2022-02-08 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

From SunshinePPS Wiki
District Portland Public Schools
Date 2022-02-08
Time 18:00:00
Venue BESC Auditorium
Meeting Type regular
Directors Present missing
Load video
YouTube


Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

Materials

Minutes

Transcripts

Event 1: 2/08/22 - PPS Board of Education Regular Meeting

00h 00m 00s
um get our meeting started here the board the board meeting of the board of education for february 8 2022 is called to order at 601 for tonight's meeting any item that will be voted on has been posted on the pps website under the board and meetings tabs the meeting is being streamed live on pps tv services website and on channel 28 and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the district website for replay times good evening everyone and welcome here welcome to everyone here tonight we are pleased to have our meetings open to the public for the first time in about a month or so for in-person attendance i'd like to remind everyone however that we continue to follow governor kate brown's statewide indoor mass requirement for all indoor public settings whether vaccinated or not tonight we have in place mitigation strategies to help keep safe members of the public and staff board members and staff in attendance are wearing masks and most if not all are fully vaccinated we have air purifiers placed in the board room and please be aware of your surroundings and you do your best to stand apart from those around you and just a reminder to keep the aisles clear and if you are holding a sign to keep it low so not to block the view of those sitting around you the first thing we'll do is a resolution to recognize national school counseling week this week is national school counseling week and this next item is to recognize and the invaluable support our counselors provide to our school communities superintendent guerrero would you like to introduce this item yes thank you chair to pass so happy to start off our regular meeting this evening this way our school counselors are some of our most essential and critical folks in the school system uh for all of their support of our students within our school communities but here to share more highlights about their role and uh that they critically play is our chief of student support services brenda martinek who's going to share some further highlights thank you superintendent good evening chair lowry board student representative weinberg and our community members my name is brenda martinick i'm the chief of student support services and i'm so excited to have this resolution before the board tonight uh pps is proud to provide counseling services through our 186 counselors within all of our schools in the district school counselors are certified or licensed educators they improve student success for all students by implementing a comprehensive school counseling program school counselors design deliver programs they lead they advocate and they collaborate to promote racial equity social justice and access for all students by connecting their school counseling program to the pps vision our strategic plan as well as school improvement plans an example of some areas that our counselors focus on are assisting with academic achievement strategies applying interpersonal skills with students with mental health challenges planning for post-secondary options academic planning and goal setting short-term counseling for students providing referrals for long-term support collaborating with families teachers administrators in our community thank you for honoring our school counselors tonight we're so appreciative of appreciative of them their skills their dedication and their passion for this work so thank you thank you director lowry would you please read the resolution yes resolution number 6438 resolution to recognize february 7th 7-11 2022 as national school counseling week recitals a portland public schools school counselors embrace their role as anti-racist educators by actively looking for ways to interrupt systemic racism and educational policies and practices and integrating anti-racist content in their curriculum to reach all students b school counselors are employed in all portland public schools to help students reach their full potential explore their abilities strengths interests and talents as these traits relate to career awareness academic and personal social development c school counselors provide invaluable support to school communities including counseling critical interventions and school-wide curriculum all in support of students and families d comprehensive developmentally appropriate and prevention-focused school counseling programs are considered an integral part of the educational process
00h 05m 00s
that enables all students to achieve success and prepare students to realize the graduate portrait and lead a more socially just world e school counselors seek to identify and utilize community resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive school counseling programs and help students realize their full potential resolution the board of education of portland public schools extends greetings and best wishes to all observing february 7th through 11 2022 as national school counseling week the board of education recognizes all portland public school school counselors for the incredible effort supporting students through this pandemic acting as critical first responders for student mental health needs and social emotional support during distance learning and a return to in-person learning thank you director lowry um do i have a motion in a second to adopt resolution 6438 resolution to recognize february 7th through the 11th 2022 as national school counseling week i like to make a motion that we accept the resolution is written director green moved directors scott and hollins both seconded at the same time we could take that up later is there any board discussion mrs powell is there any public comment the board will now vote on resolution 6438 resolution to recognize february 7th through the 11th 2022 is national school counseling week all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no and are there any abstentions resolution 6438 is approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative weinberg voting yes thank you proclamation reiterate our gratitude if i may and also recognize how our school counselors had to reinvent themselves last year everyone did but we heard so many incredible stories about how counselors still manage to connect with kids and understand their needs even in remote learning so our deepest gratitude thank you for starting us off right i want to also um echo what director khan stem said and i know that the demand for counseling was really really high has been very high over the over the past couple of years due to the coven pandemic and just want to shout out to this counselors and the staff that work with counselors every day in schools even their hardest day as a counselor is some kid's best hope so thank you all so we're now going to have a proclamation and recognition of february as a black history month black history month is an annual celebration of achievements by african americans and a time for recognizing their central role in u.s history also known as african-american history month the event grew out of the brainchild of noted historian carter g woodson and other prominent african-americans since 1976 every u.s president has officially designated the month of february as black history month at last week meeting at last week's meeting dr proctor shared a list of instructional resources that are available to educators to provide the histories stories and voices of our students who should be centered honored and uplifted in school curricula um director hollins would you like to read the resolution please oh yes thank you uh try to pass portland public schools celebrates black excellence to elevate the success of black students and acknowledge their histories their futures in a way that affirms and allow black students in our care to achieve their fullest potential and thrive to adulthood black history month began in 1915 by historian carter g woodson and other prominent leaders as a way to formal formally observe the visionary contributions of black people and now is a time for recognizing the central role and contributions of members of the african dysphoria in u.s history the contributions of members of the african dysphoria and their endeavors to learn and thrive throughout history and make unforgettable marks in our nation as artists scientists educators business people influential thinkers members of the faith community athletes political and government leaders reflects the greatness of the people of the african display within the united states black history reflects a people with a determined spirit of perseverance and cultural pride in its struggle to equitably share in the opportunities and burdens of a nation founded upon the principles of freedom and liberty for all people the local community has enriched the
00h 10m 00s
diversity of perspectives and experiences in our district and the board of education desires to recognize and honor the achievements and contributions of members of the african dysphoria all students need an opportunity to understand their rich history and common humanity underlying all people to develop pride in their own identity and heritage and to respect know and accept the identity and heritage of others in service of the superintendent's audacious strategic framework of targeting universalism shaped by the community driven vision we recognize our commitment to center the realities of black students and liberate them from the oppression and better in our system that they experience throughout leadership and practice portland public schools is determined is dedicated to goals that advance racial justice and demonstrate anti-racist values especially for black communities in the portland metro areas the resolve the port the board of education of the portland public school hereby recognize the month of february 2022 as black history month and encourage all educators to commemorate this occasion with appropriate ceremonies instructional activities and programs the struggle and achievement of black people and their role in american history profoundly influences and enriches the culture of united states portland public schools acknowledged these contributions and reaffirms its ongoing commitment to building awareness and an inclusive society thank you thank you director hollins do i have a motion in a second to adopt resolution 6439 proclamation and recognition of february as black history month i like to make that motion second director greene moves director broome edwards seconds the adoption of resolution 6349 is there any board discussion miss powell is there any public comment okay the board oh i was just going to say something um please i hope we find ways that um so we're sitting on a historic board for the first time with three black board members we have a number of graduates of pbs who have gone on to be play prominent roles in the state history like aval gordly the first black state senator and others and i hope that we find a way to sell it like pbs should be proud of our many graduates and the people that we have been affiliated with us that are history makers this month so it's not just national figures but also we have a lot of local history to be proud of of the graduates who have gone on to do amazing things in the community so thank you very much for that that is so true um to honor our elders here that are from here um and i think that sounds like a foundation for our event pps graduate who's the first black female chair true board true i graduated from mlc um my mom called it camp run amok so it was the 70s um i think i did okay um thank you for that comment and thank you we should definitely honor our elders that are here that have made significant contributions um and we should recognize them all year round but particularly during black history month i appreciate your comments the board will now vote on resolution 6439 proclamation and recognition of february is black history month all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no we don't expect any opposition on that and are there any abstentions resolution 6439 is approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative weinberg voting yes yes great next the board will vote on the consent agenda board members if there are any items you'd like to pull for discussion we'll set those aside for discussion and vote at the end of the meeting which i recognize has not been our practice since i've been here but that's the protocol i think we want to follow from here on out ms powell are there any changes to the consent agenda okay do i have a motion in a second to adopt the consent agenda i like to make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda second director green moves director brem edwards seconds um should i just put your name down in the first section every time that that would be great i want to be on record as the one who made the most moves [Laughter] another history-making moment not a pps graduate but bada-boom is there any is there any board discussion on the
00h 15m 00s
consent agenda and ms powell is there any public comment the board will now vote on resolution 6400 through 6441 and 6444 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions the consent agenda is approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative weinberg voting yes great thank you we're now turning to student and public comment before we begin i'd like to review our guidelines for public comment first the board thanks you for taking the time to attend this meeting and providing your comments public input informs and improves our work and we look forward to hearing your thoughts reflections and concerns our responsibility as a board is to actively listen and to that end i'd ask each of us to give our full attention to the people in front of us the board office may follow up with board related issues raised during public testimony we request that complaints about individual employees please be directed to the superintendent's office as a personnel matter and if you have additional materials or items you'd like to provide to the board or superintendent we ask that you mail them to public comment all one word at pps.net public comment pps.net and please make sure when you begin your comment you clearly state your name and spell your last name and our speakers have three minutes to speak and you'll hear a sound after three minutes which means it's time to conclude your comments ms powell do we have anyone signed up for student or public comment yes we have six people signed up for public comment the first is beth cantrell did you say cantrell yes ms cantrell okay uh the next is kelly orevec yeah please just help yourself i know it's intimidating but just step up to the microphone and state your name and spell your last name please kelly or hovik o r e h o v e c thank you for having me hello my name is kelly rahovec and i am a mother to a third and fifth grader who attend beach elementary school in north portland beach is a school that has a co-located spanish immersion program and neighborhood english program both my children children lotteried into the spanish immersion program my daughter's fifth grade spanish class has 21 students my son's third grade spanish class has 19 students there are 30 3rd graders in the english class spanish 3rd 3rd grade 19. english 3rd grade 30 students 19 students versus 30 students which classroom would you choose for your child our student populations and our co-located programs are quite different our english classes have a much larger percentage of historically unders underserved students who need more academic and behavior support 30 students who require a high level of support in one class versus 19 students in a spanish class who do not require a high level of support does this make sense to you teacher allocation is based on school enrollment with caps on classroom sizes we wait on fall balancing before we add additional teachers every year in the fall after school starts we ask for additionally desperately needed staff funding in our english instruction classrooms we will start fighting now for funding and continue fighting until we receive it we're starting early this year and we won't back down why are the class sizes so different they're different because beach elementary does not receive enough funding so we can serve our students in equitable ways are we using the res j lens to determine teacher numbers how is the staffing model working to address english instruction staffing shortages at beach please use the res day lens to decide how many teachers beech has in the fall versus a one size fits all process this fall our community excuse me last fall our community created a petition for people to sign asking pps for immediate teacher hires to support our second and third grade english classrooms our community responded in countless ways to help solve the staffing issues including making countless phone calls sending emails to leaders and you as part of the petition we heard the following comment from a teacher at beech he said my eyes are filling with tears as i complete this survey thank you so
00h 20m 00s
much for advocating for the neediest and most deserving of our students as teachers in the english program we see the need every day and work tirelessly to address it but we can't do it without you because of the systemic racism and segregation at beach i am seriously considering resigning my position at the end of this year the efforts you were spearheading would make me think hard about staying on to pursue real meaningful change after f after countless phone calls to pps from community members an educational assistant started at beach six days ago shared between the two highest class sizes with only half of the school year remaining this isn't enough to close the opportunity gap mid-year emergency hires don't solve long-term problems beach staff teachers and students deserve to begin the year with an adequate number of educators and equitable resources pps needs to live up to their public statements and goals around equity you set these intentions so please let's make sure you live up to your commitments you have the responsibility to address the barriers to equitable outcomes at beach and all of our schools thank you for your comment thank you [Music] next we have enrique arias okay i had a five and a three minute speech i'm going with three minutes that one was 3 41 so i got a little chance to breathe right which is good because i was like really working hard to stay at three and i have just these are emails and letters thank you let me see left-handed so thank you mr adias three minutes okay can you hear me okay we can hear you really well thank you hello my name is enrique arias a-r-i-a-s thank you for allowing me to speak today i'm a parent of two children who are in the sdli program one at kellogg and one at mcdaniel high school both my children attend bridger high school for elementary years i believe in a multi-strand program of sdli and neighborhood at kellogg i urge you to listen to the youtube video titled february 3 2022 for southeast guiding coalition meeting main room at about 26 minutes in the meeting you will hear richard smith principal of kellogg as well as catherine mary principal of marysville make a statement representing the majority of principals who believe spanish doi should remain at kellogg i also want to add that leah dickey principal of harrison park supports keeping spanish doi at kellogg of the 153 stli students currently at kellogg 69 percent identify as latin or latinx four percent black of 153 sdli students at kellogg 95 qualify for free and reduced lunch versus the mdli where 11 of the 117 students qualify for free and reduced lunch i ask that you please listen to your frontline workers listen to your principles please look at this issue through an equity lens we latinos are exhausted having to flee your homeland is trauma it's trauma that affected my parents my siblings and myself it's a trauma that you become more aware of as you grow older and sometimes i find myself checking myself and hoping that i'm not passing on that trauma to my kids i want my kids to feel a sense of belonging to a community and have a regular and consistent living space with no worry of having to move or leave the ones they love many of us have the same story from different some differences my family left cuba because of dictatorship my friends from mexico guatemala el salvador venezuela nicaragua left because of want for work starvation wars direct threats to their lives all of these countries are naturally beautiful no one wants to leave paradise but sometimes you are forced to leave your home and become diaspora it is a huge trauma to leave your country and start anew in a nation whose language you don't speak we leave our country we come to one of the 50 states then we don't find work or a community to help us so we have to move again to another city when we arrive to the city we then have to move across town to feel safe to feel not discriminated against to feel accepted in some way
00h 25m 00s
as parents being a part of the sdli program at kellogg gives us a sense of being rooted and belonging to a greater neighborhood community that is connected to the city all we want is to stay put in a community long enough to feel safe to carve out a little space to find work to feed our family have a sense of pride to find friends beyond our inner circle to become part of a greater portland oregon but now i find myself here speaking to you and asking you to please don't make us move again we are exhausted this program was part of the opening of the story yes i'm sorry i heard the buzzer go off i was going to allow you a couple of extra a little bit more 40 seconds is what i should get sorry it was 3.42 for her i had it on my timer thank you i i'm very cognizant of that as well and i was not keeping track so thank you please finish up okay i will this program is only 10 seconds this program is part of the opening of kellogg it's only been half a year but the community has already grown teachers staff principals and students are working together to create a safe place for learning and thriving at a crucial juncture in a young person's life the transition from child to teenager the sdli program serves a diverse population and brings together people from many backgrounds and cultures taking this program out of kellogg will break up a community and create more trauma for students who have already experienced so much trauma including over a year of isolation and online learning just as students are finally able to truly get back to school a threat comes to their school community in the form of being dismantled to fix another school please leave the sdli program at kellogg and let it thrive in the community that has been created sdli and neighborhood will both be better for it thank you thank you too take care miss powell next we have rachel team i believe rachel team i believe so she's on her way over i it looks like she's signing on hello can you hear me we can hear you thank you thank you for being here absolutely um my name is rachel timmy last name is spelled t-h-i-e-m-e i want to thank you so much for the opportunity to testify this evening and to have a virtual option as well my i'm a parent of a first grader in the spanish dual language immersion program or the dli program at beech elementary school in the overlook neighborhood of north portland my son is having an excellent first year at beach he's in a small class of 18 students with a wonderful communicative teacher who seems to have enough bandwidth to organize class events manage a class fish and send regular updates to parents about what the class is learning it seems like each week he grows more confident in reading and writing and feels happy and connected at school well our experience at beach has been very positive so far i've recently learned that my son is having a very different experience than kids in the english language program instead of a class size of 18 their class sizes are often over 30 almost double the number of kids in one classroom the students in these classes are more likely to be black and brown students from the neighborhood and this disparity is doing them a huge disservice furthermore i understand that in addition to concentrating more kids of color in these classrooms the english classrooms are also more likely to have more kids with higher needs in need of behavioral support and other resources and the larger class sizes exacerbate these issues for the kids who really need the attention the most what makes me particularly angry though is how this disparity exists alongside all the resources that my son's class gets which are offered in the dli classroom for the purpose of closing an achievement gap for native spanish-speaking students however a very minimal achievement gap exists in his class the vast majority nearly all of the students in this small class are white native english speaking students like my child who may love learning spanish but it's not an essential component to their educational success yet they're allocated these additional resources in terms of smaller class sizes the dual language immersion program is an amazing resource for my son but frankly in our family it's a nice to have we're native english speakers and there is not an achievement gap to close the achievement gap at beach is in the english program and that needs to be addressed right now i'm here tonight to ask that the board demonstrate their commitment to racial equity and justice at our school and allocate adequate
00h 30m 00s
funding in the district budget now for hiring teachers in the fall for the english program so we can offer all kids at beach access to an equitable education our teachers and parents shouldn't have to fight for this every fall as you heard earlier from the other beach parent this is something we can and should plan in advance for starting now with allocating funding in the district budget it's the right thing to do and it will make a huge difference in closing the real achievement gap at beech elementary school thank you very much for your time thank you ms timmy next we have autumn davidson autumn davidson is also coming virtual yes while we're waiting for her i just want to recognize there was a counselor in the audience i apologize for missing her and recognizing her i hope she's still here but marquita guzman thank you for being here and thank you for the work you do every day hello miss davidson can you hear us yes i oops can you hear me we can hear you okay i'm so sorry i'm having a little bit of [Music] challenge here with my with my computer i'm so sorry i am going to [Music] well um thank you for having me i am apologized because i'm having a little bit of technical difficulty but that's okay i'm gonna just sort of speak off the cuff then i had some prepared comments which i'm not for some reason they able to access on my computer so my name is autumn davidson my last name is spelled d-a-v-i-d-s-o-n i am here to test it testify uh in conjunction with the other two beach parents who have spoken already and i really appreciate both of those parents sort of setting the stage for the issue that we're addressing today which is the inequity in resources at the beach school i am a mother to a kindergartner at beach she is in the english language program and she too is having a wonderful experience in her first year of public school i as a new public school parent i am quickly learning that the intention of the dual language immersion program at beach which is not exactly serving the function that it was intended to which we all know was to um work to close the achievement gap between native and um native english and spanish or spanish and english speakers unfortunately as we have already heard from the two prior presenters class sizes there's a large disparity between the two class sizes in the dual language immersion and in the english program when kids are transferred into beach from outside they are automatically put into the english language program which out disproportionately increases the size of the length of the english language programs and makes it more difficult for for the teachers the teaching the students who are in the dual language immersion program often come from outside of our community and raise the average income which makes the school less ineligible for other resources that they would otherwise be eligible for and when kids are struggling in the dual language immersion program academically and socially my understanding is is that they are then put back into the english language program making putting again additional strain on resources in that program so i am here today to request that the board reconsider the the funding models that it's currently using to allocate resources to the two programs at beach uh specifically as the public school head board has committed to
00h 35m 00s
over and over again reevaluating this from a racial and social justice lens we ask that you work to allocate more more resources to the english language program and specifically to hire two more teachers at that school as within the next year in order to close that that gap so that was what i had to say i will submit a more formal statement by email and i do want to thank all of you for being here tonight and for working tirelessly to ensure that our children have a good education and a safe place to go to school thank you thank you too and i'm going to just try one more time for beth cantrell i think that's it okay it looks like ms cantrell is not here and we're ready to move on to the student representatives report please yes um so i wanted to give an update on the student summit that the district student council is required to do every year so we've started that planning process and we're looking at the week of april 11th to hold it um we have determined a tentative date we're not ready to share it yet and also location and we're going to be reaching out to the principal and other staff at that location to see if it will work on that day and then another update i just wanted to thank pbs staff policy committee members and also climate justice leaders that were involved in the climate crisis response policy and coming to an agreement um in the past few weeks um i did not think it would happen at all um especially after the long process that we were through but i am very excited that we were able to reach a point where we were um mutually able to agree on one policy and i'm super excited for students we've been asking for this for quite a while and i'm happy to see pbs leading in climate justice and lastly i just wanted to recognize as we already have done on this month as black history month i also want to thank and also recognize the black excellence among our students teachers staff this board thank you all thank you very nicely done we're going to go to board a board committee and conference report starting with you director con stem audit no report from the audit committee we are meeting on thursday director hollins yes um so we had um we had our facilities in operations committee meeting with the focus on harry tubman middle school relocation piece i think it was a great conversation staff did a great job with the due diligence report that they had presented and so moving forward we're just going to look to continue with our community engagement on that decision or of doing a site selection thank you thank you policy committee thanks um so we've got a first reading of the climate policy that uh student rep weinberg referenced and also we're going to be approving of the student representative and district student policy council policy changes um in a second reading this evening we have a number of items uh sort of on the docket coming up that open for board member and staff comment on one is a potential streamlining of the formal complaint process um just wondering if i was going to get your attention no for the stream lighting just tap me and no i was just getting like they're reaffirming on the streamlining um and also working um with uh chief garcia potentially on um a fundraising that happens in our schools
00h 40m 00s
and how we build equitable foundations in ways in which we can harness and tap the community spirit and energy around wanting to support our schools and then we'll just keep rolling through the rescissions as well fantastic thank you um director lowry no report our next meeting for intergovernmental is the 16th director green this is going to be hard to believe but i don't really have to have a whole report as much as i want to say something a whole lot and talk more often i have no report um dang we're having a little chatter amongst ourselves here but we're going to move on to the um annual multnomah education service district resolution can i do it elections task force i apologize yes please we we don't usually but i do have an update this time so um the uh the elections task force did meet on february 7th um again members of that uh myself uh director hollins and directors brim edwards and director constantine attended that meeting as well we will be coming back to the board on at the next board meeting on february 22nd and psu will be presenting the um the maps that they have drawn up to for redistricting or yeah yeah for the based on the census there are also some policy questions we'll be um talking to the board about again it won't be a decision on the 22nd but more talking about we um it is mandatory that we make those changes based on the census there are some additional changes that we may want to make as a district to how we do elections so we'll be introducing that on the 22nd starting the conversation and then hopefully getting some direction from the board the task force will meet um after that every two weeks to sort of continue to work through that and timelines obviously the board needs to make the final decision so the goal of the task force is really just to help synthesize the information and bring it back so happy to answer any more specific questions fantastic um i think you all should have gotten a i shared some data that was it's a little bit outdated from 2018 that vox put together about school boundary issues and i hope you have a chance to open it and look at it it's there's an interactive link within there where you can map your school district and um you can see what the what the statistics for portland look like so it'd be interesting that was uh the prior census however so i'm sure the population has has shifted somewhat in 10 years all right thank you so much for that um now we will move on to the annual multnomah education service district resolution process superintendent guerrero thank you chair um it's my pleasure to well some of you are familiar with this ritual uh annually uh the multnomah education service director superintendent comes down here to the portland public school headquarters and presents for your affirmation sort of the array of services that they make available for component uh member districts like pps and director hollins will be even more familiar with it because he used it on the other days but i'm particularly sort of a pleasure to introduce this item because there's a new face here we haven't had in front of us so dr paul coakley was appointed the multnomah esd superintendent in july 2021 we really haven't had the opportunity to to have him in front of us to present this item but more importantly have a moment to uh congratulate him on his appointment uh and just and just personally you know i want to say this publicly you know my appreciation for paul as a colleague as a critical thought partner and i know we're celebrating black history month here but we often find ourselves in very similar spaces in our advocacy and dr coakley serves as the state of oregon's only african-american male superintendent so our work is not finished here but dr coakley is going to present the mesd local service plan for your affirmation tonight paul thank you good evening portland public school board i appreciate the opportunity to speak to you this evening so before i joined mesd prior to that i was the superintendent at centennial school district for five years and i actually started my educational career at martin luther king elementary here in portland public schools in 2001 and i just want to also share my appreciation for superintendent guerrero for his collaborative leadership his partnership and his advocacy and his support for students families and educators across the region and then i wanted to thank chair to pass for participating in mulma county's legislative summit last month and talking to legislators about key issues that were advocating for as educators across the state and then i wanted to appreciate director hollins for representing portland public schools
00h 45m 00s
in our regional school board equity team those conversations are important we're trying to get that work restarted and we would like to have two members of every single board across the county there in those conversations so we could really operationalize the equity lens and kind of do it in a consistent way where we have common language and we're using it to move our policies forward so i'm here to just briefly give you more information about the local service plan which you guys are all familiar with so the local service plan is a consistent constantly updated and reviewed it's kind of like a living document and we get feedback on it every year based on what districts needs are and then we refined and adjust it annually and so the um districts provide input on the service plan and then based on what um multnomah county's needs are we make those adjustments to the service plan um so that it meets the needs of each district each district has different things that they need to specify with with their funding and so it's really a flexible plan and one of the things about esds is they usually try to set those plans up so districts have control of those funds and at mesd we make more control for school boards than most esds because we're using a full menu system and so the way that the funding works is esds provide sources of to component districts of resolution dollars and also contract services and then districts get to choose how they use those resolution dollars and those contract services and so for pps specifically you guys are using our school health services with nurses et cetera to support different things that are happening for the pandemic you guys are also using special education services specific to your students needs in your student population you're using some instructional services and then you've also used technology services through the esd and the plan that we put forward this year is very similar to the one that you guys had last year with a little bit more resources focused on school health services and so other than that there's one key program highlight that's across the region that pps has been an instrumental part of that i wanted to share which is the grow your own program so mesd is now managing a regional strategy to really build a more racial and linguistic diverse educator workforce through our grow your own program and nearly 100 by classified staff and community members have joined that program this this year which has doubled the number of what it was previously and then through public private and grant funding that allows us to provide wrap-around services for funds as well as tuition books fees and emergency expenditures for the participants in that program and we're also partnering with culturally specific organizations to identify recruit and support those diverse educators that are in the program and then we've launched teach for liberation which is a regional affinity group and leadership support for the educators in the program and so that's my quick update and i also just want to thank you for your continued support and your partnership as we work to support the students of multnomah county the best way we can as we navigate this new educational landscape and so we will continue to be flexible and responsive to your needs and we will update the plan and make adjustments based on what your needs are here in pps and that concludes my superintendent's report congratulations on your appointment thank you and thank you for that do we have any questions for mr coakley i have a question dr coakley excuse me thank you nicest doctor in the house uh about the grow your own program so can you tell me um how that cohort comes together and is that a partnership with a particular higher ed partner or just a little bit more about the mechanics there yeah so um it is uh connected to portland state and pcc and it comes it's coming together through um a grant partnership that's led by mesd and we actually did um the recruitment and this year um the way we doubled the number is we ended up getting culturally specific partners from latino networks so now there's about 30 new classified staff that have joined the program to get teacher licensure that actually came from latino network and what we are doing is we're going to we're setting it up to where
00h 50m 00s
once they're graduated from the program we want to offer them a job in multnomah county any one of our component districts and really get those educators hired um a pathway to a school district and a job so so they're all current employees of one of our districts right now they're mostly working with and latino network but some of them are in classified positions across the county i was curious about the teach for liberation cohort sounds like a learning cohort yeah talk a little bit more about that and it's also affinity spaces so um it's kind of uh coaching and support and wrap around for the participants that are in the program so we can really retain them and also figure out what the barriers are that they're facing and help them as we learn more about the barriers they're facing that's fabulous thank you anyone else okay thank you so much dr coakley for joining us tonight and i guess we'll see you next year all right thank you for having me if not before thank you thank you do i have a motion and a second to adopt resolution 6446 so moved okay now i see you i see i'm a second i'm a second i'm still making moves well i'm 30 and then i'm 30. i didn't hear the second it was in here share to pass i just want to note it's 6442. this this the script may not match the resolution okay six four four two yes so do i have a motion and a second to adopt results i'll make emotions for the right one director director constant moved she gets this one director hall in seconds director greene thirds everybody gets a turn here we're using all the skills we learned in the in kindergarten making moves in kindergarten i actually didn't go to kindergarten because i skipped to the first grade okay um is there any board discussion about resolution 6442 and ms powell is there any public comment no okay the board will now vote on resolution six four four two um thank you miss large for um um catching that um clerical error um the board will vote on resolution six four four two annual multnomah education service district resolution process all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes i'll oppose please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions resolution 6442 is approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative weinberg voting yes great thank you um academic administrator compensation superintendent gerardo would you please introduce this next item yes i would actually uh this evening we're seeking the board's authority on a new administrative salary structure but here to tell you more of the details is our chief of human resources sharon reese who will tell you what an important opportunity this is to recruit retain school administrators good evening directors thank you for having me this evening um i want to introduce the academic salary sorry academic administrator salary structure to you there's no question that our academic administrators have a direct impact on school climate and on the conditions needed to foster learning one example of this numerous research studies measure the consequential impact of an effective principle on advancing student achievement identifying the connection between the principal's influence on school culture on teacher hiring and development and on other leadership responsibilities that impact students our strategic plan recognizes the importance of investing in our workforce calling on us to develop a diverse high quality thriving workforce so tonight you have before year resolution authorizing the budget to upgrade our academic administrator salary structure that's a little bit of a mouthful we are asking for this for a number of reasons the hiring season for next year is right now and to recruit and retain administrators ready willing and able to make a difference for our students and school staff we need next year's salary
00h 55m 00s
structure to inform the discussions that we're having with candidates and with our staff today we struggled with recruiting last year that's not a secret the labor shortage impacted administrator hiring and made for hires after the school year began this year and which is of course not ideal for our students or school staff we need to make some adjustments to be competitive in the market i'll give you an example of that it takes an administrator on our salary structure 10 years to reach the top of our of the steps in the salary structure that lags way behind the market the market for that averages 4.8 years um also it's not that is unlike any of our other salary structures internally we have issues with salary compression that limit career development options that might not just be vertical career progress but also lateral or stretch assignments and other ways to increase career development it's our intention and i think we've heard the superintendent talk about this before to provide options for employees to grow and thrive at portland public schools for the entirety of their career so from a recruiting and retention standpoint a competitive and well-structured thoughtful salary plan is table stakes for investment in our academic administrator talent and i'd like to add one note of course a long-term talent strategy cannot rest solely on our compensation structure nor does it earlier this evening in the consent agenda the board voted on moving our wallis equity centered pipeline initiative forward with a contract with lewis and clark on administrator prep programs so i am excited to take your questions this evening about this resolution board members do we have questions for ms reese i do um so thanks for bringing this forward and for this work i think it's a really important um piece given that our principals uh really are are sort of at the building level are our school leaders and i think it's going to that's an important piece of i think how we can support them by having an equitable and market-based compensation system for them like a question i had is and this may may relate to since we don't know yet all the components of it but it may relate to the the adjustments and pay but also i'm interested in what else we're doing in terms of the retention of principals and school leaders at our highest needs schools uh yes well um we are uh looking at a number of options within the salary structure to uh different differentiate compensation there those haven't all been settled because we are continuing to do some iterations about what some of the plans are for next year and of course we have a strong area senior director team who spend quite a bit of time providing support to our uh our principals and we have one area senior director who's focused uh on our csi schools um in addition we have some principal uh mentoring programs and two this year we have two principals on special assignment that provide additional support and mentoring to our principals great i'm glad to hear that just a follow-up i know that we'd done either through previous surveys but are we and there was an equity audit is there going to be like a follow-up next year if you take the compensation and the other thing supports we're doing to check in uh with our principles just been a super stressful year with everything's going on whether we've hit the mark or there's more more need to be done yeah the salary structure that we are talking about right now is actually done in conjunction with listening sessions and a couple working sessions with administrators so we took the experience of our administrators and their input to help design this that's one of the ways right that we are checking in with our administrators and of course we have uh we're in regular communication and engagement with them
01h 00m 00s
when you talk about a survey specifically we have the school climate survey and we are looking at other ways in which we can gauge what is the how are our administrators doing yeah i just want to take a moment to recognize that these our billing administrators are non-represented employees and so as a as a matter of course we review salary structures with our bargaining units on a regular basis and so i appreciate the district being proactive here in recognizing that market adjustments are necessary and that's a very person and personal and human thing because it's heartbreaking we see each year we lose we have lost some excellent administrators in the last few years to neighboring districts primarily based on on salary or we've been unable to attract you know talented new administrators so this is really important and i appreciate the district's leadership since um these questions don't come up in the normal course of a collective bargaining conversation yes that's right thank you i just want to go out and hire a bunch of really awesome people i want to also entertain a bunch of really awesome people too yes i love that go out and hire a bunch of awesome people i'm really supportive of this because i think pps you know wants to be the employer of choice and um the hiring is there's competition out with neighboring districts that are also recruiting um top staff and administrators and so yeah i'm very much in favor of leveling up the salary structure thank you is there ms powell is there any public comment no so the board is there any more more comment director hollands yes sorry um we'll have just a couple quick questions um so as we know with student achievement especially for our black and brown kids having representation and folks that look like them in the buildings how would this how would this increase assist in the recruitment of administrators of uh color starting with uh uh a this is why i talk about a salary structure as being table stakes you have to you have to compensate fairly and you have to compensate competitively um administrators of color are in high demand and so we want to have attractive wages to attract them here and not give them reasons to leave for other districts so that is that is part of that and that goes into my second question given the competitive market is this going to be enough for us to be competitive yeah i think this will make us competitive uh no as i was saying before no talent investment strategy can be just about the compensation package or even the compensation and benefits package it is about um what does it take to create the conditions for employees to thrive in our workforce and i believe that this will provide that in terms of the the element of an uh a competitive uh and fair compensation structure that allows for career it allows and encourages career growth okay last question um so giving that the ad addition of money what are we looking or doing that supports like the culture that we have here which i know that's some reason why a lot of administrators have left um how we're addressing that well that is every leader's responsibility to contribute to a positive work culture that is some of the work that you're seeing coming out of the wallace grant and that being an equity uh centered pipeline um and in our entire all our entire strategic plan is about frankly in my opinion about creating the culture and conditions uh where um our students and our educators of color thrive so i think it's in everything that we are doing and everything that we are bringing forward yes my pleasure are there any further board questions or comments before we move ahead student representative weidenberg or director constance just really appreciate uh the piece about uh decreasing the amount of time that it takes to get toward the top of the pay scale because i know that that has been one of the most significant enticements from other districts one of the places where we were the most out of whack
01h 05m 00s
and one of the years of service right is when it's one of our retention issue points inflection points i just want to again highlight that this came out of listening sessions with our administrators and again the work that the with the walls grant with other pieces that the staff is doing to really try to meet administrators where they are and support them and make cultural change to change some of the the things we've identified i think in our questions tonight that are problems so thank you uh superintendent for your leadership and really valuing our administrators by being proactive in this way and to chief reese again your ability to really hear what staff is saying that they need and find wonderful solutions to try to help us retain the high quality leaders that we have and attract those new ones thank you director lowry and thank you uh chief reece uh do i have a motion never mind yes director green moves do i have this i'm just going to start asking for a second i think a second she's getting it director green moves and director i missed who seconded it see everybody wants to be a part of getting our staff everybody wants to see their hair they want to see their names in the minutes i understand um director green moves and director constant seconds the adoption of resolution six four four five is there any board discussion or ms powell is there any public comment no the board will now vote on resolution 6445 um academic administrator compensation all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no and are there any abstentions resolution six four four five is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative weinberg voting yes and also i'm super glad that we passed this because cleveland's been through obvious high turnover of principles so i understand why we need to have consistent leadership in our schools because it is hard to set a positive culture when we constantly have year after year principles cycling through schools so thank you i think principal watkins has ably answered that call now in the last couple of years but yes it has been a very difficult time at cleveland so chair thank you directors i also want to express appreciation i have the benefit of getting to do the final interview with every principal that comes aboard at portland public schools and inevitably to in response to the question i always ask you know well why portland public schools uh they often describe the vision that we've laid out and the unabashed uh focus uh in our equity centered work and uh oftentimes we have put out the offer and then they've seen the numbers not quite be as competitive and i think this will be very helpful in making sure that we land the talent that we need leading our school community so thank you thank you for those comments thank you and now the moment we've all been waiting for and some of us didn't believe we would be here today the first reading of the climate crisis response policy and i'm going to ask director brem edwards to please introduce the proposed policy thank you chair de pass um i'm going to just say at the start that i joined i joined student rap weinberg and like i i'm not sure that this i thought this day was going to actually arrive um but and actually um our last meeting was more just of a moment of celebration um and doing a little cleanup um as we moved it forward so uh tonight we're having the first reading or the introduction of the climate crisis response climate justice and sustainable practices policy i want to thank my fellow committee members um chair to pass director green and director lowry as well as student rep weinberg and then also the student district student council representative to the committee danny cage at every meeting we had a full complement of staff that were instrumental in helping us put this together i want to thank specifically the superintendent aaron pressberg and liz large who helped shepherd changes and negotiations and discussion about language through also what really want to thank the community members who arrived well first of all they were the impetus for for the policy and really provided a catalyst sometimes a hot catalyst to our work and
01h 10m 00s
but i think all of us together i will just say we approached it with a common spirit and a goal and um as you're talking about all the people who helped shape this policy i think we'd be remiss and not including uh former school board members rita moore and scott bailey who were very active in working on this policy uh in the first year they were right here i just hadn't got through with everybody yet thank you director lowry yes because this was started as a policy in the previous policy committee it was a carryover um we had more than ten meetings um since january of uh 2021. and um i think it's worth noting that this is a big bold policy and um i'm going to highlight just two things and there's lots of sub goals underneath it but the two overarching objectives of the policy there's emission reductions that pps will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 using the 2018-2019 school year baseline and reach net zero emissions by 2040. um and it will use a scope one and two tracking process and in addition the other big objective is engagement resilience and wellness the districts will take steps to prepare schools for the effects of climate change and will ensure staff and students learn about and engage in climate solutions climate resiliencies and climate justice practices and the way that the policy is structured it goes through a number of goals that were well discussed and again i want to thank um staff and the community members that really looked not only at how our infrastructure impacts um the climate and how we're going to get to net zero but also how we support our student voices who are active climate warriors and working for climate justice and climate action and how we also support the staff in their work because pps is while we're a school system we're also probably one of the largest property owners in the city we've got buses and cars and everything moving across the city and we have a large footprint and therefore we can make a big a big difference and so i'm not going to go through each of the elements of the of the policy it'll be posted um and i want to um welcome the uh the three board members who aren't on the policy committee to attend the next meeting or if you have if you have amendments that you want to bring to the committee or want the committee to consider it be great to get them advanced so that staff can be ready to share their perspective about them just kind of that's the spirit and way the way we've worked in committee that if people have ideas that everybody gets a chance to sort of weigh in on them and see them in advance so i would i would welcome that um depending on how much comment we get it may or may not be a 21 day period before we have our our second reading uh but we have another policy committee meeting i'm sure we'll have um comment and discussion but i would welcome the non-committee members to to join in the climate uh discussions we've had as i said 10 meetings that have been devoted and in many ways to just the substance of this and had some great discussions and um i i do want to just call out the community members who even when they disagreed with us and argued vigorously their points um i think we were able to reach um see our the commonalities in our in our vision and what we wanted for the district really in relation to the climate so with that um i'll just do the so the poli this the formal language the proposed policy will be posted on the board website and the public comment period is a minimum of 21 days uh contact information public comment will be posted with the policy the board depending on the amount of public comment and any revisions of the policy we may we may have a second reading or approval of the policy at our march 1st meeting so the posting is for a minimum of 21 days and our board meeting is in 21 days is that correct yes i think it's high well i don't know what to predict with public comment but i'm just looking at the calendar and yeah if we got a significant amount of public comment um in the last couple days after the policy committee meeting um i'm sure we'd carry carry it over um for one more another discussion
01h 15m 00s
great thank you and congratulations maybe it's a little premature but thank you for your work on this and specifically for getting all those voices in the room um together on the page so we're next going to consider the second reading of the student representative and district student council policy 1.20.012 p director brem edwards will you please introduce the student representative and district student council policy before i ask for a motion sure um excuse me before we move on from the climate policy sorry i just wanted to quickly say how thankful i am for um the community engagement and also the staff and board willingness to not just limit our view to an emissions-based policy we added this or we had from the get-go this second and third pillars where we focus on student and community wellness and also um educating our students on climate the climate crisis and climate change and how to actively be engaged in that work so i'm thankful that we have such an audacious policy that wasn't just an easy emissions we'll cut our emissions by 2040. thank you for that really important point all right so um we had the first reading of the board policy uh which is the student representative in district student council policy um we this came about staff brought forward some recommended changes to the current policy the policy committee had some discussions uh we made some revisions there was a unanimous recommendation to the board for our first reading we had our first reading we haven't had any public comment um i i should say be before we had the first um meeting first reading i did um at student representative weinberg's invitation i attended the district student council meeting and had a discussion uh with the council about the changes and um why we were making changes we had we had a really i think good discussion about them and um i should flag that i'm anticipating that we we talked about some other changes that students were interested in and because we need to um there's a reason why we needed to move this now we're going to move that now but that i've committed to coming back swinging back with the students and having discussion about some other changes um that we could consider and the reason that we wanted to move forward with this is the one there's a couple primary changes in this policy that we're making but one of them is is the way that the um members of the district student council are become members of the councils and that this policy now allows for two different paths for students to become members of the district student council either by appointment or by election and also then to be clear that whichever path they arrive whatever whatever process their school uses that they have equal rights on the district student council and that's really important because those the members that elect the new student rep and one of the reasons why we wanted to do that this time was to prepare for the spring election of the next student rep so those are some of the changes the other changes um as the bylaws need to be aligned with policies and administrative directives um there was also inconsistencies about who could be the student rep one policy said you had to be a senior the other policy said you could either be 10th uh sophomore to senior this policy is either 10th grade or higher so if we've opened the aperture of who's eligible and um it also sets out a um a revised process for removal of the superintendent rep if that's um ever um that i know of it never happened in pbs history but having a process by which is clear and transparent for everybody um so those are the major changes no significant student comment i want to again thank the thoughtful engagement not only of student representative weinberg but also staff who support the district student council um and who drafted these changes because i think it will put us uh the council on like just clear up ambiguities that existed did you want to add did you have any anything to add student representative weinberg just slightly um the change for the 10th through 12th graders is very timely because we're going to be holding our student rep elections in three to four weeks in the middle of march so there'll be a new student rep elect soon fantastic um what's your role um in
01h 20m 00s
convening and managing this process so largely it's going to be the liaison to the district student council holding the process we have agreed upon a timeline already so march 1st we'll be announcing who's going to be running for the student rep position and then hold an election on the february or march 8th um so we should have um an elected student rep a week after march 8th before the spring break the week before spring break yes to give everybody a whole week to celebrate yes that's fantastic congratulations on that i already know i have a motion you do have a motion and so i'm going to ask now for a second to adopt resolution 6443 student representative and district student council policy number one point two zero point zero one two p thank you got it director green moves director holland seconds the adoption of resolution 6443 is there any further board discussion ms powell is there any student is there any comment no okay the board will now vote on resolution 6443 student representative and district student council policy 1.20.012 p all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no are there any abstentions resolution 6443 is now approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative weinberg voting yes of course i just want to say congratulations jackson i know that this was something that the prior student rep had been working on and you guys have been talking about this for a long time how to make these elections clear and equitable and fair and acknowledging all the different structures that schools have for student government so congratulations on getting this passed and making the the situation better for all students yeah probably at least my three and a half years so far we've had kind of at least some kind of conversation about this and i think the proposed changes that we'll be bringing soonish to director brim edwards will continue that work yes and i think i would like to one just say this is fantastic if there was anything that i want to get on the the board about it should be about the climate change and about a policy that's going to allow more of our students to to take part in the the governance of what we do as a school and just being made aware of it i'm done i'm ready to go um the only thing that i think i'd like to add before i take out of here completely is that um and i don't maybe we have or maybe it's already listed but that we also start looking at our um our cbo's and see if they've got students within their um within their school systems that could also be a part of our i mean i think that that would be ideal as well because those students are on their way and they're part of our system so if we could um somehow and i don't know um i definitely wasn't going to bring that up as like you know i don't want to vote without that but now that we've got it on the books and it's on the table and we're not taking it back no take backs um i wanted to put this piece out there that um i don't know if what if that means that we need to do something different or we need to talk about it but that's something that i think we also need to be looking into yeah director greene um i think a couple years ago we opened the aperture beyond just the comprehensive high schools to really try and um reach out to um some of the other high school programs but not but not the cbo's and it seems that um when we get this next batch of uh proposed changes which again we just want to get this batch done before the elections but we certainly and you're in luck here on the policy committee so um you can propose some language and we'll um look to see how we can well i talk i do talk a lot so i'm sure i can come up with something yeah it is actually on what we were going to propose anyway so yeah oh look see great minds great minds i knew i liked that guy okay we're going to move on to the resolution to authorize superintendent's contract extension and please forgive me i brought a little soapbox underneath my desk here i want to thank my board colleagues for coming together to vote on a contract that supports the extension of superintendent of schools contract through june of 2024. superintendent guerrero has my full support and confidence that he's the right leader to continue this work this important work of ensuring our school district becomes the best in the nation because of the work we are doing to address system systemic inequities on behalf of black native latinx asian pacific islander immigrant and students
01h 25m 00s
of in our district i want to additionally and especially thank my colleagues directors con stem and brett edwards who were part of the team that brought the superintendent to the district in the first place so thank you you guys are sticking it out and um thank you for making the good choices you did in 2017. thank him for sticking it out that's coming we're joyful today and superintendent i want to um specifically thank you for being here and committing yourself to our city even if it's imperfect and for addressing the issues around student achievement that aren't unique here i want to thank you personally for displaying the courage to address deeply entrenched and troubling opportunity gaps by working to develop a culturally responsive instructional framework for pk 12 curriculum for working to win the 8 million wallace foundation grant and collaborating with lewis and clark college on the equity center pipeline initiative that we heard from dr coakley that will increase the numbers of administrators of color in our district and we know that that leads to better student outcomes for standing up to hate and supporting our other superintendents of color around the state we've got a recent report that said there are nine superintendents of color in the state and if we were going to have an equitable distribution we would have 80. so we're behind on that but we're doing our part to increase that pipeline and i want to thank you for that for the development of a strategic plan that demonstrates your understanding that sustainable long-term cultural and systemic change must not fall victim to the urgency of white supremacy and it must take an inclusive and a long-term approach for embracing our communities of color as partners increasing district investment and partnerships with culturally specific organizations to implement our rj res j strategies that are proven to support a student's academic cultural identity and emotional well-being and for establishing and reinforcing structures and accountability measures so we can gauge our process our progress and continuously improve we know and i know that we share the understanding that your most important priority is to create the conditions so our brilliant black native american asian pacific islander latinx and immigrant students thrive and that their academic success is not predicted by pernicious racial patterns of disparity i also believe we have the right board in place to support you in doing your best work here superintendent the board has the job of both supporting you and holding you accountable for doing your best in service of our students especially our black indigenous asian pacific islander immigrant and latino students please know that we are all here for that and we are prepared to walk with you in our community's journey to greatness and i want to speak for just a moment to acknowledge the system that we're working in because i know that there may be some in our community who don't have the full perspective of the work before us it's easy to take a cheap shot here you know and a catchy tweet there without understanding the full breadth and depth of the work that's done here and i don't blame people for um not not understanding how the sausage is made and i'm still learning that myself i want to put out a call to action to our community to stay here stay engaged with us to get the context and read the full story that's all sides of the story and help us write the next great american novel know this the education system in the u.s and in portland is actually working exactly the way it was designed to the system that formed the foundation of education in america like other american institutions is racist the education system was designed by white people to educate white students excuse me and countless policies practices and protocols have been in place to reinforce to reinforce these culturally racist messages that black and native students are less that can't learn whether in boarding schools where native american students were forced to unlearn their language and cultures or in school districts around the country that fail discipline and suspend and expel black children american public schools have reinforced false narratives that are racist and more importantly they're untrue the foundation of this very education system the founding beliefs the policies and our practices all build upon those lies i believe we have a school board in place a district leader and a community who are ready to intentionally examine the system and who are prepared to challenge our current state in favor of one that sees the brilliance of our students and will work tirelessly to be part of reimagining what's possible superintendent thank you so much for your service in times of great uncertainty and thank you for your unwavering commitment to living our mission we provide rigorous high quality academic learning experiences that are inclusive and joyful we disrupt racial inequities to create vibrant environments for every student to demonstrate the excellence i'm really honored to serve our
01h 30m 00s
community of schools principals teachers students and families with you and now my soapbox is going to go back under the desk um thank you and i didn't realize this was in front of me here so thank you for being here just i can't express my appreciation enough i was going to say and for saying and for sting um i'm looking at director green because i'm kind of like a trained puppy now do i have a motion and a second to adopt resolution six four four six yes you have a motion the resolution to authorize superintendent contract extension we got another green hollands [Laughter] i don't want to be i want to see my name in the minutes is there any board discussion tonight i guess i'll start because i'm the old-timer here thank you for acknowledging that but uh just speaking from that vantage point um i don't want to belabor it but i do want to go back to uh when he showed up at our doorstep we were in disarray as a district uh we were uh we did not have the right people in the right places in the central office we had dozens and dozens and dozens of vacancies we did not have a standards aligned curriculum we did not have a strong system of professional development we did not have all kinds of things and so i i just think it's really important to recognize how much foundational building has taken place since 2017. there was just not a lot of traction where we needed it and so i'm really proud of sort of the trajectory that we are on now pandemic be damned um but uh we have really pivoted also as a board starting you know in in 2018 to really focus our governance practices on student achievement and on being very student-centered in how we as a governing body conduct our business and that culminated in our own development of our board goals which are now really well aligned with our strategic plan that the superintendent spearheaded so um it's a phenomenal amount of work um that has taken place and we've had the opportunity to sit with dr proctor and dr adams to really get into the nitty-gritty about what are the proven strategies that we need to employ that we can that will give us the confidence that our students will be able to soar in the way that they deserve to in the way that we need them to it's not a haphazard pursuit we know that there are strategies that are can will make the difference for our kids but those have not been consistently deployed in this district and we haven't had the ability to do that and i think we do now and i'm deeply deeply grateful for the faces that i see in the audience right now had the opportunity to be in schools today with dr o and just that laser focus on in on instructional practices and in differentiated learning i mean you have built a phenomenal team and you have built a phenomenal structure and i really appreciated what you said chair depass about our being here to support you and catch you and provide you with the resources that you tell us that you need i had just that discussion today with dr hollins about okay we believe in you we stand behind you and as a board especially as we enter our budget process right now you tell us what tools you need to get the results that we're expecting for our kids and that's where the accountability piece comes into play we are really focused on results but you're the guy who knows how to get them and you're the guy who knows how to hire the right people who know how to get them and we're here to support you so personally you know i look at you and i i think about the little guy with the spanish speaker with the violin and the football pads walking to school with that love of learning that is evident
01h 35m 00s
every single day as you show up in this job and as you interact with kids little kids and big kids um i think about you as the paraprofessional who found a spark that maybe being an educator was going to be your life's passion and your life's work and just really deeply grateful to have you here in this community serving our children i just wanted to don't forget the little briefcase and the little suit and tie always um so i just want to say that i am so thankful that we're at this place with this contract and when i was chair last year it was something we couldn't quite in the last uh we ran out of time and near the end zone um so i'm glad we're finally crossing that line but um i just want to say that when i first met you superintendent it was at a meeting for foundation parents and i asked you a question that was a little combative and jonathan actually shut down the meeting after i asked you the question you did we were over time but um and i had read the stories in the oregonian about pps and i i wasn't sure about you and then i started participating in the vision process and then i decided to run for school board and you know one of the great gifts for me was last year when i was chair in the midst of this completely crazy pandemic um you know as you know chair to pass and brim edwards and constand when your chair you you know talk to the superintendent more often and um i just i had already been converted in that first year seeing the path we were on how you lived out the things we were saying about the vision and the strategic plan um but then last year when we were like you know something would come up and the governor would make an announcement and you'd be on the phone to me and you'd be like okay so here are three plans i have of how we might address this and here's how they would benefit students just you're always four steps ahead you're always thinking about the strategies that will benefit students and you're crazy smart um and you always have contingency after contingency which means that our students in this pandemic were never left behind our students were fed our students had devices our students had supports and just that such a student focus is so incredible and i really believe that if we hadn't had the pandemic those goals we would have we set in 2019 would have been a reality by 22. and i am heartbroken that our students didn't get that opportunity because of global factors but i truly believe with your leadership that we will make a difference in pps we will change the culture and our students will see those results so i just want to thank you i know that other people were dangling lots of pretty shiny baubles at you and i'm really thankful that you have chosen to continue this work that you started here in pps i want to just go ahead i won't be very long um i want to also just appreciate that when i first started here in 2019 i thought um probably like some of us do that we're going to come in and see results in a year or two and i'm i now understand two and a half years in that we need to take a long-term sustainable approach to these um to these uh these efforts we we need to not look at kind of whacking the thing that's right in front of us but rather take the long game and i really really understand now that taking these approaches measuring these inputs that we will see really strong results in the coming years i'm just really pleased about where we are tonight and really again want to thank um everyone that provided input to this it's not a this is definitely a team sport so yeah if i can sort of add thanks um i actually was going to second what chair to pass said the first time i'm going to now second again that's why you're such a good advice i know right it's well it's i can't say it any better i mean i do think that um you know fixing the historical inequities that you talked about and and the structural racism is really hard work and and it is work superintendent that you know you you have been and continue to be focused on and and not just at pbs but i think over your entire career we've seen that and and i believe that that you know you share both the board and the community sense of urgency around this issue um i think it's worth noting that simply having a sense of urgency doesn't guarantee progress and and i think it's important that we have that and and i'm so excited to be on a board that that is really pushing for that but that's not what gets us the progress what gets us the progress is that really difficult work of of making the systemic changes that are necessary to break down the racist institutions and rebuild them in a more equitable way um and sheridan you outlined some of those changes that that you've done since you've been here you know in your remarks and i think we see where that's going and kind of um director larry what you said i mean i really believe that before covet hit in 2020 we were poised to start seeing the benefits from some of the changes that you had put in place i think the pandemic disrupted learning for all of our students but we know that impact fell particularly hard on our students
01h 40m 00s
of color and this you know is and will continue to be our main focus moving forward and i know it's going to be yours as well i do want to thank chair lowry for getting the process started last spring i want to i want to thank chair to pass for her work on getting us to this point um it wasn't always a smooth process and it hasn't been speedy but i do believe we've ended up in a good place and i want to give a special thanks to directors hollins and and green for really engaging fully in this process and helping us sort of move it over the finish line i think that was really essential i do just want to i want to put a small note of caution out there and this is the the performance geek performance management geek in me but um a little note of caution because i've been doing this work a long time and the addition of these performance goals that are you know into the into the not just the super dense evaluation but into the contract it isn't common practice i've been convinced by my colleagues that the need to act differently um that we need to act differently in order to disrupt historical systems and and dare i say institutions thank you director hollins for that insight um but there are real so still some concerns that i want us to be careful with um first i think it's important to us to say publicly at least i don't believe that performance incentives are going to make the superintendent work any harder for racial equity i think you and your team work as hard as you can on that every single day but i think it does send it does send a powerful message to the community and and and what we measure matters um and i think in this contract um what we as a board are telling the superintendent we're going to hold him accountable for is increasing the proficiency of black students and that's a very that's a very good goal and given conversations i've had with staff i do believe that in this case measuring proficiency is reasonable my note of caution is that there is a danger here that i think we need to highlight which is that measuring proficiency could result and i don't think it will but it could result in leaving some of our most underserved students behind if we're not careful and just to put really concrete numbers on this you know i think we have about 300 black third graders in the district fewer than 50 of them are proficient in reading which is the the massive problem that we are all trying to solve if if we're able to improve the academic performance of 250 of those students and some of them cross the line into proficiency that's that's a success that's a success that we're all going to be very proud of and stand up and and and tout however if we were to move 10 or 20 of them across the line into proficiency but leave the rest of them behind that is a failure and i think i just want to say that for the record right now however the way we're measuring it it would still show up as a success i know that superintendent guerrero would also view this as a failure which is why i'm willing to support these measures moving forward but i do want us to be really careful to ensure that what we are measuring and what we're going to hold the district accountable for is comprehensive in terms of what we want to see in the long run and again i'm really confident that you're focused on that which is why i'm confident moving forward with that small note of caution i am really excited for the contract extension i'm excited the superintendent grows willing to continue um your work to transform pps into the world-class district that i think we can be that's really focused on on riding some of those historical wrongs so so thank you to everyone for your you know helping this and thank you superintendent only taking nice comments now anybody else [Laughter] director holland yes um a couple things i just wanted to say um as you know as new on the board um i really want to thank our board because this was not an easy process right there was a lot of discussions around some of our views but the fact that we were able to come together as a board and really agree and now can move in in a singular direction um i think that was that was awesome for me uh to see that um i i wasn't here for for all the build up uh that the supers did i love hearing um from everybody what he has done um and i think you know as us moving forward um and even with the accountability piece in there i think it's going to be a charge for us board members right to make sure that he has everything he needs in order to do his job right um and this is just this is just my thought process but as a board we're letting everyone know that this we're going to be accountable we're looking at accountability and outcomes not just from the superintendent but it's going to go all the way down the line and i think that is one of the things that i appreciate about this board that i'm on now is because everybody is in alignment with that and everybody wants that and everybody you know needs to move in that direction and so i just want to thank chair to pass uh last year andrew scott um for your leadership and the conversations along with all the other colleagues as well because there's been great conversations there's been great back and forth with that and i think if we continue that oneness moving forward we really can do some things different right and i want to really acknowledge the superintendent for not just talking to talk about doing stuff different and audacious but actually doing things different and audacious his contract is one that has never been done for my knowledge in pps
01h 45m 00s
ever and that says something right that says something that we're not going to just be doing things the same way and expect the same different results we're going to be doing things different and everyone needs to be on those we're going to be doing stuff different and that's the direction we're moving in because it is a sense of urgency that our kids are not being proficient as they need to and i i kind of disagree with the you know the timing that it takes to get there because our kids don't have that long-term plan to to wait our first graders don't got five or six years to wait our eighth graders don't have five or six years to wait we have to do something now and i and i solely believe that the superintendent plan and vision and the path that we're on will get us there quicker you know and and and so that's one of the reasons why i'm supporting what he's done i'm supportive of what he's going to be doing and he has my full confidence so i'm sure as everyone on the board that we're going to get there together thank you thank you for that i'm going to go next because i have a policy of never following uh director greene [Laughter] and uh it's recycled paper sorry i was gonna ask i'm just like you i have gotta write something down um and i'm gonna start off a little bit like director constand because um i was there at the five years ago um sitting right there is where the original contract got signed and pbs wasn't on track you know there was board inviting we'd had a superintendent who'd left because of the lead crisis followed by a failed superintendent search crumbling buildings inequitable middle grades experience for our most underserved students in a adequate state funding dismal and unacceptable student outcomes for most under served students and in in that environment um guadalupe said i'm sorry uh superintendent guerrero at the time he was guadalupe um said yes and we were all in it together and you know there's been a lot of changes and some of those big challenges have have been addressed i mean the board in the first 42 days hired the superintendent so we all started together as a leadership team the 2017 bond the voters gave us provided the resources to address the lead and the environmental hazards we opened new school buildings we opened high schools and also kellogg the board the superintendent have reunited around a set of common goals for our students we've opened three middle schools so more than a thousand students have a more equitable middle grade experience we passed the local option night that funds 900 teachers um the largest state bond in state history has been passed uh the student success act gave us resources to provide the supports for our students that we didn't have so there's been a lot of things that have changed and since that time five years ago and i want to thank superintendent guerrero for your diligence and hard work in partnership with the board in the community to make those improvements and also to help us navigate through the pandemic safely and we all know that there's a really important piece of the work that's still outstanding that was present five years ago and that's still present and i'm you know i'm glad that we acknowledge it openly and publicly that we have a lot of work to do still with the achievement of this of black native special ed students of color and it's not where we all want it to be and i think that unites us that we we know we know we can do better um in that front and that we have to do better um as director holland said you know um those kids can't wait for us to get it all figured out we need to just keep pushing ahead so yes we did have a pandemic that disrupted learning and we need to acknowledge that um and um i'm glad what i'm hearing tonight um and i know to be true and everybody is that we're not going to let the pandemic be the reason why we don't do this really important work i'll say that you know the initial discussions about the contract i was concerned because of the lack of a connection between student outcomes and for for students who hadn't been well served and the compensation and then also the addition of the provision in the contract that appeared last week that links this to some legislation in salem and um you know have great empathy for um those superintendents that have been dismissed by their boards for following the law and doing what's right for students in their district it's a horrible thing no superintendent should ever be dismissed for that i also think that it's important that
01h 50m 00s
school boards still have the ability to manage performance and also evaluate rigorously the superintendent because that's how we all we all get better and you know of course the board needs to evaluate itself and we always can do better so what i'm with those concerns i also recognize that this contract is a big shift in many ways and not only do we have the funding in place and a lot of the chain to foundational changes but the inclusion of the goals and i wanted i want to call out director hollins and director green for really your relentless focus and looking at things in a new way i mean this is the beauty of having new board members to come in and look at you know hey the way we were doing things before incl including you know the superintendent's contract we need to do things differently if we're going to get different outcomes and um to your point directed to pass that um the system is structured a particular way and if we keep doing this you know the same things we may just continue to get the same results and so i really want to applaud um and i've supported the efforts to put those specific student outcomes improvement goals in the contract relating to increasing black third grade language arts proficiency i don't think i've ever seen a pps contract that says that an increasing third grade language arts proficiency for underserved race and ethnicity groups and increasing increases in black fifth grade math proficiency those are all i think really profound changes and um and and yes recognizing director scott's sort of cautionary note but i do think if we don't dare to do things differently we're not going to get different outcomes so given [Music] given the fact that that's included in the contract there's accountability in the contract itself there's a recognition also that the pandemic has been a huge challenge and i want to acknowledge that i mean we can't talk about student outcomes and what has her hasn't happened without acknowledging that and i want to acknowledge the superintendent's sort of steady leadership all of our students and staff were safe also being a strong voice for equity so i'm going to be a yes and i i also want to acknowledge that we as a board have work to do so the contract is between two parties and um the board's work also relates around co-creating an evaluation template with the superintendent so that um so there is accountability and that we're both all clear about what we're what we're shooting for and and how we can provide the superintendent with the greatest level of support so while there may be differences in perspective i know in the community about the performance goals inclusion in the contract or there may be different perspectives around the targeted levels of the increases that are there or that there's pay attached to it and i agree with you director scott the superintendent's not doing it based on pay it's just how it's structured with all those different perspectives it's still clear that something needs to be done differently and that we should be explicit about the superintendent's role and the success of our students in in the contract and i'm really appreciative um superintendent guerrero that you've embraced that and i want you to know that the board has a role in supporting the superintendent and pps staff and improving student outcomes and by voting yes i'm indicating how much i'm going to be there providing support and whatever it is that's needed in order for us all to achieve um what we want for our students director green did you have a comment i definitely have something to say um do you have a nice comment it's going to be as nice as i can make it no i don't i don't want to you you say what you need to say i plan to always plan to um i know they're going to be a lot of people that are going to say that he's only doing this for the money he's only making these changes um because because he's getting paid and you know he doesn't really care you know there are people out there who may be thinking that way and so to to those people that are out there that would say that i would say i don't give a dang why he's doing it i am only concerned with the results if black kids are learning how to read i don't care that he's doing it to get paid because they're learning how to read if they're learning how to do math i don't care that he's doing it to get
01h 55m 00s
paid because they're learning how to do math i am not concerned about the the financial aspect and i believe that when we think that way our focus is off because we're focusing on a scarcity mindset he's only doing it because of this when if we really begin to focus on what i believe that he's focused on which is the educating all of our students our our black students our brown students our native students our indian students our pacific islander students our asian students our white students that all of our students are being educated to the fullest of our ability that we're making sure that everyone is being seen and that everyone is being heard and that everyone is getting the access to education i believe that's why we're here but if if for whatever the reason we want to continue to believe that he's only doing it to get paid then so be it i don't care i just want them educated and so i believe that's the focus of the moms and the dads and the family members out there who have seen what it's like to have kids get passed over and get passed from one grade to the next grade to the next grade getting into ice um high school reading at a fourth or fifth grade level they don't care whether or not the superintendent got paid what they're upset about is that my my child is entering high school and they can't read and so to all of us out there or all of you out there that would that would say that i want to encourage you to refocus realign your thoughts to what if what if the reason that he's really doing this is because he too values education what if the reason that he's out here pushing these efforts now is because he believes and has always believed in the same things that we believe in which is that everybody deserves access equal access to good rigorous education what if that is the case and so instead of instead of trying to demonize the soup because we feel or some feel he might be doing this because he wants to get paid how about we celebrate the reality that black kids are now reading at higher levels that they're doing math at higher levels that they're comprehending at higher levels let us focus on that and not the other stuff because i don't give a dang if he's doing it because he's wanting to get paid it's irrelevant to me all i'm concerned about is whether or not my kids can read and if he and if they can read so be it that's my that's all i wanted to say i guess i can understand why director from edwards did not want to follow you but as the last person up here um i guess my appreciation is slightly different than other board members because i am a student so my appreciation stems from a support of student leadership student excellence and centering students in all your decisions one clear example from lit class you have to provide examples right so illustrating my point yes um connecting me with the council of great city schools really springboarded and modeled working with your national counterparts in other districts and was the impetus for me at least working with other student board members from around the country coming together to form an organization to help support student board members so my appreciation is for being a role model role model for working with others from around the country to better all students thank you that was i love i love a good example um that's great so we can keep embarrassing the superintendent or we can um take a motion make a motion a vote vote take a vote we're going to vote on resolution 6446 resolution to authorize superintendent contract extension all in favor please indicate by saying yes roseanne oh i apologize do we have do we have a public comment we have public comment and i also did not hear emotion okay what was the second part i'm sorry i didn't hear we have public comment okay we have public comments it was hard to hear the motion because i think director green was sorry motioning moving i was caught up in the moment yeah sorry about that our first public comment is michael grice mr grice thank you it's nice to see you all right point of privilege chair i was just thinking now that we have uh are open to the public here what uh what a privilege and a joy it is to see mr grice and to see roger kirschner uh two of our our
02h 00m 00s
long-time deeply involved community members so it feels good to have you both back season ticket holders [Laughter] don't ever stop coming thank you mr grice should i speak now yes please yeah i'm michael chappy-grice i'm a retired educator from the portland schools and from san francisco unified school district thank you very much and i've been privileged to work with the children at um rosa parks elementary school in the mentoring capacity and i'll start off by saying i'm not here to curry favor with the superintendent or with the board of education but just to share with you about two minutes worth of thought that have been shared with me by some pretty distinguished educators one is congressman augustus f hawkins who wrote the title one law and he would always remind us that that black children are the proxy for what ails american education in general and so as we fashion solutions to help black children we fashion solutions to help all children the second is the predicate for the work that i do and it comes from dr ron edmonds and i think it's in it's instructive and directive as much as it is uh philosophically uh gigantic and it's a little saying that goes like this we can whenever and wherever we choose successfully teach all children whose education is of interest to us we already know more than we need in order to do this whether we do it or not must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far and what brought me here today was to testify that i've been in a lot of school districts and that revolving door of superintendents has not solved their problem what solved the problem is the expectations at the building level that we have for our teachers and for our students i just left my high school students one of whom is our private pilot and another who is a senior at roosevelt high school and is very active almost as a in the category of a teacher assistant at that school and he told me that the minority population have very little aspiration after high school so that's a very you know as dr benjamin mays the president of morehouse college said failure is not sin low aim is sin and so until we can elevate the vision of our young people uh and do it in a way that uh results in some outcome and i think that having heard a lot of rhetoric over the years uh that the res jay um initiative has given me i've heard a lot of stuff that good put it on the shelf and we just keep moving i found more substance and more consistency in the staff that brings that forth and give us an opportunity in the community to do things and i think we're right on the front end of what we can accomplish thank you very much superintendent and board of education thank you for your comments very meaningful and concise too do we have additional uh public comment ms powell yes you have two people virtually the next is matt morton oh i think we just lost matt martin uh the next is mashari tyson good evening miss tyson good evening can you hear me okay we can thank you for being here oh good evening thank you for having me my name is ms chari tyson with black excellence group and i really appreciate the privilege to speak to you today on behalf of black excellence group and being a racial equity and social justice partner within the community we are pleased to support superintendent guerrero's extension of his contract it was a pleasure to see that coming across and we just wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the things that we've deeply appreciated that we've seen from you superintendent guerrero so we're in full support of your extension you have promised to make progress for black and latino students and make that your north star something that i have really appreciated watching you speak publicly in all the district emails in meetings in focus
02h 05m 00s
groups and working sessions is the heart for the students that you demonstrate and a lot of different folks tonight have talked about the student-centered approach and the equity lens that you bring to the work and it's always evident and i really have appreciated that you come across like a genuine leader that frankly the the strategic plan has rolled out in a way that touches all the groups that we've interacted with and it's very clear about the trajectory that every one is headed and so i i heard you say um i've seen it in articles and i heard you say it again tonight our work is not finished um and i'll touch on that in a moment but i want to recognize some of the areas that i've appreciated so much that your fingerprint has been on the vision the collaboration the advocacy for our students with the strategic plan the focus on the sense of belonging among the students um and keeping the racial equity and social justice lens um and emphasizing equitable outcomes is is really powerful and we don't take it lightly because that is not the case in every district across this country and it is amazing to see that said and demonstrated over and over again even when it takes courage to say it out loud publicly the pps reimagined portrait of a graduate the focus on representation among the staff in the buildings that the students are seeing the the wallace grant and the principal pipeline and the coach to educator all these initiatives are making the difference and shifting things for our students um the just the concept and vision behind the innovation studio and their equity lens um the bypoc financial focus group that was done among parents and partners the commitment to protect dr martin luther king jr elementary school as that protected legacy black school so that they won't be displaced all these areas have really stuck out as an example of the way that you're leading and the trajectory that you're shifting this district and from a from our family's perspective many of our families have a healthy i would say impatience with the outcomes that we want to see among the students which is a shared desired outcome that i know you have and i've seen through the commitment of the plans that you're you've developed and the communications of where we're headed and so when you say our work isn't finished um i trust you um i've seen i've seen your your work and i believe in the direction that you're taking um our students and our staff and and our group and so i'm excited for the next um chapter of where all these plans are going because i i believe you are the right leader to take us there um and i've appreciated your courage and i will just ask and and push and i know your team pushes all the time that as we all are trying to accomplish the goals that we were hoping for by spring of 2022 as we're looking forward and doing forecasting and budget planning unpacking and trying to look at what are contributing factors to accomplishing those outcomes equitable outcomes for our students and then double and tripling down on the investment that it's going to take in order to meaningfully shift that needle quickly because when you hear from parents and you hear from students there isn't time to wait and i think you've heard that and so that belief gap that is there within the school-based level the school level where we are eagerly awaiting the investment to shift what it looks like at the ground level within the schools so that we can really realize um the kind of tactical plans for all these large audacious um goals that we have for the future so we're in full support i'm i'm so happy that you're the leader that we have taking us into the future within the portland public school district and i i believe in you and also be here and open to collaborating on how we actually move the needle in a meaningful way but in an accelerated fashion thank you very much i appreciate you thank you and lastly matt morton has joined us again
02h 10m 00s
good evening good evening thank you for being here mr morton absolutely it's a pleasure to join you all tonight um i want to thank you so much for the opportunity to provide some comments on the renewal of the superintendent's contract i as a long time portland a former school board member and now a funding partner with portland public schools i've had the opportunity to witness pps's journey with perhaps a unique perspective interest and understanding i remember sitting in your seats and i want to deeply deeply thank you for your time and service to our community like many in my community i'm thrilled to see how the board continues to diversify and how the commitment to racial justice continues and actually grows the last two years have been incredibly difficult i've looked on in gratitude for superintendent guerrero who as we know he signed up for a challenge has experienced challenges far beyond what we could have imagined i've been impressed with his steadfast leadership and his quiet determination to radically and permanently improve our school district as school districts across oregon the pacific northwest and even the country are faced with superintendent turnover and overtaxed workforce and students with unprecedented levels of need superintendent guerrero has kept a laser focus on what's important building the capacity and the sustainability of a system to create the conditions for success he has been unapologetic in his priority for black and native students and he shepherded an investment approach that includes communities of color as part of the solution in my day job at my memorial trust we invest in several of the same organizations at pps and for the last four decades we know that it's been these organizations that have been the safety net for communities of color when so often the public investment has either disappeared or been swept under the rug as i work with these organizations today i hear about the importance of working with pps and all of the possibilities and opportunities that come with that superintendent guerrero has instilled an approach that doesn't prescribe a sterile out-of-touch academic exercise but rather recognizes the importance of racial equity working hand-in-hand with culturally responsive sustaining pedagogy and an instructional framework that that really is there and needed for in terms of supporting our students of color thinking back to my participation in the visioning process and looking at the extraordinary return to school this fall the comprehensive set of summer supports and the sheer number of organizations invested in the success of students at pps these are real life examples of the vision of the superintendent coming into focus under his leadership truly congratulations to the board for recruiting and retaining a national talent who i'm confident will help us realize our community's aspirations for our district and however you know progress continues we're staying the course thanks to the leadership and capability of the superintendent who consistently lives his commitment walks his talk and centers students i think we all know that that we need that kind of leadership and more of it in portland and i really do look forward to seeing how our potential contin pardon me how our potential continues and our opportunities at pps are realized thank you so much for your time and have a good night thank you so much miss powell that's it that's it for our public comments um thank you to everybody who especially showed up in person i can't tell you how good it is to see you here in the room with us uh mr grice so the board will now vote on resolution 6446 resolution to authorize the superintendent superintendent contract extension all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes i forgot to say yes yes all oppose please indicate by saying no and then are there any abstentions
02h 15m 00s
resolution six four four six is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative weinberg voting yes fantastic [Applause] chair i hope you won't mind everyone else got a chance to speak i won't take more than a minute to share some ad-lib remarks here but thank you thank you chair and directors for your comments for unexpected uh testimony from community leaders i don't take lightly your support and confidence i think for 30 years i've dedicated my life to a career in public ed i've tried to lead with integrity whether as a community organizer or a teacher or a principal or a district leader um have always tried to maintain core values that ask my self uh if it's if it's good for students um if it's going to ultimately produce opportunities um and improved outcomes i think and in the last five years thank you for for highlighting uh half of my tenure here has been in a pandemic which is a bit frustrating to me i mean it was an opportunity to lend leadership through it but also i know that we would be a little further along in some areas but i think i shared five years ago in that garden at sabin elementary director constant and then cherbourne edwards were there i think i shared a phrase you know coming to portland represents an opportunity to make an exponential difference i understood that there was an elected school board interested in transformation and the changes that that means uh that that infers and what i heard this evening in your supportive statements uh is is a mandate and i heard a willingness to partner in making what might be difficult decisions and trade-offs because i do think we share audacious goals i came here because i saw an opportunity to take portland public schools to be one of those premier school systems in the country and i think we are on the national level in some of our initiatives and i am excited about you know what emerged as a conversation with students here one day a couple of years ago get to the first reading you saw tonight about climate justice and you've seen our students step up and lead in a number of areas during my tenure here but when i hear this mandate from you i know that some of the work we have ahead um might come across uh as a bit bold maybe a little bit controversial it may mean doing the work a little bit differently if we want to see different kinds of results and so we'll count on each other in those moments to be clear with our community uh about our rationale uh so that we can get to narrowing those uh opportunity gaps um that haven't produced uh the equitable outcomes that i know we want to see which is what attracted me uh to this post in the first place so thank you for that any accolades that i heard this evening i have to give attribution to a very dynamic leadership team our hard-working school leaders are dedicated educators uh who've had an experience as of late unlike any other the last couple hundred years in public ed we also learned a lot because i want to be forward thinking about the lessons we've learned technology can be a tool but more importantly we've learned that relationships are so critical to the learning process that that sense of belonging and care is absolutely critical we see it in the readiness to learn challenges today back on campus and so you will be seeing a budget proposal that tries to prioritize i'm thankful that prior to this pandemic the student investment account gave us the opportunity to make some investments up front
02h 20m 00s
i fear where we would be if we didn't have all those extra social workers and mental behavioral health supports and we need more so i really need to thank the educators and and all of the support staff who every day have have our talented students in front of them there was a there was a night in the late 80s where i got off the greyhound in downtown l.a with nothing but a duffel bag in my violin and the next morning was supposed to be my first day in college and i didn't have the benefit of a counselor and we're celebrating them this evening and this month i had to navigate all of that and i didn't have anything but sort of enough confidence that and that i had an ability to learn that i had some level of talent and that i was going to have to figure it out but it also doesn't have to be that hard i think we stand on the shoulders of many people who've tried to pave the way so that our students are able to discover their passion i think that's what's exciting about some of the work that we laid out in our vision and in our strategic plan things like taking those awkward middle years to discover what it is that you're passionate about to have exploratory wheels because maybe you discover that cte is something you want to pursue after high school or maybe it's the arts which i hope you've seen evidence of my continuing to champion and you will also see as a preview in my budget proposal continued closure of our arts pathway so any student regardless of school can pursue one of those artistic disciplines or maybe you decide you like the more academic route either way you have options as a student and hopefully you go into high school with a better sense of what it is uh that you that you want to uh pursue so you know those are just a couple of examples uh articulated a blueprint for i know that a lot of our work sometimes isn't completely visible to our broader community i think they see under our administration and our tenure here at the dais brand new beautiful modernized buildings and we'll continue to focus on all those health and safety and teaching and learning environments and more are on deck and that's that's a that's an accomplishment that our students and our educators can just feel every day when they walk on campus to work or to learn and then there's a lot of other work that's less tangible but that are the foundational building blocks of the work that we need to do you know things that a school system has an obligation to make sure it's providing a standards-based curriculum an array of instructional pedagogies that it supports and coaches teachers with a balanced assessment system so we know whether students are learning or not and a clear diagnosis of what steps we need to take next it needs to offer a catalog of professional learning and leadership development it needs to have diverse workforce pipelines we've made we've made some inroads there and we have a lot more to do we're thankful for some of the initiatives they're going to keep building out that work it's one of the key themes in our strategic plan so we have a lot of prospective work ahead is is what i'm saying our work certainly isn't done until those gaps are well within reach until our students all have the same broad on and off ramp from pps to pursue whatever passion or gift they want to continue to explore so my appreciation to to the school board for that work ahead uh we will continue to stay focused on student achievement especially those uh for whom uh they've often been furthest from the opportunity of of demonstrating their full potential i'm appreciative to all the educators and leaders and support staff of the organization to our community leaders to our parents and our families thank you for maintaining faith that a counter narrative will be produced here at portland public schools thank you thank you thank you superintendent i think that wraps up our business unless we have anything else to discuss tonight anyone


Sources

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sunshinepps.org/index.php?title=2022-02-08_PPS_School_Board_Regular_Meeting&oldid=10269"
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Center for Transparent Analysis and Policy
Powered by MediaWiki
Powered by Semantic MediaWiki