2023-09-18 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-09-18
Time	16:30:00
Venue	PESC Unspecified
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: 2023-09-18 PPS Board of Education's Policy Committee

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sure I'm Mary Kane senior legal counsel for example board manager Liz large contracted general counsel Julia from Edwards wardenberg Community chair Patty Sullivan board member 81 Ford number Cara Bradshaw executive assistant you can go ahead and introduce yourself with a small group oh oh hi um Megan vermis parent of a laurel hair students hi Susan Carson parent of Daniel High School freshman and also here with the reform Suzanne our parent of a Roosevelt High School sophomore in the reform Museum Grant cluster of here and I'm also reporting Jason Stevens and co-chair of the boxing Foundation sorry what Foundation foreign ers sorry talk to Communications welcome everybody um today's meeting and if anybody's online um we have a mix of policies today and we originally were going to start with the um updates no I'm sure that um we were gonna first start with the policies that we have under revision we had a um something to discussion at last committee's meeting about the affirmative action policy which is being renamed the Equitable employment policy and uh director to pass had um as we talked about in the last meeting had a number of changes she was interested in suggesting her questions and comments she had we also made a decision to instead of trying to just Redline the document because it was actually more redlining than there was remaining content to redraft the beginning so since last meeting the um the policy was redrafted and director of has set a number of changes she's going to be about 15 minutes late so I'm gonna wait till she arrives for us to move ahead with that um so I want her to sort of share publicly share like changes that she suggested and questions she had so that we have all that happening in a in a public forum um and the other two items given that we might move them out of committee today I want to wait till she gets here as well um so I'm actually gonna skip down to religious and cultural holidays policy because um this is something I'm just elevating as and sharing that we're gonna have a future discussion on and because director to pass last year was involved in um some discussions around the school calendar I know it won't be hard to bring her up to date um but I thought that I would at least raise the topic and um we have and we can this is just a flag for for committee members and board members that we're going to be talking about it we may move we may create a new policy or we may also um choose to make revisions of a current policy or we may decide them to do anything um so just as background last year on the beach we had a lengthy discussion about the school calendar which you may know uh welcome director Scott welcome to my birthday um so last year um you might know the board is required to approve the school calendar every year and over the years there have been discussions about how we better is a we're diverse School District with families that observe different religious and cultural celebrations how do we in a district recognize that through our school calendar and try and avoid um permanently um after school and weekend activities which could conflict with major cultural um or religious holidays so we we rebuilt uh the calendar and I think if you look at big calendar um the icons at the bottom we have
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recognized some holidays and we do try and there's the things that we can control like back to school nights and everything else um trying to avoid putting our families and students in the position of um choosing between a school activity and a school related activity and there family celebrations or practices um they're important to them so we've done that with a calendar and the question um that I wanted to ask a committee about is that we don't have necessarily a formal policy that relates to that is whether uh we wanted to consider the policy that we have two there were two examples in the packet um day one is from osba and the other is um a Beaverton one so this being have you ever done this morning yes maybe version one and then the OSB A1 is someone longer and there are things I think it's important that we realized last year we recognize that there are things that we control and things we don't control and I believe we send the letter to mesd about Outdoor School and we also send a letter to OSAA about things that the State schedule so oftentimes there's State competitions that occur at the same time um as some important holidays um we also are background for the two of you last year we went through um the criteria of what should appear because um we should probably have to have a Divine criteria not to put you on the spot married but do you want to describe the process by which we constitutionally made decisions about Michigan Mary's got other stuff because we had to set criteria about what holidays or things we would put on my calendar so when we did the the work last year we you have to have religiously neutral criteria to identify the religious or culture the religious holidays cultural holidays or not don't Advocate religion um that are going to be observed so we used a sort of religious population threshold in Oklahoma County which was the most accurate data it's not exactly PPS but it's close that I think it was a one because I recall it was a one percent population threshold So It's Tricky and there are parts of some of these policies that make me a little nervous how they're they're framed um in the other examples because you do you do want to be again as awkward as it sounds religiously neutral in selecting the religious holidays that get observed especially noted I can't say that when we were looking at it last year I didn't see Eugene's policy and because we had long conversations with the The General Counsel for Eugene at the time who said that they spent a long time reaching out to a lot of constitutional law experts as well as getting funded community and because it is uh so difficult to try to achieve the goal without violating a lot so that's how we came up with the calendar for last year where we have Douglas native some days and tried to message with the principles of please don't have um things that are critical for the school community of our students on spending their days or nights um so the question for the community is I'm I'm interested in having a um policy and these were just examples again it doesn't mean it's more examples of um policies that we could either modify usually this is how the osba single policies they'll send out a sample some districts just adopt them others work them and others don't do them at all is there something about the current practice if you go up different than policy language um so I think the the school calendar is an imperfect mechanism to convey a set of values it's not necessarily transparent like if you look at all the little icons like I wonder how we
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I wonder what we're trying to achieve here what we're doing and it's so all the people who were part of that discussion we have that in great detail um but if you weren't um so having some sort of high-level recognition of is our practices and our our values let me just as an example last week um first day of Rosh Hashanah we sent out a major communication to family so I got some feedback that we sent out something right as families that was um there's a variety of opinions about that we send it out right as families were starting to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and it wasn't very feedback right now that wasn't very sensitive and it was like oh okay like think thinking about um in a district in which we have the diversity of practices to just so I think the reason I would think it would be good to have a policy is it helps explain the con the calendar what you're trying to accomplish um thank you and I will continue these conversations as we as you as the committee are crafting policy language I'm trying to discern whether we are documenting what's done or doing something different what's up so right now there's no no policy about calendar relating to religious holidays the existing policy and I could look it up really quick but I believe it it talks about staff getting time off okay or religious observant but it's it's definitely it's from probably decades ago there's a there's a line in a policy that's a good stuff yeah so it's just focus on Staffing you know but a lot of for example two weeks ago at least bouncing page somebody was raising an issue of their kids are going down we're scheduled not to go to our school sure and again statement some value couldn't have yeah something we could not have done anything about anyway potentially I mean and so the way the calendar is currently constructed well we call it winter break it's obviously Works around the major dominant dominant religion but it's called winter holidays so um there's no service going to outdoor school during that all right um I say there's some things we can do something about we did communicate with mesd which they run outdoor school and then I would say hey around interactivity So Not Just Sports but anything else yeah I wonder if it's not making it worse talking about a whole bunch of different things um well having you policy give some general framing framing guidelines and I say for 20 years it's a continuous issue I think it it's definitely gotten better better but it's an issue especially for families whose observe holidays or cultural Traditions that aren't you yeah can we just look to cities like Minneapolis that have a very high level of New York City that have fallen you know yes I think last year we looked at Virginia um Fairfax County um so I'm going to suggest installations in Fairfax County unless unless there's an objection I'm going to suggest maybe you will come back with a couple different variations um I say primarily want to put in the agenda just like here are things that again this is just this last week it got racing uh by several families within PBS about what do we do to acknowledge it and it's also an issue for staff so if you're a staff who celebrates Christmas you get that off but if you're a staff member who celebrates even holiday would um but this is an issue also where because of the issues at play um to make sure that we stay within the constitutional guidelines there is a separation there needs to be a separation church and state that's why let's make sure that you can keep us up um I said this last year to um how popular it is or not
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the problem as you've articulated is when we prefer dominant religions right which is traditional within Christianity and Christian tradition so I completely agree with moving away from that one way to do that is to incorporate everything the other way to do that is to become more secular and to really say you know what our job as a district is not to acknowledge any particular religion um and I agree with you you know winter break is traditionally has been around Christmas but you know they're they're it the other way to be fair and Equitable about this to say you know what the school year is going to be the school year we're not going to make exceptions for Easter we're not going to make exceptions for Christmas we're not going to make exceptions for other things we're going to do the school here the way we want individual students to be really clear always have the right and they currently have the right and then we could reinforce that policy policy always have the right to opt out of particular things but as a district the question is how much do we want to accommodate religion um as a as a as a secular Public School District so I think that's worthy of a company we could also you know perhaps make a floating holiday or two also to accommodate staff do we know what the impact of that is and like are people taking those three days to observe I don't think we inquire we don't ask how they why they're taking them but they have yeah provide latitude to take them when they choose to okay so um Georgia Scott I think those are great questions I do think that we do um I don't think we're gonna get rid of the winter holiday so there always will be issues raised about we've already just institutionally um recognized the largest holiday in the dominant religion and of course then the second that alien Herman are here they could tell everyone but Easter's on a Sunday so generally not an issue except for for sure when we have kids going to Outdoor School on Easter Sunday we do your families so I think they're good good questions um the lead-in we talked about last year last year we went through the whole criteria about how we constitutionally decide what can be what we're going to recognize and we did set we looked at data and we drew a constitutionally allowed that's the neutral criteria thank you yeah um and we can share that with you from last time so it's not everything but it's within a certain band that we're allowed to based on population okay based on the world population or the the metro area the metro area so like it would be the top religions that are so I built I believe it was Christianity Christianity Jewish um Islam and Buddhism I don't know that they hit the one percent maybe they did we can provide all that information let's say this is this is less about like every once in a while we have had questions about things happening Easter primarily outdoor school because that's one of the few things that does start on a Sunday but it's more from families who um for Easter Sunday we're hearing from no I'm saying what we mostly hear about are things that happen throughout the year for example yes scheduling a major athletic competition during Ramadan when students are fasting okay so yes it was um Christian Catholic Jewish Buddhist Muslim yeah so unaffiliated 48 percent Christian Gift separate that's what I was wondering why we have to be different is it the same yeah I'm not qualified to say that um Christians yeah I don't know that the holidays are all the time oh yeah we get very difficult very fast okay but where's your lawyers it seems to me we could just complicate it I think the keeping it so secular except mom and you could just send send let teachers know when there's big holidays and try that schedule but what is that based on I mean this is why you have a policy to set General
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guidance and then the superintendent would implement it by I think it just is because we are more and more Multicultural Society even in Portland and I think it is important to I mean not not take every holiday but I think it's important for us to be aware of other people's Traditions I think it's really important I think maybe there's a room in terms of because I like the idea of going secular because we should our focus should just our policy should just be like what's best for students if it's good to have a break here and there that's what's best for students the problem I see is also just the convenience of the current breaks and how it lines to everyone else in the country right so like like sports teams go take um uh um trips because of spring break to play with other schools and other states and stuff like that and that just that's an issue of convenience even though it was based on you know like uh the dominant religious holidays so I mean is it possible to do something two ways where we have something where it's like we State our goal is secular not promoting any religion but at the same time we want to make sure to minimize as much during the disruption as possible and to you know try to plan things around the ones that are that we do have well that's almost exactly how we approach the calendar yeah very good yeah so so I'm happy yeah it doesn't line up like Oregon all has the same week for spring break but that's different from California it's different from Utah so I don't know I think it's a great decision more to come and it's a it's a great topic and our families do care about it because I'm a group of family that cared about it um okay um director of Japan welcome the first item on the agenda um was the affirmative action I wanted to wait till you were here so you could either share your questions that you had concerns or um changes that you made um sure thank you I had a question about whether we had a civil rights officer we are currently hiring for civil rights directors a director okay actually is that position to make it for a while or no it's new so we're it's a new position yes so we have been I think the last six months at least developing a apartment profile what it'll look like and we are currently looking for the director the other thing is I wanted to add I'm looking for the sentence here um I wanted to add a sentence at the end of one of the sentence that says that we're you know free of discrimination as evidenced by and I wanted to know if we could add evidence I'm looking for the draft rate at the end of the first paragraph it was I just found it it's in the redlined version the draft dated eight eight twenty five and then nine five you know that the comment and it's really small and I think my glasses it's um in the very first paragraph We we say the superintendent's budget show incorporate funding for the diverse Workforce goals provided in this policy the board expects to see measurable progress every year and the Strategies employed and progress made toward reaching the goal established by the Oregon Educators Equity act all District employees are responsible for providing equal employment opportunities I'm sorry just run all that and um I think what I was asking is after Oregon's Educators act if we could add we could just add onto that sentence that says as evidence to buy and I think in the um in the original version of the policy there's some language about proportionality in other words our goal would be to um to have a staff that reflects the proportionate um of our student popular population our student population yes it would be that that would be aimed to be proportionate in other words yeah we wanted we want our staff to reflect ideally uh who we have in our schools the second sentence in the first periodiver attempts to get it that Michelle is that sufficient if you look it says in pursuit of this goal PPS must develop a Workforce that reflects the diversity of the students students it serves students must see their diverse racial cultural and linguistic characteristics
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reflected in school staff or guiding them toward academic and other success that gets to the proportionality piece somewhat without using that math word the other piece though is that how are we going to demonstrate these amazing values how are we demonstrating that I think that's the annual reporting on the data Workforce data and which would be probably I assume can be compared to the student population data um is there a reason why we wouldn't add it no I'm not I'm just answering your question Michelle I'm not objecting to your language I'm okay with adding that do you want to just get something or say it out loud it's already in the it's I did put the comment in the so I'll just incorporate your elements as evidenced by your Workforce that more closely reflects our student population okay and I put in to add that after Oregon Educators Equity act we will add that in um if that's an appropriate place to put it okay you would also asked a question about accountability how how the I mean yeah how do we hold staff accountable for so here's um maybe I should ask do uh do our departments reflect most of them reflect the cultural diversity of the city and and if not then that would be something you know I would I would want to know so um here's what I think the answer to your question is like how do we how do we hold and this is I think a more general question about how do we hold District accountable for implementing the policy a policy so just use that in general is that since the superintendent has the operational responsibilities for the for the district that um somebody functional there is a staff person functionally who would be responsible for this or anything or carrying out any other policy and ultimately um the staff report to the superintendent so if there is a a sense of we're not following a the district's not following a particular policy or it's not aligned with it but that would be an issue that could raise with the superintendent but ultimately it's like any other thing that would happen that happens on the operational level which is a functional person responsible for it but and ultimately that person is responsible it leads up to the superintendent that answered my question somewhat I I just was curious if we had departments that we knew could couldn't recruit be do more targeted recruiting I don't think that's a HR yeah HR question TSS I was reading through this these are great words and I was like how are we going to hold ourselves accountable for implementing and hiring you know reflect these values director to pass I know in the past when we've had the superintendent of the evaluation that you have added language um it's part of the evaluation process of the superintendent which would be another way you you could do it obviously also data is a very powerful way to have conversations about um implement the effective implementation I just I don't have a benchline anything to like measure against right now so I'm just sort of talking to the top of my head but that's something that I have been interested in and curious about so each artist and HR will be doing its annual employee demographic census recruiting and retention the data is available after October one they have to finalize it that will come to the board so that gives you current look year over year some other that's great so that answers your question right and it doesn't mean compared here by your it doesn't say in there though does it that's it yes at the last page it talks about the annual reporting that the uh it does talk about the reports in the last paragraph I mean I guess at site pulled a mirror up to my own practice which is like read the report and then actually say something about it you know or do something about it so that's on me I mean what then what happens who's gonna do who's going to do the superintendent that has to do something about it like I mean like the accountability we have the data but then right I think he feels very
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um serious and passionate about Workforce diversity is already yeah I mean yeah I agree but I think he is trying to push that definitely but I'm thinking about the point that policy is also long-term right right so like the next superintendent if may not share the same values except that there is a law yeah [Laughter] requires them too right yeah well if there's the law why don't we yeah then why don't you fall asleep so it goes back it's the first question well one of the things is there is a reporting requirement which is not in the law which is a tool in which the board can assess year-over-year product progress but yeah it is long it's a long term and a Long View and I think that our central office like the executive team is got a lot of cultural diversity I'm just not sure like other departments I don't want to list them all often put anybody on the spot but uh I think HR has that information okay okay and it's not necessary just something that is on my mind is there anything else uh not on this particular I want to also um recognize that director Hollins is uh president you had a number of questions last time and I'm wondering is he typing something to us no I think it's exactly talking yeah Dr Hollins do you have something that you want to share with this particular policy hello yes can everybody hear me we can hello everyone hello hi yes I do want to say I really appreciate the the wording the rewarding of a lot of the stuff um I know I have a lot of concerns earlier on and I think a lot of it has been weeded out with some of the uh wording that's here um I guess my only question is um you know instead of the Equitable employment policy is there a weight is that the name of the policy and if it is can we not can we change that to diversity employment policy uh director Hollins um the previous name or the current name of the policy is the affirmative action policy so I think we have the flexibility to rename it [Music] um that you say the diversity employment policy so that's what you want to call it diversity yeah diversity in employment however you want to do it okay okay great we can basically make that change thank you um directory Rollins did you have anything else director Hollins with the new draft no I think it's I think it's a lot better than the one I read it the last time um I do still have little concerns when we take out you know when we try to be specific and what we're looking for um if we're looking for minority Educators or minority um staff but outside of that I think it's fine is it the word minority because some people are moving to Global majority uh to describe people of color instead of like constantly like you're in a minority you're a minority you're a minority um I don't think we use minorities not in this one no um it was the minority teachers that was the old yes that was the old name of the ACT yes this is to match the population um yeah and the the the legislature changed it from the teachers act to the organ the Educators have any Act yeah I guess it's just you know if we're talking about a policy I guess for me you know we've been intentional about all the other stuff we've been doing um and so I just this this really kind of give to the umbrella effect versus the intentionality effect so that's my only only comments thanks anything else
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um I'm going to ask the committee members do you want to recommend moving this the full board for uh first reading which would be the introduction yes I would be I'd be in favor okay great I really appreciate Dr pass and Dr Holland's uh your input from last meeting continue policies uh the second the next item on the policies for revision last meeting we had a discussion about the naming school district and we had um two uh potential things to work on the superintendent raised the issue of resources for any sort of naming and then also we had a discussion about what filters so that we just don't have a whole host of sort of random one-offs suggestions of naming and based on that um director Wong and I um that's a back and forth and ran it by also um staff maybe so um that added two two criteria one that the any petition demonstrate diverse School Community Support and the second criteria was indicate the name changes being requested in accordance with and then there's a citation from policy and that specific citation was around systemic discrimination so for example um whether it was changing whether it was changing the uh McDaniel's name or Madison that the two things happened one it was based on that particular section the new the time the new policy in 2017 of so bad at battling systemic discrimination and the second thing is is if that is the reason for the name change if there are associated costs that the school Community doesn't bear that may change the cost of the name change so like Franklin wouldn't have to go get paid for that school Community would not pay for their uniforms and switch them from the Quakers to whitening from Madison to McDaniel okay may I um interrupt about so the only note I have for myself on this is in section seven it talks about systemic discrimination I think it's systemic racism this discrimination is a result of I know it's a I know it's a hard work it's it's oh the queen I mean systemic discrimination so um discrimination is an outcome yeah so it it needs and since I'm in favor of like actually naming the thing that we're trying to dress through my hands there were other instances and I don't know if there's any other cases but the instance of the Quakers was not an instance of racism but having a mascot named after a religion so maybe there's a better word but it it is broader than um it just yes um let me think about that for a while I I I get it I think they're yeah there have been two instances where gender and religion were both um you know the reasons for the renaming um but I just yeah I had issue with you know systemic discrimination based on race religion would be like obsexual orientation I don't know how to phrase it how about okay but racism is like it's like I mean I I feel very strongly about calling it how about discrimination based on a protected class or however the lawyers might phrase it is that yes work for you are Quakers and
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protective class yeah it was it's a religion they're saying it yeah it works men well I mean less gender test gender so those are all protected classes does that work for you sure that is brilliant adding racism so it's additive not taking a word out it's adding so discrimination so systemic just discrimination racism and race how about discrimination based on let's say you could say racism and discrimination systemic discrimination based on protracted class I'm looking at um I'm sorry can you repeat that I was literally gonna type in definition of systemic discrimination so yes you're talking about it like that okay um discrimination could open it up to anybody oh I don't feel like I'm included I might be discriminated whether you be or cannot be well that's why you say protective class because that's those are exact classes um that's why that's why I was just playing that out as like probably say eliminating racism and other systemic discrimination based on protected classes classes so racism leads yeah does that work yes it does does that work for director Hollands director Hollins Do you have a second so the other suggestion so sorry at least he said yes he said yes okay so it's great so so racism and other assistance yeah um thank you Sarah so we have that and then the other recommendation um so that's another changed the overall policy but the other recommendation was that we didn't that we don't cite section two one six rather we just cite section two since that's a cause of a much longer so go ahead I didn't mean to interrupt you I'm sorry I just have two thoughts on the policy um one of them was around the resources I just wondered you know it says right now the superintendent May indicate a need for staff resources I would have been better off to say the superintendent will note the Staffing or financial resources because it's like a perfect time you had this whole like back and forth over the weekend about like how to phrase it because this is um the reason why I was thinking that is two things one I I think whether or not I think it's important for us to know what the financial impact is about the decision whether we allocate additional resources or not is is a separate poor conversation superintendent may say hey in order to do this I need a staff person and we may say great we'll give you a new staff person or we may say you're going to have to reallocate a staff person so for me what was important from a policy perspective was that the superintendent tell us why we're doing it these are the these are the Staffing financial resources that are going to be able to do it then we can have a separate conversation about whether to supplement s yeah which is so um but part of it is sort of being clear on what the scale of it is so if the board designs or identifies X number of schools we should just have a ballpark understanding of to do a process thoughtfully I think as you've seen stakeholders show up from school communities and they have a process coordinated and then to make sure that we implement the renaming mascot change you know there's a cost involved a lot of it's signage rebranding everything from wrestling mats to Center core logos to signage Etc you know just looking at our budget spreadsheets actual costs for an elementary school it's probably about 25 000 for a high school campus it's a quarter million dollars so if you do one a year you know we could probably absorb it but if you're doing four a year of them that's a significant uh thing you know we should we should create an allowance or a budget resources so the board should just be aware of that there's there's an actual cost now coordinating the process also takes time to prefer
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typically uh for today these have been principled with some central office Community engaged with support and part of the reason for the timing is sometimes the principal will say I can't do that right now uh I I'd be happy to start that at the fall with some help maybe a new principal they might have other priorities they may have other things on their plate if we want to push a timeline then we would just need to be conscious of the fact that there's going to need to be some some dedicated staff help if again if it's if we're only doing one we can designate a staff member a percentage of their time and effort to go help with that if we're doing a bunch of them then it makes sense to have a renaming coordinator who does just does focus on the coordinating process and Community engagement to be able to do that so if we get to a point to where it feels like it needs some supplemental resources that people or it costs then I think it might be my responsibility to come back to the board and say this is a bit more than we can absorb um so just as background s um there are districts around the country that have done like and one Fell Swoop like we're going to rename 50 50 schools or I don't know how many of us in San Francisco it was a lot um and the the pace in Portland um I've let's say probably there's less than five schools that I've heard or and three of them are two of them tomorrow done um but love for less than five schools where there's been an active conversation um and so um I think Andrew the language that you recommended uh that works for me and I think it does it work good for you Supernatural essentially to say the superintendent will note the staff and Financial reasons well so what would be helpful is to go about for a coming school year expect new elementary school to do 20 schools whatever the number is and I need a job I mean the one thing is the way it also um one of the options is the work and defer action on the request to a later date which could be another like sequencing exactly peace maybe we're always doing one but there's a cue hmm and then the second comment I had was just uh the sense of the petition needs to demonstrate diverse School Community Support I didn't know what we meant by diverse it says the petition means to demonstrate diverse School Community Support I just wasn't sure if we needed to Define what that meant I wasn't sure if that was a synonym for broad I wasn't sure if it was getting at something else um things that we're talking about it's also just reason at least me wanted to keep it kind of broad is because it allows some flexibility in adjusting in the future in case unintended or unforeseen issues arise but it's still like holds a kind of like bar so that not everyone could just like and I guess what what struck as I listened to the last uh meeting and sort of some of the concerns raised um but Gary you know there's around you know this this does allow an individual to bring something forward and I know that's why we've got the language and it just made me think well who's evaluating so if I'm an individual and I come forward and I say I want to change the school name and I've talked to five of my friends and they want to do it too you know does that qualify as diverse support does it need to be 50 does it need to be 100 and it is is the board determining whether it's diverse support or is it the superintendent because if I come forward with five and the board says we're just not going to take that up right now and then I come back again the next week with 10 like it's do we need to define it some Alum you know from way back and students yeah I mean I guess but I think it's their point you want it to be do we spell it out I think it's better to leave it high level versus Divine because it's like hey you can get up I mean I think you can get a petition with 500 people on it for about anything so it's like putting a number on it versus I think ultimately we're elected district-wide is that we can make those decisions um of what we consider to be diverse um comprehensive and I mean some sometimes we have names of schools that aren't necessarily um that are named after an individual that maybe that
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individual School Community is fine with but it violates for instance Jefferson there's a there's a group that's fine with that and I think that's not a soccer cabin over the years um but I was also thinking of um for example Scott I mean there are a variety of opinions and sometimes it's like um be there people don't know the person's history or yeah we don't care right or any reasons um I think what we tried to do is and this is the balance that we are trying to strike here is that you shouldn't have the tyranny of the majority also making decisions for example there were a lot of discussions Franklin of like we want to stay Quakers and it's like named after the oatmeal or the oil I mean literally this is what we heard and okay but for if you were a Quaker family at Franklin and you've had people stepping on your religion or playing basketball and your religion or the variety of things and we're like um we are going to lead to a process um to move people along even though it wasn't like here's 500 or you know the majority of the student body or the majority of the ones I would say the majority of the loans were like we want to keep it out of this so I'm thinking about this from a very practical perspective and maybe tell me if I understand the policy right I I got a sense that anyone can bring this forward but you have to demonstrate diverse School Community Support in order to move on to number five where the board will either direct the superintendent do a decline the requester for action um and so not that we would do one of those three things on anything that came forward am I reading that policy rating so for instance as an individual if I say I want to change the school name does that require the board to pass a resolution saying we're not going down I think if it doesn't make that or for for example the and the reason why Franklin moved ahead is because we actually changed the policy to include the that Clause that we just changed which is it violates the policy on at the time systemic discrimination um and so that was the only that's the only standard we've had to date right so with the word diverse School Community Support is that staff Staffing that the board now it meets that criteria for the board to to take action on it or is that the board deciding whether it does again I'm sorry I'm thinking about it very practically like like how how will we Define that to know if we move on to section five and take it from yeah it looks like the board will do it as distracted this looks like a board determination whether that's attended or not but that's how I read the language in terms of what the board determining that the petition needs to demonstrate diverse School Community Support um the request of presentation at the school board the request has to demonstrate these things and then the school board will take one of these actions so it doesn't have to be how you want so in practice it's probably going to be leadership who then sort of forward leadership who looks at a particular petition and it either says yes we think this meets sort of the diverse School Community Support so we're going to move it on to whether the board can take action or you know what this just really doesn't it I think you're right and like with everything else if the majority of the board were like we don't agree with leadership yeah I mean yeah so yeah I think you're right Andrew that's helpful thank you sorry I'm sorry okay so for what it's worth in the committee unless you are post formal setting can we use first names or do you would you everybody around there complained with the first name okay yeah I always prefer first names you know yeah I know so we go I was just going to say the other thing that we were kind of conscientious about is that we don't want far so high though was difficult for um people places with less resources or or local um time to be able to change the name so I think that's that's kind of why I think you've left it a little bit open so how do we avoid systemic bias this is the beauty of policy making it's like we've learned some things since 2017 so I think these are actually equipments so we have kind of changes that we've did everyone agreed yeah did everybody agree we can just use section two versus the section subsets yes yes um and then we have director
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um Scott's refinement of um Andrews our Andrews of the conservative superintendent race yes about resources and then we have a change that we just discussed in section seven around racism and systemic discrimination based on productive class anything else for the good of the order and that would be any place that that term is used within the document so it's in a second section yeah that's what I thought and we'll we can add it there thank you I have a question so I'm just throwing this out here so you know with this policy and you know all the things you're trying to avoid or not avoid could it be possible we just go to numbers I mean and that's someone that's going to discriminate against uh you know a number like you know PPS School one two three PBS school one two four it just seemed like we're talking about something that I mean I think is I mean I think it's okay but it just it just doesn't really seem like it's going to get us to our board goals um and if we're having this conversation now I can imagine what other boards might have conversations about this you know in the future so would it be simpler just to go to a number system versus the naming system just a thought you mean we'd be naming our schools like New York City like PS1 like New York Chicago I mean it's interesting because you know Beaverton has a very different policy of naming it like not after people generally um and we we have a mix of they're mostly people because even if they seem like they're named after neighborhoods they're actually those neighborhoods usually got named after people um I think that's a um way bigger topic you know it's a really interesting question though um Gary because of our our spatial our land use and who lives where in Portland and Google is allowed to live where and who couldn't buy land here in 19 40s and 50s and and so I think it's really interesting I say that because there's a lot of Community Pride around like where you live and uh I just think it's fascinating you know why not use numbers okay why not just name it like Paris like just go in a shell shape um that's a very um provocative idea I think if that's something that if leadership wanted to ask the board whether we'd want to take that on that'd be a huge Community discussion which doesn't mean you wouldn't do it um but I'm gonna let you and uh the vice chair decide whether that's something you want to ask the board do because that is um I could just imagine what the superintendent's gonna say that requires in terms of steps I serve it's a pleasure um or we can take the stance that you know the community have voted Us in to make decisions and use that mantra okay if you would if you um would like the committee to look at that I can add it to a future agenda no it's just a thought so if the committee that's that's there you know wants to go down that road or something that you know this I just do it out there something just to kind of get us away from you know having to look at people's names and things and things that they've done now and how it's interpreted you know five or ten years from now or 20 years from now you know it's just it just seemed like it gets us to really just focus on the educational thing um you know the purpose of what we're here for so okay I'm gonna ask the committee members and not to complete you on the start right now but um between now and the next committee meeting will you tell me if that's some topic that you want to undertake sure you don't need to answer now because we obviously aren't going to have um he's not going to sleep the time but um appreciate you raising that we always need disruptors of thinking um Gary superintendent 14 or whatever number I am has two meetings
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um I'm gonna ask I just said so actually here it shows three choices one is to defer action right to a later date do we need that well I think so because it could be um we currently have staff you know we're at staff capacity or oh okay but if we want it but we can't right um or save um leadership we think this demonstrates broad support or something and the rest of the committee is like hey we here's like we need more historical data on this person or we need to hear from this this group um before we move into a renaming process so I'm going to ask the two committee members do you want to move this policy out to the full board for our first reading with the changes that were discussed yes okay cockness of the time so um I want to just ask one question I think which will be relatively brief so we're making sure we um I've covered it was has there been any public comment on the policies listed number five student educational records instructional materials class size or nutrition services you know pricing and purchasing just um Eddie for you generally what we do is anything that's out for our first reading when we have a committee meeting if there's any public comment okay can we talk about it um and whether we want to make any changes to what's in it so we are it's always on the agenda until it goes it's at the other side makes sense those are all the stuff listed under the attachments pardon those aren't all the stuff listed under the attachments right it's the fourth ones yeah so we we already moved them out of committee and they're out for first reading for front for 21 days and so if anybody commented normally the practice instead of having the full board discuss a comment so it's something we'll have suggestions that we want to incorporate and if um so in committee if somebody has a suggestion we incorporated if it's a significant change we might have another first reading because this would change or we may deem it not significant and we were like a friendly Amendment and we um go ahead and approve it at the next meeting is 21 days uh okay so that's done and we have five public comments right okay time um so the next um agenda item we have is uh Community engagement uh whatever is the Equitable private uh I'm sorry School initiation enclosures and I'm afraid if we bring that up we're not going to actually have time for any conversation on the right crazy yeah I think there's a public comment yeah um so if it's okay with members of the committee we'll hold that over we talked about it last time and there were there weren't a lot of changes so we can oh yeah that'd be great one other reason to okay okay so Equitable private funding for School staff um I hope that everybody had a chance to well um I'm sorry Eddie and Andrew and anybody who is attending the meeting virtually um I made a statement in my committee report about the status and the video cut out um so I had a bunch of people afterwards like what was it you said so I tried to create verbatim of what I are close to Verbatim what I said at the community at the board meeting and included in the committee uh comments and then um so again sorry Andrew and Eddie were
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there virtually so you missed what I said and then I'm going to ask the next at our board meeting tomorrow night just I'll give I'll do a repeat so it's for people who missed it um have an opportunity to just find out it's mainly a report on our how we're going to set up our committee's work and also to share when things appear on the agenda so if we're going to vote on something it'll be marked as an action item so people come and if it's an action item people have an opportunity to come and give public comment in addition to the general comment if we're just discussing it you'll usually say discussion if it doesn't say anything but if it doesn't say action we're definitely not taking action and as a general practice I'll be just feeding things into the committee just so we have um an opportunity to sort of like here's what's here's what's coming on the horizon in general um and so this is an item that um has been before the district and the word for heavily 15 um years or so and um it has been actively worked by the policy committee since 2017. um Andrew last year as chair I laid out a a timeline for um two things happened laid on a timeline for the discussion we had a full board Medical Board discussion about it um twice I think and then um we also had a work session that um I guess we're a community meeting I guess there's like a community meeting on it and also last year um based on their recommendation or suggestion from director Hollins um we put about eight million dollars into resources that were available to the school community that were about 100 to 120 000. and I don't know if we described it as a pilot but it was one year of funding because it was Esser or one of the coveted one-time monies um to see if that would be a way in which um we could um provide some additional equity for those for those schools that don't either get Equity dollars or title dollars or CSI or TSI dollars or even if they do oftentimes it's very directive of how they have to spend the money and then there's schools that have some some resources some that have more than that and then some of them don't have me at all and so I think last year the it was the one year in which I heard the least amount of from school communities about um we had a very specific School need that we weren't able to film um so that's so last year even though we had three conversations there was going to be a policy draft moved I think starting February um that didn't happen and so that's with everything else just carrying it Forward into this to this year um what I would like to do today is um if I think in the past question Michelle you've you've been through several iterations um asked for some Community engagement um I am interested so we set up the conversation in a databased with all of us understanding the data or having the same data in front of us um specifically the new committee members the new board members like what data would you like to have as part of our committee discussions there's a number of different things like um Dr Adams has come in before and brought in here's the data on how District money gets distributed um in over a number of years and then um Jonathan has brought in data on here's what the two pieces here's what school foundations have purchased staff wise and here's what um the schools receiving the equity grants what they purchased so those are all data points I mean so those are things that I would want to to me that that's what I'll be asking for we also had a chart I believe furnished by the reformed folks I'm sorry does I
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love everybody showed actual allocations um comparing the equity funding holding my building and I think that would be helpful I think I have most of that after having to talk to them so what I like is a sort of level setting and like a new year new board is to have um I'd like you to send in what it is you feel like you need um the other thing that I would be interested in again last year was one of the first years in which I felt I heard significantly less so like a school Community need like we need another 0.2 to do X or we really wanted to have time like we had one and a half school counselors and we wanted to so we you know we had the resources so last year was the first year that I heard less so one of the things I would want to know is like last year with that money that we gave them not that we haven't necessarily again but what what good school communities buy that they felt like they didn't get in the allocation I got from the district so for example that's one thing I would want because that's a new piece of data for me so you would want to ask the school well we have it somewhere like because they had to submit I'm looking uh plans back at um the two individuals in the back ground the school-based funding is that roosting yeah because it all went through a process for example they they presented a plan and then yep we haven't heard so I'm sorry what was is there a question so there's a question about what what was it and or who has the data so we wouldn't have to get it from schools they all the schools at the end of oh and they're in the budget cycle but yeah so in the superintendent's budget and again this is an idea of director Hollings um 8 million of one-time money was distributed out and there was I think it depended on elementary middle or I mean what type of school you were and then I want to say you're some there were some rough per capita ranges I'm seeing an object there was a lump sum and then on top but there are some based on student population and based on that I got a certain amount and then there was some also qualifier that if you um had raised some money to buy staff that you had to spend part of it on something else but they all submitted plans that they were supposed to be compliant with sat sometimes yes and based on that I don't think anybody was denied were they so uh but so for me I want to see like what was that that again I heard less from the schools that don't some of the schools that got Equity Funds it's like but we don't we can't buy anything with twenty thousand dollars or thirty thousand whatever the amount is because it depends it varies is they were actually able to um that were substantive and meaningful for their schools some were able to Cobble that money up with some other monies to get like a vice principal or um a climate Specialist or any other resource that involves so the question I would have for committee members than anybody it's like I'd like to have a consistent I'd like to have one sort of this is the information we're interested in and have it be presented so we all start with the same information we can ask questions as sort of like the foundational piece so the assignment between now and the next um meeting would be to send those and as when I have everybody's I will share it with the broader group um not for reply also reading but so people know what the question and we use that as the starting starting point is that you can so you're you're asking that we all get that information here's the story well you're this is a um extra credit assignment since you're not on the committee but you're um but I'm so you're but I I just make sure that's right yeah but you're still on the board no I'm not meaning to be exclusive I'm just like saying that I um also want to respect the community process um
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now if director Hollins wants to assign you the committee I can but it means you have to come go ahead I think having the data the common data makes a lot of sense the other thing I would just add we don't have to talk about it today because I know we're out of time but it's just from a process issue like I I think there's some real I have some real process concerns about how we're going to move forward with this and there were concerns I had last year as well as doing everything we could to bring the community together around the proposal rather than divided and so I'd be interested in the board having a conversation this year about what's the best way to move forward which would something I think is important that we make some progress and make some changes the foundation policy that do it in a way and then it's collaborative so my goal would be um to have something that is Equitable and that has support excellent I just also want to say that we have gotten mail from people that feel like they haven't been heard and when we were at Harvard one of the things that we were advised admonished you know suggested we do is to intentionally seek out people that we disagree with and I know I personally have not you know I'm all about Community engagement um regardless of whether I agree or disagree I think it's important for us to listen to All of the voices in the room um and I feel like we haven't heard from I mean I we've heard in our inboxes for us from people that are you know um describing the process that's not fair to them and you know I just feel like we should make an effort to I would I would just note and also I see that you in our second meeting and um I I think they're I don't want to go into okay I'm just gonna say there are key stakeholders in our district that are missing from this conversation I'll just put it back some of the people have that have you know process concerns or outcomes concerns regardless of my own feeling about it because I would love to see um our district you know move to a system that benefits kids that look like me and I still feel like we need to we we need to do a better job of I mean inviting people to the room to the table to talk so that's um including those schools that don't even like the schools in my zone that are they don't even know the conversations they don't know what conversations happening and yeah we went out to two had two meetings and talked to five people or whatever but we need to be very intentional about doing an educational piece and doing a take over our mouth and listen so because we're going to end up with a better policy for having listened to people that we don't agree with I strongly believe that as someone who's listened to both sides of this for six years um I feel like I'm um I I was listening to like same thing with the climate policies yes we can get through to the other side that's you you've been here for a long time well I haven't can I finish my statement um and we're gonna do our work in public so that's another thing I would ask for something you do in public well that's that's why we're here at the committee that's why I'm asking that we all have the same data not that we are getting private meetings from different people getting different data that we have the in a public meeting um we'll have public comments and um I I want to do want to address the comments that have been made about the community engagement because I thought they were very dismissive and actually that was run by our community engagement team director Hollins and director um green both recommended individuals there were people that don't usually show up at our board meetings and representing their community and I have been really disappointed that some people have like purposely dismissed them with when it was this was a request from the committee two years ago for the community engagement team to run it so it's like um we shouldn't now be dismissing I mean it's part of yes and perhaps I mean I'm even willing if we need to actually go to people rather than expecting them to come here so I was not trying to be dismissive I'm just saying when I look around in the room I'm I'm just using my eyes and my senses here to notice that the people that have the most to gain probably aren't necessarily in the conversation and the people that are maybe the most um actively you know not disengaged but that that we're hearing from in our inboxes also I'm not hearing from and you probably have you been around a long time what was it but I I have a good engagement that's been posted actually was held at McDaniels and the other was
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held at Roosevelt I understand it was at the invitation of the community engagement team based on recommendations from principals of like George Roosevelt and other school communities and we can do more of that but I do want to say that we have there there was that and it was totally led by the community engagement team and then they summarized it and I'm not being dismissive I'm trying to be um additive that yeah some of the emails we've got who said like Hey we're hard-working volunteers on those other non-representative people which was not yes and like I don't want to accept that because it's just missing people's absolutely voices we asked sort of time so um I would ask anybody who wants to who's on the list to provide public comment um to come to the table it's just easier for us to hear and you'll have two minutes and Carol call you call your name and then you have two minutes and she'll tell you when your time is up and also people obviously can sub you can you could also submit testimony for the record if people want to and we'll post it up as well Cara we have season Carson hi my name is Susan Carson c-a-r-s-o-n I'm a member of the reform PPS funding group but today I'm speaking primarily as the parent of a McDaniel high school student who experiences significant disabilities and who has an IEP I'm concerned that recently advocacy to keep the local school Foundation status quo has included the narrative that Foundation funds are being used to support students with disabilities and by taking away these private funds students will lose services and have to leave the district I find this narrative disturbing for several reasons the right of students with disabilities to access a free and appropriate public education is codified in federal law it's not a special favor granted only when funds are available or when generous private donors underwrite extra staff during my family's 10-year experience in Portland Public Schools I've witnessed many families pull their students with disabilities out of PBS because their needs weren't being met and they felt they had no other choice these decisions are never made lightly and are almost always preceded by years of trauma so when I hear if we don't let parents raise funds for their Children's Schools they're going to leave the district and that raises such alarm Bells it really stinks where is the concern when students with disabilities leave the district do they matter less than the star athletes and valedictorians applying a Band-Aid in individual schools or classrooms in response to the most privileged or loudest voices does nothing to address the systemic issues facing the district's special education department it has always been my hope that PPS would truly see all students as our students regardless of whether they're placed in general education receive Learning Center support or spend time in a focused classroom where intensive skills class I'm almost done just one more sentence please moving to a district-wide foundation and advocating together for funding and support at the state level could be a powerful step toward that goal we in the special education Community are used to being spheres that can use I urge you to move forward with the draft proposal submitted by the reform group so that we can get started on a plan Excel will include all voices thank you thank you and I'm sorry to interrupt I would ask everybody to try and keep the two minutes okay yeah I'm I'm sorry two minutes isn't a very long time to talk about a very complicated topic but we appreciate it my written uh great that's a great solution hi Ashley Schofield on virtually yes thank you it's Ashley Schofield um yes good afternoon um I'm a mom to a second grader at Brighton mile Elementary in southwest Portland I come here as an apparent an advocate that is begging you to stop delaying reform with our current local school Foundation system over the last few years as a parent I've questioned
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raise concerns about how much fundraising and organized in my son's school I've tried my best to understand why parents and families have to raise so much money to buy staff members that seem very much needed like a reading interventionalist um that is what rydermott has used their Foundation money for this year I've attended school board meetings to understand the policy conversation I met one-on-one with our school principal multiple times to understand the value add of foundation money I've raised the conversation with my peers in my community and I've listened to what other communities are saying I seem to ask uncomfortable questions like how is an auction that makes you pay at least 300 to 400 to participate and gives you special access to teachers administrators okay within a public school system that boasts cares about Equity I thought it'd be a simple question but what I've encountered are families who are scared and conditioned to believe that they won't be able to give their child the best education unless they terroristly at fundraise the truth is our communities don't want to fundraise and it seems like the school district is relying on us to do so so they don't actually have to support our schools in a city that was built on the foundation of racism and white supremacy using the tools of racist housing policies it is more than ever important we dismantle traditional systems that do not serve our quest for an inclusive world we know this policy we have now is broken and that it creates inequitable outcomes on the basis of race I've heard most of you say this in one way or another in past meetings so what are we doing about it because we are ready to work together we are ready to get rid of those invisible lines between communities and work on a path we can all agree on which is that our children deserve the best education while the community still needs to work together towards state-driven solutions for school funding the school board has an important and critical war role in leaning the direction for change in our local level a district-wide foundation that also prioritizes advocacy in tandem with fundraising is a path that allows you to act now thank you for your time thank you Peter sacks foreign members of the policy committee thanks for your time I'm Peter sacks s-a-c-h-s my pronouns are he him his I'm a parent of a first grader at Alameda my introduction to this topic came in April at the workshop or the community meeting that was brought up and what struck me about that was um I thought it was a really well-intentioned exercise to gather some opinions and one of the opinions I heard from some certainly not all members of the reform side but several people vocally stated that their desired outcome didn't seem to be about um what's best for students or lifting up all students in our district their desire.com was simply to end foundations um we've on the on the foundation side have asked this topic be taken to the Innovation Studio to develop a well-rounded analysis and set of solutions and certainly that could help with some of the data questions and Analysis that you brought up director from Edwards but this committee continues to ignore that request and it's a reasonable one and has a proven track record of working well for PPS such a move even with a six month timeline attached will give the board and the policy committee time to focus on more pressing matters such as a looming teacher's strike I don't doubt for a second to willingness of Pat to go on strike and neither should any of us this is not a time to play banksmanship but we're spending time on the foundation discussion enrollment imbalances we have a number of schools that are profoundly under enrolled and others are extremely crowded and this is independent of the foundation question both of those extremes cause detrimental learning outcomes failing to tackle that really difficult and important set of issues while wasting time on the foundation discussion instead undermines whatever results the committee hopes to see from the resj lens and finally systematic defunding of educational support roles and here I'm not talking about special ed I'm talking about education assistance um our Librarians and and support staff that play really important functions in our schools Alameda Foundation is not buying teachers or adding sections or cutting class sizes this past year we raised enough for one and a half ftes that was two part-time EAS and part of our media specialist salary the fact that we're systematically cutting these support rules at select schools that by itself is profoundly inequitable when we should be starting at a baseline where those positions exist and adding to them at schools where they need is demonstrated through the equity lens thank you for your time thank you your preschool Grace if you can hear me I'm trying to promote you into the panelist section you have to accept the request is Greece the next person up after that can you hear me
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we can yes let's race the next one up sorry yeah okay go ahead Grace thank you my name is Grace groom I'm a PPS teacher and parent I'm also a current member of the community budget Review Committee I'm here today to ask this committee to move forward on the reform PPS funding group's draft policy to the full board for a vote um as previously mentioned this has been talked about as a in the committee um for quite some time and for the cbrc it's been a topic of every report since 2018 um this year it seems the board is is very interested um maybe more so than past years with the cbrc report and we appreciate the support and feedback um and effective participation in the budget process in our recent report the cbrc stated that it is important to note that individual School Foundation funds should be acknowledged as inequities because these funds are included in the budget document making this open for cbrc review we want to highlight the inequities here the foundation Foundation is highlighted in the budget on page 134. cbrc has made note that some schools have more access to Foundation funds than others and this increased funding is largely available to schools serving populations of higher SES and lower percentages of black brown and Indigenous students we encourage the district to develop strategies to decrease the inequities including but not limited to policy revisions that could provide for a collective Foundation district-wide to distribute collected donations in a more Equitable way um I also just want to mention this this uh discussion about do we move fast or slow to quote a former Community Advocate and former board member Rita Moore at a different topic on Boundary reviews we are at no risk of being too slow on this this has been a long time coming um and we really just need to put some action to it to um hear the discussion tonight I appreciate wanting to bring more voices to the table um and those voices are speaking in terms of their need we see it in the numbers we see it in uh every day in the classroom and we just need to come together as a community and walk our talk one pot of money equitably distributed and no more deflecting no more saying we're wasting time talking about this instead of that this is all part of the equity discussion and it needs to move forward thank you thank you it's not online no okay with that the thank you everybody and the meeting is adjourned appreciate everybody who came

Sources

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

2023-09-18 PPS School Board Policy Committee Meeting

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Event 1: 2023-09-18 PPS Board of Education's Policy Committee

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