2023-04-27 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-04-27
Time	16:00:00
Venue	PESC Unspecified
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: Board of Education’s Policy Committee - 4/27/23

00h 00m 00s
foreign member and Committee Member Mary I'm Mary Kane senior liberal Council I'm usually best it's this large contracted General counselor Roseanne Powell board manager great um we are going to start with some conversation about the foundation and I heard that we've got some public commenters who'd like to go first so we'll go ahead and um let that happen so uh I don't see this project or Mrs Powell I assume you're running that portion of things you guys today I'm Megan murvis surrender you have two minutes to speak and you'll hear uh camera go off when uh great thank you um hi my name is Megan mermus m-e-r-m-i-s and my pronouns are she her there's no doubt that everyone who speaks passionately about school funding cares about their kids those of us calling for reform are saying that we need to be acting on behalf of all the kids in the district not just our own characterization of our advocacy is divisive is a misrepresentation of the work that the reform groups strive to do over the past two plus years we've talked to community members across the district the letter you presented to the board signed by almost 500 parents caretakers students and teachers from 75 schools demonstrates the appetite for reform we shared data and Analysis with Ford that hadn't been used would have provided the exact answers to many of the questions and issues the book continually brings up meanwhile the district had limited Outreach to the communities impacted most by funding shortfalls and then promptly moved on from feedback like that gathered at the McDaniel Roosevelt Roundtable the board is heard mainly from us our supporters and the most Ardent supporters of lsfs relying on the community to meet you where you are at a board or policy committee meeting with little groundwork being laid explaining how the system currently works and who benefits excluded most of the voices you would hope to hear from this was true of the most recent Round Table most disheartening is the fact that the most substantive conversations took place after the meeting had ended where discussions continued with those of us who had the privilege to be able to stay that's not how public decisions about public education should happen some families have threatened to leave the district if lsfs disappear the district shouldn't respond to threats that jeopardize the very promise of public education it also ignores those who can't opt out so let's talk about who already has left the district over the past four four-ish years even though the district has lost more white students overall they have lost proportionally more black students as a percentage of the population what is PPS doing to ensure that these students stay in the district especially since the data shows that most of them do not attend schools that have foundations in the end it's the district's own values that should be driving this decision based on the data and Community input a district-wide foundation should be the goal it's now up to the board and District to figure out how to implement that plan ensuring an equitable outcome for all students thanks Miss Powell is our next public commentary yes uh Beth cavallan hello my name is Beth Kavanaugh at c-a-v-a-n-a-u-g-h pronouns she her I have two requests today first at the community meeting a few weeks ago where director Holland shared the proposal that's on today's agenda participants were asked to Define what they saw as the problem we were trying to solve I ask that board members here today and am not please respond to that question as well using pps's racial equity and social justice lens which should be at the center of all decision making what is the problem with the current policy that needs to be solved you've had time to review responses from meeting participants and I'm sure you've heard from many others but we need to hear from you why do you think this policy needs to be reformed please start with the why before determining the what or the how so that you consider how well the proposals address the root problem the second thing I came to talk about today is another question that was raised and not answered in the community meeting this is a request for an explanation of the district's equity-based differentiate differentiated Staffing model that results in more resources distributed to schools based on need and how that is or is not relevant to the foundation fundraising policy there are plenty of elements of foundation reform discussion where reasonable people may disagree but we all need to be operating from the same set of Baseline facts PBS and the board have a responsibility to share those answers publicly and correct misconceptions when they appear so please let us know when we can expect an answer to these questions one why does PPS have a differentiated Staffing model two since all schools have struggling students how is it decided whether a school will get specific staff to support struggling students why do some schools have these and others do not three how are Foundation funds relevant to the district's Staffing model does
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PPS reduce funding based on a school community's ability to raise their own funds four what other elements beyond the equity Staffing contribute to a school's per student dollar amount schools with fewer than 180 students have many of the same fixed costs as schools with close to 600 are the per student costs for small schools higher even before the equity formula is applied five why is Lincoln's per student funding higher than Franklin's or grants even when you don't count the foundation dollars according to pps's published budget book I've heard director constant say that schools with foundations have the lowest for student funding in the district but Franklin and Grant don't have foundations and Linkedin has fewer underserved students than either of these schools especially Franklin when comments come up when questions about these when misconceptions come up there's a responsibility to address them in the moment and we need to be all clear on what those answers are some of these things have been stated publicly some of them have been published but they don't ever come up in the moment and there's not a clear place where everything all the relevant information and the factual sort of Baseline information we're operating from is put forward in relation to this policy so please trust the community operate with transparency accountability and from vulnerability as these conversations proceed and give us all that same that Foundation to work from thank you um so at this time we're going to look at the um responses and just kind of discuss the um session that we had on the 12th um we're not voting on anything at this meeting we're not taking anything forward to the board at this meeting we're just sort of talking about what we heard in the community and sort of um kind of where where we go with next steps with this Foundation policy work um so I turn it over to director Hollins because you've kind of taken a lead on this work uh which is amazing I love your passion for it and you're you're wanting to find some solutions here and to kind of begin uh loving some ideas and just seeing throwing the spaghetti and see what sticks us to the wall that's a great way to time it off oh I just kind of speak from my perspective of you know what I've been hearing and what I've heard over you know some time about her foundation piece and you know I I want to make sure that I'm clear on you know when when folks talk about Equity or when folks talk about you know well why do one school gets three other ones and I guess for me you know a lot of this like uh uh Kavanaugh said you know a lot of this stuff has already been explained so bringing it all together every time we come to a meeting or a round table or something for me it just seems redundant because a lot of us have already been at these coming out meetings where some of these questions has already been answered um and another thing that we have I mean something needs to happen right we we can keep talking about it we can have a meeting but actually I mean if nothing happens then we the same place which I don't think any of us agree is I think like you said there's all these people who want reform I think exactly yes so I think you know at some point we have to make a decision and I think we as long as we're making for me is making a decision which is the best interest of our kids um I think then that's kind of the direction we should be going in and that was kind of what my proposal was based on um from listening to you know the folks who wanted to reform and folks who wanted to save the foundation piece my idea came from well outside of the the parents what is best for our kids what is best for our kids at schools that don't get foundations now what's best for our kids at schools that get foundations and so that's kind of where the um proposal arrived from you know I understand systematic change and the need for systematic change um and I also understand that you know in order to get to systematic changes there's small things that have to take place first you know and I look back on the civil rights movement and you know I know I referenced that a lot but you know the right to vote this didn't happen you know overnight you know there was a series of you know people dying people getting hoes people going through all these different series of steps to get to those rights you know and so when I look at the foundation piece you know I think there's been steps that has led up to us doing something that's going to benefit our kids and I think as long as we're keeping our kids focused um the proposals that you know that are coming up I think it's all geared towards that but and how do we serve
00h 10m 00s
both hand and that's what my proposal tries to do is to look at the both and um because like we said we have schools that's not getting anything right now so if we don't do anything in the status quo stays the same those kids are not going to get anything after 20 4 25 right between four whatever that year is um and so it's kind of looking like how do we get a ramp up to getting to the district-wide funding model that you know is is good in theory but it hasn't been practiced yet uh and so while we're moving to that um plane of district-wide fundraising you know I feel that this proposal is is kind of that that ramp up to that um and it gives time you know um for the collaboration that you know we all talk about as far as the district-wide funding it gives us time to see the involvement the necessary things that's going to need to take place it gives us time to look at what's needed to provide for um the fund for PPS to gear up to to do the things that we want to do um and so that's kind of where that that proposal came from and um and I know we still need to vet it especially through the um Levy committee um but like I said I guess my thing is just if we don't do anything the only people who suffer is our kids so that's kind of where I'm at with this well and I think you know there's some really interesting questions people have about Equity versus equality amounts of conversation and this you know I think there's a pushback of if Foundation schools raise over a hundred thousand dollars that there is no then portion of that that goes to like a fund um and and so those are some of the concerns I've heard and I think you know from my work on foundations it's part of the reason I participating in foundations was because of that parent fund so I think I would really like to see that foundations that raise over a hundred thousand dollars um maybe that first hundred they get to keep and then they lose that 100 Equity Grant or whatever it is but then anything above that 100 they might then give a percentage to you know so I think those kinds of things need to be talked about I do think we still have a fundamental question about having foundations and I know that you've said that ultimately you want to move us to a you know one foundation for all of PPS but over time it's kind of where you're headed with that so I think having Clarity around that that we're stepping towards that also is helpful and again we can say that but you know when a new board comes in they can then do what they want but we can kind of Express and work with the community to say that yeah um I would say that you know the reading through the sticky notes somebody did say like you know I was wearing things at the wall and seeing what works you know I tried really hard for us this year to start from a place of using all the great Work Director from Edwards had done of um that listening session at McDaniel all the things we've heard from Community the you know we had multiple proposals also from folks who work with local school foundations of what could be better taking all of that and then saying to folks like let's take a step back and maybe have this conversation in a different way um which was the you know that that fundamental question about what problem is that we're trying to solve um and I loved the Insight somebody had at the work session which was we all there's a lot of different problems we're trying to solve and yet there's a lot of shared concerns yeah so I'm wondering if we start from a place of what if we were to look at the foundation policy as what are the concerns people have about their kids educations and how can we start there for as we create this policy um the one the one thing that was disappointing is there were some some folks chose to use the what are you concerned about and what do you hope for to to write some things like well I hope other people see that I'm right basically I'm concerned that other people are wrong um which Affair that's fair but this is not the intent of the exercise um and but that's concerned about you know we can't police that but um I did think you know that was interesting and I'm really thankful you know I have tried to get folks from foundations and folks from reform together to have some conversations because I think we have a lot of really creative talents for people who could really think through um Creative Solutions and I'm really glad that was able to happen at the end of the meeting I know it wasn't public but it was again idea generation and then just on clear my understanding is there were only three there were only three words there so it's not like the rest of us laughed and so it was three board members and I know that a reporter from Oregonian was there for part of it as well but yeah okay I just want to make sure sorry
00h 15m 00s
you're saying there was an after meeting after the the public meeting no I wouldn't have those are after meeting that people got together after the meeting and was talking about different ideas so I was a part of it so I don't know but I I was talking to like I think you know people came up and started trying to board members and then eventually like to you and Amy and Andrew were all standing near each other and then that eventually became one conversation yeah it was folks connecting you know and exchanging phone numbers you know which was awesome and not people with board members and LSS folks exchanging numbers and yeah so it was one of those organic things that make our legal team a little crazy because we want to honor public meeting laws and be above board ends and we do and yes and I didn't even think about it uh it's just it's just like problematic because it there's so many people who have been in the conversation for a long period of time and we went through the whole process of actually trying to solicit um input from those who don't normally have a seat at the table and so it just um to have something that appears to be somewhat official like in our district headquarters where we're not everybody's invited or even knows about it I mean I left the meeting after it was over because the official meeting time was over and I don't think the I mean I think the the conversation on the work you did Julia with like Folks at McDaniel is vitally important to this continued conversation right that this this was one another piece of that conversation but it doesn't do away with those pieces of um but I do understand what you're saying about that that to have a conversation after the meeting officially ended feels like it was exclusive of people well it it doesn't feel like it was because first of all board members didn't know what was happening and you know whoever stayed and I don't know who stayed so maybe maybe maybe it was representative but um certainly you know from my perspective um I wouldn't view it as like part of the conversation because and it wasn't inclusive and nor did we know about it so part of the conversation we've been saying this was the but it wasn't we're not saying it was part of the conversation well Haley just said it was I mean that's some that's what I'm reacting to is like we have to be careful of like that we're not injecting things that came from something that wasn't a public meeting that like somehow that that was that's part of the official so I that's problematic for me because I have conversations with people all the time one-on-one that inform how I show up so I think if we are standing around listening to members of the public talk to one another then I think we can I mean I don't want to get into an argument with you about this right here but I do think there are lots of ways that board members are informed to make decisions and I think I wasn't there so I don't know what God Said but I have heard from people that it was a helpful conversation to those that were part of it and I was there so what it's worth I was there so like I said to me it was just more informative of what the comments the worst they had but no a friend it wasn't part of the original conversation so at this point I feel like you know we're in April we're not going to be able to um do something now to pass a policy to like vet it through the community do all the steps we need to do and pass a policy by the end of the year um I think that this idea of looking at the Esser dollar grants we've been able to give to schools to help support their school Improvement plans this year is really interesting but I do think this you know needs to be refined and I think you got a lot of really great feedback at the meeting and I think there continues to be conversation about this um and um I think that there are things to talk about with if you know the the idea of these sort of Grants to schools is great it's where does that money come from and there's been talk about different funding sources um and we kind of need to to figure that part out before we could really move forward on and that's what I was thinking I was thinking maybe and I don't you never know that this the process it goes thinking that we I don't know if we voted out of this this idea of the proposal to the uh the levy committee you can't do that no because so we can only vote things out to the full board so we can say we are interested in this as a process and we could we could vote out a policy that decides that says we're going to do these grants then it's up to really the superintendent then to fund them but then that becomes another issue because we don't normally set policy that has a
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budgetary impact so can we can we um I guess and they'll have to attack the levy committee look at the inner workings like what's going to cost and all that stuff and then maybe come back can we do that and the levy committee but we also might want to wait to do anything until we know Philadelphia passes and what's going to happen with the bill to lift the cap on elevates all of those other things and it may be that we keep this idea but we don't fund it through the levy we come up with a different solution yeah I would actually suggest that this committee do the work on like what how is it structured I mean how it's paid for it seems like a real relatively like a separate discussion um and so like you know there's all sorts of policy ramifications because I think there were a lot of unanswered questions at the meeting the other day about like how it would work and so for me for example I know the the biggest determinant of Student Success is access to high quality instruction um sometimes that happens the high quality instruction happens because there's extra EA in the room so the the fact that um you know I think that the biggest piece of this is like not whether we have foundations or not but whether they can buy staff and so to me what this committee can wrestle with is like so you know you know the the fundamental questions like can foundations by staff if if yes like how much how many um if they can how do we continue if we have committed as a school board that we're going to have an equitable funding formula which includes like FTE um how we maintain an equitable funding formula if some schools can add FTE and this is then sort of like if for example if we said you could raise up to and this is just for illustrations purpose you can raise up to not enough money to pay up to two FTE like then does the district commit decide that because we have an equity formula and we we're going to build on it but still have it be Equitable if this school over here gets to add two then everybody else gets to add to or some sort of per capita like by prorated ratio um that's how we keep our in our Equity formula but that's what it seems like this committee should be discussing and if it comes out to like you know it's like you can raise you know this is this is what the proposal looks like then it's like how do you pay for it is like a totally separate question but I feel like it's way too early to get to um like you can't re if you were going to pay for it with a local option and increase taxes the details need to be really clear you can't go to the ballot with a hey just give us more money we're going to increase taxes and then we're going to figure it out later so to me it's like there is a lot of work to be done um on the base proposal um so that there's something baked that then you can fund um and that's actually much larger piece of work than the actual how do you fund it I guess so my question would be you know what happened until something gets done or do we just keep having these conversations and nothing gets done because right now from my understanding this has been going on for a couple years now and nothing has changed and they already have a policy for that's that's because for two years this got blocked and so I mean it's not it's not the it's not that they don't have to be blocked now though is what I'm saying like we could be practical from the superintendent I think is it gives us some breathing room for next year and like it's something to build on so if it seems like though again we can't refer something out if there's not if it's not a you know well thought out proposal like you can't you can't fund something you could maybe in the superintendent's budget because then you're not going up the voters but if you're going to go out to the voters it needs to be you know like we have to have it completely baked so that's not going to happen until November so it's not going to be the following year so anything that's done would um if we're not gonna do something substantive it's going to rely on the superintendents um The Proposal that's in the budget that the board is going to consider um for the next fiscal year which there's 100 000 or so for each school yeah so so what I guess my question what happens then what happened to 24 25 well that that's why this committee should start working on a more detailed proposal exactly how it would work um because then once you have a detailed proposal then you can figure out how to how to pay for it again there's like basically two two ways to do it one out of existing resources or two potentially
00h 25m 00s
um a you know additional ass to voters and especially if it's the latter it needs to be well thought out um because it likely would be you know a tax increase and um you know that that's a very different than passing a renewal of the levy I mean already people have expressed that most of the polling in the region shows that people feel tax burdened um so so I think I would spend the time right now on you know taking your proposal Gary and um moving it through the process to answer questions that were asked about it um you know look at it through the the equity lens what how do we need to sort of refine it or change it or evolve it and then let's say when we have more clarity on what it is and how much it costs then the levy committee can figure something out of the superintendent so I think what would be helpful Julia is maybe if you and Gary could get together and look at the proposal and then maybe you could because you do such great policy work maybe um help bring forward some of those uh questions or thoughts and especially given your history long history on this and your advocacy for those who maybe haven't had such a voice in the room that might be a helpful piece I'm always happy to work with uh director Hollins okay so maybe we'll have you two work on something and and see where we are and perhaps bring it back to the next meeting or bring it back uh down the road yeah it sounds good all right so that that gives us another step on the on the path here um you guys want to set a timeline do you want to bring it back to the next meeting sorry Julia you're still muted why don't we why don't Gary and I have a conversation we'll get back to you about whether um I mean I just think there's a lot there's there's a lot of questions that need to be answered I don't think it's like we could come back to the next meeting but um yeah we could talk about that offline okay and then we'll talk and then get back to you um daily okay let's just have a status report at the next meeting and it could be that you know just to let us know where where you are and that work that's that's okay okay we're moving on to the complaint policy we've got a red line version before us um Miss large do you want to take us through this yes so uh we are on page three of ten in section one A to B mostly just look for the red text this is staff's attempt to put in words what was discussed the issue raised by director of remembrance of the last policy committee meeting um I actually would suggest one word change and I wrote the word and then I read it I'm like six realize that it needs to improve yeah so what's your word change um as large I think in the last um second to last line that well starting with sub two B sub 2 a summary of complaints that are not governed by a process that is required by Statute or regulation EG Title IX okay wait I I am not where you are I'm sorry so the there's only red text in one right there okay that's where I was like I didn't see it there I faced up too I was page three page three I was there and then I like couldn't find where you are oh okay be sub to I get it B number two right got it it says the summary of complaints that are not governed by a process and it's required by Statute and regulation EG Title IX and we will change that to Roman numerals to be consistent okay presented that have been filed using the district's complaint process concerning matters that may affect more than I actually think May is a little more permissive than I understood the direction so I should just say I think that if I would delete May to again try to match more what I heard what I think I heard in the last meeting again uh subject to the committee's discussion and Amendment and plenty regards Professor room Edwards you have uh since this sort of came from a thought you had uh do you have any response to this redlining Liz could you read the sentence as it exists post your thinking yes a summary of complaints that are not governed by a process that is required by Statute or regulation EG Title IX that have been filed using the district's complaint process concerning matters that affect more than an individual student or school I think that captures it awesome
00h 30m 00s
do you have any comments Dr how long is it Holland or Hollins Alex see I think it's Collins but in my phone you're Holland so then I get like self-doubt okay with Holly really your birth certificates are on wild all right we have people in my family disagree how to say my last name so you know everybody's got their own stuff okay so do we need to can we vote this out of committee uh at this point and take it to the full Ward okay all in favor of sending this on to the full board please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes I will post all right this passes to the full board for our first reading all right let's get an update on policies in the public comment period Miss large well I think the only one is the one that was first read for the second time no comments have been received no comments so far okay great okay and we did our public comment at the talk with the meeting so I think that's everything awesome I think our work here is done and this meeting can be called to a German for your time thank you meeting

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)

2023-04-27 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

Materials

Minutes

Transcripts

Event 1: Board of Education’s Policy Committee - 4/27/23

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