2023-06-13 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-06-13
Time	18:00:00
Venue	PESC Auditorium
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Regular Meeting - 6/13/23

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this public meeting of the board of education for June 13th 2023 is called to order uh all items being considered this evening are posted on the PPS website under the board of meetings tabs the meeting is being streamed live on PPS TV services website and on Channel 28 it'll be replayed throughout the next two weeks and you can check the district website for replay times has anyone checked the district website for replay times does anyone do that yeah okay good I say it every week but I'm not sure anyone actually does it um good evening tonight welcome everybody um we do have a full agenda of some important items tonight before we get started just share a few of our regular um uh uh reminders in order to ensure safety please keep the walkways and aisles clear and we also ask that you be considerate for those around you keep any signs below chin level uh in order to keep from exceeding the occupancy level which I don't think we're going to do tonight but maybe we have set up an overflow seating and viewing area under the covered area in front of the building um if we do get to capacity we'll do that at the time if we do get capacity and you sign up for public comment you can check in with campus security uh and they will be able to let you in when it's your turn to speak and with that let's go ahead and get going on our meeting tonight we're going to start with a resolution to recognize June as pride month superintendent Guerrero yes good evening directors and uh good evening to our audience members here in person and online um this month uh Portland Public Schools lifts up and celebrates our lgbtq 2 s i a plus students staff and families this month affords an opportunity for us as a school system for all of us to renew our commitment to creating the conditions that allow every one of our community members to thrive for those who identify as allies it's our responsibility to disrupt hate and Injustice and to create affirming and safe spaces for lgbtq to Sia plus students families and staff we want every one of our students to feel inspired supported and accepted for who they authentically are wherever their interests whatever their passions whatever their abilities and yes whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity I've asked our chief of research assessment and accountability Dr Renard Adams to present the resolution to you this evening Dr Adams good evening good evening superintendent good evening chair Scott Vice chair Hollins board directors and student representative McMahon happy pride month on June 28 1969 police officers raided The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York City The Stonewall and like many establishments of his time was a rare place where gay and queer people could come together and gather expressing themselves openly raids of lgbtq Plus bars and establishments had been common for decades in the course of the raid patrons were harassed or harassed arrested and beaten fed up with this ongoing treatment bystanders began to push back against the police brutality resulting in six days and nights of social unrest along Christopher Street one year later lgbtq plus Americans in Chicago Los Angeles New York and San Francisco held the first marches to commemorate The Stonewall rebellion and thus Pride was born pride month is an opportunity for us to reflect on the societal accomplishments of lgbtq plus Americans and the diversity that spans the range of sexual orientation gender identity and expression and more pride is a month of inclusivity indeed all the colors of the rainbow pride month is a time for lgbtq plus Americans to stand and Shout we're here pride month is a time of Celebration and acknowledgment therefore I'd like to thank the board for voting to approve this resolution affirming June is pride month some would say that these proclamations are performative and don't matter I couldn't disagree more at this time when lgtq plus people are under attack and being killed at this time when some politicians are doubling down on the rhetoric of hate at this time when queer people perhaps feel more fragile and vulnerable than in recent memory at this time these proclamations matter a great deal in fact they matter more than ever and I'm reminded of a few things Proclamation show intent intent to honor intent to value and they express acknowledgment acknowledgment matters acknowledgment leads to acceptance acceptance matters acceptance leads to visibility and I know personally that visibility saves lives our mere existence is resistance and we appreciate your support of the resistance resistance against divisiveness resistance against hate and resistance against bigotry keeping it
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personal local and immediate a few weeks ago I was I was in a meeting a meeting I was then kicked off with a warm welcome question name your favorite fashion accessory seems simple right I thought long and hard I could have named a suit or a pair of shoes in the end I named my wedding band because I wasn't always able to marry it may seem so simple but it really is profound all we lgbtq plus individuals ask is that we be allowed to live our truth out loud openly and without fear of repercussions or worse such a simple ask yet so profound and too often denied therefore I want to again thank you board directors for your consideration thank you for standing in solidarity with and in support of lgtq plus students staff and community members thank you from all of us and happy Pride foreign [Applause] thank you Dr Adams do I have a motion in a second to adopt resolution moved by director green uh seconded by a lot of people but I'm going to give director constan the second um board discussion I'm sorry director director to pass seconds Cara happy pride month um I think you just made the most eloquent case for why we consider proclamations and I really appreciate that and I also want to um for the last two years in this state there's been a lot of school districts and classrooms and school environments in which students and staff haven't felt safe or welcome and I'm proud of PBS for creating a different climate in most of our schools you can walk through school buildings and see what signs that are very visible signs of inclusion and welcoming so to all the staff and I want to thank you Dr Adams for your leadership because um when people stand out and speak out that sends a message to our students and you have been a leader since you arrived and you've always got also a very nice attire that shows your pride so um thank you for your leadership and also to The District staff for the welcoming and inclusive environment not just during pride month but all year round as we vote on this I think it's really important to reflect on some of the things that have happened in our district just in the last month where a pride event had to be canceled due to security concerns and I know that District staff has worked hard to think about how can we make sure that doesn't happen again that we're able to hold those Pride events even when local radio hosts drum up people to attack the school and I really appreciate the the district centering that and we know from the successful School survey last year that over half of our students in high school and middle school self identify as queer in some way and so we need those spaces even when those voices even when that betrayal comes I think you know we need to stand firm and continue to hold those Pride events continue to have those safe spaces for our parents to have conversations about gender identity and supporting their students and so I'm really thankful that as we move forward we're going to ensure that those kind of events can go forward because we know that you know proclamations are important and so is ensuring that those kind of events can happen for our local communities to help the kids know that they're seen and the number one thing I always go back to is using proper pronouns for someone is suicide prevention and it's essential that we as a school district honor our students and recognize them for who they are we're doing that I also just want to thank you for your reading of those kind remarks and also for reminding us that Stonewall that the The Pride movement was started as a result of the Stonewall riots in 1969 when maybe a few of us were here including me um I I love my trans and lgbtq family members colleagues and friends and I'm really happy to support this today and also um to your point about the suicide prevention that the pronouns are important and I'm proud to be connected to a district that values diversity in this way yeah I'll just add thank you for your comments Dr Adams and the rest of the board this is an incredibly important resolution in today's environment it's personal for a lot of people um and and I'll just second the comments about being in a district that does um um value this right and that puts it forward and centers it is really important um and you know there's a lot going on in the community in the nation that is is pretty ugly and and it's important that we um push back on that and that we
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actually demonstrate um what inclusion means and what Pride means um and that everyone has a safe space so um thank you for your words um thank you for this Proclamation any final comments um Cara any public comment tonight no the board will now vote on resolution 6717 recognizing June's pride month all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes I'll oppose please indicate by saying no student representative McMahon yes any abstentions resolution 6717 is approved by voter 7-0 what student representative and voting yes next up student representative McMahon time for your report [Music] so Byron received this gift from the DSC correct and this is her new fashion accessory and so I think yes we should celebrate it with her very cool and hopefully something will continue for the other student reps after me um first I want to say happy pride month to everyone and I think it was great that we talked about obviously there are a lot of ugly things happening in the nation but I think it's so great that we are taking step that we are not obviously in alignment with those ugly things that are happening but at the same time obviously our students our queer students still experience a lot of isolation a lot of hate a lot of vitriol and so I think that in this time it's important to celebrate and it's also important to do that in Revolution and resistance to the hate and the ongoing trauma that still occurs for our queer students in this district and I know that we're moving towards a better place but just want to recognize the experiences that those students still have today um also tonight is actually my last school board meeting so I feel very um strange I think that's probably the best of what I feel very strange this year has been so amazing and I was watching obviously all the other student reports of the last meetings that have gone on and we have a really long meeting tonight so I'm going to try to keep it short um I'm really proud to have been part of this time with PBS and I know there will be so many more Amazing student reps to come and so much progress but I'm just so grateful to get to share this time with everyone and to get to spend time in community I've got to visit schools this year and I've got to visit summer programs this year and I've gotten to meet with students and to grow The District student council and to grow our Outreach and I think that it's meant so much to me to be a part of that growth and that movement towards a better PBS and so I think that's all I can say I'm just so incredibly grateful to get to be part of this time with each of you and to get the opportunity to do this job there's many times I'm sure that I took it for granted you know in office of being like oh this is so hard but um I just really appreciate it because it is a really special thing to get to be in a job like this and only one student gets to do it every year and it's really meant the world to me um so thank you to everyone who supported me and inspired me um actually Stephen Peterson one of the community members that reached out to me I emailed you saying that I was going to do this so I just want to say thank you to you too and to all the teachers and the people that were there it means so much and again I'm just so incredibly grateful so thank you everyone and Frankie is going to do a significantly better job than me next year um so I look forward to seeing all the progress that she will make and the opportunities will she will create and the voice that she will provide to this body because I think she's an amazing person I want to just say I've really loved serving with you and um wondering how long you're going to be in town because you haven't done everything until you've stuffed math packets in for summer for summer learning hopefully you'll have a chance to do that this summer well I'll just add thank you um and I know the rest of the board may want to say some things as well but um it's been a real pleasure to serve with you um I just love the The Voice you bring every single time and every single time you say anything um it makes me think and it makes me think really hard about you know what we're doing and how we're doing it and so um it's been really valuable and and the way you also started with appreciations in your student reports um and the way you advocated for the student voice and you know you did it very directly with me and you said my student report should not be in the middle or at the end of this meeting it should be right up front and that's a really positive change that you brought that I I think I hope that we're able to keep moving forward so um it's been a pleasure we do have a small token for you but we're also uh because we all just arrived are in the middle of signing it so we'll get it to you in a second uh but um anyway anyone else want to add
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I'll say Terry goodbye byronie you have been such an unbelievable asset usually to my mind what the most insightful comments on whatever the issue at hand is I think back in particular to our um session that we had on security with all of our partners from the city including the mayor and the D.A and this County and you know all the all the players and you you were the strongest voice in that room to my ear and you had the most insightful comments and we're really holding people accountable and explaining the trauma and the fear that students live with and just worrying about conditions around our schools so um you have a strong voice and you're not afraid to use it and we have all benefited so much so I'm personally you know I'm gonna really I'm gonna miss catching up on all the hot Cleveland gossip I just like to say how much I truly appreciate your um consistent focus on the students consistently pushing us to think about the students to um to rethink how we think and pushing the status quo and that has been that has been insightful I'm looking forward to what your next steps are and what you do now with this everything that you have you have thought about and you said I'd like to do this and you put it out in the atmosphere and then all of a sudden it happened you said I'd like to do this and you put it out in the atmosphere and then all of a sudden it happened I'm excited to see and looking forward to what else you put out into the atmosphere that you're going to make happen because you're very strong-willed very strong-minded and very focused on what it is that you're trying to do and I know that our our city our state this world is going to be better because of you so continue so I could say all the things everybody just said because they're they're true and I've seen it and witnessed it we've sort of been on the same circuit this year um I don't know the political events going down to Salem to Lobby on behalf of school funding and I guess um so I'm going to be forward-looking and often times when we send off um since I've sent off 10 uh student reps in the past often it's like and in the future you're going to be a leader you know you have the skills but like you you are a leader right now and I'm so excited for our community because I know that um you're not going to go somewhere else and take those those amazing skills you have but you're going to put them to work right here in our community and that makes me so happy because I know we're going to be really well served and that when um this generation whatever whatever you decide to do when somebody's ready to pass the Baton you're going to be more than ready and we are going to be the benefit of sharers of it so um good luck and just continuing to be the person that that you are and the leader you are if there's any government agencies out there looking for an intern you know a student something something I'm here let's let's talk uh Barney I'll just um and I'll keep it short you know you've not only been an inspiration for your fellow um students and classmates but you've been an inspiration to me as well you know the way that you lean into your beliefs the way you lean into you know the advocating for our students has been a example even for myself and so I just want to thank you for that and I know whatever you do later on if you're going to run for anything you have my vote and support and number thanks um next up we turn to public comment so before we begin let me just review quickly the guidelines for public comment um first thank you very much for being here tonight and providing your comments uh our Board office may follow up on any board related issues that are raised during public testimony we do request the complaints about individual individual employees be directed to the superintendent's office as a personal matter if you have any additional materials or items you'd like to provide to the board or the superintendent you can email those to public comments all one word pps.net public comment at pps.net when you begin your comments uh uh please clearly state your name and spell your last name and you'll have three minutes to speak and you hear a sound after three minutes at which point uh we would just appreciate it if you conclude your comments Ms Bradshaw who do we have signed up for
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public comment we have Moto mcchesney welcome back nice to see you thank you for having me um there we go uh good evening board members uh for the record my name is Mona mcchesney m-o-t-o-m-c-c-h-e-s-n-e-y I'm a student at Benson Polytechnic High School a student reporter for am 1450 kbps Portland and the founder of the Benson computer and physical security club um okay it's been four months since I last testified and I have some more information regarding some of the issues that I had previously raised um about having master keys and badges to the schools I'm not going to talk um tonight is about the district and the lack of follow-through that I've seen in a um a lot of the stuff that I've been involved in as a student reporter for am 1450 I got the opportunity to go to Bonneville Dam and this isn't directly related but um during the story that I was spearheading I had the opportunity to interview the security officer for the Portland District which encompasses all of Oregon um and she said something regarding security um and this applies not just to security but anything else and I um it'll apply for me I think for the rest of my life now as I approach anything the Security Site Specialists know it the site's better than the guards do the guards know it better than they are guards know it better than they do and the employees know it better than the guards do knowing the farther down you get the closer to the areas the more that people know about the specific spaces this principle Purity but everything else as well and what I've noticed is from the policies that you are enacting you don't necessarily understand the direct schools and that's not an attack on anyone specifically that is um and I've had the privilege of meeting some incredible individuals among you the issue in lies without your attempt to try to get student involvement and what I mean by that is I think most students don't understand that they can simply show up to a board meeting when talking to most students they don't understand that they can just show up and listen um and who genuinely need a lot of the policies you are enacting um how long has it been since most of you were in a school as a student or a staff member like I said you don't um that and that that's where the principle comes in I think that you come in and you see all these smiling faces and you see the schools not necessarily for what they are to actually date today you see what people kind of want you to see um I didn't hear anything from the district about talking about master keys until I ended up on the Lars Larson show and then the next day I had multiple people interested in talking to me from the district nothing before that um and you I don't find that you truly do the right thing in a lot of cases unless you're pressured by outside sources um you claim credit for your students work in multiple cases that I've seen and then you undermine the efforts of the students after they attempt after they create it and then sometimes you even punish them for creating it and then proceed to still um use it this photo that was passed around and I I will wrap this up as fast as I can um this photo was passed around that is from the shooting at Franklin High School in January I was part of the team that recorded the video that was used by um all the news outlets in the city of Portland we were not recognized as somebody who was there we never received any communication from the district after the shooting the only response we got was you have to take the video down and you're not allowed to talk about it that's the response I got from the district about this video individual members of the team took the video and that's how it ended up in the news media hand um and the video was publicly accessible for the general public on my website pps.wtf forward slash video um and it's about 60 seconds and it is the video that was used by all news outlets the general public if you have any comments you are welcome to email me and I'm happy to answer any of them press at pps.wtf
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um or my website schoolconcerns.com thank you for your time any questions great thank you for your testimony appreciate you being here today thank you [Applause] Stacy ozer [Applause] welcome thanks for being here my name is Stacy oser o-z-e-r distinguished board members my name is Stacy ozer and I have a garden at Harrison Park Community Garden which is south of Harrison Park School on Southeast 87th one block north of division the Jade District last September one school morning I was harvesting my bean seeds when a group of Chinese six Chinese women and two men came into the garden with a Chinese woman who has a garden there she was excitedly pointing to her plants a couple of people came over to me and one of the women spoke English and asked about my beans they asked to try them and I shared the beans and seeds with them they inquired about having Garden space they said their children go to Harrison Park School within a couple of days they busily cleared the overgrown weeds and blackberries and repaired the garden beds brought in compost and prepared their space for this spring they were thrilled and seeds were exchanged a Portland policeman who has a garden has had a garden there for several years asked last year if a 12 year if his 12 year old son could clear a bed to use absolutely was my response and I told him to contact Monica flesher at Portland Public Schools Sid Brad is signing his two slightly younger stepsons declare more blackberries and weeds than they rebuilt another three beds one for each son they planted lettuce and a variety of vegetable to harvest this spring it was fantastic to see the young people excited to grow in their own food now these Garden spaces and the approximate 60 other garden beds and plots are overgrown with high high weeds the gardeners I just told you about do not have Gardens and are not growing produce is expected because PPS notified us that the garden was closing the bean seeds such as these are going to waste because there's no space to plant the seeds we were told the garden must close because of the school Remodel and the garden would be torn out to make space for construction equipment however there is an entire block available there are two gated lock entrances to the Garden a simple solution is to put up a fence to separate the two areas in fact the construction equipment will be much safer if there are gardeners present in the evening and weekends as eyes and ears over the area a side note in the last two years I've stopped a reported car theft in menacing at the school grounds just by being there in the garden by calling the police I was told by Diana white PPS real estate department at the Garden would close permanently because PPS is not in the garden business however that is not entirely true because there are other PPS properties with Community Gardens Grant High School is one of them and when Grant was close to remodeling Donnelly was the community garden kept intact and active but the garden was expanded I discovered the Harrison Park Community Garden about five years ago when it was operated by outgrowing hunger it's a very unique garden and that is primarily immigrants and not English-speaking people who grow produce there over the years several the gardeners have been parents of children at Harrison Park School and residents of the apartment six door and across the street last year 80 percent of the garden was worked by immigrants and 61 percent of them do not speak English there were several Chinese families both Cantonese and Mandarin people who migrated from Taiwan Vietnam Dubai Mexico and Ukraine much of what is grown in this Gardener vegetables from their home and countries that are not available for purchase in Portland here are some Chinese these chives that you can have for you to enjoy that a Chinese man gave me to grow two years ago outgrowing hunger decided to move out of the garden the plan was for Portland parks and rec to take it over however I was told that this did not occur because PPS decided to experiment with operating the garden itself and it was assigned to Monica flesher to manage I volunteered to manage the garden and take care of all the day-to-day tasks much like volunteer Garden managers for Portland parks and rec I stepped up because of my intense fondness of the garden the people and the unique produce grown here now however there's even an even better management plan Portland parks and rec has again stated a desire to manage the garden and will do so if it is kept open in early may I think sir could you wrap up okay I'll just get to the last sentence or the last paragraph it's apparent there's outcry from the residents and community over 400 people have signed an online petition in
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addition to about 60 people signing the hard copies and you have copies of those there's no need to close the garden a plan is in place to continue to have it professionally managed just as Grant high schools by Portland parks and rec I implore you to work with contractor to utilize the adequate space for staging the construction equipment on the West End Of The Garden of property and to maintain the garden with a fence to divide the two activities currently the girl started okay for your comments really appreciate them tonight yeah thank you thank you for your time would any of you like to have some Chinese chives um I would love some chives and I would love some bean seeds may they have a um I just clarified may I make a comment um because there's so many people advocating thank you for your advocacy I'm a huge proponent of urban gardening and wasn't Urban gardening for years myself and worked under Charles Jordan Who convinced me to go to college because of urban gardening we got noticed today that the Portland parks and recreation is indeed um they have the capacity and the interest in taking on the management of the garden after the construction is done so it's it's got a it's got maintenance now which is a great thing the garden will be able to be restored I think the last thing and and they'll be providing water as well so I just wanted to let you know that it's a temporary closure and maybe what's built back is better thank you for your advocacy um the um and this is from the Portland parks and recreation the Community Gardens program manager Laura nimi yeah I got a similar email this afternoon notifying it that from some advocacy that happened so one of the questions actually one of the things I was going to to say and ask the superintendent not at tonight's meeting but to provide the board with because again I just learned about the issue last week when we started getting some emails just provide the board with an update on on on on what is sort of happening the plan and whether there are any alternatives sounds like there's some some other stuff going on here as well so especially with all the really cool stuff that's going to be happening at Harrison Park um that with the opening of the middle school and the major Investments the district's making it seems like it's a perfect complement and a partnership with Portland parks if they're willing to do it it's also a second Garden site and yet bean seeds are very hard to get right now by the way I've looked in three stores now so it sounds like we'll get some updates in the future thank you superintendent um Kara who's up next Rand Keller Hello I'm hello I'm Rand caller last name k-a-l-l-e-r I'm a former nurse current medical student and proud spouse of one of your amazing first grade teachers at Scott Elementary I'm here to talk to you today about Lead Asbestos and heat in schools throughout your District I hope my presence shows that this is not an issue isolated to schools administrators and teachers this is a public health concern and should be viewed as such it is my understanding that the current plan is mitigating exposures to lead through the use of water coolers and abating heat with standing fans and a vague plan of eventually replacing these buildings sequentially in the next few decades I'm here to tell you that that is not enough we cannot provide unsafe environments for our students and pretend there are easy workarounds that will prevent long-term harm when the very water students wash their hands in is contaminated if there's lead in your pipes there is lead in your students lead even in the smallest quantity leads to learning and behavior problems hearing and speech deficits and slowed growth in children the list goes on there is no safe amount of lead and the effect is cumulative lead is not all asbestos can result in lung thickening and inflammatory disease and chronic scarring it is also a known risk factor for lung and throat cancers seeing the outcome from the medical end I wish fervently that we had the opportunity that you have in front of you to stop this before it happens to anyone else lastly heat you wouldn't leave your dog in a hot car why are you leaving your students in a hot classroom more than just distracting and uncomfortable studies of standardized testing show that as much as one degree hotter classroom can reduce the year's measurable learning by approximately one percent this feels like a damning statement when so much testing is done toward the end of the school year when classroom temperatures have been seen to reach the mid 90s this all stems from old buildings and poor infrastructure which is needed to be replaced for more than a decade where will the money come from for this I can't pretend I know that what I can tell you is that Renovations would be an upstream investment with significant Downstream payoff avoiding the Fallout of Behavioral cognitive physical and physical side effects of current exposures is a clear benefit but beyond that there's a
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preponderance of evidence that Cur that students do better in healthier environments and perform better in school absent of any other intervention that is an outcome worth investing in it is no secret that all these issues affect the poorest neighborhoods and at-risk minority groups the most as well as the teachers and staff who choose to serve them children are enduring these exposures in early formed of years teachers may spend their whole careers exposed time and time again we've seen that teachers are a limited and precious resource we ask them for their time their hearts their own money for classroom supplies we shouldn't ask them to give us their health too you have the opportunity to say that these conditions are unacceptable and to set a powerful precedent to raise the standards for learning environments the way to your teachers set and raise standards for their students every day I hope you do it thank you for your time thank you [Applause] Nikki Kaufman welcome hi my name is Nikki Kaufman k-a-u-f-m-a-n- I am the PPS Head Start bookkeeper and before that I was a data clerk at Franklin High School um I'm here because I know in my heart that an injury to one is an injury to all um during our current contract negotiations the district council has used our low to free cost of health insurance as an excuse to not pay us livable wages what they don't seem to realize or care about is that while our members are fortunate to have affordable health insurance there are many who simply cannot afford to take time off from work to go to the doctor or they don't have the transportation means to get to the doctor when they need to many of us continue working while ill or injured because we can't afford the co-pays and we know we'll be leaving our team even more short staffed in our absence than we are already there's a red X in the audience for an injury sustained to staff members in the course of their work I'm also here to read some testimonies provided by members who are not here right now I work three hours every day after school just to stay afloat I love my job and work hard to help students be successful but I don't have any savings or safety net I've developed chronic health conditions from the stress of my job and I've seen incredible abuse and neglect of children in special education due to understaffing and poor training often in moments of crisis when staff were escalated or injured and needed to leave but had to stay due to Staffing and lack of substitutes there was no follow-up done because we didn't have a teacher our NCI training does not prepare people because it is shortened by half of what it's supposed to be give us the full training another one says from what I've seen the educational assistants are doing paraeducator work and the para educators are simply thrown to the wolves another one says I'm dependent on charity and food pantries because of my paycheck most of my paycheck goes to rent I love my job but this is unsustainable the last one says I've been a library assistant for two years last year I got laid off this year I'm still waiting to hear if I have a job in the fall I've been told that I definitely won't have my full-time hours PPS doesn't ban books they just cut their Library staff those are just some of the testimonies that we've gathered from pfsp members around the district during the course of our work organizing our Union for better pay working conditions and Better Staffing we're here tonight to show that we're prepared prepared to fight for those things our students Futures depend on it and our dignity demands it thank you [Applause] thank you thank you [Applause] alashia Lauer Alejandro Cielo is virtual move them in [Music] hello hi welcome Alejandro hello superintendent Guadalupe School Board directors Council large
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oh and I guess I should acknowledge student representative McMahon my name is Alexander or in Spanish Alejandro last name Levine l-e-v-i-n-e I couldn't be here tonight because I'm still at college but I would never miss this moment tonight I want to briefly touch on some accomplishments and congratulate someone who did one big amazing job this year someone who's grown as a leader and is a dear friend of mine byronie I'm incredibly proud of you this year just like others I know we're hard you faced unique challenges you guided the District of student council to me successfully on a weekly basis passing resolutions holding meaningful conversations that all led to the District student council student Summit which definitely had more people there this year than the years I was in PPS DPS grad and Community member I saw from the outside looking in that student voice was being represented by you you were fighting the good fight and that's a win for this district for those that don't know McMahon started this job role in a Sprint every moment last summer when I'd call her and she'd say sorry I'm busy can't talk I'm at a summer Works program or a PBS internship checking it out McMahon put in the work and she showed that she cared she speaks at swearing-in ceremonies and graduations alike all for the pursuit and fight of student and educational rights he showed up to Salem this year and showed the state legislature that they need to fund education and they did that work has been seen by many after she's visited nearly every high school and middle school and Elementary School she showed that student voice matters and is at the Forefront of every issue she's made profound impacts on not only community members but prove that student voice mattered when she was in the rooms with Congress people Senators governor kotak and even President Biden she's had unwavering support for what students think in school no matter her personal opinion she advocates for it as the pet president said last meeting she's a fierce advocate for all students speaking up when adults don't as congresswoman bonamici said in an email to her I'm inspired by your commitment to make school stronger and better for all I think those two quotes sum it up it's the joy that I share in those two quotes that watching you fiercely Advocate to make this system better for all so congratulations on an amazing year full of amazing accomplishments I'm so proud of you in Washington watch out I'll be there about him proud man gets sworn in thank you [Applause] Xander that was awesome thank you and good luck with finals and you forgot to mention the tick tock videos Parker myris you did a great job too next we have Sabrina Danielson also virtual foreign hello my name is Sabrina Danielson d-a-n-i-e-l-s-o-n um I want to thank you for your time and attention today I have been working for PPS in the special education department for about five years now has a behavior support person um I'm here to talk to you about the toxic and retaliatory culture that I've experienced and that I've observed that Portland Public Schools has really nurtured especially against their neurodivergent and people of color Educators and students we're speaking virtually because I'm currently on forced administrationally or teacher job because I have been labeled as disrespectful and harassing this is the third effort uh in the last week to remove me from supporting my students in schools since I have started advocating my clinical view of what is outdated and in some cases harmful in our educational and ABA practices these efforts have ranged from trying to force my extended FMLA a surprise evaluation that has no observations or observation minutes on it and now this Administration leave for those who are unfamiliar with me I am also a neurodivergent human and that has ASD and ADHD and due to these disabilities I have a very different social communication style I don't see hierarchy I think there's nothing wrong with asking questions and speaking plainly and I will not engage in Small Talk At Forest potlucks since I have spoken up against the practices I have expense I have experienced what I feel is isolation exclusion and behavior reflective of bullying from some co-workers and HR people the very Department that is supposed to advocate for students with disabilities the same as me are the ones engaging in some of this discriminatory behavior when I asked for support navigating the disagreements because I
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know I speak plainly and have this disability I was led down a really horrible path that hasn't even been resolved this toxic work environment doesn't just hurt me and other neurodivergent employees but it really hurts our community and our students when our employees aren't treated with respect and dignity they cannot perform their best work and this ultimately harms the students they serve furthermore when our district continues to fail to create an inclusive work environment we are sending a message to our community that we do not value diversity which our data has already shown has led to a lack of trust and support from our community we have to do better we have to actively work to create a culture of inclusivity and acceptance in our workplace and this means providing accommodations and supports to our neurodivergent employees educating our fellow colleagues about neurodiversity and actively challenging the discriminatory behavior when we see it happening since our Urban collaborative data is showing that PPS currently has almost a double the national average of special education it is becoming more and more imperative to me that we start building this community now where everyone regardless of the neurodivergent or POC status is valued respected and given the opportunity to thrive we must all actively work together to create an inclusive and working welcoming workplace that values diversity and supports all of our employees and students by doing so I think we can truly create a stronger and more successful district for everyone thank you thank you [Applause] I'm gonna call Alicia Lauer again okay that concludes we have signed up for public comment General great thank you again uh for your comments uh and if you have uh please feel free to connect with our senior board manager Roseanne Powell if you have something specifically to follow up on with the board or Board office uh next up I believe we have uh comments from the Portland Association of teachers and president Bonilla thank you welcome president Bonilla nice to have you with us oh hello superintendent cheers Scott last year Holland School Board student representative McMahon um for the record as always my name is Angela Bonilla b-o-n-i-l-l-a and I want to start with Kudos um so first the kudos to all those who advocated and to PBS for changing the decision to allow all students who need access to the Summer Academy to access it we no longer no longer have that barrier of certain percentage students need to reach so students that need it can access it so that's really great um shout out to our pfsp members who work here at mpec as security they did a really great job of keeping us safe and clearing the hallways when we had over 700 Educators here at the last board meeting um and also thank you to Roseanne Powell uh for reaching out and pre-planning to have an outdoor viewing area today in case of a crowd a lot of really great work um also thank you to Dr Effie greathouse and the community for advocating for um those uh medify M8 1000 filters that OHA offered and PBS for accepting those uh that's going to be great to have more sites with increased airflow and clean air so today I want to talk a little bit about budgets Audits and I want to specifically speak to the assertion by pps's Communications team that I'm spreading misinformation about the funds that PPS has so when the communications team states to the news PPS is fully quote PPS is fully aware of the misinformation campaign led by Pat Portland Association of teachers our board policy requires a district to maintain five percent of our annual funding in reserve which is what we are doing we will continue to be fiscally responsible and work with integrity and transparency while centering our students in all of our decisions it really stings uh because Pat is not me or Jackie or our association reps it's every educator in this district and it's pretty gross that PPS would stoop so low to stay that our Educators who are here employed by them has to educate our city are spreading misinformation it is false so I want to make some things clear of course after I leave the podium y'all have the right to call up everyone from PPS management to dispute what I'm saying and that's fine that's your prerogative however I want to remind
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this board you're elected to be the voice of the community and the public not to enforce what the superintendent or the communications team says uh last meeting I felt very frustrated watching y'all discuss budgets from the back talking about one of the funds but not the others and using the same metaphors about budgeting for our paychecks and how an increase in funds doesn't mean that there's also uh doesn't mean much when there's also an increase in costs I work here we get paid once a month I know what budgeting is many of us divide divide our paychecks for our 10-month salary into 12 months so that we can pay for our rent over the summer and that's while costs go up for us too so I understand how budgets work I also understand that PPS presented information to our bargaining team about the general fund fund 100 but not the special revenues fund fund 200. this is like having money from two jobs going into two checking accounts and only talking about one um so I thought I'd provide some clarification and some understanding that I've come to after talking with our oea bargaining coordinator whose job it is to analyze School District Audits and to understand and calculate how much money the district can expect to receive from the state and I'm sure you all have that information too so I don't think anything I'll say is a surprise but there are two issues that I want to touch on the idea of budgets versus audits as well as ending fund balances so budgets are the moral document that's the the dream right they show where we intend to spend our funds but audits are the informational document that's where we actually spend our money and we've gotten so involved in these budget conversations but now I'm learning that the real information is really in the audits so here is what I've learned from our comprehensive audits from PPS the millions that I'm calling out in the PBS budget come from information obtained in the comprehensive audit from PPS for the year 2122 the audit states that pps's total expenditures in the general fund were 689 million 584 000 but there was a 98 million eight hundred and four thousand dollar amount as an ending fund balance so this 98 million was what was left over for the same year the district cut 90 classroom Educators while increasing FTE across the district but that's not all the special Revenue fund the 200 fund the funds that include grants and monies from the state and federal government where the Student Success act money goes that audit states that pps's total expenditures were 181 million 625 000 but had 35 million 69 000 as an ending fund balance and this is all despite an increase in costs again this comes down from pps's own comprehensive audit for last year so we also know that the budget is based off of the the current budget that is proposed is based off of the original state school fund budget of 9.9 billion the governor has committed and we're all waiting for Republicans to come back to work so that the work can be done um to passing a state school fund of 10.2 billion so when those funds do come in will PPS commit to funding student-facing positions to bringing back the online learning academy to listening to the priorities of the public and reduce our class sizes across the city to increase the number of folks who can work on our ventilation or electrical the next I want to talk about the ending fund balance so total expenditures and ending fund balances have increased year after year since 2017. again from the comprehensive financial report the audit we have gotten more funds in our state school fund allocation year after year we have spent more year after year and we have had more money in our ending fund balance year after year we have more money and we're spending less of it so where does that money go so I would really appreciate not having the misinformation accusations in the news the reason I'm asking where the funds are going is because our district continues to present slides that state we have an ending fund balance for 2223 of only 50 million but our beginning fund balance for 23.24 will be 94 million the ending fund balance of one year is the starting fund balance for the following year and if it's not where is that money coming from sometimes it seems like a shell game where there's you know funding balances contingency fund 100 fund 200 and we also know that the Oregon School Board Association states that a district of our size only needs a five percent reserve and our 2122 ending fund balance for the general fund was 14.33 of that Fund in 2122 the ending fund balance for the special Revenue 200 fund was 19.31 of that fund these are both above that recommended five and the 10 of the board's policy why and where is it going again the
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community budget Review Committee made it clear when you all have the funds you increasingly spend it on increased management instead of in positions or pay for Pat pfsp sciu ATU DC to you dctu IBEW [Applause] the tone PPS has taken or has chosen to take around our budget and our Educators is unfortunate and a reflection of our experience at the bargaining table we have had over 150 days of direct bargaining with PPS management and that's not including the bargaining we did around article 9 and student safety since October and we have we have asked the state for mediation because we still remain far apart on our members biggest bargaining priorities and not only that I feel like we're far apart at acknowledging the truth that's written in black and white in the comprehensive audits so I want to make sure that we're actually on the same page and we're communicating so that we can come to a resolution and I don't want to attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance so maybe y'all didn't know that that these special Revenue funds have increased dramatically since 2017. I have it all compiled across since 2017 here for y'all and and it's not just due to Esther funds um maybe we're getting this view presented to us because it is a bargaining year but either way it feels like another way to demonize our Educators who have fought against every Instinct of self-preservation since 2020 and continue to come back to work every day we want to work here we want to make it feel good to learn at PPS we have we we hope that a state mediator can help us find Common Ground common understanding and lead to an agreement that actually gives students and Educators the respect and the support that they deserve and I hope I hope we can have more conversations about all these other pieces in the Audits and the uh reality of our financial position um because I want to make sure that we are listening to the public and to our community and investing in their priorities as they are the ones who live here and have lived here and continue to send their students here meanwhile we know what our central office looks like and it's often a revolving door I hope these folks stay because we've been doing a lot of really good work but I also have to make sure that I'm not ignorant to the experience I've had at this District so let's try to get on the same page and let's uh make sure we're not spreading in Spring putting uh nasty rumors about misinformation coming from the folks who educate your kids thank you Angela [Applause] you [Applause] have a lot of supporters so I have to wait for the acknowledgment um there's probably some other times in other conversations we can have I think what I guess maybe the question I want to ask it feels to me like at the heart of what you're saying is that you don't trust the numbers that the district is giving you and you and I have this conversation almost a year ago I've talked to some other folks on Pat and and I will tell you that it's frustrating and it's frustrating because it feels like underlying what you're saying is that I use the word lie which but is that is that you really believe you're being lied to and that's not a good place where we can collaborate moving forward and I will tell you what I had hoped going into this year because last year I was really frustrated because um you know we had a difficult budget here there were fewer resources than we wanted and we made some reductions and the what we were told by people in the community and we heard that from members of Pat and for Pat leadership was there's money you're not telling us about it and I'm hearing very much the same thing today and I guess maybe we're not going to solve it here today maybe what I'll dispose is how do we get to a place where we can agree on the numbers and then actually start having the hard conversations about where it goes because you raised some really important points and points that board members have echoed in our questions to the superintendent about what is happening with admin staff right and there are some disagreements there about those numbers too or what's happening about certain programs like oh Elena those are really important questions we're not going to get to those questions if if if we if we don't agree on the number and I will tell you my my frustration with your communication to your members I'll be really blonde was last time you were here you said the district is sitting on 90 million dollars and in fund balance and they're not spending it but we are spending it the budget we are proposing to adopt today drops that down to 50 million dollars and so it was just a weird like like just kind of one of those facts like you're saying like you know the sky's orange I'm like no the
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sky is blue it's not and so I'm like that feels like a waste of our time and I think you would agree I think that's why you're here testifying about that to move on and I just I guess maybe I would just ask how do we how do we get to a point because I don't believe staff are lying to and I don't believe the superintendent's lying to you I do believe we need to spend some time making sure that we're really transparent about where all those numbers and funds and figures come from absolutely and I am more than happy to share the information I've gotten from our like budget Analyst at oea because this is I I can make sure that y'all get a copy of this but our audit data from 2017 to 2020 is very clear that we have continued to have an increase in funds and an increase in ending fund balance that's not those aren't numbers I'm making up those are numbers coming from the audit the questions I'm asking is where exactly is that going and those are the questions that we're not getting answered and that's why the frustration is coming from the community because it feels like yes I'm getting a slideshow again showing me these tables but those tables don't clearly explain the data that's on and it's been very and we brought it up in bargaining too it's very difficult to say that data is presented because this is public information you can find it and as an educator I understand that it's not about the information existing it's about the mode in which it is transmitted to those who want to understand it and so when we have slideshows that are showing uh Statewide declines in enrollment instead of PPS specific declines in enrollment when we have numbers that aren't explained as to how we got to that number on this table it makes it very difficult to just say okay I'll just trust what they're saying because we want to trust and verify right and so I understand the frustration around like where is this money uh you know we're talking about 98 million in a ending fund balance and we are draining that down but we're not saying we have 98 million in an ending fund balance in those documents what the slideshow we received from the bar at the bargaining table said there were I'll pull it up but it said that there was something like 40 uh 48 and then 50 for the starting fund balance which is which just doesn't make sense to me and so that's why my questions are where is it going what's going on I've emailed those questions to the CFO and I know he's super busy and trying to catch up on everything um and I still don't have an answer right and so I come here to ask those questions that I mean that's what most of us come here do is to ask the questions we've asked to others haven't gotten a response on and so we come here to ask that y'all ask those questions for us um and so you know I want to come from a place of uh truth and data so that we can start in the same place and move from there but what we have seen as a trend across uh the state as well in other districts is that there is this like oh my gosh we're at this precipice there is no funding um and we've seen an increase in those uh it's all good in those ending fund balances so where is that funding going if we're getting five percent more in the second year of a two-year biennium funding right like there's a lot of questions and it feels like the questions aren't being answered when they're asked yeah and thank you thank you for asking them and maybe when I'm done being shared in two weeks I'll have a little more time we can talk about about translating you know some of those numbers and and getting make sure on the same page with information so thank you thanks for being here I also have a shirt for byronie so very nice all right um next up service employees International Union as requested to speak this evening and I believe Chris Walters is here foreign thank you for being here good to see you thank you for having me and uh well thank you all and I'd like to get started so SEIU has now completed its fifth bargaining session with the district uh we've just started to get uh responses and counter proposals from the district which is great so that starts our clock and I want to talk a little bit about the the bargaining process and what we're thinking about our objectives going into bargaining were twofold first was to deal with some of the language in our contract the contract language is ancient for example about six contracts ago the district committed to moving from a once a month paycheck to twice a month paycheck that this would happen over the course of that contract it clearly did not um and that language stayed in the next contract and the next one and the next
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one and so one of the things that we're looking for is to change the language from the district committing to doing something that they clearly have not done over the previous contracts and just actually do it is that the difference between a twice a month paycheck and a once a month paycheck for someone just starting off means the difference between going potentially four weeks without seeing their first paycheck to six weeks which is what it currently is some members of our Union or really anybody if their date happens to come right after a pay period that's six weeks that they're not getting paid and that's a hardship um so we want to clear clear up language like that that's part of our goal there's a lot of really outdated language in our contract and so far the district's responses have been mostly no um they've agreed to clear up a few things but most of our answers have just been a flat no or a we'll talk about it which great we've got plenty of time to talk about it this is going to take a bit uh the next thing that we're looking to do is talk about Wages that's you know the big elephant in the room um it took us a while to to come up with a number and we did a lot of research we used the MIT calculator for wages for the Portland area and for example a two-parent two-child family needs about 28 dollars an hour wage for each parent to live decently in the Portland area um so we took a lot of these numbers and we came up with 25 an hour as a starting wage which as I alluded to we did not come to this number lightly this is not something that we just threw out there and said yeah let's go with this we we talked it out we talked about the pros and the cons we really looked at the market that we live in and the wages that are paid and we felt that 25 is a fair amount to start with and we wanted that to apply to custodians to nutrition services assistance and quite frankly it should apply to pera's educational assistance security anybody who works for PPS because that's a fair wage for living in this city it's not a cheap City it's not the most expensive city it's not LA or DC but you know it's there are costs to living in the city and management responses was obviously no um and they pointed out that you know for nutrition services assistance we make more than say folks down in Salem OR Centennial or what have you but we're not competing with Salem OR Centennial for employees we're competing with people actually in the city restaurants that pay similar wages to us and then throw tips on top of that um and you know second graders are great with smiles but they're not so great with tips and high school students I love y'all I I work in a high school McDaniel high school and I love the kids there but uh y'all don't smile a whole lot and don't tip a lot so that's where we're coming from we've got a number of things that we're looking to change within the contract language around Hazard pay inclement weather um the idea of we currently have a grievance going to arbitration about the snow earlier this year where there's a state of emergency and lots of custodians were essentially put into danger um and we want to change that in the language again so far the response has been no um but we're hoping to move that over time so yeah that's that's kind of where we're at I wanted to give you all an update from from our side of the table and yeah great that's it if you have any questions I'm happy to answer anything
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thanks for being here I appreciate it thank you Andrew I have Andrew I have a quick question um Mr Walters Mr Walters I just had a quick question I asked I've asked PPS staff for um a listing of all of our employees that currently make under 28 20 an hour different bargaining units but if you happen to have that information for SEIU the number of your members and what the roles are if you have that hand in you want to forward it along to us I'd be interested in that just by email we can provide you with that information I know that all of our assistants starting at 17.25 an hour are under that number yeah every single one of them are leads are slightly over 20 so and our custodians start at 19 something an hour um so probably about half of our Union is under that twenty dollars okay and that is also reflected I should point out in the turnover percentage 26 of our nutrition services new hires are no longer with us from this year 38 of custodial new hires didn't make it a full year yeah 38 percent the the private sector it's about 10 percent so we're wasting a lot of money in HR resources on people who aren't sticking around but yeah we'll get you that information thank you thank you I appreciate it data if you have [Music] you have apartment in any given city um the members need to go and you know use food banks and other supports or have a second job if you have I don't know if you have that information as a percentage or if you could do an anonymous survey so people could report that would happen I would be interested in knowing what that would be interesting information I don't know the logistics of getting that but if we can we will but yes a lot of our members in our surveys have indicated they work second jobs most of our members are living paycheck to paycheck a lot of us are on the margins yeah yeah I would I would say like a survey where you can anonymize the responses I will uh I will check with our folks and see if the about the feasibility of that thank you thank thank you Mr Walters appreciate it uh under 25 that would be all of us well all of us on nutrition services for custodial uh some of the heads are above that but most are under um next up the Portland Federation of school professionals and welcome president Batten thanks for being here hello Michelle Batten b-a-t-t-e-n I'm the president of pfsp the Union that represents classified employees this evening I have brought with me John McDuffie who is currently our field rep but he is also president-elect and will take over the leadership role come July 1st um so congratulations hello Mr McDuffie that's m-a-c-d-u-f-f-e-e no one ever spells it right so you don't so um I will start this evening throughout this school year union leaders from across the district have come to speak before you with concerns about the employees we represent the Staffing crisis a livable wage and safety I began the Year by sharing with you the demographics of my own membership pfsp we are the most diverse represented Workforce 35 percent are non-white 78 percent is female historically a group of employees made it mostly of women and those of color does not receive the financial or career respect as those of the dominant Society we are not paid a livable wage although over half of us have bachelor's Masters and Doctorate Degrees we are dismissed as less than working for women's wages pfsp is in bargaining with the district right now we have demanded a livable wage a wage that says one job should be enough and I have with me a bunch of these signed platforms from all of the
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schools supporting our bargaining platform of one job should be enough a wage that honors the dedication and hard work these diverse employees have earned as they support your most fragile students your students with special needs students learning English students whose families have fled genocide or students who live food and home insecure let them know how much you value them give them the resources to care for our own families and show them the respect their work deserves tell them we agree with you one job should be enough I want to share some remarks from my members Nikki who spoke earlier grabbed some of them but I have some more para for 23 years says the classroom I work in lost four staff over winter break all of whom gave weeks of notice since then we have had to use teacher Subs to fill open pair of positions a records Clerk says I have a medical condition that is exacerbated by extreme temperatures we do not have air conditioning in our office and I regularly get light-headed at work another Paris says we use damp paper towels to cool our kids down on hot days children in our classroom are mostly non-verbal and can't tell us when they are overheating so we spray them with water on hot days or take them into the hallways for Relief because our classroom doesn't have adequate air conditioning another Paris says I depend on a second job and food pantries to help feed myself because most of my paycheck goes to rent I haven't been able to buy myself new clothes this year and if you remember some of our bargaining information over 50 percent of our members do work a second job I've developed chronic health conditions from the stress of my job and have seen that stress and neglect in children in special education due to understaffing and poor training um oops things smarter smart our NCI which is like hold and de-escalation training does not prepare people because it's been shortened by half of what it's supposed to be give us the full training it used to be a full two days it's now been condensed into one a year ago some tiles were damaged in my classroom and we were told by the custodian that it was an open asbestos pit so it was covered with duct tape the pit has been tripped over repeatedly by students and staff if it's still there in September I will not be returning another Paris says I love the work I do I just can't see being able to survive with the disrespectful pay long term another says I have health insurance but I often can't afford the transportation to get to my provider tomorrow is the last day of school and Friday is the last day of work for the 192 classroom-based staff as of right now pfsp has 41 layoffs looming 17 full layoffs and 14 partial including six who've been cut to Half Time which means they will work twice as hard to get everything done in half the time for 14 of those layoffs this Friday will be their last day at Portland Public Schools as I end my tenure as pfsp president and a 38-year career at PPS I urge you work with us to improve the working conditions of our employees when working conditions improve education improves be the kind of leaders our students and employees need thank you [Applause] foreign thank you yes our our step one EAS make a little over 16 and that's the group that when the preschool started for all started last year that the pre-kes had to get a stipend of 350 an hour because the state required that much more for a wage great thank you I want to thank you for your service I'm sorry I want to just thank you for 38 years that's you must have started when you were very young [Applause] let off during hard times economically uh for the district so that 38
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represents some other years too uh we would like to thank the district for the help that we've received this year from Michelle Moore uh the director of sped in uh talking about and developing plans to increase training for paraeducators uh and uh talking about helping to get more training for other staff that aren't sped as well we'd also like to thank Sharon Reese and the HR team for making sure that we were able to get uh new pfsp employees orientations we've heard a lot of positive things from people at the central office too about how beneficial that is for everyone we'd like to thank the superintendent and his staff for offering welcoming statements during those sessions too so thank you very much we have talked a lot about diversity and I know that the school district really wants to go there we have a lot of income diversity that isn't something that's talked about very much and we hope that everybody can recognize that during our most recent bargaining session the district's Representatives stated something the effect of that over 5 50 percent of pfsp employees receive more than a poverty rate that's disheartening and then proposed three percent two and a half percent and two percent Cola uh for those three following years I it's I just don't think that's the message that that you want to send uh and so I hope that we can work something out that is more positive and recognize these uh employees who work so hard uh are frequently in danger and uh are injured a lot they should be paid more than just a wage that allows them to exist so thank you very much for listening thank you for being here okay we are uh gonna move on to board committee and Conference reports so are there any updates about board committees that folks would like to share at this time I've seen shaking of heads nope okay um one thing just uh sort of board business to add in terms of board member declarations for leadership so just as a reminder in May of 2021 the board adopted a process by which board members could be considered for board leadership positions the resolution states that in order to be considered for a leadership position board members must notify the current board manager in writing by June 1st if they plan to run for board leadership in the July election then at the first board meeting in June which is tonight the board chair will publicly confirm board members who are interested in serving in leadership so I just wanted to let everyone know that as of that deadline um Vice chair Hollins has declared his interest in being board chair next year and then director green and incoming director Eddie Wong have expressed uh interest in being Vice chair so again we will have that vote at our first meeting at July 11th board meeting to elect leadership for the next for the next year next up on our agenda is a report from the climate crisis response committee so next up we're going to hear uh from the climate crisis response committee March of 2022 the board adopted the climate crisis response climate Justice and sustainable practices policy this policy includes a requirement for a climate crisis response committee to monitor the effectiveness of implementation ensure transparency and track the progress of initiatives needed to meet the policy tonight we're pleased to have the committee uh to provide feedback on policy implementation so far and I believe I'm welcoming committee members Jane Kamal Angela long and charity Fain to provide a report but maybe just one of you tonight so welcome great okay thank you thank you and uh good evening to the board and superintendent Guerrero and the student representative thanks for taking the time to hear our report tonight I'm Jane komalt I chair of the climate crisis response committee and I'm a PPS parent um I've sat at this table several times as an advocate in the development of the
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climate crisis response policy and I'm pleased to be back in this capacity in support of the policy and its implementation hi I'm Angela long a PBS PBS parent as well and there's a few other members of our committee that are here tonight um can you stand out that's Isaac Barrow and Diane Reilly thank you thanks for being here as you'll recall the climate climate climate Justice and sustainable practices policy included a provision to create a climate crisis response committee comprised of up to nine members with a majority of members who identify as people of color and two student members to monitor effective implementation transparency and track progress on the policy our group of nine members were selected from a pool of over 70 applicants and approved by you the PPS School Board in August of 2022 and I'd just like to take a moment as a side note to thank our two student members Danny cage and Richard Deng they're just wrapping up their term and we like you have to say goodbye to them now and we're recruiting for two new student members so anyone watching who's interested we encourage you to go to the climate Justice website for that um the written report which is included in today's agenda package is organized by the duties of the committee which are outlined in our committee Charter it includes the requirement to share written findings with the board at least annually this represents our inaugural report it's been unanimously recommended by our committee for submission to the board at today's meeting I'll share some highlights from the report again organized by our Charter duties and it will include some findings and recommendations so one of the committee's duties is to receive relevant reports and data from District staff on a current status and planned implementation of the policy an early priority identified by the committee was the need for a dashboard that could be used to evaluate progress toward the goals and sub goals outlined in the policy including specific attention to the impact of the policy implementation on Frontline communities with input from the committee District staff developed a project management dashboard that's just a tiny snapshot of it um to track and report on progress of the policy we applaud this thorough and very detailed tool it obviously took a great deal of effort to develop and collect the and input all the information within it we believe it will be helpful for monitoring implementation of the policy especially for District staff another major Milestone was the completion of a greenhouse gas inventory by an outside consultant which the committee reviewed and found it to be a comprehensive and very professional report we note the 2019 Baseline was inventoried at just over 46 000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent um and PPS will need to work quickly and effectively to reduce that by half by 2030. the other major data related item that was reviewed by the committee was by PPS consultant Echo Northwest the consultant provided an overview of their scope of work to the committee they're developing an evaluation plan for the policy at that stage we had some questions about their approach especially in data analysis related to climate Justice I note in the staff from the staff report in today's agenda it looks like this project has been completed but our committee has not received an update it wasn't ready in time for our last meeting in May just a quick question I'm sorry I haven't had time to dive into the report yet but so this the dashboard there is telling us 46 000 metric tons of to about half of which is natural gas 41 electricity and then Fleet yeah you got it the vast majority is is buildings yeah heat heating cooling buildings yep um so in the second part of our duties in the committee Charter is around status and implementation and um so I just want to note some of the major policy implementation milestones at PPS that we're aware of that PPS achieved this fiscal year so climate Justice advisor was hired in June of 2022 this project management dashboard was created greenhouse gas inventory was completed this evaluation plan was commissioned staff put on a youth climate Summit for hundreds of high school students design standards for new and existing buildings are being updated and we heard about some Solid Waste reduction and expanding Green School yards efforts being made in terms of the committee itself creating this group was obviously a notable Milestone this past year we met six times between September of 2022 and may of 2023
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um we pointed a committee chair which is me we recommended for this inaugural group to extend the one-year term members we have staggered terms um within additional two years which you all approved in February to go ahead with that the committee also formed three working groups this past year to delve deeper into certain areas we had a dashboard working group that collaborated with staff on not project management dashboard a community engagement working group and lastly a board working group we've also discussed and planned for next year to have a fourth group dedicated to supporting pps's efforts to resources policy looking at things like budgeting so for findings and recommendations we have three main areas to share the first is we recommend that PPS continues using and developing a project management dashboard and provide more information in specific areas as noted we believe that dashboard is a useful tool PPS should continue to refine it over time as it gets used it can become even more useful for tracking and Reporting on progress and managing the implementation of the policy given a level of detail and complexity of that tool we see it mostly useful for District staff to some extent our committee as well and in addition to that project management dashboard we recommend the creation of a community dashboard or you know call it what you want but a reporting mechanism that shares information about the policy and its implementation status that's in an e like a easy to understand relevant to folks in the community they're looking for things maybe happening at their school or their area of Interest we believe this should be developed with input from students the committee and the community and whatever is developed should be easy to find and navigate on the PPS website overlaying both of these tools we recommend the explicit incorporation of data and discussion about climate Justice and impacts on Frontline communities just to follow the intent of the policy and just keep that front of mind other areas of interest to the committee specific to implementation of the policy that we'd like to include on the agenda for the upcoming fiscal year include purchasing curriculum a medium to long-term financial plan for implementation of the policy and a building upgrade plan given that buildings are such a huge part of the greenhouse gas footprint for PPS the second area for recommendations is to augment organization leadership and development and accelerate the pace of implementation the scope of this policy is very broad it requires that implementation is owned by PPS staff throughout the organization the climate Justice advisor hired in June of last year was a major milestone in implementing the policy and they've been professional knowledgeable and competent and liaising with a committee that's cat we really appreciate cat she's been wonderful to work with also Hannah and Aaron um and yeah we've had the pleasure of working with some great PPS staff this year and we really thank them for all the effort that they've put in and it's been the first year for all of us who are kind of trying to figure out how to continue this work the climate Justice advisor obviously has a central role in coordinating and supporting the policy and your scope of work is enormous with additional resources the policy could Advance at a faster pace we recommend that PPS share a staffing plan that identifies the process and procedures used to manage staff throughout the policies life to understand how PPS plans to meet its goals and sub goals across the organization more resources are likely required to accelerate implementation of the policy we acknowledge the scarcity of funding for public schools however as part of pps's commitment to the policy we recommend that a funding plan be developed and shared oh sorry one other thing I wanted to say was um That explicit support from PPS leadership both the school board and Senior staff will continue to be critical to the policies ongoing success and really permeating all the aspects of of the organization and last our last recommendation is to enhance transparency around policy implementation progress PBS has content on its website related to the policy certainly but it's dispersed and lacking and not readily available from a Google search we recommend building out a centralized website to support transparency and accessibility for students the committee the and The Wider PPS Community with input from those groups we also suggest boosting transparency in the development of major projects related to implementing the policy and providing the committee and the community an
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opportunity to give input in their development again at Major milestones the evaluation plan completed by Echo Northwest is a good example of a project closely aligned with the duties of the committee that we would have welcomed more opportunity to collaborate on wrapping up overall we feel that in the first year the policies adoption PPS made a genuine effort to move forward on its implementation some notable Milestones were achieved and some of the invisible but critical work of establishing and updating internal business processes was undertaken we acknowledge that it takes time to build organization capacity and scale up the district's efforts to tackle a climate crisis climate Justice and sustainability and with that said the pace rate and scale of implementation of this fiscal year was not sufficient to meet the policies aggressive goals however we're hopeful that the groundwork of this past year will enable acceleration of progress as soon as possible and thus concludes my summary of the committee's first annual report and we welcome any questions and comments from the board great thank you thanks for that and I know next up we're also going to hear from staff about first year implementation of the climate crisis responsibility so maybe I would just say are there any questions right now for this committee but then we can also come back and I see you'll still be here and bring you back up at the end of that presentation as well I just like make a comment if it's okay um so I feel like the district and the board is really lucky um two ways this year um we have had two groups of community members both at the community budget Review Committee and this committee that has brought a tremendous amount of external expertise I mean I go to those meetings and it's like wow how lucky are we that we have on this particular committee people that not only are committed to PPS because their parents and community members and somehow affiliated with us but also have an incredible amount of expertise and have worked really collaboratively with staff and Cat to take this policy which is a huge huge complex piece of work and actually distill it down into something that I feel like in our that the first year summary um is is really a great milestone that you've been able to distill a complex policy into sort of the major the major work and the progress has been made and then in a very elegant and simple way um so describe what needs to happen the acceleration um and the continued work um so I just want to acknowledge um it's been amazing watching all of you work on as the board liaison and I really appreciate the expertise that you brought to the table and the collaborative nature of working with staff on something that's really complex to implement and doing it for the first time in year one um I just want to say I I'm I really look forward to the continued involvement of the committee because I think you know so much of this first year has been planning and also the inventory of what are the impacts of our system currently which has taken a long time and I think there's still some areas where we're still trying to figure that out and gather information but for the most part we have that back we see our emissions and um now I think this is where the work gets really interesting when we as a district start to prioritize okay what kind of choices are we going to make to get the impacts that we know we need because it's not cut and dried I mean you can there are several different approaches that could work or ways to focus even when we have very clear goals in mind so I just hope that there continues to be a strong dialogue with our citizen committee Our Community Committee and with District staff about what are where are we going to place our bets you know we're going to meet our goals but um which which paths are we going to take because that's still for the most part remains to be seen to comment on cut sort of both your um remarks to say that I think I could speak for the whole com the whole committee that were the committee exists to be an oversight group on implementation of the policy but we're volunteering our time because we care about this and we really want to see PPS succeed and I hope that you see us as a resource in helping to do that um and yeah prioritization is going to be necessary and it's going to be hard and that one of the reasons why our recommendation for senior leadership from PPS to be involved going forward is because of the very thing that was just mentioned and um the board in the planning stage but now we have to execute in the timeline to do that in the next eight years is going to go by really quickly so we're going to need to start considering staff and Leadership resources to make it happen if we're going to meet that goal I I want to say also thank you for your
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work I really appreciate this I might have skipped over this in reading but are we doing our greenhouse gas inventory in-house or are we hiring out for that outside okay um so yeah I'm really I'm really pleased to see the work it was a fan um and also somewhat of a Critic um you know for for doing this work including the reduction of you know the dependence on natural gas increase of electrification in our buildings and across all of our operations I also want to just make a comment as we're losing two student members that it would be really great to create a pipeline of people that are speaking for this policy from Frontline communities who are uh the most impacted by climate change they're impacted first and we've been intentional about diversifying this committee and so if we could support the leadership and the voice of people that come from those communities I know it's hard to get volunteers I really know how difficult it is but I would personally like to see an effort placed on that leadership pipeline particularly from students that are I use this statistic all the time but 50 of people under 50 are people of color and 80 of people over 50 are white and so if we think about the future and who we're speaking to and speaking for I'd love to see that pipeline developed so just on that topic so um that mentioned earlier that we're having two um we had great representation this year as the students and we're looking for new candidates and we can absolutely um be very focused in our recruitment of who serves on it um so I think that's a also should be a charge to um all of us and maybe we can get some help from The District student council um also um but I think that's that's our opportunity to also we're losing two strong members and we're have the opportunity to gain two more that's awesome and one way you can attract people I know the city of Portland actually pays um nobody wants to hear about paying anything but pays volunteers stipends because we've heard for so many years you know you can't find you know people of color that have the time or energy to volunteer but if you can incent people by paying for their meeting time it doesn't have to be a lot but that that can help increase that participation thank you yeah really appreciate this work um so on the same vein uh we are next going to receive an update on the first year implementation of the climate crisis response policy and superintendent Aguero thank you to the committee for for your report I think it does dovetail with the next part of the agenda here uh as you all know the board has really made a commitment to a pretty bold and ambitious uh policy it talks about mobilizing our resources to reduce impact on climate change it talks about our responsibility to reduce the screen house gas emissions it does Center our Frontline communities to have an active voice and climate resilience developing the climate Justice education component of this connecting all of our stakeholders and Community Partners as leaders and seeking these Solutions so you're gonna hear from Kat Davis next our advisor for climate Justice and she's going to share sort of where we're at after a year now there's actually been a lot of work but we we are reaching sort of important milestones and a critical next stage of this work just like you heard our community leaders describe as soon as cat is uh putting the presentation on the on the slide I just want to maybe start with uh noting you know from the committee uh Community Committee talking about the need for senior leadership to be uh taking a front row uh or a a major role in in the implementation I just want to note that today uh and last week uh senior leadership have gotten together to begin to think about the implementation so we have uh all the things that you'll hear about today uh staff is the seniors leadership is beginning to think about what that looks like and and how we're going to reach our major Milestone so with that okay thank you everyone and thank you so much to Jane for that and Angela for that wonderful report from the climate crisis response committee um so good evening board of directors superintendent Guerrero student representative McMahon my name is Kat Davis as you heard my and I'm the climate advisor for climate Justice here at Portland Public Schools so today I'll provide an overview to date on our progress to date on the climate crisis response climate Justice and sustainable practices policy along with our high level implementation plan and strategic insight as to how we can move this work forward to uphold our commitment to our community to review our this policy passed with the board last March March of 2022 and our commitment includes a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts to
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improve our school communities health and wellness to build a culture of learning responsibility and sustainability centered on our values of racial equity and climate Justice and to educate Empower our students as leaders in a just transition to a sustainable City in a restorative Society in addition our policy commits PPS to decarbonization which includes some lofty goals of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 50 by 2030 to reach Net Zero by 2040 into phaso all fossil fuel infrastructure by 2050. and in the light of so many urgent PPS priorities that we've heard from even just today I will structure the way that we talk about this policy implementation in connection back to our strategic plan our graduate portrait and our board goals for student achievement so that we can come together and understand how and why we have coordinated this approach and the progress towards in our last year and how we will move forward such that these activities are not in conflict with other PPS priorities but rather can serve as a strategy to help make our work more efficient and to advance and uplift all of our goals to strict wide so to start to understand this policy as a strategy for other PPS goals we must come to collectively understand the term climate Justice and so that we all have a shared language I thought I'd review how our policy discusses this by acknowledging that climate change disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable members of our community and that implementation of this policy will prioritize serving people with disabilities communities of color and other vulnerable populations our students have a really unique position in this understanding of climate justice as the first generation to grow up with an unstable climate as their normal they understand intimately how inequity exacerbates Environmental injustices so by honoring space for our diverse student body to share their own relationship with this issue a climate Justice education will advance The Graduate portrait of vision of our of students as transformative racial Equity leaders as well as informed and influential global global stewards another important factor to consider in this is that students across the nation report feeling extremely worried about climate change and our own students Echo the sentiment with some saying that they cannot even imagine a positive future in the face of climate change so we can rise to this challenge by investing in infrastructure that show that we are committed to our students safety in this uncertain future ahead we can provide professional development and resources for our teachers our social workers and our staff to better understand climate anxiety Eco grief and post-disaster Trauma and we can encourage Innovative design and curiosity to fight against the overarching narrative that there is only a single future of Doom with the exploration of the many possibilities of Futures of solutions and is with that commitment to joyful learning and inspiring learning spaces that we can Inspire optimistic and future oriented graduates as well I also want to share this policy as a strategy for student achievement because we know that as before today our students and teachers perform best in high quality learning environments with improved ventilation lighting building insulation and Technology we know that rich and vibrant ecosystems activate curiosity and that empiring empowering student voice in action on local interdisciplinary projects instill an invaluable sense of Pride and efficacy so as we discuss our strategic Direction forward let us Center how we can create inspiring learning spaces where students can Thrive despite a changing climate so I will share just a quick overview of our approach to implementation and how this policy was has being developed across the district so we've developed this implementation plan inspired by the PPS Innovation Studio Design framework to Center that they put together for our Center for black student excellence and mobilizing a district by of transformative culture shift so this policy implementation plan centers equity and community-based design in each of our four implementation phases including a first phase to clarify relationships history current activity and assess our needs a second phase to Ida ideate potential Solutions vision and external consequences for each policy goal phase three is the Prototype co-create and refine plans policies and programs and phase fours to implement those developed plans so this framework is an iterative process of continuous design analysis and community-based feedback at all stages and includes and at this high level this foundational year has been really characterized by this first phase of clarifying this work we'll continue into this phase as we advance into the next year and move into our idea phase as we continue to Define policy priorities and co-creative vision for success with our community so just to illustrate the expanse of this work across PPS and why this first phase of clarify is so important I put together this organizational chart that highlights the PPS departments and their corresponding pillars that I've gotten to work with over the last year this list is not exhaustive and we know that each of our 81 School sites are doing amazing work to make change and that that our goal is to align our systems and structures to really support the
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work that those School sites are doing as well to embrace the culture there needless to say this organization-wide alignment in action is a large lift and if our goal is to create a new system center it on climate Justice then it is important to understand where we are at so that we can best move forward so with all of this implementation plan context I will share some tangible progress to that we've accomplished over the last year um as we discussed this lift for foundational work it's important to recognize that this policy did not initiate climate action at PPS and that activities to reduce emissions prioritize local food and embrace student empowerment have been part of PPS culture for decades so some of these also some of these policy goals are really clearly defined like we talked with some metrics earlier but other metrics for success and goals are a little bit more vague in how they're stated so because of this we have this opportunity to really look at where we have this existing work and where we need to better Define these goals moving forward so this foundational year has thus prioritized Gathering a history of Baseline data for policy activities and the result is a current state of policy progress as seen as our climate crisis response bonds policy annual report and policy progress dashboard that you all had in your board resources today given the need to Define Baseline metrics and indicators PPS contracted with an evaluator Echo Northwest to mobilize staff from across the district to identify existing data sets and activities and the deliverables of this work are in our climate crisis response policy activities and targets targets document as well as our evaluation and implementation plan these deliverables will help PPS communicate progress on policy goals with transparency and prioritize activities by impact and feasibility as well as further develop evaluation tools so um just to spend a few moments as well in addition to these foundational activities some tangible action has been taken across all policy pillars as well to help build new systems and support our goals to advance advance existing strands of work so as you heard our uh we completed our greenhouse gas inventory which says Baseline and evaluation guidelines for measuring emissions reduction we will complete our green school or its inventory this summer and the spring PBS also finished installing waste sensors and updated our technical design standards so that future construction complies with policy goals each of these activities establishes the conditions necessary for future success this spring PPS also welcomed our first two new electric school buses which was very exciting um we expended our TriMet passes through the summer and saw an increase in our Walk and Roll events PBS's local food programs also continue to expand where our amazing Partners use School Gardens to teach students how to grow food and connect with Outdoor Learning and nutrition with the curriculum active transportation and connection to Nature culture and Community is essential for nurturing a sense nurturing a sense of belonging and efficacy for our students and finally we've also added opportunities for engagement and empowerment with climate action so as you heard our climate crisis response committee launched last year and provides a pathway for Meaningful Community advocacy and engagement opportunities like professional development on teaching with climate Justice lens and the launch of our sustainability Champions Network support our teachers in leading climate change action in their schools and in April over 300 High School students and teachers participated in a PPS spring climate Summit where they connected the roots of climate change as systemic Injustice and learned about the power of culture for climate action creating their own creativity campaigns and using art and creativity for their own campaigns and then finally to advance curriculum this year the co-created climate Justice curriculum for the high schools continued across PPS high schools and we continue to map out where different standards across grade Brands and subjects connect to climate Justice in order to develop a developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive curriculum so there are also undoubtedly awkward challenges to achieving our PPS climate goals notably large-scale infrastructure changes within the confines of a limited budget but as we navigate these challenges I want to share some opportunities for a continuous improvement with the center of understanding that we must balance the urgency of this climate crisis with the Integrity of the process in which we are responding to it with a deliberate approach to decarbonization we can advance Equity regeneration and resiliency and I invite us to consider the following areas where continue to continuous Improvement to meet this urgency with Integrity including understanding how we might mobilize our teams and resources within PPS to integrate policy goals into newer and existing strands of work the need to create consistent transparent and inclusive community discourse around the complex decisions of this policy implementation and the need to coordinate a centralized system for collecting data and communicating
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stories about climate action as you heard from our climate crisis response committee they've echoed some of these opportunities for improvement as well with an assessment that there has been genuine effort that's been made but there's a great deal of work ahead to meet our 2030 and 2040 goals they call for an acceleration of progress and integration of policy goals into PPS workflows as well as an increased resources devoted to policy implementation and increased transparency and communication on progress Central to this call is also to intentionally Center environmental justice and our data sources and outcomes so to respond to all these opportunities for continuous Improvement both I and the community have identified I wanted to share a work plan for this policy over the next year first off we are examining an organizational shift in Staffing at climate Justice at PPS and expanding how to integrate these goals into our departmental workflows to navigate a complex set of challenges in reducing emissions PPS will also pursue the development of a decarbonization roadmap which will result in a prioritization tool the to meet our emissions equity and resiliency goals and on that note another concern is resources right we're facing a really challenging state budget so we're fortunate that thanks to partnership and advocacy we're anticipating receiving around 20 million dollars from the Portland clean energy fund assuming that is approved by city council to use over the next five years in a way that will advance our policy goals and that Public Funding like these are a huge help in getting to the right direction as we mobilize a budget for our own schools in addition we're working to advance communication and transparency through coordinating and accessible and engaging Community facing policy interface and finally our final deliverable from Echo Northwest specifically calls out connections to environmental justice and similarly advises at disaggregating population data where possible so we can ensure that our approach is in fact Equitable and accessible by all of our communities so we're excited to be able to use that tool to further our development over the next year so in addition to this work plan of really tangible action is a commitment to strategic direction for a district-wide approach to manifesting our goals and this includes a commitment to inclusive collaborative and data-driven decision making which engages departments across PPS to contribute to centralized policy Data Tracking and Reporting systems and to develop robust sustainable and responsive Community engagement programs and we can also practice a strategic advocacy and allocation of resources so making sure that we're specifically funding programs for capital projects that directly fulfill policy directives such that we're not competing with allocations for existing essential services or infrastructure we don't want to be in a position where we're Pitt pitting existing necessary services against policy directives and while there's a variety of Public Funding opportunities coming online in the next year three years we must prepare to fund a project management and partnership staff to successfully fulfill these funding opportunities as well as the maintenance staff that will be required that will be needed to you know better maintain the infrastructure and technology that we'll be adding um and finally with coordinated and effective leadership we are initiating a climate crisis staff Advisory Group to support cross-organizational policy decisions and how we integrate these goals into Department workflows um we will also we also need to establish a practice of strategic foresight and sustainable teaming structures to coordinate core initiatives that call for district-wide culture shift and finally we must Embrace and communicate policy activities as strategies to fulfill priorities as how they contribute to the outcomes of the graduate portrait and just to reiterate to advance all of our policy goals at a sufficient face Pace we must develop a multi-pronged approach to procuring and allocating resources and really creatively so as I start to wrap up I want to take a moment to highlight that this policy has warranted some national attention including the National School Board Association Magna award features on National media outlets and invitations to present across the country school districts are looking at us for how we move forward on this kind of work so as we continue to advance policy implementation I invite you all to let this moment sink in uh we are setting the stage for how a school district can respond to the climate crisis and as my colleagues and I continue to wrap our heads around the best way to move this work forward we have to continuously remind ourselves that we are in wheel inventing territory healer we are literally inventing this wheel and this approach is one of the first of its kind so there will be continue to be Lessons Learned and I really want to appreciate the leadership of you all as we continue this work forward into Uncharted Territory uh so just to wrap up the 2022-2023 policy implementation scope has brought to light a wealth of activities that show a history of commitment to climate action and despite work to be done this year has established the necessary foundation and celebrates really
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tangible policy progress while there are challenges ahead leadership support of a cohesive and coordinated approach to this work will ensure that PPS sets the stage for how to develop a transformative rigorous and joyous approach to climate Justice education as we move forward together thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about that thank you for the presentation and obviously all the work um I'll open it up for board conversation questions comments praise feedback it's very amazing director it's a couple questions because I um missed one of the meetings where I think this got covered um but I'm curious um thank you for the presentation and again I think that the scope this is a great was a great um foundation-ling year and I'm curious about the evaluation tool that was added did the committee have an opportunity to provide the oversight that made the presented early did they have the opportunity to be involved in the scoping or the direction of the evaluation I assume is in some ways I viewed their oversight role as part of you know is it working what's happening um and then the evaluation tool would be very helpful so I'm curious what their involvement was in the scoping and setting the direction and then ultimately also receiving the results of the valuation absolutely um so the our evaluators were able to come to one of our policy committee meetings or climate crisis responsibility meetings and we're able to share an initial direction of how we were approaching implementation and procuring data and defining indicators to get some feedback from the committee about what kinds of data and indicators that they would like to see and how we were able to measure progress on this policy so they were the feedback that was provided to them was included in the evaluation tool and the the results of that evaluation framework were we received that on June 2nd so I was able to share that with the committee members but we haven't had a chance to they have had a chance to meet since then so that'll be something that we can start next year with is to look at the deliverables that came from that evaluation process and like I said the those tools are not anything that's like set in stone it's really to help provide us with a map and really give us a good starting point to start deepening our conversation around how to best Define our metrics and our data so that we are really making progress on this this true intent in the spirit of what the policy is getting so just to clarify so understand that what what the what is um is it a one-time evaluation or is it creating a structure in which you get a continuous refresh of data that's that's a great clarification question so the um the scope of work was to Define help us Define our Baseline data and indicators as well as set targets for our 2028 and 2040 goals so that we can start to develop the evaluation tools within PPS to track the data needed to make and communicate progress on our goals did that help it does and then just the follow-up question um as noted by the committee um that under the current and I'm going to put a big asterisk on in this under the current Pace we're not set to meet our um decarbonization goals um and that acceleration is needed are we in the like the flat part of the hockey stick phase um or is there from a staff standpoint a where adjustments we need to make adjustments or is it we really need to let things continue to play out because we we see there'll be um this upward trend of meeting meet our goals great question and something that we're all really great so um the first thing that we really need is a comprehensive plan of how to strategically invest our limited resources to best achieve our decarbonization goals but also our resiliency goals those are some trade-offs that we're looking at how to make but making sure that as we approach decarbonization we're doing so acknowledging that our aging infrastructure desperately needs some updating as well so that's a really tenuous and complex plan and so for that plan we're putting together a decarbonization roadmap to be able to have that really clear path forward that really takes into account our need for decarbonization as
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well as equity and resiliency and efficiency and in addition to this plan once we know okay this is our prioritization tool this is how we can best invest our monies across the district in a way that's going to get us to these goals we also need a huge lift of resources we're going to need to really strategically think about how we're you know being able to use our perhaps our bond money for this how we can advocate for funding at the you know state and local and federal level anywhere we can be advocating for funding to be investing in these um this lift because this will be a large infrastructure investment that we that we in order to reach those and in terms of Staffing and internal resources that's the work that we were just describing around the Strategic direction of how can we really ensure that all of our departments are fully aware of and on board for how to do this work together in a way that's the most efficient and able to achieve I like to say feed multiple birds with one worm so thinking I would say just we would need to rely heavily on our school board um you know cat is a central office administrator right and much of this work that needs to happen to get us to this uh to our goals will require a lot of central office staff and administration and so as we think about what those trade-offs and those conversations right we want to meet our community's goals and so that requires a broader conversation in a community about how do we meet that understanding that we have very limited resources see where the great Point um the peacef funding 20 million dollars could come to PPS is that my understanding yes yeah it's over 16 million for infrastructure and three million for student projects which is really exciting over five years um over five years okay yeah is that money pretty certain I know you've been engaged or someone's been engaged with them and but I it's not approved yet right but they're moving in that direction am I right about that yeah it's in the climate investment plan that psef is presenting to the city council for approval so it's just a matter of background you know we applied so originally when PCF was established you know it was very much uh situated as a grant opportunity for folks we as a district applied got rejected uh because we were competing against a lot of small very really important non-profit work and so our conversations over the last year has been about how to get to your you know your goals as a piece of uh organization you need to work in partnership in tandem with us for example as one of the largest property owners in this in the city to meet these uh goals and so since then we've been having a lot of conversations about what that direct investment looks like right so beyond the dollars we will continue to work in Partnership to reach our Collective goals as a community that's great thank you any other questions comments I just just wanted to thank you again for the body of work it's a lot of work in a year I'm really excited to learn more about the decarbonization roadmap because I think that's you know it's kind of people ask you know when you're um implementing Energy Efficiency in your home if you just get solar but you don't have double paned windows or insulation or you know there's an order of operations that makes sense so that's exciting I had some questions also about key performance indicators and looking forward to learning more about that um I also want to say I just you use the term climate grief and I just got an invitation I sent it to you for an associate of mine that's holding a climate grief Workshop at the Sitka Center in July so I sent you that information that came from the environmental Professionals of color which is a National Group but started here in Portland very robust um hugeless serve of black and brown Professionals in the climate space and finally just again wanted to say would love to hear some of our some of the ways that we're thinking would love to see it Guided by Asian Pacific I mean Pacific Islanders um Native American people in particular and black people because um I think the way that we think about this matters and I find the approach to be quite different and and effective so if we could include those voices it would be wonderful great um one more thing I wanted to say about financing and that's the University of British Columbia had a financing tool where they it was a 20-year plan to reduce energy on campus and they worked with the utility company and I believe mckinstry to um so the financing came out of Energy savings so the university had no upfront cost and paid off the investment over time based on a percentage of Energy savings so it was it's a really great model and I've mentioned it I think this was in 2010 but you might want to look into
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that University of British Columbia thank you yeah thank you very much for the work and to all the members of the committee as well I just wondered are we planning on taking up the opportunities to present the work more nationally I know that you said we've got invitations because obviously it's a very unique program and I'm sure a lot of other school districts out there are probably pretty desperate to know how we've been combating the problem since obviously it's something Across the Nation we should be dealing with yeah absolutely I've been looking for more conferences to be able to go to I think we went to four over the last year where we were able to present this work in a variety of different spaces something I'd really love to see is more student opportunities to present and taking students to show I mean some of the work that's happening at our schools and the result of this is advocacy um there's actually been some great articles about student leadership in this work where PPS has been featured so I would love to see that really mobilized as well um yeah I think that's a great idea great thanks for the work thanks for the presentation update tonight appreciate it all right moving on uh maybe we can call it the Capstone for tonight's agenda uh budget adoption so tonight we are set to vote on adoption of the uh superintendent's proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year before we get into that conversation I just want to recap a little bit um how we got here the context um and the opportunities of the board the public have had to hear and weigh in on the formation of the 2023-24 budget so we had our first budget work session uh way back in November um followed by another one in February and then we had two more work sessions in March all of which were discussing the overall budget forecast and framework the superintendent then based on that feedback from the board presented his proposed budget to the board in April and then at the last meeting the board acting as the budget committee unanimously approved the superintendent's proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year tonight we are voting to adopt it so I'm going to get this on the table and then we'll open it up for board discussion and public comments so um do I have a motion and second to adopt resolution 6718 to impose taxes including to pay for the budgeted bonded debt Levy amount of 165 million dollars and Adoption of the 2023-24 budget for School District number one J Multnomah County Oregon so moved second Church constant moves director Lowry seconds and now we will open it up for board discussion and actually I'll just ask Kara do we have anyone sign up for public comment we do okay so let's do um a few minutes of board discussion we'll go to public comment and then and then wrap up so uh I don't know if you have anything to share with us today I'm don't but I'm here available and if there's questions uh can I just ask a kickoff question um can you walk us through the bonded debt Levy amount I know in your memo you sort of said it went from 170 to 165. yeah correct so after doing it our initial number of 170 million was just based on our preliminary analysis and after some further conversations we noted that we could be lower at 165 million dollars which is a benefit to Portland taxpayers so ultimately that means there'll be less dollars that we'd be taxing Portland uh our Portland Community but still meet our our debt so this is an issue this is not issuing bond this is just essentially the taxes we collect to pay the bond back great so we only needed 165 million so we're only going to charge the taxpayers 165 minutes only yeah yeah that's a lot building side okay so with that let's open it up for any uh board discussion so I know we had a conversation last time about school Sykes and that you by Ernie had brought forth an amendment to that we talked about it I did ask the question of what is the caseload for school Sykes and um the recommended as 500 and we're at 750 not caseload but the school psych's per population and we're at 750. um and I don't know if there's at this moment a place to pull that out but I think that really needs to be highlighted we talked about our counselor number and other numbers but I really think going forward that school psych number we need to get that down to the 500 in subsequent years and I think that that really should be a priority of this board and I know it's a priority that a student representative McMahon highlighted for us last time and I would encourage you all when you start next November on this budget cycle to really look at those kinds of things I wish I'd asked that question earlier about what are the recommended number of people like School psyches per student population and we're at you know 750 instead of 500 is a big big difference in those population numbers and the reason I'm not bringing forth an amendment at this time to change that is because when we look at things like those campus safety officers it's again this house of cards of where do you pull to
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to put something else um and and I don't feel like I have the ability at this moment to to shift those numbers in a way that wouldn't cause unintended harm in other places just leading uh for following on that assuming we get additional resources from the state which looks likely the last meeting we also talked about that that money would would come back and there would be a proposal from the superintendent that potentially that's a place where those that that could be one area obviously there's lots of potentially other priorities but that could be a place because this is this is the budget that's built on the state allocation of 9.9 so um in all likelihood we'll have more resources so that's potentially an area and By Ernie we know you will be here in spirit still with us even if you're up in school um come back and give public testing yeah so just noting that that's potentially on DirecTV and I think it's it's a good point to just Center ourselves on what's the recommended as the beginning and always use that as The Ether to ask at a minimum the aspirational benchmark and I I guess I'll just I'll add I'm very hopeful the education budget will be higher there's also the potential right now that it will be lower as a result of failure to pass for the state to pass a budget so um yes I love the optimism I hope in the end that we can end up at a 10 2 or 10 3 or maybe even you know the Republican number of 10-4 um but I do worry because if the budget doesn't pass um we are still waiting for guidance from ode which I believe we have not yet received but there is the potential of actually the allocation in the short term dropping to 9.6 which would mean some short-term pain I'm glad that uh board is you know understands the context here because we did we do have a budget in front of you at the 99 billion State School fund level which unless there's action by the legislature defaults to 9.3 so for us it's like well hold on to our nickels until we learn otherwise we're going to continue to be optimistic we're not being Spectators we continue to be very proactive in our advocacy we are hoping for the higher 10-2 that could mean the difference of 10 to 12 million a year we have no shortage of very important areas like caseloads for school sites for example where we'd like to make another increment of an investment and we have to come back to the board and decide on what balance of you know added fund balance or other priorities we'll need to stretch those dollars as much as we can the legislature needs to get their act together what do you really think though okay why don't we care why don't we shift to uh public testimony and then we'll come back for board discussion could be on you got some documents for y'all welcome thanks for being here thank you be young whoa it's hot huh Beyond you b-e-y-o-u-n-g Ood evening on this table in yours is over 1 000 pages of substitute jobs that nobody wanted to work this school year and last a grand total of 37 409 unfilled substitutes for Pat and pfsp that's almost 40 000 times an ELD student did not receive Services a child did not have their para for a feeding tube who does this labor for these jobs when there is no substitute if we didn't pay for substitutes then where do these millions of dollars go I look around at special education jobs that sit idle for months like IEPs and a moderately dingy closet if we never hired for these positions where does that money go when you say there's no money I look around this air-conditioned room and
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think about these six figure salaries in District headquarters I think about the asbestos in our walls and the sign above my faucet that says water is unsafe to drink staff working conditions are student learning conditions each budget tells a story when we invest 2 million in a Communications team in our room are 93 degrees when our third grade DLI classroom has 31 kids registered for next year when we spend Millions on Witten wisdom so our kids still getting that whitewash colonized history I got in the 90s Financial mismanagement the shirt I'm wearing says not today colonizer not just a statement to those that look upon it but a reminder to myself is about racial Korean for I have the ancestry of the colonized and the colonizer and when both Bloodlines EX in my body I cannot teach my students the lives that assimilated my childhood we could be teaching the local history of Vanport Chinese exclusionary laws gentrification of Albina and the Portland Expo Center that used to headquarter as a Japanese incarceration camp but I don't see that in our budget I don't see the part that talks about the superintendent's central office hiring freeze and last week's job postings to hire three higher paid admin on the backs of 50 cuttosas if each budget tells a history and omits another who hires the people that work on the PPS budget the district we should look at the PPS framework of racial equity and social justice and hire someone to align everything we spend money on in the budget when we're talking millions and billions out of the district audit the auditor audit the people that audit the auditor a practice of auditing audits makes sense when a budget tells one story and emits another thank you thank you that concludes fellow comment great thank you okay backboard conversation questions are we ready to vote go ahead go ahead I was just going to ask about the um earlier the uh some of the testimony talked about um education assistant layoffs are we having layoffs and in any of our um positions [Music] chief of HR Sharon Reeves I don't know that she will have the answer at her fingertips it was just a surprising statement because I know that we have had a shortage of Education assistance in Perez it seems like for the last several years so it was a surprising statement that we'd have layoffs on just fun to follow up on that inaccurate information so let me go find out but there usually is a lot more churn in pfsp positions and then a lot of callbacks they're kind of question so we have a budget discussion and we've got best budget questions we don't have any budget information about layoffs right I don't have it on my fingertips I don't I don't have the number of positions that got laid off or what the callbacks are because that's a and what happens is there's a reduction in the number of positions people get unassigned and then people get called back into positions to say put them back up so layoffs is not a budget decision on assignments is what is a budget decision I guess the reason I just asked the question is that the last several years that it seems like that's been a place where we haven't had enough EAS I know in some of the southeast guiding Coalition schools they had EA positions that never got like last fall that never got the guy never got filled so I'm just curious about the mismatch did they all get filled the ones last year and then re-budgeted for less and that's why we're having layoffs because if if they weren't ever if they weren't I'm having somebody look at EAS right now uh we aren't laying off any Paris puts that brought up but yeah so I think the question is like do we have fewer FTE like where do we have fewer FTE for the 2324 that we did in 22-23. yeah that's a better way to ask I mean because I've been asking because I think unassignment and layoffs are different right well
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um I guess we've learned that sometimes just because you cut positions doesn't mean you have layoffs but right um however I'm wondering if we have left does that mean where we have fewer EA positions it's like what's the net difference right right because there's fewer that means and we may have churn but are we are there actually fewer EA positions that is my understanding I don't have that number off the top of my head terms of the overall Staffing correct yeah and last year were all the positions like do we get back to a place of like everything was full like I say there was um several EA positions in southeast guiding schools that had that didn't get filled until like December I think I think challenge is that there's also turnover in EA positions as well so uh positions come open new all of the time and then get hired for yeah I mean these ones just never got filled so you're asking us if there was are there any a positions that well we're not we're vacant for these experience my framework had always been that the last two years is that we don't have enough people to fill these positions we've actually had either the foundations or buying you know EA positions or the district actually had EA positions that were open but there weren't enough individuals to fill them and so it would just surprise me to hear a statement that we're having 40 layoffs so I'm just curious what and I and I will look back I will look into that and get back to you about what that looks like um I just want to make a general comment about the boards what I optimistically believe will be the board's opportunity to add back to this approved budget once we have more definitive number from the state legislature on the state school fund I think we'll have an opportunity to do some things that have been removed for this budget or that haven't been anticipated um this would be my last opportunity to weigh in on that because I won't be part of those conversations but um I would encourage the board to seriously look at what we have set aside for our settlement of our labor contracts and really review the numbers around what it would take to bring our lowest wage employees in all positions in each bargaining unit up to some definition of living wage job you know it's so hard for me to sit here and hear this commentary from SEIU and pfsp because it's a it's um you know one it's just struggle it's just a struggle from our hard working and highly valued employees but two it's an indicator of how intensely volatile this labor market is and has been because in both of our last settlements with SEIU and pfsp we made great strides and um there both sides left happy I mean we really made some significant differences for our custodians and for our nutrition services workers in particular and now where we sit looking at inflation and looking at just the rest of the job market that we're surrounded by it's not enough um and so uh and that's just within two short years or something so to me um I I might say this is our highest priority because you know I do feel strongly that our employees uh working conditions are our students learning conditions and particularly in such um in such a job market where people are moving around so much I mean there should be a way that we reward our employees who stay in these roles because this is what they want to do and this is who they want to serve and they are part of our PPS family and we don't want them to feel encouraged to shop for another job because it means a dollar or two more an hour doing something different we want to reward them for staying each year they stay and each time they make a choice to serve our our kids and our students um so I think that there will be some opportunity for the board to have this conversation and I think it should be grounded in the data to really look at who who are all these positions where are they what bargaining units and what would it take to make some significant
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shifts there because to me that's um that's a missing piece of our frankly our whole strategic Vision I mean it's we're out to my mind and my heart we're out of alignment with our values in terms of the wages right now for our lowest wage employees can I add that um you know it's um when you want a sustainable organization it's more than just saving kilowatts but it's also that social sustainability side that does have to do with wage and worker treatment Family Leave policies and the ways workers are supported so I think that's good I I had a question about um the Delta between the 9.9 and the 10.2 and have heard from Community Partners that are very worried about the summer programming that they did not get funded for so I'm wondering if it might be too late by the time we hear back but wondering if some of that money could be invested next year for summer programming in some of our our some of the partners that work with our most vulnerable kids particularly around like gun violence reduction sure a quick response on that one and we staff's shared information about half of our over 50 um community-based organization cultural specific Partners applied for uh about half received Awards to be able to provide enrichment opportunities combined with our academic programs you know we have a goal of hopefully serving up to 5 000 students that would be remarkable if we came anywhere close to that but this is another one of those areas where you know we reserved resources to be able to provide Extended Learning opportunities and enrichment for our students this summer in the absence of the legislature passing summer school Extended Learning money so had we had those funds those resources could have gone to some of these other priorities you just heard cap present our climate Justice she's a one-woman show so uh you know there's work to be done there as well you know and I could I could go down the list so uh you know we want to be the employer of choice we share the same aspiration to get all of our employees at a minimum living wage over time like 83 percent of our operating costs are and our employees so you know we can we can make choices and move the dials in different directions and that's a trade-off also so uh you know advocating for continued Revenue that keeps up with our you know inflation and the cost of doing business uh it takes even more to get ahead and do some of those things so you know those are the realities so I um just had just a couple comments um well one one final question that um you something you said um superintendent Guerrero that uh maybe you think that I should ask the question there's no there's no chance if say there's no action but the legislature and we're in this 9-3 that is going to disrupt our summer school programming is it no we're proceeding Full Speed Ahead uh even though this budget is at nine nine if uh if if we were if the state was to revert to the continuing action and brings down uh the funding we would receive or payments that we would have deposited at the 9-3 continuating uh continuing level we we would we would be able to sort of resource ourselves for a short amount of time and kind of sustain uh until a time period of a special session or other action but we can do that due to our economy of scale better than most school districts other school districts can go about two to four weeks before they go belly up uh conservatively I think we can go about eight to 12 weeks and we're also talking about our reserves which is why they exist when uh cash flow gets disrupted and we don't want to be in that situation because then you have to seize operations and we hope we never get to that kind of a dramatic Point okay I'm really glad to hear that because I know for those students who needed that acceleration coming out of the pandemic how important that was um so just one thing I want to compliment the team on um incorporating in the final budget the Middle School components that I think are going to be really important supports for both our students our families and staff so appreciate that that got into the final piece and then I just have a um I guess just two thoughts for the looking ahead [Music] um I just like the climate committee today I feel like this community budget Review Committee did just an amazing job and we
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weren't able to fully utilize that so thinking about as we head into this next year how to utilize it because really it is designed to be to help us work on this budget or that Year's budget so how do we better utilize what I thought was just like an excellent body of work that was done that didn't quite get I think the fully utilized by the board in our thinking about it and getting our questions answered and getting the community's questions answered and so that would just be a look ahead piece of how we incorporate into that the process and then the other pieces I'm really appreciative that um there were funds put in from the one-time monies for uh that the individual school grants that allowed schools in the past because they didn't have foundations and were able to um didn't have the some some discretionary dollars for for staff that um they had that because just from talking to various School communities this year I found that breathing room that that those resources gave them provided some flexibilities for schools to do things that previously because of just the basics they needed to do if they didn't have any extra that it really made a difference and so this is a just thinking ahead about I know that's one-time dollars about making sure we um evaluate it afterwards and look at if if it shows that that's worthwhile like I say I felt it felt it feels like it gave schools more breathing rooms and principles more discretion to really Target things specifically in their schools if they didn't have some private private funds or the flexibility because they had title money that they had to spend in a particular way that we think through next year if the valuation shows that it's a worth um an effective way to support our schools that we figure out how to build that into the base budget if we're able but I thank you and I know I know that it made a lot of big difference to a lot of school communities so let me just make some comments and then I'm done um so I'm gonna vote no on the budget piece this is this is the reason why you know I um you know when the state tells us you know our qem is this number and yet they fund us at a lower number you know for me it sends a message that even though we know you need this to educate our kids we're going to give you less and then expect for us to educate our kids that's a problem with me um it's a con it's a contradiction that I don't understand I I there's no way you can make that right that you say okay we need this you need this to do the work that we think you need but yet we're not going to fund it and then it causes all this other stuff so that's one thing another thing is on our side you know when and I've been asking November February March April how are we assessing the programs that we have to know how we need to budget for this year I've asked multiple times I've got an email from Dr Adams uh it's one that I'll talk and explain it we haven't set that up yet but I guess it's hard for me to on this side I know I'm sure that the staff has done this work I want to hope so that they did but for me sitting on site to approve a budget it's hard for me to approve a budget without information of what worked in the last budget or the budget before that um and I think that's something that we need to at least work on um is that assessment piece are my company we assess every year we're nowhere as big as 2.0 million dollars but um that information would be very helpful when making budget decisions um we're doing a lot of good what the money that we have you know there is you know the opportunity about pay gaps and inequalities and pay is going to always happen when you have outside sources for instance housing goes up tremendously more than the cost of wages goes up um you know we will never catch up as an organization and this is not just
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something that is with PPS this is something that is the private and public sector deals with you know we deal with Rising costs of housing Rising costs of food with the money that comes in that's not keeping pace for us either and as a business owner I'm having these same conversations you know well when food prices goes up 18 percent and housing goes up in double digits well as the organization as a company it's hard for me to say okay well here's the tuning 28 29 increases you know and it just doesn't keep up when the money that we that we're receiving is not going up 28 29 30 as well um and I and I do feel that you know that balance that we have um we're definitely going to have to continue to look at and monitor and assess um but I'm I want to make sure that as an organization that we are making sure we are being transparent honest um so we can be trustworthy as an organization get you know for me just a lot of it just seemed like a lot of BS that comes out of different conversations and I've been watching the budget meeting since the first one and and it's on both sides so let's be clear it's on both sides you know understand the posturing that goes on I wish we can hopefully get past that posturing piece to get to a point because at the end of the day this only hurts our kids yeah sorry yeah bargaining um because it only hurts our kids nobody in here is affected by the decisions that we make it's only our kids that we serve you know um and so I just want to make sure we keep that in mind when we are doing these budgets and bargaining and all that stuff that at the end of the day our kids is the one that suffers for our inadequacies of being able to do what we need to do for them that's it I think that goes to some of what AJ crabill said to us as a board when we did our Retreat this thing the only way that outcomes for students will change is when adult behaviors change and and that's true for all of us all of the adults in the system that we only will we are stuck where we are and it will only change when adult behaviors change um the church is going through similar things Gary with economics we just passed an increase for all pastors and some of our smaller churches are saying we will have to close because we won't be able to afford to pay our pastors so it becomes this question of do we increase the pastor salary knowing that some small churches might have to close so how do we how do we hold both of those things in tension that costs have gone up we want to pay people well and there are economic realities on the other side too it's it's affecting all sectors yeah so um I think as Amy was saying I think right now we're in a really difficult position because we just don't really know what we're getting into is basically what I'm hearing is that like we could have less we could have more we could have a little less we could have a little more we could have a lot more and so I think that it's really difficult when we're supposed to be making this budget decision when we don't really have that final total I so I just want to kind of follow the vein of Amy and if we do have those additional funds I think one we talked about school psyches and I stand by what I originally said I actually got the opportunity to talk to a lot of csas and talk to their work like about their work and definitely are reflected on that decision after we left this boardroom and wanted to see like okay am I you know what should we be valuing here I think we talked about it last time they provide very different services but I think that it is really important that we prioritize our students mental health especially during this time which csas definitely affect but their role is so different than School psyches and I think it's really important to support the work that school psych are doing just because it's so necessary and we heard that from students saying we heard that obviously from our staff the other thing I'll say um and Gary I know you were just talking about it but all of our actions affect our students but all of our staff affect our students and if we don't have happy staff who have livable wages who have livable conditions in their classrooms then we cannot expect them to educate our students and so I definitely would say Obviously our actions affect our students but they definitely don't only affect our students because as much as we are supposed to we are the stewards of the children in this city and we are the stewards of their education but the people that administer that education are our teachers and the people that maintain the environments are obviously members of our unions and so I definitely agree with what Amy said as we move forward if we get more money what can we possibly be doing to um make working at PPS more livable for our
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staff because if we do that then our students obviously benefit thanks one more thing sorry sorry sorry did you say one more thing yes oh yeah really quick really quick go for it um the other thing is I think in the budget process it definitely feels like we wait we wait we wait and then bam it's out and then we vote on it and I think that um obviously we don't have a lot of control over the budget process but I think maybe having some preliminary budget meetings at the beginning of the year so that our community can be more involved in the visioning process so that we can take that Insight at the beginning of the year and then as we're developing the budget we can take that vision and use those priorities that our community gives us when we're creating it because it sort of feels like right now we do it a little bit backwards um we're like obviously we get this document and there's it's very hard to like read the entire document and then go through the changes and then do community outreach and then um try to prioritize and so I think if we can try to ingrain more Community involvement earlier on es yeah I guess and I think students specifically because in student specifically yeah I would I would love more specific design because I do want to I do want to point out we we talked in November and January and February twice in March you know but what we did but those were those were you know that they were public meetings and and we talked about priorities and so I think um I think I think let's let's talk about how to engage students I I having done budgets probably budgets for 20 years it's really hard to get people to pay that much attention early and so so I hear what you're saying but I'm not sure this is a deficit in the process right because people until you get down to the approved and adopted budget it doesn't matter how many times you you put it out there and you meet and you take public testimony and you notify people they're kind of like yeah yeah but you're not going to vote on it for another five or six months so so yes I I love that input how do we encourage people to give it to us when we're meeting in November December and January I also do want to say that I think this budget does reflect a lot of what we heard public testimony last year like I think there's um more emphasis on student-facing people um there are clear investments in mental health there's clear investments in safety so I do think this budget is not perfect and it doesn't do everything we want it to do and we know it falls short we know it does and I think that given the constraints and the reality of this complex system that we manage that this budget is more responsive to what people have asked us to do publicly and and that's one of the hard things is sometimes when we hear public comment we can't necessarily adjust this year but it's okay these are the values of our community that they're saying again and again how do we continue to invest in these things um and you know we heard tonight like we need more to invest in climate crisis we need to pay pfsp more we need more money for maintenance we need you know to invest in the Harrison Park Community Garden there's lots and lots of economic needs so I think it's that every time every year I've been on PPS I feel like the budget is more responsive to what the community has told us but I do think you're right how do we get students more involved in this process yeah and I should have specified students I think that we do obviously get a lot we get public testimony in those early meetings and I think it's a great conversation we can have but I think for a lot of students obviously like you know it's obviously very much affects them but I think it needs to be more proactive on our side if we're really going to say like we really want student input it's not really enough if you're gonna you want like middle schoolers and high schoolers to engage and give you priorities when you set up a meeting 40 or 30 minutes from their house you know at six o'clock when maybe they're not driving or maybe their parents can't get them here and we're saying hey like this you had your opportunity um and I think that it's definitely it's fair and we totally can do more and I mean maybe that's even on me right I didn't go out to all the schools and like ask them specifically hey like what are your three priorities um but I think that more proactive work um on our part could be useful on the student aspect for the student side I think I just want to say generally sorry Michelle welcome but is I actually I I think the budget only falls short because of the lack of funding and and I guess I just want to be really clear I mean I I'm going to vote for this budget I think it does a a really excellent job of taking the limited resources we have and investing them in programs at work I mean I'm gonna I mean just I'm gonna agree with you Gary but I'm also going to disagree in the sense that that you know the the quality education model yeah I mean like we could do all these things if we were there that's that's absolutely you know what we need to keep advocating for and putting pressure on um at the state level I I think you know this question of of effectiveness of programs that is what the superintendent and the staff do and and what we've said as a board it is we want to see that student achievement rise and those are the goals we've set and I think we can we can dig in deeper and we can sort of ask in terms of his strategic plan and what are the dashboards around some of those programs but the reality is as a board we did set those goals very clearly we're going to get some data this fall to you know to to figure out and you know the tscc meeting they asked that same question what's what's working
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and the supernatural team gave some pretty thorough responses about how they you know that that's what we get in in in the proposed budget um I I want to pay everybody in this District 25 an hour minimum I want to be really clear about that from a values perspective and and and you know but you said it so well that like there are trade-offs and this is the conversation Angel and I were having earlier that there is not a hundred million dollars that we're hiding that we could give wages increases to people there's not we could pay 25 an hour tomorrow we as a board could take that decision and it would mean hundreds of fewer employees in this District hundreds so we want to talk about the layoffs right yeah people keeping their jobs they make 25 bucks an hour the people who lost their jobs would be making zero and the people who kept their jobs will be doing twice the work so again if we have the qem could we pay 25 an hour we sure could I think I'll let I'll let Alberto make that but because we all share the frustration and to be clear with our audience the quality education model would fund schools in Oregon at 11.8 billion dollars that's a difference of a billion and a half dollars you know per biennium that translates to about 80 to 100 million dollars coming to Portland Public that would allow us to do all the things that we're talking about right and you know we're hopeful that we'll get to 10.2 billion but that's still a hundred million dollars short of our current operating costs so we are still making Cuts despite that increased number and so that's the state of K-12 yeah by myself before you speak that when you when I said this budget falls short it was because of exactly that the funding piece and I will be voting yes I wanted to um by any not I'm not sure if you've been involved in the conversations about participatory budgeting but that is a fantastic tool to um it's not the entire budget it's about one percent of budgets um that is kind of put into the hands of community to decide what the priorities are and so participatory budgeting Oregon is has been talking to someone someone I'm not sure who at Portland Public and um I think that we I think we might try that I hope we do next year I think so too okay I got one more thing so as on the resolution on number e can someone explain that to me yeah I think it says the the approval of the 2023-24 budget include the closure of Ola program and as such the adopted budget matches the closure yeah I think but as a the as a board do we usually vote on programs yeah yeah so I'm happy to and or whatever we can yeah so so the the proposed budget from the superintendent this year uh eliminated funding for the Ola program the approved budget we adopted uh uh or sorry the approved budget we approved um three weeks ago also uh eliminated funding for the oila program there is a board policy from quite a while ago that says the board you know signs off on or has to approve um you know changes to or or terminations of programs and so that Clause was added just to make sure that we're in compliance with that policy but there's no change in the budget in terms of what we had previously discussed or voted on in terms of closing down the Ola program so I I thought what I read from only is on the email is usually we don't have to worry don't have to vote on certain programs versus because when I read the the resolution that we voted on for the the program it didn't say Ola or just says virtual marketing option back this was in April of 2021 right that was the authorization for the program um the board policy does require the board to get final approval to closing the program okay uh if with that uh we're ready to oh we lost charity well she'll come back in a second um Ford will now vote on resolution 6718 to impose taxes and Adoption of the 2023-24 budget for School District number one Jay Multnomah County Oregon [Music] I thought that was a long enough title that uh and they may be back I'm seeing her I know so all of those in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no no no student representative McMahon oh no are there are there any abstentions okay resolutions 6718 is approved by a vote of five to two with student
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representative McMahon voting no and with that uh we move on to policy decisions great okay so we have um a policy rescission and a policy revision before us uh the policy rescission is on the um limitations on use of facilities and grounds and again that's covered in other places and so we no longer need that policy so we'll bring resolution 6719 before us now it's my turn uh with that motion in a second to adopt resolution 6719 motion second director Holland's moves and director Lowry seconds um is there any more discussion Ms Bradshaw is there a public comment no the board will now vote on resolution 6719 all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes I'll post please indicate if I say no student representative McMahon yes any abstentions 6719 is approved by a vote of 7-0 with student representative main voting yes and next we have a second reading of revised complaint policy okay this is uh first second reading because we often do second first year anyway I'm trying to be funny it's not working my last board meeting I gotta bring the comedy so uh this just clarifies some language about what well there's a work session but this is my last actual formal board meeting and Amy's as well but we have a bunch of other stuff we got like six more meetings before we're fully done um so anyway but this is the last time I get to do policy is that a board meeting it's so exciting so this uh second for this first second reading of uh this policy revision just changes some language to make it clear about uh formal complaint and division 22 um to to Really clarify those um so that's all there is is a little language change in this policy great uh any board a motion and a second to adopt resolution 6720 motion second director green moves director Holland seconds any more discussion it's Brad shiny public comment no board will now vote on resolution 6720 to adopt the revised complaint policy all in favor indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed with indicate by saying no student representative McMahon yes any abstentions resolution 6720 is approved by voter 7-0 student representative Mann voting yes I thought that I was wondering if that was her final vote but there's one more the board will now vote on the consent agenda board members if there are any items you'd like to pull for discussion we can set those aside for the next time we meet uh Ms Bradshaw are there any changes to the consent agenda yes a resolution was added earlier today and was posted at that time adding a field trip approval well trip thank you board members are there any items you would like to pull once again I would just like to say that the board has no business approving field trips and that these poor students played the role of and Scott a piece of artboard time or energy always takes more time than the actual vote by the way so stolen any items anyone wants to pull yep uh the work Systems Inc contract um I had have an outstanding question okay but I I asked it and I didn't get a response so if you want it I I could ask it or we can move it to the next meeting okay well I guess I would just ask does um does staff have an answer to the question on work systems I know there was initial an initial response to uh director brim Edwards uh this is regarding uh some summer work programs for our students I know slated to start post July 1st uh is this a time sensitive Okay so just so everybody else knows the question because um the question I ask is when I looked at the contract there was some specific metrics related to um who was going to be um like numbers of students hired and my question was was there any sort of sort of back-end evaluation of the experience of either the employers or the students about the internships and I did get a response from superintendent Guerrero that there was my follow-up question is like is that actually in the in the contract or is it just the input metrics that are in the contract excellent question good evening I won't go through all the introductions but good evening everyone um thank you for the question so it's not in the individual contract that specific contract because it's left to the Departments to individualize what that Matrix will be um and so I think in the response I was
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copied onto the response and so there was a an example of what a criteria would be or an evaluation like for instance if it was out of the um native Ed program the Indian education program so there was just some examples of of what could happen or what could be a matrix by that specific Department so that's this is just going to be my point about all the contracts is and when I raised it before I think you asked me to to ask it about other contracts which I do and so this is an example of whether um it's actually in the contracts or what what is in The District staff doing that is making ensuring that we have some sort of evaluative effort on the back end um as I appreciate I appreciated the front end metrics but I also believe that um we can have some summer hires but then students don't show up or from the employer experience is bad or it's bad from the employee for the student experience and so it seemed it's like I'm just going to be asking about what sort of con I guess will you well the district then if it's not in the contract ask for for metrics on the back end that have to be need to be reported no I appreciate that I think you're asking about the accountability piece and so the evaluation for the specific departments and then the organization work systems has an external evaluation but I think what I hear you saying is could we next time make sure that that language is captured in the contract yeah and I understand it could be different but it's just like Sunday at the beginning versus like letting the program go and then saying and then reporting here's what the outcomes was versus here's the desired outcomes we want 50 students to have um you know an ex stem based work experience and they have you know 80 attendance rate and the employer says like this was great for us and that the student says it was the same but something so that that said at the beginning of what we're trying to achieve at the back end absolutely well make sure that we have that in the next one thank you so just to clarify are you okay with it moving forward great given the timing um no no I appreciated that no I appreciate the conversation I actually just wasn't wanting to be about to make sure I was yeah no I'm respected I'm okay because I'm I feel confident that um they're gonna be okay yeah she'll do it so we need a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda motion second search green moves and director to pass seconds uh is there any further board discussion on the consent agenda nothing about the field trips the board will now vote on resolutions wrestling championship and six seven two one all those in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed presenting if I say no student representative McMahon yes and any abstentions yes because we use work systems oh got it I thought I heard you vote Yes got it uh consent agenda is approved by a vote of six two zero with student representative uh and with one abstention and student representative McMahon voting for the last time yes and we'll do that [Applause] this is the last regular meeting of the school year just a reminder we do have a public meeting tomorrow night at six o'clock and then we have another work session at the end of the month and with

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 - Full Board Meetings (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk0IYRijyKDW0GVGkV4xIiOAc-j4KVdFh (accessed: 2023-10-11T05:43:28.081119Z)

2023-06-13 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

Materials

Minutes

Transcripts

Event 1: PPS Board of Education Regular Meeting - 6/13/23

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