2022-05-24 PPS School Board Public Hearing

From SunshinePPS Wiki
District Portland Public Schools
Date 2022-05-24
Time 17:00:00
Venue BESC Auditorium
Meeting Type town-hall
Directors Present missing
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Event 1: 5/24/22 PPS Board of Education Public Comment - Southeast Enrollment and Program Boundary Plan

00h 00m 00s
r8505 and i believe we have a quorum in the room but uh director constance is going to need to come to the dice when we do that so it is 505. um this listening session of the board of education for may 24th 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 meeting tabs this meeting is being streamed live on pps tv services website and on channel 28 and it will be replayed throughout the next two weeks families in lent in the last board meeting please listen to her she's she's getting it it wasn't until my now eighth grader lotteried into the spanish cli program atlanta for his kindergarten year that my family and i started to understand lent it takes time to get to know a community and there are over 25 languages spoken at homes of children attending men's elementary this means while kiddos atlanta may speak english or even spanish well household adults may not it is entirely possible and likely that notices to inform these families of the southeast guiding coalition and its work never reached these lent adults i only recently became aware of the southeast guiding coalition's work myself i was not even aware of this 5 pm meeting until this morning when as i was offered a two-minute slot to speak instead of a three-minute slot at tonight's um instead of at tonight's regular board meeting the lack of earnest communication has left has left us voiceless it takes time to come to you this evening and this is time that many in the lent community do not have to give as they are busy working or caring for their family's basic needs and they may not have been able to take the extra time to try and figure out what the messaging that was sent home even means in languages that they don't even know it takes time in our recent march to mary's bill while noting the unsafe route i spoke to a lend parent that immigrated from syria the year her eldest entered kindergarten she came to the states without any english and she has learned english through her children being at school the current recommendation may place a family like hers into a spanish cli program unawares based solely on miscommunication spanish would not serve her as well here as english does as a representative for the voiceless atlanta i ask that the board vote no on the southeast guiding coalition recommendation as is and take the time to get to know the land community better and insist on working with lent to find an alternative to the current recommendation that doesn't further burden that families thank you thank you thank you for testimony maria flores perez maria here rahee ready good evening good evening um uh vice chair scott and pps board members really glad to be back here with you my name is rahee reddy i use she her pronouns i'm the parent of a fifth grader in the spanish dli at bridger and a very active and engaged person in our community and in the work we've been doing in in our schools i'm speaking here today to express my support for deputy superintendent claire hertz's report and recommendations for southeast schools and want to raise additional considerations for the planning process for implementation we encourage you as a board to take a yes and approach with regards to this proposal the yes is to prove this plan that can deliver actually deliver excellent middle school outcomes for students and students of color in our region the end is the commitment to invest staff and finding resources to work with families students long time teachers in the affected schools especially at lent and bridger and of course continued investment and support of harrison park as they transition for our community we really have done a lot and you've i think saw the letter that we presented a couple of weeks ago from bridger with hundreds of parents and and students that signed on we've spent a lot of time working on this issue and one of the things we want to encourage in the end as we stand in solidarity with lent school is to really invest the time on working on the transition
00h 05m 00s
with lent school parents students who are so active long-time educators to make a co-creative plan to support the school and a transition with a yes vote you can actually allow your staff to go all in in working with a broad array of parents students and teachers so they can help co-create the the most robust school and really have the kind of transition that is meaningful for neighborhood families we also encourage you to work with our bridger school community to provide much needed extra support and resources to the neighborhood program as they transition into creative science and for the spanish dli families that are moving to lent do not be mistaken at all a no vote is destructive it is destructive because it will leave a status quo that is not working for families it is destructive because you've really tapped in all of our energy for the last couple of years and we as parents don't have any more to give our students don't have our kids don't have any more to give a no vote is a destructive vote a yes and vote is inclusive it's thoughtful and it will lead to better outcomes so we encourage you to please vote yes and to support the families and the parents and the students to make a great transition in this program thank you thank you um next we have a video from samira carpenter okay my name is samira carpenter my first name is spelled s-a-m-i-r-a my last name is spelled c-a-r-p-e-n-t-e-r i attended bridger elementary school dual immersion program and i'm now a sixth grader at kellogg middle school thankfully my annoying little brother is still at bridger my name is rayna reed day my first name is spelled r-a-y-n-a my last name is spelled r-e-i-d-d-a-y i was also uh i was also in the doll spanish straw immersion program at bridge elementary school now i'm a sixth grade at kellogg middle school we're sorry that we're not here to speak to you in person but we finally get to go to outdoor school this week and we'll not be back in time we're part of the kellogg bipod community that makes up 55 of kellogg his total attendance and 76 percent of spanish dli community due to the under enrollment many years ago dps made a decision to close some middle schools and convert some elementary schools to k-8s it's it was mostly non-white and poor communities who lost access to a middle school we suffered being less ready for high school than our richer non-bipoc peers for many years but we learned about social justice and our classes in districts showed us in the district showed up their commitment to social justice by prioritizing access to a new newly built kellogg middle school for lower income and highly diverse communities we think that this is probably the first time that pps that in pps that so many kids of color have gotten the chance to be a part of a desirable new school especially in a state of our building that's very easy to get to but we think that the most special part about kellogg is not the cool architecture and the shiny floors it is special because it is the first and only intentionally built and staffed middle school in the dual language immersion program in pbs culturally responsive bilingual staff and all departments of the school create a unique environment of inclusion we believe this makes all students regardless of race or ethnicity feel seen and welcome the spanish dlr program is an incredibly diverse mix of income levels races and ethnicities that truly reflect the diversity of our city and especially our outer southeast we believe that the program matches the diversity of the neighborhoods with many of our native speaking families living in the surrounding communities we ask that you please vote yes on deputy superintendent hertz's proposal today we believe her plan is fair and opposed pbs's commitment and prioritizes historically underserved communities
00h 10m 00s
so loop back to jessica eiser or maria flores perez and that concludes who has signed up for public comment okay at this point we've got a little extra time is there anybody else who's attending tonight who wishes to testify and we'll give you 30 seconds to think about it okay seeing no one stepping forward i think we're going to go ahead and conclude this work session we will be back as a board at six o'clock for our board meeting where we'll be taking up two big items are the segc um vote and the budget and some a few smaller things as well


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