2022-03-15 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

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District Portland Public Schools
Date 2022-03-15
Time 18:00:00
Venue BESC Auditorium
Meeting Type regular
Directors Present missing
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Event 1: 3/15/22 - Board of Education Regular Meeting

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good evening everyone thank you this board meeting of the board of education for march 15 2022 is called to order for tonight's meeting any item that will be voted on has been posted on the pps website under the board and meetings tabs this meeting is being streamed live live on pps tv services website and on channel 28 and will be replayed throughout the week the next two weeks rather please check the district website for replay times good evening and welcome to everyone here tonight tonight's a brief board meeting will be followed by a work session with the community budget review committee as part of our annual budget engagement process tonight's also our first board meeting since governor brown lifted a mask mandate to ask you a mass mandate in public spaces including in school buildings and so we ask you to continue to remember to keep the aisles clear and if you're holding a sign to please keep it low as to not block the view of those sitting around you our first item of business is to acknowledge national school social work week superintendent guerrero would you like to introduce this next item thank you chair to pass and good evening directors this past week was in fact national school social work worker week more than ever we're reminded that our social workers are vital to the health of our students and school communities um so i'm going to take this opportunity to to share a couple of related remarks in the past few weeks there have been several incidents of hate speech at some of our schools this continues to be a disturbing trend that we see in the portland community and throughout the country each time one of these incidents happens or occurs we follow our response to hate speech protocols which were informed by western state center and teaching for justice i want to remind our schools and community that our work remains focused on not only following these protocols but more importantly on leaning into our vision our strategic plan which calls on us to build school communities and cultures that are welcoming and reinforce a sense of belonging and bridging between everyone's identities what we know is that the best response is to sustain the work of creating positive and affirming school cultures where our students staff and partners know that they are valued and appreciated and our school social workers play a critical role in meeting the needs of our students and families in partnership with staff from our resj team our communications team school leadership and our restorative justice team they comprise together a hate response team that offers on-site support for impacted schools and later at tonight's work session we'll begin to share with you some of the initial thinking of how our social workers continue to be a key part of the equity investments we're making to support our theory of action to improve the outcomes for our underserved students james loveland our senior director of student success and health is here this evening to share more about the specific role of our school social workers here at portland public schools james thanks for being here thank you superintendent good evening directors superintendent guerrero i just wanted to start by uh saying you know now more than ever we are enormously grateful for the individual and collective service that our our social workers provide to pps students and families um also wanted to express our gratitude for the the school boards uh prioritization and investment in school-based social workers for superintendent guerrero's prioritization and investment in social workers uh over the past two years with with the student success act because of that funding we've been able to add 36 social workers to our our pps buildings that now serve 45 buildings and this is building upon the work that multiple pathways to graduation did in alternative programs for we've had social workers at pbs for many years and feel grateful to be able to add them to our comprehensive schools we see social workers as a critical part of student service provider teams joining school counselors school psychologists qualified mental health professionals as well as community partners to offer a truly robust spectrum of service to our students in addition to the comments superintendent guerrero just read i'd just like to to read an additional piece school social workers build upon uplift and celebrate the strengths resilience and cultures embedded in school communities the social worker's primary role is to remove the barriers to learning so that
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all students can access their education social workers engage in anti-racist practices by working to decrease barriers to learning created as a result of system systemic racism poverty inadequate health care and violence perpetuated against historically marginalized communities we are so grateful for our pps school-based social workers and grateful for your continued support of that program thank you mr loveland do i have a motion in a second to adopt resolution 6471 acknowledging national school social work week so 6 12 to 6 uh six march 6 to 12 2022. director brent edwards director brim edwards moves and director scott seconds the adoption of resolution 6471 is there any board discussion [Music] ms bradshaw are there any um is there any public comment no okay the board will now vote on resolution 6471 acknowledging national school social work week march 6-12 2022 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes i'll oppose please indicate by saying no and are there any abstentions resolution 6471 is approved by a vote of five to zero with student representative weinberg voting yes you'll notice uh we have two absences excused absences tonight so we're not um directors green and constant are excused tonight so it's just the five of the six of us cheer to pass um it went so quickly through discussion i was just gonna add a comment if it's okay please sorry i meant to say it during the discussion but it just went right into the book um i just really wanted to amplify the comments that were made in this year in which our students are back and in person um that you know as i visit schools just the importance of social workers to the school community and the students make a really big and families make a really big adjustment that that's such a key component i also have been in this district when there were very very few social workers so um i really applaud the district staff um for making this investment in our school communities and thank all the social workers for their work on our schools and supporting our families and our students thank you for bringing a human element to our meeting tonight i appreciate i appreciate that the board will now vote on the consent agenda board members if there are any items that you'd like to pull for discussion we'll set those aside for discussion at the end of our meeting mid-spreadsh are there any changes to the consent agenda no board members are there any items you'd like to pull from the consent agenda do i have a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda so moved exactly it's hard without director green here because everybody's kind of waiting a second because he usually gets the first motion um director scott moves and director hollins seconds the adoption of the consent agenda is there any board discussion on the consent agenda and miss bradshaw is there any public comment no the board will now vote on resolution six four six four three six four seven zero all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no and are there any abstentions the consent agenda is approved by a vote of five to zero with student representative weinberg voting yes we'll turn now to student and public comment before we begin i'd like to review our guidelines for public comment first and importantly the board thanks you for taking the time to attend our 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 to that end i'd ask each of us to give our full attention to the people in front of us as they're testifying our board office may follow up on board related issues related raised during public testimony and we request that complaints about individual employees please be directed to the superintendent's office as a personnel matter if you have additional materials or items you'd like to provide to the board or superintendent we ask you email them to public comment all one word at pps.net public comment at pps.net and be sure please be sure when you make your begin your comment you clearly state your name and spell your last name and you'll have three minutes to speak you'll hear a sound after three minutes which means it's time to conclude your comments and before we go further into this public testimony tonight i want to share a special statement from the bridger school community on the sudden passing of a beloved member of their school community mrs collins
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mrs collins was scheduled to speak tonight and offer her testimony to the board it's very unfortunate that she's not with us tonight i want to acknowledge the sudden passing of julia collins fourth grade spanish immersion teacher at bridger this past weekend maestra julia as she was lovely lovingly known to her students was also a pta president at bridger a mother to two young children and a beloved wife daughter sister and friend she was a pillar of the bridger school community and passionate advocate for racial justice she taught at bridger for the past 11 years starting as a student teacher and continuing to teach hundreds of students maestra julia also coordinated richard's student government teaching them the power of their voice and advocacy her former students include now middle schoolers high schoolers college students and grads her impact on those lives has been powerful and and on those in her fourth grade class today this is a tremendous loss for her family her young children parents and sister and also for her teaching colleagues students and parent community and portland public schools maestro julia was scheduled to speak tonight and on her behalf we'll call up natalia fernandez a seventh grader at kellogg middle school she and her older sister are former students of julius and her younger sister is in julia's current fourth grade class she will be followed by connie velasque vasquez a parent at bridger gracias gracias she will be followed by connie vasquez a parent at bridger and fellow pta leader with julia with julia um so would you state your first names and spell your last names for the record and you have three minutes each thank you for being here my name is rebecca fernandez f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z my name is natalia fernandez f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z pps resj lens document states we believe in the fundamental right to human dignity and generating the equitable world requires an educational system that intentionally disrupts and builds leaders to disrupt systems of oppression on friday march 11 2022 pps lost an unimaginably passionate and effective builder of leaders in the fight for social justice in her decade with pbs she empowered hundreds of students their families to embrace create and control their own educational experience and outcome she's had a special dedication to her families of color and an incredible ability to create unique inclusion for every single student she was also our current pta president and several of our student our current board members and the ppa staff pps staff has the pleasure of working with her to ease this impending relocation of our community our dear maestra signed up to advocate for her community today and tragically cannot be here her family shared with us some words that she was preparing and is watching us live as we honor her memory from maestro julia in a few weeks you will be considering a proposal from the southeast guiding coalition to balance enrollment in k-5 and middle schools in this region as you consider the proposal please believe that we can build a stronger pps by creating a reality where there are enough resources energy and good outcomes for all dismantling the myth that the success of one bipod community can only come at the expense of another honoring the lived experience of our communities of color trusting bypaw communities to be the decision makers in their own futures and to know what is best for their families in pbs we should keep fight we should be fighting for more support from for blackpock families not less we should keep in place those programs and supports that have been proven to be successful and use them as a roadmap for how we can serve other marginalized groups in our community i ask that we take the animosity that has been misdirected at scli programs and channel it into a determination to build a similarly supportive programs at a location that serve higher numbers of bipac and lower of ses students we cannot say we are fighting on behalf of our bipoc families while simultaneously ignoring their words and experiences our families deserve better our district mission statement says we believe that communities parents teachers and community-based organizations have unique and important solutions to improving outcomes for our students and educational systems our work will only be successful if we
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are able to truly partner with the community engage with respect authentically listen and have the courage to share decision-making control and resources the loss of maestro julia collins is an unbearable blow to our community to this district and to the planet she made a lifetime of change in just a decade her intelligence empathy and compassion were a gift to all who knew her she survived by her husband chris and family including two young sons calvin and forrest who are treasured part of our school community in her own words to us all you are remarkable you are inspiring you are seen please join us for a moment of silence to mourn this incomprehensible loss of an incomparable mother wife sister daughter friend and teacher thank you thank you [Applause] ms bradshaw who do we have next for comment we have sorry maria connie vasquez see good afternoon will you say your name and please spell your last names uh good evening to all you from the table representative pps and to every person present here and to the general public my name is coney vasquez my name is connie vazquez last name is v a z easy thank you for letting me share the microphone in this place i'm a mother of two joshua de quintogrado belen first grader and joshua fifth grader ambos attending classes in spanish sambar [Music] they're being repetitively heard about the new changes they want to do to the secondary school and to primary there's lots of changes in such a short time escuchado amigas i heard from friends and non-people assistant
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and non-latin parents as well estan frustrados are very frustrated and tired of new plants put into effect [Music] for the we're going to enter in the year 2021. part of the student the kids in bridget community and it's a round for me for me it's here [Music] i [Music] from a french person in the 1800s and the other thing is to listen to the needs of the others i have three questions you guys don't have to answer the questions for you guys in this case are the students that are in the program immersion realm you guys know how are you guys conscious enough to know what is affecting them so the new changes are going to benefit the public are they going to benefit just certain amount of people number three number three [Music] is why are they generating so many changes also so many drastic changes in the schools in the southeast and on this hard times [Music] for kids
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and to remember that our we're helping our teachers and we're sticking by them because the death of the teacher julia makes us remember the hard work the teachers and the love para con family did they give all their love all their time to our kids i really hope there are teachers received the same they're a justified salary and a treatment as well to benefit them thank you [Applause] we have nema cruz who is with us virtually so be brought up in just one moment nima are you there um yes i am hi miss cruz hi do you mind if i don't put my camera on right now that's okay okay thank you and we can see your name you don't have to spell your name but be nice for the record if you want to say your name out loud and then start your testimony okay my name is lina cruz and i am a sixth grader at harriet tubman middle school and i have heard that the superintendent is possibly going to get a 75k dollar bonus if we do better on the standardized test and by us i mean black students first of all and i'm sure a lot of other kids can agree that we don't like taking the maps or the state tests all it does is make us feel like we're always failing because whenever we get a few questions right it gives us harder questions about things that we haven't learned yet and when we get those types of questions wrong it makes our progress go down and now the superintendent is going to get a 75k bonus off of that if you really think about it it makes no sense at all the people that should be getting the money are us if we are improving our skills and doing better on the as i like to call it stress test we should be getting the 75k dollar bonus and if not us it should be going to our school so that we can improve our school with some of the problems that we have oh wait i forgot they're already improving our school by moving it again another decision you guys have made without our input my point is that you guys are making decisions for us without even considering asking us how we feel about it so i hope you guys take this into consideration and decide to change the decisions that you guys have made thank you for your time thank you thank you nima is aaron with you no okay thank you we have charlie schroter hi my name is charlie schroeder uh you spell my last name s-c-h-r-o-e-t-e-r i'm a fourth grader at grout elementary five years ago if you told my parents that i would be doing this they wouldn't have believed you in preschool i was anxious a lot and i didn't like to be around other kids but in kindergarten i was in a class of 21 students that meant my teacher teacher chris could give me the individual attention that i needed to gain confidence and feel comfortable in school we also had an educational assistant in the classroom that year now i'm going to tell you some facts about grout
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groud is a title 1 school with over 10 languages spoken at students homes there are two communication behavior or cb classrooms we really appreciate appreciate all the staff especially the teachers but now the teachers are going to be moved around and taken away less teachers means bigger classes i know what it is like to have a huge class my class right now has 27 people in it i think at the beginning of the year there were 31 my teacher mr mao explained to me that with a big class it is hard to pay attention to individual students it is hard to communicate with individual families and it is hard to teach everyone at the right level fourth graders like me already know how to be in school i'm more worried about the younger kids like my brother james i think he's watching online right now he's in kindergarten this year and he has 17 students in their class in his class which is great next year kindergarten and first grader each going to have a teacher cut for them so the younger kids will have bigger classes which means less attention little kids need attention or else they won't be able to learn as well i know that the average class sizes across the whole district are growing but the average does not not growing i mean but the average does not tell the whole story at grout for next year the average projected class size is 27 students this is the fifth highest average in pps and the highest average for a title one school the next highest average for a title 1 school is 24 students the average class size is projected at 27 for both kindergarten and first grade i know you have to make hard choices about how the schools should spend money next year please choose teachers at grout in every school thank you for listening thank you thank you charlie we have rada wiley soon do we have rada neil mermis neil morris alex freeman [Applause] um [Music] i know that some of y'all heard about a tragic loss that we had in our community and i know that even though this is very difficult for me to do and accept um i think that this is something that maestra julia would have wanted as well and in honor of next month we've been in a process of mourning in our school community and as a part of that process and holding space one of the things that our classroom community about half of those students were with maestra julia last year decided to do was to draft a letter in support of her class this year estudiantes [Music] this i gave students the option to write a letter in english i gave them the option to write a letter in spanish because they're bilingual i gave them the option to write it in both and they chose a more progressive option which is trans languaging this is something that's addressed to her class so it says estudiantes but one of the things that we talked about in our staff meeting today after school in celebrating the life of our dear colleague who was much more than a colleague was also that we're all students of maestra julia it came through how much all of us have learned [Applause] and so with all due respect i'm going to be leaving that part in
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dear estudiantes de maestra julia los we're very sorry about what happened maestro julia was an amazing teacher friends teachers que podrias [Music] she offered help even if you weren't in her class anika aprecia swiss fuerzo durante distance learning including making things fun supposed and how she would even drop off school supplies in las casas de les estudiantes we all really miss maestra julia she was a really good persona she put herself before others era generosa she would help you when you needed help or if you were feeling down isha supported la comunidade bridger as president of the parent teacher association advocated for students equitably with all of you the school board facilitaba student council eventos para fundraising for field study aiso videos estudiantes the bridger [Music] during distance learning joshua remembers night at the museum and distance learning anika right learning about paper football not sure that's in the um gsc alex remembers su aposto durante student council surreal record the science names ascentos que usaba durantes [Music] we know that this will be hard for all of us whether it's students who have her this year had her in years past or just interacted with her we know that it's been hard even for us eventually we will be okay there's a bunch of adults you can talk to but there are also students in our classroom community who want to support you including percy annika violeta diego fiona suriel rosie alex alex [Applause] [Applause] jared lazaro greg myers thank you mr myers gotta find the right pair of glasses here i understand a lot of us up here understand [Music] whenever you're ready uh my name is greg myers m-e-y-e-r-s i am a head custodian for the portland public schools and i have come here this evening to speak to the board about the staffing crisis and the custodial department that we have been struggling with for several years now i have submitted a copy of an email from the union to mr young requesting a hold on new civic use of building permits it also includes his response back to us until we can assure adequate support for these events
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as well as reducing the stress on our short-handed evening staff to emphasize these points i would now like to read you an email from the night lead custodian at cleveland high school to her supervisor goes as this i am writing this email to let you know that the last five weeks at cleveland high school have been physically and mentally exhausting on me and the one one other crew member who works there with me at night as you know it has been me and one other person for going on six weeks i'm not saying that i can't do my job i just feel that it is too much for two people to do i am in no way trying to complain but it is getting very hard to keep up with the demands of the staff who are not the easiest to please no offense to any teachers in the room as well as the civic use of building permits we have been unable to sanitize any restrooms for over a month and it shows we have also not been able to sweep classrooms or hallways for a month as well every day i'm picking up things in the hallways along with large dust bunnies all in all i just want you to know how tired we are and how unhappy we are as well these are two custodians attempting to clean a three three hundred and one thousand square foot building with a current enrollment of one thousand five hundred and sixty students that should be staffed with between 9 and 14 head custodians in in our prime in our heyday that's what would have been in a high school after 15 years as a head custodian i know the sound and the feeling of someone who's defeated and you just heard it those two people are doing their best but they're defeated anybody in this room would be defeated to try and do what they're trying to do i would really encourage all of you who are sitting in front of me to get in your car after work one day drive down to cleveland high school not in the morning go there after the full day of school go in and see what the building looks like and see what they're up against it will open your eyes i guarantee it the odds are too from my experience i'll tell you one of those two people probably won't be working for portland public schools within six months they will leave and go find something else that they can do that is part of the problem we're having where you're being asked to do these people are being asked to do jobs that they physically cannot do day in and day out and it wears them down not only phys mentally but also does it physically we need livable wages to ensure sufficient staffing so our buildings can stay clean and safe it's that simple if you can't supply someone with a livable wage and then on top of it you ask them to do something that has unreal expectations you are going to end up where we are right now which is in a full staffing crisis so i know we're in the middle of a budget preparation i can tell you now for the next few months you're going to hear livable wages from our union a lot thank you thank you [Applause] the young you hello i have some documents for the school board thank you i want to thank the bridger community and seiu 503 in the groud community for showing up and speaking your truth to power my name is beyond you b-e-y-o-u-n-g-y-u he him in 1787 a bunch of white men in positions of power declared black enslaved americans three-fifths of a person in our constitution fast forward to 2022 and we have district leadership counting our black and brown ell students as half a person a quarter person or zero persons in regards to weighted
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eld staffing whether the fte increases slightly decreases or stays the same we cannot count our black and brown english language learners as half people it is ibram candy that defines racism as a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities just as this board was able to determine that displacing one community like mlk for another in tubman was not the way our asian students are not half students our brown students are not quarter students our black students are not zero students our immigrant students and their families are whole people so let's not normalize this racist policy and call it equity walk a day in the shoes of an eld teacher and you will see we are community agents reaching out to the 18 different school languages in our schools we are tech leads diagnosing chromebooks and connecting translation services with wi-fi during home visits we are mutual aid dropping off weekly food boxes to those families in need i understand i am not valued as an eld teacher even though i have served the rosa parks community for eight years my position is one of many being impacted by these teacher cuts whatever pps tries to lead the public to believe state representatives has said the money is already there i should be at home right now fine-tuning my resume and getting ready to interview at other schools but this is my real resume not the performative one we put on paper no new teachers program no colonized map data and no steve ballmer outsourcing can outweigh the student face and relationships we build in our communities relationships matter policy matters english language learners matter i am calling on the two district administrators and dr proctor who approved and made this racist policy to not only reverse it but to expand our ell services keep the newcomers weighted as 1.5 and leave everyone else at one or more this board holding this district accountable matters english language learners bring in 1.5 funding into our buildings dual identified bringing 2.0 funding into our buildings the services should adequately reflect that money and not the superintendent's 400 000 standardized salary thank you that concludes public comment thank you um thank you all for your comments tonight um your emotional comments your passion your interest in better outcomes for all of our students thank you for being here again feel free to follow up with our board manager roseanne powell if you have something specifically you'd like to follow up on and again thank you for being here your your concerns matter to us we're going to move now to board and committee reports i'm going to encourage everyone to be brief as we have a work session following this meeting student representative weinberg would you like to share your report yes one second good evening everyone um i wanted to start my report by shedding some light on what the district student council does as elections at each individual high school are coming up and also with the increased presence of students at each of these board meetings i think it's important to shed light on the important roles that students are playing sometimes behind the scenes at the district level um so the district student council is comprised of one student from every single high school including our alternative high schools they collectively help me make decisions on sometimes how to vote up here what's in my report and also have engaging discussions about current policies upcoming policies and decisions inside and throughout pps i encourage everyone who's interested to run at their individual high school elections are coming up in the spring if you know any high schoolers who are interested please encourage them to run in addition to all this every district student council representative has the opportunity to serve on one of the board committees and as of i guess tonight we have two students on every single board committee
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decided so emails should be going out we have some new additions to board committees next i wanted to talk about the new student rep election which concluded this afternoon and the next student rep is byronie mcmahon she's actually sitting right here [Applause] [Music] [Applause] she'll give a more formal introduction to you guys at the next or future board meetings we haven't really talked about that yet i also wanted to give an update on the national student board member association because we've made some important move mints in relation to that and hopefully this organization will play a larger role in future student board members and the advocacy at the state and national level for increasing student representation and student involvement at the district level because oftentimes it's easy for school districts to say we center students but looking at uplifting student leaders so we're student led having student board members have a vote full vote is just one thing that we're looking to push for also we've started a research institute that will look at how student engagement is used taken into account solicited at school districts across the country i also wanted to comment on the legislative legislation legislative session closing recently and a lot of the unfinished business that we still see that wasn't passed out of committees or wasn't prioritized this session um including that um two very important bills where the racial equity and justice youth collaborative which this is not the first time this bill has been in session but we continue to see legislators not prioritize one student's and also racial equity for students also in concert with that is the ethnic studies professional development with the state requiring k-12 education to include ethnic studies standards it would seem prudent to have professional development so that teachers can actually implement that teaching unfortunately for the second year now we have forgot to include that in the budget um lastly long-term commuter computer science program education was not passed on this session as we know computer education computer science education is a growing field in the united states and for students to continue to be competitive within oregon and throughout internationally we need them to be able to understand computer science lastly i wanted to share some brief comments about the recent hate symbols at cleveland high school um irony actually met with the jewish student union along with other student groups at cleveland to kind of discuss and listen to their reactions so i would like to share that reflection response from admin was appropriate and we've received quick open publicized response especially given how how this has gone in the past however we would have appreciated being contacted directly and been being notified about the incident to give our thoughts this is from the jewish student union in terms of moving forward we don't want the response to be highly reactive and short-lived which can be the way things go with these type of situations we want to work with the school to put continued efforts and education into places so we can avoid incidents like this altogether this really speaks to how this isn't the first time in the last two years we've seen swastikas drawn at cleveland as not even the only hate incidents and anti-semitic acts we've seen in cleveland not to mention the pbs schools across our district we need to continue to not only respond to this but implement prevention methods teaching our students about this hate speech and ways to prevent it we also need to educate our teachers provide training on how to have these classroom discussions when hate speech does happen at their schools and how to engage students in the solutions thank you thank you for saying that i also want to note that king elementary the neighborhood school was sprayed with hate speech inside and outside the building and i've heard of incidents recently in southwest portland schools and they they need to be addressed immediately um and i think i agree with all of the the statements that like having a protocol to follow offering trainings to students and teachers um perhaps at family nights i mean um [Music] this hatred is learned at home and uh so i think you know parents have a small role to play as well yeah and part of our conversation at the district student council was also how a lot of this kind of stems a lot of this um radicalization stems from middle school so actually adding education at that level as well instead of just starting in high school where a lot of these ideologies have already coalesced in students excellent thank you
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um director lowry did you have a report for intergovernmental director broome edwards policy just briefly uh we had a policy committee meeting uh last week and um there are a number of policies out for public comment that are posted on pbs.net so um if people want to comment on them before the board approves it uh they're posted and then we had a discussion about four items one uh some changes to the formal complaint policy uh to try and make the policy um that compress the time frame so that people aren't waiting for decisions uh for over a hundred days uh so looking to make changes that to make it more friendly and fair and timely for our families we also had a discussion about a conceptual draft around parent and community fundraising and the practice of individual schools purchasing basically staff and contracting staff and how we might limit that um something we've been working with chief of staff garcia on and also director um de pass who's a member of the committee uh raised a conceptual um policy that she would like to uh for the committee to consider and discuss in the next coming months uh related to anti-racism we have a number of current uh racial equity and social justice policies um that this would build on and so we're looking forward to her bringing that forward and then finally [Music] just a notice that the recently passed climate policy has the as one of the components climate climate response committee made up of community members and that um director de pass and i are going to going to be working on sort of the application process um for community members and so that will be something that will be coming forward so if other board members or community members have people that they think would be [Music] effective members of that committee we'd them have them apply can i ask a question director remembers i heard you mentioned that the foundation policy which i know we've been talking about for a while i i guess i was under the impression we were and i want to be clear i'm in favor of of taking a look at the foundation policy i think it's something that needs change i thought we had talked at some point about holding off on that given southeast boundary coalition budget issues coveted all the other things and that is a it's a huge change in the district and one that i think is really important um i guess my question is is now the time to be having that conversation um i think a lot of people would say like five years ago was the time so um we have worked through a lot of other issues that were brought have been brought forward that we're effectively working through and i say i've been working with chief staff garcia on a policy that given the issues that were raised about what's happening of how we step into it so it's not a cliff but that certainly um this has been going on since infor an informal practice since 1998 so um i brought a conceptual amendment to the committee we had initial discussion and we're going to move ahead and i'm happy to yeah and i guess honestly my question is do we need to have a conversation as a board about whether and again i'll act we ask if a majority of the board wants to move forward on that now then we should do that but if a majority of the board doesn't i think we might want to pause and honestly my my question is not about the substance because i do think it's important it's about can we start another large community conversation right now in the midst of what is going to be a very challenging budget conversation as well that that this will um add to that you know so again i think um community members have been asking us to have this conversation for a long time and um i've managed the agenda with the issues that i brought forward forward by staff by other committee members and i think we have the space to have the conversation and as the committee chair it was my prerogative to put it on on the on the committee agenda and we're having committed discussion so i i think it would be highly unusual for um the board to be setting a committee agenda i want to also just add that there was discussion in november about taking a critical look at the workload in light of the staffing shortages and the transportation shortages and that was a temporary kind of stop on anything that wasn't student focused but this the fundraising policy is um serious um equity consequences and our are the the way that it shows up in our in our district highlights the disparities between our higher ses schools and our
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lower ses schools and i think i think it's up on us it's upon us to take a critical look at how money flows through our system and who benefits and who is burdened by those flows i i feel strongly about it actually i mean i was willing to kind of uh put the conversations on hold but since it is such a an equity issue and is i think it's a really important topic to address and i feel like i i don't know i haven't spoken to as to what the timing is but um i i i think that we can do both get through our budget conversations and start to weave in the conversations about our our fundraising so i don't disagree with with anything you said i think as a board what we have to get through the budget conversation that's that's legally binding so that's going to happen regardless i think if as a board we say that the foundation policy is something we're going to tackle this spring with all the community engagement that requires i mean it's a it's a very complex process we need we need to also take some things off the superintendent of the district's plate and so i just i want to be clear about those trade-offs and director members involved due respect just because you brought it up i i i actually don't think committee chairs get to drive their own agenda they you know the board absolutely has a say in what what any committee does because again it's that check-in process and if a majority of the board wants to go a different direction than a committee chair i think has to acquiesce to that i don't know if that's where we are what i'm asking is is it worth having a conversation to be honest what we are having the conversation now i'm hearing from you i'm hearing from director to pass i think i saw director holland's not but i don't want to put words in his mouth um about moving forward on this and so you know we're we're close again if there's a if there's a majority of the board that wants to do this by all means let's do it but i'm going to keep raising this question of what what else does this displace if we do this now because it is a herculean effort and one that i think i don't disagree with anything that was said very very important maybe the most important thing although there are other also most important things that we're trying to tackle so so i i appreciate the comments and at the start of the committee's work i did talk to all the committee members i also uh talked to staff about what things they wanted to have accomplished um i looked at the issues that were left over from the previous board like the co the cleavage committee including climate um and i also in our policy our community can bring force policies which a policy was brought forward i've committed to work with staff on it um the reality is the um the draft that was brought forward um i don't know like what the huge community conversation is because the current draft actually the the biggest impact would probably be only to the five wealthiest school communities in this in this district and for a long period of time so i've tried to draft it in a way that to minimize the impact recognizing um you know what is at play with our schools but i also um i say have worked with staff and looking to step into it and not have it be a cliff but currently i say for 20 years parents in this community have been talking to me and i think to other people about the equity of individual schools community and be able to buy multiple ftes and other school communities not being able to do that um so i'm going to say again because i don't want anyone put words in my mouth i'm in favor of changing this foundation policy i was in favor a year ago i was in favor two years ago when the issue first you know was addressed to me i think it's an important issue we have 18 schools that receive additional staffing from this so even if we're willing to go forward the engagement with those schools in those communities is going to be really really important is my point again i'm all in favor of making the change but making the change without a good process and engagement will backfire on us and and it's going to be very it's going to be incumbent on all seven of us to be having those conversations with the community you are losing staff because this is the positive impact that's going to happen and that's a hard hard conversation i just don't want us to understate the difficulty of that and i just want to be clear i said 18 to andrew it'd be 18 schools that would experience loss of fte due to the policy change so when you said you said five schools would experience changes so it depends on the year you guys i'm gonna move us along i appreciate the clarification so those um we would want to know not just the number of schools but where those schools are what the number of free and reduced is uh lunches um and and so we have the who of who's been impacting not just you know at the building level but at the human level um so um more to come on that um it's a it's a good discussion to have but not tonight um director hollins did you want to report on facilities and operations
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we don't have anything to report on um we have a facilities and operations committee meeting uh tomorrow at five o'clock um three things that'll be on the agenda will be jefferson high school school modernization update center for a black student excellence update and the harriet tubman relocation piece so those all be on the agenda for tomorrow at 5 p.m thank you i appreciate that and on that note i just want to say that i've gotten lots of community questions around what's what the status update is of the center for black student excellence and i think that was one of the things that we talked about putting a pause on for now but i want to just say there's great interest in the a pause on from the staff side not the the the development is happening but we have um you know 120 million give or take investment in the relocation of harriet tubman middle school we have 60 million through the bond for the center development for the center for black student excellence the albino vision plan one of our i hope key partners uh has also a center for black excellence um there's the jefferson modernization which has 311 million dollar potential investment and so we um need to figure out with albino vision trust and our other racial equity social justice partners how we can move together with this um 500 million dollar and probably counting investments in albina we need to do it right we don't need to do it fast um but we need to be intentional about it we need to be community leaning community leading and um i just want to i i'm there's a renewed interest from community members on on getting this started and getting it done correctly the engagement piece etc sure thank you for [Music] those remarks because we couldn't i couldn't agree with you more we want to do this thoughtfully we are anxious to accelerate work that has been uh in some ways on pause during this pandemic you heard earlier we still haven't finalized a recommendation for the board's consideration of southeast guiding coalition that was also a priority there's a lot of complexities in trying to come to consensus there that hasn't been wrapped up because we want to include be more inclusive there and i know there's talk of what comes next and i don't think director hollins will mind me asking but we were having this very same conversation this week and the engagement the thoughtful engagement in bringing multiple school communities together just to open the conversation on tubman and so i do worry because it's the same team of people trying to be thoughtful and do a meaningful job with each of these important uh areas of work so i just asked the board to be mindful of that because on top of the budget development and everything that has to happen in the springtime we don't want to drop any balls and we want to do this carefully and this involves many different school communities who have strong input and ideas about the direction that we go next thank you and you know we can't forget those first graders that'll be um you know middle schoolers by the time this is complete so i think director hollins you'd mentioned you know getting those students the little ones involved they're really fun to work with when you're designing um you know envisioning projects that that they'll be able to play with or play on or learn in so that's an amazing a great recommendation and i just wanted to place a marker for that elections task force did you have any updates yeah we met last night and um the task force is going to be recommending to the board that we move forward um with simple map changes at this point so that would be if you remember back um scenario a um which just sort of sort of tweaks the boundaries right now to adjust for the new the new census um psu we did send them back to do a couple of additional changes and so they they made those changes and presented the maps um those revised maps to us last night based on on those um we will be and and they were adding a little bit more data um there was a very specific question about the demographics of each zone compared to the demographics of the city overall so they're adding a table for that and then once that table is added which i think will be relatively soon uh we will send the the psu memo and the the recommended maps to the board we'll be sending you those by email and then um put you in touch with psu if you have any very specific data questions around it and then the plan is to bring this on april 5th for a vote um assuming that there's no big issues again these are just small tweaks and just to remind anyone listening these are about our elections they're not about school boundaries so this is doesn't affect a school at all it just affects where the zones um are um and
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adjusting for the census and the fact that people have moved within our zones and so we by law are required to adjust those to account for that so um hopefully coming back on april 5th and then i'm sorry then we will have much longer discussion uh over the next couple of years about some of the other issues around you know campaign finance allowing students to vote in elections potentially allowing um you know undocumented residents to to vote um and so all of those are things that would require bigger legislative changes but i know there's a lot of interest in so we'll put those on the medium and long-term agenda fantastic thank you do we have any other business before we adjourn for the evening to head to our work session with cbrc the budget committee seeing that there's not the next regular meeting of the board will be held on


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