2021-04-13 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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District Portland Public Schools
Date 2021-04-13
Time 18:00:00
Venue Virtual/Online
Meeting Type regular
Directors Present missing
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Event 1: PPS Board of Education Regular Meeting - 4/13/21

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board meeting of the board of education for april 13 2021 is called to order for tonight's meeting any item that will be voted on has been posted on the pps website under the board and meetings tabs this meeting is being live streamed on pps tv services website and on channel 28 and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the district website for replay times it's the wonderful spring evening tonight i looked at the temple at one point it was 64 degrees outside um so i think we're all um ready for this season change and the new life that's um showing up around us as we see school buses in our community again we see those blinking yellow lights reminding us to go 20 in school zones and we see students returning to our buildings and as the parent of a high schooler i'm very excited as high school begins in person instruction this next week so we have a lot to cover tonight as always with the good work we're doing as a district but we're going to begin with our board consent agenda board members if there are any items you would like to pull we will set those aside for discussion and vote after we consider the rest of the consent agenda ms powell are there any changes to the consent agenda there is not board members are there any items you would like to pull from the consent agenda yes i'd like to um have a poll sounds too strong but um a discussion about the 2021-22 interdistrict transfer um resolution yeah so we'll go ahead and take that off the consent agenda it's such weird language you're right director from edwards but we will consider that separately and have a conversation about it it sounds too dramatic we need a better verb uh there um yes um any other items to pull okay do i have a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda so promote i okay so director brim edwards moves and director constance seconds the adoption of the consent agenda is there any board discussion on the consent agenda uh with resolution um i have to find it uh [Music] 6283 removed so we will not be discussing that at this time any discussion of the other resolutions ms powell is there any public comment all right the board will now vote on resolutions six two seven eight um through six two eight one and then six two eight three through 6285 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes can before we go can we can we revisit the numbers that were recited on the resolutions i think the one that was pulled is six two eight three yes i say it wrong yes yes okay i apologize three i was trying to i apologize so we are voting on resolutions six two seven eight through six two eight two and then six two eight four and six two eight five did i manage to say all of them the last time great good okay thank you for catching that that is what we're voting on we have removed six two eight three all right we'll vote again on the correct items all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions the consent agenda is proved approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative shu voting yes all right director broome edwards would you like to uh begin the discussion of resolution six uh we need to uh we want to get it on the table yes we need to bring it on the table so thank you so 283 director from edwards moves do i have a second second thank you director bailey so director bermedward's moves and director bailey seconds 6283 and director brim edwards would you like to begin our discussion tonight yes i had um some questions and i really appreciate um staff uh providing some answers but i thought because um not only because we've received some communications to in the last couple days around around these but also um the during the southeast guiding coalition conversation there were discussions about transfers so i just had some questions that i wanted to get on the record and
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i'll direct them to the superintendent and you can um feel them how how you wish um so the first one was in the staff report there is a discussion about um ode staff looking at black family displacement and the inner district transfer process but the efforts on hold and i'm wondering if you can share what that process is and how it relates to the action that we took in the fall of 2017 for the right right to return to albina whether it's complimentary or in supporting that i i appreciate the question director brim edwards uh roseanne if you could uh judy and claire if you don't mind flipping on your cameras and hopefully directors saw that we tried to capture questions we were hearing from the broader community and you had a chance to see some of staff responses here but i think it is important to sort of make sure we're explicit about some of the questions so on this question around displacement or process can you speak to that claire or judy please go ahead judy good evening directors judy brennan enrollment end transfer um yes this is an effort that ode uh took on and was just starting a little bit over a year ago um and uh working within their um focus on african american students and seeing if it also might extend to a focus on the needs of native american students statewide um we've been reaching out to ode and actually just got an answer back this morning and worked with courtney wessling um to try and stay engaged with them and we have a discussion tomorrow morning with a staff person it sounds like there's been a staff person changeover during the um covid and so a new person will be taking this on um our objective is to make sure that they understand the importance of um having a uh streamlined process for students who have been displaced to remain in portland schools so that was the intent of the board in the resolution that you passed in 2017 around the return to albina preference the schools involved in that uh specifically it's a broader area but these specific schools boise elliot humboldt elementary harriet tubman middle school jefferson middle college this year we've identified 60 students currently enrolled in those schools who will need permission from their new resident districts because they've moved out of pps in order for their children to remain 95 percent of those students are bipac and that is just an indicator of how important it is that bureaucracy paperwork doesn't um undercut the ability of families to remain connected to their communities so we'll be meeting with ode staff tomorrow and can provide a more thorough update once we have more information about how they're going to be reactivating that crop just to clarify their current policies don't prevent us from using our returned albina um sort of initiative that we have but this would be more to enhance it and maybe make it statewide we um the board passed that at a time when there was an opportunity called open enrollment where other districts couldn't deny the students rights to transfer open enrollment sunset in 2018 and the state hasn't taken up any additional initiatives that would replace it this preference or this need to remain um aligned with the historic community is not part of the state's definition for a hardship in their emergency hardship exemption so while we have very strong cooperation um across our neighboring districts um around the importance of this initiative um it's also something that the state laws are so broad and and um require blind placement so we can't they can't actually identify kids who would qualify for this and give them a different outcome from any other student so that's why we were hoping that the state can support us um and and in fact it may be something that's important in other communities in
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the state not just in portland great thank you um and then another question i had was i know when the southeast guiding coalition was looking at enrollment in um sort of across southeast and northeast the questions came up about transfers into um into schools that were already overcrowded or full and so maybe and as i look through the materials it looks like we have students going into grant franklin and bridger and just the sense of explaining if a school is full why why the district what policy or reason we would be allowing transfers in at a time when [Music] our school is full yes so um with our inner district transfers we try and follow the direction of the in-district transfers we don't want students who live outside of our district to have say more latitude than students who live within pbs schools that you mentioned such as grant and franklin are closed to almost all new transfers please keep in mind that most of the inner district transfers the students that go through the standard process are already enrolled we're likely residents of pps and have now moved out to another district and we know that that's more and more um and we should expect quite a bit of this to a degree that we can't exactly understand right now but we're anticipating a lot of movement as families are coping with the pandemic and housing instability so most of the students that are affected are students who are already enrolled and we're asking that they have permission to keep their seat and graduate at the school they've started in and when we've done um a deep dive into some of these schools we find again that these are primarily bypass students who are affected by these changes regarding any new students who would be allowed in through inner district transfer again we're following the same rules that we would follow with our resident transfer while we do prioritize siblings we ask whether their permission of the principals if we have any siblings those could be denied we also allow transfers if there's a program in the school that only exists in that school and in the case of franklin that would be russian immersion so any students who live outside of pbs finish eighth grade in lane russian immersion have the right to continue on to franklin um because that's the cohort that we need to keep the program stable and um and work for all of the kids that are supporting it the same is true for the japanese immersion program that feeds from mount tabor middle school to grant now we could make um i mean you you have the latitude as the board to um to direct us to close some schools completely and not allow those degrees of transfers we would recommend against it because of the programmatic impact that it has in those cases great that's uh really helpful i get a fair amount of questions of why those transfers into schools are crowded then the last question is we've had a whole host of uh communications um about the transfer criteria um for students seeking to transfer out and i know those um communications were forwarded to you for the so they're in the in the record um can you explain why the criteria doesn't doesn't match and why the district recommends is recommending we um maintain the current criteria that is before us sure so one of the basic principles in pbs enrollment policies is that we believe that our schools can serve our kids needs and children should only change and go to different schools if there's an important reason a hardship or a specific program that that can't be met in their neighborhood schools in the case of inner district transfers through the standard process the state process doesn't allow us to ask why a student would be leaving it's simply just an open door and because we don't allow open door for kids transfers between neighborhood schools we we don't think that it fits to allow an open door for kids to transfer out of district now we do have a provision that lets students
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into pps schools without a reason because we can't ask for a reason um up to a hundred i think last year we seated about 30 students and they were only at schools that had space now to be equal we could certainly say we don't allow anyone in who doesn't meet that criteria of being a prior move a sibling or a student already enrolled in a program that was that's what would make it equal but we have allowed that door to remain open for a few kids where there's space because we can't ask a reason we don't know why they come but we've let space um be the reason great so they either meet the criteria or up to 100. yes okay space availability a hundred in the district but certainly would be a no at a school like franklin or many of us many of our schools are too full um but where we do have space if someone wants um a seat bearer we've we've said yes great thank you that's all my questions i really appreciate the answers and explanations andrew just thank you oh i'm sorry and michelle you have taken your mute off and you want to go ahead no i've done that three times go ahead just a really quick funding question um for students who transfer in um does the funding follow the student in that case if we accept those 30 students you were talking about or the hardship students is it different either way yeah standard inter-district transfer is basically a contract um that moves the transfer it's the transfer of state school funds from their home district to the receiving district i have a quick question about um you mentioned the right to return policy are you talking about the preference policy um that came from the city of portland that preferences people that were impacted um by by city actions to to come back to albina or is this a different policy director to pass in in conjunction with that policy and um in coordination with um several african-american leaders and uh director moore i believe he was on the board at that time was a board liaison we worked to establish a right to return to schools that would parallel that city effort so it allowed us we use this inter-district tool called open enrollment to identify schools through community members did outreach as allowed under state law to make sure that families knew that if they wanted seats in our portland schools we would take the barriers down at least the paperwork barriers to make that happen um and that started in um 2017 but then open enrollment sunset and that's why we've been trying to stay connected and advocate for change at the state level thank you so it sounds like a different policy but it's in alignment with the city's preference policy that preferences people within a geography to have first right of refusal for housing programs i'm wondering if we could um take a look at our policy and make sure it you know is right on time in terms of um looking at a policy that's kind of based around home ownership models versus higher poverty students that have quite a bit more mobility in and out of different school districts and even out of pps and moving east if we could align our our values with any policy that has to do with enrollment that takes um renters into consideration as well as homeowners um knowing what we know about the minority um home ownership gap in in oregon due to the you know legacy of the state policy you know our constitution absolutely i mean from my from my seat in enrollment absolutely um and um our preference was for any students um or any families with a historic connection so similar to how the city like like you qualify for the program based on your historic connection not necessarily home ownership what you qualify for is often assistance with home ownership um and and i know the program is expanding now but for us it was simply a seat in a school in albina or other areas that are historically the center of the black community it's fantastic and i know um i was on a committee with uh david douglas school board chair i think at the time a couple years ago and she was actually working on developing a preference policy for david douglas that preferenced any affordable home opportunities to those lower income people that were at
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risk of being pushed out even further and um i mean she worked tirelessly on on that i'm not sure the status of it now but it was a great idea i thought further questions scott um yes just to be clear without open enrollment uh the return to albina any shift of students depends on other districts uh allowing that shift to happen um and i believe as the superintendent said we've had a really good cooperation uh with those other districts so uh just wanted to clarify that and and just say thank you to our partners in other districts that that's the case uh director bailey we've had that explicit conversation among the superintendents in multnomah county understanding the reality for many of our families and you know a general pledge of support that we wouldn't get in the way of a family who needed that accommodation any further questions miss powell is there any public comment on 6283 there is not all right um the board will now vote on resolution 6283 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes yes all oppose please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions resolution 6283 is approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative shu voting yes sir lowry yes can i ask um that after the discussions with the state that the board get an update on where where we are with that discussion uh judy do you have a timeline for when we think we might get that response and we have this initial meeting tomorrow and um and and again courtney wesling is um is involved as well so it could come in other updates that you're getting from her um but one way or another we will make sure that that gets to you absolutely thank you so much all right we turn now to student and public comment before we begin i would like to review our current guidelines for comment we as a board thank you the community for taking the time to attend this meeting and provide your comments public input informs our work and we look forward to hearing your thoughts reflections and concerns our responsibility as a board is to actively listen some of us do take notes during public comment so just know that our board office may follow up on board related issues raised during public testimony we request that complaints about individual employees be directed to the superintendent's office as a personnel matter if you have additional materials or items you would like to provide to the board or superintendent we ask that you email them to publiccomment pps.net please make sure when you begin your comment that you clearly state your name and spell your last name you will have three minutes to speak and you will hear a sound after three minutes which means it is time to conclude your comments miss powell do we have anyone signed up for student or public comment this evening we do we have four people the first person is barbara baines welcome barbara um thank you for having me my name is barbara baines b-a-i-n-s and i want to just thank you for allowing me to come and speak i joyfully served the children of laurelhurst elementary school and as their lunch lady for the last 13 months nutrition services has been on the front line we have been the face of portland public schools when we were sent home on march 13th none of us knew what would happen it was a few weeks of worry and fear before the governor said we were going to be paid our regular wages even though we were guaranteed a salary either way there was a powerful workforce of volunteers that stepped up and continued to serve ensuring that the children of portland public schools had food to eat in september when it was time for all of us to come
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back imagine our surprise to find out that every single person in portland public schools was guaranteed their full wage except for us the only people whose hours and pay were cut was nutrition services the very people who were on the front lines facing the public putting ourselves and our families health and lives on the line why is this because this is what we're told because we're self-sufficient over and over again in bargaining we've been told the reason that we're paid such low wages is because nutrition services is self-sufficient during one of these meetings a supervisor said nutrition services asked to be self-sufficient when we were discussing it afterwards several of us had heard it differently so the next time we met i asked for clarification did we ask to be self-sufficient or were we asked to be self-sufficient there is a difference and no matter how many times i or ways i asked the question i was never given a straight answer the only thing i was told was it was like that when i started i was told that by the person that interviewed me more than 12 years ago she's been around a while so we've been using self-sufficiency as an excuse to treat uh they've been using self-sufficiency as an excuse to treat us with inequity and disrespect this is unacceptable my dad used to always say it doesn't matter how far you've gone in the wrong direction you still have to turn around i think it's time to turn around what we're asking for is so much less than what we deserve equity would mean retropay guaranteeing our hours from the start of september because that would be what everybody else got we're not asking for that much we're asking for 1500 per person please do the right thing thank you thank you thank you thank you natal who do we have next the next speaker is veronica duceck welcome hi my name is veronica duceck and um it's d-u-c-z-e-k and my pronouns are she and her so good evening superintendent guerrero and members of the board um i'm like barbara an employee in the nutrition services department at pps i am proud to say that i'm a lunch lady currently serving the students at creative science school and like barbara i am also a member of my union's bargaining team pps custodians and nutrition services employees began impact bargaining with pps on january 26th and we are still bargaining with a deadline of april 26 coming up in less than two weeks everyone can agree that it is not just one person that helps a student learn they need teachers counselors nurses parent educators bus drivers and the list goes on they need custodians to ensure they have a safe and clean building to learn in a building that is not too hot and not too cold a building where the garbage is emptied and the soap and toilet paper are kept stocked a building under the care of a custodian who makes sure everything works they need nutrition services employees to feed them nutritious food their brains cannot learn if their body is hungry the lunch lady is someone they see every day who is as happy to see them as they are to see us and yet we are being treated without the respect that employees who are essential to the education of portland's children deserve for nearly three months we have asked for ppe required to do our job safely regular communication from our directors heat and shelter at our outdoor grab-and-go sites the choice to work at a location without student contact pat and sfsp were given this choice not us instead of looking out for nutrition services employees and reinstating them into work share once the top-up began
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again on january 1st of this year the union had to ask that these employees be reinstated these employees who would have their hours cut who are the lowest paid workers at pps these workers who are mostly women and pps said no it would be too hard but once they looked into it they discovered it wasn't hard at all in the meantime these women lost out on five weeks of payments for a total of fifteen hundred dollars this is why our hazard pay request is for fifteen hundred dollars every step of the way pps has has said no to our proposals and had us come back to the table again and again yes they have given us mass yes they have agreed to regular communication yes they are reaching out to the grab-and-go sites but it was only after weeks and weeks of bargaining and still they have refused our hazard paid proposal so i have a request our next bargaining session is thursday april 15th i'm requesting that someone who can talk to us seriously about hazard pay for nutrition services employees attend that meeting thank you thank you very much veronica miss palace for further public comment yes we have chris riser welcome chris thank you uh my name is chris reiser i'm at ockley green middle school in north portland and um i am first of all i just want to give a big shout out to seiu local 503 and everything that they have been going through um i wish you guys would listen and respect them and settle they're our lowest paid workers and they've been on the front lines this whole time um it's unbelievable just sitting here and listening to what these folks are coming and asking for and they're being so respectful i don't know how um i i've seen the pure politics of this whole situation from the president of the united states pushing to return all the way down to the governor's order announced from sitting with guadalupe guerrero standing right there in tow i saw the chiefs of this adversarial team sit back and negotiate without care for what educators were actually going to be facing in our classrooms in this situation and we know who this is for right it was really interesting how um the uh chief of systems performance right before he trots out this survey that shows our inability to reach historically marginalized groups our inability to actually center those who are marginalized and shows that the vast majority of students that are going to be returning are students of european descent who is this for and yet right before he said that he said we center everything we do in equity empty words it's politics and we can see it so clearly i was there at sitton for the rally when um all of a sudden the site for announcing the first day of return on april 1st it magically changed after seiu 503 said they were going to have a rally there and suddenly mr guerrero and the governor they popped up to get their pr not at sitting because they didn't want that negative attention of our lowest paid workers being disrespected so they bounced over to scott real quick on the low right so that they could get those pictures of students loving their learning in the classroom and i see on the slides you put black and brown folks on your slides while perpetuating white supremacy we can see it all happening and it's gross i want to give a shout out to nathan hsu for actually calling this board into what real leadership means which is following by example you guys got to lead from the front and listening to the way that you guys talked about returning to in person that was unbelievable what a slap in the face things like well i believe it was uh director bailey who said if we're wearing a mask there's actually a subtraction from communication the face part is part of communication as well that we absorb unconsciously okay so but it's okay for kids right um and when mr xu calls this out um uh director lowry says um i think that we can say students going back in the classroom gain that social connection and ability to engage with their teacher what we do what do we gain other than the leadership by example question what else do we get gained by returning to in-person meetings
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that was so disrespectful to the thousands of educators who are being forced back into these conditions in under terms where we have been negotiating under duress because of the governor's false urgency that was created by a piece of paper and then you guys have just railroaded us and seiu and all of the folks who actually carry this out and and you're forgetting who it is that has the agency nothing happens without educators and testimony tonight we appreciate you i hope you guys do better by sei seiu 503 thank you thank you mr razer our last person tonight is aaron brown welcome erin uh good evening can folks hear me awesome thank you uh thank you so much my name is erin brown i'm with an organization called no more freeways i first just wanted to express my appreciation for pps as an institution i spoke to many of you last week but the folks that weren't there thank you to the board members pps staff and pps educators who have navigated truly tremendous and unfathomable challenges over the last couple months i'm deeply grateful for your public service um i spoke to many of you last week at the pps intergovernmental committee i saw director scott bailey at our rally on friday uh thank you to pps for hosting us at tubman thank you to your civic use of building team who is excellent to work with i will also say that i personally missed being at tubman i was visiting teachers there frequently before the pandemic and the history and importance of that building as a site of black activism for education justice it's hard to ignore and also i missed being in a crowd with distance and masks but uh being in a crowd on a sunny day felt like a moment of healing and recovery and resilience and it was great to hear from former tubman students and teachers whose moral clarity continues to inspire me we'll be happy to pass around a link if you want to listen to some of their speeches at our rally um the news came out today in oregon public broadcasting about what oregon department of transportation wants to do in the backyard of harriet tubman middle school with this expansion odot has been hiding that document from you and from the public the plans of this expansion and the amount of land they want to take it to take in tubman's backyard that document we found through a public records request was dated in 2018 so they've had the document they just haven't shared it with you this is the latest in a long list of odot shenanigans where they have hidden from the public numerous key crucial details they hid from us the cost of the project which continues to escalate they hid from us the number of lanes wide this project would be it took numerous asks and months of public records requests for odot to give a simple basic detail how many lanes wide is this freeway and the reason it was difficult was that they were proposing a freeway wide enough for 10 lanes and did not want you to know this when called upon this at a meeting odot blamed trimet saying trimet had asked for a bus rapid transit lane and then trimet was like no we we didn't do that um oda manipulated the traffic data and brought on a flashy new peer review panel that was not empowered to actually review the accuracy of that traffic projection data our lawsuit that we filed and i'll talk more about that in a second includes dozens of pages of technical analysis demonstrating without a margin of doubt the way that odot put their fingers on the scale to come up with the data that said that somehow this would be the unicorn of a freeway expansion the first in north american history that would somehow lower air pollution or carbon emissions but i really here i want to spend my time talking about the hearing on thursday many of you spoke about how concerned you were about the air pollution and your desire to see odot potentially buy out the building if the project made the school unsalvageable i respect that and obviously if odot's playing hardball that their freeway expansion is so important that it's worth displaying the historic fought over civic treasure of a building well you got to do what you got to do but director com sam spoke about wanting to put together a letter stating where pps stands on all of this and i want to encourage you in addition to naming the price to look at other tactics to fight this project that recognize the history and importance of this school and that odot shouldn't be able to bully the district into selling this property to you for fossil fuel infrastructure i don't think fossil fuel infrastructure should take the right-of-way from a historic black civic institution in 2019 the pps resolution that you signed implied you'd oppose the project without a full environmental impact statement we still don't have a full environmental impact statement odat passed an environmental assessment on the condition that they can engage with community partners and many of those community partners the mayor commissioner you daily albino vision trust in multnomah county all left in the wake of the murder of george floyd i hear my time are going off i'll finish real quick uspps have what director scott called enormous soft power to encourage other similarly skeptical local elected officials to band together and tell odot it's obscene to propose this massive 800 million freeway expansion in the backyard of tubman middle school that's what an eis would provide an eis would give you that mechanism to study congestion pricing before expansion which would improve the air pollution at the building as it currently is without having to move the building and this cherished institution i have more i would just want to say i'm eager to work with you both pps board members and staff into the future and info at no more freebase pdx.com thank you so much for your time thanks aaron thank you aaron
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that's it thank you so much to all of those who spoke and gave public testimony um know that our board manager roseanne powell will follow up with you as needed and if you have uh anything else you'd like to share remember that email address publiccomment pps.net we move now to our reports from student representative shu uh thank you so as everyone watching tonight is doubtless aware hybrid instruction is upon us for most of our students this marks the first opportunity to take part in in-person education in over a year for high schools such as myself this week is our last one in cdl i want to thank all of our teachers administrators besc staff and other employees for making this happen i know it has been and will likely continue to be an enormous lift and i am grateful for your sacrifices to improve the lives and educations of our students as we embark on this new chapter i would also like to reiterate that students safety must be paramount as we know from the the sobe the dsc and i administered health and safety concerns are widespread among students ranging from boys about adherence to guidelines to social distancing to masks to vaccines it is crucial that we do everything in our power to ensure that we address these fears and to ensure that all of the plans developed for hybrid learning are adequately implemented in practice if there's anything the dsc and i can do to be of help to these ends please don't hesitate to let us know and to the students of pps it is critical that we must do our part in protecting each other's health we must comply with all social distancing guidelines wear our masks consistently and correctly and be sure to follow all other public health guidelines to the greatest degree possible i truly hope that all of us particularly our older students rise to the occasion in other news i'm pleased to announce that jackson weinberg the current deputy student representative and the district student council member from cleveland will be the student representative to the pps board of education for the 2021-2022 school year beginning this july immediately after my term expires many of you already know jackson for those of you who do not he will be joining a board meeting closer to the beginning of his term to introduce himself additionally the dsc has elected grant representative samantha depinto as its secretary for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year a new role that was created by one of the bylaws amendments that i spoke of in a previous report she will be responsible for taking notes at dsc meetings as well as setting agendas for meetings along with myself and deputy the deputy student rep uh thank you and that concludes my board thank you so much nathaniel for all the work you've done and for um this call to sort of action and responsibility of students superintendent guerrero do you have a report to share with us tonight i do have a report to share chair thank you good evening directors and when i started this to those watching the meeting live stream from home when i shared my last report with you i'm not making you nervous am i roseanne when i shared my last report with you we were on the verge of opening our classrooms uh to elementary age students all across the city for the first time in over a year and um after almost 30 years as an educator i know first days of school are never perfect um but we've done a pretty good job these last several years our goal this year time with an unusual springtime opening was to positively and safely welcome students and staff back to classrooms to begin in personal learning i mentioned previously that with everyone pitching in and doing their part that we would be ready to open schools again and we were prepared and it was time so i'm happy to report that elementary school reopenings have gone smoothly our thanks and appreciation go out to all the educators our administrators families our students and all those who support them they were ready it took a lot of thoughtful planning hard work preparation flexibility and creativity and the result has been so far a remarkably positive school reopening we took the opportunity to host open house school tours to stakeholders in
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advance as well as featured schools like satan to demonstrate the health and safety precautions being instituted we safely welcome back pre-k through fifth grade and now we're less than a week away from safely welcoming back middle and high school students and staff we were delighted that our directors joined us at a number of schools the first few days of reopening as evidenced by the snapshots here i think it's fair to say that our directors were as excited as our students to be back i know our school leaders and families appreciated having you visible and present i know many of our students were eager to share with you their excitement uh or in the case of chair lowry their math worksheets i understand that there was some serious hopscotching by at least two of our directors and many of your takeaways were probably similar to to my own it was a beautiful sight to see everyone on the playgrounds it was great to see all of our central office educators and administrators present on campuses to support our school communities ready to pitch in and welcome students whose families have chosen to return to in-person instruction so from an early first morning at scott elementary where we were joined by governor brown and media outlets covered the day from so many of our schools across the city my own school visits to sacagawea and clarendon head starts as well as saban and sunnyside elementary schools these first few days they've all illustrated that how the careful preparation how the campus specific safety plans uh it's paid off uh the the joy of being back on campus is is clearly evident uh by our students educators and families so the site of our youngest scholars returning back to schools especially after such a long absence has reminded us uh to appreciate the privilege it is to be together engaged in teaching and learning in friendship and in play and of course there's more work to do there will be additional new challenges to to confront uh but just as before uh we'll remain focused on being prepared and uh and being ready for whatever comes our way uh that's the core of our mission to serve and support our students so we look forward to seeing our directors uh and our fellow colleagues out and about again as we open our middle and high schools next week yet another significant milestone on our way to eventually reopening our schools more fully this coming fall yes let me let me say it clearly it's our expectation that we will fully reopen for five days a week of in-person instruction this coming fall in fact you'll see on the board agenda later this evening our proposed 2021-22 school calendar now we've been living in a fluid and dynamic reality for the last year but unless health conditions and guidance from public health and department of education officials do not yet permit it we expect and intend to welcome all students back to school this coming september and because there's no substitute for the actual sights and sounds of our schools and after more than a year of schools being closed i want to share with you a short video of that first morning last thursday at scott elementary so that we can all celebrate this milestone and you can all feel a bit of the joy of that day we started welcoming students at 7 45. that moment was a frenzy of a lot of emotions [Music] we had a lot of parents drop off their students we had some students ride the bus level i think went really well today was exciting as families and students arrived to see them and talk to them families would walk their students to the line and then students would take their place on the dots and families were then able to wait up above the lines and watch their students as they were greeted by their teacher and then we had quite a few visitors in the building including our superintendent guadalupe as well as governor kate brown it was great to have community leaders in our building families can see that our leaders are listening kids learn best when they're here in the school in the classroom i'm so excited to see the kids back everybody's happy teaching the principal by principal and me too
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students seemed very happy in class so we were singing dancing everybody had masks on everyone was following the safety protocols we definitely had some fun on recess might have included some very bad public competitions it was nice to see their smile virtually all students were extremely excited you could tell they were nervous but they finally got to see their teacher in person they finally got to see other students from their class working on a coloring sheet working on solving math equations one classroom had students make crowns that they would put on their head and it was just a great way to see kids in action [Music] having kids in the building you have to show students how to walk in the hallway to get to recess or come back from recess and we're realizing that some of those transitions are taking a little bit longer than expected well these are unprecedented times so i think it's hard to say if it went exactly as expected because in the pandemic i feel like it's hard to ever know what to expect but i do think things went really well and overall it was a really great day and kids seemed really excited to be here and excited to come back again tomorrow all in all a great moment a great way to see everybody in one place and i think people were longing for that feeling of connection this is the opportunity to see something that can meet the needs of every single student and ensure that all of our students have all the opportunities that they deserve and really prepare them for the jobs of the future i think directors got to see the superintendent's classroom shuffle there uh proud moments uh i just sincerely want to appreciate everyone uh for bringing joy uh to to as we welcome back uh our students to school we are pps new topic uh leadership announcements uh from the first days of school to our path forward as an organization i'm very pleased to share with you in the community two new leadership promotions both of these individuals have outstanding track records at pps and i'm eager to have them tackle in earnest new challenges in their new roles first of all dana nurenberg who will serve as the district's first director of learning acceleration working in the office of teaching and learning dana will play a key leadership role in our transition back to in-person learning after more than a year of distance learning during the covid pandemic dana moves to the central office from sitton elementary where she has been principal since 2014 in her new role and this is this is a new and we feel now necessary role at pps dana will collaborate and work closely with multiple departments and community based partners as pps begins to re-imagine summer programming enrichment and extended learning as we move forward during her time as principal sitton established a dual language immersion program and expanded the school's inclusion model for students receiving special education services dana's tenure at sitting was marked by high student and family engagement lower discipline rates and robust partnerships with community organizations she's a strong leader an advocate for students and families as she has shown throughout her career since starting as a second grade teacher she is student centered and results oriented and her new role will be central to our developing plans for this summer and beyond so as is tradition i'd like to invite dana to say a few words here i do not see her on here superintendent guerrero oh here she is she's going to share how ecstatic she is to be in this new role i was like i'm here but you couldn't see me um thank you for that lovely introduction superintendent i'm just really excited humbled honored and at this exact moment a little overwhelmed i just started the role yesterday and already there's just so much opportunity to learn and build on successful programming there's an extraordinary team that is already ramping up to develop amazing summer opportunities for our students around academics around play around cultural partners and opportunities for our kids to really
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engage socially and leverage their their strengths and interests i'm also really excited to build on the many skills our kids have gained in the past year i was really apprehensive how were we going to do spanish immersion kindergarten on a screen and with thanks to amazing teachers brilliant students and thoughtful parents our kids have learned a lot of new skills and so i'm eager to think about how we can leverage all those new skills our students have gained to really create amazing opportunities for them in this new role thank you dana and congratulations thank you next leadership announcement directors a very familiar face uh jonathan garcia will assume the role of chief of staff in this new leadership role jonathan's work will be focused on supporting our collective efforts at realizing our vision for portland public schools as chief of staff jonathan will be a member of the executive leadership team and serve as an extension and proxy of the superintendent to advance the successful implementation of key district priorities jonathan will manage the operations of the office of the superintendent including serving as the liaison to the board of education in addition to overseeing our communications government affairs strategic partnerships and community engagement teams he will be responsible for collaboration and accountability among top leadership at pps and will play a central role in ensuring our efforts meet our high standards and central obligation to serve students hopefully you've observed in his three and a half years at pps jonathan has made important contributions in a number of areas including and especially in how we engage and support our students and families he spearheaded the broad community effort and organizational initiative that resulted in our pps vision now the district's north star he launched the fund for pps which has already raised and distributed significant resources that have been a lifeline for many pps families during the pandemic jonathan's ability to creatively build cultivate and leverage partnerships has resulted in a number of direct benefits for our schools and students he is unapologetically student centered i will count on jonathan's collaborative work ethic to advance our priorities and elevate student outcomes he has demonstrated during his successful tenure as chief engagement officer that he is up for the myriad of challenges and complexities that come with leadership in a larger urban school district i have full confidence in his ability to support our collective journey and transformation as a school system i want to welcome new chief of staff jonathan garcia to share a few words thank you superintendent uh good evening chair lowry vice chair bailey directors and student representative uh just want to start off by uh thanking superintendent guerrero for entrusting me in this new role uh more than three and a half years ago i came to portland public schools really excited for our refreshed sense of direction and today i'm really humbled and honored uh to begin this new endeavor really continuing to steward the collective imagination of our community towards a reimagined public school system prior to coming to portland i built my career in the social and public sector working at the intersection of strategy innovation and strategic partnerships all aimed at building systems that empower people that contribute towards racial equity equity and social justice and build thriving and self-sufficient communities as pps's next chief of staff not only will i bring the successes and the learnings of my professional experiences i will bring a rich personal story to the work as the son of undocumented immigrants my story is filled with seasons of joy celebration and rich history and at the same time filled with moments of despair and sadness i believe that these experiences achievements and learnings of my life and career braid together in a way that prepares me to serve as an extension of superintendent guro's leadership and in executing on the district's strategic plan really inching us closer to reimagining pps in this new role i look forward to working with all of you as elected officials my colleagues at central office and at school sites and our parent and student community to continue pushing the envelope encouraging boldness and inspiring innovation all which i know will result in better systems processes and experiences especially for our students and families of color i want to thank this uh this wonderful and dynamic portland community thank you for welcoming in welcome me in inviting me to sit at the table and listen and including me as part of our collective effort to do right by every kid
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trust and credibility is earned and i look forward to building on the trust that i've garnered over the years to continue making our public school system the best it can be for our students lastly i want to acknowledge all of my colleagues i have the utmost the privileges to work alongside and with thank you for being there for students and thank you for being about our students thank you for all you have particularly done in support of our students their families and each other this year many of you have been there for me as well you've given me that nod that says we're in this together and you've challenged me to be a better leader a better human and thank you well my colleagues and i all have different reasons for being in this work and investing our energy to better our public schools the truth of the matter is that we come at this work with the true spirit of servant leadership i look forward to channeling that energy and continuing to ground ourselves to our core values and to build a together we will organizational culture where we can all thrive thank you for having me tonight and allowing me to share a few remarks we'll see you all tomorrow for another day in service of our students and our public schools thanks bright and early at agenda setting thank you jonathan and congratulations congratulations together we will together we will directors that concludes my report for tonight thank you superintendent and uh looking forward to continuing to work with jonathan we uh turn down to our committee and conference reports we do them in alphabetical order because that's as good as any other arbitrary order we could do them in so turn now to the audit committee um director from edwards do you have anything to share about your work on the audit committee no we made the decision to um skip our april meeting in the spirit of staying focused and allowing staff to stay focused on reopening of the schools so we will restart the work or restart our committee work uh in may great thank you director depos anything from the school improvement bond committee we have a meeting coming up on thursday um at 4 30. it's open to the public come if you want to get updates on what's happening on that committee thank you director moore uh cbrc cbsc has a meeting this thursday um including a preview of some uh budget the way the budget is being built for next year dr constand anything from charter and alternative programs we are meeting next wednesday i know that we got some follow-up from um mr mcferrin who gave public testimony at the last board meeting and i know that your committee will probably be raising that as well on that meeting on wednesday correct we will be indeed just wanted to close that loop for those of us who remembered his his comments last week or two weeks ago uh director scott anything from the intergovernmental committee yes um thank you we met on uh april 8th um for an intergovernmental committee meeting uh we got a legislative update um and then we um had a discussion and update on the i5 project which of course we heard someone testify earlier tonight on there was a good slide deck that some folks testified on from from no more freeways that i think is available in the materials um that i would encourage board members if you haven't looked at um to look through but but walk through some of the the key issues there um and really sort of a a sense of what what our what our next steps are um and uh and then we also had at the very end a quick discussion of um the federal infrastructure package and what might be in that for schools and i'm sorry i just as a follow-up on the i5 project i was going back through my notes really quickly here um i think we are looking to get um a full board um briefing in terms of from um uh you know from the state in terms of of what that project looks like and then another issue that um uh director brim edwards brought up was the need to to also come up with a community engagement plan you know around that so that they're not the community's not hearing things from from the district that they haven't we haven't talked to them about so i think both those things are going to be underway director moore anything from the policy committee the policy committee has been on hiatus or for a few weeks we were originally scheduled to meet next monday on the 19th um but in in light of the fact that that's the first day back for middle school and high school
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we were asked to postpone in order to free up staff time so we're now scheduled to meet on monday the 26th for a policy committee meeting right and that meeting will be at noon correct so the time not only has the date changed but the time has also changed so those of you who are policy committee attenders and watchers just make a note of that change what time is it that meeting isn't that meeting at noon am i if there's a possibility i could be wrong but i have the policy committee is at noon on monday the 24th that's correct noon to three all right um looks like we have maybe some scheduled things to work out as a board but uh that is when the meeting has been posted for um just a quick correction that it's monday the 26th 26th now you've got me totally confused monday the 2016. i'm obviously having a very hard time with numbers tonight and so as superintendent guerrero shared with you i had a student show me their math homework at uh scott and i gave them i asked them some questions about their homework to try to help them and maybe i was not the best person to do that given my lack of ability to deal with numbers this evening all right um that sounds like a dan quail moment i feel like we need did we get that on video probably yes uh it will it will live forever on the internets now all right um director bailey and director broome edwards do we have any further updates to the rose quarter um piece uh the stunning news about uh i saw the article that said 25 feet of land perhaps from tubman any further updates on those conversations so nothing at this time uh and i know we'll we'll continue to speak about that with our intergovernmental committee uh any other uh things we need to share from committee or conference reports anything from amy uh yeah chair lowry i just wanted to share that i am serving on a small task force of board members from around the country um working to put together guidelines for districts on this latest round of sr funds that are coming through from the federal government and the council of great city schools is going to be putting together some guidance by the end of april so that comes through in time for boards to use it in their own budget processes and so they have a series of small working groups of superintendents board members which i'm participating in budget directors or cfos that will be feeding into that document to just provide what what districts should do what districts should not do real focus on sustainability since these are one-time funds and a real theme that's emerging from the guidance from our board leaders is um how to structure transparency and accountability for our communities so that they can see what we're prioritizing for this infusion of of resources response to the pandemics so stay tuned but hopefully this will be helpful to all our member districts around the country great thank you for your work with the council of great city schools director bailey yeah just real briefly i was able to sit in on i couldn't make the whole meeting but part of a meeting a staff meeting uh providing updates on the multiple pathways to graduation building which is uh continuing on in the design process um and it was a really great presentation where the designers have been able to add some programmatic space through more efficient design um so to add some features for students that weren't in the original plan uh without adding to the cost of the building so just great work by that team excellent um we as a board are meeting in retreat on the 24th which is a saturday not a monday and uh we are going to be continuing our work that came out of our board self-evaluation um last summer and so just a reminder that you're those of you who are tasked with certain work areas those materials are due to roseanne on the 17th so that gives us and the public a full week to review those items ahead of our retreat on the 24th and we'll be looking at things like our guard rails ethics statement for the board our
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communications protocols a new mechanism for electing board leadership and some revisions to public comment so all right i think that's everything for our board and conference reports um before we move on to the mascot uh resolution 6286 for leotis mcdaniel high school let us take a five minute break um and i hear we've got some maybe some smooth jazz stylings from the roosevelt community uh roseanne misspoll doesn't work today to find us some amazing student music to share during our break time so let's take five minutes and be back here at 7 18. thanks everyone [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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our meeting and i am so excited uh for our next agenda item um where we are going to hear about identifying a new mascot for leotis v mcdaniel high school um superintendent guerrero would you please introduce this item would love to uh on february 23rd directors if you recall unanimously approved resolution number 6251 to change the name of madison high school to lotus v mcdaniel high school similar to the process for the naming of mcdaniel high school a committee was formed to identify a new mascot and the engagement process led by students with support of our from our office of community engagement has concluded its process and arrived at a recommendation which i'm pleased to share tonight in recommending uh to directors consider and approve the school community's choice of mountain lions as the new mascot for leotis v mcdaniel high school i'd like to introduce and have camille adebo our corporate and foundation relations officer along with principal adam skyles and members of the school team to share more on how this recommendation came together thank you superintendent guerrero and good evening board of education i'm here in support of the school community's recommendation and i will defer to principal scouse to speak to the incredible community work that has been done to date um and our students who've really spearheaded this process i have a question ms dieteva are you ready for this powerpoint to begin now or do you want to just let me know yes please principal skyles thank you good evening superintendent guerrero and board members my name is adam skyles proud principal of leotis v mcdaniel high school i'm here tonight i apologize hold on one second i'm here tonight to present to you the mcdaniel renaming committee mascot change proposal for the past month and a half our renaming committee has continued the process voted on back in july regarding the renaming and branding of our school our mascot decision has been has serious considerations for our community it has been considered by the committee community and broader public is the decision not made lightly our request for a mascot change tonight follows our administrative directive and the initial process undertaken back in july we have worked diligently to ensure we have a mascot that is representative of our school and community the process provided our community with six finalists that all receive the level of community support and the final vote was close regarding all of the community feedback through this process reading all the community feedback through this process has been a reminder of how fortunate i am to be a member of this amazing community next slide please it is with great honor that i introduce some of our incredible committee members their supporting commitment to this process has been instrumental to the success of where we are today zane cindy and leslie will be leading our presentation tonight i cannot let this opportunity pass to say how impressed i am with all of our community members committee members but especially the student leaders they have shown compassion maturity and
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resilience through this process at times placing the community voice above their own personal preference watching them through this process has been inspiring and i want to thank them and all the committee members for their effort through this process now i would like to pass it over to leslie to start the presentation all right thank you principal skyles next slide please all right hello again board members it's great to be here to talk to you all about our mascot's proposal and our overall process you'll recall from our renaming process that as a committee we were intentional in grounding ourselves in racial justice values but also our own school values of community respect education equity and diversity all throughout our process we have come back to selecting a name and mascot that not only represents these values but that also dedicates work to a process that is transparent and has community input next slide please from the beginning of the renaming process in finding a new name for our school our committee was aware that we too were going to support finding our new mascot our committee met early march out of the board approval of the leos v mcdaniel name we came together to plan our key steps to make sure our community has much time as possible to be engaged in this process in our first survey to our community we wanted to hear from our community members about their suggestions once they got back to us we worked together to make sure the suggestions uh put back the community as 12 files were unique representing our community voices ultimately was their vote decided on the new mascot in april we held a couple of meetings to make sure our ranking process for a final vote was a good one we sat on a third survey with six seven finalist options where the community had the opportunity to rank their top three choices then worked with research and analysis department to make sure our data collection analysis was cross-referenced and transparent next slide please thank you in our outreach through surveying and phone banking to spanish-speaking families and others we were able to receive about 518 initial nominations for a mascot for our second survey whether community was able to vote on the 12 finalists we received 1232 responses and in our last survey to the community we received 1512. next slide please all right um as previously stated our mascot firing list is the mountain lions the mountain lions emphasize leadership strength courage integrity and power mountain lions are known not to lead through force but rather through graceful strength of example the symbolism of the mountain lion as previously stated is leadership um not only are mountain lions indigenous to the pacific northwest but our school would be the first high school in the entire state of oregon to have mountain lions as a mascot in our vetting process and research we are confident that our selection represents our create values next slide please our community input was critical to this process and briefly briefly i'll highlight some of their input uh this one quote says the goal would be to learn to leave without insisting that others follow your lead observe the graceful pounce of a mountain lion and you'll see the connection between the balance of power and tension physical grace strength and grace to convert it to human relevance it would be a balance of body mind and spirit you will never see this giant feline waste anything no not its energy or its food it would only take what needs for survival from a pbs parent uh mountain lions are known for their intelligence and skill as well as their power they are supremely adapted and deeply connected to this area unlike other big cats they represent qualities that everyone can relate to from a community member the mountain lion also represents leadership and integrity values that everyone in the mhs community strives for additionally mascot emblem will show strength and will invoke an example of the human balance of mind body spirit and from a current student my for my first choice is not alliance because it's unique to mcdaniel high school honors our specific northwest context and is a powerful language the alliteration is nice too next slide please and that is all thank you so much for listening and this time we'll be open for any comments or questions that you might have i think it's really great to hear from students and um i love the name personally of mountain lions i love that they're indigenous to this area i love the values they represent and um i really commend you on a great process well done yep another a great choice um and i was happy to see max tuttle i i think he's a former student a graduate uh and while he was a student i think i served with him on dbrack so it was great to see that he's still
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involved i just like to join in and um first thank camille for running the process um and i like others love hearing from the students and hearing about the attributes of the new mascot and how they're reflective of the school culture and the school community um so i'm going to be like an enthusiastic supporter of this mascot change all right you're here go mountain lions yes thank you all so much for your incredible hard work and for engaging your community i love all the quotes you read um so uh do i have a motion and second to adopt resolution 6286 resolution to change the mascot of leo leotis v mcdaniel high school so moved second the director from edwards moves and director to past seconds the adoption of resolution 6286 is there any further board discussion um just a question and this is the question i raised um at the last meeting about the um budget to transition from the current mascot uh to the new one i know all over um integrating it into a new school i'm just i'm curious whether we have a budget for that and we're going to hit the ground running with the mountain lions in the fall i can speak to that so yes we do have a budget at a high level um the cost for leotis b mcdaniel is around 350 000 um a good amount of that money is integrated within the bond so we were able to work it in um and pps staff we've met internally and have figured out a way to cover the costs so we are moving forward full speed ahead you are such a rock star um thank you for your incredible hard work in this process i know there were many people that were part of this process but camille i want to specifically thank you for all of your incredible work and for um spearheading uh that and getting the getting that um sorted with the money so that we can we can do the mountain lions justice it's a team effort thank you thank you there's nothing worse than changing the name and not actually changing um making the change so i'm glad to hear that uh we've got that in place any other board discussion i just think the whole package is so exciting to see the building to to drive down and see the construction and how beautiful the building looks and to to get acquainted with the new name so it rolls off the tongue easily and now we have a new mascot and it's just inspiring and exciting to see leotis mcdaniel high school on the move wait till you see the view from the gym i was gonna say that sounds like a winning sports team yeah it does so um thank you all and um is there any uh public comment uh ms powell on this matter there is not all right um then i think we're ready to vote the vote board will now vote on resolution 6286 resolution to change the mascot of leotis b mcdaniel high school all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions resolution 6286 is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative shu voting yes all right i think we all need to yell go mountain lions now are you ready go mountain lion congratulations and thank you all for your work on this matter at superintendent guerrero we move on now to our update on covid hybrid and lippy would you like to introduce this agenda item yes thank you chair lowry again tonight's staff will provide you in the community our regular update uh and of course now we've made our transition now to a hybrid model and the reopening of elementary schools to in-person learning i know they'll also be sharing an update on survey outcomes from secondary school families as well tonight we have many of the usual suspects dr russ brown chief assistant performance dr shawn bird chief of schools sharon reese chief of human resources and danny ledezma and no shortage of other staff standing by to take your questions uh dr russ good evening uh we're jared lowry uh
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vice chair bailey's members of the warden community please i'm having a really hard time hearing you dr brown can you hear me now it's still kind of echoey try again hang on let's try again here we know that's much better but good good okay technical difficulties so um again uh pleased to join you this evening [Music] and pleased to be able to to present an update to the wharton community next slide please yeah today i'll give an update on the current code reads for the comedy just our regular update i'll also give our final update on our parent family preferences for hybrid for middle school and for high school and then we'll transition to dr burke to talk about our phased opening status for middle and high school next next week next slide please again um as we've talked about throughout the year our work really is centered in these values and it shows up in a lot of different ways throughout the work that we're doing and throughout the data that we see for the system we do center all our work uh from a racial equity and social justice point of view it's why we spend so much time and energy trying to engage communities of color to make sure they have both voice and choice and process as we move towards reopening health and wellness of our staff and our students in a larger community is paramount again you've heard and seen all the preparations that have been done you've had the opportunity to visit buildings and see that that work put into action uh one of the things i've been most pleased about is again just seeing how our focus on relationship has shown up in our data and will continue to show up on our data as we move forward throughout this year our teachers really have leaned in and provided wonderful support to our students as i have our our food service workers etc i i visited and spent time uh helping provide food at different points during the year and i was always impressed with dr brown yes all right maybe it's just me but i i can't hear very very well i don't know if it's just is that just me i'm having a little bit it feels like you're fading in and out and um i turned on the subtitles which helped because sometimes getting you loud and clear okay well i will try to speak more clearly and loudly that helps in into the mic itself um i seem to be having a little bit of a struggle with it today and finally um we've had a lot of opportunity this year to strengthen and innovate uh the instruction that we provide next slide please so case rates are are back on the rise uh at this last two week window we had 139.8 cases in multnomah county i think we're all aware that the case rates have been on the rise i want you to though note that that um our current rate is still well below that green threshold and under that green threshold we're obligated to continue our opening process and it's not until we move well above that red threshold that that we would begin to consider options for not opening or um scaling back so at this point we're well within the threshold in terms of the indicator for proceeding with with opening score next slide please so again i'm going to give an update on parent interest we again reach out to our parents to to gather their preferences for whether or not their students would continue in distance learning or in hybrid next slide please at this point we at the conclusion of the survey which closed on april uh second we had a 86.1 percentage point um participation rate and of of those folks who responded about 7 out of 10 wanted their students to to return to a hybrid this was the highest preference for hybrid of any grade band and you can see for our black latino and native american respondents those ranged in the mid 60s in terms of desire for hybrid we heard from um we had at least a 50 response rate from 91 of our schools and if we go to the next slide we can see the breakdown in terms of response rates by race um again the first time we report on this was march 30th so you can see by april 2nd
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there were substantial improvements uh in participation rates across all racial groups uh we had heard from 71.1 percent of our black families uh close to 83 percent of our latino families the pacific islanders were the group that we had heard the least from overall but again um substantial improvement and part of that again is by that concerned outreach effort through the phone banking etc to make sure that we reached everyone next slide please dr brown yes what do you what happened between on that last slide what happened between march 30th and april 2nd i mean there's a pretty substantial change and that was my question as well so i was curious how either how the question was asked or what was the what what was the the variable what changed so what we're looking at here is participation rates and so the participation rates increased and that increased because largely because we we had such a concerted effort in terms of phone banking both at the school and the central office level to make sure that we captured as many voices as possible yeah i misread the title i was thinking that was choosing hybrid versus participation well when we go to the next slide you're going to see that the preference for hybrid actually decreased as the number of participants increased and i think this sort of follows director de pasa's original sort of wondering and that was as we heard from more people the folks that we were hearing from later on were not the folks who were sort of racing to let us know that they wanted hybrid uh we were hearing from more and more folks who who maybe were a little more reserved about that idea and you see some declines in in the interest for hybrid as we captured more voices um and and you can see how that breaks out across different racial groups uh white families did endorse hybrid at a higher rate than other groups but roughly six out of ten to two you know two out of three folks um said that they want a hybrid uh between our black latino and native american families if we go on to the next slide again we're just going to transition and start talking about 9th grade 9th through 12th one more slide please we heard from 89.4 of of our high school students which i think is a phenomenal response rate and again kudos to to the teams that that reached out i know this it took a conservative phone effort to be able to reach out you'll notice that that our high school families actually had the lowest interest in hybrid with slightly under 60 percent wanting debt so elementary was in the mid 60s middle schools around 70 we get to the high school it's around 60 percent and you can see that the interest in and hybrid instruction for our black latino and native families is substantially lower than what we saw in middle school i'm pleased to say that we heard we had a 75 response rate for every one of our comprehensive high schools so again very representative data if we go to the next slide we can see again that breakdown on participation uh incredibly high participation rates a significant increase from march uh 30th to april 6th this this survey closed on april 6th and again i think aligned to director de pass's initial hypothesis as we got to hear from more voices we'll go to the next slide we see a bit of a downward shift in interest that as we heard from more people the folks who were early adopters um had a higher interest in hybrid than the folks that we heard from a little later on and i think in the context of covid and covet risk it perhaps it's not surprising that our high school students might be the most reserved about this because again there's a differential risk factor uh by the time we get to to add lessons so i think the data again yes i was just going to ask um and i'd ask for this for the k-5s but i'd be interested for the middle grades and the high schools for um the disaggregated data on special ed students yeah uh in the final report which i'm preparing uh for middle and high school we'll have the disaggregation both for special ed uh emergent bilinguals and for students who are eligible for free and reduced price lunch um thank you yep so with that i'm going to transition and hand things off to dr byrd who hopefully will have a life that's behaving better than mine dr brown yes before you go this is a little bit of a tangent but what can you share with us
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anecdotally about um our students that have shown up for hybrid in elementary do our numbers uh track with the survey results or have we seen more families come back and do we have many disparities between our schools in terms of the percentage of students remaining in cdl i have to be honest um wisconsin i don't have that set of numbers in front of me right now i do know however that dr byrd has been visiting schools and he may be actually better prepared to speak to what he's seen anecdotally in buildings as he's gone about and visited i i'd love to see that data at your convenience right it it's been on my mind as well to look at um which students are participating in hybrid at this point in time and how does that match up yeah but i've got a couple things that are in the works right now with the survey and also trying to to prep some information for the board regarding our math assessment as well okay good evening board directors as you heard earlier from the superintendent our elementary students started back it was been a very exciting couple of weeks in schools and it's been fun to visit them and i'm also happy to report that uh those even the smallest of our students are following all the safety protocols i've seen everybody masked up and socially distanced even when they're outside playing they do that in bubbles so it's been great to see and just shout out to all of our teachers and principals for all the work that they've done and now if you go to the next site we're excited to uh be gearing up for our 612 opening uh actually we started uh s.a.t administration will actually happen today on our high school campuses and the other another date will be 4 27 we had to do it on two days this year because of the social distancing requirements we have some uh hepa filters that are still being delivered this week to the remaining classrooms in our high schools so those are hopefully or those are scheduled all to be delivered this week and in classrooms this week so that the safety committees as they do their walkthroughs uh we'll see everything in place before we uh start on monday but there have been uh students in schools uh i know at lincoln they've been doing freshman orientation all week in small groups so it's been great to see school buses running in through neighborhoods and to see students in buildings again again student representatives have been invited to join the safety walkthroughs at the high school so i know those invitations are going out from principles because those walkthroughs are happening uh later on this week just as a reminders uh all high school and middle school staff members will have professional development uh april 14th to the 16th so the end of this week and while they're doing that just like in elementary school secondary students will be doing have asynchronous assignments to complete um the district uh provides that curriculum to teachers that will be uploaded to their regular um canvas portal and then the big day is monday so students will report back those who would like to do so will report back either monday tuesday or thursday friday and uh they'll be coming in the afternoons for school next slide please and just as a reminder students will be participating in academic enrichment extension or intervention activities when they come to school so they'll follow their schedule they'll see their teachers as they uh normally do and they'll have the opportunity to uh participate in face-to-face activities with her with their classmates as well as their teachers and unlike elementary secondary is a lot more straightforward in this way because of licensing issues kids will have the same teacher they'll see the teacher online in the morning and then go see that very same person in the afternoon so that's i'm excited there of course are a couple of exceptions for teachers who have to take leave uh you know but they'll be have a different teacher both online and then in the afternoon so the um the experience for uh secondary students in the morning will remain very much the same as it is right now where they'll see they'll be with their entire class and then those students that choose to come back in the afternoon we'll be working with their teacher and the students who choose to stay home be doing their applied learning just as they have done always and on wednesdays there'll be opportunities for those students to meet with their teachers in office hours or small groups just as they have been doing now so i look forward to welcoming everyone back we're excited to see them and we'll take any questions you might have about 6 through 12 opening i have a question uh there was earlier um a couple middle schools that because of space um issues i know at a minimum i think hosford and sellwood but there may be others we're not going to have every week in person and i'm want to know if that those issues have been addressed uh i know it was a space constraint if those issues been addressed and are there other issues are
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there other schools besides those two or yeah thank you for their question we did resolve the issues at uh hospital and so would so they are down to two cohorts we have one school that's at three cohorts right now that's da vinci i think we're still working on a couple of things but there are the demand was very high at that school and of course that uh has to do with space constraints but we were able to resolve those uh issues at the other schools which as you saw in the earlier um the results that dr brown presented middle school had the highest demand so we're very happy that we're able to get those those kids into two cars we're still taking another look at davinci as well i'm going to ask the question that we keep getting mail about um which is that the experience is going to just be a glorified study hall so can you speak to i say i'm just we're getting a lot of mail about that and that's an oft repeated talking point so i think it's it's good to be clear what students are going to be experiencing when they're there joan i think to you know we got some of that uh discussion about elementary it's only gonna be two hours and fifteen minutes four kids gonna be able to do so so what we're actually seeing is and i expect we'll see the same thing in high school is that you know kids will come to school uh the children who choose to come back into the school in person and they will be able to do a variety of activities though in some cases they'll work in groups with each other socially distance in some instances teachers will pull kids up who need individual help and in some instances they'll be doing um you know kind of extension or enrichment activities just like you would do in a regular class when i was a teacher i would do some whole group teaching for 10 or 15 you know 15 minutes and then kids would go off and do things on their you know either on their own or in small groups or with me as the teacher so it will look it will look very much the same uh as it would in a classroom and it's opportunities for for uh students who need um additional help to get that but also for uh you know extensions of what they're learning well they're uh you know just like students at home will be doing some activities some you know applied learning activities those kids will be doing it will look different because um you know there's independent work and then there's work that is guided by a teacher but it will be on the same topics that they learned in class so if i were doing this if i were a teacher if i were teaching introducing a new concept in the morning with everybody online the kids that came in the afternoon i would just do i would be reinforcing those concepts in class just as the kids at home that are not coming in are working on something these kids will be doing uh activities will be a little different because there's they're together and they're they're in the room with me so i have the opportunity to interact with them in different ways but uh and then on wednesdays the students who are not coming in for whatever reason they'll have an opportunity to interact with me in office hours or small groups just like they do now so it will not be it's not intended to be study hall or uh less than academic at all so is this one of the standards i mean there will be a whole would you call it whole group teaching production yeah so in the morning when everybody's online there's that's whole group instruction but sometimes teachers break kids up into small groups into you know breakout rooms or whatever but when they come back in the afternoon yeah they'll be you know further development of those concepts that they learned in class it won't be new material because then the kids that are not coming in will not have the advantage of having that instruction so it won't be we don't expect teachers to be teaching uh new material but it's extension activities of what they uh did in the morning dr burke can i just jump in to say thank you for that explanation and i think we need to amplify that a little bit more i i'll just be really blunt i actually actually find the the characterization of study hall to be pretty offensive and pretty offensive towards our teachers and also showing a real lack of understanding of what happens during the school day in a normal year right without a pandemic i mean um the idea that our children are learning something new from their teacher every minute of the day is obviously not true and and teaching is about you know introducing new concepts and reinforcing them and i am actually um very excited to have that opportunity for kids in person um you know to get that reinforcement in person from their teachers and and you know i'm confident that's what's going to be happening so i think it's an unfortunate narrative and i think we should continue to repeat that you know um you know that that it is it is both going to be beneficial and an academic experience and it is also to keep the you know 20 30 of our students who are not comfortable coming back from falling behind which is also a responsibility of this district so i i just appreciate that explanation want to echo what you said directors got there that you know as the parent of a high schooler as you are as well you know when uh before the pandemic when she was in class for 90 minutes that wasn't all lecture time that wasn't all 90 min 90 minutes of the teacher giving direct instruction there were those like you said uh chief bird those moments where um people
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were engaged in small groups or doing activities to sort of reinforce and internalize that learning and that's what will be happening in the afternoons either asynchronously for those students who do not return and with you know small groups or other activities in the classroom so again i also echo that that study hall notion is um completely off base for what the experiences will be for our students in the classroom and i do think it's it's sort of like a flipped classroom if we've ever if you've ever had those where um miss white who's an exceptional math teacher at solid middle school does this where she does a video of her lesson so she teaches the lesson on video and that's the homework the students watch the night before and then when they come into the classroom and are interacting with her that's when they can ask questions and she can reinforce the ideas that's sort of similar to what our students will be experiencing and that they'll have the synchronous online in the morning get the lesson have the lecture and then when they show up at the classrooms in the afternoon we'll be able to engage ask questions do small group activities and other things so i again i think this will be excellent for our students as we continue to move back towards a full five-day reopening in the fall i appreciate all three of you amplifying that message all right so i was about to use the same flip classroom analogy um i actually think i stole that from you scott you said that to me the other day so i'll give you credit for that [Music] but you had a great example of a teacher actually using that um and i my my little bit of experiences as a teacher was it was in those non-lecture moments and and uh oh my gosh i hope nobody's lecturing for 90 minutes but it's those non-lecture activities whether it's in individual processing and trying to apply what what the teacher had set out or small group activities that's that's where somebody's brain really gets engaged and where the concepts really start to sink in i just want to say i appreciate the conversation as well just learning how we're approaching this return question about the cte classes or sort of any of the hands-on classes um what would those look like so i mean those students obviously this is a big advantage for those students who are able to come back and uh have you know opportunity to work with the equipment many of those teachers have been very creative throughout this pandemic and have been going into their classrooms and doing demonstrations for students so for the students to stay at home it will look much the same as it has looked the entire year and for the students that come back they'll have just more opportunities to uh to you know interact with equipment for their courses that uh you know that they would a normal school year they'll just be physically distanced and so on and i think i mean you know if you go if you've all been visiting schools and you see that it looks remarkably similar it's just kids with maths on but they're still you know teachers are still teachers and kids are still kids and uh when i was a high school teacher nobody wanted to listen to me for 90 minutes that's for sure so um so you'll see it will be very similar but we're teaching today uh what i will be doing in that classroom will be very similar uh for that in non-pandemic people were messed up and socially distanced i guess the last thing question i have is um middle school sports and then high school extracurricular activities and sports for for families what will they say that will be different starting next week or is will it just be actually in person will be sort of dovetailing or feathering into what's already been happening you know i um actually i'm not i do not have information on that um that aspect of the day i will be i can get information to you about that uh unless somebody else gets the fun stuff yeah yeah somebody else gets oh let's see i might be getting some information right now uh season three i'm told starts now for uh the competitive sports but for middle you're asking about middle school sports right i was asking both oh high school so season three starts now for high schools and uh and it will be after school activities for uh for for middle school and high school after
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school activities i'll get you a real answer i'll get you a thorough answer i'm just go ahead andrew i'll be really quick scott i just know i just wanted to thank um the superintendent and staff for the update it's um again good to see all the work that's going into this and and i'm excited to get middle school and high school kids um you know back in our buildings next week it's it's a huge milestone and and superintendent i really appreciate your comments about planning for a full reopening next fall um i think that's um really important that's certainly my expectation um is that we're going to be working working towards that and doing everything we need for for five days a week and you know it's it's been a long time and i think our families need that need to understand that we're planning for that as well so really appreciate that um and and happy to do whatever we can to help support that moving forward so thank you and and it is amazing how emotional the side of a school bus can be for sure and the kids just the kids walking by you know on their way to school i had i just i hadn't seen that in a year it's it's wonderful um so real quickly um throughout this process uh board members from time to time have raised questions about uh special education uh so if we could get uh just a little bit of a more in-depth um report on that going forward i just want to say so i in one of my school virtual school visits a couple of i guess a month or two ago i that was one of the uh rooms that i an intensive skills classroom i dropped in on and there was great instruction and learning going on there um but to to just get a more system-wide look at what's happening there would be great and i i guess the other question i have is uh recognizing that [Music] covet infection rates are well while increasing are still at a fairly low level but the difference in seems to be more at least more detected cases among young people particularly teenagers is that make a difference in terms of how we're watching the metrics and how uh we're thinking about this going forward i i would only say uh directly director bailey is you know we're continuing to rely on our public health officials uh oha and and county officials uh we're as interested as anybody and and keeping a close eye uh on what that looks like uh i think there's you all heard the caveat for me earlier assuming the conditions continue to improve that this spike at the moment starts to subside uh that the guidelines from the department of ed make it permissible uh you know we are planning for a full reopening but uh we also know that uh kovid you know impacts you know our our young adults you know perhaps a little bit differently we're still learning about it we hope the vaccination becomes more broadly available uh to to young adults which only helps uh you know uh protect our community and and our schools uh campuses so um i i don't think that we could offer any more specifics about tracking age groups per se in the area okay thanks i have a general question i'm not sure this is the point in time to ask it but it seems like we're on the cobed cove a bit how is it that parents will know um whether there's been a covet case and i know that there is a very strict protocol and communications within the cohort um but you know i know when my three kids were playing sports or just you know in sort of different venues uh so lots of pollination across schools depending on what the activity was and so is there some sort of dashboard or what's the transparency just in relation to um where we've had cases other than if you're in in that school in that cohort it's a good question director brim edwards and some of you are already familiar the oregon health authority publishes a pretty transparent
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uh case by case school community by school community in the state of oregon listing uh but i'll let dr brown uh speak a little bit more about how we're trying to maybe make that a little bit more accessible for for our local community here yeah um clearly you know as we're moving back into in-person instruction you know parents in the community are going to be interested in what's going on at their school and what's going on in the larger community so we're working on building a dashboard as we speak uh that would support that so parents and again the larger community would have have a sense of what's going on um as the superintendent said we're working with our local health authority uh and the local health authority is right now uh you know when a case is identified is um quarantining the entire cohort to take the most sort of aggressive stance to limit the spread of um kovit in our schools and so we've been working with them and they make those determinations as as to what's going to happen in terms of the outcome for uh the cohort uh at the school and again working to create a dashboard that will make that public uh or community thank you and i've i've asked this in an email but i want to uh ask this publicly when we have uh when we learned that staff members have been come in contact with a student who has been tested positive are we offering them a covet test i'll jump in if staff is um the tests are available for those uh and correct me if i'm wrong your staff you know for for any adults that are exhibiting symptoms uh they have that option uh to take the rapid test on site uh if we don't have folks exhibiting any symptoms then they wouldn't necessarily take it and i'm not i'm not talking about mandatory i'm i'm talking about offering that as an option certainly if i were a staff person and um i would at least want that option the tests can test costs money sure uh chief marnick good evening uh board uh thank you director bailey for the question so uh what we currently have is we have testing options for staff or students who are symptomatic or experiencing symptoms so if a staff person has been in close contact with a confirmed positive case and they are experiencing symptoms we are offering a test for them we aren't able to provide the test to non-symptomatic staff or students so we would make sure that we are finding them resources so that they can get a free test either through our school-based health centers or other places currently at um i think it's uh the convention center uh they have like a a drive-through uh rapid testing so so there's a variety of different places that we would send people if they are concerned but not showing symptoms and and do we cover the cost those tests those are free those are free okay sure are we finished with the coved lippy hybrid report superintendent guerrero or is there more to come if there are no further questions we can move on to our next agenda item excellent um that is our resolution regarding continuous improvement and student achievement so superintendent guerrero would you like to introduce this item um i would uh thank you chair um so let me let me try to set the stage here uh and we have a few slides where we're gonna uh have dr brown walk you through but let me start by saying uh oregon like other states recently submitted a request uh to the u.s department of education to waive all standardized tests for this year this plan was initially denied but then the department approved a revised plan for oregon however it's our recommendation that we not participate in state summative assessments this spring
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we remain committed to accountability and the importance of data and helping us to continuously improve and understand the needs of our students and in keeping with this commitment we provided a mid-year measures of academic progress or map assessment for students in grades three through eight this school year and as you heard earlier we're also offering the sat this month but given that we're just now welcoming students back inside classrooms after more than a year in distance learning we don't think it makes sense to use the limited in-person time we have with students to administer the svac tests we think the data that we would receive from only a predicted small number of students who might opt in to take the s back even if we went through all the logistical preparations to proctor this option it wouldn't be meaningful to assessing system performance across the district so instead it is our recommendation that moving forward we proceed with instituting a fuller balanced assessment calendar this coming school year including administration of the map assessments in the fall and the winter of 2122 school year in grades two through eight in both reading and math in order to establish baseline data and inform the learning recovery for our elementary and middle school students we would also plan to participate in the full battery of sbac tests next school year to be in full compliance with division 22 in the coming school year so here to speak a little bit further on the topic with a few slides to to provide directors with some more details is dr brown again thank you um next slide please and i'm i'm going to beg your forgiveness because i think the superintendent uh was quite eloquent and and how he put this and i'm going to be somewhat repetitive this is the first time in my career that i have ever stood before a group and advocated not to participate in an accountability assessment it is sort of runs counter to my my being uh you know pps is clearly where we're committed to continuous improvement and that work requires a balanced assessment system something that i've been advocating for something that i was um have to say i was really honored and pleased that the board adopted goals that focused on growth and focused on explicitly on closing uh achievement and opportunity gaps for students as we move forward as students of color in particular i think standardized assessments are an important component of a balanced assessment system both on an interim basis as well as a summative end-of-year basis that being said you know pps has a long history in terms of having some gutting principles and thoughts around assessment and i have seen these sort of replicated in other places as well one of which is you know the purpose of an assessment needs to be very clear i'm going to introduce one which i have carried with me it's not part of the pps uh world quite yet but i want want us to start to infuse it that is the idea that the value of the data that we gather from assessment has to exceed the value of the instructional time that's given up for it the mechanics of an assessment matter you know assessments part of instruction and shouldn't take an overly large portion of the instructional time to do it and then finally probably the most important thing is assessments need to be fair and support equity they need to help us reduce opportunity gaps for students as we move forward i think all of those principles are in question when we look at yes back at this point in time um and i think we're in a very unique space next slide please so why opt out now in terms of clarity of purpose if we're honest the primary purpose for the sbac is really accountability it is to meet the federal accountability requirements and to help the federal government and the state government understand how to align resources to schools we all know that the federal accountability has been put on hold so the primary purpose for this assessment doesn't exist this year second piece um in terms of time and data uh as the superintendent just mentioned we're just beginning hybrid each of these assessments would require at least two class periods um to be able to to complete in a middle school where uh students would be required to take two tests this would require a whole week of instruction in high school this would take a whole week of instruction to get through this again why on earth at this point in time would we use our limited instructional time for a test that's really designed for accountability purposes
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next slide please and then more troubling in terms of the data and meaning this is not the same test it doesn't measure the same grades it's not the same test so you'll see there are holes in the subjects and grades that are being assessed but in addition to that the assessments themselves have been changed that is it's a it's a shorter blueprint they've taken out the performance basis uh performance-based tasks in the assessment and they've shortened shorten the computer adaptive uh component of the assessment this test is not the same test that was given last year and it won't be the same test given next year i will tell you under ideal circumstances and i've done a lot of test development in my career under ideal circumstances equating assessments when blueprints are changed is very difficult equating assessments when blueprints are changed and you have an incomplete representation of the student body impossible to do well next slide please so again when looking at those data data and time limitations the reduced number of assessments per grade is a bit of a challenge for me because then we can't look at changes in reading and math over time i can't compare third graders to fourth graders to fifth graders in a progression because that progression doesn't exist in the test scores you can't look at cohorts it also precludes doing growth analysis and i think when we talk about equity growth analysis is is uh the foundation of looking at whether or not we're closing opportunity gaps for children over time i mentioned earlier again that the assessments are reduced in length but again not the same test it interferes with comparability from year to year i saw this quite explicitly with the park assessment when i was in maryland it was quite evident we were able to demonstrate we actually publish articles about it next and and finally participation would be limited uh we could offer it in hybrid but not in distance learning the test isn't meant to be delivered in a remote fashion and we're expecting likely higher opt out numbers and and that is a problem uh as well as we move forward next slide so why opt out now and i'm just gonna bring it together and i'm actually gonna quote from the the state superintendents uh letter to the federal government while i continue to question the value and wisdom of administrating uh administering statewide summative assessments this school year and have significant concerns regarding the validity and possible misuse of data collected from these assessments i also want to reiterate three concerns that i believe were unique to oregon and again they they align to what i've talked about before there is not a lot of public support right now for doing this and i think that aligns to a lack of clear purpose for the assessment the timing is awful again we're just returning to in-person again to quote bill from from his letter in person needs to uh prioritize the center on teaching and learning community building react limiting students to school and relational connection you know in effect director gil was was quoting some of the principles that we have advocated for all year having kids come back and sit down for assessment or give a week of time for assessment uh at this point in time just doesn't seem to be a fair balance of the use of time and then finally there's a considerable concern and director gill outlines this as well that this will actually add fuel to the opt-out fire that that in the long run as we're trying to build a system of standardized assessments a formative summative assessment model that that is well integrated and balanced we need folks to understand the value of assessment and and where that fits in i think it's hard to argue for the value of assessment if you don't take a stand when it doesn't make sense and and so uh for all these reasons and more uh this i hope is the first and last time in my career that i ever feel the necessity to advocate not to to participate in the state summative assessment and i i take comfort in that the resolution clearly articulates our our plan to implement a full balanced assessment model in the next year including full participation in compliance with division 22 and all assessment requirements going into the next year thank you chair and directors there there you have background and our thinking and recommendation is you consider resolution 6287. thank you superintendent carrero and dr brown do i have a motion and second to adopt resolution 6287 resolution regarding continuous
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improvement and student achievement so moved second okay dr constand moves and director scott seconds the adoption of resolution 6287 is there any board discussion i want to first um thank uh dr brown for such a thorough and absolutely compelling presentation i mean you really had me at um the impracticality of administering it given how little instructional time our especially our middle and high schoolers had but the other points about just the value of the assessment data itself and the fact that the the test itself is designed for accountability purposes and we've already taken that hook off i mean um really really very compelling and i appreciate you reiterating a few times that we are a district that has made a strong effort in the last few years to focus on student achievement and we can't focus on raising a student achievement if we don't know where our students are and i appreciate all the effort that went into administering the maps testing even while in remote learning and to our our educators who persevered with that and to our families who who made it happen at home um but uh i think i think it's kind of a moot point i would after other people have an opportunity to weigh in on this i would like superintendent or perhaps general counsel large to just briefly um assess what you think the risks are for us in terms of defying the the federal expectations that are on the table let's just have superintendent guerrero answer that question now uh director konstam about what we do you think the risks are of this action as far as the federal government is concerned it's a fair question of course when you say it that way director constant define it's a different situation i would be right there with advocates had we been open most of the school year or our state didn't shut down we would we would perhaps want to participate in the summative but we're just returning to school and and of course we're also concerned with what what might be you know what might be the infraction or the sanctions or the consequence we would not want to place uh the organization's uh interests at risk here so what we know is by not having uh participation that we would not be in compliance with division 22 so that would be something that we could not report for this school year as being uh having met that requirement we would have to engage in a corrective action plan which would likely be mean participating in all subtests of the s back next spring um so we also uh director our chief russ brown and i uh had a direct conversation with uh director colt gill as well to ask the same question uh we we have not heard of of any indication that we would be placing federal resources or any further state action uh at this time uh but i'll let um our general counsel and and uh dr brown add to that if they'd like i think you've covered it i mean this the the most likely path is that this ends up with the division 22 non-compliance area for which we will um uh prepare and execute a corrective action plan which is administering the test in the next year the way the um funds flow from the the federal government gives funds to the state the state gives funds to the local education agencies the school districts and the path for non-compliance is already spelled out the division 22 process is is well worn and well documented so we think that will be the um most likely path and we have also in addition we've done a due diligence on that issue through a number of sources so even if we went through the logistics of affording that opportunity for probably a limited number of of students who would want to show up on a day to take exams all day i don't think most districts in the state even if they have an opt-in option would meet the 95 participation rate so frankly everyone would be out of compliance with division 22. i am planning to vote in support of this resolution um and i agree with what dr brown said about you know it's important for us to know where we stand it's important for us to have data so we can make system shifts i think we've seen that very clearly in both the setting of our board goals using data around growth um this is and the the s back and other tests like this are an important piece of our toolkit as we continue to live into
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our values at pps um and yet i think with all the things dr brown said this year um about how the test has been changed about the lack of time students have been in classroom about the cost to that time that instructional time um i don't think there's any responsible way for us to administer the the test this year so i will be voting yes to this resolution um for those reasons and because of the you know the conversations we've been able to have about um what the ramifications may be um you know we can't can't guarantee um but i think we can say you know the the odds are that this will be um a benefit to our students not to do it this year so that they can continue to adjust to that classroom time and i think that's the student-centered approach that i'm going to take tonight so i'm going to support this as well um i just have not really questions but just uh looking for sort of uh confirmation or maybe um reinforcements so um you know when the s back results arrive in august um it's not super helpful anyway um to parents um so i look at like who who needs that information and i kind of put it like three different categories um i think teachers by and large know where their students are so check um second uh parents so parents um this year to know and i think there's a fair amount of concern from parents of um with a shift in just the way students learn that um you know other students at bench at you know at grade level and so um dr brown the way the parents would the best way for parents to gauge that versus getting some test results in august would be both the teacher assessment obviously of where a student's doing the regular ways that happens and then also the district is mailing the maps the winter maps results to every every family so and that there's going to be some sort of parent workshops or way in which parents can uh to help parents interpret what those uh what those results mean is that yeah those results have actually been mailed out to parents already okay i know i know a number of schools have already set up workshops and we're we're talking about additional workshops as we move forward um and you know again from my seat what's going to be really important is is that first assessment in in the fall to establish that baseline comprehensively across all our students in grades two through eight um that that's the real anchor for that and and obviously you know in our secondary schools right now we have students who's after the sat today and will be sitting again on the 27th so that might the third group um of the individuals who might have used the sbac data is district leaders and principals for as we look at next year's budget whether it's budget and programming whether it's for the summer for the fall of you know where we may need to focus resources we would have [Music] two two sets of map tests from last from last year um so for for me it would be helpful to get a sense before we dive into the budget process to get an overview of sort of what what you all are seeing what sort of insights you think um that tells us so that we can um use some of that to inform our decision making and our thoughts about the budget which i'm sure um the budgets were having presented to us will ha we'll have that incorporated but as a somebody who would be looking to connect the data with um what we're funding or focusing on would be great and if i could i just want to put a teaser out there because i am going to come back and talk about the map assessment i i want to remind folks that last year we presented data that showed how strongly the map assessment was aligned to s back performance and how well it did in terms of predicting how students performed on s-pac i know there were lots of questions about whether or not the results this year would be reliable interestingly when i take the first pass of the data i'm looking at the correlations between this winter
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map administration and last year's winter map administration are all above 0.8 it was a very highly reliable administration even though it was done remotely and everybody had a level playing field on that so some of the concerns that were articulated just didn't show up in the data or we wouldn't have those correlations so i think we have a very reliable basis to present data to help inform the decisions that you're talking about director edwards great i'm all for more instructional time and less testing this spring i appreciate the the remarks director brim edwards i think you spoke to a few things one we it is it is our desire to build a culture of assessment literacy and it's important that stakeholders use that information for different reasons whether it's lesson planning or school improvement plans or central office supports or resource management uh and the resolution is continuous improvement it isn't just you know these these more standardized dipsticks we had a actually really uh another good conversation with pat leadership this morning in fact around taking a more broad view a more holistic view uh you know what would it look like if there were district-wide writing prompts there was a time when teachers were very involved in meeting together to calibrate around what students were demonstrating say in writing skills what would it look like if we incorporated those into a balanced assessment calendar we've talked previously if we're working towards a vision and students demonstrating those skills and dispositions what is an authentic assessment or a portfolio or an exhibition look like as a capstone in eighth grade but also at other grades and so i think there's a big opportunity here as we implement our assessments in the coming school year to continue those conversations uh go back to some of the work that was done previously and what was good about those and helpful to educators and then how do we create sort of indicators of our students progress towards that graduate portrait as well so lots of room for us to really grow in this area which which is actually exciting okay any further discussion before we vote on this matter director bailey yeah i just i'm going to support the resolution i am really disappointed that the state's petition was turned down by the federal government um i don't get it i'm very supportive uh was very supportive earlier this year of us doing the map assessment because that gives us not only system level information but also school level classroom level and student level usable information for how we can change instruction and we can agree to disagree about the value of the s back i i understand with current regulations we have to do it i still don't see and again uh dr brown using your criteria i i don't see the bang for the buck for the the time spent on that but we'll leave that for another day um and i'm i'm really happy to hear dr brown that uh the map that we gave uh has the results look very reliable for this year and that will really help us going forward in that budget process and planning for next year and with the resources uh how to best allocate the resources from the federal government that we're getting so that that's just a real win for us uh and i'm really excited to hear about that again getting teachers together back to really calibrate their uh in their classroom assessments their more informal assessments um that's been uh a big source of inequities across this district is that teachers have different expectations of students in in the same school in different classrooms and across the district and sometimes it's it's a wider variation within the school than it is across the district and it will be as we talk about a school system it's having the same expectations on grade level for all of our kids across the district that's going to help move move the neil going forward so again very happy to vote yes on this resolution yeah i'll just um quickly echo the comments of the superintendent and staff and my my colleagues i i am i also will support the resolution i i think what i really like about it is that it reinforces the district's
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commitment to data and accountability and and particularly the important role the data plays in in our efforts around equity and serving our black and brown students and um you know there's there's there's a great op-ed by um you know national urban league and and you know when you do us sort of sort of talking about the importance of that and i think it reinforces our commitment to that while also understanding balancing against the reality of the pandemic and and where we are and and particularly where we are you know here in oregon and portland public schools so um so i think it's the right move and i appreciate you bringing it forward thanks superintendent all right there's no further discussion and i think we are ready to go ahead and vote um but miss powell first is there any public comment there's not all right the board will now vote on resolution 6287 resolution regarding continuous improvement and student achievement all in favor all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions resolution 6287 is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative shu voting yes all right thank you all right now we get to something that i know my 10th grader has been long awaiting the 2122 school calendar and tonight this is just an informational presentation um directors and members of the public have a chance to ask questions um in the next two weeks and then we'll be bringing this back for conversation and vote at the meeting the next meeting which i will probably say the date wrong again but i think it's april 27th um it's 6 p.m on a tuesday i got that down uh superintendent aguero would you like to introduce the calendar yes that's correct uh we wanted to give directors a chance to uh hear some of the key features of uh next year's proposed school calendar you'll recognize some of the factors that we've continued uh to try to integrate and uh deputy quail will walk you through uh the usual stakeholder engagement that went into this but we also wanted to give a couple weeks to hear feedback and input from directors and any other community as well uh and i know we're being joined by daniel cogan uh who who's been our our lead our staff lead on on this annual exercise so we want to appreciate his uh continuing to figure out how to incorporate all our uh uh requirements that that we put forth so uh craig thank you superintendent and good evening directors uh thank you for this opportunity to share this informational item about the proposed uh 2122 school district calendar um as we know per board policy annually we always come to the table to present the informational item before we do vote on it and we will be voting on this proposed calendar at the april 27 board meeting um the recommended calendar is an important first step for both internal planning in the district and of course what our board chair said i know that the public is definitely waiting um when is the start time when is school starting and um so we know that families are anxious to start planning so this is good information no doubt um as the superintendent did share the staff did go through um a process that engaged multiple stakeholders including pat pfsp papsa and in various uh district departments and representatives from numerous school ptas to help make sure that we were including all of the very important basic elements that usually go into the creation of this calendar the recommended calendar for next year includes many of the same features and considerations that we have seen in past calendars um such as ensuring that we have five full instructional days in a typical week ensuring that we are keeping teacher planning days on mondays or fridays to make sure that we're avoiding we're avoiding student breaks in the middle of the week um and also the goal of it was also to ensure that semesters and quarters have a balanced number of instructional days which has always been typical of our calendars in the past previous years which is for example quarter one having 45 days quarter two with 45 days quarter three with 43 and quarter four with 44 days we also wanted to make sure that our calendar followed all bargaining unit contracts which is included in the agreed-upon provisions for the ratified pat contract and of course very very very important for every academic calendar that we do push forward is also ensuring that we meet the required instructional time with state standards and just a real quick recap the required instructional hours as requested by the state for k-8 is 900 hours for grades 9 through 11 is 990 and grades 12 is 966 and this proposed
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academic calendar does meet that very important requirement so with that being said um board chairperson that is the proposed academic calendar again we are proposing that we are starting pre-labor day um on september 1 and the last day of school being june the 10th thank you so much um we are going to take questions at the on via email unless there's something that a board member feels like needs to be said in this moment um ahead of uh that opportunity to email in questions we just have a quick question about the um february 22 there's a possible snow day listed on a on a national holiday i didn't know if that was a mistake that was president's day isn't that part of the bargaining agreement that's correct director to pass february 21st is a monday that's a president's day holiday by our collective bargaining agreement uh if we've had a bad winter and we want to incorporate a makeup day for the inclement weather we would notice our our members that we would be turning converting that to a school day if it's not needed then it is a holiday excellent thanks for the clarification so just along that lines i know some school districts even before the pandemic had really um stopped having snow days they just turned them into distance learning days i'm wondering um now that we know how to do that is that something that's being considered are we still just doing the traditional thing of having snow days and making them up and having that 5 a.m call being made and is that a question we can have answered via email because i think that's a bigger sort of conversation about equity and who has access to devices and and how we think that might play out so is that okay if they respond to that the email director from edwards yeah although like um because of just why you um raise that i'd love to at least have the it be answered the next the next meeting but i guess you have two weeks to prepare come up with a good answer craig director edwards absolutely we will be prepared to answer your question at the next board meeting thank you i think we already had an example this year of what how we're going to handle that mr cogan i feel like since you're here you should at least get to say something so uh did you have anything to add tonight um my birthday falls on june 10 um and so you know it's coincidence that the last day of school is june 10 that's probably happened a half dozen times in my life all right well if we all remember that we can wish you happy birthday on the last day of school next year any other questions in this moment before we move to our uh email questions about the calendar just uh given climate change and weather patterns i i'm more worried about smoke days in september than snow days in the winter sadly yeah we're going to start seeing santa anna's um going back to our uh when we were doing the vision process and what seemed like the crazy scenarios of uh portland being a center for uh producing basically gas masks so people could run around and get their exercise um in the middle of uh you know wildfires really really bad smoke days from fires down in ashland or wherever uh director constant did you have a question or comment i was just gonna say that as we prepare this resolution for our consideration and vote in two weeks i'd like to include something in the recitals that um reiterates the superintendent's um commitment for next year being you know a full-time in-person school year just so that it is embedded um in the calendar and we communicate that to parents excellent uh director constance would you work with the superintendent on that ahead of the meeting so that that's in the recitals absolutely great thank you so much and it'll include the caveat that i gave earlier which is not in our control right obviously a state metrics dictate that we cannot have school then we need to follow those but i think as many of us have seen from the projections that it looks like you know as continued vaccinations happen that that would be a very
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uh low chance of that occurring but we we we will follow the state health metrics and the state law but open five days um go ahead andrew i know you're gonna say something there well i wasn't actually going to but since we keep bringing it up i actually think the board should have a discussion at some point in the future and it doesn't have to be when we adopt this calendar although i support director constance you know language but um about what that means you know given a lot of different scenarios and i think you know the state has not you know prohibited uh in-person school and there have been lots of districts in oregon that have um been able to have in-person school for for a long time um what it dictates our space and you know teaching and cohorts and social distancing and masks and all those other things so for me it's an issue of um i think we need to look at what are all the potential or at least at least the not all but you know the um the the most likely you know scenarios come fall and how can we ensure a full scale reopening in a variety of different scenarios i think that's going to be important because i i will just tell you that personally i cannot give up another um even you know month of school for our kids come september i think we have to figure out a way to do it regardless i agree with you i think the only reason i would not be willing to support going back five days is if we had another shutdown like we had in may in march of last year you know that very early shutdown um when everything was closed because of you know the the regulations from the state but i do think you know we're at the point where um with the the restrictions we have now that we we will be able to find a way to reopen five days well i'm sure anything's possible we could have we could have covered 20. hopefully we won't that's exactly why we should have a discussion sooner rather than later so that we're looking at the criteria and like what might be what might be barriers um but have that conversation now versus the summer time and you know be hoping and wishing that something happens when versus having planned out in the spring yeah i think our plan at this point is to open high school and middle school and um then you know as we begin the conversation about the budget really begin to talk about what does it what do we need to do to open for full five days in the fall and look at those different scenarios and i know that um that conversation has begun um in lots of small ways but that that'll be a more robust conversation as we begin to really look at the budget let's just be careful not to jinx this folks right wash your hands wear a mask get vaccinated when you can alright any other questions or comments before we close out this conversation about the calendar and mr hogan's birthday on june just uh hi daniel cogan and let's put in a little plug here for all of our unsung heroes in our district who've been toiling away behind the scenes making things happen nice to see you thank you so much all right well as we said the calendar will be back for um vote at the next meeting board members please get questions in craig will be looking for that deputy superintendent cuellar will be looking for that response to director broome edward's questions about snow days and director bailey's question about smoke days um on that session next week or in two weeks is there any other business at this time before we adjourn all right the next regular board meeting will be held on april 26th this meeting is now adjourned


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