default we're going to have to try to get uh done as well as we can Guerrero um I have a question about the instruction I appreciate the explanation um I'm going to go back to David Roy's comment about uh was it Mormon inviting um because often what happens when we're talking about the um time when students aren't in the building talk about asynchronistic um learning am I my uh understanding of that is that's like student-led during their own work and I'm interested in I guess just from looking at from a parent perspective of just like a very plain English explanation of so like if if we have the hybrid you have two days I think people understand the two cohorts what that might look like when you're in school but the other three days in the hybrid time period like what exactly that looks like or if we're in a fully distant learning mode what those five days look like in terms of like how much actual instructional time not a student-led um doing their work or working through a program but the actual engagement with their teachers do we have like a minimum level of expectation for those three three days in which they're not in school or if we're fully distanced the five days what what's the minimum amount of instructional what's the instructional time the student will actually get from a teacher sure I'll let Dr bird who who's really been collaborating with our labor partner on this of course we have our Educators five days a week so we want to maximize their connection with our students in a combination of direct instruction as well as independent work that our students would be doing but Dr Byrd do you want to elaborate sure so uh yes we are working on collaboration with our with our labor Partners to work those details out but it is a um it will be a full instructional day so that doesn't mean a student will be sitting in front of a computer screen for for all day but there will be instruction for every uh every content area and so some of that will be uh face to face with the teacher doing direct instruction uh and some of that will be independent work that they're practicing on their own but they're all we have requirements to take attendance and to say grades so there will be some instructional uh time each day we are also we've talked about with our high school principals in particular uh you know it's very hard to teach chemistry from your kitchen table so we've talked about uh our high school teachers having access to the building to go into their classrooms to be able to do a demonstration demonstrations in their classroom you know some teachers just need a whiteboard to to do some work so there will be uh opportunities for staff members to in a safe and socially distant way of course they'll be by themselves in their classroom if if we're fully virtual to be able to deliver instruction uh with more tools than they had access to in the in the spring but um we are we in terms of like time we have we're still working uh that out with with our labor Partners but uh you know every student will be taking a full schedule uh and they'll have instruction that's uh live uh and some asynchronous work uh independently so just be clear can you say anything about um can I just is asynchronistic mean that it's like without a teacher yeah sure yeah that means with that that means not live so um so in some for example if you're let's take the hybrid model so if you're there Monday and Tuesday uh so the teacher you know we would expect what people small groups and focus on those key standards that uh really need direct instruction and then on you know if you are not there Thursday and Friday you weren't there Wednesday Thursday Friday you weren't there you would have some assignments to do there will be some other AIDS though it's not just by yourself you know for math we have some uh tools that we use concept having some other tools that we use to help uh kids do the work but they'll have this time what they didn't have the advantage of in the spring was they didn't have necessarily had the advantage of as much teacher time as they'll have um now so but there will have because on the days that the one group is home the
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teacher will be teaching the other half of the class so obviously the teachers can't do two things at one time so um so that's why there'll be some need for independent work um and and then of course we want to also prioritize students um and that's why the summer programming of the CSI schools is really critical because we want to really work with those families to make sure they understand uh all the tools that are available and how to access those tools use those tools there's some new tools we're introducing this year this fall so we want to make sure that everybody gets off to a good start and has appropriate access to to the tools um but yeah so and I think share constant had a question I think too um just regarding um assessment and Grading yeah um so so it will not be a pass fail situation we have guidance from the ode that your grades will be assigned um how that looks and how those assessments look we have uh we're still working on that plan and we have we'll be in discussions uh with PT about that but also just with our assessment department and how we'll be monitoring uh students progress and I would just also say that um I know the OTL team and Dr Valentino may want to jump in here but I know they have been working since the spring to re-realign the scope and sequence to make sure that we're closing the gaps that children may have from last year because you know the uh when the school uh ended so that there'll be some assessment at the beginning of the school year to see where kids are teacher that teachers will be completing uh just you know to see where their students are as they do every year anyway but this year will be really critical because there was the 9 or 10 week period where um where they were out of school so we want to make sure that they are getting caught up with everything that they need as we start the new school year so these are a lot of really great questions uh we have them as well uh we're working through them we're involving our Educators uh more details will emerge um and we have some time that we're trying to dedicate to to really having well-articulated responses to these kinds of questions so stay tuned we're going to keep updating you and our families about what they can expect so um superintendo Guerrero um it seems like we're getting lots of questions from the community um we had a very brief period of time tonight I appreciate the overview but only a brief time to ask questions I would hope that we will before we get to the board meeting which the final plan is presented that we would have an opportunity um to have a much deeper work session on what the plans are just um I'd say I think we're getting lots of questions from the community about how things are going to roll out and I know things are very fluid um but just given tonight um just a limited amount of time we had to have the opportunity for two things one um a place where we have an FAQ or frequently asked questions so I'm sure a lot of us are getting the same questions from our different community members so they have um can have that posted but also an opportunity for um just a deeper board discussion about how we're going to roll things out and Upton dashboard questions and get a better understanding of what things will look like so that we can um the ambassadors and ask their questions when we get them from parents in the community and I think that's the goal to make sure that we're very clear that we keep an updated um website that we maintain a real-time FAQ that as Things become clear that we're sharing information so one of the things that I heard very clearly in my conversation with the other larger superintendents and state leaders today from the governor's office was The Limited bandwidth uh and the need to concentrate staff's energy on this important task we know that there's a lot of questions we have some some guidance documents uh regarding all of the nuts and bolts that we need to attend to um we suggested to board leadership that the advisory committee or the steering committee for this re-entry effort um it'd be good to have representation on there from the board I'm going to open that up as an open invite if folks want to get into what I call the sausage making of our re-entry planning that might be a good a place to get a sense of some of those details and I'm happy to share with the board some of the templates and some of the checklists they look like flight checklists around some of the managerial aspects of the planning that goes into preparing us preparing for 50 000 students to have some semblance of quality uh continuity of learning so
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we've committed to these regular updates at board meetings they'll continue to be written and posted information sharing with families as these things emerge so we welcome the board's questions and can always feel free to to forward those as you have them we'll do our best to equip directors with talking points we certainly appreciate your ambassadorship on matters like these big initiatives but certainly something as big as the opening of schools so um it's part of our communication thinking as well um I'm if I sound a little bit reserved it's because there's a million moving Parts here and uh I I want to make sure and keep us focused on the main thing uh but when I open it up to our board and I know director Bailey director constant I've been able to listen in on some of those conversations and have a sense of sort of the depth of some of those details um but certainly will let you know when when we meet in case uh you want to listen in as well Nathaniel did you have a question or a comment that you wanted to make uh yeah I did um I'd just like to uh follow up on what director brim Edwards said that I think it would be beneficial to have a walk session dedicated to um the reopening before any plans are finalized um I have a number of concerns that I'd like to raise but I realize that we do not have time tonight so I think that could be beneficial and uh this is Jonathan Garcia Chief engagement officer Nathaniel uh uh welcome to the board uh we uh have been meeting uh as a team um and are uh working on some focus groups directed to to ensure that we hear directly from our young people our students and so uh including our DSC so you'll hear a lot more about ways in which we can ensure that your voice and the voices of our students uh are reflected in our planning so uh you know we'll reach out to you uh here um I know we're just starting to get uh you involved in in everything that is uh PPS so uh I'll make sure that Shanice and Yan and our team our engagement team uh follows up with you thank you yeah thank you for that I also wanted to add um I went to the doctor today and she had not just one mask on but two and um luckily doesn't have kids in the PPS system but um asked if I'd heard about the second strain of covid and I was like there's a second strain and she explained that the second strain um is just kind of emerging information is much more infectious not as deadly where a typical influenza you may one person may infect um you know up to three people this new strain is between 9 and 27 which makes Gatherings inside um much more tenuous and and potentially risky and so I mean I just heard that today this afternoon so um I I also I want to say that I think the work session would be important um and also what I just appreciate the the staff for the complexity of having to manage this you know where the information can vary all day long you know it's like open close open close you know the the la superintendent was in the news uh today saying he's absolutely not going to open until it's safe to open um so I just yeah I just want to put that comment I agree we should have a work plan can I follow up on that um uh I think it's important to for everybody to keep in mind that all of this is happening within a public health context and um to a very large degree whether or not schools can reopen is not up to schools it's up to the community schools can safely reopen only if the public health environment in the larger Community permits it which means that everybody needs to stay vigilant we in Oregon we have so far gotten off pretty easy but um the the newest projections are looking pretty dire and the reopening and two holidays um social Gatherings are producing um a pretty significant spike in infections um everybody needs to wear a mask
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everybody everybody always we need to physically distance even from Neighbors and family members I mean everybody needs to stay serious about this um and if I I am I am deeply grateful to all the work that's going on within PPS um I I cannot even imagine how complicated all of this is um but I I think in every communication that we have with parents and Community um we have to put it in context of the public health environment um so that's my little soapbox everybody needs to wear a damn mask thank you uh this is director Lowry um I would weigh in that I I don't feel like we need a work session because I don't think this is the work of the board I think this is the work of the superintendent and the staff but I do think the Board needs to be really well versed in the thinking behind this and I think we've heard a lot of that tonight that the you know the number one is is keeping our children and our staff safe and that we will not reopen unless it is safe to do so and so the more we can have Clarity around I mean I loved what um principal Wilson shared about you know the one-way hallways at Benson and so I'm picturing kids whose class you know is next door to their classroom but they can't go that way they have to go all around the building to get back and just the hilarity that we'll ensue as we try to make teenagers you know go one way uh but I you know all those kinds of details and it helps to to think about okay I understand why you're thinking one way and why that's a priority um but I'm leery of a work session because I I think especially in a time of Crisis we need to be really clear about our role as a board and that we are ambassadors that we need to be well informed that we need to be able to share what we're what PBS is doing with the community but I don't think it's our purview to um create the plan so I think if we if we if we change the language to like a briefing or a time to ask questions like you said director brim Edwards but but a work session to me is like a time when we like work or create something and I don't feel like that's that's the role of the board in these times but I do think it's our role to ask questions and get to a place of deeper understanding um of the thinking behind things like Sean was saying um with using seesaw as some of that asynchronous learning because it's a platform that students are already familiar with and that we can help translate like you asked Julia you know that question about what is asynchronous learning and how do we articulate that I think that's all where we should be headed um but but work session Clarity um a work session is somewhat of a term of art it's a more informal Gathering where we're not actually um voting on on things but an opportunity to have an informal discussion and I'll just say I think it's really inadequate to have a you know 20-minute presentation and then an opportunity for like three questions because even the question of like what health guidance um are we operate going to be operating under is it the CDC like um with the cdc's real guidance or is it the guidance with the pressure from the White House are we using the standard that aerosol is a way of transmission and thinking about that in our planning I mean there's a whole host of issues that I think that I get asked about every day and I think it's I'm not suggesting we're creating the plan what I'm suggesting is that we actually have an opportunity to understand the thinking and and the planning that's happening and be able to ask questions so I I just did that directly yeah I'm oh sorry director Lowry go ahead Andrew sorry no I was just gonna say I I think we're um we all want more information but I am going to back up what director Lowry I think what she was trying to get across as it would be a very I think it would be a very bad thing for this District if seven board members the seven of us started making decisions about which health guidance to use and what different protocols to use in public health decisions so I just want to be really clear that to the extent we do schedule a work session um to get a more in detail briefing and have questions that we as a board are very very cognizant of that line and we're very very cognizant that the questions we're asking are simply for clarification and to help explain but not to kind of come back and say well actually I want to second guess these decisions because I think that gets into a very dangerous area that frankly dangerous and I mean dangerous in a public health standpoint like truly I'm not sure I'm not sure what the misunderstanding is but that's not what was suggested it's just I don't think having an opportunity to have like 10 minutes of questions about any biggest issue facing
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our school is enough time for us to be adequately informed and apparently some board members were able to participate or get a bad understanding and I think it's just it'll be imperative for us all to be walking together and to have an understanding so that we can communicate in an aligned coordinated way because we're all going to get questions I get them every day superintendent I want to recognize and thank you for um inviting all board members to listen in to the steering committees which uh steering committee meetings which is where each of your lieutenants goes through the the complex planning and his or her work area um my understanding is those happen on a weekly or twice a week basis obviously everything is is evolving so thank you for um that opportunity for board members who want to take advantage of it because that is a very deep level of detail I just I want to jump in and um thank director Lowry for like clarifying that our roles need to be very I mean they're they're already very clear I think when I said work session I was wanting to have a space where there's a more um more more space for dialogue and more space for questioning and more space for getting um information in you know even I mean we know that it's a rapidly changing communication and information landscape but I would find it helpful to have a to set aside a time when we could meet together to informally to ask questions to get clarification so we could direct um the staff in any way because they're already doing an amazing job but to get information that we can share with people that are contacting us because we're getting a lot of contact already so directors um we were following through on providing some brief updates at every board meeting uh it's clear that there's an appetite for uh learning more details and having an opportunity to ask questions we might not have the answer to them but we'll note them so that we end up having answers and responses to those questions uh Chief Martin will share with you our advisory committee days and time so if you want to hop on for 15 minutes and uh hear how the conversation is going and some of the questions will also be sure to send to you in advance some of the tools and the templates that uh some of which we've shared with you already that we have to sort of be mindful now and then to the earlier comments what we don't want to get trapped into and I think some Partners have already said this is uh and I know you'd admit it this way director Moore around the community will decide I think we're finding places around the country where the community is deciding and it isn't based on health recommendations and medical expertise and we want to share our families that we're being prudent and responsible and keeping not just the Children and Youth but also our employees safe and so any plans we have for reopening are going to be guided by those recommendations and when it's safe to do so they will begin to phase in the reopening of our campuses no one wants to see our students on campus more than we do but we won't have a chance to teach them if we can't keep things safe sorry Scott um I I just want to clarify what I meant by saying that the community decides the community decides by its actions and behaviors if the community starts doing stupid things like hanging out in bars inside and having having parties with 30 of their closest friends and relatives um standing next to each other um that's going to determine what is possible because if if we don't maintain the adherence to the public health recommendations this is all going to be a moot point and we were having to do distance learning I I very much estimate the educational leader in the area uh appreciate that PSA Dr Moore please no parties no potties so we can get back to class we got we got to hear both bars and potties in the same sentence yeah so um you missed that go to uh superintendent yeah yeah I just noticed that my mask was actually around my neck uh so here's some good modeling um I was on a and this is a scary thought a uh call today with a group of economists with uh greater Portland Inc um and it's the same same is true about the economy you want the economy to recover it depends on large part on how
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we behave and Tim Dewey from the University of Oregon said it's pretty ironic that the priority in reopening was to go to a bar in this country um it's just says something not reopening schools and thinking how to do that safely but getting to a bar um on the work session so I've set in on two committee meetings and what's very apparent to me is that we've made well we haven't made very many decisions so far that this is incredibly complex and we can go kind of so far in decision making and then there's details we haven't settled on yet and then go so far we get more details and more details and that's going to play out over time so I think if we if we are talking about some kind of question and answer session I think it's important to recognize that that um and I've done this myself go down a rabbit hole of getting wanting really detailed answers on something you know I get some information but I want more I want more and it just isn't there yet because we're still sussing this thing out and anybody listening to this to our staff presentation uh incredible work by the way staff um you know what what Dan was talking about for example in Curtis incredibly complex and it takes time to work through this so I am I would hope if we do have that q a session that it's structured to for the the depth that we've gone so far and that we we don't spend time trying to you know that urge that we all have for Pure clarification um we're not going to be there yet we're only so far in this process um and I I just think of the sideways school books uh Curtis about where uh if you're going down the stairs you go on the right side if you're going up the stairs you go on the left side and nobody could figure out why the stairways were such a mess okay like somebody I've had to he didn't read the sideways school books yes that was very funny Scott thank you thank you everybody um agreed this is the most uh important question facing our district um that anyone could possibly imagine and um and would encourage any board members who are available to jump in on this advisory committee Steering group committee calls because that's where you really can hear the thinking evolve um it is 903 I am going to adjourn this meeting for um seven minutes um our next item on the agenda is uh conversation about development of the 2020 bond package I want to give everybody just an opportunity to stretch maybe get some fresh air and to also ground themselves in the materials for this conversation they came through a little late I don't know if anybody had enough of an opportunity to really familiarize themselves but um we've got six minutes take a look at those things come back refreshed for this important conversation about our bond I'd encourage you to stay on the call and just um close off your camera okay thanks everybody hey Dan Dan yes I'm here sorry can I just ask you a quick question sure so we got a bunch of materials at different times what what materials are we supposed to be using
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in this meeting of the Board of
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Education I see director Lowry I see director Bailey I see director Moore director to pass director brim Edwards and director Scott all right thank you very much um all right we are getting down to the wire getting close to our discussion about referral of a bond package for 2020 which we anticipate at the end of this month at our next board meeting um this new Bond would maintain the current tax rate and continue um our capital investment in our school facilities the PPS Board of Education um has proposed three options for Community feedback and last week we heard the results of the community engagement opportunities which included surveys focused groups polling and a virtual Town Hall after addressing some of the questions that came up during last week's work session we have now landed on a draft option that most closely resembles the earlier option three with a few adjustments and some key areas including increased investments in curriculum and accessibility most notably this option includes modernizing Jefferson High School planning design and pre-construction for other two Comprehensive High Schools Cleveland and Wilson and focused investment in uh supporting and realizing a Community Vision or Center for black student excellence um Dan young you didn't get much of a breather there but I'd like you to please walk us through um the details of this latest draft thank you so much for all your work I know you've been uh busily engaged in this incredibly important topic as well as our operational plans for um re-entry so a lot of gratitude for your uh many long days and nights lately um thank you and uh good evening again and happy to be here um I think we have a presentation uh if that and it's just a handful slide so um well it looks like it's starting right there there it is uh so we'll go ahead and Jump Right In um as noted the goal of tonight's agenda item uh is to review updated data and then uh to review Direction on preparing a bond referral um Roseanne or care if you don't mind going to the next slide is the one uh here yeah I'll talk to this one so here is a summary of the option uh that is presented tonight um uh the director should have received some late breaking materials this afternoon there was a couple emails with materials and I believe they've all been posted it sounds like uh and much of those materials are budget related materials to the scope of work and and what they are intended to do uh as three things really provide us an overall summary of the budget process that has happened to date over the last you know six to eight to ten months um also provide an update to estimates that have really some fine-tuning and sharpening of our pencils over the last few weeks and then also highlighting the updated scope the curriculum goal so I will quickly walk through and hopefully effectively hit the highlights and then happy to answer any questions um I think one thing to note if you look at the the option that was reviewed last Thursday roughly 1.1 billion uh and and that exact same scope of work if you looked at it today with the updated cost estimate so there's going to be a number of puts and takes but down in the bottom right hand corner it's a Delta of about two million dollars over the 1.1 billion so less than one percent so the option that you're seeing tonight as far as cost changes is very much substantially similar in both scope and in both cost to what we looked at last Thursday yeah as you're walking through this um I I don't think you can post that prior version of option C but if you can just go through at some point line by line what is different here from the last time we saw this option
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yeah I'm happy to do that in the materials and and I totally appreciate there's a bunch of them and they came out pretty late um there's the the budget summary and it has three exhibits one of the exhibits I believe is posted as a separate document it's called or it says at the top let me look uh Bond options comparison and that has two comparisons but if if you can find it um column A is the exact same option we looked at last Thursday column B is the same scope of work with the updated cost estimates and so that's the one uh when you compare the two there are only two million dollars off and column C is the Delta so it shows every every change uh per line item column D which is the blue one is the updated one for tonight uh and that has the updated curriculum costs and then that last column is just the Delta between um the updated estimates and uh what we're looking at tonight so I it probably doesn't make sense if I just say that if you see it hopefully it's explanatory but I'll happily walk through every one of those deviations right now um so one I will I'll start with because it really a permeates through most of the lines uh over the last couple weeks we reached out to three of the uh professional construction cost estimators that we work with uh to get their current forecasts on cost escalation in this unique Market that we're in it's certainly fair to say that there isn't consensus there um uh some of them anticipate seeing some increases in escalation in in coming years While others see decreases but overall uh it appears that the trend is anticipating a three to five percent cost escalation over the next year and then a slight decrease after that and once it gets too many years out even our professional estimators um you know don't really put are interested in putting two two final point on it so what we are estimating in all of these and all of these costs are a four percent uh uh rate for the first year and then three percent for all following years so really tracking more in the middle of those options are of that range and skewing a little bit conservative I think there so that will explain a lot of the changes um another another item to point out that isn't one of the Deltas here in another exhibit we've provided an update to the high school modernization cost summary uh and as requested we went to one of our cost estimators and asked for a conceptual estimate for Jefferson If instead of modernizing the the original structure we replaced the whole thing with new and so that estimate is in there it is a cheaper option than the renovation options but as a staff is still recommending budgeting for the renovation option did you just get them hey uh Chief peace I believe you're not muted Chief Reese you might want to mute yourself uh staff is still recommending uh budgeting for the renovation option one because during the conceptual Master planning process we got a lot of feedback from the community that that was an important feature that they wanted to rate retained was that existing building and two if we budget for that renovation option which is the more expensive option but as we go through the master planning to a final Master planning option if ultimately the decision is to proceed with the new construction that that option is still on the table and what it would mean is then we would have some budget savings that could be allocated to other projects so I just want to point out that that estimate is there but the recommendation Remains the Same um the there is a decrease in the overall cost of Jefferson and that is attributed to the escalation change impacted Jefferson by far the most because it's the largest scope and it has the longest timeline most of the other Scopes have a much shorter timeline so the the change didn't impact them quite as much Dan can you can you say that again so that was um the change in the Jefferson cost estimate was due to the to the new escalation factors four percent year one three percent years after and did you did you say I'm sorry what what were we assuming before per cost escalation it was uh five percent for the first for the first year uh four percent for the year after and I think I said that wrong I believe we are four percent for the first two years now we are four percent for the first two
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years three percent after before we were five percent for one year four percent after okay so given the expense and the timeline of the project that that was the main driver in in dropping from 32305 were there other drivers in there that was the main driver that's the only that's the only change great thank you that I appreciate that and I had a question did you say that the renovation of the building and maintaining the facade was the more expensive version versus um deconstructing and starting new that is correct and and there's probably multiple factors but one is the existing building is really big and and not overly efficient so our new construction option would be smaller or we're assuming it'd be smaller uh it also um would potentially give us some options where we could construct it quicker um but yes it is it is a it is estimated as a cheaper option because I just I spoke with the Jefferson alumni who's very involved in the Alumni Association and I'm I'm guessing that if we went back out just like we go with the renaming process that they might have you know they might feel differently about maintaining the facade than when we asked them back in January I think that's a fair point and um the budgeting for the higher amount I think gives us it just gets it's more conservative and still needs all the options on the table and so I I would recommend that we pursue the new construction option through the master planning and see if ultimately that is the one that that is the preferred option both by the community and by you know districts and the staff um talk about the time um construction time for Jefferson being longer with the renovation option and Marina is on this call so I want to make sure I'm not um confusing the the options but uh with the renovation option it's a it's a larger building uh and it's a phase construction uh as well of course uh so it's a fairly long process I believe when we looked at the new construction we thought we could construct it a little bit faster not substantially faster we're certainly not cutting half the time off but I think there were some phasing efficiencies there and if I'm wrong Marina can just you know let me but those are probably assumptions and and correct me if I'm wrong um one of the issues with uh Jefferson is uh there's no softball field um and that if we kept the existing footprint that would still be true would uh one is want to confirm that and two if we if we did a rebuild um or a new construction that with that and this may be due to too detailed to answer tonight um that there would be possibly have room uh for a softball field uh on campus those are great questions I will if Marina is still on I'll see if she can answer some of those I know the the site is very oddly shaped uh it's you know it's it's long and skinny it also has some height restrictions that change the further you are from their setbacks the existing buildings grandfathered in new construction would not be and so it creates a unique scenario there um and we have not gone through the process of of doing a conceptual plan of what new construction construction option would look like so the numbers we're dealing with are very much Zoom square footage I think we can move our board conversation on to the broader topics if we want to come back and revisit whether we as a board um think it's appropriate to keep this number here for Jefferson which contemplates renovation or whether we wanna foreign I'll keep moving along the other um larger change to call out is in the 2017 Bond balance um so as noted in the materials sometimes we refer to completing the 2017 as Benson or Benson MPG but really what it is the amount is the Delta between the budget we have for all the 2017 scope of work and what the estimate that completion is as in quarterly the osm reports out what that Delta is and as of the most recent report now that was 202 million dollars included in
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those estimates are anticipated interest revenue from invested Bond proceeds uh and we had been carrying a number for uh what that uh assumed interest would be well here just over the last couple weeks uh we've taken a much we've taken another look at that and I'll say largely due to the covet epidemic though I wouldn't say exclusively um those interest rates have changed dramatically and they have changed dramatically down and the short end of the story is they have reduced our forecast for interest down 12 million dollars so that is probably the largest single mover that we see in here um so it's good that that we were able to update this now and not later um and hopefully our custom our estimates now I mean I think they are they're very conservative and we'll be able to see a better return than that but um the market is not something that we have a lot of ability to influence moving on to the educational uh improvements the changes we have a slight change in technology uh that I don't have the detail on that it's seven hundred thousand dollars of 128 million and I think that was mostly just sharpening the pencils that Don and his team have done over the last several weeks and even several months the sped classrooms we want to call that out because that is a decrease in the cost but is not a decrease in the scope so that's another one that we looked at uh in closer detail and really what we found is some of the cost assumptions that we're putting into that category of work were being covered elsewhere uh so we were able to lower that cost estimate significantly but have not changed the scope of work of our three options we had for the sped classroom that is still the highest of the options so um just want to clarify there that no scope change on the facility improvements most of this is is changes from refining our numbers which the team has been doing over several months and updating the cost escalation um I would say that the only one that I that I would call out a little bit separate than that is because it's a increase is the Ada we took a look at the cost per square foot we're using for our Ada particularly our elevator improvements and realize that those were those numbers we had been using were too low based upon some of the elevator projects that we've completed recently so we updated those numbers and I think the last one to note um is the admin percentage so since 2012 Bond we've been running somewhere in the five to six percent range for administration for all the bottles that we've used since we started uh preparing scenarios back being this year late last year we've used five percent regardless of the scope that was just sort of an easy number to look at right now 2017 uh project is running about six percent and osm did a fairly quick Staffing model Administration model based upon the 1.1 million scope of work and again we would anticipate it lands somewhere in the five or six uh five percent to six percent range so we are recommending using six percent being a little being a little conservative there uh it's always easy to transfer funds from Administration into projects it's a lot harder to go the other way so that's what our recommendation is and this model shows six percent versus the previous five percent a wee bit higher we were under 100.15 last we looked is that correct correct so we went from about 1.14 to 1.19 one point one eight sorry 1.147 to 1.149 so roughly a two million dollar change largely coming from the curriculum that doesn't I apologize that doesn't include the curriculum so that is just the delta in the cost so I want to call those out differently because there's a bunch of puts and takes so all this refining we've done on cost we look at the bottom line that's less than a one percent change overall it's less than a quarter of a percentage got it when when we factor in now when
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we look at uh the curriculum that is an increase of scope and so that's why that has a cost increase and so with the curriculum addition to the more robust curriculum rollout that is a total change between what we looked at last week to what we're looking at now of approximately 28 million dollars when you include everything Dan one of the issues that was raised last week that's been raised um by various board members over the last two years is money in this bond for the conversion of the second um middle school and outer Southeast is that baked into I think when it got raised last week by director Bailey again I've raised it several times um as well is that baked in here somewhere that's a great question uh it is not in these numbers in the in the materials and and in in the verbiage part so I don't certainly haven't expected directors to read that all um it just makes a note that uh there hasn't been any specific Capital Improvement identified needed for capacity or enrollment changes that said we acknowledge that we're going through a multi-year enrollment uh process right now that could produce uh Capital needs so there could be a number that's identified specifically for capacity or um I might recommend just making sure that we have a robust program contingency that we think could support a future capacity different one identified but I guess for the third option there would be um Claire we have a more flexibility with our construction excise tax fund and would that be an appropriate use for from that um that separate fund of the general fund well it's a separate Capital project fund um but it is it is an appropriate use it's just I believe we have a lot of other work earmarked for those funds already so I would want to work through with the um facilities team to verify what they've earmarked it for I guess I'm confused like we're we're talking about the bond going forward why why if we know that we are going to move I mean we have all these under enrolled k-8s and outer Southeast we know that we're going to do that it's it never is a like no cost move we know what's going to happen sometime in the next four years why wouldn't we plan for it or could can we plan for it um which I think is why the question has been asked several times because we don't want to get into position like well we actually can't open another middle school and outer Southeast because we didn't allocate any money and I know there's a lot of pressure on the construction exercise facts tax so why wouldn't we just put it in in the bond I think there's probably not a perfect answer to that I think so the challenge is what amount would be put into the bond um if there's a specific scope of work that can be estimated um but we haven't and we've estimated some different scenarios over the last few months um but my understanding is none of them have said that yes we're going to need that they're for allocate funds for that scope of work if there's a high level of confidence that we're that the district is going to need X dollars I won't well I can amount um I would um say that what has repeatedly been discussed is the Harrison Park conversion to a middle school and so when we think about what we um did um in terms of cost for converting you know we recently opened several middle schools and so that would be a might be a similar um cost entailed there um we do anticipate that being part of the decision-making process when we do the enrollment program balancing process it had the process has not been completed it the decision has not been made but certainly the board has commented on that multiple times in public meetings so it would um it could be a possibility to set aside for that specific that is one that [Music] um in many of the models as we're preparing to start that work this fall that is part of the models that were will be
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bringing forward for um community community engagement thank you thank you Deputy superintendent hurts um I mean I I just don't want to miss this opportunity I know that amount of pressure is it's on the construction exercise tax and I'm looking at the curriculum enhancements and there's a lot on around the middle school redesign but you'd actually have to have the students in a middle school to actually benefit from that so I just want to make sure that we're thinking several steps out and if we could put a plug number in in there that so that we're ready and prepared for those students in outer Southeast who um you know have a very different Middle grades experience than anywhere else in the most other places in the district um I would appreciate that I think if I can just sort of ask follow-up question on that or just sort of comment I I guess my my concern maybe is that if we're not if we don't know yet I'm I'm not sure I'm in favor of putting a placeholder in for for one particular school um in one particular area what I'm hearing what I think I'm hearing but but um Deputy superintendent hurts correct me if I'm wrong we're going to go through this enrollment and balancing process which is going to generate potentially a number of these types of of requests I mean I I know that I get emails weekly about reopening Smith School um and you know that is potentially an option as we go through enrollment and balancing but I don't think I would advocate for for taking money from some of these other line items um in order to put into that without a little bit more certainty and and so um uh director brim Edwards you know this has come up before although although I will say it didn't come up in sort of the specific way during our committee hearings to say let's you know asking staff to develop or what that cost estimate would be so I'm a little nervous it feels a little last minute to to put a placeholder in that don't know what it's for so I guess this time I'm just with all of your questions last minute we've been ringing this up thank you director Bailey I mean and I recognize so go ahead Scott so you know looking at um you know some of the improvements we did for example at Roseway Heights I um probably some accessibility a bunch of Technology again if we're gonna if we're doing Middle School redesign we have to have the technology and the building and in the classrooms to make that work um so I'm I'm pretty comfortable putting in a placeholder and then flexing from that and I think we're talking on the order of five to ten million um staff can correct me and if if it turns out we don't make that conversion for whatever reason [Music] um there's plenty of other needs within this bond that we can um convert that money to whether it's uh technology we know whether it's Ada you know there's no sort of need out there we have uh had a line item in this earlier in the process just called capacity and I can tell you in the um several years I've been here we have spent quite a significant amount um in in enroll in capacity and I'm hoping that we don't have to add Portables that wouldn't be something that I would recommend but it's certainly the um capacity component having a set aside for that allows for flexibility one of the things that um this pandemic brings is something director Bailey spoke about earlier was the economic impact what I can say is when we have schools open with with the pandemic as well as families are during an economic recession tend to move so we we don't know yet what that's going to look like for the fall but having um having that ability to respond to possible capacity concerns as our enrollments will rebalance at due to both the pandemic and a recession so it doesn't have to be earmarked for a specific site but it is something that is um uh when something we need to consider in the in the long term [Music] so I would just say that potentially we have um for two years the board has added additional funds of this last year was done by staff for those schools in that or Southeast which is the largest concentration of students who are in under enrolled k-8s and have a very different Middle grades experience um and when we added those funds one of
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the um observation was it's not it's not a very efficient way to do it because you end up actually adding more FTE probably than needed in order to get that Equity um so in some ways we by converting making this last conversion and it really is just a unique spot we have a number of one-offs around the district but this is the one spot where there's still the largest concentration of these under enrolled k8s is that you actually will gain some efficiencies um when you're able to staff it at a normal level because you have um a greater concentration of students so hopefully there'll be some give and take in the in the budget that there's a capital expenditure but we actually um don't have an inefficient use of staff in order to try and provide greater equity for those those students who are in those kids Dan before we um I want to make sure that you're done with your presentation before we go on to specific board questions and concerns about the specifics of the option before us and and ideas that board members might have about modifications yeah I'm ready for any other questions I know Claire is going to walk through the the financing plan uh so we could do more questions on the option now or if you'd like to go through that part we could go through that and then take questions at the end I think it probably makes sense to stay here and work through questions um and any potential revisions and then go through the financing plan so um we've just had the suggestion around capacity which I'm I'm trying to remember exactly why that fell off of our options but it did so through board discussion um but um you know I think I think it's safe to say that we are not going to look at um bumping up the number for this Bond overall based on our conversation that we had in our work session last time um so any new ideas that people are bringing forward I think we need to look at in the context of um where funds are showing up as committed on this option but um I would say let's open it up for questions and and clarifications so I guess the only thing I would say say to that is I raised this last director Bailey raised the last meeting I raised it as well it's been raised a number of times we've asked for how much it would cost and we haven't got that and it's not that much it's not that much money um and the overall scheme of things um so I don't want to get to be in the position of take take it out of something else um because it's not a new issue that's being it's being raised um so I feel pretty strongly about that um director brim Edwards then where does the money come from are you proposing that we increase the total by 10 million or I mean because it has to come from somewhere that's fine if that's if that's what people want to do we've raised it multiple times um so I I director from Edwards I want to be really clear and and director Bailey as well you have raised it occasionally as sort of an offhand remark we've had a number of committee meetings and I could go back to look at the minutes of those I don't recall a request from from any board member um specifically saying we'd like to include this is one of the options it didn't go out to the public as part of our um uh process over the last couple weeks as as part of the draft package which we all reviewed that draft package and the multiple options before it went out I didn't see it there I'm not saying it's unimportant I guess what I'm coming back to is what I what I what I don't like is the sort of last minute let's just let's just throw something in we all as board members could come in and bring something and and I'm I'm what I'm hearing from staff is that they actually don't know what the cost would be it's not that they don't think it's important it's that we don't yet know what the cost would be so I I kind of like director uh deputy director hertz's um suggestion it may be as a board if we want to include some for capacity right which we then would need to make a a decision on what it would be um but it wouldn't necessarily be for some things I'm not comfortable including something specific for for something that we haven't don't have staff estimates on that hasn't gone out to the public for briefing and that we haven't been brief I haven't been briefed well I'll just say it's we we've talked about this issue for three years and I know there are some some part of the board is new to the discussion but we we've had this discussion and that we have asked and I don't I'm not sure any other way to do it and um so let me do that yeah when we were uh three plus years ago when we were brand new on the board and we were heading
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towards opening Tubman within a year um and we knew or or it had been well known that significant investment was needed there to get the facility in shape and it hadn't been budgeted um our our new superintendent got a couple of gray hairs right off the get-go um and that was like 17 18 million this is similar in that we know or we're pretty darn sure it's coming so and we have been bringing this up consistently um and in fact in one of the options uh I remember talking to people out there was a 10 million dollar fun Force kind of stuff that's right director Bailey in one of the options that went to the public I think it was the 785 million dollar option there was 10 million dollars for capacity building um it just um unfortunately the issue wasn't Revisited um in our work session last week when we were really talking brass tacks about um building a a specific package that we have here um you you're both absolutely right that the conversation we've been having the conversation for a long time and um it's unfortunate that it wasn't brought forward as we were really trying to winnow this decision-making process but that said um it's not a lot of money I think Deputy superintendent hurts I think in my opinion the right approach is to um have capacity um money's not specifically earmarked for facility and that gives us a little um breathing room around how it might be applied we just need to to work through the other elements here in this option and see whether there's any other discussion on other line items about things that people um have questions about or don't feel comfortable with and then um see see where we end up yeah just to close the loop on that if we're talking about something for capacity building which was in option two that went out something generic that the district can use on a lot of different purposes I would be in favor of that and this may be one of them I would not be in favor of a very specific application if we don't yet know what that what those costs would be so those students in outer Southeast are in the zip code with if we want to look at this from a racial equity and social justice lens or in the zip codes that have so the lowest incomes average incomes in in the city um and you know I I don't think I think uh Deputy superintendent hurts um has a reasonable way to estimate some costs and I don't think it's unreasonable I look at the other Investments that are going to be made that were you know just since last Thursday we had another I don't know 15 million or so just added into curriculum um with some really worthy things but and some worthy things around Middle School redesign but if you're not in a if you're not in a middle school and you have you know less than 150 students in grades six seventh and 8th grade because we haven't um change the the K-8 model then you you're probably not going to get an opportunity to take advantage of that so I would think that staff could come up with an estimate of what would be reasonable superintendent on I mean I don't want to go down too much of a rabbit hole here but you know that's not about Middle School redesign that's about Middle grades redesign and it is appropriate to tie it back to this number for curriculum because that's what our educational experts think is really important on our march on our commitment to equity and student achievement we really haven't heard from our educational experts that the configuration of the building is the single most important for serving historically underserved students or for student achievement now that said we do know that we have work to do but that's um you know that's that's not the only answer there I'm sorry uh director Moore I think I kind of cut you off there so yeah I'm I was just going to make a suggestion that um I I think we were approaching an emerging um consensus position which is to add 10 million dollars under a general category of capacity that would allow um the use of funds to cover um to defray costs of you know a wide range of Capital Improvements
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um and I I think the objection that I heard from director Scott at least was um a hesitation to earmark a certain amount of money for a particular project when we don't have um a real understanding of what the projected cost might be is is that a fair summary Andrew yes it is thank you so um yeah I want to uh uh kind of bridge the gap here um in the last enrollment balancing meeting while while converting Harrison Park is one option that we will have the community consider as we go through this process another possibility is to have a multilingual or a bilingual K8 in which case the other K AIDS could become k5s and all fit into Kellogg so there's there isn't necessarily we aren't necessarily headed for a middle school option there um so uh I think it's it's prudent to have this we'll call it capacity keep it flexible and and go from there but I I would hope that that money gets prioritized and sort of a hold gets put on it until we get to a point in the enrollment balancing process where we have an outcome and no um who need to devote that to a middle school modernization or that modernization but um conversion conversion thanks the director Bailey and Dr Brim Edwards would a 10 million dollar contingency or sorry capacity line item satisfy the issue that you're raising I believe so just based on our experience with Roseway Heights and Tubman was over 20 million but that a lot of that was in the health and safety um because of the air purification so um Dan and Claire and the other folks what I I'm I mean what I heard you say director brim Edwards is you don't want to pull that money from anything that's already listed here in the bond option so is what you're asking for is is that we would go to 1.1 uh let's see I have to do math 1.187 hey director Lowry if we could I'd like to walk through and see if there are other questions or concerns about the individual line items and amounts and see where we end up I think okay I'm hearing consensus about restoring the capacity line item that's been in previous versions and that was put out to the public um I support that I'm hearing consensus so let's just make a note of that and walk through these other items and then see where we are when we get to the bottom thank you I have a couple questions um one is about um in in the information you shared Dan um there's someone had requested uh a budget cost on building Jefferson to one for capacity of 1 000 students versus the Ed Speck of 1700 and I'm wondering if our cost estimate here of 3.05 million is for one thousand or for Seventeen hundred my second question had to do with the mechanical systems considering the covid crisis wondering if 75 million gets us to those um those air exchanges that we want to see you know I know that the many of the systems um the HVAC systems are are in really bad condition and repaired and taped together and I'm wondering if seven I'm just curious about that figure uh what what's included in that is that an upgrade is that brand new replacement or or what yeah two two really good questions um the Jefferson one uh I'll answer first name silver Booker um is that the number that's in there is for the full 1700 so one of the many documents that went out today is an update of all the high school options uh and so uh Jefferson has four potential options two renovation options at 1700 a new construction of 1700 and then a renovation at a thousand um but the what's included in these numbers is a renovation option for the full 1700. uh and the the question of the mechanical system is a great one of all the Scopes of work our mechanical systems are the detail where we I think I'd say we have the least uh we don't have a lot of detailed assessments on our Council systems we know we've got a lot of detail on how poorly they
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function we've got lots of work orders and we've got lots of complaints and we know when they fail but we don't have a lot of professional engineering uh assessments on so we know what the fixes are so the number that you see for the 75 million and I guess I'll back up one thing and it's not a scope of work that we that we as a district have done a lot recently we don't have a lot of familiarity with our system we do know that a full system replacement including all scope controls and everything you know can be north of 10 million dollars we don't think all of our failing systems are going to need that full replacement they just may need controls addressed or they may need their boiler addressed or some other things um so the mechanical estimate is as generic as any of these scope of Works where we're saying a significant uh replacement or retrofit is going to cost us somewhere in the ballpark of five million dollars but we also need to develop what our criteria would be for which schools we would go after first we wouldn't just go after the big projects we would go after where the need is and we need to further Define that criteria because it's not a scope of work that we have done much of in recent years thank you and I was just that's what I was wondering um like how these would be that how the projects would be determined and also recognizing that with with mechanical upgrades are great opportunities for um Energy Efficiency improvements amazing deals with um with companies that um offer like a a pay-as-you-go options for for large projects like this and we've done some of that in the past I'm uh on the bond side there hasn't been a lot so I think it's more in the facility side before I got in the position where there's been some of the past so we can probably get you some good data that will be new to me as well uh director to pass on on some of the work that we've done in recent years um but also kind of a more Global to quickly answer the question about how are the projects prioritized once we've we've landed on a scope osm is going to go through a process of creating really up on completion plan and we we've done a similar process after the 2017 where for individual scopes of work for example our asbestos abatement we identified what our assessment was and what the criteria was that we would use for how we would prioritize the projects then we reviewed those so we brought in the education side we brought another stakeholders to review that criteria identified what projects those were and then we presented those to the board and said here's how we plan on going after all of these uh different scopes of work so that is one of the next steps that we will take once we land on on a scope of on a bond package so Dan uh as part of the facilities assessment that's been going on for reopening um have there been um when I'm my understanding is that there have been areas of some schools that have been identified as unusable because of poor ventilation would that is is that true and would that be thinking ahead one of the criteria going forward um certainly criteria as far as um you know the the health and safety air quality are going to be need to be part of the criteria for where we prioritize our work uh we have not gone through the summer and identified areas that that we've said that we would not occupy um which isn't to say that there doesn't need to be some discussion about what what that would be in in a hybrid model going forward um we have prioritized our mechanical systems we have prioritized fixing our sinks over the summer because we know hand washing is important and we have prioritized some of that scope of work that maybe in a normal year wouldn't be the priority okay thanks other other questions or comments on these other line items um I have two go ahead I'm sorry go ahead Daniel okay thank you um so first is about seismic it looks like there's been about a two million dollar increase and um I was wondering just one uh what where that money is going and to if we might be able to increase it as I said in the work session still have such a great need yeah okay uh do you have another question or I think you said two or those yeah I was just wondering if you might want to answer that first my apologies
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um so it's a great question about the seismic scientific is a challenging scope of work um uh what is in this particular scope is we've identified I'll back up you have a little bit of context um over the years I'm not exactly sure how many uh seismic grants we've received we received probably seven or eight in the last seven or eight years seismic grants uh from the state uh and so those require full retrofits of schools and that amount has increased from 1.5 million to 2.5 million uh over the last handful of years uh we've been very successful at getting those grants and providing matching funds and taking those schools and bringing them up to current building code uh though that's been great what that has also done is it's sort of taken away our inventory of the low-hanging fruit of schools that were able to fully retrofit for a relatively small amount of funds so what we've identified here in this in this scope is schools that are on the state's unreinforced masonry list We Believe will also because of their roof need we'll get a roof Improvement which is a good time to do seismic improvements also our Roofing itself is very seismically important to the structure so if we coupled a poor performing building that's getting a roof replacement or saying we might be able to add some funds to do a seismic retrofit and bring that school up to full uh building code at that same point in time so really we're targeting just a handful of schools that this might apply to versus a more broad brush of doing some sort of limited improvements throughout the district that wouldn't bring it up to any identified standards that like a lot of words does that make sense yeah so you're saying that really adding more money wouldn't do anything because we need to add a whole bunch to have any substantive impact very yeah great way to put it we're starting to add more money and it's substantially more money but it's not getting us that many more schools and so certainly our modernizations is our best most cost efficient opportunity to bring buildings up to code as we're effectively tearing them apart anyway and then we have the economies of scale and um just wondering where the extra 2 million is going that was added in from the last one good question that uh was from when we had the original estimate of 15 million we went and took a look back at some of what those cost estimates were uh and the assumptions around square footage and it's really more of a refinement than it is as a specific adding another scope of work okay thank you absolutely I um can I follow up with that um thank you for bringing that up Nathaniel um I had almost forgotten about this um so among the options that um you've provided for Jefferson is one with a seismic upgrade um increasing adding about two percent to the total cost um so instead of 305 it would be 311 million um can you talk about what that additional two percent would get us yes yeah great question so our all modernizations are are brought up to current building code um which is referred to as category three uh life safety threshold uh our pps's standard is all our modernizations are new modernizations so this didn't happen with the 2012 it happened with 2017 uh modernizations and new construction is there's also a space within the building that that structurally is increased to the additional higher level category 4 which is called the media occupancy uh there's one space in each building usually it's the gym or the cafeteria and we don't specify what space it is so when schools especially when they're retrofits they can look and see what's the best space and what's the most cost of efficient uh space that can that can be used for an emergency shelter if needed in the case of emergency uh it would also be the most cost efficient option what has been requested in this originally began with the bond accountability committee is recommending to increase all of the structural from from code to the media occupancy level for all new construction buildings they're not recommending for retrofits they're recommending Ford new construction and so we asked our cost estimator to give us a number for what that would be
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due to the complexity of the complexity more the Simplicity of the master plans and how the costs are estimated even our modernizations have components of new construction and retrofit so what what was applied was a two percent to the hard cost of all the projects and so what that represents is increasing our from our standard of of meat code have one area that's a higher level of stability to anything that's new the whole thing would meet the higher level of structural stability a worthy uh worthy goal for a relatively small amount additional increment of money um and so can we consider that as part of this Bond Rita just to just to to chime in if we're going to be philosophically consistent here where we were if we are to consider that for Jefferson we should consider it for MPG which is on here as well because this MPG number does not um contemplate the higher uh seismic in in just one note to that we did not estimate for MPG what that cost would be when the recommendation came I might not remember this uh exactly but I think it came Sometime Late last year late 2019 the mpg budget was that prior to that in June so uh and and when the recommendation came and this could have been that could admire my assumption was that would apply to new projects going forward not projects that were already on the books uh so just just making the note that uh we don't have an estimate for the npg building if um if Jefferson were in modernization would that mean the building would be kind of a patchwork of level three and level four protection if if we increased and yes a little pejorative that uh I meant a mix um yeah I see what you mean um yes if we said we want to do the the increase for anything that's new yeah any new structure that would go out there which they do have some new structures would be a level four whereas like the existing building would be to level and again for the folks at home level four means reusable and level three means not necessarily reusable in the case of a major earthquake that everybody can walk out safely in in shorthand it's a little more complex than that but that's a great plain English explanation yeah so I really appreciate Nathaniel and and read his questions on this and I think the difficulty we're in is that we've kind of put staff in a tough spot because because we don't have a district policy board is not said we want to be at level four um you know the BAC has asked us um I think on multiple occasions um to take another look at that um so I I think this is an interesting question in terms of of this is the decision point right you know moving forward um and do we as a board want to do that and I think if we if we're doing it here we really are making a policy decision that we'll want to do in future bonds as well we can come back and revisit that but um maybe get a sense of how other board members feel about that and and again just to to come back down to the details you think it would be about a six million dollar increase to Jefferson to do Jefferson to that level and do you have any idea of M for MPG um or is this just a yeah from three percent as a yeah from a percentage standpoint I mean shooting from the hip which I shouldn't do but yeah it's I mean this estimate is high level it's it's a two percent NPC is going to be um MPG is in the position that we could do a more detailed estimate uh but having not done that yeah it's probably going to be a safe assumption it's going to be the same ballpark maybe I shouldn't say a assumption so I I'll I'll weigh in um I uh I think if it is doable we should aspire to have our buildings
05h 00m 00s
um ready to serve as Community shelters after a seismic event if it's doable um I was led to believe several years ago that it was really not financially doable um I think a two percent increment in cost is imminently doable um so I I think it's an opportunity lost if we don't take advantage of this moment um to up our game in um in modernizing the high schools so uh let me ask for a clarification um are we talking all construction or new construction director Moore well I believe we're just talking new construction well I I just wanted clarified what what she's putting on the table okay so where we're we're very fast approaches to limits of Life knowledge and understanding of construction um um and if it's possible I mean this is where the doability factor comes in um if if it would really be cost prohibitive to um to do the upgrade for modernizing existing structures then then um but but I would say wherever possible we should we should try to achieve the level four and it's also I mean I I suspect that might be um a possible compelling argument for the Jefferson Community to consider new construction um I I have a question I still don't understand with um upgrading the seismic from level three to level four is it more expensive it would seem it would be more expensive to retrofit than to do brand new is that the case so we're talking about a two percent increase if it's a retrofit situation not brand new construction the the two percent is for new construction uh we don't have an estimate for retrofit and uh I'm I haven't read it recently but I'm 95 certain that the the BSC does not recommend uh upgrading retrofits to level four because cost prohibitive it's just more expensive to do that and one other uh maybe it's a minor point of clarification is immediate occupancy can mean multiple things this is talking about increasing the structural level to that so uh really just the structural system when you hear about mediocracy buildings that also fix into account other things like utilities upgrading utilities so those could function after a large earthquake this is not considering those components as well so the operation of a building uh would very much would be in question uh it's just the structural components would be more uh could be upset to the budget summary that we have and their numbers are there for what the seismic upgrade would be for new construction as well as for the the renovation option for Jefferson and they're both about I mean one's five million for new construction six million for renovation and just to clarify the renovation that's just for the new construction portions of right that project okay got it yeah sure constant um as the board continues to discuss adding funds to yeah the project I think it would be a great time for me to present the capacity that's been used um with their current um before editions um and I wonder if we might want to look at the financial presentation just to frame this right as as people um understand you know as they're considering adding more things I I think it's important for the board to understand the capacity that's already being used by the current option great great idea otherwise known as a reality check
05h 05m 00s
so if we want to go on to the next slide thank you um and I hope that you have those materials in hand so that you can make the numbers larger for you um at least for me I need them a little bit larger so this first slide shows what bonds we have issued to date okay so if you see the yellow bar across the top where it says outstanding Geo bonds so this is what we have issued these are not the program years these are the years we actually sold the bombs okay so um sometimes that can be as you're looking at the column headings that can be confusing these are the years of the bond sale and then often all the way to the left is the fiscal year the for each um row and as you go across you can see that we have in 2000 if you just use 2014 as an example um we had two Bond sales that we had a Debt Service for 43.2 million and then that went against the total assessed value for the school district boundaries and you can see that we had a dollar about nine cents as a bond rate and then if you scroll down to 2020 where it's highlighted in blue you can see for um this past year that we have had we had 124 million in debt service for multiple Bond sales and then against the current assessed value um would that had uh five percent growth so the over the previous year you can see we had a rate of 241 for our patrons and so this just shows um our future debt that's already in place you can see what we have to pay even without going forward you you can see what is anticipated um for our debt service what we need to pay um the bonds we've already issued now how is that relevant let's go to the next slide so here this this is also those say that same Debt Service but it's in a graphical format so this is the debt that we have issued again you'll see the colors and the years those are the years that we sold the bonds those are not the years that we was what we would call the bond program years okay so you can see in um each one of them you can see and we issued Bonds in 2013 there's um you see the yellow at the very bottom that's our first issuance and then you go to the Light Blue for 2015. so you can see we have worked to stair step this all along historically so creating those niches for future debt okay and then our latest issue that we did this spring that was the remainder of the 2017 Bond program in the dark blue you can see the 2020 that was just um peppered in there on top okay so then going to the next slide if you look at the top of this one you'll see projected Levy rates 1.1 billion for November 2020 authorization and then if you go out four years later and issue another 900 million um that would be for um your current list for the 1.1 and the 900 million would be the two high schools plus another third for a um you know roofs and seismic and all those other things that we'd want to do so you can see um what our debt structure would look like if you look at the 1.1 billion we would issue it in multiple um sets of um Bond issues we wouldn't issue them all at once and you'd see the the blue turquoisey colors going across where we're continuing to stair step and then if you go out four years and we issue another 900 million you can see the purple um that we would actually fill in for an eight-year program at that point but then leaving good stair steps for the future again an eight-year increments so I just want to open that up for questions I want you to see that quite a bit we're we're maintaining that two dollars and fifty cent rate across
05h 10m 00s
um all future Bond um a level Levy rate for our taxpayers um but then we have um as we've stated tonight many more projects many more schools to go and so I just want to remind us how much of our capacity that we're using based on the next two Bond sales that our next two Bond programs that this board has been talking about now we are bringing to you a 10-year plan that um we are we'll be working on that um Dan has been talking to you a little bit about that that that's that work is starting in this next year and that will help us then um really think about how what our priorities will be with the facilities assessment work that we've done and then having that long-term discussion where we can really look at what are we doing over the next 20 to 30 years in terms of getting to modernizing our buildings okay so I just wanted to frame that because I wanted you to see how much of it had filled in from those two Bond projects that um that this board has been discussing already meaning the 2020 and the 2024 Bond projects so deputies superintendent hurts thank you this is really helpful um so is it is it oversimplifying to say we have roughly two billion dollars of bond capacity over the next 12 years um and the decisions we're making today about this Bond whether we're you know increasing 10 million for capacity or a few million dollars for seismic at Jefferson or sort of other decisions we either offset that within the amount we're talking about or we're just we're reducing the amount of that future Bond that'll be issued and sort of again eliminate a little bit more what we do in the future that that's the trade-off that is a boardroom right and I think that we will um as we get to the 10-year plan that we are or you know that we'll even look what what do we need over 20 and 30 but that long-term plan um we're going to need every dollar that we can get and I just want us to remind us that each time that we set a higher and higher standard that takes us longer to get to all of our buildings in the in the district and I'm not I'm not trying to discourage um your thinking but I also want you to recognize our buildings have lots of needs and and as we continue to increase each project that tends to carry forward in the next project and I don't I I wouldn't um believe that future boards would probably want to make the standard go down so I just want to I want us to think about what are our standards long term um I don't think we've developed them that you talked about that earlier tonight um director Scott that um we what are our standards and what do we need to accomplish in all of our buildings and what is our capacity so I I just want to caution us of as we continue to want to add more and more to this one to remind us that we have a long-term objective as well yeah I really appreciate that and I think that that and and that that framing because as with all of these discussions it's the trade-offs that are important and it's really easy to say well of course we want to go to level four on seismic um and and everyone does but but when you when you then sort of put that up against going to level four on seismic for for these buildings really for the next three high schools right um would also mean that some of our middle school and Elementary School students would stay in leaky buildings or buildings without good boilers without good roots for longer um and that's really the trade-off we're looking at and even given that I I actually think director Moore has made a strong case and I think as we particularly in the Northwest in the subduction zone um you know there have been enough of those reports from City Club and other places um you know that that really talk about the need to be thinking about resiliency right and resiliency after the the big earthquake um that that I I think I probably um can get behind sort of going to level four for some of these projects but but I think it's really important that we we know it's not Costless um there will be people and and projects impacted by this for for a decade to come by making that decision so thanks for that please don't take from me that I don't support resiliency because that is not the case I actually agree that um having uh places for our community to go when we have a large earthquake is an important um service that we could provide to our community and when we're building new buildings it it sure is um the additional cost is well worth um the effort I just wanna I just wanted as we're a little there's each board member has brought up a different perspective of what is important to them and I you know as we keep adding I just
05h 15m 00s
want to remind us of the long term that's all thank you thank you I'm assuming there's no questions on the numbers no um Can can I just um kind of respond to the the cautionary note which I appreciate and yes nothing is concrete free um but but I'm going to throw something out there um as a possibility and I I I have to say I do not know if this has been thoroughly explored um but um there is a shared responsibility um across this County to develop um resiliency plans and um I think the school district is willing to do its its bit um even within extremely scarce resources um to serve as a resource for the the larger Community after a seismic event um what I don't know is whether we have engaged with um the county and the city particularly the county which is as I understand it responsible for um the the shelter portion of the seismic resiliency plan um I don't know whether we have fully explored the possibility of some cost sharing um so nothing is cost free but um it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to be the sole bearer of the cost so I I maybe I may be delusional here um I mean the county is as strapped for cash as we are um but but if we're talking about kind of long-term planning I think it's something that we I I would encourage the district to explore possibilities that's all right Deputy superintendent hurts so we're looking at almost 1.2 billion for eight years and you're projecting a 900 million eight-year in four years so it's really um the 1.1 or 1.2 depending on where you guys land is a four-year program and then the following would be 900 million over an eight-year program the purple goes for eight years right and then what's what would an eight-year Bond look like after that in terms of our capacity you have uh there are so many variables there um so I we haven't run that model I haven't heard from you guys yet what we're looking for and really we probably want to um have our long-range planning in place um before we start setting up those models but there is there is significant capacity in in the future but it is we're using 12 years worth of capacity so I just want to make sure so I I'm just wondering looking at this if it looks like we're um might be constrained for that not not the next one but the one after that um in terms of a smaller dollar amount so what's hard to know is how much growth we're going to have in in the Portland metropolitan area I do believe after the pandemic that will continue to grow and so that increased um assessed value is does create more capacity as we go forward not only just the allowable three percent increase but also new units and new buildings so okay and Scott the other thing I would just uh you know this but just just realize I mean we we have made sort of a policy decision to keep the the tax rate at 250 but of course future boards can make a policy decision to increase that or decrease that which would increase or decrease our overall capacity well they they can try to persuade the voters to increase that capacity precisely precisely okay so um I'm um again real realizing that we're uh proposing a pretty big Bond um because a lot of what we've added to
05h 20m 00s
it is um building new schools I mean the uh when I look at at the 300 and uh what's the combined 365 million for the Jefferson cluster which potentially could be three schools depending on on how things pencil out um I'm I'm okay with spending spending a little more up front to get some uh news new multiple new schools in play what I think it's important and this is where um what Dan brought up about the 305 million as kind of a number for Jefferson we've seen uh with the other high schools that having a firm dollar amount um access uh it brings some discipline to the planning um and so the the planning process is well here's what we'd like that ends up costing a little bit over that so there's some value engineering and it goes to this back and forth back and forth um and I'm a little worried that the 305 gets used as we've got this much to spend to design for um without a when potentially we could spend 20 million or more or less um so I'm wondering if if saying this amount will go to the Jefferson cluster including uh rebuilt Jefferson High School um would bring some bring those trade-offs into play to say um if we are a little more disciplined over here it gives us more money for this other school to be rebuilt in the cluster does that make sense I'm not sure I'm tracking specifically what you're suggesting director Bailey sorry if it's just me at 10 30 at night yeah that may be it um I'm trying to uh think how was the what's the bond wording gonna be around the um how much we spend in the Jefferson cluster so Roseanne could you please put back the slide of the options so I think just as we've done with um all of our with our previous bonds and our modernization proposals um although I would say we are much more diligent and I think much more accurate um here the number attached to Jefferson High School is just the the estimate that came from our external cost estimators um so that's pretty clear what that represents and then the center for black student Excellence we have a breakdown in the budget summary about how much would go toward Master planning um you know 40 what was it 40 or 42 million for actual facilities improvements in the Clusters so um and I think the wording should be changed here as it's written planning design and pre-construction because it's more than that it's actual um facilities improvements so the way we have it described in the budget summary is um should take out the pre construction and implementation so so really yeah just construction it's actually construction in school and potentially School improvements yep which I think um since given the size of the number for 40 plus million that it would be good to recognize that I agree um small issue so I I mean just if I'm I'm if I'm if I'm hearing you right director Bailey I I personally wouldn't support um aggregating those two numbers because I think it's important for the the high schools to have a really clear budget that is just tied very directly to the cost estimates for that project Well here here's the thing um this is true of all three high schools uh there was really no constraint um in that planning process
05h 25m 00s
um and and so that's you know we have a very late breaking um you know completely uh new construction at Jefferson which shows some possible substantial savings so I think we want to let the community have some you know since we heard from the community that they were interested in Saving the facade initially I think like director depos said we need to go back to the community and let them kind of you know make that decision so I'd hate for us to shortchange that Community um but I do think you know if they end up with a 281 if which is the cost estimate for the new construction then you know that's a conversation of what other things where do we roll that money and I think you know that putting it towards the center for black Excellence is an option um so I you know it's it's late so I'm a little foggy but okay so far as this the two sort of concrete proposals that I've heard from board members is to add like 10 million for capacity and to look at um a two percent increase on new construction um that would bring us to that higher seismic capacity um so that would be I think five million Edition that we're looking at and I'm just wondering what are the other places in this that we're we're wondering um and looking at um to refine or have some questions about director nowry I'm sorry Scott were you no I think that's 12 10 10 for capacity and two for the mpg we don't we don't well was that Dan did you have a number I thought you said did I miss something because it's possible uh so the the estimate for Jefferson is six um if there's a desire we don't have an estimate for MPG [Music] um well we don't have one if we want to approximate something we can um I mean it's it's going to be uh you know an estimate that's very quickly generated yeah hey Dan did do these numbers presuppose the state seismic match or not um uh when you say the seismic match I'm not sure um the grants per the state grants program for seismic improvements these do not these do not assume that we're going to get a grant for any of the of the building or like just doesn't assume that we would get uh noticeable I'm not sure if it would if it would even qualify um it may but I'm not sure okay they're also they're competitive grants Amy so that it's not necessarily right you can't count on it yeah um to your question director Lowry I have one other area where I would like to um make a recommended change and it is cost neutral and I think I emailed everyone about this but really um looking more closely at the the line items here for special education classrooms which are Focus option classrooms and making facilities improvements to those and then Ada accessibility I would like to see us combine those two categories um so um 31.4 million and really imagine that as special education um supports and accessibility so that we can think more broadly about what do what does inclusive education really look like and really use our resj framework on um what facilities improvements um most serve our values around inclusive education and I think um you know all this does is it it may possibly free up more money for accessibility or even adaptive technology under that um but we've heard um I've had some conversations in the community and I think we've all seen some emails too about concerns about this investment specifically in the special education classroom so um I just think it's an it's an opportunity for us to have more discussion and to really put this under more of a spotlight with our resj framework around inclusive education
05h 30m 00s
um so all I'm suggesting is combining those and keeping it cost neutral and taking um having a community-led process around what do those improvements look like actually um I I probably support combining them although before we combine them I'd like to have and I raised this issue at the last meeting um the level of investment and Ada um we picked or what ended up is the lowest level of um investment of the three three levels and there's been a there's been an adjustment and I I'm not sure quite why in The Narrative that accompanied the Ada Investments because when I was looking through the May 19th one I thought okay why wouldn't we go for the high end of investment because basically what it said is that you get um the every every school the main level of the building is accessible and it was like yes that would be huge progress I'm like I want to buy that but then um which it wasn't even that it wasn't a substantial increase um and then when I saw the materials that came out this week there's been an adjustment in how it's described um and it sounds like when you get that but you don't get any there's like no elevators I'm just wondering if you can speak to that because when I look at sort of the the big bump up and the curriculum which I think is it's great but I also think that we have and there was a lot of conversation last board meeting about meeting the division 22 compliance that I look at we have a federal law that was passed um last century um that we are not in compliance with and I can say I got pretty excited when I looked at the budget option that said we could have every Main the main floor of every built School building be accessible and just going back to last meeting I think superintendent Guerrero very eloquently talked about how not only every student would have an opportunity to access their classrooms but um parents and other community members would also have access to the most important part of our schools so I'm just curious about what happened but then the number increased we're still at the at the lowest investment on Ada that was among the packages and then the top investment or the the one that's it's actually not even that much substantially over the the lowest investment but the one at 33 million actually sounds different now and I'm wondering sort of what happened and wouldn't that be a big step forward in meeting our Ada compliance issues or not not in compliance but really what we want for all of our families uh yeah director those are great questions and so what I'm going to do is I want to ask our senior program manager who I believe is telling the called giant John Lyons uh and John if you would just give an overview of the scope of the options and also if you wouldn't mind speaking to um the Ada transition plan that we're in the process of updating I believe uh we're getting close to wrapping up our communication but you can correct me on that as well uh and then talk about how that ADA plan these options and then the future Bond might all dovetail together and it Mary murts my piano as well but uh John do you mind kicking us off yeah absolutely um good evening everyone so just to address the question about our our first option here the previous numbers you saw were around 11 million dollars and what that gets us is one configurable excuse me one accessible school at each configuration per cluster so that recently went up from 11 million to 17 million um just based on a standardized elevator cost that we applied to all of our our cost estimates the the language around the main level accessibility that was just referenced there's 33 million dollars now there there's more detail there but philosophically that um that approach is no different so that main level accessibility never included any elevators which is why there's such a minor Delta between our lowest option and our highest option what main level accessibility does get you is is um access to all of your essential programming when that is Library gym cafeteria restroom and and your classrooms of course
05h 35m 00s
sorry go ahead no I should say I just want to clarify because this is really Illuminating um so for 16 million dollars more instead of having it one school at each level in each cluster every school in PPS would be accessible the main the main level that's exactly right yeah and elevators are buying by far the largest expense in accessibility so by eliminating that scope of work um we're able to stretch those dollars much farther and and just to follow up on Dan's question about the Ada transition plan if I could make a plug here um the draft of the Ada transition plan is on the district website pbs.net accessibility I would encourage everyone to go and view that we've gotten some Community feedback already I will say main level accessibility is rising as the most Salient or preferred option from the folks that we've talked to so far we are having three virtual Town Halls later this summer to further gather Community feedback um how this would dovetail into future spending or future bonds I think I would prefer not to go into that with the answers and just really let the transition plan guide that work but no the way we're framing it currently in the transition plan is is with this lowest option um just because it's been historically the most prominent one in the conversations to date and just to clarify for 16 million dollars more than what we've got there instead of just doing one per High School cluster every school is the same level so it's not a it's not a different level of scope by school it's just you you can do them all it's it is a different level of scope because we wouldn't be able to access the second level of schools that are multi-level without elevators currently you're saying in the 16 the 17 million that includes the elevators correct okay this okay so director brim Edwards are you suggesting uh 17 million addition to Ada then well um that I don't want to say that I'm raising this last minute because I have I did raise it at earlier meetings like I think this is an investment we need to make in 2017 um we you know made I think some progress but we I think need to do more and in order for all of our students to have access I mean just such a basic thing to have access to our buildings um so I I support well I want to be clear that like we had a lot of conversations and I do know that something's dropped off and I know that you know you have advocated for a lot of these things and director constant I know you've advocated for lots of different things as well but this is kind of where we've landed and so if we're looking at changing I mean I'm just trying to keep track of all the things we're considering adding um and so is that I mean is that your what you're asking the board to consider is adding 16 million to that ADA accessibility I'm just trying to understand what you're saying yeah so last Thursday when we had a conversation I raised this issue and um I think what staff said was we're listening very intently and there were some adjustments that were so there weren't any adjustments made in this other than if it's just a higher cost but in this particular area so I continue to think that we should make that investment because um we're 30 years behind and I mean having um a nephew who has needed lots of not mpps but needed lots of adjustments to the physical space in order to be able to fully access a um his school experience I think about all the other kids and frankly families that aren't able to do that because of just our old building so I I support going with the higher option and I I think uh director constant was a good idea to meld the two together to have to get some synergies as well would you would you propose taking that out of a line item in this so we're taking it out of the the 2024 Bond take it out of the 2024 Bond because um I mean I just think we should be continuing to make investments if you look at also our polling there's always strong support for I mean it's one of the highest ranked numbers of people of what our community says that they expect us to be investing in so health safety
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and accessibility HSA has always been sort of the core of our our investments and I know we the modernization provides provide health safety and accessibility Investments but in the meantime we've got a lot of other schools that need updates so I would just ask so Dan hi this is director Larry again I just decided to make an estimate for MPG and I'm going to put 2 million um so by my count uh we've got 10 million for capacity 6 million for increasing the seismic of Jeff 2 million for the multiple Pathways and then 16 million for Ada which would be an increase of uh again it's late and I have to do math wait 34. yeah 34 million dollars additional are there other things that we're thinking about that I mean I know director constant you made your cost neutral um proposal but are there other things that yeah and part of that class part of that the purpose behind that cost neutral proposal is um anticipating that there would be a shift there could be a shift from allocations toward our special education classrooms which um are not in service to our values I believe around entirely around inclusive education yes they are needed but I'm I I still don't feel comfortable with that level of investment just in our segregated special education classroom so I wonder how much of that could be shifted to um inclusive accessibility projects so that wouldn't um I I don't think we have the information to drop that line item and absorb it only into the overall physical Ada accessibility improvements but I would like to see those combined and then um would be open to considering more because I do I do agree that this is a fundamental it's not only a fundamental value it's a fundamental right that all of our students should be able to access their neighborhood schools and it's not a lot of money but I also don't want to go above um you know I certainly don't want to go above 1.2 million dollars this is where we pulled this is a lot of money these we we can make these adjustments and I'd like to see us have some discipline here one of the reasons why um you know we're seeing these big numbers is because we're seeing we have a bit of a hangover here from the 2017 bond which comes partly from increased scope that was came from decisions that the board made about things that were very worthy and necessary for our students for which we had no budget and so um it's kind of a kick in the can down the road um so I just would like to see us um have a hard conversation about where we want to land and I don't know if my colleagues support increasing the overall number but if we need to have a conversation about that so um if we're going to if we're going to substantially raise the amount of money for this Bond um I I know we don't have all of the the planning materials we would need to do a thorough comprehensive view of future future bonds but um I think we do have to pay attention to um the implications for the next Bond um because I just want to note that um Roosevelt expansion has completely dropped off the radar at this point and um I suspect they can based on the information that I have um I I think that the um the existing facility with the phase four expansion um we'll be able to accommodate uh enrollment growth for the next few years but probably not indefinitely so um I would like to know you know if we bump it up even more bump up this Bond even more what is what are the implications for the next Bond and what major projects um will be able to be accommodated in the next Bond so I'm just going to raise and go back to our last meeting last Thursday because at that time we had 29 million
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dollars in curriculum and now we have 50 53 so we had a 24 million dollar increase in the curriculum and the 29 million was sold or described as a fully funding of our curriculum needs so then it went up 24 million and I I don't think we should be in a position of like who's ever in the last last in the door or who's ever you know when I raised the last week it was we're gonna we're listening we're you know it sounded like something was going to be included that we should um ask those groups that didn't whose issues didn't get in like uh funding Ada at a higher level when other when other numbers change to like what would you cut um out of out of the package because to me you know other things have been added without that same level of scrutiny of you know if we're going to add 24 million from curriculum you know why wasn't the taken from something else um and you know I I look at it that I I think in speaking to the general public um us fulfilling a um much broader commitment on making our buildings accessible to students and their families um is a conversation a great conversation to have with our community because I think they'll be very very supportive but I I don't want to get into it we're going to fully fund it Ada and you know and specialized students are going to have theirs there's you know the things that were added for them cut um because then it becomes like a zero-sum game of hitting you know students and families with needs against each other so it is a zerosome game and I don't want us to lose sight of that and I think that it's just really important that we be honest and transparent with one another and staff and the public that whether we take it from a line item in this Bond or whether we take it from the next Bond it is something something else that we're not going to do and that doesn't mean we don't support it but I think it's actually it's kind of irresponsible to pretend like we can do it without having some sort of an offset um and all of these you're absolutely right the curriculum increase um was an offset same thing and if as a board we want to talk about that um we we can have that conversation right about whether we want to make that increase but I just I think it's really important that we don't we don't pretend like there's there's there's money that we can create here because there's not so making the increases are baking the increases in curriculum or the increases you're talking about will by definition mean we do something less either in this Bond or in the 2024 Bond it might mean we don't get the Roosevelt expansion in the 2024 bond is that a trade-off you're willing to make and I know you don't want to commit to that specific um conversation because we don't know what the trade-off is but there will be a trade-off I think it's important to acknowledge okay I but I already said I'm being completely transparent I would take it from the 2024 Bond because I think the um community that hasn't had access to our school buildings I've waited for a pretty long time and so I'll be completely transparent I'll take it from the 2024 Bond and um you know I I think on all these issues and I don't think just last in like you got to cut something else and I really don't want to be pitting sped students special ed students against students who need access to our building so I like clear I think I've been misunderstood because um I was not uh I was not posing any um choice between special education classrooms and Ada accessibility I was saying that I really would feel comfortable with more of an examination about around investment in segregated special focused classrooms with our resj framework because we really haven't had that conversation and I I can imagine that I would absolutely be convinced of the necessity of this inform of this investment for our focused classrooms but we we haven't had that level of of conversation with the community and I I really want us to include looking at disabilities in all of our Equity work and that includes having access to our buildings but also in looking hard at our delivery models and do they serve an inclusive view of of how we want to educate all kids so that's why I'm just suggesting um putting those numbers together so that it allows us more flexibility for those conversations but it's not in either or and it's not necessarily A gutting of those focused classrooms
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but it allows us more flexibility and then we may um I I would support adding enough to our accessibility Investments here that we could make a commitment that that every uh kid with a physical disability would be able to access the first floor of of their school I mean that's a that's a hugely that's a right it's a right um and and we and we're behind and part of our role at the governance level is um to be stewards of of not just what our students deserve but also our compliance requirements okay um I have a question for the superintendent and maybe Dr Valentino and or um which is what's the absorption absorption rate for new curriculum I mean I think the original number was 29 million um this one's 53 something along those lines can you do all that in four years so part of that if you look at the 53 part of that does include the middle school we design which over uh time is 10 million establishment right uh and that was for the capacity and the redesign of the middle school so if you take that out you're at 43 the increase is to do a couple of things one is excuse me to expand the ethnic studies program PK 12 or K-12 and PK would add their their portion to so that we could create a Continuum PK around ethnic studies uh would be one the other one is really to look at the practices that would be part of the Middle School redesign um portfolio which includes Project based and problem-based learning so it's really using resources to begin to Pilot and prepare people for that as we consider the Middle School redesign including catalog and other schools that would that would be able to Pilot uh the model alongside that um and so and the and the other is the integrated curriculum work that we're looking at we began to look at math and ESL But realize that what we need to do is to expand it more broadly more comprehensively across um the across steam which is integration of math science and technology and and in addition to that we began to integrate language arts with social studies and actually are looking at integrated ESL expansion and so those were things that were left out when we went back to 29 million or they were there originally then when it was reduced back to 29 million some of those items were removed and so they they've been put back um the one that is the big change is the 10 the 10 million dollars for the Middle School redesign and that figure comes from previous I believe previous documentation that that I had seen um that was confirmed by director room Edwards I not that there was a number like that in the past that was added on as well as from confirmation from Miami-Dade and the cost that uh they incurred for each school when they when they did the Middle School redesign so that that's why those increases are there okay now I it's all good stuff that's um my question is How uh can you a staffing capacity to implement that's a lot um or it seems like a lot to me can that be done in four years we our our plan was to front load some of these things so that they would then scale up right so they would start small and then scale up and some of those things would be constant across all five and one of the things that in speaking with the superintendent we made clear is that we would not impact all all teachers at the same time or all schools at the same time but would be able to to sort of structure it so that it happened in cohorts and then we build out it shows that up but and that's a four-year project five years five years five years we're working off of a five grade trajectory knowing that in the in the fit that if we once we rescale our capacity we would not be seeking the additional funds uh needed or they would be absorbed by general fund dollars for sustainability of some of these things okay so my um um you know shifting money around would it make sense to get the last tranche of that in the 2024 Bond
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uh which would then maybe free up 10 million sooner for Ada and and maybe that's a bad idea but I'm just gonna thrown out there to get us to a place where we're doing a trade-off that actually doesn't affect our workflow director Bailey I think we could also ask that same question of technology in terms of the capacity to implement all the work under consideration but superintendent I imagine these were all questions that you and your staff went through as you worked late into the night last night on refining these numbers and numerous staff on the screen contest that I was firing all questions on my uh on many of these topics they're good questions they're all trade-offs what do you want to prioritize could we go another four years without curriculum at some grade levels in some content areas we have for 15 years so uh I just feel the greater urgency so uh there is a good question director Bailey is asking how how much can we actually sort of introduce uh and and reasonably expect a teachers and wants to be prepared to to support of course we need so much work and material across grade levels and different content areas so Dr Valentino and I have this exact conversation earlier today around we would not we want to sequence those curricular adoptions because we don't want to saturate a given teacher to do language arts Math and Science all at the same time so of course that would be a consideration and just to be more accurate about what I've stated last Thursday about what the prior number would afford US is it ensures us being compliant to division 22 there actually is an identified curriculum um in the core subject areas but what we were proposing that was missing and what I described as being modest was the ability to do the more Innovative work that we want to see in the Middle grades with ethnic studies with African-American studies with computer science Etc and so this gives us the opportunity to really accelerate that work um so could we take it from here I you know that's that's a decision for the board to make could we go with new construction behind a historic facade and save 95 million dollars with Cleveland and Jefferson that's another route we could take so I think all of it you know is is on the table here I'm I'm listening uh this evening to the board sort of think about those questions and I think we all want to be prudent and strategic about taking seriously these public resources that were being entrusted potentially uh with and I think we can make a compelling case I know that we're fine-tuning uh here but um I think we want to make sure our buildings are are safe and that they're accessible and that there's good things happening in them uh at the same time so we're trying to strike that balance I understand foreign I'm gonna uh I I think we need to get to a decision point on this so from a process standpoint uh tell me if this is the right thing I'm going to go ahead and make a motion um to move forward the proposal that was put on the table the one that we have in front of us from staff and then I think board members um all the items we've talked about tonight that I know Haley listed off um and maybe we well maybe we can get again or just let board members sort of bring them up and I think bring them up as as as an issue that we can take a vote on in terms of making a change to that and then at the end of that process we'll have a um uh we'll have a proposal that staff then goes back and and produces referral documents around is that is that the appropriate process at this point I think that makes sense um general counsel large do you have any input on that all right okay so um yeah I'm gonna make a motion to uh to move forward the proposal as is um on uh that the staff have put together for tonight's discussion um I stuck in the motion so I didn't know we were in a decision making mode tonight I mean I thought we were I mean well decision making is this guidance what is oh yeah we have to have pencils down tonight so staff can prepare the document so we can refer yeah we do we have to uh direct staff to prepare the language for referral and they have to know what they're preparing it to say I did are we are we um on the 28th when we meet will is our is a is a final vote on the referral language is that correct
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[Music] yes so I think we have a motion in a second so my my proposal is that now uh as we discuss that I believe board members can make uh proposals to amend it um and I think the Amendments should include yeah include whether you're making a shift in line items or just adding to the overall total of the bonds and I think if we take each one of those individually we can get some decisions and then finalize the discussion so I'm just going to use a process go ahead Michelle sorry uh that wasn't me I don't think that was you I'm just going to raise the process question so we got it um the documents very late and my understanding is last week is we had a whole discussion so that the issues that got raised potentially could be added um we can go ahead with this process but I feel that in some ways um what we talked about last week we that's not what we got delivered this week we got a refined set of numbers and curriculum added but none of the issues that the board members have brought up um yeah we're raised so you know it's disappointing that that's where we find ourselves um but I'll move if it's been first a second and I'll move to amend it to add 16 million dollars to make all of our schools um the main floor accessible to students [Music] can you clarify where that's coming from is it just increasing the size of the money increasing the size of the bond I I would like to eliminate the specific line item for special education classrooms and combine it can we take them one at a time is there a second on director brim Edwards can you repeat that please director bro Edwards just adding actually going for the option that was provided to us which is that for 33 million dollars versus 17 million that all of our schools the main floor would be accessible to um to all of our students so it's a 16 million dollars difference between having one one School per level per cluster and all of our schools is there any concern about what we've pulled on for this it's in terms of in terms of the total dollar number it's all on the you know under cylinder 1.2 depends on how many ornaments this Christmas tree gets put on it in the next few minutes but I would say generally no all right [Music] um all right so that motion has been put on the table and seconded as I've been seconded I didn't hear the second I I think I might have been on mute but I seconded it sorry any further discussion on adding 16 million dollars to um this line item for accessibility I have a question um do we know the actual number of students who would benefit from this um well it is I think maybe a way to ask that question might be how many of our schools are currently inaccessible at the first level um to students with disabilities and I don't know if anybody can um can tell us what that is right off the bat but um it's the majority of our schools so a lot well no what I what I was trying to go at is how many students would benefit like the actual number of students who would right I'm just saying you know multiply the number of schools um where students currently can't get can't go to their neighborhood school because it's not accessible to them oh do you mean specifically how many students with disabilities yes exactly yeah I don't I'm sorry [Music] um can anyone can any does anyone have a any kind of a response to Nathaniel's question how many students are unable to attend
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their neighborhood schools because of accessibility issues I I think it's important to remember that these are 100 Year schools so even if we didn't have account for today's students it's really thinking about students over the next 100 years this is uh Brenda martnik um currently we served 16 of our student population as students with special needs not all of those have physical limitations but there are a number of them who still use um accessible ramps due to other needs and then you're not only looking at the student population but you're looking at parents and families as well and there's about 10 to 12 percent of the adult population that at some point in time requires some sort of accessibility even if it's temporary we have a lot of accessibility issues for students who have recently been through surgeries we have parents who have recently been through surgeries or have you know been in car accidents and need even temporary Acts uh and so it's It's a larger number than what one would think about so and and employees as well correct and I think the other the other consideration here is that it's a right it's a it's a fundamental human right and it's a legal right that's correct so I think just as oh sorry go ahead sorry it's just a a point of information um so if this million dollars would make the first floor accessible um how many how many of our schools are one floor I mean would it actually increase the accessibility of all of our schools if if somebody needs um assistance with this accessibility to get to the first floor um but if I remember correctly this would not include um elevators correct correct that's correct and actually your question is somewhat answered director Moore in the narrative because it also talks about um sort of programming programmatic adjustments that if if you make the first floor accessible that you also can choose where some of your programs are offered so that if you have this one floor that's accessible you actually by by moving some things can make more of the the school programs accessible to students and it's it's addressed in on page um there's not case numbers on this document um it's the second last to last page of the bond budget summary and and also this is how priorities were made for accessibility improvements in previous bonds we've had elevators put into schools where there were functions on the higher floors that um all students needed to be able to access like for example the library where you couldn't just say that student's classrooms will be on the first floor um I I'd like to ask um superintendent um and or and or staff in terms of their views on this I think this is a really important issue I do I do want to be a little bit careful when we talk about the rights issue even 31 million dollars doesn't solve the school district's Ada accessibility issues so um this is this is a matter of making progress and at 17 million dollars we would make significant progress at 31 million dollars we would make more progress but we would still um have significant compliance issues and barriers that will need to be addressed in the future um I will tell you my I'd like to see a little bit more of a plan a little bit more of sort of a long-term Ada plan that we can work into both both this spawn and the next Bond and I guess that's kind of what I assumed we were getting from staff with the 17 million was a sense of you know this is work we can do over the next four years it makes significant progress we're certainly going to have to be back again if we do 31 million we're certainly going to have to be back again as well but I'm curious if staff have any thoughts on on why we why we why why this was the recommendation in 171. I'll uh I'll start the answer and I'll let John uh lions jump in with some more details uh the Ada transition plan has actually been updating that has been a work in progress for a while and predates John being here on staff so he
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took it over as it was a personator development uh and I I think that that original the the making certain each type of configuration available in every cluster was previously what appeared to be the guidance would come out of the Ada transition class before it was finalized that seemed to be that the direction that it was pointing what John had mentioned uh earlier tonight was with the feedback that we've been getting recently it looks like the direction the preferred Direction might be to skew lower towards making all of the first floors accessible instead of making a smaller number of schools fully accessible but John I'll let you jump in and tell me what I got wrong about that explanation I know you nailed it so the the one accessible configuration per cluster I believe is a Vestige of previous Commandments from other Bonds in the absence of an ADA transition plan so we technically do have an ADA transition plan it is from 1994 so we are in desperate need of an update there and um that will be the document that will be our North Star and our guide moving forward on accessibility so and I'm sorry it is late so I think I just need a little clarification the 17 million I think director brim Edwards laid this out but I've already forgot the 17 million what is it bias versus the 31 million so the 17 million uh would be one accessible school at each configuration per cluster so one accessible K5 one accessible middle school and one accessible High School per cluster and the larger amount which actually now I think was it 31 or 33 million 33. 33 thank you I'm sorry um that would get us every school the first floor you got it yep and and your recommendation for the next four years did the staff have one my recommendation would be to um follow the Ada transition plan and where I guess we're in an inelegant situation where we don't have that yet complete um but if if I were to base my recommendation on the feedback we've received so far I would say main level accessibility is the Salient recommendation which would be the 33 million okay yep you got it so so I I'm I'm sorry I I think I'm being dim here so the 17 million dollars um will buy us accessibility main floor accessibility uh no full accessibility of one school in every cluster right correct okay and that would include elevators you got it yep okay but you're you're now talking about an ADA plan that is going to focus on main floor accessibility in every school and the way to do that would be to make programmatic changes within the building so that that would constitute full accessibility right correct So within the Ada transition plan we will evaluate a number of different options and phasing okay so suppose we ditch the elevators in in you know the schools that we could accommodate in the 17 million and just adopted the main floor accessibility standard how many more buildings could we accommodate within the 17 million great question Rita it is it is a great question um I I would need to go back and do some number crunching for you and I'd be happy to do that okay so let me I'm I'm just gonna throw out this is the back of the envelope at 11 30. okay so um you're talking about one school accessibility per cluster that's eight School right including including um elevators one school each configuration so every cluster will have multiple schools a high school a middle school 24 ish right okay um so we've got 82 schools I think right correct okay so so if we if we ditch the elevators I'm guessing we could probably double the number of schools that sounds right yeah I have a question about that though Rita if we do we need an elevator in every single school or Would we not need an elevator in a primary school because the primary grades are are generally on the first floor
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I mean correct me if I'm wrong John but um they're talking about moving to an ADA model that um doesn't use elevators as an accessibility um strategy but um kind of reconfigures the way programs happen within a facility so that the main floor becomes the principal mechanism to ensure accessibility in every school that's correct and it's not so much a question of what do we do to make this school accessible but what do we do first I want to worry about that it would be one step in a phased approach to accessibility right that's not gonna that's everything but but sort of basic facility needs right okay so so granted this is I I'm totally making this up at this point um so let's just say for the sake of argument we could do 42 schools with the main floor accessibility would you have the capacity to actually do that within four years I need to look to Mr young for that one yeah yeah I think there's two two comments there um it obviously would depend on what the barriers were and and what needed to be removed uh and to just another and you may have not been going this route but we're not constrained to four years to complete the improvements Jefferson's going to think well I realize that but but we're going to go out for for another bond in four years presumably right right okay so um if we're not going to be able to because I I mean knowing knowing what little I know about construction my guess is it would you would be very stretched to do the main floor accommodation in 42 schools in four years right so how about we do this 17 million dollar increment uh you know adopt the new Ada model because you already know that's where you're going and then in the next Bond you know allocate 17 million to finish it up how's that and the next Bond will be informed by a newly adopted full Ada transition plan right but it sounds like they already pretty much know what they're going to do right you just never instead of making stuff up it seems like I mean we had we have a proposal from staff that was included among the options I I think they're one of the things that when we pick um if we if we don't do everything here's one potential um inequity that could occur so some some high school clusters have many more middle schools k-8s and elementaries feeding into them so for example if we said one Middle School one high school and one Elementary in a cluster if you're in the Lincoln cluster then your um there's only one Middle School which is West Sylvan and one high school obviously one high school so 100 of the middle schoolers and 100 of the high schoolers would have accessibility and then it'll be one of one of the elementary schools if you go to the east side of the river where you have just how things got configured let me just take even Cleveland you have Hosford and Sellwood so you'd only instead of having 100 of the middle schoolers have an accessible School you'd have whichever whether it was Hosford or Sellwood they got picked one of them and then kids would have to go to a non-neighborhood school to have something that's accessible and you play it out and you know Franklin it's you know you're going to have even fewer kids have access because there's just many more components of the feeder pattern versus missing you're missing the point I was trying to make which was if we could um start now with this new model of accessibility instead of staying with the old model which I think is is what's built into this um this line item for this Bond if you already know that you're going to be switching the model for Ada accessibility ditch the elevators make um and make main floor accessibility the the way you're going forward starting with this bond which means that we could
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do something like 42 schools ish and it's about 16 million dollars so I'm gonna I'm gonna I think I'd like to move this to a vote I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna vote against this not because it's unimportant um I think it's very important but I think there is um there's a long-term plan that that we need I think director Moore's making a really good point about sort of capacity to do it um and I think what I'd like to see is and I think we actually have this is in paneling you know um a long-term a group to look at our long-term facilities plan there's a whole bunch of things we need to plan for a 2024 Bond um that's going to include you know what what if we do in the high schools what what comes next what how we start preparing for it what are the additional projects what's the Ada accessibility um this the 17 million I I actually like the fact that the staff are beginning to to think maybe maybe we do need to be doing main floor um schools and I think it's director Moore points out than with that 17 million you can do a lot more um and I think from a capacity standpoint we'll be back in a few years um for that additional money and it'll be a little bit more targeted and and um we'll know where it's going and it'll be part of a larger a plan because I want to be really clear this is a very small part of the district's overall Ada accessibility plan and what needs to happen um you know within that so so there's a I don't want to pretend that even at 33 million we would solve the issues because we wouldn't um so anyway that's where I'm going to vote if any other comments but I'd like to check on Sam to a vote okay I'm just going to make a final comment um I think that um I've been around the district for two decades and engaged in a lot of the facility planning and the long range facility earlier long range facilities plan and um I think the community that's been waiting for our buildings to be accessible have waited a long time and we had this almost exact same conversation in 2017. I think I'm going to interrupt you because you've you've been making the same argument for the last at least 20 minutes we've heard the argument okay I can speak to the the motion I mean I think you already have let's vote let's take a Voice vote on this amendment uh director Moore would you the amendment on the table is to add 16 million dollars to the Ada accessibility line item no uh director Scott no director to pass no director Lowry no director Bailey no director brim Edwards yes uh I would vote Yes too but the motion fails I do vote Yes too but the motion fails um all right back to my point um I would like to put a cost neutral motion on the table to combine the two line items for accessibility and special education classrooms so that we can have a broader Community conversation about whether this um targeted facilities investment is aligned with our resj framework um or whether there may be other ways to deploy those investments in service to our special education students do I have a second second all right um let's take a vote on a Voice vote on that director Scott sorry before we vote can I ask a a question of staff um is there any staff objection to making this change would would doing this um negatively impact your ability to deliver on what's been planned so director Moore I I put together both the accessibility and the special education um programs here and and I think there is a lot of wisdom in combining them it would allow us to address the entire experience of someone or a student that these scopes of work are meant to assist thank you that's very helpful all right so we'll take a quick Voice vote on this class neutral proposal director Moore excuse me I didn't quite yes Mr lime's comment could you repeat it sorry I'll speak up I'm and just saying that that I put together both the Scopes of work here and I think there's a lot of wisdom in combining them because it would allow us to address the Gestalt the the whole experience of the student okay and just one quick note Mary John and Mary talked about this uh earlier today or yesterday as well so not speaking on Mary's behalf but uh I
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think she would be in agreement as well okay great let's take a quick Voice vote director Moore yes director Bailey yes director brim Edwards yes director to pass director to pass sorry yes director Scott yes uh director Lowry uh I'll I'll vote and the motion passes um six to zero I know director Lowry suffering from a migraine right now she might have just left I probably unmuted when I'm in I probably muted when I meant to unmute but I voted yes okay great thank you the motion passes seven to zero do we have any other recommendations or um proposed modifications to the option that we see yes I'd like to move that we add I believe 10 million dollars was an option two that went out to the community for the additional um capacity so that we're prepared for the Middle School conversions when they happen all right um so I'll second that motion uh we've had discussion on the item so we'll do a quick actually sorry this is Rita can I ask a staff another question clarification um so Dr Valentino mentioned um that the curriculum proposal included 10 million dollars for Middle School design and my question is does that 10 million dollars um or did that 10 million dollars um Envision any um structural change at facilities changes or was it exclusively for curriculum um directors it was it did not include um redesign of the facility it was specifically for it was programmatic but but also to be clear Dr Valentino that excuse me that's Middle grades redesign not middle not just for configured middle schools well the the ex correct but the expectation is the possibility of reconfiguration right and so part of that is the planning for for for for that that expectation okay thank you so much the document that that we have talks about the curriculum proposal specifically says Middle School redis redesign and it looks curricular versus facility related so I have a clarification that's an error then because I believe that this work is to focus on even our Middle grades in our presently configured case right we should update yeah yes yeah I have a question of is that kind of planning and allowable expenditure in a bond I suppose that's not what we're talking about right now we're talking about capacity we're talking about specifically for facility improvements for um I'll save that for when we're done okay um so the motion is on we'll take a quick Voice vote director Scott uh yes director Bailey yes director brim Edwards director to pass yes director Moore yes um director you can't hear you yes okay and director Bailey director brim Edwards I didn't hear you you may have said yes but obviously did you yeah somehow my screen point out I'm a yes okay of course um as am I so the motion passes seven zero thank you very much um do we have any other suggestions um you know any other suggestions or proposed modifications uh so I would like to ask my question now about the curriculum if that kind of planning is an allowable expense under a bond as opposed to purchasing materials sure we're we seem to be on the same wavelength director Bailey anticipating your questions I actually raised that um and we met with Bond Council as as well as with our Deputy superintendent Hertz and our general counsel today on that very question because obviously uh these are intended for Capital uh assets and so certainly materials qualify that
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would that would emerge as identified as part of Middle grades redesign um and some limited uh project management uh temporary project management just like you would find in the I.T or any other area but it wouldn't necessarily cover um professional development or training in the same way we know that bond funds or resources could be used in that way okay thank you all right any other um suggestions recommendations yeah I'd like to make a motion to increase the um Jefferson and multiple Pathways to graduation to include level four seismic so I believe that's roughly an eight billion dollar increase I might ask staff to confirm that I don't know six for Jefferson and I think we're sort of a rough estimate of two foreign director Scott are you questioning my ability to estimate construction costs what did you did you have a different number I just said two million [Laughter] so just to be clear so this wouldn't be coming out of director Scott this would be coming out of the 2024 Bond yes it would that's right it's the increasing the amount of the bond okay so um okay the motion is on the table uh discussion I just have uh this is this is somewhat related because it pertains to the overall uh cost for Jefferson High School but when we when I look at those numbers and the 29 million dollar differential between new construction and renovation for Jefferson High School I appreciate that there's been a community process that um you know expressed some interest in in maintaining the facade but that was not in the context of a conversation about any any cost estimates or any differential in cost and I think that that falls on the board to make those kind of hard conversations and I for one don't feel like it would be imposing anything awful on the Jefferson Community to have a brand new state-of-the-art 21st century facility so I don't know if anyone wants to consider this at this juncture but I personally would support um putting forward the lower number for brand new construction for Jefferson High School and um uh I would I I think that that would free us up to make um all kinds of other Investments um clarification and would that include the seismic upgrade level four maybe we can get some feedback on that particular question and then we'll we'll marry them Claire um yeah so sorry um what was that go ahead ah great um sorry um yeah so about the um Jefferson um we model versus rebuilding um as you know I go to Jefferson and I was involved in the master of conceptual Master planning process to some degree at least and um I would strongly caution against going um with we built fully rebuilding without thoroughly um Community engagement process because one of our core guiding principles at least while I was there was um maintaining the um historic aspects of Jefferson as a pillar of the community and I think that by destroying the original 1909 building that would be you know very much contrary to that idea I I appreciate that Nathaniel And um I think it's compelling enough that I will withdraw my motion because we will still have an opportunity to um consider this cost savings when in the master planning process um but I will withdraw my Amendment for this purposes of this conversation for this Bond thank you for that um thank you Nathaniel I I have a comment to that as well um thank you Nathaniel and that um we're talking about a community that has been handed things and not been empowered to make decisions and there was a very strong desire to maintain the facade I think things might
06h 35m 00s
have changed but it's up to the community to help us make that decision um so this is director Bailey every other building that we've modernized started with a budget and people the community put together a design that got estimated and then there was a Reconciliation because that that dream usually costs more than what the budget was um and we we did not do that with the master planning for Wilson Cleveland or Jefferson um this is a community that hasn't had a lot of say and this community I think we're not going to say you know here's here's an open Wallet we're saying there's two there's there's a decision to make between two options one of them is less expensive and it includes a modern building the other one is more expensive and involves maintaining the facade and redoing the innards and I think it's up to the community absolutely needs to decide I in fact I don't think the community is going to be really happy if we come and and do a top-down approach with them I think they've spoken very loudly and clearly that that's not how they want to work with the district I think both options are still on the table and um we'll leave this estimate which is the the estimate for uh renovation and if there's any momentum for the other then it's a lower number and we're in a good position so I think the emotions on the seismic increase any right conversation about that right should you take a vote was that that has been seconded Oh I thought I thought director boom Edward seconded maybe I miss her I'll second it okay uh we're talking about an eight million dollar net increase um we'll take a quick Voice vote uh director to pass yes director brim Edwards yes director Scott yes director Lowry yes director Bailey yes director Moore yes um and I am a yes to with the caveat of um wanting to definitely take up uh director Moore's suggestion of talking to our partners about getting some investment in creating these spaces that are for the community um the entire Community not just our students and staff um with any luck we can offset a little bit of that all right do we have any other suggestions or interest in modifying The Proposal before us uh all right um so for me it depends on the language I've uh I've already raised questions about um enrollment and I'll just leave it at that all right just got the language director Bailey the language about what uh in Jefferson well in the referral I mean I mean there this is without question a proposal for a modernized Jefferson High School at 1700 students well I I think um until I see otherwise I have um real concerns with that and I've made that clear I think uh director Bailey you've made this point before and I do think you know what what the process was that the Nathaniel was a part of was the 1700 Comprehensive High School and again I think this modernization plan leaves us some time and some way to work with the community to make sure we're delivering what's best for that community and I think that's a further conversation that can happen but um I don't think now's the moment to raise that again um other than just to note your your continued questioning of that uh and we we're learning kind of in real time right now um about Roosevelt and what happens when we underestimate you know capacity so I think director Raley you raise a really good point overall about the enrollment we certainly um even before we get to Jefferson um we have the whole issue of Benson um so hopefully as part of um this next year's work plan we'll have some visibility to um
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the timing of what some when some of those decisions will be made and and the planning will be done we had that that was I was on the board then but as part of the referral of the 2017 bond that was supposed to be built in for Benson so I think it's it's a good point to raise um and it should just get scheduled into the district's work because it needs to be done for Benson and just like the um investment in Harrison Park that we talked about um as part of the enrollment balancing process we've also talked about um making sure that we revisit our enrollment balancing for all of our high schools so I I agree director brim Edwards we need to chart a path to make sure that that happens and it's directly related to uh Jefferson so um and let me let me be clear I'm in favor of investing 365 million plus the add-on for seismic in the Jefferson cluster um I think there's some opportunity costs here um and that that's that's my point all right um okay so I think um we have made some adjustments here we're going to see a slightly revised um uh option and some slightly revised number including a a slightly larger um bottom line uh number at our conversation two weeks hence um I think we have provided sufficient direction to staff as far as to beginning to write the referral language to bring forward general counsel large is there anything that we're not attending to here in this conversation well um director Scott made a motion on the existing or the the presentation that was made at the beginning of this meeting and then there were amendments to it but you haven't actually voted on the original motion good point that's why I asked you so you could rewind some important things like that so now we need to vote on the underlying motion um for this amended proposal um for our 2020 bond package um do uh all right so we'll um proceed to a vote on that director Bailey yes director burm Edwards director Lowry director Scott yes director Moore yes uh did I forget anyone actually um to pass director to pass you're you're not showing up on my grid I knew where are you I say yes and I'm having tech tech issues I think um WebEx just one wants me to get to bed so okay I I I'm with WebEx on that one um and I vote Yes as well so the motion passes seven to zero so I just have a comment that um I would like to see the language um that Thursday before our board meeting so we have the opportunity to review it and I guess I'm just gonna flag I'm still uh uh field dis uh just uncomfortable with where we are on Ada but I'm supportive and I want to see the language as we um well in advance of the meeting all right uh absolutely Fair expectation and um I think we we uh I commit we can make a commitment that we will all receive the um referral language um in advance all right thank you very much really um challenging conversation it's been a long time coming thank you everybody for such thoughtful engagement all the way along the line um any last last words on that superintendent uh no appreciate uh another episode of the conversation I think uh we summed it up uh nicely there chair I think the staff is clear on the direction and uh we'll come back to the board with one of the proposed language all right and thank you oh Nathaniel I'm so sorry this is our first formal vote and you are now uh an elected representative and I forgot you that's really really crummy um and our student on the underlying um proposal regarding the 2020 bond package our student representative Nathaniel Shu votes yes thank you very much thank you I'm so sorry about that um all right moving along um it is July which means that we have a board leadership vote
06h 45m 00s
um so we will now um vote on those leadership rules do I have a nomination for board chair yes I do uh Mrs Rita um so I I wanna just um say a few words um I'll I'll talk fast um I'm I'm proud to serve on this board of uh exceptional group of leaders who have deep ties within Port the Portland Community an amazing breadth of personal and professional knowledge and experience and a profound commitment to transforming PPS into the kind of District every one of our students deserves um in many ways we're blessed with an abundance of talent within this group to match the plethora of responsibilities um this allows the board to practice the circulation of leadership across multiple roles permitting each of us to contribute to the cause by playing to our strengths for the position of chair I'd like to nominate director Lowry um although she's been on the board for only one year she's demonstrated the skills and disposition required to perform the duties of chair in addition she has chosen to decrease her day job responsibilities to free up the time necessary to fulfill the duties of chair having served in that role I can attest to the fact that it can be an extraordinarily time-consuming role on this all volunteer board I'm looking forward to a productive year under her leadership I will second that motion any discussion on the nomination of director Larry as board chair all right all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no any abstentions yes all right um the and and student representative shoe yes all right so um the motion is approved by a vote of six to zero with one abstention um thank you uh board members and congratulations chair Lowry director to pass is there anything you'd like to share with the board at this time sure um thank you and um yeah so I'm standing because this is my uh third experience uh going through the board leadership discussion and tonight we heard from students Alum and faculty regarding how racism has impacted their experience and so I'll just ex I'll just share my experience briefly with uh this process so when we talk about Equity here we mean to say I think is that what we're aiming to do is to align our practices our systems and our structures to Center on Race to improve outcomes for black and Indigenous kids and to work towards a more just system in which to educate our students and hopefully to treat each other better and those are aspirational foundations in which we want to do our most important work and and aligns very well with the PPS Vision in February we attended a training at the center for Equity inclusion and a document was shared with us that listed the ways in which white supremacy culture shows up in organizations because that's such an important document for me I have it taped up in front of my computer so I can refer to it all day long and we discuss these cultural characteristics in that training such as a characteristics character characteristics of white supremacy to include a sense of urgency which makes it very difficult to take the time to be inclusive power hoarding where power is seen as a limited and finite um resource fear of open conflict individualism and then finally paternalism where decision making is evident to only to some and and not to everyone and it's that last characteristic that I am hung up on because the process by which this slate was decided which I still don't fully understand was not Equitable in my opinion I think Danny Desmos summed it up really well when she said you can't expect to have Equitable outcomes if you don't have an equitable process and I think the way that this um discussion has come about um has highlighted that we actually you know we agree with the rhetoric and we don't actually know how to operationalize equity so I know the district um desires to move forward with this vision of Equitable outcomes specifically for students what I would like us to see us get our own house in order so I'm going to make a request um going forward that we carve out the time to develop a more Equitable and transparent
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process for selecting board leadership next time um I'd like to see Pathways for each of us to advance to chair um and at the very least I suggest I'd like to suggest that we have a conversation about what we need in leadership in the moment and for the next six months going forward I'd like to be an equal decision maker um with all of you um and and representation matters on our board we're one of the only actually we're the only board that doesn't have um our neighboring board that doesn't have a black or brown person as a chair Vice chair because it was called the question I also want to just mention and confirm that I um will stand by the people that are voted in I'll respect and work with them collaboratively and this isn't about me this is about the process thank you very much Michelle and um I I would support your um your proposal to revisit this process and um director Lowry uh you can work with director to pass to um to further this conversation and think about how we might do things differently appreciate that very much Michelle we now consider nominations for vice chair um Liz do you have in front of you the resolution number for this Vice chair is resolution 6146 thank you very much appreciate that um do I have um a nomination for um Vice chair I nominate Scott Bailey for vice chair is there a second I'll second all right um is there any discussion no I'm just going to join director de pass and her comments um you know I think for us to be successful um I would actually suggest that we um in our next board meeting or the next opportunity we have to get together in informally have a discussion about what inclusive practices um would would look like because again I think um the Slate was just delivered to some people on the board without a lot of discussion and I don't think that is going to Foster um collaborative working relationships moving forward thank you thank you director burm Edwards um so I before we vote because it's been said twice now and I feel like we need to I need to be on the record here to to so I really I really appreciate what director to pass said and I agree with it um actually I agree with 100 of the idea of of board governance and and being very inclusive and transparent in that um last year after getting elected and coming in it was a very strange and chaotic process um this year it it it was a little bit less strange because I was used to it but um still kind of just straight you know we don't have a way to get together and and that's because of public meetings laws which makes sense and so I think what we're talking about is actually getting together in Open Session um and having conversations about what we're looking for our goals Etc so I fully support that the idea that a slate was developed and secret and presented to people on the board is just inaccurate and I I think it's really worth saying publicly um the way this came about is the way that that I think it is designed to come about and the way that the four members who have been on the board for years have actually and this is this is the process um I was approached by multiple people on the board who were interested in being chair um I listened to all of of those people I did have a meeting with two other board members where we talked about a particular slate they proposed it as an idea I immediately called other board members including director to pass to talk about whether they supported that idea so there's not a there's there's nothing untoward about that process it is actually the way the process normally comes together um and and it's the way the process I think has worked for many years so I just think it's worth really saying on the record people who are interested in being chair and vice chair um have all the ability to talk to other board members and in fact that is what's happened now is that the best process I don't I don't think it is and I think we can do better than that so I think there's a way to hold both but there's there there was no there was no slate that was presented to the board that was developed well I'll just say because um I was part of one of those conversations is that is how it happened and maybe that's not the conversations you had I'm just saying that's how it was presented to me
06h 55m 00s
and and and the same for me and so I I I just I don't think we need to argue it here it's midnight um we also also should not be having this vote at midnight um we we should deliberate in in the Public Square and um and yeah I don't want to talk about it here I just I want to advocate for doing a process that's much more transparent um to someone someone like me I'd like I'd like to um have a more transparent um process all right thank you everybody um we will now consider resolution number 6145 election of board Vice chair uh nomination has been made of director Bailey all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no any abstentions yes and I think those Revelation 6146 I think it was six six one four six um director to pass abstains I abstain as well because I I have not had a conversation with Dr Bailey about his interest in the leadership role so um Nathaniel going to our student representative do you have a vote for the position of Vice chair I'm sorry Nathaniel you were muted ah sorry um yeah um I think I will abstain as well only for the reason that I haven't discussed this with the DSC um I had discussed Ailey and um okay great thank you very much um all right so the resolution passes by a vote of um five to zero with uh director to pass and directory Union student representative issue abstaining all right thank you very much congratulations director Bailey uh and I appreciate the thoughtful conversation about how we might improve this process we have just I I'm so sorry to staff for this horrible hour but we just have a couple more things that we need to do um we uh sorry we need to excuse me just one moment we it looks like we still have four items um conference reports committee and Conference we have um yes um I'm sorry so we have consideration of our um search and seizure policy which I believe the policy committee actually changed the name of can someone correct me on that I think that the name needs to be changed that the policy committee proposed needs to be voted on here as an amendment okay um director Moore as the chair of the policy committee can I ask you to introduce this item please for this second reading um okay I I will um short in in light of the hour um or the this policy um date from 2002 um this revision it's a pretty substantial revision um it's uh provides protections for students primarily in a requirement that parents and Guardians give consent prior to student interviews by law enforcement on school property it also contains definitions of critical terminology in order to assist students and administrators and understanding the rights of students and the principles during searches of person or property um and the the policy now requires or once passed this policy will require a document track and report on all searches conducted um uh this has been in process for about 11 months um the very Broad and deep engagement with community members it involved the the crafting of the policy draft included multiple departments in central office um it was then reviewed by school administrators the Portland Police Bureau the District Attorney's Office Pat and Community Partners as well as
07h 00m 00s
students and families um special efforts were made to myself with students families and representatives of community color that have been disproportionately impacted by PBS's disciplinary practices um I want to thank everybody who was involved um uh in particular I want to thank uh the students uh The District student council and I want to especially call out former student representative to the board um the students were instrumental in pushing the board pushing the committee to be more intentional in reaching out to students and community members for um for consultation and this policy is a good example of how elevating student voice makes better decision making um I think this policy is a tremendous improvement over the policy that's um the board policy committee unanimously recommended one amendment to change the name I will I'll offer a motion to amend high school once the resolution is on the team sounds good number 6144 to approve 4.30.040p search and seizure policy do I have a motion so I moved director Bailey moves second uh director Moore seconds um do we have any discussion well do we have any public comment I suspect not I don't believe okay Nathaniel was trying to speak as well yeah I'd just like to briefly comment on the policy um I'd like to state that for the record I still have some um concerns about the Privacy component especially as it relates to digital privacy um but um it's weighing all the other uh considerations in the policy I think that it makes sense to address digital privacy at a later date and go ahead all right thank you very much um Nathaniel Amy I'm just gonna respond and say nothing you know that's a great point and we did discuss that and that was something magazine got up a lot and one of the things we've realized is that students have an expectation of privacy um around digital devices that maybe they're not um always aware of the laws and the things that are bound by the school board so I'm really thankful we had made a pledge with magazines to educate and do some further work so students were educated on their rights about that so I really appreciate that you've raised that and can help us keep that in the for in our I'm tired in our minds as we do this work so we can make sure we're if if the law is something that's fine but that we're really supporting our students and making the best choices so they feel like they're respected and their rights are whole so thank you yeah um yeah uh touching on that part of my um my issue with the client language is that it explicitly states that students do not have an expectation of digital privacy so yeah thank you um all right I want to thank um Jonathan Garcia and his team too for their support of all the student engagement um on this policy through over the last 11 months as well yeah I appreciated the specific report of the student input um okay we have the underlying motion on the table Rita would you like to bring forth your uh Liz can this uh title change just be a friendly Amendment I think that's fine I suspect it will not have much opposition if it does we can formalize it that's fine all right Rita can you tell us what is the preferred uh name of this policy 4.30.040p um yeah in in order to make the title of the policy more descriptive and user-friendly the policy committee would like to offer a motion or would like to suggest that we amend the title of the policy to read as follows students rights regarding searches of person and property students rights regarding searches of per person and property um does anybody have issue with that as the title of this policy that we're about to vote on
07h 05m 00s
all right seeing none um all in favor of resolution 6144 please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no student representative shu yes all right thank you everyone the motion passes um I have about seven to zero um we do have one more item on our agenda which is committee and Conference reports I'd like to ask committee chairs to um dispense with their committee reports unless they feel there's absolutely something urgent and essential at 12 16 A.M so I would just ask that they be moved to the next board meeting absolutely what about our business our business agenda yes and we have our business agenda all right so uh no other committee committee members uh committee reports thank you very much um all right at this time the board will vote on our consent agenda board members are there any items you would like to pull for discussion and set them aside and um vote after the consent agenda is approved why aren't we just doing it right now um so I just have I have an issue that there's three um three contracts somebody's typing I don't know oh that's me sorry David Roy again he's being warm and friendly he's allowed me tiger in town I I'm multitasking trying to get a couple emails out oh sorry um so there's three contracts for um cab related services or transportation and I'm not going to ask the question here but I'm going to ask that I'm gonna ask the question but I don't need the response here but it's relating to what sort of training the cab drivers have because they have unsupervised contact with students so I don't need the answer now but I want for the record my question and then the answer um from I believe the Miss large uh just to put on the record for the next time around you're on mute Amy thank you director brim Edwards do I have a motion in a second to adopt the consent agenda so moved second director Scott moves director Lowry seconds uh the board will now vote on resolutions 6137-6143 in the consent agenda all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes any opposed please indicate by saying no any abstentions the consent agenda is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative Shu voting are you still with us Nathaniel yes and yes okay thank you so much um student representative Shu voting yes all right the next meeting of the board will be held July 28th um under the Steady Hand and Visionary leadership of director Lowry it's been my honor to serve as your board chair it's been my honor to collaborate closely with staff as we've navigated some really complex and tricky issues it's a privilege to serve with um each of you and um with that let's all go to bed good night thank you Amy thank you another day thanks thank you

Sources

PPS Board of Education, BoardBook Public View, https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Organization/915 (accessed: 2023-01-25T21:27:49.720701Z)
PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)
PPS Communications, "PPS Board of Education Meetings" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbZtlBHJZmkdC_tt72iEiQXsgBxAQRwtM (accessed: 2023-10-14T01:02:33.351363Z)
PPS Board of Education, PPS Board of Education - Full Board Meetings (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk0IYRijyKDW0GVGkV4xIiOAc-j4KVdFh (accessed: 2023-10-11T05:43:28.081119Z)

2020-07-14 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

Materials

Minutes

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Regular Meeting 7/14/20 (starts @ 51:22)

Sources