2023-03-16 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-03-16
Time	16:00:00
Venue	PESC Mazama Room
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Policy Committee - 3/16/23

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people aren't you so that we can go ahead and start even if we don't have four of them okay um and I know director of task is in the building um but I'm not sure where director of remote is but hopefully they'll be here soon um so this is on our policy Foundation policy committee meeting I'm so tired um Bailey Lowry I'm the chair of the committee here you want to introduce yourself hi I'm Gary Holland I am Committee Member you want to go down the Roadmaster hi Jonathan Garcia Chief of Staff great name senior legal counsel those large contacts executive assistant uh Robinson director and The Man Behind the curtains Communications Department making it all run for us Julian do you want to introduce yourself Edwards uh Board number and Committee Member um so we had some public feedback asking us to move public comment forward so that folks could speak before we as a board had our discussions um we did that for this meeting we've also now gotten public comment that four o'clock isn't a great time for people to speak and that they preferred it when it was later towards the end of the meeting so again one of those times when we try to be responsive and it doesn't always work for everybody so we're gonna try this today see how it goes um so miss Bradshaw what public comment do we have today we have Solana are you here today everyone's birthday yes I'm here Lana's here Lana um we're gonna have you start by saying your name and spelling your last name for the record and then you'll have two minutes and then when the timer goes off I'm gonna ask you to end your comments okay do you want me to start a video or do you does it matter be great if we could see you but if you're not comfortable with that that's okay too we can look at the the black Square no I'll do it hi I'm I'm uh Lana Keane k-e-a-n-e she her thanks for having me um my children go to Lewellen elementary school and I am here on behalf of the foundation I am the chair of the foundation at Llewellyn but my middle daughter started kindergarten at Lowell and her class was 29 students with one very disruptive child in the mix and as a former public school teacher myself I knew that what made the most impact in the classroom was class sizes and adult to student ratio I knew that um you know with more than 30 or 30 or so kids I was not able to reach all the middle students day in and day out so I got involved in the foundation to raise money to bring llewellyn's class sizes back to a more reasonable number um I felt like as I got involved in the foundation I found out that there's a 33 split of monies raised at our school going to the general fund I felt this was fair when volunteering my time which has a price while building relationships in the community with parent donors by continually asking for money which has a price and giving me monetary donations that my family could afford to give to our school and the larger PPS Community obviously also a monetary price I do realize this entitlement as I hope each and every one of you can also acknowledge your entitlement as we all sit in this position to continually debate this issue I no longer with the proposal of a 50 split see my efforts worthy of my time donations and relationships you keep saying that people should support the fun for PPS as a whole but I think they already can um as a board you emphasize test scores and funding as the be all end-all but I don't think that's all that matters no matter how much money that we're throwing at this situation we cannot always bring up all of the children who are not passing the test scores up to failing um I'm out of time I can see so I had to skip a lot but I uh have lost my faith in PPS and my family will be leaving the district um next school year thank you I'm sorry to hear that thank you scratch okay I love the new blocks that people can see that's so helpful thank you hi as you get started we invite you can you hear me
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yes and can you hear me yes so did you get started okay say your name and spell your last name for the record yeah and then you'll have two minutes uh to speak okay all right hello my name is Jenny mcclister m c c l i s t e r my pronouns are she and her I am testifying today to oppose any effort to abolish the pts Foundation model Oregon public schools are severely underfunded as we all know but the discrepancy between the amount the public schools need and that they receive is important to keep in mind no it is critical to keep in mind when considering any changes to other funding sources for the 2021-23 biennium the state's quality education model for the State uh said the state should allocate 11.2 billion to K-12 education the legislature only appropriated 9.3 83 percent of the recommended amount and it gets worse the model is now calling for 11.9 and Governor Kotex proposed 9.9 billion for K-12 education barely keeps the funding at the meager 83 percent allocated exacerbating this underfunding for PPS is the end of federal pandemic funding and the anticipated continued decline in enrollment resulting in even less money from federal and state governments this is an emergency this is not a test you the PPS board should be in triage mode working on areas of high influence towards your responsibility of ensuring that every student has opportunities to thrive and experience success and yet you have become myopically focused on one source of voluntary outside funding Foundation funds funding which makes up at best one percent of PPS funding but which are doing some real good in the system as you have heard evidence of so what's the issue with this one percent the majority of it is raised by and goes to schools with lower numbers of historically underserved students but friends only one-third goes to other schools most of which have higher numbers of historically underserved students moreover you have heard evidence that this funding may actually go away if it has changed as the prior person just said is it perfect far from it but I challenge the board to build a better solution and demonstrate its Effectiveness and practicality before abolishing the additive system currently in place our children depend on it thank you hi hello can you say yes we can see you and we can hear you and Angie begin today if you would say your name and spell your last name for the record and then you'll have about two minutes uh to give your testimony awesome my name is Lonnie Ingram i-n-g-r-a-m my pronouncer she her I'm a mom to three students at Reiki Elementary we moved to Portland from Texas in 2021 in search of a community and state that share our commitment to social justice as firm Believers and the fundamental importance of public education in our society we enrolled our kids at Reiki what we found was an incredible community of parents teachers and staff struggling under the weight of severe underfunding rather than put our kids in private school like almost all the other parents on our block we rolled up our sleeves and got to work my wife Donna decided to forgo returning to her career in non-profit fundraising and instead channeled her considerable talents and energy into volunteering at Reiki in the classroom with the PTA and as a head of our foundation we saw this not only as an opportunity to help our school but as a way to work in support of the district's efforts to correct historic iniquities via its racial educational Equity policy so we were excited that our work would have a direct impact on underserved students in our community via the parent fund you can imagine then our shock and disappointment to discover that only 12 percent of the one million dollars distributed by the parent Fund in fiscal year 21 was actually spent by the schools receiving grants in fact only half of the schools receiving grants spend any of the money at all this is not a new Problem by extrapolating backward we found that at least 39 percent of fiscal year 20 grants were not spent we raised this issue with you all directly the few of you all that bothered to respond expressed indifference or pointed the finger at the fund as though y'all bear no responsibility for ensuring that the funds y'all require us to divert to the parent fund have their intended impact y'all's appalling indifference to whether this money you are taking from our schools is actually put to use is a slap in the face of our generous donors the debt and the dedicated parent volunteers who put in thousands of hours raising that money what makes me truly Furious however are the underserved
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students who won't benefit from our hard work because y'all can't be bothered to do the bare minimum to Steward this program now you'll have the audacity to ask for even more of our donors generous gifts to language in the bank and maybe be spent someday as the trans mom of a non-binary child in 2023 I can think of any number of causes more deserving of my family's support you all should be ashamed thank you for your testimony thank you thanks Melissa Ryan yes hello thank you can you hear me yes uh you'll have uh two minutes to speak and we ask that you say your name and spell your last name for the record thank you Melissa Ryan ryam I'm a parent of a PBS middle schooler and I'm also a volunteer for the smart reading program at Crescent Elementary School I'm here today to urge the policy committee to do the hard thing and the right thing which is to change the foundation fundraising model to be Equitable and non-racist the current Foundation fundraising model is inequitable and it's racist I know the members of the policy committee don't want to perpetuate such a system I also understand how difficult it is to say no to the privileged parents who are here asking you to be able to support only the children at their own School first and foremost please do the right thing and adopt a district-wide fundraising model that doesn't allow wealthy privileged white schools to buy teachers to reduce class sizes I can tell you for certain in my work with the smart reading program that schools that need help are also the ones that don't have well-educated High numbers of parent volunteers to come in and fill in the gap the schools who need the help the most are getting the least amount of funds under the current fundraising model it's never too late to do the right thing and the right thing to do is to adopt a district-wide fundraising model that provides Equitable resources for all PPS schools thank you for your time thank you for your testimony Dan Osborne hello my name is Dan Osborne o z b-o-r-n-e he him I'm a former Elementary School teacher and first generation college student my mother was a freshman dropout and my father's illiterate I myself am father to two non-native English-speaking children and husband to a first generation immigrant for years worked multiple jobs on a minimum wage due to our undocumented status I'm here tonight because I love my children I want the best for them just like we want the best for every one of our children in the PPS Learning Community our family learned moved to Portland for the dream of our our children receiving a dual language education my daughter's in third grade this year she's had six principles during her time at six principles during her time at Richmond Elementary during this time I volunteered his room rep PTA vice president and co-president of the Richmond School Foundation during this time our schools received the lowest per student funding in the district we have lost two full-time teachers and we'll lose three more next year we're losing our assistant principal our classrooms will have 30 students at each grade level one through five to the best of my knowledge our school has not had curriculum Consultants or Specialists of any kind the only AIDS or assistance have been provided by the community donations the district does not even provide translation services for our Japanese speaking families our school population is over 50 minority enrollment is experiencing falling test scores and we were being labeled as racist and entitled Richmond is the largest Elementary School in PPS and the largest and oldest DLI program it is my understanding superintendent Guerrero recently visited our school and only then learned about our unique DLI model where a student spends half the day with the Japanese speaking teacher and then moved to an english-only classroom for years our community has fundraised to keep this model alive despite fluctuating enrollment and dwindling District funding fundraising last year we raised 300 per student and used those funds to pay for the salary of a first-year teacher part-time assistant and part-time office secretary two of whom were Japanese-American I'm employed to take the time to meet with every Community you represent before making changes to the fundraising model take the time to understand how a 50 50 model will affect fundraising because it will take the time to understand how schools are currently using the money and hear their needs and wants of our entire PPS Community our Richmond School PTA voted to Grant 30 of all funds raised to support Equity measures across the district our community is proud of the equity work we contributed to a foundation we're doing everything we can to support our school our teachers are commuting our children we are not the elitist racist Boogeyman that we've made out to be thank you for your time thank you
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um thank you our um committee will now look at the draft policy before us about the um foundations I know that you know we heard in the five public testimonies that we heard today a huge range of emotion I think people are very passionate about this issue when I came on the school board one of the things that a former School Board member told me was that you know people care so deeply not about their not just about their own children which they do but about children in our community as a whole and I think all of the folks who um are showing up and giving testimony and providing us with resources sending us emails care deeply um I think one of the things Andrew said at the last policy meeting was that there is a lot of in that emotion sometimes um there is quite a bit of unkindness and I think um you know the I think the gentleman at the end they are talking about you know that the racist elitist comments or comments that have gone the other way as well I think how do we I've been wondering this is my time on the school board winds down how do we stay in a place where we're curious about what other people are thinking and feeling um how do we stay in a place where instead of judgment we show up wanting to learn and trying to do better together for our kids um and I think when we care deeply sometimes we lose that that piece of curiosity and that piece of um wanting to understand um and so I think um this policy is one that has brought a lot of emotions to the surface and I know a lot of people have worked really hard in sharing their perspectives um with the board on this so we are we've got a draft policy that was built on the responses that we all gave to the Matrix last time if y'all remember we had a bunch of different options including it wasn't on the sheet but we were really talked about ending the foundations and putting it all to a um this required foundation and ask people what they thought for each of the five areas and then this policy came out of that and now it's time for us as the committee to look at it to make any edits or changes what will happen is we'll discuss it today um it'll go back to staff as needed and then it'll come before us for a vote next meeting um hopefully we'll then pass it to the full board the full board will do a first reading it'll be in a 21 day comment period um and then again the board can pull it for edits and revisions at any time during that time and then we would vote on it as a full board the goal is to get this done before July 1 which is the beginning of the fiscal year for fundraising if we don't get this finished before July 1 then no changes will take effect for the 23-24 fundraising cycle and so there is some urgency that if we we wanna I think everyone has agreed there needs to be reform um so if we want to do that then we need to to move on this if we decide it's not the right thing and we need to hold and wait and that's an option we can explore as well but just a reminder that there is there is somewhat of a Time urgency here Liz would you like or Jonathan would you like to begin with outside I just want to say something let's go to your point about you know everyone's emotions you know or on either side and I think one of the ways that we you know try to overcome those those issues is when we have to call it out right you know we have to call out you know when someone says a statement that this is not a racist issue this is not a race issue as far as you know one one group one group of parents wants to do right by their kids versus another parent who must do right by their kids and so when we use comments like well it's a racist and all this stuff I think that's where we get the issue um that we're having it's not racist for a parent to want to do right by their kids that's not a racist issue it's it's no different from me wanting to do rapping my kids and sending my kids to private schools then any other parent who has the means and want to send their kids to private schools you know so I think one we have to call that stuff out right it's just not a racist thing because someone wants to do right by their kids you know um and when we're also when we're talking about Equity right you know we have to really Define what Equity really means and I had a conversation with a uh some folks other than yesterday or there for yesterday um about this and you know we're talking about this as an equity um disbursement that's 33 but that's not Equity Equity as if if we were getting 70 to go to the underfunded schools and 30 that's Equity so let's let's call it what it really is it's not Equity it's a it's a and I'm just say it's a gift that parents give to the health office some other Financial Arrangements that could be happening at other schools right so I think we really have to start calling stuff out for what it is yes there are privileged families that are able to do
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more for their kids and their kids school that's not a bad thing period whether we want to make it feel like it's a bad thing or not it's not a bad thing for folks to do what they feel is best for their kids I think once we start getting on that level that everybody the ones that want to end the foundation stuff to the ones I want to keep it wave is there all their goal is to do best for their kids right everyone who wants to do best for kids so when we start putting and throwing out stuff like racistness and you know well to do over here and this then we start really dividing ourselves as opposed to really coming together and solve a solvable problem right if we could if if the groups that want to keep the the piece the way it is the ones that don't want to come together I think we can actually solve a problem versus this back and forth to you versus them or this school versus that school it's not about that it's everybody wants to I feel everybody in their heart wants to do what's best for their kids and it's not a crime to do it if I have the money like I did to send my kids to school I'm sending them to the school that I want to send them to and I don't give a damn about what anybody else says period right you know and you're not going to make them feel guilty you're not going to make me feel any sort of way because what I'm doing for my kid because if everyone has the opportunity everybody would do what they feel the best for their kids regardless if the money wasn't the issue now with that said we have to recognize there is you know one of the reason why I got on the board is to be able to give all kids opportunities that my kids was able to have you know that was one of the reasons why I got on the board I wanted to make sure that every kid gets the opportunity to get exposure to get the best education to be able to see and do things that's going to make them a better human when they get older everybody wants that so I think we just have to really look at the narrative and stop with the the divisiveness of them versus they or they versus us and really start looking at we you know as a whole community so I'll just leave it at that and I know that part of the reason I got involved with foundations what I did was that idea of helping other but not not for my school but what could what could we do as a community and as we know it's not perfect so that's why we're here trying to reform it and make it better for all kids so I want to make a comment um I appreciate the director Holmes about this idea of bringing people together and I wonder if that has happened or maybe if we can't do that ourselves if we uh contract with um I'm gonna throw a name out there I'm not suggesting we work with these people organ solutions that brings rural urban and brings disparate sites together to solve what may seem intractable so I had tried to propose that at the beginning of this policy committee year and the uh the three of you were not interested in that at that time of having us do listening sessions and try to bring people together so we've kind of moved on from that but that would be work we need to continue to um I'd like us to to sort of hear from uh I'm just responding to director Collins and wanting that to be out there because I think it's a good idea absolutely um and I I also appreciate this comment about racism um I agree with you um director Hollins although you know I'm here because the what's bothersome to me are the impacts that are predictable right race and and that's not racism by itself but the impacts of our policies are predictable up based on race and income so I felt like the from the beginning what would have been best for this policy was trying to bring the community together but that that is not something we've been able to do so we're going to try to do what we can from the best now and hopefully the next board can maybe take on that work and and bring folks together and do some of those listening sessions I am curious I've asked this before about the deadline it's is it self-imposed is it um I mean I've seen everybody take a deep breath but is it better to get it done now or is it better to get it done well that's the question for our committee so my feeling is that this is iterative and that we've been working on this for like two plus years and I'd like to at least have us accomplish something everyone agrees that reform of some kind needs to happen if it is the will of the board we can we can decide not to do this right now and we can come back to the drawing board after other things um the the July 1 deadline is that the fundraising year starts July 1 so boundaries foundations on schools are raising money and telling donors this is these are the the rules under which were raising funds then we can't Implement changes until the next fiscal year so if we don't finish something before July 1 of 23 then we can't implement it until July 1 of 24. right so but it is movable it is absolutely moving it is it is
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those things you can change sometimes the deadline and some of it is like we may make this policy change and we've heard from Foundation saying if you do this we won't like money will disappear and we might try this and see and then the next board can come back and make adjustments so when you say money disappearing oh so you missed some of the public schools yes so some of the folks were saying that if it's a 50 split our foundation will no longer be raising funds because that seems too burdensome okay so I just don't has everybody seen what that looks like if we at the 50 model if we do that and that it's 75 so if if we forecast that there will be a drop of funds I guess I could share this this graphic that shows kind of what the impacts of that are yeah we got those um is this the same thing about passed out Michelle or is it yes it is yeah we um so this is about whether or not people will that's what is this Michelle that you're sharing it's a graph and it's the change in K5 Foundation distribution based on uh projected loss and where did this come from uh it came from so I think so um yeah so this I mean this group the policy committee could decide not to act on the foundation policy at this time um if we decide we need to do more work on it that is that is always an option I would like to see us move something forward but if that is not the will of the committee then that is not cool Jonathan would you like if he's introducing the policy or zombies large I'm happy to um less formal and then every once in a while I go wildly formatted and then I'm like oh but I said you know called The Man by the first name and the woman by her title is that problem anyway I get in mind yeah [Laughter] so you have in front of you a two you know a two-page document uh again as you uh shared earlier uh this is an attempt to capture what you spoke about collectively at the last policy committee meeting so as you can see there are three major sections purpose scope and policy guidelines so purpose provides the scope or I'm sorry obviously this is the scope the purpose uh you know articulates that uh the board authorizes incorporation of a nonprofit to hold and administer dollars for the benefit of the school district that is similar to the language previously in previous policy it further outlines the role of the nonprofit one of the roles of the non-profit uh and then defines what local school foundations uh are particularly affiliated um then the scope is again to provide rules and standards for raising accepting administrating and utilizing funds from the local school foundations the next area you'll see is policy guidelines broken down into three uh maybe four three kind of subsections one is the use of funds first it articulates the the conversation around the use of funds for school-based staff um you know you can read their uh it authorizes it is LSS only authorized uh organization to raise dollars to funding schools uh that address achievement gaps and inviting the school's Improvement plan um and it clarifies that the fine the local school Foundation state fund positions not individuals however the expenditure for the positions funded by the local school foundations will be based on actual salary and benefits of the staff in that position um and based on what we heard last uh the last mission there are no limits the number of positions funded by local school foundations in addition the use of funds um uh uh also includes the parent fund for hiding schools uh and there you can read them more the administration of the local school foundations uh based on previous conversations with the this body all Affiliated independent uh local school Foundation funds over the first ten thousand will be split equally with a parent fund according to 50 50 split um the next section is around administration of school-based non-profit organizations so as we've talked in this in this group before PPS understands that other non-profit organizations exist to support local schools however funds not raised for ft are not subject to the 50 50 split with
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the parent fund however you know we encourage voluntary contribution to the parent fund uh and donations to fund staff position and PPS can only be made through an Affiliated or Independent School Foundation now I know that there's this this is in hopes of clarifying I think what we were hearing from some members in the community uh um about clarifying where donations uh just to fund staff comes from um Jonathan excuse me this is Amy I just have a clarifying question this is director constant um so obviously foundations that are their own 501 c3s um their expenditures that are at that are not for FTE would not are not and would not be subject to the distribution formula with the district but what you just said about 50 um would that apply to the foundations that are um under the umbrella of P of the fund for PPS so again I want to clarify that that foundations that are under our umbrella of PPS would expenditures that they make that are not for FTE be subject to any distribution formula okay that was what I thought I just wanted to make that clear thank you both questions uh holds for their questions until we get to the end oh okay the last couple pieces around timing of the contributions again this is a standard practice that we recently implemented as staff but codifying it in language and policy language is fine and then the last piece is around one of some of the activity or language we heard around uh fundraising activities one access and admission to school-wide activities hosted by local school Foundation should be made available to all who Express interests and no one can be turned away and then donations to lsf should not benefit any donor for preferential treatment such as a premium parking spot or Locker classroom working for preferences which is not currently happening is that correct well there are no limits on auction items at the current time so people could continue to auction those off okay that's current time so what um folks there on the policy committee what what are your what questions do you have um do we want to go down the row or does someone have something they want to start with I just want to thank staff for taking all of our comments at the last meeting and trying to put those into policy language I I know that that was a big task and thank you for that Jonathan I'm not seeing anyone from the committee making an interview questions we got some emails and we heard some public testimony about the expenses coming from the parent fund is that like what what's the story there I had thought that things were being spent um and then I'm hearing from public that they're they're saying it's not so what people does understand the kind of behind the story there sure uh in uh as well if there's anything uh my understanding is that yes at the beginning of this Academic School year uh the majority I would say the majority of of schools receiving parent funds had larger balances in their uh school budget accounts uh some schools you know again that and that range from anywhere from 20 000 to maybe 80 000. uh so yes that is accurate at the beginning of the school year there were funds not having and I had nothing huge there are a lot of reasons a lot of factors including uh you know a lot of activity during covid uh pause so that was about two years and those dollars those dollars were getting um included in there we made it at the beginning of the school year uh or at some point during uh prior to the beginning of the school year we asked principals who had balances to make sure that they were expending those this year and so many of them made plans to hire staff additional staff or use it for other uh non-personnels I know I remember at some Foundation meeting when I was a president at Sellwood there was some group that talked about how they used it for like recess monitors and recess supports and then like during covid obviously like we didn't need those people or didn't have them so that money was then just sitting so that might that might be one reason why that wasn't special so there's a at some point we've shared uh some data around the use of how principals allocate These funds to a point the majority of these
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dollars tend to be spent on extended hours or you know additional Staffing support can you talk speak to how the um the distribution of those well first of all reconciling those accounts it sounds like that was started um do we have an idea how the when there's Foundation funds left over what the distribution for school looks like you can ask the question are we looking at are we so I'm guessing the schools that are in zone two King Elementary says my closest probably doesn't have a balance am I guessing that right I'm just wondering um the principles have been given the charge to spend that down and I'm wondering how that how that looks and how that's what the impact has been on the schools such as king that might not have access to the additional whatever twenty to eighty thousand dollars do we know where we are right now in the school year most of them spent um I I think a lot of them are that if they still have a balance our hiring staff next school year so okay yeah we you know the the point in time data is what we have and so the best data we have is at the end of the school year um so I but from my understanding because there's still our balances in there well and it's an interesting issue because like Foundation schools can they don't have to spend the money that's in the foundation for they can store up a couple years worth of fundraising and then do a staffing and so can our Equity or our parent Grant you know they can't do that in the same way maybe so it's a little bit of a challenging yeah I I think my my question was about how the distribution of those additional funds and if we know that by school Community are our lower SES schools dealing with this or not is it just a few handful of higher SES schools yeah so that are faced with these decisions sure so I'll attempt to answer the question this way um in in your in your one of the documents again and we have a binder there's the we we provided the carryover from 2122 uh and so you mentioned King um there they had a balance of 26 000 again at the beginning of the 21-22 school year uh or at the end of the 21-22 school year plus they receive 10 000 in parent fund award for this school year so they had a total coming into the school year at 36 000. um we will follow up with you to see how you know because again these deliver in the principles uh budget uh and so what we can do is pull up kind of a a up-to-date record of expenditure around us I know that principles are often like just being in those sometimes in those meetings of them trying to figure out like okay we're gonna spend this on this and then we're gonna use these monies for this thing and it can and then something shifts at night yeah it can be very excited okay so I saw a questions down here let's start with director Holland so we'll go to director from Edwards and then direct for the past so director Holland's what comments or questions did you have about the policy before us so the the 50 50s balloon uh what is what would be the value add for our students with a 50 specific questions the 40 District like what's the average would the average go up about how much they get are we are we factoring in if people don't donate as much I just want I guess my question is it's going to make a difference and what we doing now at a 50 percent I think that's the question right like we don't know if people are going to stop giving and then we also like I mean we've got the the map here from the reform Foundation group of what what it is a look like distribution wise may I walk us through this um if that helps to answer your question so let's just stop start at the top um the bar graph this is the change in K5 Foundation distribution and if you look at the I guess it would be this the second graph to the left I'm sorry I'm left right dyslexic it's the second graph from the left so this is what it looks like at a hundred percent of which are you on the sheets top left corner it would be the top left corner of the second um the second bar chart and um this is if everything was raised today this the fundraising current was 100 of what we've already raised then the distribution looks like I guess what you want to look at is the the the the the chart on the very right the 30063 and please correct me if I'm wrong about this but
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so this is showing that this the the top schools right and then the dark blue at the very far um left is showing if there was a 50 split at the current fundraising levels the schools would it looks like every school would end up with about thirty thousand dollars have I gotten that correct the uh that would be if it were divided district-wide okay not that not the 50 okay this doesn't show the 50 it does so the first one um the first one showed the large bars are what those top five fundraising schools would receive under a 50 split whereas the furthest left graph shows what they get now so let's just talk about done away done away with get 185 under the current and 73 under the 50 percent um no so I'm sorry this is there's a lot going on here the the package that I gave has a kind of simplified version of the um the very next bar over so the one on the far left shows current distribution the very next one shows what it would look like if we changed from the 33 current model to a 50 what's proposed in the draft policy okay if we if fundraising overall remains steady at 100 of what we raised last year and then as you move over that the 75 and the 50 indicated there shows the overall fundraising rate so if and then I see the proposal there at the bottom okay it's a projection of it going down from 100 of the fundraising currently to 75 and then to 50 if it drops off yeah the top the top five fundraising schools and then it also shows what the corresponding Grant allocation would be under the the draft proposal for 15 contribution to the PPS parent fund thank you and this is predicated on fundraising staying the same if the distribution model you don't have this sheet she picture and send it to you but it has so so if fundraising stays the same as it is this year uh the allocation would be 28 000. oh thank you for throwing that up there Cara nice so you've got that and I'll send it to you um and you see you have it as well to look at um but that answers that question Gary is if we get 50 of the fundraising we've got this year that'll be the far right Craft This Is The Proposal of 50 contributions but was it 50 of the fundraising or because that's shown here or is it 50 distribution it's 50 it's the 50 that would go to the models for folks as well and one of the things that kind of mentioned was that you know we with the application from the that's a file that we're doing this year there's about eight million dollars yeah that's giving all schools close right so and having those conversations um couple things came up one um if we look at whatever we do where there is 50 of whether it's getting rid of it whatever it may be this year they will still have at least 100 Grand to be able to the president to do what they need to do for what they need to do with with their students right there and this is going back to well and the money that's being raised right now and 22-23 will be used in the 23-24 school year won't be affected by these rules right so foundations raise money like in 23 24 to use in 20. now would be 24.25 would affect would affect fundraising and it'll affect 23-24 fundraising but correct and would affect 24-25 school year exactly okay so I guess one thing this is going to kind of going back what you said before and um I guess at the beginning we're probably bringing everyone together um you know if two things came up at the conversation one was doing like a reverse pie model uh for instance um if we did the first hundred thousand at fifty percent the second next hundred thousand by 32 that came up as an option and Andrea proposed that at the last policy committee meeting as well yeah so that could be an option um and but I guess more than that is we have a year to really pull folks together like you mentioned before right we have a whole year with to try to hey that's poor you know people who's
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looking forward and it gets them together to see how can we come up with a plan so that would be a lot to deal with this and I'm just really fast committee and was resoundly rejected we can watch the tape so okay I didn't have four comprehended of all of this but I do now I'm giving them and so I am in agreeance with that um but I think you know we we should do that I think that we need to bring everyone together um because everyone cares about our kids and um to really go over how to solve this issue so does this committee then want to I mean do we want to keep going forward on this or is this something we want to delay I mean I in person I personally like I would like to see this get done in my time on the board since we've been working on this for like three years at least a step but if it is the will of this committee that you want more time we can do that I think you can do my thing is I think we can do both I think so too I think we can it's not my problem though after July 1. that's okay I'm gonna be calling you anyway that's fine so my thinking is this if we did some kind of change now and I'm just going with the client model because that's what they came up with and I'm I love when people come up with Solutions uh so that way it's not doing me but um if we did if we did a pie chart like you say the director Scott said and kind of what it was said at the meeting um if we did like the first hundred thousand and fifty percent the second hundred thousand at 33 percent knowing that this we're going to review this the next year and see how it works but at the same time we're bringing these folks together on that we have to have some kind of advisory committee or make a whole new committee to do that to figure out how do we look at reforming the whole system and not just the allotments amounts but as far as you know why stuff is not getting spent and looking at also how do we do this as a whole you know and I always have big ideas about stuff you know we could do a big fundraiser at the motor Center you know maybe it's something that they just come out and do a exhibition game for us or something but you should see the brownies onto the fun I think we can do that I think this is solvable um so that's that'll be my suggestion you know and to be fair I think Andrew said he got the final and he did say that in the last meeting IG in favor if we the committee decided to do the pi model that you know 50 from first hundred thirty for the second or whatever the tapering off if that's what we decided to do I'm having a hard time envisioning a pie and I'm seeing instead of a triangle it's a tiered system it's got strata what does that look like um I know what a pie is okay are we saying that I mean we're gonna just distribute it by percentages how are we how are we deciding what that pie looks like are we looking at the highest need schools giving more of an allocation I'm not so weird I mean that the fund is the body that does the granting right right so it would be we would say Okay foundations the first hundred thousand dollars you raise um we're gonna take 50 the second hundred thousand dollars you raise the 30 is going to go to the fund which is 100 000 we're going to take ten percent or whatever and then that money would go to the fund to be distributed according to the parent fund grants as they are it wouldn't change the distribution side you know we call them the parent funds because they are yeah that's okay yeah everything don't have to be Equity so the parent funds the distribution model would stay the same it would be the the formula around the share that foundations gave to the parent fund would be what was changing share and then I give us a year to really look in depth at how to reform it with every one of the table you know and that's just my opinion it's not a big block I I would be willing to do that in uh if we had a robust evaluation in place um not done by us but maybe done by others and also if we um because maybe our expertise isn't in bringing people together and we haven't been successful at um you know doing those convenings where we would have meaningful conversation to move change that we consider working with a third party that has experience in managing and facilitating difficult conversation around intractable problems um to uh to the end of solutions that work for both parties or I should say all parties
00h 50m 00s
Gary did you have further questions yeah um so when I when I look at this um instead of looking at like equal um like dividing like how we divide up high I'm interested in that on a per capita basis everybody has access to the same pie um same amount of apply whether it's money raised from parents funds or provided by the district and the and I feel really strongly about that because this this money is different than money that's raised for you know baseball hats or trips or whatever this is like actually for staff usually in a classroom which we know makes a difference to our students so from when I when I look at this you know I think last year or this upcoming year part of the Brilliance is we have extra funds and I feel it's less of a you're taking from me from my kids and giving it somewhere else and it's still not equitable and having an allocation from the district to some extent made things more Equitable so that schools in equal positions that schools that have were in similar positions could get discretionary School staff so to me it's like there's a big piece missing because I think the district's going to have to be the The Equalizer because I I don't know that you can you can't ratchet up the money so high that you eventually get enough money and you know a year and a half ago I'd propose something in there that there'd be a budget allocation and there was the whole you can't come you can't tell of one board what a future board to do about a budget but but to me but to me no way that was are going to raise enough money that everybody then gets the same amount of staff so it seems like the the district's role in this is being sort of The Equalizer the equation like I say there was some beauty to what happened this year because I look at the class size Staffing ratios and to me there it looks like principles that may in the past didn't have any discretionary staff were able to make some changes so that you don't see any big really with a few exceptions you don't see large class sizes so I think there's a whole different way to look at it besides just how do we squeeze them out of money that's being raised but I also think it's fundamentally we can't lose sight of like hey we're just okay that sums some school communities can buy more teachers or more EAS because it's our job to make sure that all kids have set so I to me there's this piece out there that's maybe like I'm not I'm not an algebra person but there's another part of the equation that is a district on the other side of the equal sign I knew I knew there was a math person here I'm thinking back to my high school algebra that's too far um but then it would that there's this piece from the district that creates this Equitable piece and I I do think that's what happened this year because it to some to some extent is that people could make decisions like hey we've already always spent our money on an instructional specialist but we're getting one from the district or we had two EAS because our first grade class our second grade class was large and this year in the past years with if they didn't if they didn't get parent fund grants or they didn't get funds or they didn't have parent funds raised they just were out of luck and this year they actually got something for the district so I don't know if there's some equalizer to me that like I say this this seems could be more Equitable on the inputs or the dividing but it doesn't it's not going to lead to more outcomes and and I don't think it's a good thing that we continue to allow un inequitable purchasing of staff so I I think there's some way that the district has to be a partner in it I have some other like language changes or proposed but that's my bigger concept of what is missing here and I say I think this year was remarkably better because they had everybody kind of had their own parent fund but the district gave it to him so what and you're talking about that hundred thousand that's for next for actually for next school year right and I think yeah so what so what are the can we go through the language questions you have and do you have a proposal for the 50 or do you
00h 55m 00s
wanna well I'm just riffing off everybody else's conversation about no totally not so I can we get to some distance okay I mean I could give you my language but I mean and I proposed language last year about the superintendent providing some sort of a fund that makes it all schools it would be like what's happening this year but it's not just a one-time fund or a one-time contribution yeah um and then um I think one of the things that we need to add here because one thing that um makes it hard for people sometimes when they think they're losing something to be open to the possibilities is if they don't have all the data so I um recommend that we have something in here that like detailed financial statements from the fund is available for everybody so that people have the ability to you know there's there's no myths it's like all just there um so where would you propose that we have that language Julia we could put it anywhere it's like usually there's like other other sections or at the end um would it go under use of funds sure it could be yeah it could be a whole it could be like you know transparency or accountability or anything like that let's uh Jonathan what's going to weigh in there Julia no I appreciate it and so as a non-profit organization the flyer doesn't publicize our audited financials which is on the website and all of the other documentations so except for this is a non-profit that the board is directing funds into so I think we can also put some standards in um like I say I think that just dispels a lot of people's um you know thinking about what's happening and just makes it all transparent and I don't see any reason why we wouldn't do that because yeah I think just want to clarify that we are being transparent I think I hear what you're saying I'm not trying to say you're transparent I'm just saying there's not a place where you can like waiting for a 990 or the level of detail on the 990 is not going to answer ongoing questions during the budget cycle so it seems like just having real-time financial statement detail financial statements that anybody can see and again I while the fund is a separate 501c3 it was created by the board and we're direct through our policy directing funds to it that would be the perfect use of my turn I think and I think one of the questions as we think about you know the PBS fund is very very um run by shoestring or like you know how how do we also think about how how do we if we're we're thinking about having listening sessions if we're thinking about asking more from the fund which is fine how do we then make sure we're adequately funding the staff to do that but those are separate questions but I do think we can put in here that financial information from the fund is publicly available oh man add that language so then I also had a question about organizations there's a on the second page there's this the sentence that starts if any non-profit organization raises money and well below the second seconds sentences organizations must provide clear information to potential donors on all the intended uses of funds raise what is I'm thinking having having been in schools and raised money like stuff comes up um or there's a decision to make changes what what what is what does that mean like clear information is the beginning of the year like this is what we're raising money for and then you can't change it so sometimes I'm guessing this is what this is going to I'll just speak for my own experience and then maybe you can answer Jonathan sometimes uh schools play past unless with the rules and there may be a fundraising event over here and then the money goes from one organization to the other without necessarily donor awareness about What entity the funds are going to this is like the intended uses right well the the attended uses for Staffing rather than Chromebooks is that what it means so like a PTA might raise money but then they give it to the foundation without telling the people who who are donating to the PTA that that's where it's coming I think we should just specifically call that out then if that's if like whether it's for an FTE purchase because yeah because otherwise this could be like okay at the beginning of the year we need all these science kits and then all of a sudden you something happens and really you need you want like the replacement for busy playground equipment well I don't think it says at the beginning of the year it just says the organizations must provide clear information to potential donors on the intended use so if if we're raising it
01h 00m 00s
for Teacher grants and then we end up okay we're gonna use this money for science kits but it's I think it's the the switching from organizations is more worried about so maybe it's there to do then we should if it's an anti-issue we should say that it's just it's just confusing and I know that like yeah things aren't always a straight line and then the the other thing is that I think would actually create a lot more um buy-in again um buying for like the host Community School Community is that the fund for PPS have um board members from each cluster um so that there's this sense of like Hayward it's all that's all of us and we either may be recipients or we may be maybe donors but we're all in it we all we all have visibility and we all can be participate in the discussion and we we all also can understand each other better if we're all sitting at the table um I mean listening to some of the public comment and then listening to the Round Table about people's view of like fundraising well if we just taught people how to fundraise they could just raise you know 200 000 and then other people you know saying well like we don't have people who can write you know thousand dollar checks so getting everybody to the same table to me that that would be a long-term benefit um but again my more fundamental issue is I don't think a change in the rate gets you Equitable um FTE supports for for schools um I think the district has to step up and commit in some way I'm sure staff can think the way to do that but I would say I also agree that the percent distribution isn't getting us to where I think we want to be as a community and I also wonder somewhat facetiously if it's easier to convene people and try to get the entire community on board with having kids have the equal opportunity and access to field trips and and enriching activities than it is to deal with this policy like I'd like to see our community agree that all of our kids should meet the four goals and and Beyond and so I'm not sure if this is the mechanism to get us there I think it's well intentioned but I don't think that 50 percent is going to do what I what I would like to see I don't think the 50 is going to create the end can I ask why you uh came down on 50 of a lot of living men on fifty percent oh because I didn't see the last column that happened at school-wide I kept saying that right over and over again at the last time I'm sorry I'm challenged okay and I also can change my mind absolutely Julia you also came down at the 50 at the last meeting and I'm just curious about that as well Foundation what I would like is every school to have be able to have a good Equitable amounts and if we want to keep if we want to keep parent Foundation foundations then my which seems like the board wants that then my support will be the district then provides resources to the other schools that can't fundraise to be able to buy the same amount of staff um would you I was concerned are you willing with so we have kind of two proposals on the with sort of three proposal on the table about the uh distribution or the share piece one is um 50 one is the inverted Pi triangle magic of director Hollins that was Jeremy Jeremy yeah and then we've got the idea of this doesn't go far enough to so what I'm wondering is to get if to get this out of committee what is it we want to say to staff just to direct them forward would would you director from Edwards and director to pass would you vote this out of committee at 50 or is that a non-starter for you because if if we can't get three votes out of committee then we can't take it to the full board now you can vote it out of committee and still vote no when it comes to the full board right just that doesn't behold you to saying you might say I have a different perspective I don't think we have the board votes for it so I wanted to go to the full board to have the discussion right so I just want to be clear because you vote Yes on it here doesn't mean you have to vote Yes on it as a full board I'm just trying as the policy chair to make something happen I'm wanting to make sure we have we're working on something that has legs rather than something that won't ever make it out of committee it just sounds like we're so far off well let me I just got a couple clumpy and something to say so what I hear is we're trying to get Equitable Solutions out of a pie that's never going to be an equitable pie so I think we need to make sure that you know what I hear with the director remembers is saying is you you talk about more about Equalization and that's a different conversation than
01h 05m 00s
Equity right so we're talking about those Equitable basis not on a but if it but if you're talking about you know the district make up the same amount that another school gets to be able to buy their own FTE that's more of to me it sounds like more Equalization model versus an equity model the equity model like the equity funding model that we have for our district that's an equitable model where you have you know more money going to a school that's underserved versus schools that are not under but this model Gary this model this is not Equitable well yeah but it's never going to be so that's like what I'm saying if I'm not saying this if this is never going to be Equitable that's like me saying okay Julia you give me 70 of your income that's Equitable because my income is not where yours is you'd be surprised you know like if we're talking about Equitable that's edible and if I'm if I'm donating if I'm donating to my school I'm not gonna for my kids even though I know other kids at the school will benefit I'm not going on one 70 of my money going to another school because this is my money this is not the district money this is not either really think about what we talk about Equitable versus Equalization I'm not talking about Equalization I'm talking about if you have two schools that have similar demographics say um students that have students of color or free induced lunch students they have the same number one has a foundation and is able to buy staff and the other one doesn't there be some Equitable because the students why would the students be treated equally if if not because Equalization not Equitable okay and I'm saying okay but if you were if you then had a school with 10 they would be less there we get less now I I'm not disagreeing with you I'm just I'm just going to assembly but all what I'm saying is that you know if if I'm giving to a school why should I be Equitable with my dollars for my kids at my school I'm saying the district right so you mean so I guess my question is with the Equitable model that we're already using is in the district already being equitable no because then we put an inequitable thing on top of it that's that's the problems we have an equity formula and then what we lay on top of it is here are these schools that can then purchase additional staff so Haley Haley I'd like to jump in here sorry I've been waiting for a really long time yeah I will get to you and I want us to move forward Gary did you but I want to be I want to be really careful about continuing to perpetuate misinformation we have to be honest here oh okay so so oh wait one second so give me one second Gary Amy what is there a specific I mean what I said was this is one percent so as we're talking about I can say yes okay Amy what was the misinformation that you wanted to address so one of the things that's been really challenging about this Foundation conversation since we it's Inception is that a lot of really well-meaning parents believe that schools with foundations um have more and are doing more and offering more courses within their schools with the you know 0.5 or 1 or even two FTE that they're able to buy and we know that that is not the case because of our Equitable funding formula and so when we look at even schools with foundations we know that they do not have extra but those those Foundation dollars are being applied to supplement the district funding formula which I completely report but they still end up having the lowest student to teacher or the highest student to teacher ratios in the whole district and we see a difference in outcomes right that's right when we talk about those dollars amount when we use admirable funding and I looked at like the 17th tools that the last group when we're talking about the outcomes for those Equitable funding models is different it's not about the dollars it's about the outcomes and I think we get can I think we mix up the the conversation when we say okay well they're not getting the same amount the outcomes the the outcomes that we're looking for that is not about dollars is about the achievement piece then when you look at those 17 schools and you look at their performance ratings their kids even at the lower amounts have still done average or above the performance Majors that we're asking for
01h 10m 00s
so I don't want to I don't want to be yeah let me so as chair I just want to say y'all are making me have a lot of empathy for my Seminary professors because when we would have arguments in class about biblical interpretation it's a little like this right there's a lot of ways to look at things there's a lot of data points there's a lot of like you know places to stand as we look Michelle what were you gonna say can we use a unit of measure that's outcome based rather than director Holland's point is the question is does equalizing the spend first school make a difference or do we look at outcomes and and translate um what's the word index outcomes to two dollars yes does that make sense yes so what I'm going to ask first so we're measuring outcomes not dollars for today for where we are my question was do we have the votes to get this out of committee at 50 percent do we want to look at the graduated percentages as an option reverse pie whatever Gary wants to call it so those are the two those are the two things before us right now so I would vote for either of those to move them out of committee to the full board Gary where would you be uh me too okay director from Edwards what did you say Florida for the reverse you would reverse for the reverse but not for the 50 yeah I just I just I'm just trying to make it make sense and I haven't been able to make it make sense okay yes so you're on reverse pie but not on 50. I'm gonna hear about this this fifty percent okay Vector Edwards what would you vote out of committee again that doesn't tie you to a vote at the full board but yeah I'll bring language next meeting in the interim um on the what I think is a not an equalizer an equitableizer so you would you you would do something different the director of medicine if you're saying not 50 or the pie but something different yeah what like I say I don't think 50 gets you right the piece and also there's some other languages language that I wouldn't want to oh so I'm not stuck on like hey 50 and like we're done so what so what's can you share without other languages I know you've got some notes there what I shared some of it already um so yeah if you could send that uh today that would be great because I know this is a we want to be able to rework things and get it out to people as quickly as possible um Michelle I would say that I feel like it needs a lot more work okay I'm I wouldn't be in favor I don't understand the inverted um triangle what we're calling an inverted triangle or a pie chart how that's different than the 50 distribution in terms of total dollars I don't understand the math which is saying a lot yeah well because I'm pretty good at math it just it would um so so yeah I mean I understand the formula yeah I don't understand what the result what the results I feel like it needs some work I think I mean I think the results is going to be minimal minimal regardless of I think it for me it solves two things one is that you're still able to incentivize the donors that we have to continue donating and then two and all this is for me wraps around this piece that Amy said later on earlier on that all this one is temporary and as we until we get everybody together none of this stuff will work if we're not getting this everybody together to come up with a solution because if not we're going to be back here again having the same conversation because even at 50 no one side is still not going to get to what both sides want to be at well and we've had this conversation for several years now and my attempt the last meeting was to get to interval so we could come up with a draft policy and that that has not seemed to work based on responses uh that we're getting today so I also want to just note that um we don't know it's hard for us unless we're an economist to predict people's behavior right around fundraising and I think especially because we have two big failures this week that you know people's tolerance for donating might look different and so it's really hard for us to predict absolutely and I think we're acting like we can predict what the fundraising is going to be I don't think they're hard to predict if I'm going to give them more of my money to something that I don't want to give it up to that is not for me I can speak as a former professional fundraiser that there's a ton of data to support exactly what Gary's saying that the more personal direct the more compelled people are so what I'm going to ask staff to do is I'm going to ask staff to come back with the inverted pie I need a lot more clarification because I I assume it's kind of a multi-tier tax and that would be complicated for the
01h 15m 00s
fun to then I think for parents and a lot I mean uh so it would be I would just share publicly complicated right It just fits the idea so when I'm to make maybe make sure I understand the idea would be you raise the first hundred thousand that are raised gets taxed at X percentage the next two hundred thousand that gets fundraise gets taxed at X percentage uh is that is that from zero I mean after the ten thousand from 1001 up to 110 would be taxed at 50 from 110 to 210 maybe taxed at 33 taxes we used to share this donate it but again it's really just a placeholder to really try to really dig into a solution it's not the end-all be all yeah so they raised 300 you know from 210 to 310 and only 10 goes to you know the the donation gift fund or I can tell you what happens at 3 11. is the stuff about auctions and track trying to bring in some Equitable practices um that was at the end there so I thought that was helpful okay other things I mean I I that we need to ask staff to do before our April meeting I'm sorry yeah so just thank you just I got that 50 33 100 a 10. I just want to make sure that you're going from high to low versus low to high oh yeah or the other way around yeah all right so first because you could do a first 100 000 at 50 or yeah first hundred thousand at fifty second hundred thousand at [Music] they raised more than 500 000 a million dollars or whatever and you know I don't see this as an equitable issue on this piece because this is not an equitable Source funny Source it's not like you know all taxpayers are putting into the into the into the kitty like every other school no um but you know these people you know money coming from people's pockets you know so well once again this all this is nearly to make sure just to a placeholder to bring everybody together hi director Lowry said at the beginning of this stuff right to bring everybody together to really try to hammer out a solution that is going to work best for our kids all of our kids hey director constant I see your hand is up what would you like to add really appreciate this conversation I just want to um I appreciate your suggestion director Hollins of bringing people together to talk about you know more balanced Solutions but one thing I wanted to bring up that we haven't explicitly talked about in this meeting is all the other sources of funds that come into our schools that are not paying for FTE and that are not redistributed in any way and so I think it's um it was surprising to me that the information that was shared by a Community member was um I appreciate Carrie you putting it on the screen since we were talking about it but but to imagine that fundraising would stay the same with a different formula is just there's no there's no basis for that and not because donors we've heard loud and clear for people not because they would be punitive but because they would direct it away from FTE and toward many many many other uses in their school communities that need to be funded like band uniforms or field trips or paying for field space you know for athletics when because we don't have Equitable resources for athletics school by school so um I just hope that when we do reconvene this conversation we are willing to look at all the other sources of funds and how they can be part of a conversation about more equitable distribution as well so uh thank you director constant so Julia if you could you don't need to get the language in today but in the next couple of days if you can get that in um and then our next policy just just to be clear because I want to make sure because there seems to be some confusion it is a supplement from the district not a it's it's not a kill Foundation it's trying to bring in this extra piece like we did this year like when I look at the Staffing numbers in the the class sizes this year it seems like there's way more there's been way more opportunities for schools to address some of the large class sizes and other things with that extra money so I'm just
01h 20m 00s
clear that that's that's my focus is like that that at the end of the day you get a more equitable set of ftes that go into the buildings and if some of that's parents fundraise that's fine but also we need I think want to have the district doing like what it did this year because it it to me it makes a big difference in this what Staffing looks like across the district I applied the superintendent for offering that idea because so the only direction that we've gotten is around the triangle no other changes and some clarity around the language about the organizational of these and then director from Edwards has suggested language that she will submit that we will all talk to place it will okay so just to be transparent with our community how how would that what I'm trying to say those that the information that gets submitted via email right how does that get shared or how's our consent so Julia's coming back okay so Julia so Jonathan has a question about the transparency of so the language the only language you're submitting is around the because we want to be transparent with the community we know a lot of people are well I'm gonna I'm gonna submit something around and it it will it's not it won't be written like um that why there's no transparency it'll just be like how how people have real-time access to the and my finances Okay so we've got the financial piece so they're going to take care of that well I'll drop some language okay um also I'd like to draft some language around um representation by all the school clusters well I I don't think okay so I think the question about is this policy the place where we manage the fund this is not this is not this is the policy about lsfs this is not the policy about the fund for PPS so I don't I think I think we want to stay in Arlene on this rather than expand then to bigger conversations about the role PPS has it has with the fund so I would be opposed to any language in this policy you can oppose it I can still offer it I mean absolutely and um I say one of the things I did having sat with this issue now for six years is that there is a lot of misunderstanding about the fund when you know when money's moving what people are buying whether the schools that get grants have spent their money and to me why I always have found is like by sharing information that actually eliminates a lot of conflict and I'm not saying we don't have information shared what I'm saying is I'd like us to do one issue at a time and figure out at least to like move forward on foundation and and the fun can come off in a different policy map and I think it's important to I think clarify that most of most of that interaction is happening actually on the PPS side the fund for PPS is Steward of the fundraising dollars um and then I think that money gets distributed to PPS it becomes a public uh dollar uh if you will that gets distributed to school so really the schools are the ones that are in PPS is the one that is managing whether the dollars are being expended it's it's like a any foundation giving us adult a grant to a a school district or a non-profit you know there's uh once it's there the money is in their coffers and they're using it you know for for those purposes so I just want to make sure that there's uh so I agree there could be transparency there as well I mean I I think the complex the representation on the fund I think is important because when people feel like they're not at the table and somebody else is making decisions and there's one parent on the fund that is from a school that has a foundation it leads people to think like hey something's happening we're not part of that conversation and so I to me and I I think it makes is everyone isn't making any decisions about how schools are expending or using I think so I hear what you're saying and you know I want to make sure the community is understanding that the board of the fund does not make any uh programmatic decisions on how these dollars are raised and I also think the fund the makeup of the fun board is not part of this policy that is another Avenue in a different conversation this is about school-based fundraising not about the the fun for people it seems like we have a policy that talks about the fund and talks of and and is is explicit before it's all just been on a piece of paper that hasn't been that memo from 1997 it seems like we're talking about the fund and we're actually institutionalizing that they're the recipients of the fund so it to me
01h 25m 00s
to me it seems open and there can be a disagreement I want to be clear it was a resolution there is there's a result there's actually board approved resolutions all right I'm aware of that and there was a promise I just want to make sure that in between a resolution and a memo a quick clarifying question about the fund not making programmatic decisions but rather distribution decisions distribution decisions in the sense of um send the checks to the schools okay and then the schools are in charge of the programming piece yes so who decides like last year that fifteen thousand dollars went to a particular School how's how does that who gave the ten thousand to King last year and how was that decided heard this year this year yeah so uh We've so we we work so the Fun Works closely with PPS to identify the right um percentage or allocation depending on the total amount that is raised over the last four years or four years it's been I think consistent at 15 10 you know which is based on the allocation um for how we distribute that I think well I definitely defend the fun board decides that the PPS parent fund award is correct so they just said they decided the distribution Okay so we're gonna see where we go from there um and we'll see what happens at the next policy meeting never a dull moment all right we have about half an hour uh yeah we have more stuff we got uh emptying on religious holidays um would you be willing to speak to sort of the update here that we're discussing um and we really we've been talking about um whether like what does it take to put a religious holiday on the calendar or how do we um take days off school and what are the criteria for that if we begin to to look more expansively at that our biggest issue at this point is that there are some Supreme Court cases ahead of us and we want to make sure that we don't get ahead of those Supreme Court cases and that we sort of hear what is being decided about how we look at criteria and religion um as we're making decisions and so um I think at this time the kind of plan is that we need to sort of wait until we've heard what those rulings are going to be is that sort of an accurate kind of place I might give it a little bit okay yeah there are some I think where we last left where the committee last left the discussion was um where is the community involvement in the next iteration of the conversation and um can we keep can we come back to the same principle that guides our conversation first as to changes to the council this year and is looking at potential school or District closure on holidays that we come back always to there needs to be a non-religious or secular reason for doing and we just did some poking around with other districts and how they may have approached that uh some of the non-secular criteria might have included in some other contexts in other districts absentee data on certain holidays or similar to what this committee adopted with regard to the changes that have been made going forward next year percentage of you know percentage threat population thresholds um there is you know how you train how you take that those principles and options and translate that work to the next step and what are the impacts and benefits right of this work and the costs and the timing there is that is not a small amount of work and so I think the question staff has is what is the prioritization and timing around that and what are the next steps and I would be in favor of taking a pause on this right now um and saying you know let's see how putting those days on the calendar works for now given the amount of just staff time and expense and the intense policy work that would have to happen to do this um the feedback I've heard from those in
01h 30m 00s
some of these groups is just is a great gratitude at having them having these days on the calendar and that the biggest issue for for folks is still the osba the sporting Osa sorry um osba School Board uh Osa is Athletics the Osa Osa um Peace and trying to make sure that we're talking about when games or competitions are scheduled and that that's out of our control but we can request and the district house and we're hoping that will be heard so that's kind of where I am is to to push this for now and to know that it's still in there but not to not to move forward with uh starting to craft a policy on what those criteria would be that's that's kind of where I am and that it could be something the committee could take up you know next fall um if that's the will of I'm fine with that um I would I know Minneapolis has a large um Somali Community for instance I'd be interested in how they've managed their schedule I mean there's a very large community there just be interested I'm okay table again for now and I'm gonna have to excuse myself so I can get to it okay you're right oh I don't even know what we're talking about you got your snacks we are talking about the religious holidays to suggest that we table that for now just based on the amount of staff work it would take those criteria okay director room Edwards um I thought the work that was done this year was great um a really positive step and I think we it would be this would be a great year to just um get feedback from people from staff and families about the Implement how well we implemented it um you know what what worked what didn't and sort of failed off off that um but the initial reaction I think was very positive and now we just have and I do know like there was an England where I build on Ash Wednesday which probably matters to like me and to other people but it's kind of like a work night for me but I needed to be there for my kids but I found out that they scheduled that like last March or April so they had made that plan before we released the calendar with the days so I think the more we live into it like you know the more that stuff will like people will remember oh I need to check when that is now um and so like it's the the learning I think is going to be really interesting and I wanted to anyone who heard me complain about Cleveland doing that I never complained actually to Cleveland because I don't want to be that person but they it wasn't their fault because they did it before they knew and before we had the calendar out so uh now we have it on the calendar early and so that won't happen again but okay so we'll table that for now um we've got some policies in public comment um Cara what uh we've got some things before us is there any public comment on any of the policies uh the specific use of buildings the military Recruitment and the complaint policy director Hollins I know you submitted public comments this is the biggest buildings which is weird you can't use those yeah Edwards on your comments on those policies that are in the public comment period forgot the food I just try to use some of the same silver hair but I was good to use so basically I just wanted to I mean when the comments I wanted to add in some of the things that was stricken and um I wrote it in the public comment I don't know what it is right now because I I thought we was done so I put up my computer um yeah I just just add back in that paragraphs because I think that paragraph actually really moves us into more of a four together type of language you know and it is from the vision yeah so I'm gonna stop there okay so would that mean we'd have to take it back for another first reading yes okay okay so okay all right so we will need to so with that the what you're proposing is to return the paragraph that we had already omitted yeah okay
01h 35m 00s
so can we vote that at this committee or do we need to and then read it again for our first reading or do we need to wait for April to vote on it at this committee and then take it back to the board I I think it's uh I think it's up to the committee I don't think there's a hard and fast rule can I can I make an amendment after a second reading Amendment then we'd have to send it back I'm learning this story yeah it takes a while um I think uh I guess what I would say it's up to the committee to decide there's no one from the real estate function here I don't think maybe this was going to be yeah discussed and so I don't think it's terribly controversial no so you could you you may be the way to have the best of both worlds is you vote now and if they have serious concerns thank you Julie here's the language that Gary is proposing the returned the district encourages the development of robust out of school time programs for youth education the mission of its schools and the use of its buildings facilities by these programs such out of school-time programs may be offered as a school program or by other s so I move we add that language back into the SUV policy any further discussion I know that you're a fisherman thank you membership yeah okay four years together I got your girl you do indeed uh okay uh and no discussion on this uh I now call a vote on the edition of this language to the SUV policy all in favor I'll post the amendment passes read zero and so we will take this back for another first reading with an invitation to staff to raise anything yes absolutely come back yeah [Laughter] okay uh Julia you had some comments about a policy in public comment yes so um the complaint policy so we've narrowed pretty substantially the types of complaints that will go to appeal to the board and you know I was thinking about it and it's a more of a just of a wondering whether if you have if there's like a complaint that relates to like a violation of the law but that doesn't it's not a division 22 like how do those things ever get surfaced to the board if they never if there's never any um sort of if those types of things don't come and that I'm trying to think of a category of things is like I know we're trying to limit the category of to the most important things which we've decided as division 22 but it doesn't actually say it that way a number we're trying to identify that so those that are appealed to OCR and those that are appealed using those on quarterly Court you what you see those on quarterly litigation reports right so if there's a violation of Title IX and it doesn't come to the board on review it goes to it has a separate defined process but well it goes to OCR and you are you receive reports on that well that's so that's another category that is a non-division 22. I thought you were talking about no competition I am but it but it's a it's a category I'm trying to think of things like outside of that so what are let's come up with something else that are defined by state or federal law and figuring out where and how they go I think it's an interesting question to be raised but we should talk about specifications yeah and I think about the quarterly report it's like you have to look through it to find what's what's new I mean it's it's a little bit it is there are ways to sort and review it yeah do we still have in here that we get a
01h 40m 00s
report on the complaints or did that get eliminated no it's still in there but is it a substitute is it a substantive reporter or is it just like cat like broad General categories formal complaints so that you are aware it relates well two things but those are going to be so limited now I mean not just and we send you the complaint itself so you have you can see and see the body he's talking about non-division 22. those are not in that those are not in that review and I'm asking this question mainly as a like process just a continuous process Improvement I mean it's always good to be able to like okay or even get I'm taking complaints about certain things even if they don't appeal all the way to the board because because we've eliminated the appeal I mean there's been a number of things have been they've been raised that in the complaint process that I think have led to better process improvements because there was a complaint filed that the question presumes the only way that happens is the word oversee which is not insignificant but it also happens through other well because because I'm okay with oh I haven't only been dividend too I'm not saying that word has to have the oversight but also like add more visibility of like what sorts of things are coming up from the community so you're what you're asking for is that you would like a report on all complaints that are filed I'm trying to like to say as having been a active parent as as we narrow what comes to the board we're going to see a narrower version unless people just start side to files um if they're broad categories but then it's not everything you are not you are absolutely correct to Bear characterization of that but division 22 has pretty broad subject matter coverage when I think that the number the types of complaints that sit not in an otherwise defined process and not in division 22 I mean I don't think they're there we have we haven't done this yet but I don't think we're going to see high volume there it doesn't mean that one of those might might be a very significant issue to the board of the community I mean we can't but I also so much is defined in these other processes titled two title six Title Nine all students belong division 22 what's left in the middle um I don't know and how how you have visibility to that what the volume is and what the the value it brings I think we don't know yet until we and we're also attending I mean I I asked the question because I said can we let Mary finish we're also attempting in many of these this is reflected in the content resolution page is to try to bring in staff to help either so we have a number of Liaisons who can help a family who's struggling so many of the things are sort of specific to their their student and we try to work with than to address something at the building level so that's our aim always it's a better approach because of one it's usually shorter than having to do the 30-day response somebody once again somebody once the problem fixed now right and so that's what we attempt to do and I don't you know I I can't tell you offhand how many of those result that way but I know that that's always yeah I'm not really thinking about like individual like individual complaints like I have an issue with my child that's more just like policy or practices that are that aren't happening and again so we used to have an ombudsman so we don't have that anymore I mean so so the family we don't get like the Ombudsman report so that was which is like as a best practice and um and then like say I'm not disagreeing with the narrowing to division 22 but I'm like how do we have visibility to whether places that are legitimate issues because sometimes to be like oh it's just one person but like one person might have like a thing that I mean like the no site Council um issue it's like that's that's a important thing now that was division 22 so I'm trying to think of a comparable and that's what I don't want to miss it's like so what you're asking for sort of reporting to the board um complaints that aren't in any of the other buckets I mean that's something we can ask our families liaison to together the kinds of things like what we're missing in the public what is it that's missing from this policy that you're asking but that's what I'm hearing you say is reporting to the board on complaints that don't fall into yeah right so I'm or like having it done in a way in which you can see it without like going through an 18-page document I mean well I don't think like like this
01h 45m 00s
has like the volume of complaints is the volume of complaints but we have so is it so your your problem is with the current where we're reporting or I'm just I'm trying to help solve a critical problem because like right now we see it because it actually comes to us and so we're right now we're narrowing it so like I mean I'll just use like an example like so karanja files right but that would be this Vision 22. well now actually he filed a complaint the district said this isn't division 22 and he said well they said it's a public records request and it's like actually then I'll rewrite it yeah and I guess it's like well maybe if you've taken just the answer like hey it's a public records requests we would have never known that we needed a way more robust um process that Harriet Tubman to have is that Council okay so I think the question is what do we need to change the policy then the that's before us because we are getting reports of complaints via this policy right division 22. only division 22 complaints so what section is there on the um on the reporting so the one section there are two places there's reportage one is in on page two sorry page three right above Roman world to section yeah unfortunately mine doesn't have any page numbers what is uh because it's section one that's the nice thing about being on digital is we have the page numbers yes Roman number one capital a to because division 22 complaints can be an important indicator of the health of an organization the superintendent will provide to the board at least annually data on Trends emerging issues and District responses as well as assessments of the formal complaint process could we add interest leading just a second second reporting section about the board but then here it is it's in section four Roman numeral four speed because the board makes final decisions at the step one appeal board members should not normally initiate contact blah blah blah District staff will regularly notify board members about new division 22 formula so those are two different reporting mechanisms I think isn't that just division 22 complaints or yes no that's what you said where the policy is the reporting language okay so I think where we should amend to do is at the Roman numeral one uh letter two or number two letter B um so and the superintendent will provide to the board at least annually data on trans emerging issues and District responses as well as assessment of the formal complaint process and reporting on any complaints that don't I don't know what the language is but how do we capture that piece how broadly you want that because we received complaints those are no formal complaints anymore there are formal complaints and those are only division 22 complaints right sorry we changed the yes it's division 22. but we receive other complaints that we are oh I know yes I know that are addressed in different ways and so I'm just wondering you know uh and and come through and as you know we take complaints into the form or sometimes through an email or you know let's talk all of the various ways that are coming in as complaints um some of them just remain at the building level and then others get elevated to central office and so I've just in terms of what let me think if I can think of a subcategory complaints that come in on the Complaint Form that are not that are not student or schools they're not student specific okay so so what I'll what I would like is for I think are you all clear on what Julia is so I think what we need is to have some clarity around with the scope of what Julia is asking for and I would like to see it tied to this via that annual report from the superintendent because I think what you're saying is what is how do we monitor the health of the organization and what what are substantive issues that might be coming forward that don't get captured in other ways um so if we could figure out a way to do that across the language and bring that back to the next meeting so we'll pull this from the 21 Day comment period to add that reporting piece in and then we'll do another second first reading for the next policy did we get a report last year
01h 50m 00s
anything yes anything further on this yeah who would have said it to us Alex um anything else started from Edwards or director Hollins um yes ma'am are we an official moving to that language we're not moving that language out of committee we are moving we are removing the complaint policy and the CV policies like we're gonna have to do another first reading level but there but they're different issues because let's see policies we're going to be the next board meeting substantial issue is it we are gonna we're gonna ask staff and we will do another first reading it is a it's a substantive language that is definitely just restoring language that was there before I am adjourning the meeting because we already made that decision and then I

Sources

PPS Board of Education, BoardBook Public View, https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Organization/915 (accessed: 2024-04-27T22:47:08.866461Z)
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)

2023-03-16 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

Documents / Media

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Minutes

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Event 1: PPS Board of Education Policy Committee - 3/16/23

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