2022-10-26 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2022-10-26
Time	16:00:00
Venue	PESC Windows Room
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education’s Policy Committee - 10/26/2022

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um we'll just go around and do introductions of um books I'm Ellie Lowry and I'm on the board and I'm the chair of this committee hi I'm Gary Holland I'm on the board of Duty member uh Rachel Lynn paralegal I was waiting for the next thing yeah I'm Julia from Edwards board member and Committee Member good afternoon Jonathan Garcia chief of staff Emily Glasgow senior director of big K5 academics Mary Kane senior legal offensive this large contractor general counsel and we have Cara Bradshaw who's our secretary today Terry you already introduced yourself didn't you no I didn't Cherry Proctor Communications Department and then Robin uh Robin Pharrell strategic Partnerships thanks Robin um as we get started I just wanted to share in this public forum the information I sent to the policy committee and the school board on October 7th as part of our policy work plan part of our work as a board this year is we're working with AJ crabill and folks from the Council of great City Schools to really refine our understanding of governance and to focus on our board goals because when boards behave in those ways um we can see a direct correlation to improve student outcomes which I think everybody around this table wants better outcomes for our students so as part of that work um especially around our foundation policy um talked about that we're going to go ahead and work with the entire board on the foundation policy um have two work sessions on foundations one on November 14th and one on December 6th um all the information for that work session on the 14th has been sent out is that cartoon to the board and it would be public closer to the November 14th yes and so the the board right now the opportunity is to ask questions about all that information that has been shared ahead of the work session on the 14th and then we have time between the 14th and the 6th to sort of ruminate on what we've heard continue to ask questions and then at the December 6th work session will be working together to sort of set a direction and then the policy committee will come back and work with the direction of the full board on um the foundation policy and the timeline was sent out to everybody in the email and is also available in the supplemental uh minutes for the that's a question at the last committee meeting in June said Michelle's not here but she had asked for there to be more Community engagement with black families is that happening Jonathan I mean that was the reason why we didn't move forward with the policy in June because Michelle had asked for more engagement with black families in addition to the engagement we had with um the other yeah I would say if that is the direction of the entire uh board for us to do engagement um we will do that so that's something that could be brought up at that work session and I don't think that's the only reason that that policy didn't move forward well I'm just saying that that was a very specific request that the public so I think you agreed as well I mean I think there was a consensus on the committee so I'm just so that's kind of where we were heading with the foundation policy and um again November 14th will be the work session on that right um we're excited to have Emily here with us today to um help us understand uh some changes that are coming we'll see that we're proposing that we're talking about yes yeah thank you for having us um and I have with us Angelica Cruz who's our new director of early Learners sort of passing the torch and working together on this um so this is actually a proposal that's been several years in the making it got somewhat way laid by covert as did lots of things but we're wanting to resurface it in time for next year if possible um this is in reference to board policy 4.10.020 which talks about our compulsory enrollment and age entrance requirements um we have had a long-standing tradition of having an early entry to kindergarten process in PPS it was formerly administered by the tag office but um about a year and a half ago was moved over to the early Learners Department which was really only created about four years ago but is a much more logical place for anything related to kindergarten to sit and what we've had a chance to do over the last several years is really apply our PPS Equity lens as well as our early early learner core values to the policy which is something we're sort of trying to do with all of our policies at this point um and what we've come to find is that there are a lot of pretty significant
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Equity concerns about this policy the early entry to okay practice basically so the general guideline is that students have to be five by September 1st to enter kindergarten what the early entry to kindergarten process does is allow a bit of a loophole in there for students who are born between September 2nd and October 31st um so if they missed that cut off by a month they can apply to the early entry to kindergarten process which again is now administered by the early Learners Department and then what families have to do if they if they know about that process and they decide to apply they have to then go get privately assessed using a cognitive test and we've kind of outlined that in the memo um there are some sliding scales for that but it costs even with the sliding scale anywhere between 400 and 1100 to get that assessment completed we've also Now Heard lots of feedback from families particularly families whose native native language is not English um that there is there's a lot of concern about the cultural and linguistic relevance and accuracy of the assessment remember we're assessing four-year-olds in this case and so um we've gotten a lot of feedback from families of bilingual children who say that you know their their children they believe have these capacities that this particular test is not a way of assessing those capacity fees so um so we're concerned about the burden this puts on families we're concerned about who gets this information we're concerned about having a entrance exam for four-year-olds um from an equity standpoint and then we've tracked some of the historical data which is in the memo just to look by racial demographic um at who has applied and who has been accepted um and it's it's very disparate um and so and I should say also um we're talking about anywhere between 15 and 30 families that this impacts per year so it's a small number of families that know about this process and apply and qualify and then when we look at the racial demographics um what we see for example is between 2009 and 2014 um 43 of the applicants were white and 65 percent of those applications were approved and in that same time span 7.6 percent of the applicants were black and only 30 percent of their applications were approved and so there's just real concerns around um from an equity perspective again around who is accessing this kind of loophole to our role um and then if somebody knows about it and accesses it like what are the metrics we're using to decide whether or not that they would apply and are those racially or linguistically biased and what we've come to decide based on our our evaluation um isn't there this is not an equitable policy and it doesn't align uh with our PPS Equity statement or our early Learners core values so our recommendation would be to abandon the policy and practice and just set the rule um that students need to be five by September first to apply for kindergarten um we're also excited to say that we have a lot more Pre-K opportunity available to families now um and more coming so it also feels like the right time to reevaluate this and say well there is an option for four-year-olds um it's not like four-year-olds just have to um you know wait a year if they're close to that cut off so I think I'll stop there and see what questions folks have so the what we're going to do is we because this is sort of a new policy that's come before us and um is somewhat of a change um to a program that we're going to discuss in those questions today and that the for us to make a decision we've driven this back in December um and I because I saw in the memo it said to begin January 1. so we would actually have to push that timeline back because we would if we don't recommend it to the board until December then the board can't vote on it we have to do the whole board steps and so that would push it out to like February March okay does that what does that do to your uh program then uh I mean I would say so we start all of our sort of kindergarten Outreach and connect to kindergarten Communications really in January February they heat up after spring break but for families that are pursuing this option they often start asking questions earlier we're already getting some questions we'll definitely start getting more in January especially because of the assessment component they have to line that up that can take months so we'd have to look at the timeline and see if it's realistic um if we are going to make the policy change if it would be realistic for fall 2023 or if we need to hold that another year it will kind of depend where it falls in that Arc in Spring members have any questions about this policy so um I have a 10 gentle question um so I'm supportive of the policy change um
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and I'm wondering just given the rationale that was used for this um last night as I was looking through the tag um identification materials and then I got a communication from a Community member after the meeting about the sort of uh uh well I noted on the data that um there's um are tagidentified students representative of our student population and I got a communication leader from somebody in the community talking about the sort of the bias in the tag identification test so um this is just a general question of the consist the consistency so I say I'm supportive of this change but I'm wondering if we then have and maybe this isn't your space um but if we then you know again in like first grade or I can't remember which grade it is first second grade are like once again testing kids with the biased what could be or is a biased um tests that we're getting sort of disproportionate outcomes and for the same reason why we're staff is proposing the discontinuation of this practice that would it be consistent to be also looking back and I don't know that there may be state requirements on tag that we need but I'm also thinking about being cons you know or just our consistency I think that's a really interesting question tag is not uh in my buckets um and I see the connection you're making and I think the only thing I would say to separate um is I think for a long time there was a misnomer that early entry Decay meant tag identification and it and it didn't I think it just was housed in tag because there was no early entry space when this policy came to be um and so even how the tests were used like what the cut-off scores and all those things were were different um and so from an early learning perspective the reason this might be different is we've also as a district even trying to shift the narrative that kids need to be ready for kindergarten that there's something called Kindergarten Readiness and have really been trying to shift to like know it's Our obligation as a school system to be ready for the kids coming into kindergarten kids come in in all different places and even students who may be very young but pass a cognitive test may have other struggles in kindergarten and honestly what principles will say about this call policies that has often been the case that very young kindergartners coming in who may pass some academic benchmarks may still really struggle in kindergarten sometimes right so social emotional sure there's all kinds of things that go into to kindron so um so it's different from tag and and I think a really inappropriate space to use this kind of testing um with the early entry piece and that's another whole interesting conversation to have at another time I think and I'm sure that Dana narrowbert who oversees tag you know be interested in talking more thank you director Holland uh no actually I agree with this uh Vision uh because I think Force folks to use their Pre-K um options I think it's very important for the development pressure of having the kicks and makes great so I I think this is a good thing um just want to make sure that we are make sure we're getting the word out about the Pre-K piece I believe we still have or that so just making sure that we really get that word out about that option uh for families yeah and we'll um people have space of not making a decision on the same day that something's introduced so that we have time to think it over and public can contact us it just created that space of information and obviously if it's a technical revision that kind of thing is different than a substantive part of the change so thank you very much what do you need from us next yeah we'll see you and we're not having our November meeting as the work session for the foundation policy so we will see okay great thank you so much thank you for your time all right our next um piece is comes from a conversation um Liz and I had sort of post our board retreat oh and I mentioned Michelle is not with us today because she has a new job she's very excited about but it means that she's no longer available on Wednesdays for policy committee meetings so I sent out an email to the policy committee we are going to work on
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um rescheduling all of our meetings December uh on because our November one happens to be on a Monday so that's good so um Cara will be contacting uh policy committee members to um see what works on our schedule so that we can accommodate Michelle because I think as a member of this committee her voice is vitally important so we're gonna switch things around so it's it's always fun we're all busy with lives and jobs and things and so sometimes things change they have to be agile um but Michelle sends her regress that she wasn't able to join us today because of her new job okay so then anyway this next line item came out of a conversation Liz and I had uh after our border tree you know really thinking about that intersection with of policy with our board goals and how do we really think about the policy role when it comes to those things we have to do that are compliance um the pieces that are governance and then the pieces that really um affect student outcomes and it was really fascinating I was at the Council of great City schools and I can't remember what school district it was but they they have like a four-page policy manual because the board policies they whittled down to to really what is the board's role and then they have administrative directives for everything else so they really went on a policy diet and really looked at what is operational that isn't the purview of the board and what really is so um we have a long way to go to get to a foreign policy manual I don't know I'm not betting up not either but it was just fast here this I went to a whole seminar on policies and boards and governments really interesting so um this is going to talk about some of what came out of our conversation about the kinds of policies we sort of tend to deal with here um and ways we can think about that yeah and I think you covered probably 80 of it so um but it was again I think the goal was how do we prioritize the work that affects student outcomes coming out of the board retreat on September 17th and thinking about shaping agendas um with that as the primary goal but also recognizing there's work the policy committee does that is um outside of that arena there are times when the legislature makes a change that requires a change in our policy to be compliant and even if that doesn't directly it doesn't have a direct tie to student outcomes we need to do it anyway we are on you know the continued long-term review of that very lengthy policy manual to have some cleanup and updates again we will I think thinking about student outcomes help helps us prioritize that work but we will also continue to bring forward recommended rescissions or revisions when we think policies need to be updated in one of those two ways and then there's other and we also recognize that there'll be um other proposals that come from committee members members of the community staff that are probably neither in not in any of those categories but still um important so it was we has that conversation you and I had just evolved into those categories we thought that might be helpful but also it's we haven't really put we tried we tried to categorize this agenda what would fall in love like how did that feel but I think certainly it should it's a work in progress and I think policy work one of the things that that we talked about at the council conference was that you know policy work sometimes is a way that that operational things leak into board things and so how do we how do we really be clear on the work we're asking staff to do the time it takes where we're putting our Focus as board members and what really is a governance piece that for their student outcomes and what is more of us getting into operational leads and just as a board the policy committee um being thoughtful about the kinds of things we're bringing forward and where they fit within the sort of ecosystem of the organization and we'll continue to have those conversations about where we as a committee want to invest our time and how would we get connects to our board goals and to student outcomes anything from my colleagues I think that's great yeah so I guess um one thing I'm thinking like impacts student outcomes um I would put on an equal footing is equity um as like a big category and um so yes student outcomes but we have a lot of policy especially like policies that are in you know were written 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 50 years ago and I think we need to continue to evolve them so that would that would be the other thing and I also think um over the last five years there's been an elevation of I mean I for example um I would take
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this what was presented here as more of an equity issue than a student outcome issue so I guess I would like have just like a little bit broader category um also um I think there's a lot of wisdom in our community and our current um and it's one of the four or five you know clear responsibilities of the board is like just the mechanism that you know people can bring things to the um you know just like the legislature there's 3 000 bills passed don't worry there's not gonna be three thousand like but you know there's 3 000 bills introduced and you know at the end of the day maybe you know a thousand aren't going to get committee hearings because the decision is like no we're gonna put that off or that's not a wheelhouse or we don't want to do it you know then some others have committee work and it's actually well we don't need to pass a bill to do this we could you know it's really somebody else's agency and so you know I think they're one of the values of the policy committee I do think it allows for issues to get surfaced before they explode and um it doesn't mean it's the result of the conversation is going to be a Final Act policy or even how it's introduced but that it allows the community to surface issues that and to bring them or board members to bring them into a forum for discussion like you said with the legislature just because someone brings something forward doesn't mean that we have another policy committee are going to act on it but but people can bring those things I say the vast majority of bills that are get introduced don't um become law I agree wholeheartedly and that there isn't a monopoly on identifying you know significant improvements to what we do we would not want any of that categorization at least first cut a categorization too I mean like just the refinement of I think we have a pretty good complaint policy and it can be like improved and doesn't really fall into clean I wouldn't say it's clean up it's not compliance not tsunashima but like we could it'd be better for our families and be more efficient use of Staff time so and that may be something that like if like that's something we've talked about that may be something that the committee like we as a committee then get to decide is that how we're going to prioritize our work and see are there other things so we'll continue to have those conversations and I don't think that this is cut and dry that if it doesn't fit into one of these buckets we don't do it but I think it's saying we're this is some of how we're thinking about the work we do I think cleanup as we're talking about it isn't um in Artful label and again we'll refine those because I would put you know a bit broader than just clean up in some of those revisions that are essential essential and not that it's probably not wholesale rewrite but it is Improvement yeah like and like the policy you know we updated the complaint policy and we're living into it and we'll learn things as we live into it and then we need to make adjustments so I mean I would instead of other which I think is like a little bit so clean up I think there's probably a better word for it um Heather it seems like there's like an emerging issue or like Community surfaced issues or like board service issues that like just other seems like uh I don't know like a too generic did you have anything else um the job done I think you have some uh um thoughts about uh religious holidays yeah I don't know the thoughts is it the compliance trying to put it into that bucket yeah thank you um so uh good afternoon and perfect with our although it's not a religious holiday this should be like cultural events and religious holidays I think we had public testimony last night about indigenous people's day which I think from our LLC students which is impactful so super adorable I'm curious how is this compliance or is there are we out of compliance with some law or something uh I think they're I think it's roughly compliance as we think about First Amendment free exercise and Establishment Clause issues both okay again these are thinking construct first draft not not but it helps us just think about the buckets our work Falls in on the kinds of places we're spending our time there's some students who would say it affects students yeah In fairness cool all right well uh so I'm here to provide uh the board committee and update our work to strengthen
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communication uh and across the district so that we are all uh providing the supports to to families and students who observe some major hot religious and cultural holidays uh Roseanne is uh posting materials on the website um do we have them today so so one a few things here's one document oh do you have it Gary yeah this is I'm forward oh yeah there's more than one yes but there's no slide deck sorry do we have this the deck it wasn't materials she's so rosanna's trying to post her right now but because it's online I just can't yeah is it on board books it came on today yeah I'm just trying to it is oh I don't see it in advance oh there it is okay if you want to give me just Roseanne can you email it if you don't mind so as this is getting up I just want to provide uh just a quick update on work today and some next steps connected to this so uh one I wanted to share that we are uh finalizing update to the PPS calendar which is what just was shared with you here uh as as you all know there is a request that we include religion religious holidays and cultural Services into the district's calendar which we've done here as a draft and as you all know uh there we've we've drafted that put that in there although school is in session uh you know that we will try we'll try we will be very explicit about avoiding conflicts there so that's that's uh update number one update number two is that um our staff has been really uh clear and working at the school level in other words with our principals and have been communicating and providing really robust information about avoiding conflicts uh in fact we created an internal Google Calendar uh that just uh you know automatically puts uh these events uh these major holidays on folks's calendars blocks it off if you will uh and we also included it I included a monthly principles checklist uh and I I want to be very explicit here I think the folk and this is part of our continuous Improvement efforts I will say that our Focus has been uh with school level uh staff in other words with our principals communicating that with them and what we're learning is that it uh that this requires a three-prong approach uh to communicating and I'll get to that in a little bit and a lot of that comes from our conversation that we had a few weeks ago with uh the Jewish Federation under greater Portland uh they reached out to us uh in the spirit of of uh partnership in the spirit of you know PPS can do better uh and so they shared uh feedback in terms of uh what they have been hearing from our community uh some of the things that that we heard from them as you can see on your slide is uh making sure that we provide clear and targeted communication and I want to be clear of what that means uh they noted for example in in one of our they noted that that some of that some major holidays in the Jewish calendar or the Muslim calendar start the day you know the Sun the sunset prior right but but the holiday in fact is the day you know the day of so like January 6th January 6th Sundown starts on January 4th wait a week January sorry fifth sorry fifth and sixth thank you the when we communicate holidays we typically communicate January 6 not January 5th and so so one of the shifts that we want to start making is making sure that folks know you know and we we do it we acknowledge that the the holiday starts in Sundown but we're not as explicit as saying you know families in fact you know might have different activities in the morning even though this Sunday Sunset Sundown the holiday starts on Sundown does that make sense well if you're saying the sixth and it's like oh we can still have our PTA meeting on the 5th but that's not true correct so you can't actually have any literacy event on the fifth correct yeah one of the things that I would be interested in is hearing um just there's a spectrum because um at sundown is not like some
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um I believe you're Orthodox Jewish you would prepare all your food and have that all done beforehand so it would be like saying hey Christmas starts at the Christmas dinner and you can schedule up until Christmas dinner time which is like a Sundown or whatever um so I I think especially for like the two major days which um are on usually on school days that we should be like um think about the language we use because otherwise I do think people will be like oh Sunday you know I can go right up into Sundown and like never mind people meet some people might not drive um once the holiday starts and like they don't have a way to get home that's right the the second thing that came out of uh or a second uh highlight I would I would say is the desire for targeted communication and targeted engagement and what I mean by that is uh what we know is that a large section of for example of our Jewish Community lives in the southwest they attend Southwest schools just like a large population of our Vietnamese Community you know 10 schools on the east side of Portland and so how do we create cluster uh PD if you will or cluster specific uh resources uh so that you know school principals can can really work with their communities to address the specific holidays in those in those communities I was gonna say like for me volunteering at grout when Ramadan started last year the EAS were like oh hey remember it's Ramadan so if you see a kid not eating don't worry about it right don't bother them about it basically because normally if a kid's not eating we'll say oh hey how you doing buddy what's going on today but it was that again cultural sensitivity that they had all been trained and we're all prepared and then they were reminding me who's you know not receiving PD to to be culturally sensitive and they do the same thing with anyone who's subbing right um so that that's the kind of thing where we don't want to put a kid in a weird space absolutely um the again as I mentioned we've been doing work ground work with the school level or principals and to that end some important things to know is that this year no back to school nights conflicted with any of our win the Jewish holidays which is important um um you know but we we know we can do more there are there have been other areas right the outdoor schools I look at all of April right outdoor school yeah and so we are working as you can know in our some of our next steps we continue to work with the community to address that and and make sure that we're mitigating the the impact especially you know as we get into the spring um so again in terms of some next steps and I'll I'll Rush here uh one of the things that was really important uh for me and the team to in meeting with the Jewish Federation that it offered us opportunities to think about what does it look like to engage with our with the Interfaith Council you know to seek guidance from other faith-based organizations could gatherers if you will uh to to inform our process and other community-based organizations like apono like the Muslim educational trusts so we'll be reaching out to those folks uh and and seeking guidance uh so that this can be strengthened and and again in the spirit of continuous Improvement we're actively working right now with our pil Athletics team to uh to make sure that scheduling for athletics it doesn't conflict uh for the next school year and as you mentioned I continue to work with outdoor school or with musd on outdoor school uh go ahead oh um with msdp for me it was previously on the board of mesd and so the outdoor school stuff from my remembrance um because they don't own those sites um that's where they're going to have the biggest hurdle yeah um because they're gonna bid on the sites so just as a note of caution yeah I'm talking to them about that um and so there's other we have you know they they're the biggest one they use them but that's just one of their issues absolutely um so if we go to the well I'll go to the next before we go to the next slide I'll just note one of the things that we learned from the Jewish Federation leadership is that there is a legislative bill that is being uh possibly championed at this let's just at the state level uh around religious and cultural holidays uh and so uh in it it essentially will um encourage school districts to develop a
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a plan for how it support how we support families who need to and honor religious holidays so um we don't know yet who's spot we haven't seen that we tried to find the language correct we there there isn't a bill there's but what we know is that there are conversations that osba uh and other folks are having with legislators on that so we'll Monitor and obviously as we're working through the legislative priorities We'll add that to the list so yeah I mean one thing I would say about that is um if we're going to support it we should make sure that we um have a strong and robust Plan before we I mean just so that we're not saying hey we should have this but we we're not doing it ourselves absolutely my hope would be that we are meeting and frankly exceeding whatever would come down in that bill but we're a little bit in the blind because we don't know what it is yet but we're proceeding on the work excellent and I think the conversation for the future is do we take like Eid off right like where are there are there any holidays that were currently not days off school that we think might need to be that's the next piece of this conversation and I know that that involves negotiation with labor Partners but that that's what we have from our students instructional hours instructional hours I mean it might be an extent in the school year all sorts of things but that that's some of the feedback we heard from our students last year was this is the first step is there more so next slide I just really quick on the next two slides so here is I just want to give you a kind of a sense of how we're thinking about it and how we're beginning to shift communication uh we'll begin to we will begin to shift communication and major religious holidays uh religious and cultural holidays here so as we mentioned um we've been really focused on the school level Communication in other words to our principals about avoiding scheduling important events uh that by their nature cannot be made up such as picture day open house back to school Outdoor School Etc uh I think the next so the next level of work that we're uh is underway is uh communication to classroom level to our Educators and school-based staff uh so that they can avoid you know and make reasonable accommodations when scheduling quizzes tests final exam reviews field trips or other major classroom based activities so again you know well again we've been focused on the principle making sure that our classroom educators other information and similarly now more foundational is all PPS communication making sure district-wide we have our central office departments uh and you know ptas etc etc aware of these uh holidays so using a three-prong approach I think will will strengthen our our uh and avoid you know some of some of these challenges that we've had over the years and it is challenging because like we had a we had we had now that we're changing for Michelle's schedule but uh policy committee on February 22nd which I found out when I was doing planning is Ash Wednesday and that's kind of like my job so I have a worship service that night and I was like whoops um so I have a worship service that starts at seven and a policy company meeting that ends at six so that's not gonna work for me but it can be challenging when we're looking at calendars not necessarily to think about those holidays whether they're our own or others right so I um so she brought up Ash Wednesday how do we select the holidays in terms of what gets like major and I know how we um but the process was for which religions using a constitutional standard but I'm wondering about the um the holidays um so I'm not quite sure how to phrase this but I would say that like um people say hey um if you're a Christian you've got the whole Chris like it's called winter break but it's really like Christmas break you get a whole bunch of days off around it or Hanukkah break this year um and then also that you're like you're getting Ash Wednesday and Passover and Good Friday and I'm just curious like um is there a constitutional test for that or I think the Constitutional standard would be to have a religious and neutral way of selecting the states and and what was the religious neutral way of deciding well what I see I mean what I stand here are the high holy Jewish days the Hanukkah which is not necessarily High holy and then Ramadan and then Ash Wednesday but after and then like East uh Good Friday is also during Ramadan this year so there's overlap just to play Devil's Advocate maybe it's an appropriate term yeah um just you know like we have December 25th marked off as Christmas um if you're a non-Christian it feels like that whole lead up
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and then break a lot of it um is about Christmas and so it just says 25th and then like we've also got those these other ones so I I don't have a point I don't have a point of view but I'm just raising an issue that could be the perception of the community that it's very Christian oriented it says just the 25th but there's no school I don't think we've dug into the history of how those two weeks were identified and why that holiday has two I mean I think that goes way back into some areas that I wouldn't build okay I'm just I'm just flagging that we should ask the question no and I think that's a fair question I think you know and I would say one of the things that and I think part of why we what I I'm advising or recommending that we seek out guidance from some of our the Interfaith council is what was instrumental for me in meeting with the Jewish Federation was that they articulated that although the Jewish faith has endless holidays if you will their primary focus and they were very explicit was Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur and Passover right those are the like if the district is going to communicate clearly and so knowing that they are a strong suit in the Jewish Community I I have a tendency to believe what they're saying to to me so if I reach out to the Muslim education trust for example what would they are or what would they share with us right it I guess it's tricky because you know you know so I guess my bigger issue is I'm saying that it seems to me that it's there's like an over index on Christian holidays um because I know nobody would schedule something on December 24th because it's Christmas Eve um so I'm just amazing issue that I think we should have a great conversation about because yeah I think the the conceptual question you raise is why is the two-week winter break then right right I wouldn't I don't think I'm with you so far that every one of those days is tied to Christian practices or religion but why back in the day because it's been around longer than I have are those the days that are recognized and the movie does not surprise me there's stuff back when Christmas trees were in schools yeah but I don't know that that so you have to do that historical look back to understand that the origin and then probably understand the practice today and why and so as that kind of second does it become secular rights that's a great example are all all of those 10 days created equal s weekdays right and then yeah and I think I mean if we want to have a bigger conversation about moving one hour winter break-ins right like that that is a conversation we could have of saying why is this when it is in our school calendar and is that really the the time that makes the most sense for our students at academic achievement to have a break of that length I mean that I think that's the ultimate conversation right now it's out of tradition and and I think we can say that the tradition it was founded in a from a maybe a Christian world view but that's not the world we live in anymore and maybe never should have been so how do we think about this both that that's a big change for people because I think that cultural thing of a winter break is huge um but I think you know to think to really think like you're bringing forward for us Julia thoughtfully about what does our calendar look like and why like why do we have I want to break here what is best for our student outcomes and that's that's a bigger conversation but I think it's important to have before us while we're thinking about these things yeah and I'm mainly more asking it because um I think many secular Christians don't celebrate Ash Wednesday or a good Friday and so I would just throwing it out there just for a longer discussion I'm also curious on November 25th is that also Thanksgiving it's labeled as Native American Heritage day yes November 25th I think November 25th is Thanksgiving as well November 24th is Thanksgiving so November 25th was the day after Thanksgiving so we don't have Thanksgiving listed though because it's not a cultural this is a cultural Day Thanksgiving is a but Christmas is a national holiday but it's also a religious holiday so Davis yeah um so Nick just next slide just to just highlight the point I'm done here is as you can see like Russia China here making sure the 26th and 27 are on there and still acknowledging that it starts at sundown the first day on this
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calendar so we had more work to do um on keep making certifying Community Communications I would welcome feedback to the proposed calendar Amendment if you will that's in front of me not Amendment but a different way of looking at the calendar so feel free to provide edits and comments to me and we'll get we'll try to we'll not try we'll get it out next week to our Traders and community so I have a question um I really like this please because I just saw it so yeah just giving real-time feedback um it's not intuitive necessarily to turn it over um so uh you know on the asterisk because you're like wow what are all those things um to make sure that people know where they can find where those things are yeah um and it's on electronically you just it's just one right yeah but I think but I but I think we should what we should do is probably 11 by 17 and wow yes I'm thinking a design way yes yeah so then the other question I have is so like right now like I'm trying to see whether something's happening at PPS I go to the website I don't I don't go to look at this I look at this all the time because I'm a parent well I look at this at the beginning of the year and I put everything on it so that I need to have on it on my calendar but then there's some things that aren't on this like Community meetings and everything so I look at that website calendar yeah and it seems like it should be there too because like I think BAC had a I I don't know how like meetings like that get scheduled BAC the climate committee like are people looking at the website calendar if they are those things should be on there because we had a vac on Rosh Hashanah or yeah that's a that's great yeah we'll make sure that it's on the universal PPS website calendar as well I think the board office has also started a new practice of kind of looking at those dates before those Republicans uh for we look at the dates and then we have to see the office to also on their hand to check once you get your customer I can't hear you Rosanna so we've we check and then for the Cub office they we've asked if they could check as well when the request committed to the school site so it doesn't get that far so that's great is there a reason why we can't put it on the other calendar as well I mean so I didn't hear that part of the questions because I'm like oh there's a totally free day nothing scheduled an encounter but the question was where do people look and like we don't know so we have the screening function at the in those Publications yeah they should look and then we have this hopefully stop Gap but like you know Cara has sent me a list of all the potential policy committee meeting dates and I said yeah that works so like you know I think we're still gonna have things you know slip through but hopefully if we have multiple Pathways Julia like you're saying it'll be less likely thank you very much anything else on this subject Gary do you have anything to add oh gosh um you don't have to have anything to add I just like to make space for everybody's voice I appreciate that come on dude oh let's suck this the son Peter is a religious photo observant School in session do not scheduled district-wide events event like sports events as well so bring 22-23 athletic schedule had already been set so there have been preliminary conversations with Marshall about the scheduling that will take place in February of 23 24th season to the extent it's all intra-pil Marshall's you know initial reaction is that most of it works they may football is the one he had to pause and think about but that's just a conceptual level [Music] we can control only the intra-district activities but the question and so I think that makes uh to your point though I want to make sure that in this in this document that you're seeing it is clear um and so I want to lift up some of the the nuances of what this means now right and if the work is Progressive and I don't know what the if there's legislation that may have more influence over Osa than we do right I don't know yeah so juneteen it's a federal and state holiday so why is it on here because I don't think because we don't have other photos I thought that's why we didn't have in front of other federal holidays listed I mean I think we we were framing it as a cultural follow-up day
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for observation to your point yeah it's moved to Federal I'm just trying to make sense of like and like indigenous people's day as a federal has Federal designation but we don't take it off this school day right so that's complicated yeah it's all the other ones are on here coded differently this one just has the religious cultural exclusive holidays are noted here differently yeah I think it's probably I think we should shift it over to the other because it's a federal yeah yeah it doesn't if that makes sense okay all right anything else on this matter thank you Jonathan okay we're like eight minutes ahead of schedule you hang on to that um field trips so this is um picking up where we left off many months ago and checking in about the direction from the committee I didn't go back to look at the oh it says 3 4 22. so in March um we brought uh staff brought a proposal to the committee my recall is that the committee voted it out it went to the board and then it was paused the change is to alter the governance on individual field trip approvals that sparked a discussion about equity and field trips and led ultimately to the budget the budgeting of an equitable field trip fund um there has been some conversation not at the committee level but in other contexts about whether approving individual field trips and it's a pretty narrow category is necessary to give visibility to the implementation of the Equitable field trip funds I think that is um the board can decide what it wants to approve and what it wants to look at I would just observe that that gives you a very narrow look at the scope of field trips that are actually happening that there's a there's a much broader uh population of field trips that doesn't come to you for approval so if you're weighing those policy decisions I'm not sure one fixes the other it's not there's overlap but it's not a complete match so um we just want to know if we you want us to progress with the proposed amendments that were paused for that very important Equitable field trip reason or if you want us to proceed further so my my personal opinion the conversation I'll have as a committee is that I think that the board shouldn't approve field trips and I think the board should get a quarterly of all the field trips so we can be looking through that equity that's that's because I think that Equity piece is really important to see where where the funds we've allocated are going and and who's getting to own field trips and who's not and how we might think about again the impact of that on our students what do you all like so I guess for me when I look at this piece um we know when you say Courtney that that's after things have already happened right so if something is not going right then we're being reactive again um and two because we don't know how the budget is going to be with the Equity Fund we did for field trips I know it's fine right now but in the new budget process of those numbers gets reduced or what happened then what other observation that we have to make sure that we're still Equitable opportunities for too and that was just some of the biggest things that I have business so you'd rather have us see field trips before they happen rather than after sure it happened right now the fact that they don't do it that way sometimes I think that's just how to figure out how to do it yeah so the field trips field trip like if kids are going to the pumpkin patch here in Portland I don't know if kids still do that but when I was in elementary school we went to Pumpkin Patch if that's during the school day then the board never approves that and within a certain distance right but if if we're taking kids to but if we're taking the entire second grade it done away to Ashland for the
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Shakespeare plays then the board would approve that so we don't see the like in town right field trips so that's that's the question is I think we should see if we're concerned about equity and field trips I think we should see all of the field trips because I think that would be interesting to know um and right now we're only seeing the field trips that are overnight and 150 miles right it's interesting because we did get all the field trips at one point in time and um it was some exercise we got all the field trips and you know it does seem like every school goes to the Bonneville like salmon hatchery I mean yeah so I would say like actually it looks like because those are cheaper right um and there seems to be like I say you'd see like 50 trips and it's like oh every Elementary School third grade went to do X the Franz red Factory I know you did that Gary I still have my ruler for my second grade field trip I love that um so it seems like that and so I the differentiator it seems like there's the over 150 is when you really get the inequities of I mean here's what I've heard and observed is like things that cost money or you know for middle schools like getting chaperones for some schools it is a challenge um to for more than 115 miles for a variety of things people's parents work schedules everything else cost um so one I think it's like do I need to see that everybody's going to the Bonneville fish hatcheries like it seems to be happening but where we really get the the bigger I think the biggest equity um differences is you know a several week trip to Japan or the trip to Europe that was what four hundred thousand dollars um for one school with several hundred kids so I think that's to me that's where you start getting these big differences and like then at middle schools like some middle schools didn't appear to have any field trips and others like a way more robust so then that's the those middle schools may be having field trips they're just not the 150 mile field trips well I'm talking to students like they weren't having any field trips so and then there's I mean we have issues like so at Llewellyn we would have field trips all the time to Oak spot like every class did a couple trips a year because they could walk down and like learn about tadpoles right so so that's a they're super close they just walk down the hill yeah um so we do have some of those kinds of things where Llewellyn is uniquely located and I'm sure we have other schools that are like right across the street from France and yeah stuff like that yeah yeah I guess for me I'm looking at two of the exposure piece right when we talk about trips that um like out of state trips foreign travel um no that's when I look at the equity piece that's the exposure that a lot of kids are not afforded right and so as a board member when you're looking at equity and exposure um that's something that I would have an interest in seeing or making or lose seeing or looking at to have some kind of a company that we are allowing all schools to get that exposure right if there's something in Oregon I get it you know um and maybe we maybe we can you know add you know instead of 150 miles maybe 200 miles or whatever that is but when I think about uh but for instance the girls basketball team going to Phoenix right well when I talked with of course not he was like well this is the first time that we actually got some money for doing stuff right and now this allows us to do more stuff um the older kind of things that I think one I would definitely want to know about two I think that's something we can celebrate when we talk about our pieces and we talked about access and exposure you know um he took last year he took a group of girls to the uh African-American Museum in DC right those are those are the stuff that we want to know I want to make sure that that's happening as a board member um and so maybe it could be a minute some you know or something like that but as a Boardman probably really wanna see that because those are those exposure pieces that growing up a lot of kids don't have special kids probably don't get to and if we can figure out a way to do that even more you know that's so that's why I only use a while when you want to keep looking at um again we just are looking for directions so we are moving when we need to move and standing down I'm okay for us to keep
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approving these field trips and keeping them before our eyes I mean I think it's if the if reacting is what you're concerned about yes the approval is a proxy for visibility right as long as that's a conscious Choice again yeah we don't I'm not gonna it's not hey Gary I'm curious how did how did you know that that was paid for by the fund it did it say that are you called hey this is pretty cool play are you getting help we passed the statistics he's like yes and it was awesome you know even the excitement and the voice about it was like cool and then I talked to some girl because they're all seniors so a lot of them play with my dog and stuff and they was like oh yeah it'll be great then we get to go here and they're gonna they're looking at taking a trip to like the Dr and this you know they're doing all this other stuff that they could do now because they're not spending all their money on this one trip right and so I think for something me like I said that's what I would love to see and I think by doing that we could keep an eye on the equity piece and also when we're looking at budget pieces make sure we prioritize in the budget stuff we're seeing stuff every three months or four months and it's you know kind of just tossed over I don't I don't want us to lose that Focus um to be able to fight that it would be nice if on the field trip saying it could say you know sponsored in part by the field trip Equity Fund yeah somewhere on there yeah and that would be helpful because I that would be great this must celebrate yeah once we exercise this muscle for a period of time and like it becomes like institutionalized in in the budget and and the practice gets institutionalized that we're we're doing it it seems like then I think there's less need for visibility but you know it's like comes and goes Board of exchange staff changes um and I think if what you don't see you also don't necessarily vow value things just disappear sometimes in large institutions when people don't have this ability to do it um so it sounds like we want to reinstate line four there that was crossed off all out of state and foreign travel shall require prior board approval with the exception of travel up to 150 miles from the PPS headquarter so my understanding of that is Ashland actually is 150 miles away but it's in state so you wouldn't have to get approval to go to Ashland but and you don't have to get approval to go to Vancouver so as long as you're in the state of Oregon you can go it's the Vancouver this is the Vancouver right but is it and we don't see overnight it's like if they were taking an overnight trip to Ashland we wouldn't see that because it's instinct okay fashion is 100 more than 150 miles I know we did this whole calculation well I don't but it's in state because it says out of state and foreign travel okay we did Heather there was something that we're trying to solve right so I think no I'm just trying to say are we approving field trips to Ashland if it's more than well I think it's fine to help because if it says if it's out of state in foreign out of state and foreign travel unless you're only going 150 miles we spent so much time on those words yes yes and I'm just gonna make you try out yeah so I can't go to Idaho I could go into Washington we understand you can but I know you just have to get approval yeah I'm fine with reinstating four and I'm fine with the going ahead with the other changes yeah adding more students adding students at the beginning that's underlined and red and then the changes in three and then reinstating four three eight three baby so what what do you all think on those changes yeah I just had some clarification on B uh with an overnight look into an international Scripts will be approved on the principal advancement to risk management and the principal supervisor for front approval so if the risk management approving it are there informing they have review and approval but they would not have the only approval right instead the entire language was reviewed but actually risk has to sign off and it's not final approval for some of those because it's it will still yeah it's it's really the compliance have you do you have the safety pieces do you have the housing pieces are you in an approved housing as you have looked at all those I'm sure uh meeting after meeting there's a lot of detail well it has to be approved by the principal and risk management yes it has to improved the principal principal supervisor right so if you say
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that that's what it says this is overnight Wilderness and international trips will be approved by the principal and then sent to risk management and the principal supervisor for approval if you need to make sure the principal doesn't his or her job first and then the others follow I think that's what it's trying it doesn't mean that it couldn't be tightened but it's yeah it's not all at once if we're leaving foreign though I don't think we need the word International because that's gonna that's gonna go through all those things anyway yes um but over overnight in wilderness could be yeah within 10 miles I can see why you're confused they're very about that there's a way to clean that language can you take and out and say maybe approved by the principal being sent to risk management well and the so risk management approves it and the principal's supervisor we could put a period after principle the first approval and we could say once approved by the principal it must then be approved by risk management by both risk management I think we should just do comma subsequently to risk management and the principal supervisor for approval I don't want to do something subsequently in there but I mean versus all versus sequentially how about that's the only thing for me is this comma and then sent to both risk management and the principal's supervisor for their approvals so we we are clear it's plural does that make sense okay so I'll say that again approved by the principal comma and then sent to both risk management and the principal supervisors or the principal's supervisor for their approvals so again three times we say uh plural that's the word plural okay anything else so do we can we put this on the next yes I think that can move to the board are we okay just a quick question so can we put any in here anything to say like the bishop will help make your stuff um we couldn't talk about that yeah the distribution of the Equitable funds isn't covered in this policy it doesn't mean that the district isn't already doing that um so it depends what the policy objective is I mean I think this is I'm sorry Gary what did you ask oh I feel anywhere in here can we put where the district will help financially for trips so I mean it's it's an interesting question because you could memorialize the if we wanted to make it more permanent versus like last year it was a budget note or a budget Edition by the board you could in the policy have something high level which is the district will establish and fund you know at the board's discretion or whatever or a and I forget what we what we called it um and you could just name the fund that could go in that I mean the first sentence the district believes in the value of experiences outside the classroom and Endeavors to make these opportunities available to students the board has established yeah I mean so this is nothing about the the purpose of that because I think that's fantastic I think when for the board to that approves the budget to put in policy requirements on itself for a budget over time is is awkward governance sometimes right I mean you're you already controlled the budget and what goes in there and budgeting through policy that's not a budgeting policy but a field I don't know how many other times like all the places we try to find information to make sure we're compliant is where do you look and so there's a there are value statements and there are instructions to you know staff to execute on the policy and value statements and then there's and thou shalt budget and I yeah so much as an appropriation versus like you know we have in our policy like there should be a foundation for the district um and so to me it you know it's ironic that these words make it sound like we had Equity um before the fund when we really we really didn't um so I to me it was there's like I'm just thinking like legislating you have the authorization and then like the appropriation and I don't think you want to appropriate in policy but I think you can um you can
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um describe a mechanism that would create equity and then then it's up to like an annual appropriation about you know how much or whether there's an appropriation um maybe you could say the superintendent shall build into the budget this right but but you telling yourselves how much to budget scene no that's the appropriation but I'm saying you could say in this policy that we're going to have a a fund like the thing which is the mechanism and then in the budget process that's when it's decided you know zero to a million dollars but you want to put it let's say anyway yeah I'm not I'm not opposed to this I just think it's messy and so I think like I mean the question is does the value statement um speak to the value and then the way we're living out the value is the fund and do we need to I mean I could see a case for insurance running in a policy I'm not like but I just think it's it makes it more complicated um because we're already doing it and we intend to keep doing it and that's but I mean I could see why we might want to put it in there and board members come and go right that's the kind of what I'm thinking about after we're gone after the you know this Administration is gone to make sure that there's something in here for that steal it's outside it might be fine to add a sentence to that beginning we just need to decide what that is and write it if we want this to go forward to the next to the board at the next board meeting so is there a sentence the idea of a maybe draft sentence you'd like to put in there if you move on to the next item I could come up with something to shoot share okay let's do that so we're going to table that right now Julie is going to take a bracket adding a sentence to that first paragraph John Roberts music order two just set aside just set aside non-robbered rules of tables informal well it's I don't usually I kind of I know you want to pay attention to these decisions so I already looked at them and I'm okay you're on board okay great then let's go for it Liz I just don't want you to like not be I wouldn't have offered perfect and again it's it's governance versus substance and they're very different and I'm the substance yeah um two nominations for rescissions one is uh as you can see school demonstrations it's not aligned with our values are approached nope yeah and like we provided the very thoughtful toolkit that actually does a much better job so I can belabor the point that it sounds like it's obvious um and then the second is the community campaigns and solicitations and we just don't do this anymore right so there's like no United Way or anything like that yeah I noticed we used to tell schools they had to do run for the Arts this is an example of a very detailed policy that doesn't stand the test of time right and to get some of this details like this out of policy into ad or something else not for this topic but so those are the two we would propose for rescission I'm fine with that okay Julia in your two minutes um yeah hold on I was just trying to see what we called it and looking at the all right let's can we take a five minute break while you work on that because I need to use the restroom and then we'll come back [Laughter] maybe somebody could find it um what are you looking for the name of the fund like when I when I introduced it it was [Applause] um yeah in May of um who was it like May 9th or thank you I don't I'm guessing this doesn't get voted out today if we assert this language so we probably have time to technically foreign
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because I can't remember exactly what that document you shared it was like May 13th we probably should actually not take this to the board at the next meeting we should probably let our finance people have a glance to make sure we're the language we're adding works um they're academic folks and our academic folks and just make sure we're we're being consistent throughout our organization and how we're expressing this so um Julie what are you thinking on that I'm just going to send this in you guys you can do it later um you can finesse it but it's just like two sentences like and I don't think using the name of the fund I think it's better to not put a fun name in because it may change but just more of a like a description of an Equity Fund in the in the support field trips and travel for schools and then um it's you embedded in there but it's not name so you have to keep changing it and it's not an appropriation so it doesn't get into the messy issue of appropriating can you read what you have I just say the District of established I'm going to send this to you establishing sustain an Equity Fund to support field trips and travels for schools the funnel will be subject to the annual appropriation process or the annual budget process is it every field trip that it that is or is it limited to certain kinds of field trips that will be funded well you can have the qualified since we're not well I don't know that's well what whatever the language that Cheryl had in her um sort of the criteria notices here on behalf with everybody yeah I guess they can still use that and you don't have to try to figure out everything in here alone they have whatever they have our whatever we have already established we can use that so maybe just say certain types of trips I'm just you could put in the ad the Equity Fund language that exists I don't know we'll have to play this I just yeah in Reading if there's an expectation that that every trip will get will get funded or yes and that pot will always be full like right so Cheryl has some criteria and I think um we can keep it at two senses because I don't think you want I think just the policy just has it as this is like the value and then you can have detail on ads and the it's the appropriation happens through the annual budget process okay so Julia sent us some draft language we'll have our folks look at that and um then we'll bring something back at the next meeting and we'll just look at that piece because we've already agreed on the rest of the policy so that'll be in
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our December meetings thank you that was helpful okay thank you uh I believe that we have some public comment that's bad John we do we have um corunda Cruz virtually we'll start there all right hello uh board and chairs how are you guys doing good I like the bow tie back at it thank you thank you thank you I had a I had a presentation today earlier it's from very good news but anyway but um I wanted to um I wanted to propose something to you guys all and if something that you can reconsider um I noticed the complaint process uh as I've been going through the complaint process I feel like it's a barrier um once I put the complaint process in that now I cannot have a conversation with any board members and I was wondering if you guys can maybe reconsider or maybe revise that policy so community members can actually have a conversation with our different concerns what I found is that when we reach out to you guys individually before we put the complaint in it's hard to get a hold of you guys sometimes you guys don't respond and things of that nature so you for the sense of urgency purposes you have to put the complaint in so we can get things moving but then that kind of puts the barrier where I cannot have a conversation with you guys all to kind of give you details about you know what's going on so you're only kind of getting one-sided a one-sided view from the district so once I put the complaint in so now I'm like I feel like I'm in jail so now I can't present any information I can't talk to you so then the only way I can you will hear from me is at the hearing and um I just feel like that's kind of problematic for the community so I was just wondering if you guys can maybe have a discussion about that and maybe something you can reconsider in your next meeting all right thank you for bringing that up Mr Cruz is it true but it is true there were um the history as I recall it was that it was concerned that the board on um the final complaint appeals is acting as more of a Judicial body than a legislative elected governing board and for that reason we wanted not to have conversation individual conversations that some board members might be having that other board members are not and so the final vote on that appeal of a complaint decision there might not be equal information across all seven programs I'm not that wasn't my recommendation on the thinking of the committee and I think part of it was that um you know reports there were some moments where board members were trying to solve problems themselves without staff and there were some like conflicts happening and different people saying different things to different folks so it was like how do we how do we make this as clean as like it's it's yeah it came up how it came up Gary is um Ephraim sent a complaint in and he referenced a video that he was disrespected in and he said just look at the video and I didn't like there was no video attached so I asked him for the video and I looked at the video and it was yeah he was getting called out in an assembly um for a Black History Month and so in a board meeting I said something like yes it happened and then somebody said no it didn't I was like yes it did and the fact that I had the I'd seen the videotape because I because I read the complaint and he referenced it and I didn't see the video but I'd ask for it that the sense was that I had information that other board members didn't have even though everybody got the complaint and could have asked for it so that was there's I have a different perspective of that that I don't want to get into at this meeting but there were reasons that the board chose to do that I think that Mr Cruz has raised a really important consideration um I do want to be clear that the policy is that we can't talk to Mr Cruz about the specific complaint but we can talk about like cbrc and teacher excellence and other things so so I do think it's a really important conversation to have as we continue to look at our complaint process and try to make it um as Equitable and transparent for our families as possible and so that is something we will be bringing up and talking about this year and so I think this this piece that Mr Cruz has raised is something for us to keep
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uh on the Forefront of our thoughts and as we continue to try to make it it's the last piece I would add is some of the discussion on the other side of the decision was it's a it's an awkward people that you all have being elected by the community and be contacted by community members all the time and we can come up with examples of what how it it works and doesn't work well so it's it's not a perfect does it does that means for a staff can't talk to board members as well so one side can talk about the one-sided that's the one-sidedness like so staff versus complaining website I'm not sure that's sides but so two things Gary one thing so I think we get the can I just please can I just finish my sentence I'm gonna say I said we're gonna consider this as we look at talk to you afterwards Gary I've organized this is a conversation we're going to continue to have and I thank Mr Cruz for his time we do have other important testimony here and we only have four minutes left of our meeting so I'm going to go ahead um Miss Bradshaw all right thank you um Pastor I would love to have a conversation with you as well individually if I can bring on to another speaker thank you Mr Cruz Sarah Messier hi hi everyone um good afternoon good to see you again um I was at one of the regular board meetings recently uh my name is Sarah Messier and I'm a parent I'm a second grader at sports um so I'm here today to ask you to perform a modernized policy 0.40.010 emergency Financial procedures after the security event at Rosa Parks this fall I was extremely disappointed with the district's lack of response and support for my school when I looked into the policies related to emergency planning I found two relevant policies one about emergency plans and one about drilling the drilling policies detailed three pages long and outlined some types of drills and months they should happen it was last amended last June this top Tech policy is great and when actually helped my second grader during his actual lockdown event he thought was just a drug perfect however contrast this to the emergency planning policy it's a half page long was last updated in 2002 and direct schools to come up with their own individual emergency plans I know we can all agree that school safety environment has drastically changed it's been since then and I have great concerns that this policy will not keep our students and teachers safe leading emergency planning Drilling and response solely on the shoulders of schools and school administrators is no longer acceptable is not safe it is beyond what school ministers alone can manage and result in inequitable outcomes I expect the district's role and responsibilities around emergency planning and response to be codified in policy I looked around to policies in other districts and really like the policy in Newtown Connecticut where Sandy Hook happened the district's director of security leads the planning and response work in partnership with schools and other emergency response professionals I hope this body can align our policy more because we'll see with this one we've seen violence happen at APS schools already this year I'm here to ask you these questions does a half-page policy keep our students safe and support School administrators does it have page policy ensure that every school will be provided timely and has certain resources to achieve Equitable outcomes does a half page of policy from the Columbine era set us up for success in the post Sandy Hook era are in Portland where drive-by shootings happen just on the week thank you um thank you Julia I realized that I thought the meeting ended at 5 30 it ends at six so go ahead and come back to that comment you were gonna make a few minutes ago but we'll let um Miss Colby Kennett do her public testimony either way it works no it works um I have this for my ADHD brain but I probably wouldn't go off script because that's what it does which uh okay just see already just say your name I'm the chair of the talented and gifted advisory Council and I'm here to address the policy change proposal to early entry to kindergarten um we tagack has actually discussed the policy for early entry and how inequitable is with at least three tag directors but they and we have always been under the impression that they can't change it we can't change it nothing can change and it's not your purview um but we have never liked it uh we do however disagree that early
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entry to kindergarten is not a tax service it is and it's one of the few very few rate and level services available for students in PBS these kids need more they are accelerated Learners they're highly capable learners this is one way to provide them the services they need going forward from kindergarten um we do have a vision for a change in this policy and we agree it really does need to change it's it's just not good the way it is um and we want to become inclusive and include social emotional assessment and support so in order to do that for the kids for whom Pre-K is not enough because there are kids out there who will lose their Pre-K will be frustrating and boring my kid was one of them she was done absolutely done luckily she was three days before the cutoff so we proposed The Following at the application process with possibility of it to the Pre-K page so that every parent who goes to the 3K page can see it start with a parent questionnaire and possibly add a pediatric questionnaire and talk with my kids pediatrician he was adamant that they have identified accelerated Learners highly continuous neurodiverse Learners and nobody listens to them they are good at seeing these kids um Institute culturally competent assessments with multiple metrics like we are doing now identifying later the way kids are identified now I don't like it it's ridiculous there are ways to do it that are not giving them a test and that's it um pay for free introduced lunch students to get these things done great kids who don't have the money pay for it and then um at the school the kid will be going to have admin or some other um teacher whomever preferably from the kids Community assess that child either in a classroom or one-on-one and see if they are socially emotionally ready for that classroom because not every accelerated learner is and we fully acknowledge this is thank you sorry Billy what were you going to say just actually I'm gonna go back to our first agenda item did um we consult tagak about that change yeah I mean I think we need Emily yeah yeah um we we was we never heard about it and I don't know I don't know necessarily they would have because of it's not under exception that it's not a tag service um yeah makes sense so I think when they these are the kind of questions if we maybe we can email Emily um and uh when they bring that back for us to vote out a committee next time to have that conversation are you going to email her or should I oh I don't know you guys oh do you want me to yeah and then yeah so the thing I was gonna say Gary is that we get the weekly complaint summary or every other week so that we know people who have filed complaints that this would be subject to so for example if I see somebody's name on there that I have come have had conversations with um I look to see what they I actually click on the link to see what the complaint's about because to stay within the bounds of the policy and it's like oh they're calling me about the school calendar and actually they filed a complaint about air quality so I can call them back about the school calendar but I if they called about subject of the complaint I have to say we have this process blah blah blah that's why we get that complaint summary um and then the second um thing I was going to say is we had the dis um colloquy last night about the complaint policy within division 22 and that that could be this bifurcation of our complaint policy so that it's the ones that are under division 22 which have a very strict set of rules and the board comes to the board and then a complaint process that follows the division 22 guidelines but aren't about
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division 22 issues and those those may not ever come to the board and those ones that never come to the board like we wouldn't know if somebody filed a complaint somebody could call us but there is a possibility you could say hey it's just the division 22 because those are the ones that are kind of come to the going to come to the board now you could say you would also want to say the ones that don't go to the board you can discuss but you're not supposed to solve because that's not the board's job but it's not like you couldn't answer a question like hey you should you know whatever something that's helpful or answer a question like no you're misinterpreting that that's not what that means and but not solving the problem so yeah I think there's and I guess the the this is thought on the process not you guys are the policy makers but any bit we have towards resolution is a good bend right yes we're trying to so as we think about other categories that would want to have as few constraints towards resolution at any level as we can because that's good for mostly it's good for the families who are trying to get something solved so we're not there yet on the policy yeah I mean for example Mr Cruz sent a email about a complaint that was rejected so I was like oh we can have a conversation about it because it wasn't it was diverted too it was different sorry not rejected diverted yeah um I'm gonna be responded to you but um sometimes it's just a conversation like well it's because like you actually asked for public records versus something else and so I mean that I think it's open that would be open to the conversation if you're like really trying to get people out of this very time intensive process it's like not good time intensive for staff for the individual for the individual and for the board like it's all the better so we we are the December meeting will bring a draft policy revision so we all to look at in that talk about all these issues but I I very much agree that anything we do to get resolution faster than Earth it's good for families okay anything else all right then we are adjourned early which is great I thought we were running late on time and we had like 22 extra

Sources

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

2022-10-26 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

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Event 1: PPS Board of Education’s Policy Committee - 10/26/2022

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