2020-08-03 PPS School Board Special Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2020-08-03
Time	17:15:00
Venue	Virtual/Online
Meeting Type	special
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Special Meeting. 8/03/2020

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board meeting at the board of education for august 3rd 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 everybody the purpose of today's brief special meeting is revoked on the referral to the voter of the 2020 bond renewal which was an awesome event at last week's board meeting last tuesday july 28th the board unanimously passed resolution 61-51 but inadvertently the resolution contained an outdated version of exhibit a and exhibit b the correct version was posted for the public on july 23rd prior to the july 28 meeting but the board actually voted on the incorrect version due to an administrative error so the resolution we are voting on tonight resolution 6153 will supersede the resolution we passed on july 28th and includes the final version that was previously posted and intended to be the version that was voted on everybody clear now in addition to all of that director moore will offer a brief amendment to tonight's resolution clarifying two things the first is that the design and pre-construction work includes design and pre-construction work to add additional capacity at roosevelt high school again that's design and pre-construction work for roosevelt high school's additional capacity and also that the bond include works work to add additional capacity at other schools both of these amendments are consistent with the board's original intent in referring the 2020 bond and the proposed amendments were posted earlier this afternoon all right so the board is going to now consider resolution number 6153 we will take a motion uh we'll make a motion and have that moved and seconded and then we'll have some time for public comment and discussion so the board will now consider resolution number 6153 a resolution of portland public schools multnomah county school district number one j multnomah county oregon calling a measure election to submit to the electors of the district the question of authorizing 1 billion 208 million of general obligation bonds and providing for related matters do i have emotions i i heard julia director brent edwards move and i heard director depos second is that correct i'm seeing none excellent director moore would you like to make your emotions to amend resolutions for 2153 now yes thank you um i move to amend resolution 6153 to 1 modify the language in the explanatory statement to make clear that the bond includes design and pre-construction work to add capacity to roosevelt high school and two modify the relevant language in the summary and explanatory statement that changes quote plan and design unquote to quote plan and add unquote additional capacity and that it's clear that the additional capacity may be added to middle schools under this bond as director lowry noted that proposed changes have been posted with the board materials for this meeting both changes reflect the discussions the board has had on these two issues as the bond package was being prepared and this changes simply um clarify the language that's it thank you all right second second great julia seconds so director moore moves and director brim edwards seconds the motion to amend resolution 6153 i'm going to ask ms bradshaw if there's any public comment and then the board can discuss ms bradshaw is there any public comment on resolution 6153 or the proposed amendment i received no request for public comment all right um is there any board discussion on the proposed amendment to this resolution yeah sure lowry this is um this is andrew um i have a process question and a substance question from a process standpoint are we are there are there two votes tonight is there a vote on the amendments from director moore and then a vote on the final bond package yes my vigorous nodding was to say yes great thank you so um my my substantive question then um the
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the changes for the most part um seemed fine to me how however in the um in the explanatory statement so the earlier statement as director moore mentioned sort of ads you know plan and plan and add additional capacity but in the um explanatory statement um there's some additional language that's been included in this amendment it talks about adding capacity to roosevelt high school which is fine and then plan design additional capacity including for middle schools and i i guess this maybe is a question for staff when we had this conversation as a board a few weeks back we had this conversation about whether the capacity money was specifically for middle school redesign or not and a majority of the board at that time decided it was not um specifically for middle school redesign in fact we wanted it to be broader um for any kind of capacity and if i recall correctly the question to deputy superintendent hertz indicated that the district since we hadn't completed enrollment and balancing and all the work we didn't really know where that money needed to be spent maybe on middle schools but maybe on other things as well so um i'm curious about the inclusion of that language at this time which which doesn't seem consistent with our earlier conversation director scott i'm on behalf of staff um happy to offer uh my best understanding um in reading it with the fine tooth comb again because i think you're right the board had a lot of discussion and ultimately iterated and landed on setting aside an allowance of monies for future prospective decisions that actually would result in adding capacity wherever that is maybe determined after a boundary review any decisions about reconfiguration to be determined but what we wanted to set aside was monies in this in this bond package to have some flexibility there the language hasn't existed only spoke to plan and design um and not necessarily for any modifications uh any construction anything that might be necessary in adding that capacity and so i raised the question over the last number of days around uh is this language inclusive enough is it explicit enough um are we being forthright with our voters that uh i think it was 10 million set aside for capacity that it isn't it shouldn't just be thought of as limited to planning and design but could go towards wherever the board identified in the future uh any necessary actual work to make that happen so that's my sort of best understanding of trying to capture the spirit and intent of the board but uh of course um if there's further clarification would be interested in hearing there i think all right a sense of that sorry director edwards my sense of it is that i think director scott what you're saying is you want to make sure we're not limiting ourselves and but what i hear is that there's also definitely a need at middle school and so balancing the tension of making sure we have the capacity to be responsive in the ways we need to be and also addressing that we know that middle school is an area where we need to do work so do we add in the language about middle school to honor and acknowledge that it's something we're aware of or do we not add it to allow ourselves you know that that room in the future the director brim edwards i think you might want to speak to that yeah i'm just gonna sorry i'm getting bad feedback okay um sorry about that so i was going to say i think the language the way it's worded is not exclusive of anything else but is explicit that middle schools will be included um and maybe there's some history of going back three years when we reopened tubman and roseway heights the uh there was a significant uh middle school expenditures reopened especially at tubman for the need for air filtration a number of the things to address the health and safety issues at the building at the time um the recommendation was that we well there we had a couple of different options and the board uh spent dan i know you'll correct me if i have this wrong but um designated some bond funds for for those um and the bac um had pointed out that it wasn't explicitly stated in the um in the measure that was referred to the voters that the funds would
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likely to going to be um reopening um the district that um has the concentration of under north korea being explicit but not being exclusive um should provide sort of transparency to voters and bac anyone else that that is a potential usage although the funds should be my guess is probably significantly less than tubman because the amount of work probably is very different from what was needed in that particular case so thank you no i i appreciate that um and i i think i still i still have some issues and and i think that that mostly it's because um director bermudez what i heard you say is that this makes it explicit the middle schools will be included and actually that that really highlights the point that i'm trying to make um i have no objection to spending this capacity on middle schools if if it is in fact the highest and best use um of the capacity funding and it's where we where we district staff and the board whenever this decision comes back um want to spend that money i think though the way the language is right now we're setting up the expectation as you note that it will be that middle schools will be included this this was not discussed during the bond committee meetings nor was it something that we went out to the voters um when we talked about this capacity money to talk about this so again i think it's really important we maintain the flexibility of these funds um it is very possible that that staff will come back and the board will come back and and that is where they they will be spent but i think it's also possible that they won't and if staff come back and say we want to spend it somewhere else but we have this language says that it includes middle schools i think that actually sets us up um for a problem in the future if we decide that our capacity really is at the elementary school level or the high school level or something else altogether um so i do i do have real concerns and i think the language really isn't isn't necessary i hear your point about bac um concerns over pass bond and different language but with this without the middle school language it just says plan design uh additional capacity and and we could end it there um save a few words and i think we've been really clear about what that money might be used for and i think that adds the flexibility that the district needs i guess i would just say just like the wilson and cleveland communities and roosevelt are looking for some indication the outer south east community has is the last remaining area in the city without a a middle school um so i say uh it's i think as we talked earlier about it's a signal to the the community and it certainly doesn't say you have to spend it just like you you don't have to spend any of a certain amount on any of the items listed in the in the summary it just is explicit yeah i hear that i i wish i wish that had been brought up um during our bond committee meeting so we could have gotten a briefing on the middle school redesign and the potential needs there because it's something that as a new board member well i'm a year-end so i'm not that new any longer i'm still completely unfamiliar with and and with the exception of occasionally being mentioned um we didn't receive a briefing or have a plan so nor did we go to voters on it um uh as part of our outreach process to talk about what it might be used for so i i hear that concern but i do think it's a little late to be adding adding this expectation in since since it's not clear to me what it will be used for director bailey would you like to respond um when um what director scott it was brought up in the bond meetings um just want to say that um and you know especially when we went virtual and i just want to say this is a as a background comment to this whole planning process and this is what businesses and organizations are finding out across the country that the first couple of weeks of going totally virtual seemed great and now a lot of businesses are finding out that coordination is really difficult and a lot of operational issues uh it becomes more difficult to do and that's uh that's put us something of a strain on on this planning process but um you know i know that the middle school issue was brought up several times during bond committee discussions um and we also uh i i think when this got brought up in our last meeting or two it was pretty explicitly around the
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possibility of spending money on on middle schools particularly in southeast uh middle school conversion however comma that is not a done deal it's i would say a high possibility but not a done deal so i'm wondering if we simply change and to or in that clause so we leave middle school in and say or other capacity that that clarifies that's a potential possibility but not a 100 percent guarantee so we leave that in as a marker because that is an important concern but it would allow the flexibility so director bailey this is joe lowery i am i think that we want to be really clear that that capacity money is in there for planning design and construction and so we i don't want to add the ores there i think it sounds like the the concern is around the question is if we add including middle schools does that you know director bram edwards point is that we need to signal that to those communities that have been advocating and waiting for middle schools director scott's point is if i'm correct director scott if i'm not correct mr scott let me know that by adding including middle school we are um making a promise to the community that maybe hasn't been fully vetted and that is his concern and so i think it's it's do we leave them including middle school in or do we not and that's what this amendment that director moore brought forward is one of the things being amended and so we've got two viewpoints there on adding it or taking it out are there any other comments from someone we haven't heard from yet about the language around middle school or anything else to do with the amendment all right um did you have something else director bailey it looks to me like you're trying to say something but you're muted thank you i i was going to say if we change it to and now i have to find it again uh middle school or other capacity so it's add middle school or other capacity that we are making clear that we're i have some money to spend on added capacity uh and it may be middle school but doesn't necessarily say it will for certain be middle school so that uh it leaves us flexible just offering that as a way to get us to a vote that would be a friendly amendment from my standpoint all right so director bailey is proposing a friendly amendment to you say that again uh director bailey so that i can get that down correctly uh yes so in the explanatory statement in the second bullet point the last clause would read ad middle school or other capacity and just to be clear it would say can you continue to have plan ahead of add slash or and add middle school or other capacity correct so is that a summary does that address your concerns i am looking at a proposed amendment that is slightly different than the one you have so i'm apologizing i want to make sure that i'm i thought i was looking at the one that we just got um from liz um let me reopen it to make sure i don't see director bailey where you're talking let's see if i am unmuted uh maybe i'm the one we're looking at an old one director bailey the place i see on the latest update is in the summary um where it says what it says is under modernization and rebuilds the second bullet point the entire i'm going to read the entire bullet point design and complete pre-construction work to modernize cleveland and wilson high schools i think that's a semi-colon and to add capacity to roosevelt high school plan design additional capacity
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including for middle schools and and i think the the the question is plan slash design additional capacity um and and i don't know if if we're looking at adding some um more potential uh to that it could be middle school it could not be middle school i mean i think that's the tension as they would do including does including permit us to definitely do middle school excuse me for interrupting i have a question on the version control as well um i'm i'm looking at the version that was sent over this afternoon at 3 40 3 49 and i'm just looking for the bullet points that you just discussed i'm not seeing them so what is the what is the heading i'm looking for is it explanatory page three it is in the explanatory statement under the section school modernizations and rebuilds okay so school modernization is on page one which is why i'm wondering if i could just clarify it's on page three director to pass do i have a completely different version yeah doc shows that you're in this version with me okay statement that it starts on page one and it has two bullet points one that starts with roosevelt franklin and the other that starts with madison high school and then additionally there's the other bullet points so this is the latest version is that correct okay um scrolling down michelle director yeah you're you're looking at um explanatory it's further down toward the end yes thank you i i see it now it is on page three and it's under the school modernizations thank you actually i have a question now and sorry about diversion because um i thought it was supposed to happen plan add and yeah capacity not plan design which was the point that superintendent guerrero had raised that's correct uh director brim edwards my concern was money is to be expended not just for planning and design but also any decisions future on ad or construction regardless of whether where that is um so the one the one that was sent out this afternoon um late this afternoon does not include it it is supposed to be plan ad versus planned plan design which was the issue that superintendent had raised so i'm going to go back and re-offer my friendly amendments which is actually to go back to that yeah and i apologize for pulling up the old language my bad um but to go back to that old language for that clause with the or inserted which brings back in the ad capacity um i'd like to just clarify that the intention on the amendment that is posted and that was circulated at 3 48 this afternoon is that the bullet point we're talking about replaces design with ad and we need to make sure that that happens and that is the entire the origin of this conversation about this particular clause and regretfully that was not in that proposal but that needs to be in what is adopted today well in what i'm seeing there is a pink uh correction or amendment red red line but it's pink line um on that first page which is replacing design with ad um and then we need to move the next amendment there's an of that is crossed out on the first page then the next part of the amendment comes on page three which will be to end to add capacity to roosevelt high school plan slash ad additional capacity and then including for middle school and then goes into the next bullet point correct uh can we um so two i have two questions and the second one is going to make everybody's head
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explode um can we can we add uh scott's amend friendly amendment at this point so what i'm wondering is can we add do we ha i know that we're limited on our words so can we add scott's friendly amendment around middle school to the first page and then delete including middle school from this bullet point we're working on right now so we are very constrained or just add the word potentially in front of middle school in the paragraph we're looking at that word okay let's hear back from liz i want to be clear that we are very constrained on space in the summary so where it says plan and add additional capacity in the summary we are very constrained on words only 175 allowed we do we can make the explanatory statement include the friendly amendment that director bailey has offered and we can make that work with the word limitations we have director bailey suggests a one-word substitution potentially for including yes so i think what i hear now is that director moore's amendment is before us there have been two friendly amendments made one is to change design to add and one is to it change including to potentially does that work for you director brim edwards yeah i don't i don't think um director bailey's first friendly amendment had a second so i don't know that yeah i would draw that first one and uh i'm i'm happy with what's and this and the second is friendly considered friendly as well and i'm happy to second second it okay when can i um my second comment are you sure you want to make it oh i want to make one oh yes um so after wilton high schools there is a semicolon that i can be deleted i'm gonna violently inject what was that i'm just kidding have we considered our characteristics um document i'm going to bring that forward again about perfectionism being one of the characteristics of a culture that we don't want to replicate no i'm just going to say let me i'm going to ask you guys to let liz speak to this please because there's been a question asked about this semicolon let's let her weigh in and then we can have more discussion it's hard to read it's already stricken in the proposed amendments it's it's in there on the board doc site so it's already okay before the board okay my my apologies thank you okay do we have we have our amendment with the word potentially in the word ad is there any further discussion so i'm gonna i'm gonna say this mostly so that we have it on the record um i think this is better potentially for middle schools than including middle schools and it gives a little bit more flexibility i think the issue though about community expectations exists throughout the entire district and i have a number of of um families uh and neighbors who are very concerned about smith school and they really would like to see this capacity money go um to reopen smith school and those of you who visited forest park would talk about the additional wing that forest park needs that would relieve overcrowding in a number of west side elementary schools um i i was sort of tongue-in-cheek going to add a friendly amendment to director bailey's friendly amendment and say why don't we just say um you know including middle schools and elementary schools and high schools mostly just to make the point if we're not trying to designate the money for something the cleanest and best solution is simply to strike middle schools and allow the money to be used for capacity where in fact it is most needed in the district um that said if there's not support for that um from the board i think the the language you have put on the table about potentially including for middle schools gives the flexibility that i think is needed i do worry that we're setting up an expectation and i think we need to be very careful about that i have been very
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careful about not setting up an expectation for the people who are emailing me about smith and forest park i would hope all of us are being clear that we need to go through a process a data driven objective process to decide where the district most needs capacity and then have a conversation with the community and the board about how to spend this money not try and pre-allocate it now in terms of where it's going to go because of what we think and and i don't mean to to pick a fight with my fellow board members at all but i feel like i also need to get on the record as the chair of the bond committee these issues about middle school redesign were only brought up tangentially and and and not as an issue of we want staff to look at this issue to come back to brief this committee so that we can talk to the board so we can get something included in this bond for this it was brought up in a way of hey this is an issue that's hanging out there and the reason i raise that is because there's about a hundred issues that the district needs to address that this bond is not in fact redressing and we need to be really clear with the community about that as well that that this doesn't address all the needs it addresses a lot of them but not all of them so i just want to put those things on the record the way this language is framed now i i will support it um but i want to be really clear about about about all the communities we need to talk to um as we go through this process and i think director scott that's one of the amazing things and messy things about being a seven member board is that we do come to this with all sorts of different um kind of thoughts and ideas and communities and so we do hash this out and um you know this this is the compromise the word potentially between kind of the different viewpoints we brought tonight um and that i think as we continue to work together as a board and do some of our board development our board self-evaluation and some of our norms that we get better at how we have these conversations how we have this process so that we're all on that same page of how we do this work together so i appreciate you all for your comments tonight and the work that happened here and you know arguing about semicolons is one of my favorite things so um that's why director and i are friends and we love the pencils director broome edwards brought us that say grammar police on them so um if is there any further discussion before we vote first on the amendment with the friendly amendments and then on the the rest of the resolution all right i think we're ready to vote the board will now vote on the proposed amendment to resolution 6153 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions the amendment to resolution 61 53 is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative shu voting yes excuse me six zero six yeah six oh i'm sorry i'm just i'm so used to counting seven i can't count to six so sorry the amendment to resolution 6153 is approved by a vote of six to zero with student representative shu voting yes great all right is there any further discussion on resolution 61 as amended only that i'm excited to get going and it's a great package yes and thank you for your leadership director brim edwards on the uh campaign all right the board will now just just really quickly i want to thank the superintendent as well i think it was a really important catch um in terms of of of this language around planning and adding capacity so i'm glad we got that done thank you thanks yes and he did it while like moving his uh some of his life to uh portland so uh the man can multitask well all right the board will now vote on resolution number 6153 as amended a resolution of portland public schools multnomah county school district number 1j multnomah county oregon calling a measure election to submit to the electors of the district the question of authorizing 1 billion 208 million of general obligation bonds and providing for related matters all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions resolution 6153 is approved by a vote of six to zero with student representative shu voting yes all right excellent work that only took us like 22 minutes longer than planned so our meeting is now adjourned and we
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can head into executive session now

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)

2020-08-03 PPS School Board Special Meeting

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Event 1: PPS Board of Education Special Meeting. 8/03/2020

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