2021-12-01 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2021-12-01
Time	16:00:00
Venue	BESC Windows Room
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: 12/01/ 21 PPS Board of Education's Policy Committee Meeting

00h 00m 00s
us start we're starting a few minutes late and i just was on the phone with director to pass and she is in transit so she will be a few minutes um two minutes late uh probably about 20 minutes late and um just to let's see we should go around the introductions around the table let's start with the committee members director amy lowry oh uh what i'm the student representative jackson michael [Laughter] ever staff speak just introduce yourself the first time and that way um we have that done so we have a number of items on the agenda today and um i'm going to change the order just a little bit so that um director depass can be asked for um two pieces of the discussion that um are important and that is um uh a new a new policy new set of amendments to the student representative policy uh student representative and district city council policy and um also that climate crisis response policy and um so hopefully she'll join us for that time but i thought we'd first start it's okay i'm not sure which um it's gonna be but with the um we have staff asked us to consider some fairly um minor amendments to the workplace harassment uh policy which uh was in everybody's pockets i can take that one okay so um uh this is in response to one was request from hr uh and the second it was a legislative uh change that um requires us to offend our discrimination policies will include gender identity so we've included gender identity and the workplace harassment as well as broadened the definition of workplace harassment to allow for um for the protection of all employees and not just on the basis of that it's got some bullying right application and so those are the changes that we have um all in the second paragraph second so a question i had um but i know i asked in advance but i think it's worth asking because it didn't make sense to me when i read through the changes um so just for the uh explanation for the broader public is that um i was curious because it essentially said that all district employees school board members volunteers and contractors must avoid any contact or action which is that could be characterized as harassment of another employee and so only that the recipient of the harassment that's protected was only the employee and i was wondering like even though there was a category of volunteers and um employees and school board members and contractors that it only applied to um employees so maybe share why in this policy it only says employees like it's not okay to harass contractors volunteers it's not okay to harass anybody else [Laughter] it looks like it's just employees so well this one so the workplace harassment policy came out of legislation that was addressing specifically employment fund employment environment uh and so that is why this particular policy was developed we have another policy which is our broader um uh antiretroviral non-discrimination policy which is 1.800201 yes yes i am right i know um so uh which which addresses um harassment discrimination in general either so if you come onto a pbs site and experience it there is a mechanism uh for you to report it for us to you
00h 05m 00s
know take actions because that's um we do not want to see that and so this is just specific this this policy changes specific to employees do the committee members have any questions great thank you for touching our hearing making this better um would any members entertain a recommendation to move this out of um committee with a recommendation to the board for a first reading yes yes yes all right great um so move that along then we have two policies that are proposed for rescission and they are policy 1.10.020 definitions and then um 2.40.010 teacher membership for committee um i'm happy to address them briefly the the definitions policy as a standalone document defines terms that are intuitive but it doesn't add a lot of value i don't think there's a lot of confusion about what gps means for school district so again as we try to reduce the volume of policies in the manual so the information valuable information doesn't get lost by patients not all that helpful we thought this was a policy that could be jettisoned the second one teacher membership on committees isn't really a policy it's a statement sort of a commentary um and we just thought that was also not high value at all in terms of guidance to those yes thank you any questions from the committee members i just really appreciate this work of cleaning up our i know it takes time to go through and look at everything and evaluate it but i think this helps us to be better again so thank you staff for this work dr green okay um would the committee be willing to entertain um a recommendation to move this to the full board for first reading for precision yes that's for that yes okay um and i'm gonna ask um for the i think i will move next to the student representative at district student council policy and just as a frame up this is another policy that staff asked us to take a take a look at and recommend some changes to it is um there are some conflicts between the provisions relating to the student representative in this policy and with and in the policy relating to the board of education which also talks about this kind of and um the reason why we're bringing it forward and because people have only got it yesterday then there won't be a vote on it but the reason why we want to move this particular item is that the provisions that are being suggested for revision relate to the election and removal of the student reference always in terms of election to have those decisions being made not in the context when you're in the midst of an election um and so we'd like to to move these earlier so when the elections come up this spring that we will have removed the inconsistencies and the needs of our duplicated language um
00h 10m 00s
and so that's why it's been brought to us now again also supply staff is something that you would want to um have made more consistent so with that liz do you want to walk through the specific recommended change the changes to the document one by red line or this conceptual um why don't we why don't we do um like at least the high points um and again we're not voting on this meeting as a recommendation out so uh it's a time for us to discuss and take questions answered thank you julia so that i think the first problem uh the inconsistency we're trying to address is the distinction that the existing policy makes between those who are appointed to the district student council those who are elected the reality is while most schools have high schools have an election process to establish their representative to the district student council some do not sometimes there's a change that's needed and there's unexpected circumstances so what was like happened in the existing language what happens is that there are some rights that don't go through those who haven't been appointed instead of elected this takes away that distinction once you're on the student council regardless of your path it also sets expectations that there is consistent notice to students in the school about how to get on the district student council and that when someone was elected or appointed however they ascend to that position what the school administration notifies uh dsc uh staff liaisons as well as the board office so it just kind of tightens it it tries to make sure that you have um notice and access to those we're trying to find ways to open up the service opportunity this learning opportunity um the [Music] there's a there's a small change about the violence that they clarify that they can't be in conflict with the policy or an aed the bylaws are developed by the student of the district student council but then they have to be approved by the foreign governing documents of the council that was created the other thing it does is it aligns with the board policy who can be a student friend this was one of the billions of confusions the board policy said about 10th 11th and 12th graders and the student rep policies said 12th graders yeah and so were so you had two policies that said two different things um so this is aligning with the board policy that has um um that has the 10th 11th and 12th grade hospitality so not just open to seniors um and it makes clear that if there is any conflict with the other policy in the door policy that the district student council policy the most recently amended is the one that we control i know that this was a policy that we looked at last year and have been talking about and i really you know trying to find ways to clear about elections and every school does things kind of differently and um making sure and i think this does a good job of clearing up some of those not all of the things we talked about with some of the stuff last year with bylaws and other pieces but i think this really helps with that election and i want to give jackson a lot of credit for thoughtfully weighing in and we were the task we can give them was to stay narrow towards the elections there are you know last year there were other other things that were before the policy committee but this is about getting the election stuff in order before and i appreciate some of the things like making sure that this is the dominant policy and making that clear um and i really see again the work that's gone into this jackson and really appreciate the dsc and all of you working with that to improve themselves any questions um no this is really good so no problems
00h 15m 00s
one of the things we're trying to do is balance the um because not all schools do things the same and that this is trying to like hold each scoop like respect each school's process and yet make it open and transparent about what the what the process is at the greatest number um i think also some of the a couple of the other smaller changes i'll say in 2017 18 or 18 19 uh working with moses tran was a student at the time it was this the district student council was really his vision to engage more students in the work so it wasn't just a student rep um you know at the time that that policy took almost a year and a half so it went on to nick the next um student rep and there are just some things that we didn't anticipate and so in some ways there's some things like this bad thing about cleanup it's like yeah i've known x at the time i would have like maybe drafted it differently but you don't know x and so i think we have like a couple cycles under our belt and it's um a better you know great foundation that uh moses and nick said and then this is so next well and that's sort of the work of this policy right that it's often looking at policies that when they were written were written in the best way they could be and then we know different things and so we [Music] we resize or amend to sort of move [Music] so everybody understands the process um i'm taking the action now will uh materials uh i would ask that just be shared with the dsc yes you all um socialize with others and um that we have our next committee being december 15th and that will take action on it but certainly people have comments or questions in the meantime to share them it seems like the committee will want to move this next committee meeting and then on we'll be on a process by which we will meet the deadline of having this in place so we have a um an election process that is transparent and understood by everyone we're gonna be ahead of the us government hopefully um all right director pass is not there yet but i think i'm gonna jump into the climate policy and there's going to be a setup here a setup of just into framing it up uh i spent about four hours last night re-watching the last committee meeting and going through all various documents and for those who've been on the policy committee um so um dr larry and i we we had a policy that was traveling along uh i think even directly elaborate you declared a date that it was coming out of committee well i was trying to help us have some forward motion yeah no it is appreciated and you know uh i think this is the mac the maximum like get it right um versus hurry um we're in that moment so um i really appreciate so we had we had some we had some community engagement both that was done by the district staff we also had community input during the fall um we had a draft that uh reflected that and you know i'll just say as a committee chair it was the draft that was handed us primarily from the pre the previous committee and um so we then had um thanks thanks to aaron coordinating a lot of staff input and analysis of i think a pretty bold and sweeping
00h 20m 00s
policy with some staff recommendations around specific wordings and policies and that's how we left two meetings ago we left of will um people have some assignments i'll note twice that alien was headrested on time that support um um at the last meeting we went through there is a document that is the um it's now it's been updated so november 6 climate crisis response policy staff inputs and proposals which really coordinated all of the staff input on the version 24 of policy um and we went through we went through that and as i was talking to dan this morning most of the items here um we where staff made some recommendations we changed the language we also added some um asked for some definitions some people had some assignments and based on that there is there was posted a new version a new version 25 and um the version 25 includes so we had a long discussion about for for example about the 2040 targets and staff felt really strongly that um there needed to be some qualifiers in there because it wasn't unrealistic and we needed to add some things in so the new version 25 that was posted has those um has that staff language you look at it this is a footnote and i would recommend we move into the policy it also integrates in it it adds a glossary with um definitions like skillful ones two and three and feasible online communities and social thinking so thank you to everyone who participated in those discussions and made those changes i'll just know director of house noted that um when using consistency in the document itself between front line and communities of color how we talk about it so i want to just the next version we need to incorporate her feedback around that because they are on the definitions but it's actually not actually the pulse the job so julia does the version 25 that we have now does it incorporate all of the staff recommendations that you've received no um it doesn't so um between the last two meetings um i had a conversation um and staff and there was like well we'd actually like to put some of these things an administrative directive or an implementation plan and so that is there's a version of it which is original 24 that has red blue and green and the green um is the what would stay in the existing policy and then the um blue was in to say move from policy to aed and or implementation plan and the red was removed all together and um again because i wasn't the chair last time i don't have private authorship um but i didn't know there was some community authorship and it's a pretty um substantial set of proposed changes and um what i think that we have had sort of a policy that the committee had been working on and then with the change in the committee some things came back in the committee has sort of already removed and put into the aid so i feel like uh not that many um i mean it's a pretty substantial change um so i'm trying to honor what i've been wrestling with because i just practiced okay well it's like trying to honor like both the
00h 25m 00s
the work that happened to date and also some staff recommendations and i think there's some questions that um we need to work through because like for example my conversation this morning with dan um we talked specifically about um i can't find it now the pesticide one do you have that right off the top here oh no are you looking for the policy or the reference the reference the reference to it is under goal 1.36 i'm sorry which one is it sorry under goal one point three number six and then version 25 okay phase out the use of pesticides and herbicides thank you are you looking for the policy so for example i'm like well that i'm thinking okay that to me if it goes somewhere else i'm fine with it because we currently have another policy 3.30.082 it's environmentally sustainable business practices which has um a pretty thorough like actually a much more um descriptive uh set of practices around pesticide management um and this was a huge pbs used to just dump lots of pesticides on all our you know get rid of dandelions and everything and this policy is what basically fundamentally changed what i uh the first grass looks like now um there's lots of things growing besides grass um but that's okay um and so like for example when i look through there here when i look through this policy there's some things in here that staff has recommended like we moved to an a.d or eliminate that actually are in another policy and so one of the things that i thought would be i'd like to get um committee members input on is there's like two there's two concepts here the big concept and this policy is setting employment target and getting to carbon reduction and there's a host of sustainable business practices in here too and some of them actually do could help pbs get to a more um net zero emissions and other ones are good practices but sustainable practices so a question i had for the committee philosophically is do we want this to be about a a specific carbon policy and have some of these other things live and i think some of the languages actually i mean there's got some procurement and other things already in in this other policy michelle yes hi um yes hello hi i'm sorry hi i'm sorry i'm in a car so it might be coming in and out a little bit but i i did wanted to say that uh i want to say that one of the one of my impressions when i was reading through the staff recommendations is that there's this concept called low-hanging fruit that you know all of these have budget implications but some of them less so and so if we could kind of use that pro that sustainability practice of identifying you know what you can do first what's on first and easier maybe not as much budget impact and the other thing is i wanted to i think you were saying that there's like a climate a carbon a climate policy and there's also sustainability practices and just to be mindful that those are sometimes one in the same and sometimes they're separate um operations or actions yeah well that's what when i went back through the policy it seemed like they're already some of these things are already covered um in our 3.30.082 and so like i say this this the frame up of 3.30.080 is
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um about getting this a very specific goal and it does provide staff flexibility i think director can pass to your point about going after low-hanging fruit or uh to be able to prioritize and so um i'm interested in the committee's thinking about um these like the two policies um and whether it's a this is primarily focused on the goal and the other practices that aren't necessarily related to climate or the gold living in this document and many of them are actually already here is really based around some of what we learned with um aj crayville sort of some of the language he had around policy development and the idea of containers and that your policy is your big goal and you want it to be less specific and more about those big ideas right and so i think part of what we're seeing with some of the decisions we're doing are policies that were maybe smaller that really were more like when we just removed about committees um and so i would be in favor of actually the simpler and bigger idea the policy is the better and that then those really specific things about pesticide use about recycling containers about um cafeteria stuff those things to me fit in an a.d they have an operational way they're the way that the district is implementing the vision that's in the policy and i think when we start to put lots of really detailed things in policy is when we begin to um become out of compliance with our policies and that it's really important to be very very clear and transparent in what you said those goals of carbon reduction i think are really another important goal that's in this policy is around students and student collaboration student learning and student leadership within climate justice so you know if i if i was gonna sort of write the policy in three sentences it would be get our emissions down um partner with front line communities elevate student leadership and student education on these matters and you know sustainable business practices that don't script the planet any more than we already have but that's not false uh and then those other pieces to be because as we learn more and as technology develops as things change we're going to want to be able to be nimble and responsive in our ad to meet those changes so we can hit our carbon emissions so that's sort of my philosophical way of understanding like the role of policy development and how that interacts with babies yeah so one of the um the buckets you just described was environmentally sustainable business practices so we and i don't know if you've had a chance to look at it but we have one um that does um i think use still high level language and actually hits some of the other pieces um that are in here and maybe they don't need to be in this policy if they're in that other right i mean that could be that's my original like thing about yeah pesticides it's like you know i i do think it's a value like portland said 20 years ago we are getting rid of pesticides like ones that are damaging to young people and because they're all over our grass and everything and this policy basically dropped the amount of pesticides fuse pps dramatically um because i think one of the things that happens is like okay let's say we do this climate justice policy and in 10 years we changed the climate justice policy but it's got stuff about pesticides in it but we the the board in the future doesn't know or doesn't remember about the sustainable business practices policy or they you know they don't change it so then we have two policies that are in conflict which we also often have so i'm also for simplifying if it's covered somewhere else refer to it in the policy so that if we want to make changes we can do that other places um so i think maybe there's some alignment um and i'm just like this is abroad because i said i've been trying conceptual like how to tackle like all these issues and reverend green what are you thinking over there because i'm sitting there looking at it a policy as you were saying that the policy is the big picture right but when we start getting down into the into the until the details of it
00h 35m 00s
we have to be intentional about why it's even better to begin and where do we replace it but outside of that i'm not really thinking too much i i want us to i want us to look at it i want us to be intentional about what we're looking at it and about where where we put it i don't want to take stuff out or leave stuff in for the sake of taking it out or leaving it in i don't want to take it out because it's it's hard or it might make it harder i don't want that to be the reason that we take it out and i don't want to take it out because it's like well well i i want to be i want to be vague because anything that's too vague you can't be done and so i believe there has to be a level of intentionality around the policy but we we have to also unders be looking at like why why why are we having this conversation why why is this important and why are we pushing back against it or why are we fighting for like what makes this so important right now and for me the more detail we get the policy the less enforceable it gets sometimes depending on what it is and well they can tie our hands exactly it can it can it can tie our hands so it's innovations happen director edwards yeah uh in the materials there's also a short staff summary just saying the rationale behind the proposed change and i've got a short presentation if it's helpful i can kind of walk through it so people just could kind of see what that rationale is like in just a few minutes if that's helpful yeah i first wanted to get the um students point of view on some of this the concept of the climate reduction the targets and um this other policy and i apologize that this wasn't the policy wasn't posted um but to get your you're thinking about um um i so i do um a lot of work environmental groups um i think one of the main focuses is if you sometimes get caught up in trying to attack because climate change is multifaceted so i don't want us to get you know caught up in several different things because there are hundreds of different factors under um i think what we usually do is stick to what is most impactful to what is hurting our community and what is most impactful of how to help i actually agree with what everyone said um my one concern or hesitation is just as we become less specific the insurance have that we accountability start waiting so enforcement is easier because there's less risk i think to be clear i don't want us to lose any of the enforcement pieces i just think the appropriate for those was an nad um and it's the difference between the the big vision of the policy and the implementation and as a board we want to hold the district accountable in the implementation to reach their goals and that that language needs to be really clear and spelled out right because that was a very real concern yeah so but the accountability would not be in the aed because that's like um self-accountability i mean so that normally you would build that into the and so maybe one of the things to do is look at that um you know are we okay but there's a there's the end of the policy now the um nine percent up to 90 percent group and is that is that the accountability mechanism but i i don't think that in um traditionally you put like an accountability in the aed because it's like um it be more in the policy as that's how the board's going to provide oversight well i do think i mean i totally agree with you from a good governance standpoint that we've been trying to do a lot of work to improve our policies and our policy making um so a they don't become uh immediately obsolete or not adhered to because the level of specificity um is burdensome when conditions change um i mean the point of policies is to articulate our values and our ideals and um so we're doing a lot of work with all of these decisions it's largely because they've become a lot with a lot of them that's because they become obsolete because of the level of specificity that doesn't lead to the current conditions
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so that's exactly what we're trying to avoid in our policy making generally um so i would hate to see us kind of step into those tracks again and um just it's interesting about good governance i'm sorry and welcome director come soon um joining us today um so for for example like i was trying to just sort of ration out because to me this stood out as like high level this seems like high level policy direction values like support development of youth leadership and delivering opportunities around climate solutions um create meaningful opportunities by bipolar students to shape developmental implementation fund-related programs to me this especially the first one seemed really high level and student-focused um but for example staff is suggesting moving that to the ad or the implementation plan which to me it it seems that so i think there's also a conversation like what what triggers something like this shouldn't be in the policy or it's um it's it's too high level uh or it's i'm sorry it's too detailed but so some of them i to me seemed high level and directional and like you know are we gonna change our minds in 10 years that you know there should be development of new leadership engagement opportunities around climate solutions probably not um and there could be some other things like yeah you might have a totally different point of view yeah director scott texted me you know uh electric vehicles are a big thing now but in five years they may not be but how do we you know make sure we're up on the latest sort of um best practices for climate so what are we really debating here i mean we're having kind of a philosophical discussion about whether we want um my new details in the policy itself but what are we really trying to resolve well we're not trying to come to a consistent approach because after seven months we got a whole new approach um and a new set of feedback so i'm trying to both honor the previous community's work and community input we got and have a discussion so and then i and also get some clarity so for example when i looked at this um so we're not moving the policy today so the point is to have a conversation about conversation about it um and so when i when i looked at the recommendations of moving things to the adhear or the um implementation plan i was like oh if it says it's going to move to the ad i'm okay with it not having it here and then in my discussion with dan it was like well it may not be in the end and it's like okay well am i okay with that um and so i think getting a better sense from staff and ultimately and um something that's pretending to have something else today um but getting a sense of um you know i think we should just be crystal clear with people in um who's interested in climate and the policy that if we say yeah we're taking this out because it's going to be an a.d we have to be really careful if like if that's not going to actually happen because i mean it's not fair to staff first of all for us to spend six months later that undermines our public trust too that's not right so when i read it it was like oh if all these things are going into a.d you know some of them i could see yes um and some of them like now i actually think there's some policy um but then i wasn't really clear like whether something would be the id and so i think that warrants a another conditional conversation about that and i mean um the superintendent is that say it's going to be in the 80's do you not bust that no if that's the case but when i talked to dan this morning he said well we're going to do the scoping exercise and then and so we have a sample lady and i was like oh the sample id is that like the 80 that's what just chatted along it's like well it may not may or may not and um and so this is like all in a a good faith discussion about what is it and trying to get to clarity with the with with all of us like what does it mean because you have to be careful about it exactly so the board can't actually say what needs to be in there but i think then that goes to the relationship between the board and the superintendent do we do we trust when we say this is going to come out and when guadalupe and staff say it's going to be in the 80 so you're absolutely right and like i say also because i read it very specifically like oh it's going to be there and then we'll maybe well it might not be after we do the scoping exercise and then i'm thinking okay um so if it's not there then there's something up like it's something else
00h 45m 00s
there that meets that same need well i think this is like additional conversation i think it will help answer some of the questions but what the rationale is because uh you know certainly the policy isn't you know by the apple and even the ae it's not too late it's it's a continuation of efforts and planning and data analysis and baselining and so what kind of big pictures have recommendation is everything in here is good stuff we're not saying that you know we shouldn't do any of this over the long term it's where in the process or what's that right deliverable where this level of detail belongs and what information do we still need to gather to be able to write it and so if i could just do real quick yeah why don't you do that actually before you do that i forgot about director depass and i want her if she has any um comment you want to make directly to pass about any of the topics that we asked the committee members to speak to i apologize i'm um i don't know if you can hear me i'm just now getting settled in to a wi-fi connection and so i'm listening in i don't necessarily have anything to add at this at this at this point okay uh i i did i did i did really um like what director lowry said about you know keeping the the policy high level um because you know green green building building codes going to change and you know vehicle technology is changing rapidly and so solar right now these are you know these are things that are rapidly evolving and so i think we want to i agree that we want to keep the policy high level and um let the the details live in the 80s thank you director to pass go ahead dan all right i want to try and make this work first so all right okay i want to run through this pretty quickly i think we've covered a lot of it already just an organic discussion uh so the intent um is of the staff recommendation that was off of version 24 so it's not of course it's really to align the level of detail with that american document and then who is the appropriate responsible party and the climate crisis policy you know has multiple deliverables ostensibly the policy administrative directive and implementation okay so this is bothering me if it has if it says level of detail high then it says low detailed so does that mean so think of like not a high level of detail it's a high level but not a high level of detail the medium level of detail and a low level of detail is actually a high level of detail okay maybe i'll make [Laughter] uh and so just uh spend a real quick minute on these deliverables so the policy of course you know we're familiar with the policy is and the value of it that it you know provides direction district-wide such as we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions we want to invest in the highest uh investments that are return on investment that will lower those emissions uh it also sets just right gold speed goals becoming carbon neutral by 2040 uh and it directs staff to proceed with our greenhouse gas analysis the scope 1 the scope 2 plus so that greenhouse gas analysis is the next step in the process and what that does is that provides this baseline data uh that we will then use to establish this mid-range medium somewhere in there uh goals kind of these shorter term targets that isn't just looking at 20 years or more uh and then we have the administrative directive which provides structure clarifies roles uh and then the implementation plan which is that those detailed goals specific milestones specific tasks alliance funding with efforts uh and this is the living document this is this thing that is continually updated and then of course we have regular progress reporting the policy you know creates uh an accountability committee that is board appointed and reports to the fourth so uh this is just a sample schedule that that just tries to illustrate you know we're at the early stages of this these
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other efforts these are the deliverables need to be developed uh really before the implementation kicks off in earnest we need that baseline data and understanding of how we're operating now and of course uh it also just tries to highlight um you know we're going to have this continual implementations consumer reporting and the board has roles here uh resource resources are going to be needed to implement these plans uh that's going to come through many forms but some of them are the general fund budgeting process and general obligation bonds as well so picking up steve uh we can kind of think of this in a three-step process so step one is the policy four-step process [Laughter] and the step one the policy informs this carbonaut of this greenhouse gas emissions analysis that in turn informs and prioritizes the administrative director that now starts identifying specific responsibilities by department and identifying the strategies what are those high return on investment activities that the district should pursue to reduce carbon as quickly as possible and then those also inform these detailed implementation plans specifically what are you going to be doing what are your short-term steps who's responsible for those uh so that's the process that we see that probably just isn't visible to everyone they're reading policy they don't always think about those future steps uh and probably done a better job of kind of communicating that along the way what staff and reviewing you know some of the recent uh versions of the policy we saw some things that you know we really liked in there it provides direction reduce greenhouse gas emissions it provides um prioritization to go after those highest uh strategies that reduce submissions that grace them out and inferential schools carbon neutrality by 2040. there's other goals in there too but you know kind of the higher level what our concern was potentially is that does the policy uh contradict itself a little bit by saying go after uh the highest return on investment and then has a list of strategies that may or may not be those high level investments so when we do this the board appointed committee meets quarterly and looks at the policy and is reporting to the board does that become confusion is it so unambiguous it's unclear should you just be going after you know we're talking about taking the pesticides out but if it wasn't there the district should be going after this right now it's in the policy but that you might not even tackle for 10 or more years so that was sort of the genesis around let me make sure we've had kids come multiple times and talk to us about plastic utensils and their cafeterias which are important and we shouldn't have and yet when we you know started in this policy and we're hearing from staff you know the biggest sources of pollution from ups are in our water usage and in our transportation and we can spend a lot of time and energy on forks which would be a very visible thing that kids would see but if we really want to make a significant impact we need to talk about our transportation so i think that's that's that's a little like my analogy when i think about that yeah so dan just just on that point because after our discussion this morning about policy um because i think it's a really legitimate um issue but um danny's like what's the highest impact the the fourth fourth paragraph the policy does say the district shall prioritize investments and this is was something that's gonna work through that achieve the greatest emissions reduction while integrating climate action into our curriculum and developing cultural environmental stewardship climate justice through our organization other efforts which have a lower impact on emissions and require major changes infrastructure can can be implemented over a longer term do you not does that um not provide a longer time frame or is i think sorry because i thought that that and i wasn't involved in the drafting just but it seemed like that was to get after the there's this whole rank there's a lot of stuff that can be done and we're going to have to do a lot of things um but this is about emissions and what are the things that have the highest priorities it doesn't mean these other things aren't important or because of technology or changes the things that seem unimportant today are game changers you know later and so i thought that left enough flexibility but that that's not the case i think you know i'm happy to let any other staff jump in here uh i think that language staff pretty much licenses i think the question is if you have something about plastic forks what's the value of having it in the policy if it's not because i'm not a high return on investment if so does that mean that staff needs to tackle that right away regardless or is it just something that is ignored and told me well i think it says other efforts which have a lower impact on
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emissions so after scope one and two um and you know having done a lot of work in the sustainability state that while it may seem like a single use item like hey this you know it's really the tip that's coming out of that tailpipe that's causing things um but the creation of disposable products actually uses a lot of energy um and we may decide like hey we've squeezed every thing we can out of our building uh footprint everything we can have transportation and this is another thing like or there's some new thing that not to use plastic which is high in there you know energy and there there actually is a climate footprint um to the production of single-use items um but there's something new that doesn't require any energy and so like hey we're going to go after that because actually it's the right thing to do right um i think that's for me why the policy should be high level and remove those more specific things because then we don't have to concern about there being any potential conflict and this idea of again creating a document that is lasting i mean i'm hopeful that you know we hit the goal before 2040 and then we can rewrite the policy to be even more progressive as we continue to you know but that we doesn't include me right um and so how do we create something that is long-lasting yeah which i think last time we did go through and have a discussion about basic we got rid of forks and said fours are just my example because those children who come speak are the best like they're so passionate about their worship we tried to uh we did try to upload it like for example we got rid of the specific examples around like the standardized fence it's like yes we think that's probably a good idea you know that's kind of a basic recycling thing but that could be in the lower level um which maybe gets me back to the like climate versus a sustainability policy and you have two things that are complementary i think the challenge go ahead i think the challenge there is our hope for the administrative directive is it has our facebook data so it can be specific about the degree and so i i think when you see the the staff recommendation of saying this might move to the ada or implementation about it is that yes the intent or or moving away from single use yes that will be there but the language around that might be really different once we have that data that has really low impact and something that we that are you know we're going to get our third party experts in here to say i wouldn't tackle uh addressing your your uh browns equipment for 15 years what's the value of having that language in a policy if it's something that we're not able to look at for a decade or so and we just don't know that yet so the idea was keep the policy high level really go after those high impact of things these are the things that move the needle and the language around hey you want to get those other things too yes you have a longer runway for those things eventually get those things but i'm not going to see that implementation plan that's you know kind of figure out liz or aaron or anyone else may i jump in um i wanted to just correct i think that our operations the two highest um are have climate impacts or carbon impacts are our buildings and our transportation yes and transportation building energy use and transportation right those those are typically the the top you know that the top in any operations and not necessarily the disposable fork but if we add a life cycle analysis we can look at the embedded energy in producing a fork and also look at the end of life of the fork and so the that cost benefit analysis has to do with looking at the entire life cycle of a thing and and that would have some impacts on our operations as well i didn't see that language used anywhere but as long as we're starting with a baseline greenhouse gas inventory a scope 1 scope 2 inventory we might also look at life cycle analysis in terms of looking at where um where we can become more sustainable where we can it might help us determine whether we should focus on the fork or the milk machine or we focus in in different areas and in it that life cycle analysis also includes a financial um or carbon impact as well so in other words when we say return on investment with climate work it's not necessarily a dollar and it's
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it's a dollar investment what's the greatest impact it's not a straight you know classical return on investments and it's a return on it's it's making assuring that our financial investments get the get to the greatest impacts it's it's a great point for the past which is what i was trying to get out of the before the amount of energy that was used is i mean pps there's a lot of stuff that's consumed um and the production of that um is you know creates emissions and so while we may have something arrived it's like that's just a box of the consumer product that what went into it um we consume a lot of i mean as pts is a big consumer of products and in europe they are told maybe the eu is totally moving in this direction of doing life cycle analysis of all the products and having much consumer products that listed on products so people can see like hey this isn't you know like i'm you know i'm driving my electrical vehicle but i'm buying something and then you look at it it's like well yeah and your this product that you purchased actually has a huge carbon footprint that most people don't think about it because they're not you know you don't see emissions coming out of it um so um hopefully that'll come out of scope too um in terms did you keep going down yeah um this is just again i think i've already kind of placed on that i want to touch on the student and community engagement uh because i know it was noted that well we sent out a previous draft trip one was a recent one probably in the 20s uh and we got you know we got feedback on that and now if we change it you know does that be disingenuous to that engaged process and in our perspective and i don't know what we're skilled now uh no the feedback that we largely got that it was in alignment what the intent and the scope of the policy was most of the feedback was high levels certainly some people got into a lot of details and forks and other things but most of it was high level it was interested about reducing you know greenhouse gas emissions it like the 2040 target and most people writing feedback are experts on on policy language and what language goes into policy whether it's in the policy or to the 80 or it's in something else i think that wasn't what they were commenting on so much as we want the district to move forward on these actions so we think by you know simplifying the policy knowing that we have these additional steps and we're going into gas analysis which will inform uh our next steps we think that isn't keeping largely with what we've heard from our processes and then i think this is just on that um my recollection um of the feedback was like also there was a prompt around it was like more personal and that's where we got a lot of the hey we feel especially vulnerable like some some um parts of some portlanders are going to feel climate more than others and what i read and what i heard from the feedback was a sense like hey pps what is your plan to help those um the people who are most vulnerable to to climate change and so that's that's how we got there some language and there and i would be interested in and we talked a little bit last time about this is the pps's mission to do disaster planning or you know all the energy efficiency or you know plant trees all over the you know places in the city where there aren't trees but like we'd be more involved in like supporting a jurisdictional effort and so it seems to to capture that there could be still some high level way to capture that versus like hey we're going to get to that later um and so that's what i want to hold on to because um i think yes they were like directions the right way but it seemed like there was a sense of vulnerability to what's going to happen and what is pps doing about it so maybe the language that is currently in the draft is needs to be different um or maybe she needs to say like hey we don't have to have anything in the policy recognizing that because they were aligned with um where we're heading and i think heading the other thing they clearly said was 2014 not
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2050 in which you're making another adjustment so i'm curious that you're you're thinking about that yes um so i uh appreciate that question um i think um from my perspective and sort of gathering uh input from folks and stakeholders across the system that is simply just meant to be to inform this kind of sense-making process here i think that there's uh this uh space where boats definitely agree that uh the the role that we take uh is is important but there isn't necessarily i think there is a uh though just getting specific about about who's who's doing what might not necessarily be um the goal or focus but the we started for example i was at lent yesterday and folks are talking about you know you know pps and you know all these other agencies right and how we might interact um and so i think that feels um like the spirit really is is is not necessarily um this operational piece of uh how juristic to believe you know folks will will interact in a climate event i'm not sure um has to be here i think um that that is still something that we are going to address and there has been a glossary or uh just some revision into the policy to sort of be clear about what what the role sort of shift looks like but um i think um the intent of the the policy and the action isn't necessarily things that will will change and sort of that that piece of how it will happen and the jurisdictional kind of breakdown i think um may also kind of depend on context and then climate events and things of that nature so i don't want to say too much because i do think the this piece um isn't necessarily um something um or i guess what i'm trying to say is i i think that that the space here to work through that makes makes makes value and it makes sense and and that the engagement piece i i don't think needs to make an impact on uh on on that 17 just based off of the um of where policy says and and i think um i would just echo with dan you know all about shared is that the a good deal of the feedback was really affirming the direction you're going in and really wanting to make sure that you know pps is committing to these actions and and um had a general sense of agreement and then there are folks who had feedback on some of the goals like wanting a 2040 climate um they're focusing on the net zero goals by completing ending things like magic things um thank you that's helpful for me do you think um when i look through here um i mean one of the things for example when we did the um building namings policy there was a um at the very end we front loaded a um we decided to put up very up front like an acknowledgement of like who um who's impacted by some of our names and um once it was there it's like oh this went from like a policy that just seems um it ain't more like why are we why are we doing these things um so maybe we need some just matlab maybe we need some sort of value statement about an acknowledgement of who climate impacts yeah i mean if i'm a chair uh i think that's actually right i mean that articulates our values and what i hope is slowly clear here is that uh portland schools and its senior leadership and its entire years [Music]
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our board is committed to addressing climate change so i think that that would be a powerful reminder that policy has daily impacts on our lives and so i would be happy to help and i would love to work with some of our students as well i was going to say because um there's a fault obviously um some communities are someone who's going to be more impacted like money than others but the other huge group that's going to be more impactful is our students and to me like in some ways i say kind of thinking about policy is like like why are we doing all this work it's not just like being a certain goal but it's like keeping front and center like why why would we do this and you know i think about some of the things that the fund for portland schools did in the middle of coven it's like certainly things that's not the district's mission um but and the district did things it wasn't necessarily a district mission but we had vulnerable students and families that needed support and the district did it so that would be great um danny and jackson you guys up for co-drafting may i offer a little bit of context about the year 2040 um for for anybody that doesn't know um and and by the way dan i thought that your response on your on your on the memo staff memo about why we why we would say 2040 or 2050 or 2060 or 2030 um 2040 is the year that um the us is going to have a majority minority uh population so that 2040 goal or that 2040 year is used in climate circles and climate language because that is a big year it's a significant year um in terms of our our population triangle so it also at the time you know people started using 2040 it was like 30 years away still so it seemed like it was off in the distance it's getting we're closing in on that but there's a lot of significance about that date and i just i want to share that because i think it's important it's important to know you know operationally also what we can accomplish but the 2040 is very intentional because that's a that's a big um that's a big demographic shift for us in this country that sounds like the potential preamble i'm happy to also just if you want to there's uh if you type in 20 20 40 you know usa census and people of color you'll come up with some statistics you know probably from the american community surveys and other census data that that talk about why that's a significant uh year all right thank you director and i'm going back to um like communities uh very most vulnerable wanting to uh wanting to be able to express that um kind of like going back to like you know the kids talking about forks um sometimes there is you know a lot of like need you know forks may not be the most important thing um but i think a you know focus would rather be you know when a kid talks about you know forks they're investing in climate change do they have all the tools you know our fork's gonna end climate change no so i i think giving and learning for our students to have the tools to be able to meet time leaders not only while in school but also outside of school and to transfer onto them um you know there was a um i think the tweet that you um jonathan posted around um it was pps got recognition for green schools and i thought that was really great but um my only problem with it was that right you know through the articles most of those students weren't coming becoming climate leaders inside of schools they're upon becoming climate leaders outside they were becoming climate leaders outside with our community partnerships so i want i want us to be able to build community leaders because i often hear from our students when i you know because i work in organizations and finding organizations that they're coming outside there oh we don't have the tools we don't have the skills and i think that it's all to a detriment almost that our students are having to look outside so i think that a really good thing is to give our students the tools and also so they're not having to look you know outside outside of our schools that they'll do that and so you know maybe they're focused more shifting away from forks instead of you know more
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impactful things that uh affect our community because you know well 2040 is a great goal we're going to be need you know future school board members and policy makers to be able to get there i think that's why when i first spoke i said that that student education piece and student leadership development piece that are in this policy are vitally important for me to stay in the policy and to be robust because i think that's just completely yes jackson nothing i'm just verbally cage i just appreciate what you said i mean it wouldn't reminded me you were talking was and i think it goes back to this piece around the engagement i often think about you know i've said this in many meetings probably i often think about my parents um who are immigrants to this country um and you know they they took on environmental sustainability is that they knew how to right um they didn't have a language they didn't have the the expertise they didn't know the word policy and what policy is they knew that you know doing their part in doing their part to recycle order or to to go green you know they're doing their part and so i think i think it's a reminder that you know that our communities are multi-faceted and like think about or have that language is is complex right and i think i think it's just a powerful reminder that like there's a spirit of what we need to listen to from our students and our community and then take on hold on so i'm curious about this slide um and this is sort of the um one of the sort of ongoing challenges is development and oversight of the policy so we develop a policy and then it goes into now a virtual there's no big reminder anymore it goes into the virtual world um and like the oversight so because i'm not i'm not seeing that being like some sort of mechanism aside like hey dan are you following the policy um and i was also thinking about when you had that slide that had like the board education like the recording piece so reporting isn't necessarily oversight i mean you know i think today this big story the front page of argonian about electrification and how the state's not meeting its goals in this country so now like what what is the what are the state leaders doing about that um so i would be interested to hear from committee members not necessarily i mean i think we have to decide this now but like what what that looks like um because if that's the little like the development and then sort of the oversight and then there's the also the committee reporting to us but you know it can i think if we're you're not um if you don't have a discussion about it then it becomes like hey we'll try and work it on like board agendas at some point you know next year or something and so you know is there more of a you know at the miles and milestones or like at specific points like still on track so that you know i'm not calling you in 2039 and like hey you know um um so i i think that topic needs a little more development um because if you do go to the high then it's what does that look like at accountability i don't know if you have specific ideas you have to have now but i think to me that's a yeah um i don't have necessarily specific ideas where i think we can work on this is again go back to the deliverables and the details that they're going to have and as we get our baseline data and we get the information about what those regional investments and what those mid-range marketers are we want to have our emissions for our eui or we want to have electricity solar generation be x by years you know we start to see those that additional level of detail and that becomes what we measure again so i think what the reporting is and so that information is still needed to to create those emission targets um but you're right there also needs to be that discussion like okay create
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those targets show me that plan how did you get there how are you you know we're going to create a target for you know people can but you know about solar generation or about you know how we size our panels forward those details are there that's those are the incremental steps that get us there but it's like we want to see those targets so every year we can know that you're on track or you know the thing i think of is this is going to need a lot of resources so staff is going to have to come forward and say here's what our targets are we've breaking broken down those 20-year target into these little pieces if we want to hit next year the year after that we need these resources moving into the world to support that or if we have a general obligation bond here's the big capital through this that we're going to be closing the priorities so i think it's there you're but you're right i think it needs to work out of how what is the language so everyone's comfortable with that and then on oversight and accountability um are there any mechanisms not just like hold this accountable to the district but also hold this account with the community because oftentimes you know they'll be like that but oftentimes the update will come like a year later or two years later in this community like we would have liked to know about this not just um so that we kind of helped her keep you accountable but we could have helped as well or we kind of invested in this as well yeah i think i think that's a great point and my my initial thought that is that's something that gets embedded in the charter for the accountability to make sure that students in the community are engaged as well as well maybe not that's kind of much better because that's another piece that we need to come up tell me a little with more about just about um how would it look to be like oh how would it look for us like ssp yes um know like i don't i don't know i don't have the answer exactly but you know sometimes um we'll be doing like um we'll do on campaigns we have you know our major donors and then we'll have right you know the bull marks right you know we will invest in or these candidates will invest in this idea um and we promise to get you there but you're gonna fundraise to this amount of money and we're going to get this and so we post how much we either fundraising or we've kept it to the public to see how much they're fundraising so if we're not then the community knows that we're not fundraising and we're not we're not paying our goals now does that have to be money no but it can be you know from year 2020 to year 2025 this is what we've done this is what we need to do and this is you know what the community can help for example dan doesn't put the money in the budget for this pokemon and scope two so one and two happens in like the fall and in the early winter and out of that it's like we're gonna set a target on the electrification of [Music] and you know here's what we think we can do and then it's making those targets visible and then like dan and team how did we do you know how are we doing on that target and okay we're behind so what does that mean for us hitting our overall target or we're ahead and you know should we be you know doubling down on our investment or you know so is that what you're you mean having like very specific conversations about targets like and they having invisible about a yeah i think i mean like target's visible to the broader community because um i think you know there's a once you have like the information out there um then the community can also track it because a lot of times you know it's not being tracked until either it didn't complete or it was completed and passed months later and so there's not that gap between community and the and then this um greenhouse gas emissions sort of plan and then create those implementation strategies and that's the perfect place to have those targets once we really know
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where do we stand and what are the best strategies moving forward to i can see us doing like a big fan here with an implementation plan doing like a big public thing of like here's the target plan here's where we're going and then to have that committee come back regularly to report on here are these targets we've set with our implementation here's how they're um being met and then how we're adapting so i i think that that's great and i love that you know i think this is science right it's climate science and that we're we're doing this study and not just writing some targets on policy but really doing the scientific operational work to make sure we have goals that both but also that stretch us so that we i mean this is real like this is this is this is vital this climate sense to do it properly really really matters and so i love i love that idea what i could say you know as the as rutgers knows uh a number of years ago we brought on um uh the lead department of justice and you know um through public justice will really be anchoring the school district's uh concerted efforts around climate justice climate change and so uh whether it's the educational piece or the this policy and making sure that um that we are transparent and accountable i think that is really important just similar to the goals that um the school board has about student achievement right those are really out there in public uh as as board members know that's happening deep dive next next week and so and we'll do that on a regular basis so similar here with the ccr committee you know and the board of education creating that and creating you know online you know public uh information that allows that transparency and frankly you know as as the board has uh indicated over the years portland public schools will be the leading school district in the country when it comes to climate change that is going to be a fact and in order to do that we need to show what we're given right we need to be public so so we look forward to being transparent and working with our community [Music] we are in a hiring process right now so we hope to announce uh hopefully this month um um it's now principal i'm going to remain correct she is the permanent principal at my school and well and she was phenomenal not find it real and it is phenomenal you know multiple dan i um so i think more thought needs to be uh potentially um language drafted around this piece um the other thing i'm wondering if you want to talk about the sample administrative directive i say i think there's um a conversation that needs to happen with the superintendent again that's not the words um prerogative but i also and if and because of that we need to be careful not to speak to the superintendent um in which case um to prevent staff from the whole institution um because that's not our our role um and if we are going to be saying you know this is a great idea we've got it currently in the policy draft staff says they're going to move into the administrative directive um i think because policymaking for a lot of people is like um it's not just something they do it's not what they do for a living or saying so it may not be intuitive like hey i thought that was going to be hidden or we just so we need to just be really clear about whose role is who and what it means so following dan's presentation i think we should be really careful about saying this is going to end up in the av i think there may be things that we need to remove from the policy because it doesn't belong in policy that are things that we we want to consider when we're asking the superintendent to consider when creating the 80 but i think it's really important that we make sure that we're we're using those high level things in the policy as the things that guide our
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decision making on the specific so um it's a good point but what i'm what i'm referencing is this is like staff wrote it will be in the ad not not me saying it should be in the aad so if it's not going to be it just needs to be um we need to make sure that our like people who have worked on this or provide an input um that yeah the only person who can say what's going to be in the ad is just a different kind of step and that that's why when i read it it was like okay this is staff saying i'll be happy to pretend that's my assumption this can be in the ad it's like okay well that makes me think about a little bit differently but i think we just need to clarity on that um but i think you know my you and your team that worked on this climate policy have done such an incredible job of really doing a deep dive and adapting and i know then why are you gunning guys um working why aren't you listening to the public comments you have a public comment later on and you can speak it's a waste of time all you're doing is swirling around the drain mike can you wait till the public comment section i think i'm done please go ahead what i was going to say is i think you know i think one of the things when it comes to policy is we have community members who have very specific ideas about what the district should do and and i think you know have some thoughts on what the implementation should be and are very passionate about that and i think that the the overall goals are along in policy and that implementation is what belongs in the hands of the operation side and that the work that's been done and all the effort into the idea creation of specific things is good and helpful and will inform the next steps and i know that it's hard to hear that we're gonna stay with the high level pieces and not have all those hands-on pieces and it feels like a loss to you i think what we've heard from folks and the comments we've gotten is this direction forward of creating a climate justice policy that really i mean i think everyone's goal which we should be fighting about the specifics and whether it's in the media or the climate justice policy we should be focused on is pps gonna be carbon neutral by 2040. we need to keep the main thing the main thing and mike i know that your group has done a lot of work and and you feel like this is not honoring that work you've done i would just ask that and i feel like they're going to keep it a community discussion so address us yeah so i feel like the the group has done this work um and it's it's spread this conversation it's encouraged us to do this and the ultimate goal will be a pps that is leading on climate justice and that's what there's um so there is a version of um document where the sunday for the last committee meeting that suggested that um if you got a color puncher there's green yellow and blue and green would be so in this document it's called black and then the yellow is things the red are things that they would just take the staff is suggesting removing and then the yellow for exactly um is are things that staff that says would be moved from policy to a.d or implementation as you can see it's i mean it's a lot of walls a lot of the current draft tell us so that's that's what we're and i say so for me there are some things that are in this other policy that it um that's a fine place for them i mean they live somewhere else um as long as they continue to live there um and the question is then then for me the question is are some of these things and since you've developed policy before you know like should be some of these things in yellow document romanian policy because they are high level like the example i gave about the students um support and development leadership and engagement opportunities around
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climate solutions should that stay in the policy high level or are there things that um we agree is way more operational and in implementation and that would be again it's clarity from the superintendent saying yes it's going to go into an idea of the implementation plan so that's that's just does that yeah my my what my thought process is that we are not keeping this and the problem stuff like you know engaging with students and stuff like that i is right when is it just then the stress becomes just a net zero policy versus a climate justice policy so well harvey points being right because because climate justice itself right there's multiple different things if we start to remove it then it starts it starts to just becoming that zero i policy that just as fast and then by my only thought process i i feel like that may be a loss to the community and also that that's not the intent it is to keep the client justice policy and keep the the three primary pillars it's just that they do and some of that work to say what's that right level of content right level of detail but it's definitely not to just turn this into a net zero policy even though that's pregnant we're talking about today but i think that's where that's where most of the the details director of the past do you have anything else you'd like to add i don't at this time okay um so in terms of next steps um i we've got a preample potentially that hopefully we'll address some of the community content we had before we're going to have a discussion with the superintendent about the blinds on the 80 versus the [Music] uh policy um there is some additional work around definitions and around just um some of some of the wordings of those things that were lost um and then also a crosswalk the other thing that needs to be done is like a crosswalk between the environmentally sustainable business practices and the draft and what things exist elsewhere is that any of the next episodes i think just to note that the next meeting is only two weeks away instead of three so it's a hustle yeah i think i've had conversations with um a lot of the board members that we're gonna um working at this right i say just just because um input came in at you know a later stage in the process um that doesn't we need to we need to work through it and um swallowing a big hairball we need to get this right yeah so um i i appreciate everybody's thinking about it and um i think i think there's still like some pretty big policy questions i say i i don't necessarily agree with all the things like these these are detailed versus these are high level um i could be like they're high level but they're in another policy um so i want to i want to go through each one of them and also think about that accountability and oversight piece because that's um if we're not if we're going to spend a lot of time writing the policy then we also need to um ensure that we have some way that we're tracking it and also being completely transparent but i mean i know students are going to hold us accountable and we need to set it up so that people know what we're doing and we have a mess anything else before this topic and then
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i'll move the public comment and then we have last agenda item nothing okay um how much we do we have someone here virtually and katrina yes i could hear you now can you see me let's see start video there we go hi everybody can you hear me yes okay perfect my name is shannon kitrick and my pronouns are she and her i am the climate justice and climate change teacher at roosevelt you might have seen a video that my students made um made about the climate change response plan and we're preparing a new video for you right now so i'm just here today to speak a little bit um for my students and myself um i could tell you that my students are really proud of pbs because um this is an ambitious plan and um we we we're feeling a lot of pride and i think what my students have been saying is that they want climate solutions right this is a solutions based class so what we're doing is modeling good solutions for climate change and we want to do that in every single thing that we do right down from purchasing and even cutlery because we're looking at um the the energy consumption from cutlery we're looking at um and it directly ties to the throwaway culture my students want to live sustainability they want pps to be a model so i thank you for giving us these solutions because this is the solution that we are working for um students we see now that they've been taking matters into their own hands they've been walking out over climate change and just so people listen and you've listened thank you so much because the way we see it is we see this policy as not just a model for the united states but you will model for the entire world how to make schools basically reduce their climate impacts my students are learning about you know climate refugees in the united states they're scared they are looking at forest fire season in portland and they want to see real meaningful change and i think the community input has been very clear we want the specifics because what we want is more accountability i have been teaching for 21 years 10 years in portland public school i am so sad to say that in order for me to model sustainability as the climate change and climate justice class that i need to bring my own recycling out of the building once a month i have a little cart um that i pull my little green my my blue bin of recycling things like recycling should be something that's given each classroom should have a recycling bin for paper plastic and aluminum and they should be placed right next to each other my students want to actually go and do a story of the basically a story of the stuff and see where where where our waste is going because we notice that we're not basically doing all we can but with this policy you're doing all you can we will make long and lasting change and we have 19 years to do it um i'm not going to talk too much longer because i'm actually losing my voice but i do want to say that by by that my students are going to send you another video because we are scared that we had this in bishop's policy and we're going to say things like reusable cutlery is belong somewhere else it belongs with climate change because we know that by 2050 10 of greenhouse gases will be from cutlery and we want students to live sustainable
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and we want to see and we want the adults to model it for us thank you very much thank you for coming today and that last video was awesome so um thank you send it over again i can't remember who sent it through to us but it was great i will we're we're making another one but um and and and students students were so proud and i witnessed them um after this you know basically the updates about the policy i saw them sad and and and they were diminished because they felt that they had power and that they were basically making long-lasting change and i think that's what we need to show our students and that's what we need to give them let's not take apart anything in this policy because the specifics are what the community said that's what we said we wanted and to take things like single-use plastics out of them out of the mix i don't think that's sending a good message to our students all right thank you so much for joining us today thank you for having me that completes you sign up for um so we have there um dan i i feel like um is there anything you want to say about the sample administrative directive before we leave climate all together sorry oh i didn't notice it all the other no that's okay yeah and it was provided really as what happened to that exactly what we wanted was just to have a discussion you know exactly where we go and so we just wanted to hear the feedback and so that was provided just to give an idea of the level of detail that could be in administrative directive but plus some is what the intent is so um i think we're good until the moment okay um um so i was one of the students who organized like i would walk at that moment um and i just want to say that i was very grateful for ppf's response to that walkout um none of our local uh elected officials commissioners and their included responded with adequate time for our students and hurt them with value and it was tps and then also some of our local senators who did so i just want to say that that that students appreciated a response when our some of our local elected officials didn't respond so that is okay um [Laughter] but i'll have it in 20 years um well they haven't now there's actually yeah yeah if you were stacked in here for the climate um [Music] but i just [Laughter] um so in addition the last agenda item is you've got policies and periods um we have public comments uh or we have let's see eight i had a conversation just to clarify for everybody that um we continue to have these on the agenda items even if the public comment because if we get public comment the natural place for us to like amend things is in committee um and that it's just a good opportunity for whether it's the community members or board members um that if people want to take an opportunity it's like this is between the introduction and the approval um so i like to ask um spreadshot or roseanne i don't know which or spelled which one it is do we have any public comment on the rescissions for the [Music] policies and then the other question i would have is is there any board
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larry um i don't know director i know director scott was on the call as well i don't know if he's still there is he still there yep still here just listening no i don't i don't i don't have any any additional comments okay um so i had one thing related to the um and i appreciate um director scott joining us today and director as well and also asking there you are in person [Laughter] so nice you were hiding out um that uh you know what what the question with the what the process is and it doesn't mean we can't amend things during board meetings but we do have an opportunity a lot of times applied for staff and it's also coordination piece with the board office that we always have all the policies um you know that are in public comments posted so that if anybody wants to see them or comment on them that they they can um and just uh you know elicit you know feedback from from others or just discussion um and so that'll just be our general our general practice and sometimes it works with the between the committee meetings and the board meetings they don't always um because it's not always but most of the time it is that we have an opportunity that there's an intervening committee meeting that we can review um or we could ask the chair to hold back on um a second reading if we have a meeting coming up when we have substantial public comments so i really appreciate you asking that question director scott and if it would be helpful i i'm going to ask you if you think for me to put um kind of my explanation in uh some sort of document so that uh it's uh transparent or to others as well um about what our process is i'm happy to do that yeah yeah no i appreciated the explanation i i guess the only thing i i would say is i think um i i think if there's a substantive conversation at the board meeting for the first reading i think it would be good if the committee then at that the intervening you know meeting as you mentioned then took up that that conversation um i mean i i guess maybe that's where there's still a little bit of lack of clarity um you know if a board member raises an issue at a first meeting do they also need to either come to the policy committee meeting or or or write it down and send it to to the chair and the committee members in order for it to be discussed or is that mentioned at the public meeting you know the first reading which is a public board meeting sufficient to then sort of get it on the table for as an official comment that was the only source of clarity it's a it's a a good question um because it's always sometimes you know i'm i do this sometimes something's coming out of committee and i make a comment um and it's just a comment and i don't feel strongly enough that i'm gonna like engage or come to the meeting or do something else it's like i had a different take on that and so i guess my sort of lesson learned as a committee chair is in the future um if somebody raises something like to do a temperature check like hey was that just a comment or you know do you have something specifically you want to propose um and so you know like i say i take that to heart that that's um a better practice as i say because we have seven opinionated people there's a lot of things that are put out there um and um so it's a good point and i'm i'm happy to try and put something together that shares the process because in some ways because this is the world i live in in my other life that it's all in my brain and i don't necessarily um you know we operate different than other um policy making bodies and not and we just do them to be clear just like the student election process um yeah and that that clarification is really oh that clarification is really helpful and i think as long as as long as the seven board members know that process then i think we're all set so thank you for that um so i um the the vacation policy which is out for uh first reading let's have a pet's first reading and now in a second um i i don't agree with the amendment that was added um i've asked for some information from staff um i don't have language that i'm
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going to offer i um but i am interested in the language as part of a bigger um sort of a bigger topic and um which means i probably will just vote against the policy um because i don't have language otherwise i would have posted it and i brought it brought it forward um but i thought a lot about it and again and sort of the conversation that happened at the board one of those conversations was was around like what other entities do and other large entities so it's a billion dollar activity most other large governmental entities have like elected auditors so there is this backstop that like hey the auditor's gonna go look at something i mean if it seems like there is something up you know that needs to be reviewed or you know certainly with volunteers like you don't have the capacity to provide the same level of oversight um and so you know i'm thinking we don't have that we have two internal auditors who you know frankly they just they have limited capacity and they have an audit plan and that's what they they added and in this particular case so as i was looking at um the non-represented staff and the benefits and the original policy and like you know where we are with it and um you're not thinking about so i i had my conversation that i think all of us are having with the auditor around the next year's auto plan and so for me it's like hey i'd like to have this audited because i i think well i can you can have your own opinion i just disagree but yeah yeah let me i just was sorry okay so um it's not a good idea because the auditor is a non-represented employee um so it can't happen oh but yeah but so what my thinking is though that in some way we're different and that we're a volunteer board and we don't also have that other third-party piece and i am thinking about like what like what that means and so i'm only raising this because i want to be transparent then i'm concerned that we're removing a layer of oversight and we don't have some other mechanisms that other large jurisdictions and frankly we you know most of us have jobs and again it's not our core competency anyway um and so you're just thinking about like how how does that happen then um and i haven't landed on something but i just want to share like what i've been thinking and i say i thought about like well you know this could be a topic of the internal order but it but it can't be because of that so i'm you know i have some conversations with some other people thinking about thinking through it um but i am concerned about our oversight and this that's not i don't want to say i'm implying that anybody's not concerned we have we have different levels of con of um we have different perspectives and from my perspective it's just one thing that i from my history i'm concerned that we are safe on a vacation policy losing a piece of the website so just want to share i think i'm not proposing any language although um director scott you might want to propose a small amendment to your your language because um you have um you still have language in here that says one's approved not to perfect the thing that i might vote against but no that's what we do right but you have in the second paragraph that says once approved and i think um that's a hold over from where we we're going to approve and then you also have the word word also in the last paragraph and i think you want to drop that also so julia are you talking about did you turn around the audit and the vacation policy are you thinking about proposing additional language which is a current policy can we finish this yeah because yeah so i oh sorry i appreciate those um that uh you know i i read the three and i i guess i would defer to liz and staff i read that third uh paragraph once approved meaning once approved by the superintendent so the superintendent shall develop vacation policy applicable to nine represented employees
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and then you know um um and then yeah sort of once approved by the superintendent this schedule should be posted but i i don't we could certainly amend that is developing it so i don't know that he could group his own but it when you take out to be approved by the board of education that that approval is linked to yeah i just think something's cleaner and then i'd also drop that also and if you want to um offer those amendment or we can just leave it as it is oh yeah i mean i guess i guess that's right since we're in policy committee i guess i guess you all could could make that change um although if we make that change does it get posted again for first read how does how does this material change okay um yeah no i think if if i guess i would ask as a non-committee member if the committee wanted to to take up those two uh sort of administrative changes i i to make it cleaner that would be that would be great yeah those are just like errors really that from the amendment that was made on the fly of the day so that's kind of me i'm fine with that as long as it doesn't add um send us back to the drawing board like we gotta wait another so it will just delete once approved so it'll just say the schedule will be posted on the district website and then the board shall approve by resolution the addition of any great holidays yep great so straight to also instructor once throughout yeah um so sorry directory um we're already done so i was asking are you as you're thinking about the the fundamental disagreement you have with removal oversight are you wanting to amend this policy so that it does indeed returned to oversight or are you trying to find another way to have the board have oversight of this well i'd actually like to get the information that i requested first um and there's some other things that um sorry what the information requested about sort of what the about the vacation policy i mean it's pretty standard it's like you know just like the cost to um to the district uh and there's other benefits as as well that i um i think the board hasn't um provided oversight and potentially not compliance with the policy and so you know i'm thinking like what what is the role and i say it's for i feel like um with our representative employees we have those discussions and there's you know everybody's got their kind you know host the pat contract and we you know voted on we all know it's what's in there and um i feel like for the non-represented employees they're you know the board is to be the the you know the chatroom basically hold that group accountable it's our hardest i played employees and uh it includes all right not they're all um because it's a diverse group um but that is um something that we that has created reputational and credibility risk for the district [Music] so if i could just and i we could speak to this at the policy adoption when it when it comes back to the board as well i mean i mean i do i i would disagree with the characterization that it removes oversight oversight doesn't just come from voting on something um oversight can also come from just reviewing something that that you know is is out there and that's the whole intent of this is this is very transparent the superintendent adopts it it's posted to the website and and certainly you know if a board member you know had an issue or remember the public had an issue you know we could raise it at the time so i i think there's still plenty of oversight the other thing i would add is you know why why under that scenario would we would we pick on justification policy right there's all hr policies um you know have have implications and i think the whole reason why we might hire a superintendent and an hr director and administrative staff is to in fact manage those things and and you said it yourself board members don't have um expertise in this area um and so i i get really concerned about board members sort of inserting you know their views on what what is the appropriate vacation policy and what's not and i think by having board approval we're sort of saying you know that would imply that that we are going to know whether um uh non-represented employees should get um four weeks or four and a half weeks or five weeks of vacation um and i just i we don't and and i don't think we add any value to that conversation that hasn't already been added uh by by by by the staff the last point i would make is i really think we're continuing to go back to the collective bargaining agreements is really a false comparison we don't approve collective bargaining agreements um because they have vacation policy in them or pay policy we approve them because you know because we're approving the
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overall agreement and it happens at some point that those things have been added cbas don't require you're not required to include vacation um in a cva in most cases you do because the union at some point wanted that in there it became part of the negotiated conversation and so the board role there is to approve a cba which is in fact an appropriate role but the very specific things within it um vary from contract to contract so so i i think that's a little bit of a false comparison so just because you made the arguments i i i want to make the counter and we could probably have the same conversation so i'm just going to say that we have all kinds of discussions where we talk about compensate the compensation level the colas levels um for our employees like what hours they're working um whether they're going to get a planning day um so you know it's just a different we have two different points of view and as i was thinking about your example about metro is like well metro also has a public auditor that is totally independent um that you know is a backstop if um if needed and so i say that's just what i'm thinking it's not just about vacation and um it's about you know all sorts of benefits that are offered um to our employees and we can we can have two different points of view i'm just stating stating mine anybody else for the would be julia that if you do you and i come with you and i should have congress okay sounds good

Sources

PPS Board of Education, BoardBook Public View, https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Organization/915 (accessed: 2023-01-25T21:27:49.720701Z)
PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)
PPS Communications, "PPS Board of Education Meetings" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbZtlBHJZmkdC_tt72iEiQXsgBxAQRwtM (accessed: 2023-10-14T01:02:33.351363Z)
PPS Board of Education, "PPS Board of Education - Committee Meetings" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk0IYRijyKDVmokTZiuGv_HR3Qv7kkmJU (accessed: 2023-10-14T00:59:52.903034Z)

2021-12-01 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

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Event 1: 12/01/ 21 PPS Board of Education's Policy Committee Meeting

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