2023-09-20 PPS School Board Facilities and Operations Committee Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-09-20
Time	16:30:00
Venue	PESC Wy'East Room
Meeting Type	committee
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: 2023-09-20 Board of Education's Facilities and Operations Committee

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book called to order the facility of operation committee meeting 20th 2023 we have we have briefing on the agenda um one is already been doing so I'm gonna take off the cost planning game update and so today we'll be talking about the animals property and I'm actually being taken a vote on that today to send to the full board what are you talking about the Jefferson High School modernization um as well and that's it so with those that tried about here by six o'clock um we will have some public comments I don't know how many we have three slots uh two minutes each we might depend on the timings we have an additional time we need to potentially give a couple more people some time to get into go down one minute um that's not how we'll do that today all right cheers okay so I'll start out today um so this is a topic that has came up um a while back um in 2019 I brought it over to the school district and building um sports complex and learning facility for our kids um three different iterations and they'll hit the Beats coming up we'll be gonna Tubman we kind of paused on it um because we wanted to make sure that he has taste for our toughman kids if need be if they were going to be on that space then we're going to use that space for for time um since we have found you know a space for coming to bring it back up so I want to start with insurance okay so I want to just kind of share just a brief and a lot of people have already seen this already but representation all right you know I just usually say five slides I mean five slides so what I did is I broke it up into two presentations um I will try this to use five slides um for these uh as well and then after presentation um my goal is to ask the committee to for the resolution that we have up to the full board and I'm just kind of giving a little sense of what the resolution is without going through all all of them I thought I'd go up a little bit harder with exciting um so in the late 60s uh Portland Public Schools in his Inlet domain um to displacement individuals and businesses in order to build out of high school so it was just like albino neighborhood this will happen another day with us as well um you know there were 26 homes that got demolished um duplexes businesses the nurseries um and the village and the community did not want this to happen um there was a lot of of course you know um resistance to this happening but within the domain they have to do anything um and so in 1969 Adams High School opened up um they brought in around 50 percent of students from Jeff uh from Grant from Madison and um for this new high school so it was around 50 percent how did America got the time um due to the kind of enrollment and you know other District things out of high schools closed um and then Whitaker Middle School came about in 1983. um at that time Whitaker had around 77 kids repellent at that time um due to a lot of the between 1990 and
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2000 through a lot of environmental issues that happened but there was it was mold radon and it got to a point where the design of this building was not um allow for remediation of the issue without it being a really expensive um and so they close the school down um and then they demolished the building um and I think it's 2011. so since then this has been an empty lot um up to that point so that's where um kind of where we started at um a little bit about um thanks man Frank so let me explain two things to one that I am off to the Ed of albino sports program it's an authorization of the program volunteer um and so I want to get that out there because I know people are talking about confident interests and it's been very Advanced it's not because I don't get paid here or I don't get paid there again so I do a lot of volunteer work um but a lot of them around our kids um so I'm going to just kind of just go into a little bit of what the sports complex is and then the next slide I'm going to go into live The Who and why um you can just get on it yeah so right now this is the location that is on the left this area empty this empty lock that's been there for over 20 years now um to the north of that is the track and field which is followed by Portland parks and recs and into the west of that with the baseball diamond is is also owned by important parts and recs and then the part on the south and on by PPN on the right is what we're proposing oh you can go to the next slide so uh okay so a little bit proposing This indoor outdoor sports complex and learning center I'm just going to have you know potentially 12 basketball courts they're going to get into a track volleyball courts um uh outdoor stadium Florida football soccer team baseball fields and softball fields another soccer field um to the west of baseball diamonds so when we when we first presented this to the district at the time and this is South Dakota you know estimated to be around 175 to 200 million so I'm stealing the cost of escalated since then so we I'll have to look at what that new cost will be give me interview yeah and this is just some Architects and drawings that we had of what it would look like inside um it would be like I said state of Denmark we're using Timber trying to connect with the outdoors so if you look you know you can't sit from here if you look on the right side it is a basketball course that is divided by trees that actually goes into the roof and other side there's another South basketball court good luck the next one yes okay so the next slide we're going to see so I'm trying to keep track of how many sides I've tried I've looked at first plane um it's already 10. no I said that I explained um so in 1965 um the educator was actually working at PPS um by the name of Phil Walton started our finance department it's a non-profit organization that was created to steer black and brown kids into organized Sports uh where historically um they was given them equal action s um
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so coach field um which people this awesome guy he did this stuff we did Miss Lee he didn't ask for money or dollars to do this stuff you know he he grew up here he went to Lincoln on High School uh in the Department of State uh he served our country um in 1946. um and then after the service he came back to Portland and he taught that at different schools some of these schools I don't even know the the names still the same but some of the schools like James John Woodlawn Sunnyside um he so he was after the perfect within EPS on the UPS Factory um he also became a superintendent of Oregon state prison system in Salem um and I think one of the things that he always talked about this and catching kids before they get there um and I think that was one of the motivations of him starting against but of course he got a lot of awards and accolades um the previous I mean the some of the mayors that was in here and gave him you know Phil Walton's so he was known for doing a lot for our kids um and his Mantra was that once I find a kid always I'll buy a kid and it's amazing and and that really stood true because this is a more of a generational organization um these are some of the kids that have um been a part of so legitimate on the right who's pointing he was actually one of the first of all the kids when he was young and this is how the generational year through the track coach and business for 27 years um and a lot of these kids here are great great grandkids of people Phil Walton the coach when he was alive and I did want to do some little Throwbacks because this was another coach uh on the right hand you know the Vincent shirt on he was actually a coach he's the head coach of Benson High School he was one of the first ones that put a long Coachman he was young um and having a little context so then I know when my generation came we ran for Miss McKenzie my kids ran for Albina and there's a lot of grandkids running for albino at this point so this is a very generational organization let's get to next so I don't know if you can see leaders of Throwbacks says some old pictures in the 60s and 70s and 80s um and so that when I say it's generational it's generational one of his slogans but if you don't die we just multiply um and then there's a lot of different stories about the sacrifices um Mr Walton Dunn all the stuff that he's done with all these groups of teams he did out of his own pocket um he used to go pick up kids pay for interest fees pay for travel he did all that out of his own pocket um majority of the time a little bit about modern sports program today so today we serve around 85 percent kids of color um you need to be a serve thousands of thousands of PPS Kids that's of course where he started from uh pre-covet um 75 of our kids was really reduced lunch uh it was around 56 44 percent females the males that participate in the organization um I minus curves over around 1600 kids a year and a lot of that comes from our registered kids and the all-commer needs to be put on every year and we put on about six to eight of them every year one of the big things that we pride ourselves that we've never turned the kid away because of the financial because of that financial situation their parent Financial Security the kid comes and wants to join we forgot a way to take care of them that means what it is probably to meet flying to Meats moving aboard we take care of that but that one's a kid and do it for their family or something um so as an example if we look at ideas depending on the last page that's yield for that from 22 kids to Nationals and within North Carolina we paid out of our pocket probably about a third of that for kids and their families adults because we don't exist you know that money be a financial issue a barrier why they can't participate
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um so you know when we talk about you know what we're doing now you know we we view ourselves as an official partner PPS already a lot of our kids participate those terms both of these schools um majority of them go to the pts schools um you know then we have some folks there um have been real players whether in sports with JJ Burnham been an NFL players um you know Makai Williams this woman just came out this makes the Olympics one of the youngest kids um out of the Olympic Games and a PPS kid and he went on to Benson High School that's it all right so the the purpose of all this to show and to see that you know I want to support plants at Learning Center can actually be a real benefit for our PPS Kids um there is a lot of advantages um which is competition could could produce um and we just told us to hope that we can um pass his resolution so we can move forward in that hopefully unify um movement forward so that's it for my presentation any questions [Music] about materials and the resolution refers to the complex so that in the diagrams it looks like awesome please PNR yes and I think uh it should be noted their own resolution or and materials if there's any imageries that this is correct so you're right and so the outdoor space with that was South north of the main space is owned by from the parks and recs and so it will be another partnership with them as well to have I could have conversations with them not doing the setting Stone um but you can have a conversation with them as well for them to invent uh to allow us to do this as well which will actually give based on our long-term facility and you know with the witnesses stands at 10.4 and we're able to do this with parts you know we almost have about 20 some Acres of field space that we can actually use but it's not included in I think we should know that in the resolution because and also if the slides are used again but that should be noted because it's just not hard PPS commodity to um that we can um everything is that I would offer a friendly Amendment so well that's one thing and I guess something's been drafted to note the things about the PPR the other um the friendlies I would offer is there'll be a number six on um the the negotiating use will be presented with worth of consideration Amendment yeah I can send it to you um [Music] into something okay um um so that'd be another thing I also want to just state for your record and I think it's important reasons that I do this because I just looked at this I just look at the size now um but on Slide this is how you've got a round one in five positions there's a total count though uh this is the slide that has the working team this is my name as a supporter and I want to just make sure that from a their perception um a conflict of interest is that I wasn't involved I got the presentation
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building this team I support more athletic facilities it's been we've done that for 20 years in PBS so it's what I want just to be Twitter and pay service um um thank you so um yeah I'm from I'm pretty happy with what I've heard foreign [Music] that was really important for me as well um I guess this would be the answer the committee maker makes a recommendation for the following consideration that one thing um lunch that I would expect at least been asked staff was an ass to represent anything or prepare anything I would ask it out so [Music] um we need is important to be aware of in terms of immediate their Provisions more ongoing discussions about anything that I would want to make sure that [Music] um just having discussion exactly is considered as part of your mobile discussion so the other questions comments thoughts all right so I will continue to live to move the resolution with the added amendments I want to be full board um yes all right all in favor yes yes all those awesome thank you guys all right so the next uh and then the item is a different High School modernization um I would just ask that whenever we change just for the rest of the word to the rest of the board members um so even though we're not on the team thank you all right there's a high school modernization yes thank you so uh we provided an update uh a brief updated the last place not the solution operations committee
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meeting and we noted that we had a couple meetings that were coming up after that we wanted to find another round date here tonight um we have two of our project team members here today project manager Keisha Locklear and Steve afros uh we have some little bits going around so we're not a full compliment tonight so I think we're gonna do is there is a memo in the materials hope we haven't had an opportunity to review there's also lots and lots of attachments from the time you know through all of those um but we're going to provide a quick update and then we'll answer more questions instrument screen okay yeah again Steve afro senior project manager in the authorization so um as you've probably seen in the memo that was provided to you we began with a bit of a background on where we are so as you probably are aware our initial pricing on the Jefferson project several months ago came in significantly over budget of what the more [Music] possible yes so at that point we've commenced a pretty exhausted a week-long volume engineering Workshop bringing in community Representatives um and that that exercise brought us from 270 million dollars over budget to within about five to ten million dollars over budget so we're continuing to work on our path towards budget but I just wanted to kind of give you that initial background so one of the most significant outcomes from that exercise was the clear need to move staff and students off of the site during construction which will begin um so we proceeded with looking at relocation options and those included Kenton PCC Cascade and Marshall so as we evaluated each of them it became clear that Marshall was the best choice overall and really drilling into that a little bit a swing site has specific requirements in terms of academic athletic cafeteria theater assembly administrative and Parker spaces among many other requirements so starting with Kenton as you are aware it's an elementary formally Elementary School is significantly too small and there was really no way that it would make that work PCC also doesn't work for similar reasons with limited number and types of available program space and I'll talk about that in a little more detail in a moment but we began by communicating with the Jefferson staff and the community about this decision and presented this information to the steering committee the design Advisory Group and the bond accountability committee at the same time we've also begun to meet the important Community Partners like SDI to socialize and really have as much get as much input as early as possible on this process it will have additional engagement with other communities support groups like Latino Network and um in additionally we also plan to bring the Jefferson journalism class into this process to increase student Awareness on this issue but as you saw in the memo we wanted to really clarify an important issue and that has to do with xiaomi and the fact that zoning was not the only reason that the PCC Cascades option wouldn't work so just just to be really open about this PCC has been extremely Hands-On and involved with PPS in these conversations in this process helping us to analyze our needs with their spaces available and they also agreed that they just don't have the capacity to make a full swing at PCC Cascades a possibility additionally as we've had internal conversations with internal stakeholders there are numerous challenges to PPS to to just address basic operational needs of the full full swing onto the PCC site and those include school lunches Safety and Security technology and other issues for high school students being full-time at a PCC campus so while the PCC option is not possible staff is working together with PCC to consider expanding the middle college program and partnership and class offerings that really could create a scenario where both Juniors and seniors could have less travel time between
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Jefferson at the Marshall campus and the PCC campuses so that idea is is currently in process it will be keeping the community engaged and updated on those developments I want to hand it over to Keisha that kind of expanded okay our project manager with osm um so to six point um our team has um been developing FAQ so that we can gather all of this information and communicate it to the to the Jefferson Community that was originally posted on a Jefferson website you just received translations for that FAQ so now we'll be emailing that out to the to the community at large um very soon um so one particular issue that we know is a major concern understandably is transportation as with all other modernizations we will provide multiple Transportation options um that work is also in progress and we plan to provide more specific information by the 8th grade information night at the latest which I don't know um so also our team is currently develop in ways in which we can introduce the Marshall campus to the judge Community um some current ideas are to create like a 3D video walkthrough um I'll provide tours to you know for families to familiarize themselves at the Metro Campus we also plan to work with our partner on boards like SEI and lexino network you know Indian education all our apartment groups um so that we can ensure that we meet their needs while they're they're asleep on that application um so and as with all previous modernizations our OSF staff is working closely with other modernization teams like defense and team who is apparently swung at Marshall um to learn from um you know lessons learned about that and uh also so that the Jefferson High School admin and staff can help us ensure a smooth possible transmission to the Marshall campus and uh to return back to the new modern ize Jeff um so while all that work is in progress by staff uh to prep for moving to Marshall the Jefferson minorization design team has been working intensely on the revised design strategy um there is somewhat risk at this point in the project with the budget but we are staying focused and working with our internal and external Partners to ensure that we maintain the budget um the city of Portland Bureau development services has been extremely helpful towards making this project a success we have bi-weekly meetings with them to discuss various project design variables um so that we don't run into issues later once we submit for permit um we have just completed schematic design as of Friday um I'm deep into reviewing those documents and we're moving right into design development um so our contractor or design team have actually been working very closely together our contractor team has people on site at our architect office many days um and that is also to ensure that the design stays tracked stays within the budget um we have also begun the RFP process for our mechanical planning and electrical candidates and our first selections and those trades will happen literally any day now um we expect our next updated round of pricing uh by the end of October from our contractor and our independent estimator um but those new trade partners are bringing on board will kind of help dial in those numbers help to contract their team to dial in those those estimated numbers as well and also help the design team develop you know better cost-effective design strategies um our project team is very excited about how the design is developing and how we've been able to bring it back to budget and keep this project alive and we really look forward to presenting you to the community um the updated project scheme and our next bag meeting I think it's currently scheduled for October 19th but we will be sending out on the next cases very beautiful
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meaning of course I know there was some questions down check so I mean I have some questions and and helpful Mary know the answer to it but I think it's good to kind of put it in context which is why I'm asking you um one of one of the things I guess my question is that uh the move to Marshall campus if I remember the last time we cut a year off of the X the expected of construction right right one of the things I want to also clarify is like you know I have taught in a building the other question I have is that um you know unlike Lincoln which they kind of built a new building right next to it and I'm and I'll switch uh the reason we don't do that Jefferson is the historical face right yeah the landmarks commission will deny any proposition that tears domination okay so that was my question is like how did you come from that decision importation historical landmark and that basically I mean that's a process beyond that that denial but that will just drag the front project s yeah it's an obstacle it's been too sorry uh there was before the comprehensive plans you know considerable Outreach habitually Community about what what were some high values and one of the highest volumes that came out that was what was the original purpose it's not just the landmarks it's also the community has experienced a lot of Erasure in in that area and the 1909 building really represents it's a strong symbol for the community and um the overwhelming majority of the community that we've spoke with in our comprehensive planning I wanted to keep that that's why I was curious about was whether you know how much of this part of this community and let's go um with the Hospital possibility of students transferring to other schools if they're intentional to a winner they will not accept for eign yeah that's my question I think our project team can feel it's like an enrollment um so we're having this conversation and everybody knows about any questions yeah sorry you guys and to the big questions yeah and to the main questions that might come up with the big thing that they've been talking about to believe in I find it very frustrating that you ask questions there do you need that should have been coming and you don't have the people here to answer them I have to do this you ask questions what's the point of this if you don't have the people here to answer questions yeah I mean sometimes I don't think you're gonna have every single be able to answer every single question I have the data to answer every single question I'll say from my experience in this project and from what I've learned from those stakeholders that I've been in meetings with that enrollment will be affected uh I can't say that anyone has established any thresholds today I know they're spiritual for high schools so once again this is why I make sure we have the right people here to answer these questions is important um because I don't like asking questions don't get past especially when I put out there you know and you guys if you punches the answer he acts one of the big ones is enrollment so I would it just made sense to have the people here to answer this was like uh one of the things that is linked in the memos is an SAQ and it has it answers some of those enrollment questions it doesn't answer that specific one and I thought this then there was a specific if there was a question I may have missed it as well about enrollment yeah
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good evening or good afternoon uh directors and chair Hollands I just I am getting the gist of the question and I want to just uh number one acknowledge the the point that you're making chair Hollins about um about the into integration of the questions that that pertain to this whole topic um for my part I didn't see this question coming I apologize for that uh definitely will take down the the questions that are coming up this question and any other questions that come up in the course of this discussion and we'll work with the team including the enrollment transfer department and will prepare a staff report I know that's not ideal that's not exactly what you were looking for for this conversation in this moment but we'll follow up to the best of our ability as quickly as we can um so with the new now I can't remember what part I was looking at here under the BAC report it looked like they're gonna be with the new design of compression of the site is that are we going to be from what was told to us at these meetings and at the board meeting is going to be compression because we're trying to stay under budget no uh we just well I mean it was we're looking for ways in the evaluation Workshop week how you could reduce the budget yes and so one one of the ways and it wasn't just the money it was also because we needed more space for loading and for the fields and exiting there were Transformers there were multiple reasons why the building got compressed a bit how much was that compression it was like 10 or 15 feet so on the original thing it was like 300 and I don't say 80 some thousand square feet and now we're basically right in line with the square footage that was approved at the board meeting about 335. and I think to add to that the the advantage of not having students on site and not swinging on site is initially there was a phased approach where we had to build essentially a comprehensive phase one building that could accommodate the 600 or so students and all of their programmatic needs so that created the inefficiencies within that building and within the original 1999 so as soon as students are off-site we can be much more efficient in how we lay the building out we actually went from three stories now inclusion race on the addition so that it's just a more efficient building easy to kind of move through and then the 1909 building uh became instead of walking along the main hallway and only having classrooms on one side and become a double load of just a conventional classroom building so overall it has both budgetary but also practical efficiencies which obviously have budget impacts but it also makes it easier for students to kind of move through the building on a daily basis so if this bronchos benefits with all of the original programs still intact in terms of the overall size foot spaces I was going to respond to the threshold questions my question is actually more for the board members so I was thinking this may be a good question to punto the suit of success committee one of the reasons is because I am very concerned with the enrollment at Jefferson because when you have low enrollment that affects programming and robust and stuff and we're not doing anyone to service good good enrolled and a good robust programming which is something better actually my questions are gonna um go into your question because ask some questions about enrollment as well and about also the educational um programming which um I recognize the project management the facilities what can I be able to do um answer and what I would what I would suggest is instead of having a separate Community discussion has just have combined committees which may be close to the full board together versus having two separate discussions because I think they're very integrated that would be my suggestion um and then but maybe the thing to to do because what it looks like I think we have everybody in the room that we need to have in terms of like how do we build the thing right um but there's a lot of other especially about the recommendation to go to Marshall I think
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it's a whole other set of questions that we need to answer is surprise um so my enrollment questions and I'll just get them out so that they have them out there to add on to yours Dr Hollins is um I would want to look at what the attrition was the grants not so much Franklin because frankly Marshall is consolidation of Franklin and Marshall so it's a lot of games that that was their neighborhood high school anyway so it's a little bit different than true but what was the nutrition rate we had at Grant one Grant went there and then what was the attrition rate for Benson recognizing that we also made a really big investment out there in some CTE space for the Benson and recognize that I mean that's probably the closest comparison is rant um but it's not even the same because one of the things that's um unique about Jefferson is it's a high school in which every student's offered two different places to go and Jefferson is just one so they have an automatic default versus Grant it's not like if Grant students didn't want to go to Marshall they could just pick another school every student at Jefferson has that choice and I I do think that will make things different so I'd like to see what the nutrition was already for these other schools knowing that for Benson which again that doesn't have an enrollment neighborhood enrollment but we did do some things like this is specific to your program that we're putting at the Marshall site it wasn't not an insignificant investment that attracted people there so I'm pretty concerned where people like hey I can just go to McDaniels um McDaniel Grant or Roosevelt because I already have that option and I'll just sit there and then I'll wait for the new school to be built and then I'll go back to it so that's a numeral with concern and I'd just like to see some more of the data and potential projections of what we think might happen um I have questions about PCC so I had a conversation with commissioner Rubio not for that purpose but just as it came up in conversation um who's the commissioner in charge that would have deal with his own name design and everything else and there hadn't been a request so I think we just I think we just should make sure that we're clear that um we haven't asked for that and if that becomes like a primary driver that either zoning or whatever why we can't do it something with a city that we should ask the city if and have them tell us no without saying they told us no without us asking so that that would be I think one thing I want to on the table and then what should the educational questions I have and I'm not really asking these questions because I know they're not in your space the educational question I would have is I'm curious about the middle college program um and so I'm not I'm not suggesting this but I'm just wondering so students wouldn't be going back to PCC for PCC classes why wouldn't there be something where they had dual credit classes like they have a lot of other high high schools where you're actually getting community college credit absolutely like while they're not at PCC the water in their classroom right so for example at Franklin you can take dual credit and get like the PCC credit but you're you're at a um so that would be a question to have because I don't understand why students were going back to Tennessee and then the other thing is I would just want to see um drops in every decision and some decisions were some trade-offs were made that I think we need to make more transparent about why things weren't chosen like um for example the science labs I don't know enough about science and what's required Eddie who probably knows this is a um High School teacher but I don't know what like this highest Labs that PCC has why they're not appropriate for high school and so I think like answering some of those questions like what's if you haven't Jefferson's an open
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campus we what's different about the Safety and Security for students say if they're at PCC then Jefferson when at lunchtime they can just log out of the building and be walk over the pieces so those are the types of things that I I need to understand to understand why not PCC valid option these were full swing at PCC well they just don't have the space they don't have the space to swing the the current involvement that's just it wasn't the Zone like it was it was an error in communication strategy to lead with the zoning as the reason why you know just one of the reasons why it didn't work the main reason why PCC doesn't work is because they don't have the capacity it's a whole so to hold our current involvement um not just from a classroom standpoint but from all the support States the same point like um theater assembly dance studios athletic fields um Etc they don't have the central spaces and sizes of spaces that we would need to support the full animals on Snapchat um we like I had mentioned we are currently um planning a staff meeting with many different departments to try and work out um a situation where perhaps Juniors and seniors would spend full days on ucc's campus for maybe one or two years out of the week and then they wouldn't have to travel back and forth from PCC to Marshall within the same days um so that that meeting is we're just trying to coordinate everyone's schedules a lot of people so it's going to happen next week or so um so but yeah PCC just does not have the space to swing Jefferson in that scenario and I'm saying this is a total cap but they're more or less thinking that capacity wise there's somewhere for me to 100 students yeah um that couldn't be a little higher than that but it's really just for those limited General Life classrooms there's enough space for the General Ed classes that's all you really understood but we're looking to see if we can accommodate as many as 80 to 100 kids at the time so because when I asked the question we answered for a full swing is there a partial swing option well that's what we're trying to figure out this like potential for one or two days of the week to have about 80 to 100. students there you know what is the the maximum of that PCC is it 80 to 100 or is it like well it's an excellent thing at home this is a this is a new idea that we're that we're flushed a Margaret Calvert brought to the table and she has spoken with completely about the idea and so now we're just trying to get everyone into the table to figure out the actual needs and Logistics of this idea I guess my question was more just like because we know that there's gonna there's probably going to be attrition during below but like if there's only only 300 it's 534. that's verified the intention is that there's already students that take classes at PCC so is there nothing to expand that or and even consolidate so some students by seniors for example maybe they spend all Monday and Tuesday for example on that site but they still need all the other spaces to provide a comprehensive High School on which PCC doesn't have so there isn't a scenario where there'd be a student that has their home base is at PCC and they don't go to Marshall it's just if there are students that are ticking up quite a few classes at piece of C can there be days where they are dedicated there also looking at potential other other events that can be held at the SEC they have they have some athletic facilities basketball games vulnerable games other events IPC is amenable to that we don't have a Reba in that but those are the type of things I'm looking at to have students and in the neighborhood Mr chair uh director yes Michelle directors [Music] and I I mean a list of concerns mostly about I mean globally about this part of the community and wanting the community like expecting
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the community to Bear the brunt of yet another move especially after we just laid out you know with the Albina this plan we talked about the eminent domain being used and people being moved around um I I'm really concerned about that I don't know that this I mean I can withstand additional harm and if we're going to grade ourselves on this specly I mean we couldn't ask we would not use that too um it's not a winning strategy I think to move the kids off I also I thought that when we we went through a cmgc procurement process that I thought would result would avoid the scenario that we're in that we would have somebody from the contractor available in these discussions to sort of have their ears and eyes open to potential of you know moving the kids off or not um so I I have a concern about like are we doing things in the right order when we have a cmgc and we have an Architectural Group working through like programming and schematic design we should have had a contractor I think I think we might have the schedule on hiring and procuring the contractor I felt I felt we should have had a Contractor on site earlier um [Music] a cmgc is a construction management General Contracting it's a it's a different procurement that public entities can use for a lot of different reasons my understanding is that um doing a cmgc process prevents a public entity from building an RFP and sending it out to bid and then having to use the lowest bid basically you know work with a you work with a construction manager a construction management general contractor that can be brought onto the process early enough to do this value value engineering at the same time the programming and schematics are happening um so that was just a comment I'm not I don't have the specifics on that I can speak to that a little bit though what you're saying um you know hindsight's always 20 20. today's team might agree with you about this the timing on bringing them through the GC right um our design team always knew there was going to be some type of Premium um and some type of cost to keeping the students on site we knew that you know um you know once things we came on board and brought the reality of what it actually did me because specifically the Jefferson 1909 building it's a four-story unreinforced masonry building the district hasn't has it's the largest tallest unreinforced Nursery building of the district owns district has never tackled a project like this before so none of our project teams has had this type of experience before neither has there's not many buildings in Portland that are not renovated that are of this scale right situation that we were put in one school contractor who came on board and saw that we wanted to have students on site within 15 feet of the existing 1909 building how they would have to extremely tactically demolish and renovate and structurally reinforce to seismic standards the 1909 building how long and like the Tactical process they actually walked us through a totally detailed diagram of how they would have to break down and rebuild zones of that building and uh that is really what increased the cost um just the the age of this building the fact that it's unreinforced masonry the amount of structural reinforcement and work that's necessary to bring the bring it up to a seismic standards it's just not something that many project teams in Portland period have experience doing and so the contractor really brought a lot of reality to the table once they got pen to paper and tried to solve the issue and is there no way to phase it such that the seismic happens first and the um you know to build the shell from the outside in rather than I'm just it's just a question doesn't need to be answered I also concerned about the historic landmarks um and and their their conversations I just looked up and to see who's on the commission and we have two community members Kimberly Moreland is the vice chair and then Cleo Davis who many of you know the on my division plan that are on that historic landmarks commission and it is a historic building and we are doing a lot of work at the city of Portland to recognize spaces that were important to African-American
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history and Portland were kind of inventorying buildings and this may be one of them but the building was built in 1909 and there really wasn't um if it's a stark black high school now but in 1909 it wasn't and so that wouldn't necessarily be on our list of inventory of spaces that were important acceptance had this you know 20th century importance to us and so I'm wondering um I would love to hear from the Planning Commission I'm wondering if there's if there is it just the facade that needs to be saved is that is that all people are tied to is it just the facade which well it's always this or is it in the facade the gel and the the floor dates that's pretty much it is there a way is there since we're working with like creative people and Architects is there a creative way to you know keep the if people are really tied to the Collins and the facade is there a way to work around that and create outdoor space there or something I mean this is I know this has already been designed out but is there not a way around this historic designation I mean there is an appeal process by the way yes I mean we've just gone through this over a over a historic tree actually on Mississippi so yeah once I think there is an appealing process there's a whole process beyond that um and again just again it's I I would hope that we would look at ways that do not involve moving students because it's you know it's Portland 11 miles is a very very long ways for our families and the students too that are um I mean it kind of brings back you know during my era the busing when you were must out of your community about an hour earlier than students in the neighborhood and an hour of coming home an hour later and that that loss of um connectivity and knittedness in the community is harmful foreign [Music] [Music] um of course no I mean these people's other voice but there are a lot of voices that are very strongly attached to that building not everyone but we certainly are a lot of ones does that work and two because of its location buildings on either side of the name but a new structure has its own challenges as well that it doesn't get all the details here but don't listen to do something better at getting this product then because of just because of those constraints it's a very odd it's a very long it's odd shape site the 1980 is right in the middle so try to put it on the track and there isn't really been the track and field in the South and oversimplifying so now we're compromising having a tracking field on site and so there's some of these other things complexity so I know we're having a high level conversation but there's a lot of complexity that goes into all of the options that have been considered just to rip off the track one track variable uh our current track is completely non-compliant so the second that we move the track it has to become compliant and that greatly reduces the area in which we why he said we really can't fit it anywhere else on the site really uh where it is right now is where it fits best um and if we have if we did move it um we have to I forget whatever the setback is we won't be able to sort of have the same kind of track that we have right right now we're building on the track and put a new track uh through a degree um I think the only thing one I shouldn't say the only thing one of the things I brought up um in the past and I've asked for and I really hope that we could at some point get and I didn't ask you so you're not not giving me anything I've asked for but data um I'd like to see the data that like even Julia asked about around um other schools that had moved and gone and what was that loss but then I'd also like to see the data around schools that stayed and what was the impact there um I'm super concerned about um our value engineering and I know we value engineer you know in theory about value engineer all of our schools but I'm gonna be as Frank as I can possibly be um without being too Frank I guess I don't want us to Value engineer less
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than we did Lincoln so I what I'm not okay with is I understand the demographics and where everything is at I you know other people may not say it but I'll say it we're not building yet for the for the black kids because they just moved out to the depression the idea is good but realistically when it's done those families have already moved however the idea that you would build a school that is supposed to represent some of the blackest communities if you build it less than you would some other school I'm not okay with Roosevelt and Sham and I don't want to see the next black school that we have get the same sham and this is I love you Dad you know I do but I say this every time I don't want to see the next black school that we have within our district get the same shaft that Roosevelt has to wear a year after the the work was done or a year and a half after work was done we're still putting buckets out in the hallway to catch rain because there was leaks in the roof and the furnace is still not working and parts of the building you know still don't have ceilings or didn't have ceilings because the construction wasn't done properly because it was shabby and I know nobody is going to like me when I say this part and it had everything to do with the fact that we kept the students in the building because when you have the students in the building there's a very limited amount of construction that can be done because you can only work during certain hours there's only certain equipment that you can use during certain hours and so we get this pissed poor job because we're trying to make stuff work keep stuff in and who gets harm who gets the the brunt of it the black community again so once again you're not giving us the same stuff that you give a Lincoln I love Lincoln and I don't think that it's intentional but anything that is not said and it's not like focus intentionality is the key if if I'm not telling you this is what I want and you don't know that this is what I want I want Jeff to be one of the best schools within the district I don't want it to be shortchanged I don't want to have anything less when I look at it I wanted to be like that is the school that I want to send my black kids to and if you're telling me that you're value engineering I'm like why get me some more money how much did how much is left over from Lincoln or something give me some money so that we can figure out what we got to do to get Jeff the way that it needs to be because I what you know we're talking about the community can't stand you know to be moved and that's there's probably a lot of Truth to that but the other things the community is not going to be able to live with is to get a school that doesn't really represent the the who we are right and so you give me a school that's anything less than you know like part then you telling me again how you really feel about me and so you're gonna say you just take this and you need it be happy that I gave you something and then let's move on to the next one and then you go down the street and you build another four or 500 million dollar school and you say because the money was there why is the money always there for somebody else why is it not there for me and so I I that's that's my issue that's the that's my gripe and all of this and so but as far as like the kids being in the building I think we need to find the data what does the data actually say around there being a loss because the concern is that we're going to if we move the kids out then we're going to lose students that would normally and they may not come back those fan families are going to be happy staying where they're at why bring our families all the way back and we've settled in here I want to know if that's do we have data that shows that that's actually happened what was that you know because maybe maybe the community doesn't know that people come back stronger or maybe they're right and that we lose everything what is the data and then the last thing I'm gonna say is about the um the PCC um aspect of it um I think we did ourselves at this service when we said when we mentioned that the reason whether it was a partial truth or a you know whatever the case might be get ourselves a disservice when we mentioned that you know part of the reason that we can't do it is because of zoning because we hadn't done all the homework and then when the community does what we know the community is going to do it's going to fact check you they're going to find out okay are they Liars or or what and so when they come back and they say nobody said nothing to me liar and so now everything that you say after that regardless of how true it is becomes irrelevant because it was based on the first lie and so the only way I can see us getting out of this with the PCC scenario where there's any level of trust from a Community member thinking that you know it actually makes sense and that you're still not trying to cover up a lie is that we're going to have to make the full ask on we need all of us like what whatever our full ask is we need all of our students to be able to be there this is the gym space this is all the space that we need and then we need to make that information immediately available as transparent as possible just raise the skirt up so they
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get to see and be like this is everything this I made this ask this is what I asked for these are the questions that I asked these are the days that I ask and make the entire ask available and then when the response come back make the tired response available and then the community be able to dissect like okay this is what they this is what they said now there's going to be a person there that still could believe that we lying but then there's going to be another portion that'll be like at least they tried and so I feel like that's the only way we're going to come out of that one I want the data on the other one and I was gonna I want money on the other one thank you about enrollments our enrollment has another project manager at Austin sent us this information and it's in our enrollment number PDF because the website but uh Benson did experience a dip in enrollment in 2021 2022 Franklin actually went up enrollment during construction went up in construction went up enrollment during construction and as did McDaniel because I think I think the issue those are never the schools I thought about the most recent organizations in their environment that that's how they worked we don't have anything to compare apples or apples I have one work on it and that's just about working in occupied spaces I've had about three projects where the spaces were occupied between eight and five and so the construction had to happen at five from five to uh whatever that was in the morning and so have we looked at that does cost more but have we looked at the Delta between what that might cost versus even though it's three years of construction and then we have a barrier very very tight schedule from designers [Music] for example she facing construction keeping students outside is really really hard for a lot of reasons but safety reasons there's noise reasons there's impact to students and also when you when you have a face project you're moving around you're starting to use systems before they're fully complete so you have a symptom you have a mechanical system that when you're done and you know you cut the ribbon and you've had some of it's been in years over three years and so it's been used that it's it's just there's a lot of challenges sometimes the quality comes with that it's it's hard to duplicate when you can hear you I guess my class and I issuing questions I mean new all these things which are being done these are going to be issues with him on site I guess I guess this is mine it's hard for me to understand how we knew going into this that so it's going to be is happening issues um how can we even anticipate understand that the building piece I guess about the question this is not the only um of reinforced building in the whole country and so Roosevelt why do we do not I mean consult with other construction firms or other entities that have have the same Asian list redoing these structured building uh there's six five six that I lost in Seattle Washington High School so I guess my biggest knew this was going to be an issue how come we didn't anticipate our look at this ahead of time with our design team and then also it just it just I just understand when I look at the other modernizations and I looked at the list that you guys have and went up to like you know even with Lincoln and Vincent at 700 or 800 some square foot and this goes up to 13. how could we miss that all how can we miss that big like if we if we are we've been doing this we don't talk about our experts and we have this and we have that and we're paying people to do this when people do that how do we jump how do we miss 800 some square feet to 1300 square feet sure if all the 815 so on the things yeah how do we how do we miss that with all of our expertise so sure yeah and it made a way to think about like process wise is to think of like a traditional design event build first and so you hire a designer they they design your country
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has an architect and then if you get a concept right you're a designer your designing Community that's what they do they have professional systemators but that isn't a guaranteed price that's something you go to market and so when you go to bid it's not uncommon we have smaller projects both of them over wheat project that's several minutes just for several million dollars off bid until you join a market because of the different complexities because you're not doing the same thing every time so this is a very unique situation and so the cmgc the benefit is they do come in perfectly and they don't give you a hit up front when you're in the sign what they do is they start to give you they're closer to the market so the for this particular project we have a design team we have a professional process generator as part of that team other department or an international construction company and they are aware of well they they've costed everything but this is a very unique product as lots of projects are and every one of the projects goes to valuable engineering there's a different amount of Engineering in reducing scope cuttings but everyone goes through the process so we have investment from a professional process for 2019 and that is what the budget was set on then when we're writing start schematic design we brought in the cmgc and they were able to say let me give you better information than you had and we've waited later or had me traditional traditional route would have been another year out before we knew we weren't even close on the budget and the project would have completely stopped so I know it doesn't sound like this is a good thing but we knew this information a lot earlier than other projects or potentially could know as the we're getting information early if you get it later the larger that are always having any scope of this or no and and I wanted to actually address that and also what what you mentioned director green about your concern about is this potentially kind of reduced quality yes and in fact I think we're finding it's the opposite in that both what I described before in terms of a building that's again when we say efficiency that sounds kind of cold and calculated but it's actually a better building for students and staff kind of operating because it's so much easier to make a way around you don't have to go down a much longer hallway to get to that phase one building as but additionally in terms of quality we are bringing all of the lessons learned from prior on projects in terms of our standards how to maintain the quality and how maintenance has learned from our earlier modernizations what works what doesn't work and we have brand new policies and standards in terms of our climate policy so we're going to have a far more energy efficient and frankly more comfortable building at the end of the day and I think also just from I think what Dan was saying in terms of you know all of our experience and all of these design firms working on all these projects we have have the Lincoln High School design firm and the Benson project contractor who are just constantly bringing information if this works that doesn't work here's how we can improve on what we did at Lincoln at Madison so I think our team is frankly as much as this is this this is truly painful for us I mean I can't stress that enough like this is not this has never been a happy experience for us we're you know we're just working ourselves to try to make this work as best we can but we feel what we feel super excited about is for the next hundred years this building is going to be a model high school and it's going to be both in terms of its Community Focus in terms of its connection with the environment including all the opportunities it offers in terms of frankly displaying how you create a climate firmly building and a Community Focus building so um we're struggling we're really trying to kind of connect the dots between where we are now and where we know this will be sure but it's one of those Gibson's public comments yeah we have been described a value as an engineer because what that meant that Franklin was hey you're going to get lesser quality materials on the outside of your buildings than you or what those things so I get that I want to make it like just clear that that's exactly what did not okay well but yeah when we talk about biology engineer like I know from the Franklin Community I think it's the same or what it meant for um the Roosevelt community so that's one thing so I think the focus on we're going to deliver the building that we've promised the community being sticking with the ad specs also
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the things that make Jefferson special the larger enhanced Performing Arts Center and the amazing place a blue track hopefully will come to come back from the Dual phases cheaper versus like we're preserving the mission outside that's I think a fundamental disconnect as part of the conversation because when it sounds like value an engineer it sounds like we're doing something less and while you get started I'm going to call in so I can hear the public comments I don't want to traveling and I apologize that I'm not gonna be in the room um let's call it three and then see what we're at with time and I can meet like one minute I wasn't gonna talk because I just found out about last night I like to prep myself but I do have some information that you might want to hear um esmerola Caldera come up here um anybody to start first all right hello PPS board my name is Esmeralda Caldera I have a son Benicio Caldera James who's a junior at Jefferson High School I would like to express my concern about the decisions to move students across town during the modernization of Jefferson Magnet High School Jefferson High School comprehensive plans started spring of 2022 and included extensive public engagement on December 13 2022 PPS unanimously approved the plan the next phase was design and permitting now September 2023 after multiple Community engagements and millions of dollars being spent on seismic designs the budget does not allow for the remaining 534 students to attend classes on site it was never communicated to the parents that the current students would be at a swing site that was one of the main reasons why most community members chose the current design from the various options we have been told from the beginning it would not feel so sneaky I'm sure the community would have opted for a new building very similar to the construction pack of Lincoln or Roosevelt these meetings are held with little notice in the afternoon when most parents are at work the negative effects of these decisions have immense consequences to the students faculty and parents Benicio is a student athlete this move will have negative effects with increased commute challenges with Transportation cost and time potentially affecting his well-being and extracurricular participation what is the plan for the college program at Jefferson how will that program be navigated I'm proposing an alternative solution change the current seismic design or approve additional Monies to accommodate the necessary changes have the Juniors and seniors attend classes at PCC freshmen and sophomores attend a swing site like Kenton Elementary the families were told that the students could not attend PCC for high school because of zoning restrictions that it would take years to change but when KGW reached out to the city of Portland a spokesman for the zoning department said quote unquote they could likely make an exception they have not done so because no one has asked them quote unquote I can only speak from personal experience when my older boys were in school our family was commuting to Ainsworth West Sylvan and Lincoln when we decided to have two more children I wanted to make sure my younger children attended their local school and it has been life-changing I am respectfully asking the reconsideration of the relocation plan more Community input and oversight on this project thank you thank you thank you committee members for this opportunity to speak to my name is Monica Pitchford I am the parent of a Jefferson student and a concerned member of the community I want you to put a pause on the process to find a community informed solution
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an example would be to use a combination of Kenton and PCC and Portables on the Kenton campus which has room for that the modernization committee has misled us repeatedly and we don't trust them they promise to keep our kids on or near Jeff I don't want my child in an unreinforced building but I want her close not 11 and a half miles away the modernization committee is deliberately wasting time with obfuscation to push Marshall onto a community whose number one priority is to keep our kids close we understand that it's about the numbers but you're not saving money by moving Jeff kids to Marshall you're transferring the financial burden to a community that is under-resourced and least able to shoulder it transferring the financial and logistical burden onto the Jefferson Community contradicts the district's racial Equity goals PPS has a racial Equity policy goal of providing Equitable access even when that means differentiating resources to accomplish the goal the time to differentiate resources is now why is PPS urgently focused on Equity when it's about Grant athletes going seven miles for sports but not for our kids who would have to go over 11 miles every day for three years pause the process work with us to find a solution that doesn't transfer the burden onto US keep your promise keep our kids close to home thank you chair Hollens and committee my name is Jennifer Hall and I am a Kenton Oakley green and Jefferson alumni here representing my eighth grader Sequoia Hall who attends Lockwood Green Middle School and participates in several pil Sports for the Jefferson teams as well as those from Jefferson High School family who are not able to be here today and speak we feel blindsided by the decision to relocate students to Marshall 13 miles away from our house after being told in meetings dating back one year ago that we would be able to stay on campus without any timely communication or dialogue with the affected parties Athletics and dance are at the core of Jefferson's identity with more students opting to go to other high schools which will cause overcrowding our enrollment at Jeff will plummet and we'll obliterate our programs we have tried so hard to uphold when our enrollment decreases this will allow you to decrease educator ftes and would likely Cascade us into losing our private teachers this displacement will increase traffic Stress and Anxiety for the entire Jefferson Community while decreasing study time quality sleep and overall Mental Health depending on school buses for transportation has proven unreliable and untimely we are asking that you please consider alternative locations with us that are less invasive to our children's Futures and do not uproot us further from North and Northeast Portland why can't we inquire more in depth about Portables and hybrid options with Kenton and PCC sites can we utilize the gym fields and dance studios sooner than 2027. all of us want to see our children succeed so please consider your own families when you decide on ours thank you Andre Lawrence uh do I start yep stay tonight all right Andre Lawrence uh I'll run Youth Sports for Jefferson High School and my big concern right now is those youth uh students how is Youth Sports going to continue uh right now we uh we have crowd country football uh volleyball right now in the fall basketball and wrestling in the winter and track and field in the spring and our our Kia that we get we get it from Tubman ugly green uh fogging and Vernon how are these kids going to get to Marshall to be able to continue to play sports um so that's the scare for me with me running a youth sport are we thinking about how are those kids going to be able to continue this phase of playing the sport uh so that's a big problem for me of one of them is continuing that the other thing is that's scary is when we start
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talking about a three-year phase I coach girls basketball in Jefferson High School as well so if you're a freshman there um you won't never see the new Jefferson so in reality when we start talking about re-going or if I moved to a different school that's the school I'm going to graduate from this this new school is going to be for the kids that seventh graders are in below so in reality once I there's no hard problem for a parent I would just go to Grant because that's where I'm gonna graduate from I don't have to make a decision to say am I gonna go back to Jefferson because it's a three-year deal right and so that's the thing too so this move is affecting our high school our current high school kids and those are kids that's going to affect when you start talking about it we keep talking about the 1909 building and the community and we keep saying Community I was in those meetings but um when we started on the community we all said we wanted to keep that building because they said we can keep the kids on you guys change your mind so we should be able to change ours yeah so we so when we when you guys said okay well we can't keep we can't keep the building so you can't stay in there okay we choose the most important thing to us now is the kids to be on site so give us a Lincoln right and it's funny how nothing we can't do this we can't do that but with Lincoln is we can make everything happen um but at the same time we you say I feel I I know how you feel um always use an example when somebody's a kid get killed and somebody says I know how you feel you don't know how that person feels so in reality you guys don't know how I feel I've been around Jefferson since 1996. you guys don't know how I feel right so I'm up here fighting for the community to stay whole right because what happens is once this community breaks up we break up that's why we said we got kids we were way out regression we got people in Beaverton Vancouver we lost our community already my mom said this and I'm gonna go out on this because it goes back what she said earlier they're trying to do what they did to us back in the day and bust you guys out because they've been trying to close us forever and that's the scary part right and so just like I said when perception is reality you guys may not be trying to do that at all I'm not saying you are but the perception of it when we're not trying to and communicate with because you guys did not do a good job communicating earlier I heard that oh we made a great thing to communicate with the community okay with the community when we found out they couldn't stay no you didn't you guys came to us when you guys had made a decision about moving to Marshall it was sneaky meetings and that's not fair to us for you to come to the board and say we know with the community no we didn't you guys just told us what you guys what decision you guys made so I'm gonna leave it right there and all I want to say is we got to make sure we think about the babies when we start talking about mood just moving uh kids from one place all the way 12 miles away button and I've tied Jefferson for 27 years and I I didn't I wasn't gonna say anything because I didn't hear about this until just like on an email today and I like to prep so I've been here since before reconstitution so those that have been in the community know but this is my old student that was my old student right and so well said so like I was kind of debating like I don't like to speak unless but I did have some data like I teach seniors right now so like our middle college program will die if this happens like you can't compare us to other schools of the attrition I really like my heart like we didn't know like I got an email that we're gonna go to Marshall so the fact like for me they love to do this we go off on summer break and then we find out like I'm going to Marshall right they've been doing this to Jefferson Community forever this is like the final displacement right our building everything around I'm not telling anything to anybody that you don't already know um but it needs to be said right all around and I'm from North northeast Portland right so it's all been gentrified we're like the last holdout yeah so then when we go you can't talk numbers of like oh their numbers went up Grant numbers one up Grant was like 2 000 when they moved okay we're at five I'm like we will be done and then who comes back in here everybody it won't be this Jeff and it's not the building like this is the building right I taught Andre right I'm teaching his kids I've got their kids right now so it can work if you get creative people around the table I don't like other people making decisions as far as I loved your questions I was like that's the first time I'm like oh my gosh people that are like us I'm like yes you're and I know I'm so I was like Martin um but Middle College can't work I teach senior and career they're giving 15 college credits so my seniors so I was like talking to people I I was I was off in a work trip in San Diego for us right I'm like why don't we just our kids my seniors take 15 college credits they're
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taking calculus they're taking their science classes for age for their science or radio over at PCC and when I go over there with them they're taking PCC classes the juniors are taking a a college class their English classes College over their Joel credit so then all of a sudden they start taking more PCC class classes and we're getting so we're not talking about putting our whole population there let's get them there with me there and their Math teachers there and then all of a sudden PCC in their future because I know they made an offer and and it was too I know there was an offer made and somebody said no okay so we need to go back to the table and then maybe Kenton maybe our Junior our freshman suffers our kitten or maybe there's a few Portables now maybe we can't afford a few Portables but we need to rethink because I am a creative team teacher I've been do I problem solve all day long for what student need you need something else you're my student I'm gonna problem solve for you I do it all day long I just want to be at the table right I work with PCC because if we go to Marshall you can say I'm gonna bust them to it it doesn't work it's not going to work our partnership will be dead PCC will go under right we want kids we have a 97 graduation rate because we wrap our arms around our kids we have kids getting I have a girl that went to American University for three years because she had 15 important state credits and she had taken PCC classes we have kids going to college we have kids going to trades right that is what we want and we have fostered this relationship when they try to close our doors the beginning all right they try to close us down and Carol Smith said we're going to leave you alone she was the first person to say we're gonna leave you alone do what you're going to do and that's when our graduation rate went up talk to Margaret Calvert principal of the year that was a community effort that was us saying we're gonna do this right and you guys so we'll spread our family like this is what it is right Benicio Benny I'm good right so I'm just saying like I'm so glad like we have to pause this we can't just talk statistics and numbers and we do need to build the best school we were the last ones chosen people say Well they're finally redoing your school I'm like yeah there's a well we're not blessed but we're almost right so it's like us but you know what I mean like we were the oldest building almost to Tumble like we weren't they were probably hoping we wouldn't anyway I'm sorry I wasn't prepped but I just those numbers like I wanted to be like like when Julie started asking like we can do this we can figure out a way but you got to get the right people at the table to be creative about it and it's not just about the numbers like that so I have three sheets of time and I just it's less thank you according yeah to get the community money for like what's wrong for some more money like find more money if it was anybody else we would find more money and the community center like community members think like here they go again is what I'm going to say is like here's another here it goes again when I'm talking to people like me I appreciate your time thank you so much do you have time for one more assistant no it's fine we could do one more you got you got two minutes I'm gonna cut off at two minutes okay thank you but don't start the clock Georgie Abraham Honnold a long time Jefferson volunteer and PTSA board member I'm reaching out to him say your name slowly Georgie g-e-o-r-g-i-e Abraham hyphen h-o-n-l now okay I'm reaching out to express my frustration with the latest announcement for the Jefferson modernization yet again our community has been misled about another step in the plan the latest decision without real informed discussion was said to have been decided the plan to move our students and staff to Marshall for the modernization has been taken off the table as an option and our community was repeatedly told that the students would not be moved now we're being told there are no other options this is not acceptable this community does not need another challenge to have to face in the wake of covid racial Injustice Uprising and the constant history of inequity Jefferson High School has had to endure we're a strong and unique community that has amazing gifts Within These Walls our community has been underserved throughout the district for years and despite that we have fought our demo Pride again and again to move our students and staff to Marshall for the modernization will have unacceptable impacts this will negatively affect our attendance our
01h 40m 00s
enrollment our students abilities to engage in sports and other school activities our PCC program will be negatively impacted as well the program that program is a big draw for our students and our families our parents and caregivers will be impacted financially there will be a huge huge emotional impacts for both students and Families the previous meeting which people got notification with one day again a pattern of behavior put out by the district was met with opposition to the idea of moving Jefferson High School since then we have been hearing more confusion and frustration from our community about this decision and the way this meeting was run and handled by the panel my mother was a graduate from JHS in 1962 my husband in 1988 born and raised in North Portland my son graduated in 2018 my daughter in 2020. I have been a dedicated volunteer with PBS in North Portland for years I've been involved and or on the JHS board PTSA board for the past 10 years I have stayed on with the PTSA even as my children have moved on I have a son to go to JHS in two years he has been a dedicated volunteer at Jefferson as I have over these years he will be crushed if he does not get to attend JHS we will not be able to commute out to Marshall he is an athlete artist musician very smart and looking forward to the PCC program both my other older kids took full advantage of that wonderful program we will not be able to attend and participate if he is to go out there it is just not financially feasible for our family this that is the conversation for many of our families one that is not unknown just ignored when people are not impacted making decisions based on business instead of considering all the factors involved especially the human factor I along with others are asking that the district put this decision on pause to consider other options and the Community Voices that are in opposition of this negatively impacting decision to move JHS to the Marshall Marshall campus one more effect of this pattern of behavior with the district and the JHS Community is the matter of trust it has been broken time and time again this is yet another example of how and why people are unable to believe in what is being said the impact of losing more trust will be huge how you choose to handle this modernization with JHS Community is an absolute golden opportunity to put into action the commitments you made to our underserved students and family especially those students and families of color Jefferson is the poorest skin thank you thank you all right I'd like to have a couple just a couple follow-up questions um the community right so it seems like when you guys let me know it seems like you know one of the reason why this community agreed to be the maximum line buildings until they thought that kid was going to be able to stay it's not accurate um I don't think that really close those as equal in our options um like it wasn't like if if we go with this option your kids will describe no that was never discussed in that manner it was all options always had the kids staying on campus it was always supposed to be phased with students occupying construction site every option so if that's not necessarily expect Ed [Music] um pause of the project I've heard that come up I haven't heard that come up during the other Mania Jeff what would that do for the project and we pause the project so the community you know that you know we talk about we hear from a long time to come up with some solutions um the schedule is busy it's very expensive so pretty positive projects it went to the language at least a year which time that's the dollars increase the cost as well which did we then require additional funds or reduction list all right you know the only other questions I guess my only thought would be if if a conversation came back around to to pause out and you know for whatever the reason um if we're saying pause I I would want to make sure because it's going to cost money um that that cause actually includes like it's we're very intentional about the level of dialogue that we want and that we're not um and I don't I think I just I like to say stuff so that it could be said that we're not having a pause so that we can
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just go through some steps so that we can say I heard they spoke and then this is what we're going to do but that we may actually have to break the Architects back out we may have to do some redesigning we may have to give some some replanting we may have to look at some new level of zoning based on the input that we're getting from different ones and the building could actually look completely different from what it looks right now and all of that's going to cost money um all that's going to cost time but I think the only way to effectively go into a real pause is to go into it with that that level of critical thinking that the entire plan that we have we could be scrapping because we're we're trying to do and that's just like I said I I'm sure that that's something that doesn't need to be said but you know I'm going to have it um of just saying stuff that reinforces what we've already um and what we're thinking yeah yeah I mean I I want to elevate the voices of the teachers and coaches I wonder they're the ones I know I think if they raise these issues it's a real issue I just want to say like I mean I personally would like to explore more creative options more options to find more money if you need it so let's pose that question you know judgment here if what would it take to do what we said we was going to do is that the additional 200 million dollars that was presented as far as an over the overage we just went with the original plan changed nothing then yes but I don't think that's creative you know so I think we went back to the drawing board tried to figure out other options then a pause would be necessary our project teams just to be clear we're working Within the the scoping copies the the slope schedule and budget that we were doing absolutely you know what I mean and that's what we are just trying to do to do what we can within the the variables we can control right work within we don't have the ability to say pause give us 100 million dollars we have you know we can just ask for 320 tomorrow we'll get it so we have to try and make our school schedule and budget work um fair enough so um can I hear you right no I hear you okay yeah I mean I understand where you're at but you know I guess it's for me is when we we tell the community stuff and we and we kind of put our name on that um how do we do the best that we can to make sure that the promise that we said stays true um and I understand that you know the the inflated estimate that came back without a whole nother issue but so how how can we if if we can is is there any other ways to keep the promise that he said yeah I don't think there's a short answer to that question and it's all going to be trade-offs right if we if there's a positive project that delays the project that delays the completion it also potentially puts the entire project at risk uh if there's for example if there is a desire okay let's go ask traditional funds additional funds needs to come from the likely funding stores would be a general obligation Bond question but that potentially wouldn't be authorized and therefore the project was not entirely um so there's just there's a bunch of different trade-offs and risks and I'll just throw this at a little bit for process wise but when we got the the first cost estimate that we've asked in the contractors we realized that the largest High School um and maintain the scope and and so that that week-long effort that went through we actually in just like a visual it's dozens and dozens of designers around the table it is the Architects as Engineers as civil
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engineers such as cost estimators and we provide in community members who've been part of the conference planning process because that process starts with what are the values of the project and one and so when we have to make decisions what is that how what values do we prepared and admittedly that's you know that's a you know a week 12 project it's not and it's all day and it's not every community that is the way to help look at retaining the 1909 the existing plan that we had in place how can we get creative to do that uh what are just other completely different options such as building on the track or building south side and what are all of those different impacts scope scheduled budget Community Values and comparing all of those and through that process collectively this four dozen group of people like this is the clearly most viable option as far as the end up build what is that hundred year product look like but that requires students to go offset [Music] to make sure that we try to stay true to our products and unfortunately because of the scope and account and the additional cost no matter if you don't have this is the best option for Jeff correct okay now I know that's not I know that's not great to hear um and you know I know you know for for our community you know when we look at how things have been done to us you know not with us um I and I can understand this because I I think this process was a lot different um than processes in the past uh when there was no Community engagement there was no meetings there was no um you know inclusion of folks and the thing whether you came to the meetings or not um I was there at some of them um I think this this process was different and I know it's unfortunate that you know one of the things that we promised we ain't going to be able to keep I do believe strong expensive behind our team um that the outcome of what we ended up getting will be worth it um and I still think there still could be some some talks and conversations about if we can partial do this partial uh move theme um as well but it just it's just you know it is just one of those things that you know as a district that we apologize right this is something that we thought we was going to be able to do as far as keeping our kids on campus and it just doesn't look like it's going to be feasible to do that and so from from the bottom of my heart in the end from our district you know we apologize for that because that was never the intention you know I understand the outcome of this is a lot it's how it feels and how it hurts you know my family was one of those ones who every time they talk about uh closing Jeff we have meetings with the principal on the field and all that stuff I remember I remember my family going through all that stuff so I understand I heard I understand you know the historical trust issues with PPS um but I I do I will say that I think this was done differently and I think the intention was really to make sure that we gave Jeff I just have one more thing to say I think with our student population it's it's on a completely different scale because we have so few students so that's what you have to take into consideration and the few students that are left our family is leaving and all the student athletes that come to my house and eat lunch every single day yeah they're leaving too yeah I feed them kids every single day five days a week I'm in their ear hustling they have a great school Community if it's um [Music] what I'm saying is off-site does not mean Marshall that's deep Southeast if you're gonna take kids would you send your kids to Deep South East no yes I love family in our neighborhood it's going to go deep south so I'm not staying on site I'm saying be creative we have I live in Kenton that building is right there we have PCC I'm saying half of our Juniors and seniors go there already when you're talking 80 on my senior inquiry class I teach 52 kids in a class right now I team teach in a space with somebody you know give me a little classroom put 50 kids in there I you can come visit me tomorrow if you want don't say that because we do
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yeah come on up come visit me tomorrow all I'm saying when we're saying off site to not disrupt I get the budget and you there's so many things not trying to disrespect any of that or I don't want it to stop because I get that I get bomb money but when we're saying off-site and you're displacing us to deep Southeast that might not even be safe for our students and like athlete all this like something more creative property can I have this yeah so if there if if is there still options I think that we still looking into to try to keep them closer hand yes I found this that person always with with PCC with all of our different staff departments um to try to think of ideas to make this less burdensome for the community and if in that process there's just some miraculous idea like oh man if we could do this I mean we can do this like oh it's just I know that if we do any of these other creative ideas it will affect this level if we do anything other than stay out of practice what we have problems 99 sure we're going to start a year later and it's going to delay you know so I don't know that's beyond me and that's okay I just don't understand the full applications well the thing is this what we're saying is even if we delay our Middle College will die and our literally our student population like we could be at Marshall with 50 kids [Music] under 600 now barely 500 and over 100 those are graduating this year right so that's 400 Stu that's less than four that's 395 students and kids are transferring out we have 150. how many kids [Music]

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)

2023-09-20 PPS School Board Facilities and Operations Committee Meeting

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Event 1: 2023-09-20 Board of Education's Facilities and Operations Committee

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