2023-08-28 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-08-28
Time	16:30:00
Venue	PESC Windows Room
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: 2023-08-28 Policy Committee - Board of Education - Portland Public Schools

00h 00m 00s
oops the policy committee meeting for August 28th and we'll start with introductions and why don't we start in the corner with Kara hey Kara Bradshaw executive assistant uh Rachel land paralegal nice to see you again um modem and Chesney I'm a student at Benson I'm just I'm not I'm not part of this I'm just sitting okay joining us do we have a student rep uh not yet I talked to Frankie about it but um I don't know maybe wrote I'm gonna ask Roseanne when we're done with the introduction Scott uh Michelle to pass board member anyone board member Julia from Edwards board member and committee this large contract the general account superintendent almost the best wrestler oh yeah Plus and we just finished introductions so if you want to go ahead and I'm Mary Kane senior legal counsel right um so we originally thought we might have um perhaps any uh comment during the comment period on our first readings that we introduced last time that we recommended at last time but we haven't yet had them first read because we missed the meeting so I'm assuming they're scheduled to be first read tomorrow tonight tonight okay all right and um so we'll go to the next um so on today's agenda we have um a number of different policies for consideration uh we have affirmative action that would have name change and also some versions of policy that's been brought forward we'll go through that um also on class sizes then um we have one that we carried over from last meeting nutrition services and from an update from staff on that and then two other policies that we had um brought forward
00h 05m 00s
um that bring forward just for discussion and then all the comment and noticing that there's no other business that they bought at the on the agenda on the updated one oh right we added that other doctor sorry printed out before so then we have other business and then which I'm just gonna talk briefly about um a policy that had been forwarded to us um so with that I am going to ask staff to pick it off with an explanation of the recommended changes in the affirmative action policy okay uh yes so we wanted to update um this policy that hasn't been um reviewed or updated since the conception and uh versus initial adoption in 2013. um there have been a number of changes this was actually um uh the review of it was sparked by some changes made in the last legislative session um okay including the change of the ACT which is now the Educators Equity Act so from that we did a more thorough review of the policy and realize it was that some of the processes that were contemplated uh in the initial policy or no longer um uh part of the process in respect to our hiring process for teachers so we wanted to update it to the select current processes and the um the updated name of the Educators Equity act upon which this is based so I'm going to ask um and if the committee is okay with this for us to go through it just paragraph by paragraph about the deletions and the changes and sure um we can because depending on the amount of consensus or questions we can either go through it today and um recommend it out for first reading or we can pose questions or propose to the changes and come back the next meeting but maybe that's the easiest way to see where the questions are or the the changes if that's okay sure I'll just note that Stacy Jung from HR is scheduled to be here there are questions when they need to save them she's involved in some bargaining that's happening right now and we'll just send me an email right in front of me and see if maybe a little late I think we can address most of them but I wanna just note that she will be joining us later questions right she can she can answer some of the questions with respect to the processes we have in place now to have a nurse workplace would it make more sense to do the class size one because it may be easier or if you don't think it's too just I I think either of it works whatever the committee do you want to do it all at one time when Stacy gets here and just move on to something else right sure that'd be great okay I just said I didn't raise that earlier yeah that's okay I'm thinking she might walk in so um there is uh class side guidelines or it's called class size and the proposed change would be class size guidelines and School staff allocations this policy 3.10.031 currently the current version just says the board directs the superintendent to determine School staff allocations of class size guideline for the district and to communicate that information to Upstream administrators um that was from 2002 and the um Edition I'm suggesting which it's just superintendent does follow and does every year through the budget process and the Staffing allocations um the adding an amendment that would uh add to that class size guidelines the school staff allocations for Focus programs Focus schools and dual immersion programs show aligned with school staff allocations and class side guidance guidelines for neighborhood schools just the background for that is prior to last year the practice had been that principals had set the class size thresholds um in those schools in which it was a lottery and this is just saying that they need to be treated schools so if our neighborhood schools have thresholds of that are higher than what a principal decides is for their own school is this makes it more consistent especially in places like Southeast or in some places in Northeast where there's a lot of um Focus programs that are
00h 10m 00s
in some ways competing with neighbor competing with neighborhood schools so that's the problem that solving them is to level the enrollment between Focus option and neighborhood programs it's not prescriptive and how to do that because there is an art and science to it and Dr Adams last year um did some work to provide guidance to schools versus the principle of saying I think our third grade should have X number of students okay do you have something yes I would ask um I agree with the direction School enrollments class sizes these should be um centrally defined uh the way that we communicate these two our school administrators and communities is through our annual programming guide so we will of course account for some programmatic um considerations that we have to take for instance some immersion class certain grade levels but the goal overall would be to make sure that class sizes enrollments distributed or fashion management as possible great yeah I mean I agree with seems like a good direction especially adding that protection for neighborhood schools which I fully agree are there would there be any I guess my question would be do you foresee any like potential unattended consequences for this this added language here like in terms of um handcuffing the decisions in a certain direction that may not be what's best well that's that's why the language isn't overly prescriptive how to do it because actually um this isn't a complete Saul for because what often happens with immersion programs is the way our class size thresholds and guidelines are structured is they are the numbers are lower in kindergarten and then they get higher um as the grades go up and say up to fifth grade the class size maximum is 34 or at 34 you get in the teacher right and it's not perfect because what happens in dual immersion so they start out at the lower number and as they get higher generally what you see is attrition so it's not a it's not a perfect solve for because you still will have inequities of neighborhoods schools thing if you have 33 kids in our fourth grade class and an adjacent and a a school nearby which may have like high socioeconomic um but like hi SES families with no green reduced lunch and yet they um how much lower class sizes just because you can't add students in an immersion so yeah so it's trying not to be prescriptive um but to like acknowledge that we should not be having um artificially low level set for non-neighborhood schools and neighborhood schools basically getting them set for them yeah you certainly want to strike not big disparities but you know immersion programs run into this phenomenon where as the years progress there is some attrition and if you're trying to join an immersion program in fourth fifth grade right like how can you meaningfully participate if you don't know Vietnamese Russia and you're standing right at that level uh and so how do you account for that right I mean yeah I know yeah the first experience in and also that if you have say a focus program that has 15 students in two classic 15 students in two classes like they would get merged I mean theoretically because that's the same standard for neighborhoods schools unless you're unless you so those are the things that we look at every spring and it doesn't make sense whereas an efficiency uh where do we need to redistribute that stat after you go to school that maybe is a little higher they could use relief we try to be a stop it's possible I think we've been fine-tuning it each year but we're still left with this question we should be setting those capacities even if we're accounting for programmatic considerations to try to create as equitable
00h 15m 00s
optimal class sizes as possible yeah I guess that's my main because I I agree with the the goal because I mean we need protections for our neighborhood schools in there I just want to make sure that um it seems like from what I'm getting at this is more just like refocus the attention being like this is a priority unnecessary like you said prescriptive not a prescribed steaks yeah well here's what happens before last year Focus programs let's choose let's say creative science school or Odyssey they could say we think the optical number of students is 28. and so they had a maximum of 28 and an adjacent neighborhood School say Stevenson or Maplewood um near Odyssey they're like well if we if 33 kids show up for fifth grade you have to have you know the district tells us like we have to take put 33 kids in a class and we had this other program where the school is setting basically their own class size limits and their own um you know and their own Staffing levels versus the district setting it so last year Dr Adams and again not to be prescriptive because there is a little bit of Art and Science to it came up with the more equitable yeah wait a way to do it so there wasn't just neighborhood that schools taking having the higher box sizes so there's a little bit of class to load up in the primary grades and the immersions were possible you know that's sort of the only flag here on the language and it says shallow line well I may not be able to find four Japanese speaking fourth graders so it may not align uh but we're possible to do that yeah but those are the allocations and guidelines too not the action okay yeah great that makes a lot of sense director Hollins thank you for joining us um do we feel comfortable and moving it Forward yes yes okay we'll move that one out [Music] another one yeah okay um so the naming of school district properties so this was um so you should have well to clean copy and a um Redline copy and I'm just going to note that there actually is an error in the red line version um a number one number four it says the school board will take one of these actions and then it has some language that struck out this actually isn't in the original the language is struck is not um it's actually not in the original policy so if you look at it wasn't added to the red line number four yeah so if you look between the new version and the the revised version and the digital policy there is no number for work so that was I think I might be looking at the wrong version okay so you want to look at the one that says one four are you seeing them naming School District property I have just the two attachments do you do you have this policy the red line yes I do okay if you look at number four that should be all that should be all yes and what I'm saying is the part that struck out is actually was isn't it looks like it's looks like it's edited it's like it looks like it's editing the original but actually this whole paragraph is new the whole paragraph is new okay so so I mean I'll walk through the walk through the changes the changes essentially in this um there's two small changes let's see so this policy was extensively worked in 2018 um when we had a parent complaint about um the mascot for Franklin being a religious organization and so we we work with this policy and updated it hadn't been updated since
00h 20m 00s
2004. I made a number of of changes the primary change there's one small change in number three and then there's an addition at number four so one if you go to one three just deleting the word every effort um because I guess what does that mean sometimes um Michelle as you know like for example when we got to the IW Wills mascot um at the meeting something that even though lots of eyes had been on it we ended up at the meeting um withdrawing the mascot name that was being submitted and shows a different name um so every effort I think it just seems like an overstatement maybe yeah and then um the addition to number four is the result of um over the last seven years we've had a number of school communities have come and petitioned for individuals who have petitioned for name changes and um sometimes they've gotten responses and sometimes they haven't and so things keep cycling things keep cycling back to the board if I had to get a response so this provides for a response and then there's a very one one of three actions [Music] and there's a very extensive A.D that describes the process by which it goes to you foreign [Music] but that it provides some sort of initial response versus just going into the Vortex of people or not yeah um declining the request do we want to lay out why it seems kind of um do we want to lay out why we might not accept why we might decline a request um if there's a renaming maybe like who gets to decide I guess um if it's declined for what reasons like a school named after a race system historical character yeah the community might come forward forth and you know mention another name of someone that might be problematic the the most common reason for declining a request that we've had in the my 10 years is usually like lack of community support um it probably depends on who you ask because we went through this with Jefferson several years ago I think it was before I was on the board about renaming it and there was a lot of dissension within the community so within the community that was the Jefferson Community right so for some something like that the board could choose option number three which is um defer it to a later date I guess the superintendent to set up a process that to get a consensus on whether to change it or not which is how we dealt with that request that came to our board meeting from 2001 to 2005 every board meeting we had a request change Jefferson name but there was just one individual asking for it oh wow um very um adamant person like literally uh Cliff Walker he's the one who also instigated it's a long time Jefferson he comes to all the Jefferson meetings um and at that time the response from the co-chair who was a Jefferson grad was that when you have a consensus of someone that person alumni Community to move something forward we'll do that okay um why is some my my assumption is if the board declined the request they probably would give an answer but I don't know that we need to put that in policy I'm just curious about that because it does depend on who's you know making that decision that's at the board you know like as you mentioned there was a vice chair that was from that community that you know declined on behalf of the board I was just curious if there was a set of criteria that we would use to make that decision as a board so is it addressed in the ad which we don't have in front of me uh this this board decision making the decision making yes with that bullet point number two to decline the request
00h 25m 00s
maybe you wouldn't tell the board what to do okay destruct staff okay that's true thank you remember we had we had somewhere where it has brought um support the reason this is in here and we we put that in reasons if you wanted the reason that's in here is no response is not really I mean has been a defect de facto Decline and it's disrespectful to I mean the past we've had students bring things forward or community members it's like getting getting response like actually no we're not going to do that we're already running three other processes or at this time orders I think I I understand it a little bit differently than the first question than the question I asked so that's just um saying that there will be like a formal decline some kind of a response exactly it would either be one of the bullet points yes we're going to direct superintendent or we're going to decline the request at this time having a response especially for community members I forgot there's one other change but it doesn't look like it's showing up can I answer the question um do those requests usually come into the board office or how do they they come in I mean sometimes we get like student positions sometimes it's just a Community member it's one example that I think that I had afforded the ward a couple of times from a middle school that had a big class we follow the process to or to the principal to see if that person could um take on that work and leave their community in that conversation so so we did respond there was a response that said this is the process and directed them so it didn't go unanswered that same group submitted the petition and I think 2018. and we also had one we had one on Kellogg before the school got rebuilt but just basically nobody got respeases and I just think it's just courteous to community members if they especially your students who I mean we're not always going to agree with them but it's just this is directing a response right one way or the other I'm for that there was well but not yet so it's being proposed here is that the board would hear the request and the board would decide are we going to proceed or not that's the prerogative if you're going to choose a direct superintendent then I'm going to consideration because um the reason we try to make these teachable moments for the community is they definitely involve a lot of organizations and organizing mostly on the part of the principle and all the other stakeholders that are involved there there might be an individual who went to the school 20 years ago right now the school Community is focused on something else not that they don't disagree we should look at the name but they want to have a process about it and so we don't have a capacity to do it if we're going to make this something that we want to open up we could easily end up with 10 of these for the coming school year that's going to require a resource to be able to coordinate that many processes which a principle may not be prepared to sort of lead it's coming there might be a new principle they might have other things going on so you know I would want to have a discussion about that you know we could proceed with that but then we're going to have resources behind it you know in order to do a meaningful job if it's a priority well I wouldn't expect that but what I would say is that since 2018 Lexus that Elena's asked for a name change community members and students and lots of students and because of a variety of things at it didn't didn't happen and then we also had like I say a requester on Kellogg that just got that never got responded to in the meantime other like Wilson um and it's it's a value judgment of like who was worse Woodrow Wilson or Joseph Lane I mean I would pick Joseph Lane but the Wilson one went ahead so resources were spent um so from my perspective is everybody deserves a response and I've and I feel like especially School communities that don't have a lot of political and social capital of getting a response of one way or the other and I we could add in here um superintendent Guerrero if you wanted something that um you know you would lay out whatever
00h 30m 00s
the resource request is or sequencing we have a new principle of like we'd like to start this in the spring versus the fall I mean I don't to me this it's designed to be high level that but certainly um District capacity could be taken into account I mean we also had you know Benson's name change kind of leapfrogged over the Lane Community as well and it was mainly around just the change in some understanding the changes in principles but also it just never got started so is the process following the ad process which is pretty complicated and it requires a lot of community uh School community in the book is that what delayed it at Lane but that ad process was just from last year for three three years ago they asked for change and submitted a petition as well before it was the principal so I think um superintendent Guerrera if you would like us to add something to some parameters about what we would need to consider in terms of the thing for directing you to do it yeah I would want us to manage the broader communities expectations like if it's everybody if we're just going to form a cue right and a renaming coordinator to be named you can do one every three to six months then you know there'll be some criteria to determine the order necessary okay you can ask we we haven't go ahead Dr Jones um so I'm looking at the piece so I'm well I don't think this this is just me I don't I don't see the redness of the board hearing this first but even if we did this if the superintendent is going to conduct your name and process we'll win that kick it back to the AG anyway and then the other community groups are there not there what's what's happened is for if you look at the ad for small it doesn't have the board being the final aperture of the decision because sometimes it just never even gets to the board and frankly I think communities who bring something forward deserve a response and if if the response say for example if the response went first the superintendent the superintendent said no then it's removing the responsibility it's a for the naming for the Board of Education it it seems really managerial it seems it just seems managerial and I guess I guess I'm thinking that we're going to really be an efficient but we're like I I guess I just see every two or three years students or whoever wants to change the name of school if it's just as simple as going to talk to the board and the board so okay so attended start the process it seems like this could be a process for every few years that could happen and on the community at the time and so I I guess I just I just see this more as a kind of Journal piece for them to be able to manage bats versus uh you know coming to the board to kind of to manage them just I thought so this is this was the process and we had school communities that never got responses or staff deciding not to move ahead with the process or we've got to I mean literally Lane has been waiting for five years we don't change the ad we only have the ad is a staff is the staff implementation of the policy but we can directly to change well we that wouldn't be um so if you want a different kind of A.D then you got to offer clarification on the policy which is I think that's being actually is the person who wrote the policy I think the current ad and you and I have spoken about this is I don't think the current ad is reflective of what was the intent of the policy because it essentially has staff not moving forward on name changes on their own decision making yeah like I think I I agree with you the problem and I see we're having to solve it'd be helpful to maybe Define like a threshold for what it means when we have community um uh request for changing a name you know like versus like you know one person coming up versus like an actual like you have eighty percent of the parents who are like not happy with this name right like some kind of threshold that we could Define that would
00h 35m 00s
automatically push it to um instead of just like a random right it's that way it would push Lane because they've been impressing for five years but you know we don't have to worry about someone who doesn't agree with IW Wells anymore two or three people I guess for me if this is about Lane maybe we just make an action about playing specifically it happened with Kellogg too yeah I'll just say and I'm gonna just stick up for Southeast Portland and so it sort of like it happened twice to two middle schools with very little um socioeconomic clout and they did they did come with a bunch of students and staff um so I would you know that could make sense and be a bigger filter to that could be a filter versus like one person so it's not just somebody randomly so yeah there's an action I like what you mentioned because it triggers action for example if so I think that's worthwhile to add a another filter but if you deferred the action and another thing would be the first action that requested a later date like you don't have enough Community Support or this seems like a total one-off yeah so tricky part right do you wanna propose something um you don't do it right now I mean no don't think about it because I think I mean it would make sense if there was some kind of petition process or you know like how do you define like what it means when uh a good chunk of community it's requesting a name change right how do you how do you make situations like Kellogg and Lane be able to step forward automatically but then you don't have to add more managerial load because we have like random people requesting all you know it's a totally different way to do it and this is what a lot of other big public institutions did in um like 2016 to 2020 um was they actually set up a basically a pound a group of um not historians but it was an Experts of these organ State as an example they set up a group they commissioned them like look at all our names um and they basically prepared a report on all the names I mean some of them were just you know like two paragraphs and there were like three or four names which um we're gonna say didn't want to have associated with its buildings I mean one of them being Benton County or there's a hall named but after it's also the same person that Benton County is named after and so they so then you narrowed it down to so there's just a different way and I'm not suggesting it but just a different way to do it versus like the one versus the one-offs um I think it brings people together to do that I suggested it and we could I mean you could have the Oregon Historical Society because Kerry Tim Shack has offered already just you know a providable host of resources but basically they came back with three names and we did not change for example Benton Benton hall because we said we were naming it after the community members of Benton County um and then the other two we renamed and you the UVO and you could look up online U of O did a very similar process that University of Hawaii lots of our academic higher and um they have the process down really well and they didn't they didn't come up with a lot I mean so I think UFO had two or three and they changed them and then um Oregon state had a similar number out of something like 30 or 40 buildings so that's that's just a different way to proceed this is more of a one-off but they basically gathered a bunch of experts they didn't it wasn't like a District staff like it wasn't OSU staff that did it were people who knew about them more historical I like that I didn't work I think it gets an interview you can have the communities that's in those those people
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at home community members actually take part in that as well and then I mean they can take ownership in that as well versus I just worry about this just watch the board piece because I just see us having conversations more about what we're going to name schools and what and I'll be honest I think a lot of times naming the school is this a superficial act that doesn't really get to the systemic racist structures that have those that have put those in place right and so I agree I I love the fact that you know we've talked about changing them but I think I just don't want to get bogged down with board work with having four or five people come up or or even four or five communities we want to change the name we want to change the name we want your name and we we Veer off from the actual work of the students to looking at talking about this stuff all the time or if we rejected them all that would be one thing but I'll just say the fact that I did it be Wells a very affluent not a very diverse Community it's pretty much not at all compared to Lane I mean just if you look at the demographics and it's not from a social standpoint or or Kellogg so yeah I mean I'll just say the current this has resulted in the schools with the least amount of political capital and social economic capital of being heard I don't know so I don't know I'm thinking about Madison you know um yes how how did how did Lane get skipped over five years well we can do there's a lot of buildings and stuff artifacts that's named after folks that you know not acceptable now but how can we if is this about lane or in Kellogg right how can we just focus on those two schools that have a focuses on hey let's look at renaming those two schools because I've raised this several times over the last five years and the answer has basically the commit the communities has had no response and then like last year it got started and then it's like oh the process we have actually it's all driven by the principal so the fact that the principal keeps changing also has so that also has an impact on it but now that we know that these are issues right I mean I don't I went here five years ago so I don't know um but I'm just thinking now that the fact that we have different folks on the board right now maybe we can't just stay focused on because there is changing Community with the the regular um principal LED process well maybe we can now say you know what superintendent we need you to go ahead and start the renaming process for Lane and Kellogg okay that that's what this exactly says but but I have a problem with this in the policy because I don't want so for instance if you know business kids uh two years from now I want to name it from Astros to you know can you tell me how you're going to solve for schools that don't have any socioeconomic Capital who are being ignored by the process what their solution is because I've been assured for three years for four years that something will happen and nothing has happened so this and so I think it's disrespectful to our school communities who come and petition to get no response I mean we make sure that staff make sure their response but but I'm hearing more how do we just how we fix the problem how we deal with it now right we're talking a little bit now as far as hey so and we can have a board say hey so we need to if that's a resolution on Laney Kellogg if you want to but the issue is also well you want to know what happens for the next time right and I I feel like I feel it's disrespectful to school communities and school communities who most often get ignored are those women the ones of the impeaching to the choir I I hear you and I agree with you I'm just I think I don't think it needs to be this point I think it needs to be more of how do we as a board dictate say hey staff we need to make sure we get a response to those folks one way and if that doesn't happen and if that doesn't happen then as a board we can say you know what this has gone long enough the the principal um driven process is not working because we changing principles every two or three years so by the time they can get
00h 45m 00s
someone made them go and all of a sudden well then maybe at that point you know what this has been happening we need to take a different approach now we do something different I just don't I guess I just see this getting bogged down so what you're describing though is like the board can't what you just said is the board will tell the superintendent to respond it's like the board can only do that in a board meeting in official action because not neither none of us individually have the authority to tell the superintendent to do something or to respond to something that's not bad the board this is exactly what this is doing but no this is how we suck respond that's super tenderless Bobby well I think there's like a fundamental or like whole or you know it's a common problem with a lot of distance right which is loudest voices yeah issue right I mean that that's just the fact of life I mean everyone struggles with that I mean so I mean would it be helpful I mean I think an ideal solution would be something that doesn't increase the workload on our on our central office at the same time it filters you know the stuff that we don't need to be looking at um like I hear what you're saying like you're creating more workload and or maybe even bogging down some taking time away from like real work then but like they're like I think you're addressing the most important issue there is a core systemic issue which is you know the loudest voices effect there's some some places are getting more attention would it be helpful to I mean I'm just brainstorming but like there's a lot of people in our community that would love to partake in like the experts are renaming schools and stuff like that like having something similar to like um the cvrc or something maybe like Southeast guidance you know there right um but like you know like a committee uh of community people who like are the experts of naming that requests can go through them and they would be the ones that write um I'm just I'm just brainstorming about ideas that's something that says that we we look at names maybe every five or seven years because I mean so that way those schools that are not getting heard it will be looked at because we're looking at the whole thing in totality right so now everybody gets looked at I say I suggested it five years ago and uh I'm getting texts from it so there was there was in November of last year a meeting where PBS representative was attending a meeting to talk about it on June 13 2023 there was a letter to the Lane Community um saying that it will happen I was not involved in these so I'm just I don't have a lot of the knowledge but I think there has been it has taken time but there has also been some interaction with the Canadians so my understanding is that lane is slated to occur this fall they were first on deck and I believe that that's been commuted to the school community of course we have a new principle there we'll make sure to reiterate that and take it to school opening that their terms not uh but we need to fix because like it's been six years that this is and I feel like we're just gonna fix if we just fix it for Lane it doesn't get after the the core issue which is school communities that came that come to the that come to the board and our policy has the board has the sole responsibility of you know naming naming schools are renaming it is that a communication that happens you know a year after almost I mean they were promised last year was going to happen and then it didn't happen but it also is something they students raised I mean frankly those students are now in high school I think we should invite those students in and we can it sounds like it's happening it's happening now for lane and then do we need to solve for Kellogg like I like your idea about setting the time to consider every few years I don't know about every seven years but I'm also wondering how much how often this will be coming up well I mean 2020 everybody wanted to rename everything after George Floyd I mean I don't think there's that many more that we're going to frankly re rename if it had no historical basis for why we wouldn't accept it we wouldn't just change the name of the school sure I just I don't think I don't think you're I hope you're not I hope we're not making assumptions about my leadership core values or this administration's not wanting to always take a critical look at our most underserved communities because I think
00h 50m 00s
we've taken and shown evidence in the last six years of that there have been other things that have been happening that our limited capacity as an Administration has been focused on we know that this is one that's been on Deck but it's one we need to make right there's lots of schools that we shouldn't be honoring people that there but it's partly like we've said from the beginning we could be like other school districts and say Here's 10 names we're going to change tonight and these are the 10 new ones we took a different approach we said we're going to make this a real teaching educational opportunity and that to do that well we wanted to support that and make it educational and do the background and do the history and you've heard our students show up and talk about that process it was very meaningful for them to land at the recommendation that they could share ownership and feel good about and we want that to be the case to achieve each of the schools that we want to look at so if it's not going to be the principle of discording this because you know I'm going to need a renaming team you know yeah depending on how many we're we're we're contemplating taking on I'll say that you need to rename renaming team because there haven't been that many requests but when we get a request it seems like if because if I it seems like they should get a response from the response they should get a response and if it gets rejected or just not dealt with it should go to the it should be the board should be making that decision because we're the final Arbiter of whether or not um a school name change happens and so what's happened in the past is it and even the way that ad is written actually the ad is written the principle could or the principal supervisor could decide not to move ahead and that is to me then having actually a staff person make a decision that we're not moving ahead no it's clear you would like the board to make that decision versus a principal who maybe the first year they got pretendable things they're trying to focus on that year but if the board wants to say irrespective of that superintendent we want you to support visible into the process and I'm saying okay uh that'll require some resource and we'll have to work around the other work that school community may be focused on but we can do that so long as you know we don't inundate you know with requests to do that in any type of school I'm gonna make a suggestion be um Eddie you could think of some potential filters so there's not a whole bunch of requests sort of Guerrero if you have um parameters or things do you think the board should consider whether it's timing resources um you do it that way in the meantime um maybe director Holland's we could have an offline discussion I can share with you the UFO and the OSU process that you can see what that looks like and you can see if that's an alternative approach um I will just say on the the broader look um I wouldn't recommend having just regular community members like um for the initial cut because the initial cut is who historically these people these people are I mean obviously you'd want a diverse group of historians or people who understand but it's it's not so much um like hey we'd just like to rename our school but is there a reason for renaming our schools I mean Lane students have said they don't even like calling their school Lane because of who Joseph Lane was and so so that's like a different approach so I think I like that and illegal I like that because they don't have to just always be because of somebody's you know it's historic downfall right you could also be if you want to celebrate somebody else new right but I love that they did far but let's look at how we can bring Academia together whoever historians together does I guess I think it don't always have to be we'll try to get rid of negative thinking we can't be extreme weight and positive too and we want to honor more likely to the prophecy we want to honor someone as well and I think that that I would love to have that uh off worker conversation um also say the level of communication between staff and the board has not been um very robust so for example about the Halloween process so um whatever we decide having um the board know what the the process is so if it's being delayed or it's not going to happen that there'd be more communication because that is and say when when the petition comes to the board and then it gets it doesn't happen as a reflection
00h 55m 00s
sure we can run a tighter process with a dedicated staff that is true often I mean I feel like number four one four is actually kind of two sentiments number one is that the issue of like kind of respecting the these people who are coming to to petition for name change is a timely response right so like the request for Name Is by individuals you know uh it should be a timely response you know one of these responses right in a timely manner but then the school board is also a separate I feel like it's a separate thing the timely response from the this particular it could be from the district and then maybe the school board you know it could take one of these actions the district can direct us to decline request or should sorry um or may refer to a school board yeah one of one of the issues I have with the district declining the refunds is that actually then that is a decision not to rename and that actually the decision on naming is the boards to do okay but you can divide it in two so if you want to come up with two potential faces homework are we ready for a formative action Stacy is here okay go ahead so uh Mary's going to walk in group changes and a little more detail and statements here and provide technical advice on data questions um so the first paragraph as I as I mentioned this policy uh is reflected uh reflective of state law regarding um the diversity and Workforce uh statute and so the first changes are is language that I've pulled directly from in the statute um as I mentioned earlier the the ACT is now called the Educators Equity Act um and so that's that first triple section um and I took out the old language and um uh I we also took out the the language in the first paragraph that directs the superintendent to create and Implement an affirmative action equal opportunity plan um and this may have been established at the time but it's not in existence now and the district has um within HR and Stacy talk about that uh A diversity protocol uh and had a diversity Workforce protocol and it's on our web page but I'll let Stacy talk a little bit about that um oh and I can also add what we have added to in um I think what was uh what that original plan was to do was to be reported back to the board of what games we had made or what what conferences we were making and so we have because we've removed that language we have added on page two and the second paragraph that we that the district shall provide an annual report to the board see what um how we are making gains on that on that promise Stacy do you want to talk about the the programs within HR that um oh sorry I have a question about um I just have it highlighted here on my copy about um I'm just curious why we removed the number of minority teachers including administrators at White by school districts and education service districts shall be approximately proportionate to the number of children is it just the use of the word minority uh that was the old language I think the old language out and and the proportionality is a piece I was curious about it seems like we would want to aim still want to aim for some I think if you look above that it talks about it in a manner that reflects the percentage of diverse students in the public schools of this state trying to get it the same language it's different language with the same idea that sits just above that deletion um I guess on that yeah I saw that also above um if we want to mirror the population in the state or do we want to because the state overall has a very low African-American population and Portland
01h 00m 00s
of course has a higher number of uh African-American folks yeah as I said I was so if we're marrying the state you know proportion we're looking at .06 so you're just saying Michelle you would drop the of this state and so you just have to respect I did not have diverse students in the district I mean we have two concepts there I can see it causing some trouble I mean because like the the um it's an ore there's a there's like a generational lack in terms of diversity right like our younger kids are way more diverse yeah yes and so like teachers if you're trying to employ all these teachers and 99 of them are white right like there's no I mean there's almost no way you can achieve Lego I mean so I feel like I mean I I that's I'm not saying they're wrong I'm just saying like that's that's the kind of problem I can foresee happening and that um you know like what if it's binding you to hiring maybe not the best candidates because you're I mean like I think there should be some things where we're pushing or recruiting and that I think I like that um but I I can see the problem because of that kind of generational lag and you know our diversity numbers I think that's why the languages shall strive to what strive in looking at it's creating those educational opportunities that will bring in more diverse uh applicants I think that and again I'm going to turn to Stacy about what that looks like it's about bringing more applicants to the table so that we can get the best we can have both right so you can have the both things they're not mutually exclusive so I have a statistic to share um so um 80 of people over 50 are white and then 50 of people under 50 are not right and so there is that generational kind of demographic Labs but we still have if we're looking at people under 50 would be we would be hiring people that are coming down to college we still have a larger field than we would have had 10 years or 20 years ago that's nationally not just that's National it's it's mirrored in Portland as well as well um yeah I have all kind of issues with this um can I just suggest something um let's calculate them so if you could go through it section by section where your issues or questions are and that's into Myanmar no just go ahead and go through just to make sure that when you start talking about a section just tell us what sections it's in so we can oh I think we start with the right under affirmative action employment I'll actually start with page one Educators faculty what did that mean you're talking about gender Equity are we talking about lgbtq equity are we talking about race Equity what kind of equity are you talking about the issue that Israel I have with this is because technically just saw that big list that it forgets the fact that we're talking about race and if you're doing that then that's like very racing race like it's not there anymore because Equity should be that income equity for you know students who parents have money or not money what Equity are we talking about well the state looks at a number of different protective classes and we've rep we we also have that in within our 180020 policy where we talk about those protective class Envision include race but it also includes gender uh gender identity um religion um it's it's noted in um the language that you see in the first paragraph in the equal opportunity equal employment opportunities section is the language that comes from our current policy 180020 so that is what we're talking about okay minority act piece what we're talking about let's say we teachers of color yeah now we need now we need gay teachers now we need you know right disability teachers so now so we just got rid of all the other steps are we just adding all this other stuff so that means where you erase the equity from us because in that case if we talk about like okay so we're superintendents so it's a student attendance equals the portion of the students as well and I and that's what I have a problem with Equity peace
01h 05m 00s
what the intentionally Act was in the beginning so I I wanna I I don't know the intent when it was drafted director Hollins I think the first section minority theater act no policy that we are amending so the first section does I think speak to race the second equal employment opportunity was part of the existing policy we can take it out and put it elsewhere that's an equal employment opportunity is a broad statement that applies across lots of protected classes and has for a long time so it's not trying to it's it's an and not a grab if you will um and it's not trying I don't think it's trying to dilute but we could maybe make that cleaner or we could move it elsewhere yeah I understand that Equal Employment Act I get that I'll talk about you know from that education Equity system minority teacher Act if you talk about when you diluted exactly that's exactly what we're doing if that was with that none of what we're talking about educators of color now we're talking about education Equity I think we're talking about diverse and diverse um uh a more diverse educator population that reflects the population of our students as well it's more reflective but it starts with I mean the policy still starts with to close the racial achievement Gap Public School staff must reflect the diversity of the students and it references the racial education Equity policy again we can make it more I think the intent is not to delude it even though the legislature changed the name of the ACT but the policy you know the board here owns how we how we talk about that and then the intent was to update it to reflect the current act language but you no one changed that recitation of racial achievement Gap uh racial education Equity policy I mean I think that was at least the intent of the edits but I want to make I mean this is the board gets to help craft and strengthen so we are I I like the word minority take that being changed out because we're actually the global majority people of color are um but I think maybe it would go um further to be more explicit about that because I had that same sentiment that when you don't explicitly call something out because you're trying to be polite and inclusive it can have the effect of seemingly um being being erased if it's not specifically called out that's it yes I'm confused um are you talking about the Oregon energy Equity Act the name of that or just the way I say here isn't the educator I react that was just passed like this yes right yeah it well it was it was it was uh revised and it was originally called the minority so that's and then they revised it and updated the language in them in the title and they had those definitions in the education Educators Equity act right and so I guess should we also be including that and then here just be like directed yeah bored about it yeah we need to call out what it is I just I just how awful with the system and to dilute you know what what it is that we're actually really trying to do and I think that should be I think we need to be an example of no not going to we're not going to follow the status quo right we're actually going to do what we feel is best right um when you start looking at it and it's not just this it's the Supreme Court it's you know certain laws has happened if we are going to be really a different organization right we have to do things totally different and this is so I feel this is just keeping with the status quo how the system is trying to change and I don't know um we should be the leaders the exam set the example right now I'm gonna follow the law I think also noticing a trend and you know getting rid of equity departments and removing language and you know we don't need Equity committees anymore and you know we're we're already there and so I think it is important too and this time and in history to be explicit I don't think anybody would argue that
01h 10m 00s
yes we need diverse inclusive workplaces but we can't lose the explicit emphasis on engaging in that verse that increase educators of color being in our classrooms and yes all other so just want to make sure that also comes through is the main goal and and I'm curious to hear um some of the things that we're doing um I've heard some of them that would love to so related to that I see a sentence that's been added in the first paragraph at the end the superintense budget she'll incorporate diverse Workforce rules is or any strategies that infection steps to be able to have strategies and actions implemented Stacy Kim I lean on you at this point yep uh Stacy Johnson your graduate requirements um we uh through the Strategic plan this last couple of years we've been focused on the diverse high quality for every Workforce strand in the in the Strategic plan uh we we did a partnership with education Northwest this last uh school year using the house bill 4030 funds to do an environmental scan uh we looked at the life cycle of PBS employees to better understand some best practices where we can improve and started to get recommendations back on that so we're looking at how we utilize that information uh to build a plan going forward still looking at things like evaluating envisioning our entire attraction and recruitment process building our recruitment plans seeking and establishing pipelines and Partnerships with our hbcus strengthening our relationships with current local universities to build student teacher pipelines for the Wallace Foundation that we're leaning into and the work for the for the principal pipelines there one of the things that we heard from the environmental scan was onboarding and how that supports new Educators new employees and how we build that more sustainably across the board will also help with retention and looking at some reimagining Wellness plans and thinking about our kind of retention and also our separation how are at least since I've been on board how has our initial of recruitment and retention I have that been going for the last few years uh I think all that has been Trends in the right direction uh we are looking at providing uh data I think it Sharon said October 1st uh in alignment with the student enrollment timing when they release student enrollment pulling that data forward to take a look at how we're doing in comparison to our students who actually manage that and then we can look at the trends from here to here we don't have it off the top of my head um we have some data uh that I do not have ready for right now director Hans we staff would be happy to take back that first part of the the whole Community the first part of the policy and try to draw out very more explicitly about race um I think Church along your reference to this yesterday definitions mainly and I've been over here looking and looking at things it was also add they're including it's not a it's not an entire definition it's diverse [Music] um it means culturally or linguistically diverse characteristics of a person including origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa but it's not Hispanic Hispanic culture or origin regardless of race origins in any of the original peoples of the far east Southeast Asia the Indian subcontinent or the Pacific Islands origins in any of the original peoples of North America including American Indians or Alaska natives or a first language that is not English That's the Law um and you can incorporate that into for at least sorry go ahead as you can see incorporate that into the paragraph or clarity but it's also I want to be sure um I know what I'm here what we're hearing also includes the law is the floor not the ceiling right so we at least comply with the law but do we do some things over and above that legally complying into perhaps more bold right yourself
01h 15m 00s
oh so the success is in the trying right not International demonstration right um I think I have an issue with that I think we're really striving to be the leaders of an education that we're trying to strive for us to get to that top five you know School District in the country right we we don't try to get people our goal is to get there right our goal is to eliminate not trying to eliminate not because that's to me that's that's a that's an easy way out um or something if you know if we say we're going to diversify our staff of others do it right not what we're going to try because then the kind of ability is oh well this is what we tried to do that's what we try to do for what we paid down not what we are going to do that's like Mr I'm gonna strive to Haiti I'm gonna strive to give you your paycheck right yeah that probably wouldn't go too well you know in the interview right yeah that's my best yeah I'm gonna do my best right um so I think I would look at this policy um I think we need to be the leaders like we have been um and that means standing against the status quo that's out there that's what we do um change Don't Come Easy change don't come you know easy and soft and it comes with intentionality and I think it really I'm talking about you know who we are at the district and we need to pay attention sorry for the technology you know I'm just sorry we're happy to take that back um it's really helpful feedback and that would be a good thing intro intro in any other conforming pieces um out the people include an opportunity again is a related but different section and we would we would find the other there was a lot of redundancy it was repeated in the first part of the third part so we tried to streamline it so we didn't we look at all of it and not try to do it here we can tell you exactly where it was but we want to make sure but if there are other aspects in other than the first paragraph that you'd like us to revise because questions coming while we have all the relevant staff here well I don't want to pick up too much time but foreign officer don't put to that I don't know what did that mean but I mean not focusing on that anymore or is there different offices on page two so the board is designating chro to oversee compliance with a commitment to the practices most policy so that's okay so let's get that takes out that into the intentionality they will achieve in my research office that's their job as far as in any way to recruiting folks so it kind of takes away the yeah just director Hollins I didn't realize how late it was so what I'm going to ask is that you um share any questions or comments okay to all the committee but nobody recently and the staff but don't nobody respond back so we don't have a public meeting but so that we understand um put your questions are and we can um work through it the next committee meeting because I know we have two people who have signed up to speak public comment and we have two minutes each and also I want to also just briefly we had another agenda item with two um School initiation closures and um on that particular policy I've added some language which makes clear that closing a neighborhood program um is would require a school initiation and closure report um neighborhoods closer the same school programs are closer to say um school and then in addition but we can talk about more about that the next meeting the nutrition services
01h 20m 00s
did you confirmed that all the all the items that are currently in the policy are already in federal law or state I did not that these two did Federal and or state law so that everything in there like the meal shaming the the board setting the price of school lunch that's all in federal law or state law and so we don't need to have a policy we don't need to have a policy okay with that is are the is the committee okay with rescinding it do we need a policy that just restates state law and and federal law no so the meal shaming piece do we still charge fees though it's not and it's not allowed okay it's not allowed I didn't get that from reading it because I skipped it really fast today yeah are you are we okay with recommending resending it yeah thank you um with that um you signed up for public comments so come on come on up to the main table and um you have two minutes yeah Dan Clark c l a r k e I'm a member of the reform PPS funding group and a Roosevelt High School parent as a parent of a student at the middle school I'm here to today to express our group's gratitude that the policy committee is continuing its interest in reforming Foundation policy after three years I'm sure that we're all feeling a little bit stuck on this um and that so at the request of the committee chair our group spent the weekend working on a draft policy that was emailed to all of you and Chief of Staff Jonathan Garcia we hope this policy this draft policy lends Clarity on how we can bridge the gap from where we are now and where we'd like to be as a district in regard to Foundation fundraising for FTE as our group has stated in Prior public comment We Believe new policies would be the product of community collaboration during a transition period therefore our draft policy recommends the following the board will establish a working group of community members to prepare transition plan to implement a district-wide foundation the working group will review and determine if existing Foundation relevant policies should be replaced revised or repealed after three years of deliberation we feel it's mandatory to include in our draft policy a sunset Clause that terminates the current role of local school foundations and lsf fundraising June 30th 2024 our group is eager to meet with any or all of you before the next policy committee meeting to answer questions about our draft policy so efficient and constructive discussion can occur at the next meeting and because we hope that this committee can move our policy forward to the whole board for a vote immediately after the next policy committee meeting thanks very much thank you Sarah we have somebody online as well we do Donna Ingram Hi how are you thank you for having me Donna Ingram she her um I don't have as much of an eloquent presentation because I just found out about this situation about five minutes ago and I'm with uh keep local school of Foundations and many of you have heard from me in the past um you know this is really surprising to us because we had been working with reform PPS over the summer and at the end of a school year and having really wonderful and productive conversations and to find out that the committee chair requested a proposal you know days before school started and didn't bother to include us in this conversation is very disappointing we want to work together we want to come up with a plan that works well for everybody in the district but this is not how it's done we need to work together in a committee we need to work together in groups and we need to work together in public so that we can find something that works for everyone we want this to work out and we know that really smart planning including really smart communication with parents and donors across the district is key throwing out a proposal at the last minute that doesn't have identifiable targets or goals does not do that it does not build trust with parents who are struggling to trust the district it does not build trust with me who's struggling to work on this project as well I really hope that everyone takes the time to consider slowing this process down so all of the key stakeholders can be at the table and have their voice heard I'm happy to talk to any board members I've already talked to many of you and I really appreciate your time and your efforts and I hope that you'll keep considering involving everybody in this process thank you so much and I'm happy to answer any
01h 25m 00s
questions thank you thanks for showing up today um so can I just make a note we can look into the question later I noticed that the proposal submitted contemplates the establishment of the district client Foundation which I thought we'd worked really hard over the last couple years we can launch the fund uh which is aimed at Gathering philanthropic funds and food service that's for whatever the next discussion is I guess so um I because we had a Consolidated end of the meeting I didn't have a chance to um in the other business I was going to mention that there had been a proposal sent in and of course everybody it got it got sent to everybody at the same I saw at the same time it got sent to the other committee members and um and and Jonathan Garcia and as with anything um we'll have a full public discussion of it um I will say this has been going on for six conversations have been going on for five years and we've had as director to pass the news about the engagement I'm director hotlines recommended a lot of people to be engaged recommended people to be part of the engagement um so this isn't a surprise the topic is not as surprising but it's still happening and we also using our racial Equity policy tried to send her the voices that would not normally be part of the conversations um so that from them and I'm expecting to hear from anybody else but this is just a starting there's been no commitments made to move anything or move to their policy but um spending on the agenda this year um can you say that um I Heard um that you'd like this to be on a schedule and I have a problem with that as well um this this needs to be done well we do have timelines proposed but I I would like to I'm very glad the second person showed up to test us so um there's been no agreement on a schedule I want to finish talking we need to make sure that um everyone's at the table it needs to be at the table for this conversation and that we don't rush through it um that's just a suggestion so thank you for director pass um I don't think anything in my comments I said there was going to be a schedule I said it's going to be on the schedule for the committee this year so I I I'm just saying that I would like to make sure that we have both sides of the table yes that's it's important and it's important to do it down versus fast and that's my intention and also I'm going to follow the racial Equity policy of elevating those voices of people who um wouldn't normally have a place at the table and um as I said all of our discussions are going to happen in public meetings in the last conversation that was referenced actually was not a public meeting that happened in the parking lot and um our media is going to be transparent and everything else like I say um the committee members and Jonathan got the proposal at the same time and I would just also ask um for public schools that they provide a lot more information because if that is our fund then we should have access to their financials and how they operate but right now we don't have that so as part of the discussion we'll include that as part of the discussion but there's no intent to Ram anything through um I think you saw last time and we spent a whole year discussing it and lots of people had an opportunity to speak up and we did hear from also those who um in a very deliberate way from those who don't often have an opportunity to and I'd encourage us to do more of that so thank you okay with that word adjourned me set up and that's the last conference room

Sources

PPS Board of Education, BoardBook Public View, https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Organization/915 (accessed: 2024-04-27T22:47:08.866461Z)
PPS Communications, "PPS Board of Education Meetings" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbZtlBHJZmkdC_tt72iEiQXsgBxAQRwtM (accessed: 2023-10-14T01:02:33.351363Z)
PPS Board of Education, "PPS Board of Education - Committee Meetings" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk0IYRijyKDVmokTZiuGv_HR3Qv7kkmJU (accessed: 2023-10-14T00:59:52.903034Z)

2023-08-28 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

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Event 1: 2023-08-28 Policy Committee - Board of Education - Portland Public Schools

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