2023-10-10 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

District	Portland Public Schools
Date	2023-10-10
Time	18:00:00
Venue	PESC Auditorium
Meeting Type	regular
Directors Present	missing

Documents / Media

Transcripts

Event 1: 2023-10-10 Board of Education Regular Meeting - Starts at 2:15:30

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e hello hello everyone this public meeting of the board of education for October 10th 2023 is called to order all items being considered this evening are posted on the PPS website under the board and meeting tabs this meeting is being streamlined stream live on PPS TV service website and on Channel 28 and will replay throughout the next two weeks please check your District website for a replay times all right so we're going to get into it we got a full house we got a full a full agenda so before I I get started just want to share a few reminders um in order to ensure safety please keep walkways and aisles clear we also ask you to please be considerate of those around you and to keep any signs below chin level in order to keep from exceeding the occupancy level we have set up an overflow seating and viewing era outside under the covered area in the front of the building once we reach maximum capacity in the boardroom or and forer we will close the door and not allow anyone to enter if you are selected if you are seated outdoors and are signed up to provide public comment please check in with our campus security agents who can let you in when your time is to speak all right we're going to start off this evening um with a beginning with a resolution to reorganize October as dyslexia awareness month I understand we have some people here to speak on the topic yeah you can clap thank you we do chair Holland good evening directors I'd like to invite down Elizabeth Martin who is PPS is program administrator for dyslexia here to introduce this Proclamation thank you superintendent and hello board directors it's great to see you this is my fifth year coming here um I am now the assistant director in multi-tiered systems of support but I oversee academic intervention ions as well as dyslexia now uh it is an honor to be doing that and to be here with you I want to thank you for your ongoing commitment and then I'm going to turn it over to my team members who support 88 instructional reading specialists in this District to provide remarkable support to our students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties and these two individuals actually provide coaching training onetoone support in a very high technical manner to really change trajectories for kids so I'm going to turn it over to gret and gainy who supports K5 and Katie Honeyman covin who supports 612 good evening I want to start with this quote from a former student of mine now in sixth grade well I used to be bad at reading but like if I had a big word that I can't read quickly I can now sound it out and then blend it all together in spelling I'm feeling confident confident writing multi- slabic words reading instructional Specialists work is urgent time sensitive and focused on what I would argue is the most critical of skills reading which we will teach students for not only their academic success but their overall well-being and sense of belonging good evening my work focuses on supporting middle and high school teams in onboarding tier three reading support to address unfinished learning and reading tier three is scheduled as a class or a what I need win block if left untreated dyslexics experience High rates of anxiety and depression dyslexics are over represented in the prison system I want to give a heartfelt shout out to the Educators who are disrupting these outcomes thank you to the students for doing the work even if they're feeling grumpy some days I'd like to end with a quote from a student who had met their
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goal of high growth I lowkey want to stay in this class I think I am actually really good at reading these are outcomes to celebrate tonight thank [Applause] you all right uh do I have a motion to and a second to adopt resolution 6762 resolution resolution to designate October 23 as disle Awareness Month in PPS so move second so we had director Scott motion and director the pass second are there any board discussions all right Miss Brash is there any public comments no all right the board will now vote on resolution 6762 resolution to designate October 2023 as dyslexia awareness month and PPS all in favor indicate by saying yes yes yes yes yes all [Music] opposed student director Silverstein please indicate your vote Yes there's no extensions resolution 6762 approved by a vote of 7 to Zer with the student representative student director Servin unofficially voting yes all [Applause] right next we have a resolution recognizing on October 23rd as National principal month in Portland public schools superintendent Guerrero would you please introduce the first item yes chair Holland directors later this evening on the agenda we're going to be spotlighting a few of our schools I think what you're going to hear and what we know to be true here at PPS is strong School leadership is absolutely essential for creating the conditions for learning for improving student outcomes uh we're so fortunate to have such dedicated School leaders here at PPS they exhibit great commitment uh they lead with passion with great dedication uh and they think of each and every one of our students here to say more about our School leaders uh in this particular uh Proclamation is our chief of schools Dr John Franco thank you superintendent director student director it is indeed my pleasure to be able to speak to all of you today to recognize our our School principles specifically uh in regards to this resolution uh we have great people here we have outstanding leadership I say this often we could do great things with great people and we definitely have that from a leadership perspective uh to give you a quote specifically from uh Linda darling Hamilton and John Hattie leadership matters principles absolutely make a difference in fact according to Lindo darling Hamilton Hamilton the leadership provided by an effective building principle is second only to the guidance by the classro teachers and impacting student learning in her study of the princip principle ship darling Hamilton notes School leadership strongly affects student learning principles are Central to the task of building schools that promote powerful teaching and learning for all students we know that for the past 5 years it has been quite a time during these extraordinary times PPS School principles and when I say principles that's Vice principles and assistant principles they've exhibited great commitment and adaptability to lead and support their communities with passion with energy with vision and commitment for each and every student they play key roles in the mission of Portland Public Schools which is providing rigorous highquality academic learning experiences that are inclusive and Joyful We disrupt racial inequities to create uh vibrant environments for every single student to demonstrate excellence and principles are expected to not only do this but they're expected to be educational Visionaries instructional leaders assess M experts managers of student Behavior Community Builders Public Relation experts budget analysts facility managers special programs administrators and guardians of various legal contractual and policy mandates and initiatives as well as being entrusted with the education and development of young people and the professional responsibilities of School principles include building the leadership capacity of and mentoring aspiring administrators and School principles often need to manage numerous responsibilities work extended hours and make extremely difficult decisions the
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success of a school depends on the principal's ability to work collaboratively with all stakeholder groups and establish positive Relationships by building trust practicing open communication and building a restorative culture that emphasizes learning and growth for all students colleagues and members of the community as superintendent Guerrero said you you are going to be hearing from three principles today do trise brown Warren principal Heather Thompson and principal Chris sylvas when you hear from them know that all three of them embody the characteristics that I just mentioned also it would be remiss of me if I didn't mention I don't think he's here that fudal current principal of Roseway Heights was just awarded or recognized as being the recipient of the do Dr Charles Hopson racial Equity leadership award for from courageous conversations this award is presented to local leaders who effectively broker collaboration focused on racial Equity between and among community members and their schools he is going to be honored at the courageous conversation Summit in Austin Texas in November and this is on the heels of one of our principles last year woodlon principal Andrea Porter Lopez being awarded Oregon element principal of the year and so we are very excited um that we are recognizing principles um and I'm looking forward to uh the presentations uh this evening thank you thank you do I have a motion in second to adopt resolution 6763 resolution to recognize October 23 as National princial month in Portland Public Schools second all right we have a motion by director brim Edwards and a second by director green any board discussions hearing none Miss Brash any any public comments oh you have no okay M BR any public comments no all right the board will now vote on resolution 6763 resolution to recognize October 23rd as National principes month in Portland Public Schools all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed student director s Stein yes thank you principles no uh during the principal spotlights are there any extensions none resolution 6763 is approved by vote of 70 with student director Silverstein unofficially voting yes all right that's clap all right finally we U will recognize disability awareness month superintendent would you like to introduce this item yeah I'd like to invite actually our Deputy superintendent Cheryl Proctor to step up and just say a word about the importance of disability awareness month good evening good evening um it's my pleasure to speak on this particular topic uh I am a special education teacher um once and always will be in the heart um and I am also a parent of a student who was on an IEP who had a disability so it is with pleasure that I speak about October as disability history and awareness month um a Time dedicated to acknowledging the contributions and struggles of people with disabilities throughout history it is a month that provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon how far we have come in terms of inclusivity and to Envision a future where everyone regardless of their abilities can fully participate in all aspects of our society the history of disability is in many ways a history of resilience Triumph and the it it um indominable human Spirit from Helen Keller who overcame both deafness and blindness to become a celebrated author and activist to Franklin D Roosevelt who served as the President of the United States while navigating the challenges of polio individuals with disabilities have shattered barriers and paved the way for more for more inclusive Society in honor of disability awareness month and in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1973 we acknowledge the national theme of advancing access and Equity to
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celebrate the 50th anniversary of the passage of The Rehabilitation Act 1973 as PPS is moving forward together with our strategic plan a main theme and component of this work is having mind um mindful inclusive practices that support support students needs who experience disabilities we continue to move away from segregation into practices that promote inclusion and a sense of belonging while breaking down ableist practices in our system we all share the mindset that students with disabilities are everyone's students we ensure that all families and students especially those historically underserved have the knowledge information and support they need to fully engage in and contribute to the special education process these are activities to raise awareness and acceptance our special education engagement uh Specialists are hosting student listening sessions across the district and collaboration with our special education department uh the support I mean excuse me the purpose is to ensure students and families voices lead our systems change in PPS we are also supporting schools who are invested in this work to create Affinity groups in their buildings to support students and families in feeling welcomed and accepted in their school communities so it is my pleasure to share this information with you and with our community regarding October as our disability history and awareness month thank you thank you uh do I have a motion on and a second to adopt the resolution 6779 motion second director Wong motion director brim Edward second is there any board discussion Miss Bradshaw is there any public comment no all right the board will now vote on resolution 6779 resolution to Proclaim October disability history and Awareness Month all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no student director cin please indicate your vote Yes all right no abstentions heard resolution 6779 is approved by voter 70 with student director civin unofficially voting yes yeah we can clap for that too all right next we have our student director report thank you you're up um I'm going to try and balance this with some positives um and negatives so first of all um homecoming season so many schools are about to um have or have already had their homecoming um games or dances fall Sports will soon be coming to a close it's been aning aming season for soccer volleyball football cross country um love seeing all those events and thank you to the student athletes who are balancing a lot um students as always are getting engaged with our district um engaging in discussions about items such as moving Jefferson students to the Marshall campus changing instructional schedules um and new safety measures that are being implemented this year so if you're a student and you're getting engaged in these discussions thank you thank you you truly are doing the work um um so we had just had a District student council meeting today um and the DSC which is the abbreviation for it has not taken an official stance on the PPS and P bargaining but wanted me to express their hope that it comes to a conclusion soon and that the outcome keeps students at the center um and then finally just today we decided that the annual student Summit will be held at omy on March 7th all high school students are welcome to attend and participate in sessions about Title 9 school safety and so much more more and there will be the opportunity to meet with state legislators so keep an eye out for more info on that as the year progresses especially on our Instagram at PPS student council um and just overall this student rep report is meant to serve you so email me at FS Silverstein pps.net if you have anything you want me to share that's also the best way to reach me with any concerns um I'm always willing to engage in discussions with people thank you thank you for [Applause] that all right up next we're going to have student comments Miss Brasa do we have any students signed up for public comments we do Izzy
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Lee all right so then before we begin I would like to review our guidelines for public comment this is going to be for the student you can come on up this is going to be for the students and for um general public comments first the board thanks you for taking the time to attend this meeting and providing your comments public inputs informs and improves our work and we look forward to hearing your thoughts and Reflections our Board office may follow up on board related issues raised during public testimony we request that complaints about individual employees be directed to the superintendent's office as a Personnel matter if you have additional materials or items you would like to provide to the board or superintendent we ask that you email them to public comments all one word at pps.net public comments comment at pps.net please make sure when you begin your comments that you clearly state your name and spell your last name you will have three minutes and 30 seconds to speak you will hear a sound after the 3 minutes and 30 second Mark which means it is time to end your comments all right good evening everyone My Name is Izzy Lee Le and I'm a senior at Lincoln High School today I'm here to request that you consider allowing high school students to have their own school pay accounts let's begin by acknowledging that the current landscape of school transactions is limited to parents only while the most common apps used by students for digital transactions like venmo and Apple pay are disallowed by the district students need access to school pay to make online payments for various School related expenses from lunch fees to extracurricular activities just last Saturday my high school hosted their annual ual homecoming event and instead of enjoying the festivities many students who didn't have access to their school pay accounts were forced to wait outside for their parents to purchase their tickets the primary benefit of using school pay is the convenience it offers to users so why not include students students need the ability to make secure and timely online payments additionally this website provides real-time tracking allowing students parents and school administrators to monitor and manage Financial transactions with ease by allowing students to have their school pay accounts we can significant red significantly reduce the administrative burden on our school staff improve efficiencies and promote Financial inclusions by ensuring that all students regardless of their financial circumstances can easily participate in school activities without any hurdles thank you for your consideration thank you thank you all right so next we turn to our general public comments please make sure when you begin with your comments you clearly state your name again and spell your last name once again you'll have 3 minutes and 30 seconds to speak you'll hear a sound after 3 minutes and 30 seconds which means it's time to end your comments Miss Bradshaw do we have anyone signed up for public comments yes we have Pedro and GL Adam Mau Alisha win and Gwen Wilson my name uh my name is Pedro angl Cordo a NG g l a d Co o r c o r d e r o I am he in solidarity with teachers custodial and nutrition service workers and all unionized Educators they they all deserve living wages please settle a contract now I am here in solidarity with all women fam transgender and non-binary people facing harassment sexual harassment and retaliation in the workplace I am in solidarity with every student facing sexual harassment in schools to all of you going through suffering I say You are not alone I feel your pain my family and I are suffering with you to men I say where are you we men may not be the common targets of sexual harassment and we may often be the main source of it so don't be complicit face the uncomfortable truth and speak up sexual harassment in the workplace is systemic in PPS for a long time we've heard stories of harassment from women from custodial work nutrition
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services teachers support staff and students in response we get General denial silencing and retaliation accountability is not is about diligent action it is not a word to throw just to sound good when a custodial worker takes the most radical of actions and quits her job in public for every adult who faces harassment there are 100 girls going for the same girls having their learning interrupted by knowing that the threat of sexual violence is present in the classroom this is the story I have to hear from my own daughter you see we have no recourse we do not feel safe reporting we know what happens when this stuff goes to HR the retaliation in the form of silencing investigation reprimands character assassination do not delay it takes will you don't have to hire an an investigator be transparent show us number of complaints number of grievances who gets their target who is doing their targeting who plays pitcher and catcher when practices are grief who silences workers for speaking about racism and sexual harassment and who is son the perpetrators open the books you already know their names since I had no recourse cuz I'm not going to send you an email I Ain going to say a name Richard Smith this person enabled a culture of harassment in Kell Middle School to run rampant nobody did anything about it this person retaliated against those who speak up and was held by HR and a regional superintendent and HR uh s of fit Yes you heard the name before excuse me excuse me can you refrain from saying the names I have no record this the way I have to say it so superintendent Guero okay thank you good evening thank you to everyone who's here today in solidarity my name is my name is Alicia win ngg u n i teach PE at Scott Elementary and this is my sixth year teaching in the district I ask that you listen with compassion and hold it close to your heart as we continue in this bargaining process and most importantly remembering to put our 49,000 students at the Forefront I'm here today to talk about an incident within this District that has put myself my students and community in danger and this is just one instance there's not enough sped mental health and academic supports and there is not enough spending time for me to do my job safely our case loads are unfeasible and unsustainable I want to start this off by prefacing that I'm not blaming myself my school and especially not my students for any unsafe situation that has happened this is a district-wide issue and something needs to change on September 5th I was hit in the face and repeatedly bit by a student we'll call the student Thomas Thomas has an IEP coming from another District which states that need he needs one-on-one support the district admin told us to track everything before they can send us more support tracking data is what gets us more support they said multiple teachers getting hit in the face and bitten is not enough students running away crying and screaming is not enough Thomas missing on the opportunity to learn is not enough from my understanding the only way for Thomas to get the support he needs is for him to continue hurting himself other students and teachers our students deserve more than numbers and letters on a piece of paper our students are right in front of us crying for help how much more pain Blood and Tears is it going to take for our district to fully support our students two days later on September 7th I met my kindergarten classes for the first time 10 minutes into class one of them looks up to me and says I love you already I forgot that I was even Bitten on September 5th I love my students and I love my job and I love my school and and the school board knows that the school board knows that there are people like me in this world that will get bitten over and over and over again and we still show up because when our students look up at us
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for just a second we forget every Injustice in the world this right here is why year after year after year the school board repeatedly votes against teachers and staff who ask for the bare minimum you say no to smaller class sizes you say no to sped mental health and academic supports you say no to a able wage because you know no matter what no matter how many early mornings and late nights we work unpaid will still show up you know no matter how many sleepless nights drowning in tears will still show up you know no matter how many times we are bitten we'll still show up but I'm tired our students deserve teachers that can show up every day feeling fully prepared and fully supported but that is unheard of within the working conditions of Portland Public Schools on September 5th not only did you fail our students you failed me you fail a dedicated and passionate teacher and I'm tired and I'm hurting I invite every school board member to come prep and teach my 25 classes for a week see what it see what it really feels like work under the conditions you contracted us to but don't forget to tell each and every one of my 503 students that you're proud of them tell them that you're proud of them for showing up even when they show up 2 hours late even when they don't sit on the carpet even when they don't know how to read or write look them in the eyes and genuinely tell them that you're proud of them and that you care for them even when they don't know how to read or write yet how fortunate am I to have a job that teaches me the true meaning of unconditional love where our students show up no matter what and all I can give them is data how many more times do I need to be bitten for me to stop showing up I'm tired and I'm hurting and I've had enough you can choose what's best for our 49,000 students and see us at the bargaining table or at the picket line thank you thank you [Applause] [Applause] good evening chair Holland superintendent Guero board of directors stud student director Silverstein uh Council large taxpayers and audience my name is Adam hour spelled maer I'm a proud PPS alumni of 13 years and I have been a PPS maintenance team electrician for 19 I'm here today to speak about the value of our PPS maintenance team to our district and taxpayers everyone at PPS benefits from our skilled and knowledgeable maintenance team our department covers thousands of work orders yearly cover in everything you physically see and even more issues that you don't is anyone from osm or project management here tonight we support you in designing and inspecting your projects I use my institutional knowledge to guide best practices and create more easily maintained buildings that will last for as long as our oldest ones is there anybody from ceramic arts or industrial Arts here I maintain and update the ceramic style kils forges and the electrical infrastructure the Arts is what draws kids to come to school I am proud to help create that draw is there anyone from Code Compliance risk management or health and safety here maintenance is the eyes and ears of the district by providing problem solving for Safety Code Compliance security issues to these departments before they get out of hand we often provide the resolution when sharing the issue with these departments in the past we have seen natural gas issues failed fire suppression tests and lack of inspections that get through the cracks the maintenance team pins these issues down for resolution we take over and take ownership of our schools and strive to make them safe are there any custodians or Bill Wilson here well I got a call from Tim curtain the grant head custodian about a water distiller last Friday for a science class valued at $1,450 he asked if I could fix it he's
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got a lot of faith in me I had it figured out in half an hour took 50 minutes to locate a part less than $3 the switch just came in today and it was repaired today bill was ecstatic this is what we do in maintenance we save you money in Repairs by being the best at what we do this is our Jam is anyone here from nutrition [Music] services my favorite group I repair your appliances in a timely manner to keep the kitchen running smoothly and I do it the fastest way possible with some repairs taking only 15 minutes so you can rest assured the kids will get fed on time I prioritize the PPS cook staff and I 100 50% support what they need they feed our kids there is a value of having seasoned veterans doing the PPS maintenance work we provide the best historical knowledge safety practices repair procedures Parts acquisition scheduling effectively communicating with everyone involved we also follow up to ensure the repair was done satisfactorily above all we take ownership of the end result and we save the district money in closing I hope you can make that you can see that our man ma multifaceted institutionally knowledged and skilled PPS maintenance team is unlike any other school of maintenance department there is a huge value to PPS and taxpayers and one last thing one other very valued person that you have here is the most underseen person it's a person behind that wall that produces all these meetings I'd like to call out Terry Proctor from maintenance Terry you want to come out you want to show yourself I'd like to recognize you tonight you going to make it thank you Terry appreciate it thank you very much appreciate it thank you thank [Music] you [Applause] hi uh Gwen Wilson W LS o n um I'm very nervous you got this I'm a parent um my kids go to Marysville Elementary in southeast um one is in prek and one is in second grade I listen to her teacher struggling and it's heartbreaking the school board's role is to establish policies that direct the instructional and support programs at PPS the core value here is support there's no statistic or information that I can give you that would sway the actual negotiations I'm appealing to your common sense and your heart there is inadequate and instructional specialized classroom support for our teachers which is one reason that the teacher is imminent multiple Educators at Maryville just keep saying they've never seen anything like this we have kids in each classroom that are so far behind developmentally socially emotionally and academically that teachers simply can't teach grade level content effectively which means there are pauses in instruction distractions what my kids call Red zoners um Behavior challenges fights Detachment sensory problems Etc um let's point out that there's nothing inherently wrong with the kids I think we all know this um it's the system that is [Applause] unsupportive um Educators feel alone overburdened and that doesn't seem to matter to PPS management um and this is not the exception uh this is the norm The Limited one to one time allotted with an intervention specialist or academic coach is not Su sufficient because even they are overburdened IEPs are paperwork heavy and not effective um and just a side note the acceptance criteria for summer school last year was just laughable um um all of this is just not a sustainable system and kids are being left behind um there's no one-size fits-all sweeping solution the solution solution is going to be complex and subjective giving teachers not only more autonomy but a multitude of specialized support in and out of the classroom uh there's a real disconnect between the district management and
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direct Educators when schools restarted post pandemic there were and still are unaddressed traumas and significant gaps in learning which exacerbated an already failing system creating a monstrous seemingly unattainable unattainable task for teachers and support staff um the PPS Chief Human Resources officer recently said in an interview with OPB suggesting parents to stay informed well in speaking to the public I think talking to your kids teachers is a very direct way of staying informed listen to what they have to say about the support they're not receiving from The District in solving the fundamental problem where do you start I say ask the teachers teachers burning out the emotional toll it's taking on teachers is devastating they're leaving the district creating teacher turnover costing the district millions of dollars a self-perpetuating cycle how do we draw teachers into a district where they are fully supported and intered where kids and Community are thriving make PPS a place where teachers want to work thank you thank you next we have comments from our Union [Applause] partners [Applause] go oh boy okay uh Amy Sylvia s i LV a I'm the co-chair of SEIU we represent the nutrition services and custodians I'm a lunch lady at with Elementary um this is my 10th year with PPS um I'm having lots of feels right now so I might start crying um but not sad tears more like Angry tears and uh we're here in solidarity with everybody because we're all fighting for the same thing it's I'm I'm really just at my Wit's End I had this whole you know my same speech that I give every time I come here and I just I threw it in the garbage I was just like I this is the fourth time that I've had to ask off the night of my second job so I can come here to beg for a living wage um we're so short staffed our director Whitney is working in the kitchens she has way more better things to do for the amount of money she's getting paid than to work in the kitchen she needs to run the program we can't get people in the door people are leaving because of this this is not a financially responsible way to run a program to have the 100,000 plus person doing the 23,000 job we've got hundreds of workers that did not get their cola this year because we have no contract because bargaining has been dragging on and on this needs to change we've also had no answers about sexual harassment we ask for in-person training like I don't get why you wouldn't want to do that I that doesn't make sense to me I don't understand it and the so-called independent auditor she worked for PPS against unions previously this is like that is not independent in my mind that's like saying hey Mom you want to fill out my report card wow I did a great job awesome it doesn't it does not compute to me I just I'm gonna end tonight because I'm just at I'm just done I'm done please please don't make me take another day off next next month to come back here and ask for money again I I need the I need the money I need to go to
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work for allps workers good evening um my name is Elizabeth and I'm the acting president for pfsp um this is my second day in the position um but I'm not new to Portland Public Schools I graduated from lincol high school and this year um up until this year I worked as a par educator for Oley Green Middle School a month ago I was hopeful that we could come before you the board and present you with a tentative agreement that our members had voted to ratify but that didn't happen when we brought our offer to the membership they were clear our members said the district's proposal was not enough and we deserve more we we keep our schools running every day alongside all the other unions who are here in front of you today over the course of our past contract inflation has increased 133% while our members saw a cost of limit increase of less than half of that when I talk to our members about what they need in a contract they're concerned with how they're going to pay their rent buy groceries pay the electric bill when their checks can't even keep up with the price of inflation let alone begin to confront the history of undervaluing our labor when the district refuses to pay staff a living wage it's impossible to retain workers it destroys student relationship with staff and it robs them of the stability and support that we know that they so desperately deserve it makes our staff less safe and those that do stay are left covering for vacant positions they're more likely to be injured on the job and when they're injured they're less likely to take the time off that they need to recover our members are run ragged those that have been here the longest and have the most knowledge often end up bearing the burden of training incoming employees because there is no guarantee from management that the staff who come in to fill these vacant positions even have basic job training before they enter their work sites right now 70% of our bargaining unit makes less than 40,000 and they still voted the contract down because they said that the increases that the the school board and the district offered them was not enough this past month has made it clear that they're not willing to settle they're ready to come back and they're prepared to fight for a wage that shows them that they are valued that they are respected and that there is dignity in their labor when we come back to the table on Thursday we hope that the district's bargaining team is ready to work with pfsp to come to a deal that allows our entire School Community to thrive PPS can do better and it must do better for our schools our students and for our communities thank you thank [Applause] you hello um I'm Angela Bonia I'm the president of the Portland Association of teachers um usually I start with Kudos uh and I don't have those today um with the exception of all the families and students uh who have shown support to our Union partners and to us throughout these many weeks of bargaining um who showed up in force for our practice picket earlier today today um I just want to appreciate them and thank them for understanding that we're fighting for our kids not just ourselves um so kudos to them I want to speak a little bit to what we're experiencing on the ground what we've well I think I'm in a similar place where it feels like I've said these things over and over again I've said them here I've said them in meeting with uh administrators I've said them in contract Administration meetings and instructional practices committee meetings um I've said them in the public I've said them in the news and it feels like it it continues to fall on deaf ears um we hope that the school board is the public accountability check for the district and we hope that as a board you are taking the time to really see beyond what um PPS management is giving you to understand the reality of the picture yesterday we had a meeting a sidebar with our bargaining team um a few members of our bargaining team and a few members of the district bargaining team to talk financials because that is the real big sticking piece we cannot agree on the numbers um and we had our research analyst there who asked a lot of really important questions um that didn't have answers like like why is there a 19 million difference between this chart and this chart when they're saying the same thing why are there tens of millions dollars more put into contingency funds and then the ending fund balance both in the resources and
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the expenditures side because you've done this adjustment why are we always projecting a deficit and then coming back with an increasing ending fund balance I think one piece that really um spoke to me during that meeting was the question on our paper a manufactured crisis that we stated that d The District's overall spending on instruction has gone down from last year to this year and we were asked well I'm looking at the budget and it doesn't look that way well that's the general fund when we look at the overall budget all of the funding Char categories instructional spending has gone down and I think that is a testament to the Shell game that continues to happen when we talk about finances we can talk about the Entre entire budget we can talk about the 100 fund the 200 fund the 300 fund we can talk about money that's tied up in capital um improvements we can talk about all these different things but what we know overall is that we are we are getting additional funding next year because of how the state school fund is distributed guaranteed we know that there will be additional funding um overall uh and we know that we are in crisis we when we hear that there is an adjust adjustment being made and we're getting more funding because the state finally passes their budget and $8 million of that goes into a savings right into um re you know the ending fund balance while our kids are struggling while our kids are at schools um experiencing harm and Trauma and asking for help and not receiving it while our educators are trying their best to address every student's need but you can't do that when there's 32 of them and there's only so many hours in the day it is exhausting and so when we're out here yelling when we're in the news when we're speaking our realities into into the world we're speaking those realities because there is no other way to be heard we don't I [Applause] think as as workers we try our best to do a really good job at our job and we try to follow all the appropriate channels to say this is not okay we need support we need help and those channels continue to ignore us and it's not just the workers it's the students it's the families there have been so many students who have uh done protests and um have marched to this office only to be locked out there have been parents who come and do silent protests so they protest the way that is quote unquote appropriate about their increasing class size and then when their class sizes increased to that number where they should get a new teacher they don't get it and so I think we're all at this point whether we're union members and leaders or families or students we are tired we're tired of being told that what we know we need is unattainable we're tired of being told that we're being overly optimistic and asking for too much when we just want the tools we need to be able to do the work that we're tasked to do which is to serve our students to give them the support and love and care and instruction that they deserve um and so I just want to remind this board that what we're asking for in our contract negotiations is feels transformative but unfortunately is similar to what other districts already have and our question is always why can other districts give the planning time why can other districts give the pay why can other districts do these things and we can't why does do oversight committees both our own and from the state say we are spending way too much on Administration while removing uh licensed and certified uh classified positions and that call is ignored or I'm told well it takes a lot to run a district yep I believe it takes a lot to run a district I take I believe it takes a lot to run Beaverton and Salem Kaiser and bend and all these other districts to and yet and yet so I just hope I I just hope that y'all acknowledge that this isn't a coincidence that we're all bargaining at the same time that pfsp did not the membership did not ratify that agreement it's not a coincidence it's a reckoning it's an acknowledgment of the disinvestment the divestment that has happened in our schools year after year it is a reflection of a uh leadership team that we have have clearly said we are going down the wrong path and we are ignored I hope I hope against hope that we can get to a settlement before um a strike I want to
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be I tell folks all the time I don't want this job I I ran for this position because I felt like I had skills to contribute to help our Union and help Educators but my dream is to continue to teach fourth grade I love teaching it is is the thing that makes my heart sing it is the thing that makes me want to wake up every day and instead I have to do this job because I'm not able to fight the institutional issues that don't allow me to do the job I want to do and that our power the place where I know that I can fight and win is with my union siblings so hopefully y'all can hear this and see this and understand this that we are not doing this out of a sense of greed or out of a sense of self-preservation we're doing this because we know that our kids and our families deserve better and not just those that attend PPS but our own families they deserve to see their family members and their parents and their Guardians at night instead of waiting for them to come home from a second or third job they deserve they deserve to feel like the district that they invest in invests back in them and I I just I hope that we can recognize that something drastic has to change and as soon as we get the correct financials we can give a similar assessment of where we think Cuts could come from um because we hear that that's what's being reported to our legislators only some of them aren't even getting invited to those meetings because they ask too many questions so I just want to make it clear when yall hear what you hear from those who um manage this District it is never the full story their story is always going to have more to it because there's multiple perspectives and what we're seeing on the ground is not what we are being told is happening at the top and it is not being felt and unless something change something changes we are we're going to be in a really tough place um and we hope that y'all are able to help us move the needle so we can start to serve our kids in the ways that they deserve thank you thank you thank [Music] you [Applause] all right I want to thank all of our uh Union partners for coming out and sharing on this evening um next on the agenda it looks like we have um a resolution to appoint some members to The Climate crisis committee so it looks like last year we adopted the climate crisis response um climate Justice and sustainable practices policy one policy objective is to establish a climate crisis response committee which brings together a diverse group of individuals with unique perspectives and lived experiences to uh monitor the effective implementation of the district's climate action plan with the charge to track um progress of the policy's goals the policy requires that two members will be current um PPS students um that each serve a one one-year terms both director Bren medwards and director Sullivan served on the selection committee that made the recommendation to move forward our two student candidates um with either of you like to share a bit of that process um I would um yeah I really want to do a shout out to all those students who applied for this position um I had the privilege of reading all 30 applications and I say it was a privilege because I really was impressed and it was exciting to see how caring they were and how much they knew all the high schools were represented and three middle schools even pre um applied um one from from Gray West silven and Oley green and all the applications were really passionate and thoughtful and it was very hard to choose I also realized in reading the applications that these students have been aware of climate change their whole lives and it's affected them and they worry about about it and one student stated working for climate Justice gives me hope so that I can stop being afraid this work will make climate change a
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hopeful and interesting topic not an overwhelming and scary one and this is just one example of the many thoughts and knowledge that came from these applications and I would just like to give a shout out to every single one who applied it was exciting and it made me a little bit more hopeful to see what they're thinking about so thank you everybody thank you so much for your response director brim Edwards so i' just also like to add um to uh director Sullivan's comments what an outstanding group we had um to choose from and I also want to say um you know it also tells me that we've built a sustainable um system in which um originally we had students on the policy committee that were very passionate about pushing this policy through and making it one that was really informed by student voice and their concerns um and as part of that um not all of our um that advisory committees have student Representatives um but because of their outsized role on the uh policy committee designing the climate policy we included two students and what a great um idea that was and we had really outstanding um Representatives last year and just I joined Patty and saying it was a really incredible to read the applications um and the thoughtfulness with which students talked about how they felt they would help um PPS really achieve the vision um and our goals in the policy um so I am so enthusiastic about um the two nominees that we we have um I'm looking forward to voting for them and I also want to thank the District staff um for cat Davis for running running the process that was um really inclusive and that did generate um not just a couple applicants but uh many student applicants so thank you and congratulations in advance to uh Tess and Diego uh yes so Diego Romero here would you like to speak come on down oh we love it we love it we love mport just just just state your name and just tell us why you wanted to be on a committee I'm Diego Romero um and just growing up um I just I guess climate change just has started to become an increasingly bigger uh threat um in all of our lives and we've been seeing it more not only in our communities um but just globally um and I'm really excited uh to be part of the climate crisis response committee uh hopefully both to give back um to the Portland Public Schools system uh that I've you know grown up in um and then also uh hopefully to make change in our community thank you thank you all right do I have a motion and a second to adopt may I say a few words well yeah we going to go after do the motion we're going to discussion okay sorry all right do I have a motion and second to adopt the resolution 6764 motion second director Green motion and director Julia brim Edwards second all right now is there any board discussion hi thank you um chair Holland I just wanted to thank both the students Diego and Tess for uh jumping into this work for the all the right reasons um I'm a really huge uh advocate of climate uh climate activation and work in climate change for the city of Portland and I would love to have you uh come see like the it's a very boring meeting but we work in uh Transportation decarbonization buildings decarbonization um and and Air pollution climate change so I would I would love to show you around what we do our policy shop what we're working on uh for the city of Portland thanks for stepping up awesome any other
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board discussions thoughts all right is there miss Brash is there any public comments say something oh goad I just want to say thank you to everyone who applied and congratulations um as always student voices are really really important and I'm so excited to see what you do all right any uh public comments no all right so the board will now vote on resolution 6764 resolution to appoint members of the climate crisis response committee by voting yes on this resolution we are approving the appointment of students Diego Romero and Tess nesto to The Climate crisis response committee for one year all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no student director Silverstein please indicate your vote Yes all right hearing no extensions the resolution 6764 is approved by a vote of 70 with student director Civ sign unofficially voting yes all right congratulations all right next we will vote on the budget calendar at the last meeting that staff provided a draft calendar we provided feedback indicating that we would like to have more time for board to meet to discuss the budget and to have some more Community engagement opportunities including expanding the proposed public hearing to have a budget work session follow and adding board discussion on the budget at the same evening as a report from from the cbrc and to consider adding work adding a work session on May 14th if needed do I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution 6765 I make a motion green motions somebody got a second somebody got a second okay I'm sorry can you repeat what you said about adding a session I um we will be considering adding a work session on May 14th if needed if needed okay thanks all right open up for board discussion or presentation chair hel on behalf of myself Young Lee interim Deputy superintendent for business and operations and Alexander Martin my colleague uh from the budget Department Finance program manager uh we would just acknowledge that you took our lines from the presentation by highlighting the uh the changes that we have made into the second version of the of the draft budget calendar and I don't feel like we need to restate them unless you'd like to hear them again sounds good any board discussion hearing none no I'm joking I'm joking I'm joking that was a nice try you knew I was reaching for that GRE button up so I I have a couple comments I appreciate um there's there's been some adjustments I do want to call out a couple things that I want to just uh get on the record about um at this stage um well we have a February 20th um budget work session it's not specifically about Staffing and given that Staffing is 85% or so of our budget I think it's really important that we transparently talk about that before it gets released to the schools because it's almost it's as if we're releasing 85% of our budget um before the board's even had a discussion about it and it may seem in many cases just absolutely routine but um it is the way that our schools uh the the way that we impact our schools the most um so that's one thing um then while it's noted in the staff report um that we'll get the budget two weeks in advance um it's not on the calendar so I just want to note that commitment and um the third item is um just the time period between the um the actual proposed budget and the app and the the the approval is um less than a month and I know that um often uh we have either board questions or questions from the cbrc or the uh Community budget Review Committee is bringing things to the table and just
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because we don't meet every every week or or um more than um but not very often in that three three weeks um the lag time between if we ask questions and getting responses in so that it actually can inform our next meeting it's going to be really important that if we ask questions that we get them answered in a timely way so that we can actually have an informed discussion um and I just just raise that because our normal um process is a little bit different and then the the last item I want to raise is um it during my experience in the last um seven years in the the board is that we have had or six years that often between the um the the proposing of the budget there's approval but there's sort of that second opportunity before the adoption and I'm noting that the adoption is happening after sort of our second vote on the our second vote on the budget is happening after we have our tscc um hearing which is on the same night but it's just right before it and that um I guess I want to just flag that sometimes we have had changes between approval and the adoption between the two votes and I want to make sure that we allow for that it's not well we've had our tscc hearing and therefore um the vote is automatic because no vote is automatic until it's actually taken so I just want to call those things out and it's I know that we don't it's hard to SK schedule the TCC meetings and sometimes it just when it when it h it happens when it works for them them and for us but it does precede our budget adoption so I want to make sure just a call out that the board shouldn't be excluded if we collectively decide to make an additional changes last year we had some changes around the middle schools that we have the opportunity to do that even if even though we've got the tscc hearing before it so there just comments that I want to just raise um at this stage and the process at the front end got it got it all right Miss br any other board discussion just um uh making a a technical comment about process I appreciate the concern director berm Edwards about the TC TC though does review the approved budget and they don't need to review the adopted budget so so the fact that we're hearing from them on that night doesn't preclude us from bringing amendments um on The adoped Bu I just want to make sure because it's normally it it follows so it's just you know they have they have the full package um yeah and they never get the full P I mean they always get the the approv Pro budget that's what they then certify and then and then the governing body adopts it and they can adopt it with changes so that's that's part of the normal process all right any other board comments discussions thoughts all right Miss Brash is there any public comment no all right the board will now vote on resolution 6765 resolution to adopt the budget calendar for 20 2425 by voting yes on this calendar we approve the pro proposed schedule staff will use the timeline oh sorry to plan for engagement with the community and board to adopt a budget for 2425 school year all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes director Sullivan yes all right all opposed please indicate by saying no student director Silverstein please indicate your vote Yes all right no abstentions heard resolution 6765 is approved by V of 70 with the student representative silverin student director we got to change that on here change um unofficially voting yes all right instructural time exemption so next we will vote on two instructional time exemptions super Guerrero superintendent Guerrero would you please introduce this item to us sure a little administrative housekeeping exercise here while uh Deputy Proctor comes up uh so organ administrative rules requires a governing required instructional time allows school districts and Oregon to use exemptions to ensure compliance with this particular year uh I'll give you an example as to why we're here tonight uh last year PPS canceled School across the district for two full days on February 23rd 24th I know that seems like a long time ago uh we also had one twoh hour late opening that same month on February 27th because of inclement weather uh we also had several schools that had school canceled or shortened for a variety of
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reasons uh these were exceptional circumstances uh Deputy superintendent Proctor is here to provide a little bit more information in the two areas where we're seeking to use this exemptions thank you so much uh superintendent Guerrero um and as I reflect back on the staff report uh memo that was shared October 10th um as it was mentioned that we did have um to cancel school across the district for two full days in February and um one two-hour late opening um also in February due to all those due to inclement weather and so as we talk about required instructional time all school districts um are to ensure that at least 92% of all students in the district and at least 80% of all students at each School operated by the district are scheduled to receive annually the minimum hours of instruction as follows a grade 12 966 hours grades 9 to 11 990 hours and grades 8 to grades K to8 uh 900 hours so uh we shared a a breakdown of the analysis school by school for the schools that would not be in compliance so with that said the required instructional time um what we are in compliance with all schools with the exception of kindergarten for bridal mild Alliance High School as alternative school and um mlc uh grades K8 as their alternative um School divisions and so with that um we are asking the board um to take a look we did break down in the memo um and I don't want to over burden you with with uh the detail if you've reviewed it previously um but this is uh where we would ask the board for to approve for us to uh request a waiver for instructional time just for those three um schools noted do do I have a motion in a second to adopt resolution 6766 resolution to approve o 581-0002 two- 2320 required instructional time exemption so second so we had a motion from director Scott and a second by director green any board discussion have a couple questions just for the the record um do we include in our um instructional hours um any non-instructional time and if so how much and what is it so that um there are two uh opportunities to include um or there are three spaces one is in in elementary For Recess there's a recess um portion in addition there there are opportunities to include both professional learning up to additional 30 hours for professional learning we do not include those in the in the calculations we do um include time for uh uh parent teacher conferences or family academic conferences that is an additional 30 hours and I'm sorry just to be clear we in we include the recess I'm not opposed to it I'm just yeah I'll I'll scan through the details on that but there are the two major ones that are that are allowable that there are for the um professional learning and then for conferences so uh we do not do it for professional learning we do do it for conferences and I'll I'll just give me a second I'll pull out the detail for recess and then the question just um with Metropolitan Learning Center the reason um they they're seeking a waiver is they're they're actually an alternative program so they have um a different set of pro programming they still Surly required to have the same amount of instructional hours but because of the programming they and is it is that an ongoing or a um just this year that we would be providing them with a waiver yes um m mlc is a alternative school and it is registered with the state as such it has a specific program which includes being a K12 school focused uh on Environmental Education and experential
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learning so uh it does follow the alternative school Statute in regards to or and admit students with a lottery in the spring so yes it is an old school so hence uh the exception and but even though they're an alternative program the instructional hours still apply to them which is why we're giving them a waiver and is it an ongoing expected to be ongoing yes waiver yes based on the um the program right that that we're offering and sorry just the last question how much under the hours are they versus other I think we'll have to um as I'm looking through that's something we can get for you yeah helpful I know it's K12 so it's more complicated than just one answer but I'd like to have that if it's an since it's an ongoing wa that but we can get that for you thank you I just had one question Inception right almost so I just had a quick a quick question so only two days that it was closed for climate weather we didn't make that up on the back don't we usually have days that we can make up that we make up those days as well we had one makeup day so there was still um uh one and one day and two hours that we were not able to schedule as a makeup day so one of the things that we do because seniors um the instructional hours for seniors is um 9 66 as opposed to 9990 and um the senior school year is does not run to con uh all the way to the end with at the same time that we have um uh you know the uh everything K through 11 um when we added days we have we are very careful about making sure that we have some space in the instructional hours we don't ever want to come down to exactly the hours we want to be above them um but we do have those that space um for seniors but when we add um instructional days like we did this last year it was after seniors were done so we were very careful about um trying to um make sure that they met those instructional requirements thank you I have one uh question too I as I was looking at the difference in hours the table that's in the staff memo um for a school like mlc that's K12 how how are those um hours managed the the K8 is 900 instructional hours the 911 is 990 is that a is that the building administrator doing the scheduling or it's a function of um the schedule and how uh we were able to um assign students and classes in time um I'll allow U Miss Calbert to share a little bit more so the the um there are two things I say about that when we're work looking at a K12 model the first is that um some of the what happens you know at the beginning of the year kindergarten starts at a slightly different time than uh upper classman for example we also um uh at mlc in particular they do student um and family conferences to start the year that's how the year opens um and then as they go through the um there with the theme around Project based learning that is Central to the work that it happen with mlc some of what you'll see by age band is um work that is done on on campus right and then the work that's done in the city and that there is that we combine those two things but that goes as students get older we we see more work um both um you know on campus but then also in the city that's part of the Project based learning as the as the educational and pedagogical approach that is different from for the school any other any other board discussions comments thoughts all right Miss BHA is there any public comment no all right none at all okay the board will now vote on resolution 6766 resolution to approve o 58102 two- 2320 required instructional time exemption 2022 2023 permission to exempt an alternative education program by voting a yes on this resol resolution Portland Public Schools will be in compliance with required instructional time as we report on division 22 if we do not get a yes vote we will not be in compliance with the division 2022 statute for required instructional
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time I have a question so if we do vote no and we're not in compliance then what happens there'll be a corrective action plan with the Department of Education which will be involve commitments about correcting it in the upcoming year it's generally how it's happen handled yeah thank you all right all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no student director silin please indicate your vote Yes No abstentions resolution 6766 is approved by a vote of 70 with student represent student director Silverstein unofficially voting yes all right all so the next one is resolution 6767 do I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution 6767 yes that's the second for all right so we got Herman Green motion I mean director Green motion director Scott second his resolution is to approve o 581 0- 022 d232 0 required instructional time exemption 2022 2023 kindergarten instructional time at Bri mile Elementary School is there any board discussion all right hearing none M Brad is there any public comment no all right the board will now vote on resolution 6767 resolution to approve o 581 d022 d232 required instructional time exemption 2022 2023 kindergarten instructional time at brid Mile Elementary by voting yes on the resolution Portland Public Schools will be in compliance with with required instructional time as we report on division 22 if we do not vote Yes we will not be in compliance with division 22 statute for required instructional time and just what I just heard we will have to do a whole correct active plan if we do all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes all opposed please indicate by saying no student director Silverstein please indicate your vote Yes all right and no extensions resolution 6767 is approved by voter 70 with student representative Civ unofficially voting yes thank you all right next on the docket is the Whitaker Adams resolution um I guess I introduced this one uh this resolution um was brought to the district um by myself um we have been looking to partner with PPS since about 2018 2019 um we have tried different ways to get it to the district and here we are move fast for here we are um this this resolution is more of a resolution to get a conversation started more than it being concrete of this is what's going to happen um part of the the resolution that we have here today it literally just directs the superintendent to start having those conversation to even see if this is something that's viable if this partnership is something that can can or should move forward um and so that's the that's the Crux of this uh resolution so I'm asked do I have a motion to SEC adop a motion and a second to adopt resolution 6778 authorizing the district to negotiate a lease with buying the sports program for the Whitaker Adam site motion second all right so any board discussions I'm I have some I want to read um as well about this resolution all right so good even good evening everyone I would like to address some of the concerns regarding the resolution the first is the conflict of interest and self-dealing according to chapter 2 2 44 there are no legal conflicts of interest as I receive no compensation or benefits from Albin a sports program nor Portland Public Schools as an elected official I am prohibited from receiving or accepting Gifts of more than $50 or other such benefits such as tickets to a game
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travel expenses swag gifts from vendors or contractors the reason why I brought this together is for more than 20 years this property has stood idle providing no benefits to our people PPS students for more than 20 years over a million students have come through PPS and have not benefited from this site for over 20 years the district and board members passport members have shown ler to no interest in doing anything with this site and I'm refering the previous long-term facilities plan which made no mention of the site at all also out of $2.4 billion in bond funding to my understanding that the board and District have not prioritized Athletics giving that zero has been allocated to P Athletics my goal today is to ensure that our current PPS students and families benefit from this Whitaker site over the next 20 years I am interested in and invested in that the next Bond will include Athletics with or without the sports complex or Learning Center I am interested in the Whitaker site having more than simply Athletics but also an educational Community component while all while prioritizing PPS students things like dayare and elderly and Elder programs while PPS students are in school things for our students like tutoring a Learning Classroom for life skills like balancing a checkbook financial literacy credit education getting exposed to technology with classes like AI artificial intelligence and coding classes to to Green energy education to have opportunities for jobs and internships this is not just a sports complex it's also a Learning Center we look like this as an extension of PPS and not some things to separate from PPS now I ackowledge there are P perceived conflicts of interest I do not believe me having a vested interest equates to a conflict of interest it is important to clarify that there is no legal obligation for me to impose restrictions upon myself with respect to the resolution however I highly regard and respect my colleagues as well as the position I hold I am committed to ensuring that this process maintain the highest level of integrity and transparency to achieve this objective I intend to endorse the following Provisions in collaboration with my board colleagues by agreeing to the following Pro U Provisions my involvement will be restricted to the Albin sports program Ed role solely during the negotiations for all articles of the resolution I hereby affirm my commitment to refrain from using my position as chair of the board or as a board member to exert any kind of influence upon my fellow board members or District personnel with regards to anything pertaining to the resolution I will consistently prioritize the well-being and development of our children while maintaining a comprehensive awareness of the district objectives and priorities I will not receive any confidential or privileged information regarding any aspects of the resolution including but not limited to information limited to information protected by attorney P client privilege or executive session information I want to make it clear that this resolution is just a starter for the conversation there are a lot of details that needs to be hammered out such as funding operational aspects how PPS students will be prioritized design process and a lot more and this resolution makes that process possible everyone has to to remember that every lease partnership collaboration agreements and any funny outcomes will have to come back to the full board for a vote I am confident that this board will ensure its assets are used to advance the schools district missions and are in service and use to the benefit of PPS students and car can you pull up that thing for me so next I would like to draw attention to the work group section of the slide shown during the facilities and operations presentation on September 20 2023 as a result of my limited grammatical proficiencies it is seen it was seen that all individuals depicted on the slide were collectively grouped can you uh next slide so everything was looked like it was all grouped together leading one to infer that each person listed was a member of the working group it would have been advisable to divide each group in order to minimize any potential confusion go to the next next slide this is my attempt to make it right um the primary objective of my Endeavor was to demonstrate the considerable number of individuals who expressed interest in and provided support for
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this concept I would like to express my apologies to any and all elected officials and supporters for my failure to rectify this issue um before the meeting however it is Cal to clarify that all individuals on this slide Express either support for the concept or indicated intentions to join the prospective work group I express my sincerely apolog my sincerest apologies for the error committed and I assure you that I have tried to take the necessary step to rectify the situation and prevent any recurrence in the future okay you can cut it off now um I would like to emphasize to all those parents that are that are over overarching objectives primary concerns and Central concentration should constantly revolve around the welfare of our children in our district it is incumbent upon us to provide the most quality and dedicated in our endeavors as anything less would signify a disregard of our duties towards these young individuals I feel if this space is solely dedicated to sports Only We are failing to meet the potential utilization of what could be there exist a valuable Prospect to utilize this area for the purpose of in instructing and acquainting our children with multiple multitude of additional knowledge and experience so I'll leave with this it is not a problem Aiming High and missing the mark the problem comes when we aim low and reach it that's aim high thank you and I'll leave it up for board discussions and I know we have a couple amendments that has do we add that to this so the motion's on the table and then those who would like to bring an amendment make a motion to amend and we address that and vote before you get to the final vote of the originally introduced resolution which may or may not have been amended okay so um I have some comments um about the proposal and my my long history with the the site um but first I'd like to um offer a proposed amend Amendment um it's been posted since last Friday um and it's available online for those who want to see it um in essence um the amendment uh coming out of Committee just hold on hold on uh Miss Brasa can you can you put the amendment up on the screen you're way smarter than I am I'm trying to like juggle this around um so coming out of the committee um just given the somewhat unusual um circumstances um of having a board member being the proposer and potentially The Negotiator um I ask outside Council just to review um policies and applicable statutes um so that primarily for guidance as me as an individual board member um how to best carry out my fiduciary responsibilities supportting public schools and our students and given that the Whitaker property um is a valuable District asset um that should be utilized as uh director Holland said in support of our students in our mission um so we have a potential real estate transaction and potential legal agreement of a short and medium-term duration with a board member on the other side of the transaction and a possible legal agreement um from PPS and I appreciate um director Holland your stated commitments um and one of the things about being a a board member is um and you know that I've I've wrestled with as a as a board member is that um our as a board we can't act individually um but we actually need to act collectively and the normal way we act collectively is through a resolution um just in terms of providing staff guidance on this particular uh resolution and moving forward of how we're going to operate the way instead of having three or four of us maybe make comments about how we'd like to see things um and sort of how we want to what we want to see in terms of governance um how staff what we want staff to do and how we're going to provide direction to staff um that the way that we would do that is through a resolution otherwise um because that's the only way we can um act I say I appreciate you um stating your your your commitments and um I'm offering this amendment because I feel um very strongly that we need to as a board also in order so staff can carry out the work that we're directing them to do um that they know how uh the direction of the staff is
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giving them on um what sort of parameters around information around who they're going to look to in terms of um during the process and in terms of you the negotiating the lease or information they need um so this amendment would take adding some recital to the original resolution and also some resolved um which sort of lay out what the rest of us would be stating as um how we're going to operate in this environment I'm happy to ask answer any questions of people so we had to have a motion right that that was that was I'm sorry that was a long motion that a motion okay so we need a second am I allowed to second that okay I'll second that now we just discussion now we just discussing the amendment right and just to be clear for everyone I am okay with the amendment as well um the one thing that so I appreciate you bringing this forward um I think it gives us some clarity on how to move forward as a board uh i l and and director Hollands or I'm sorry chair Holland I appreciate your um wanting to be fully transparent I it doesn't talk about voting in here and it I mean it explicitly doesn't talk about voting and I'd like to hear a little bit more about whether you vote on on anything pertaining to this um potential lease how will not be because you're of because you're a member of the board correct and I only only my only position when it comes to anything with this resolution will be on the Albina Ed side so I will be abstaining from any board action in response to this resolution um just a couple brief comments on on the amendment um so first of all thanks director bermed for bringing it Forward I think it's um add some clarification um you know for us as a board and also for the public and so I'll be supporting it tonight I I do and I it's been a very busy week so I don't have any of these written down so I'm just goingon to go a little bit um ad hoc but um no I just I just I do want to comment we got be out here but not all right I'll try and be quick I want to comment on the larger issue um because I think I think it's important to note and you noted it in your comments there is a legal definition of conflict of interest in State Statute um and um and that's very important we have a a legal obligation to abide by that and and I think you're right that you know for because you're not paid by either one of these there's not a legal definition of conflict of interest um you know I think as you've noted there is sort of the the question of overall transparency or ethics or the appearance of a conflict of interest and I think what I want to just comment on is is that I want us as a board to be to be thoughtful about the fact that we all play roles in the community and that that's actually one of the reasons why most of us run for the board is that we have lots of community roles and we think well this may be something where I can I can help as well and you know I mean just to be really specific about it I think most people know I I work for metro metro doesn't have a lot of connection with Portland Public Schools but there are some some of our Metro Educators work in Portland Public Schools there are other connections um there's some Metro programs that PPS has adopted um we have someone who has in the past worked for the city of Portland where there's quite a few agreements we have a Moma County Commissioner on this board all of us bring those other experiences to this work and I actually want to just note I think that's appropriate and that I think that we we're doing that work in you know intentionally and and often bringing advocacy and even outside of whether we serve on boards or commissions or other groups I mean I I have you know one child I had two when I started on the board I have one child left in Portland Public Schools you know in Portland Public Schools yeah I still have I still have two children they're both doing quite well thank you um but you know one left in Portland mob schools I have a vested interest right and and and things I'm going to advocate for on this board could positively or negatively affect my own child I live in this city I live in this District as obviously we all do because we all got elected here and things that we do can impact us and so I just I I want to be I think it's really important that we be transparent about those things that we be really open about the fact that we have those roles but having those roles is not necessarily A Bad Thing and I'll just say that I I just have really I appreciate your transparency around those those roles um I haven't loved the public conversation around it because I think it it tends to sort of um alide some of the important facts here um that are at play and you know I I know you to be a very ethical and above board person I know that of all of my colleagues on this board and I think it's worth that we continue to always ask these questions um so you know again this is
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great clarification I'm going to support it I think we need to always be aware of these things and from a public trust standpoint be willing to recuse ourselves from certain votes but I don't want us as board members to not be bringing forward things that we otherwise work on care about advocate for in the community I think that's one of the reasons why we're here um so there's a fine line there I just wanted to make that point I'm sorry I took so much time chair Holland thank you thank you any other comments on the resolution I mean on the amendment all right here Ain't No Other discussions on the resolution am I mean Amendment to the resolution all right right um right that's what I'm about to get to so all in favor of the resolution the amendment to the resolution um indicated by saying yes yes yes and I can vote on that right does he vote on the you may vote on the this is your choice okay okay um all oppose any AB uh directors student director cver Stein yes all right and just so I can start practicing I'm going to abstain from this one so we have the amendment to the resolution is approved by a vote of 60 with one extension and the student director service time un officially voting yes okay all right so we had another resolution I mean Amendment to the resolution yes and I appreciate uh your consideration uh so I sorry M Brash can't bring can you put that one up next I appreciate um the board's consideration and I'm sorry this wasn't posted earlier it was posted late later uh this afternoon and um you can see the recital there and um to be really Frank with everybody here my biggest concern about the original resolution is that we just received the test scores um about a month ago and um there was a lot of drama about the low uh proficiency rates for our black and brown students and so I'm I'm just concerned about we're directing the superintendent to do anything but raise those test scores um because time um is a limited asset um that's about the original uh resolution this this one is um I I want to see more um I want to see more information about um what the potential is for this sports program and that would be a business plan we've seen a business plan A couple of years ago but um it shows the revenue model and how the facility would be funded and maintained um an understanding and draft agreement that explains which parties will pay for operations scheduling an upkeep um I know uh having worked for the parks Bureau for about 11 years that um community centers are publicly subsidized because it's hard for them to pencil out otherwise um a governance model that so we understand how PPS students will be prioritized and if they will be prioritized um and how scheduling conflicts will be addressed uh because that's something also so that community centers um struggle with is to schedule um senior citizens in the morning and preschoolers and then middle schoolers and then high schoolers and the rest of the community it's it's an issue for um for community centers um an understanding of which entity retains ownership of the land and the assets to be clearly Spilled Out um so so everyone um voters and all of us up here understand um who owns what um also evidence that the albino sports program aligns with the district's goals and aspirations regarding serving all PPS students um is a concern hard evidence of support from local leaders neighborhood associations and any community- based organizations that are within a th feet of the facility and that would include how housing providers um asenda and NAA um living cly the neighborhood associations of uh Concordia and KY and then um understanding which party will pay for the type three design review feasibility study and prepare the proforma and the the type three design review uh can be very expensive so I just want a Clarity on who we are directing who will be paying for that that's we're we're talking about um I believe anywhere from 75,000 to more than 100,000 for that design
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review and that's uh my amendment is that we get this in place before we uh before we vote on a lease I'll I'll make I move uh that we consider I'm sorry if it I don't know if it has a number or not resolution uh the amendment to resolution 6778 amendment number two amendment number two thanks second any discussions so um I'm not g to talk to him so I guess in the I'm just trying to Clarity for me in the original um it was just a like let's make a let's make a resolution so we can get the conversation started about what to do then they it seems like they made a resolution so that we could you know make sure that we kept it you know above board is this resolution about um before we start talking about it that they would have to identify like the how they plan to pay for it like I'm I guess I'm not following that because I'm just sure I can explain so this is so uh so this is before we vote on a lease agreement to get an understanding of the governance model the business model the revenue model because right now I think it's important to start the conversation it's a great conversation to have it's also good to have some guard rails around that conversation and some understanding at least for me I don't know if I I might maybe I'm the only one but I'd like to let more clarity on some of these hard you know who will Who will own the land who will own the assets what's the business model I heard profit when we were talking about it I'm I'm I would never be in favor of taking public land and making a for-profit effort on top of it so it's it's those things that I would need for clarity again I've I've worked in the Parks Bureau and so community centers don't pencil out without a Public Sub subsidy um so I I'm I'd like Clarity on the business model so I guess yeah guess just for me is that part of the conversation is what going to bring out all of these concerns these I don't think these concerns can be brought out before the conversation a lot of these um issues or concern or issues that you brought forth will come out of those conversations like when we start talking about um who's going to pay for the type three design review well we haven't even said that this was a good idea yet um so I just I just think this is this is what the the resolution is for to have these conversations um and get these answers out of those conversations it does seem like because it says like uh we're requesting this evidence before entering the lease agreement that it is trying to find these answers before during you know when we open the conversation so it seems like it does there's no conflict at least right I want to make sure that we're we're walking down a path and I want to make sure that we all up here understand what we're what we're voting on what we're um what we're what are we're agreeing to so and and I think what I hear you're saying chair Holland is that all of this stuff doesn't matter because we're just having a conversation is that correct no not saying it don't matter I understand I don't know how do we because with the whole conversation not just the lease conversation is also about if the partnership will work if this is feasible so as multiple conversation operations right prioritizations so it's all of those conversations so it's not just the least piece it's a whole comprehensive conversation that's all I'm saying just I think it's this this these answers will come out of that I don't know how you get to all these answers before that before that before that conversation and I guess kind of following up on director Wong's Point what I actually what I liked about the the amendment is that it it does say you know requesting the following information before entering into a lease and so I again I didn't see it in conf I saw it as we're going to continue that conversation and the board's going to expect these answers to come out of that conversation prior to coming back to the board with a leas yes and I I wanted to codify it so we have a kind of a a running list of what we're looking at before we vote on a on a lease so the board's being clear about some of the
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things we want to see yeah and actually I would think that in order for whoever is negotiating the Le that they would need to know the answers of some of these things I just think of all the um lease agreements that I've both in my professional life but also here at PPS um sort of the deal points of the terms a lot of those things have to be clear um before you actually can negot negotiate the lease who's going to maintain it again there's an operating subsidy who gets priority how the scheduling works I mean I think back to the um agreements that were entered into with parks and PPS around the two Fields uh Buckman and um they weren't lease they weren't lease agreements but there there were some very clear like who maintained it the playing time um how things got divided and um it it just I think I would be needed in order to negotiate any sort of lease iess I guess I'm just only concerned that we haven't even got to a lease place at this point we're just talking about do we entertain the conversation at some point as a board we have to come back before we can start talking about we're going to do a lease option or we're even going to do that it has to come back to to the board and I guess I I guess what I'm looking at is is this simply saying that we just want to make sure that we have all this or can staff not do any work until we have all of this because I would be a no if staff couldn't do any work until we have all of this but if it's if we're just saying like this is just something I'm going to need to know to make a decision I think we're all going to need to know that information in order I mean to make a uh uh educated decision in order for it to make sense I I just don't want to I just don't want to put so much stuff in the way of it that we can't even begin to have the conversation and begin to have the the dialogue around what does this look like I mean are we slowing up the process because we're adding more to the conversation than we need to knowing unless I mean you know y'all have done this a lot but in my mind at some point before we ever like get down and Brass tax it like we're going to do a lease it's got to come back to us again and we got to know this stuff so that's where I said well I I think I think you're right and part of the coming back back to the board will be understanding all of these these these items so very clearly the underlying resolution allows the conversation to go forward right right and these are this information you you couldn't negotiate a lease nor could the board give guidance to staff on what sort of lease to negotiate without answering some of this information so it it will come back but this is really being clear about here the things that you would need to know but to your point it it will it will come back for sure so when you enter into a real estate I'm not an expert I've I've done it a few times when you enter into an agreement you come with an understanding of who will pay the mortgage who will um I I just think it's important for us from a business perspective and actually for our fiduciary responsibility to have an understanding of what we're go what we're what is is a conversation talking what are we talking about it's different coming to um coming to staff and saying you know we've got this idea we want to build a complex we'd like PPS to retain the land we'd like to you know we would we would come to this you have to I an understanding of what each party is bringing to the table and maybe that happens through those conversations but before you start those conversations you would also want to have an idea of what what what both parties are bringing to the table I think it's really clear what PPS could bring all right we have a director Sullivan hand up right I just I agree with um director depas that it's important to have something like this here if if we think we're going to come up with this anyway U why not have it here and say this is this is what we really want and um especially if people are going to vote for the resolution they need to know or at least I would need to know what what some of the guidelines are going to be and I I agree with having with this resolution all right so let's any more discussion yeah I was just going to add that I like agree with that because I see this is setting
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guidelines for the conversation and encouraging a more specific and focused conversation because I think it's easy for like small little parts to get lost once we start talking about it um and by having in this in writing I think it's just going to increase accountability for us awesome awesome all right it say so we're going to take a vote on the second amend Second Amendment to the motion all right so all in favor of the Second Amendment to the motion uh say indicate by saying yes yes yes so how many is that one two one two three four and I'm assuming Patty you saying yes too yes all right so that's five uh I'm a n okay so we have 5 one two and I'mma stain again I'm getting practice all right so the Second Amendment to the motion has passed with five yeses one no and one AB abstence do I and to sorry is it ain't on my script uh student director service unofficially voting yes all right so I need go back to the original resolution as amended so is any other board discussions about the original resolution as amended um the original resolution to go ahead you mean with the as amend yeah go ahead with the original resolution as amended by the two amendments that was put forth any other discussions um yes I I really think we should go with what um the district already has planned for that site and I know that those of you who have been around for a while are just so frustrated because nothing has happened but I did talk with Marshall H Haskins the director The District athletic director I know he does not support the project um he's really worried about giving away our land and he is already working on the project with Whitaker Jackson and Marshall to develop a hub of fields and he said he had just had a meeting with a lot of the me um Jackson project people last Thursday evening so actually something is starting to happen that this should definitely be a priority for PPS students and we all know why we need the fields and PPS has a long-term facility plan that includes Athletics I know you guys many of you don't believe that because it hasn't happened hasn't kept going but I think with the Jackson project actually happening this is an example that they're moving forward on this and that this plan will be implemented so I I will vote no and not because I don't respect director Holland and what he's trying to do but because I really am not comfortable with a public private um connection I think the all the land should stay with PP PS and it should be our project and that PPS students are the ones who will use it all the time and one thing that Marshall H Haskins said was that the Albina sports program could be an anchor tenant and use it when PPS was not using the fields but the PPS students would have would have priority use so I voted for the Amendments because if this does pass I think they're very important but I will be voting no on this resolution awesome thank you any other comments discussions I have comments uh very similar to director svan and I stated them earlier and that's that I am I have great grave concerns about p uh taking publicly owned land and privatizing it um I I put the amendment on the table because I don't understand how that works um and I'm going to also vote no on this because I don't understand um having conversations and potentially leasing or giving away land I just don't understand the business model so I'm going to vote no for the same reasons or similar reasons I I would like to have a caveat though if we do have three sites it would be great to prioritize and move up
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Whitaker site it has been vacant for about 20 years which is not a long time with the development uh timeline just as an example the Legacy Emanual site has been vacant since 1971 and it's just now being developed and there are many many other Lots in north and Northeast Portland in Albina that have been vacant for over 50 years um so sometimes that development threat that timeline is drawn out um I would hope that we would prioritize what Ur after uh Jackson so I'm going just just kind of respond to some of the things so there have been examples of public nonprofit Partnerships one is SEI um and I don't think anybody here would think that that was a bad idea um they've had a partnership with parks for many many many many years and helps has has helped thousands of thousands of kids we're also doing the same thing with our Center for black Excellence where we are partnering with a nonprofit group and I don't think anybody here on the board would think that was a bad idea either so I I I worry about the notion that nonprofit public partnership is going to be bad for our kids when we are stating that this is a party for our kids and I've I've done commercial work before I've done commercial properties before and 20 years is a long time for development a absolute long time we built schools in less than 20 years we've built almost what eight high schools in 20 years so having someone sit for 20 years that's not benefiting our kids that's what we're saying that is supposed to be benefiting our kids but it's not it's hard for me to really get a grasp that you know we are prioritizing our kids but our actions is showing otherwise we've had billion dollars worth of bonds that didn't prioritize our Athletics we've had um long-term facilities plans that never even mentioned and you can go back all this is fact you can go back and look that didn't even mention the whiter side or doing anything on the wher site so it just hard for me to to gather that information that is coming out that nonprofit Public Partnerships don't work or shouldn't work or shouldn't have it um there's been multiple examples of that um and I think done well it could work beautifully for our kids if we get past the if we get past the you know adult stuff and really focus on our what could this be means for our kids um I think we would have a a different Vision I have a question and it's sort of related um a little bit back to the Amendments but one of the things one of the things in here is very specifically about uh District representative negotiating a lease um uh with the Alana sports program and and I guess my question is whether that's necessary at this point and I think that I'm and I'll just I should actually go on the record to say I I am going to support this and I'm going to support this because I think the the conversation is an important one to keep having I think there's a really compelling Vision here I have a lot of the same similar questions that that others have brought up tonight you know in terms of the overall funding and financing model and PPS students getting priority you know I want to make sure that anything we enter into you know meets a lot of those those things and and those things that that director to pass I think you know included in that in that um in that Amendment but I I I I really want to see that conversation continue and get the answers to those questions um and actually when I look at this um you know like asking you know the superintendent staff to identify financial resources that could be used not will be used but could be used right I think that's we do that for a lot of projects I'm fine with that You Know authoriz A District representative to negotiate possible Partnerships with a sports program right we again those Partnerships and those conversations it was just this Clause around a lease and it just made me wonder if that's not a little bit premature because I think that's also what got people in the community a little bit like wait a minute are we are we negotiating at least what's going on here instead of entering into the conversation director green said any lease is coming back to the board which is why this doesn't give me huge heartburn but it just kind of makes me question does that even need to be in there or or could it even say the board hereby authorized a District representative to explore the feasibility of Planning and Building the Albina sports complex right it's a very simple straightforward thing that we're going to explore just curious yeah and thanks for the question um I think to when when we brought this up um um back in 2018 or 19 um we had commitments of and I've said this before around $40 million um for this project at the time it was um considerably less that we kind of cost out but so as we move forward and and things happen you know for us to even look at
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other funding sources you know we have to have something tangible um at least at least to bring stuff to the table so when we go talk to funders or we going to um talk with other groups about help funding this project so hopefully it won't even be on PPS to fund it at all even with the caveat that you know we still want to make sure our our um students are a priority we have to have something tangible and it's hard to go talk to funders to say hey well we have this idea PPS might want to do it um and then have a real conversation or or substantial U sub substance conversation about that and so that's why I think the least portion is in there but that's also why we put the other things in there because the goal is to come back with a full a full package you know everything done leaves operations all that stuff done um to come back to the board if that is end up wind up being feasible and not just peaca it and and to be clear uh just for transparency say you know this is not authorizing this is not authorizing it's authorizing the district to negotiate which would then come back to the board along with all the other information per the amendment um to move forward okay thanks for that clarification yeah I would also just like to add that um you know I also want to be fully clear and honest I kind of have the same sentiment as um director Scott and I think I actually was a little bit wary about um supporting this until both your amendments now I actually feel kind pretty comfortable with it and the reason for that is because you you know I'm going to be 100% honest um if the if this pushing this resolution forward means that we start opening a discussion about figuring out um the best uses for our bond money and supporting creating Athletic Fields having been a a teacher in PPS one of the huge uh obstacles we always had was that you know just availability of fields with so such a struggle you know throughout the whole district and and it it it cuts into student times because I I had so many students that had to leave early Miss class time because they had to bus all the way over to Marshall use their fields and and so it is if if this conversation ends up being talking about maybe a better use of our bond money would be um to create five different fields and five different locations then I'm happy if we find out that the Albina developing that maybe not all the way maybe partially um that's still a win in my book so if I will support this because I feel like I think we do need to get the ball rolling and actually have that conversation so yeah um yeah I'm just wondering of having this conversation then is going to slow down what they're doing um with the Marshall Jackson Whitaker project because now we've got two discussions going I don't think they're mutually exclusive I think I do think we should be mindful of director dep pass's framing comments that um our number one priority is our student student outcomes which we all very much our our board goals which were all very committed to so I have some comments um and I hope everybody actually read the resolution um especially the people who called and complained about it but who I haven't heard from in the last 20 years um so the resolution really does a good job of outlining the history of the Whitaker Adams property for the last several de decades and it's not a good story for PPS as a student in PPS in the late 70s the district it's me the the district was facing declining enrollment and the district started a process which resulted in the closing of Adams along with Jackson and my high school Washington in 1982 and just to note that both Adams and Washington served primarily um lower income and many students of color as outlined in the amendment shortly thereafter Adams was reopened as Whitaker Middle School and in early 2001 um I will say um at the time it had among the lowest scores in the state for a middle school serving a predominantly um a student population of students of color and in early 2001 as I was running for my first term on the school board The District closed the Whitaker School site due to environmental concerns radon mold um really not a safe place yes not a safe
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place for students and move Whitaker students to a site on Columbia Boulevard while on the board that first term we created Community process and which a community advocated for and the district committed to build a metal school that resolution still stands and has not been withdrawn from the from the board following my first term I didn't run for second term and I cycled off the board in 2005 it wasn't the last to yet clearly um but while I was off the board as a community member I started and led the 10 Fields project to build a highquality track and art track an artificial turf field for each High School um directly to leading to the comments or relating to the comments that director Wong raised I was driving my kids all over the metro area because there wasn't enough fields to play on and frankly the only the only school that had a highquality track an artificial turfield um was our most fluent high school that the um Community paid for it took 13 years and a huge Community effort to raise about $6 million to provide eight of our high schools with a new track and artificial turf field those tracks and felds are for the primary use at no charge to teams at our high schools the two high schools in which PPS didn't own and control the property had less desirable circumstances for PPS athletes and teams those two properties were owned by Portland parks and wreck um they were Benson and Grant don't worry I'm getting to them because I I knew you um and really those had diminished use by as we've heard most recently from the Grant Community but um our PPS student um a student athletes and teams um didn't have actually the same use when PPS control owned and controlled the property Benson received a field with restricted access uh with uh a private local high school um using the field um for a significant amount of time and also a private um soccer club and there was no as has been pointed out many times by director Holland's no track um of a note that was that you couldn't compete on um and Grant um I don't I think we can just look at what's currently happening the fact that it's not open um there wasn't a plan to um get it operational again when um the turf failed a test um so but but that took 13 years to make make that happen and PPS does need more fields and tracks and planing spaces I mean just look at what we what happened when we get a uh field offline like Grant right now and you have families driving all the way to Delta Delta Park um or you know when my um kids were in school they were all all over this all over the city with no Transportation if they had no Transportation actually frankly sometimes they couldn't play um so PPS needs more fields and tracks and in 2020 director Holland pitched a sports complex on the space that had been a unused um site at Whitaker Adams I saw the potential of the idea to provide more opportuni for playing services and spaces for our PPS students that's why when the city pitched putting a safe rest Village there um a couple years ago I didn't support that and director Holland and others on the board didn't either we knew we could do better for the northeast Portland Community uh PPS staff has now put forward an idea of a Sports Hub of a different scale and only on PPS land for the Whitaker site with the amendments to the resolution I think we can get more details about both of these options and I'm just going to say sort of what some of my criteria is going to be um again when I when I look at the different options um I view that we have a fiduciary responsibility to PPS students and I'll be measuring my my support um for plans against these metrics um fa any facilities that are created um on PPS land need to be utilized by PPS teams and I appreciate director Holland you clarifying that students would be a um a priority because given the shortage of our athletic playing fields and Facilities the use of PPS properties and Facilities should be the the benefit of PPS students and teams they always should be prioritized it shouldn't be them getting kicked off the field for other private um either private schools or other uses um if they're to the use if they're on our land um non- PPS use of the properties and Facilities could be allowed when the space or facilities are not in use by PPS team um and per and if permitting fees are paid to PPS um I would expect that PPS teams would not pay a a permit or usage fees for using playing fields or facilities located on PPS property so these will just be some of the criteria that I will bring um to looking at any of the
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proposals I do support moving the conversation forward by supporting this resolution and I'll measure the proposal against the criteria I've laid out and I'll also um listening to the community because I think that hasn't happened um enough and I appreciate director Hollands you've lived in that Community for a long time and you've seen um I think it's right now being used as a construction parking lot um and not to the service of our students um so I I hope that um that we can move forward with having something that is as I would say do something better for the northeast Portland Community and specifically for PPS students is there any other discussions thoughts I think all of this is a great um great stuff to bring up I'm and as we're measuring um I'm G to I'm I'm kind of interested in how is it when we talk about I I want everybody to get money get your bag you know like and I understand that you know we don't want any um PPS students to have to pay to use to use stuff um that's on PPS land and but how do we how do we hold these two truths when there are other programs that have to get a cub they have to pay for that Cub when they're PPS students trying to use PPS properties so we we charge them because we say that we have to we have to have money to pay the custodian to be in the building or we have to have money to to clean up or do whatever it is somebody to watch the building and make sure that they don't steal a light I don't know we come up with a bunch of different things that as to why we have to why we have to charge but we charge for these Cubs and there are a lot of community agents that are doing stuff with PPS Kids specifically they're solely PPS Kids doing CPS programs and yet we charge them we charge them and yet we tell this individual that well if we give you this then you have to make a deal with us not to charge us who's isn't that like calling the kettle black we don't charge currently any of our middle school teams I can stand to be corrected if there's any facilities people here but we don't charge any of our middle school teams we we have a super a robust middle school program that P the pil youth middle school program or our high school teams to use our fields and and we have we have a limited I'll just say from my own my own experience of a parent um the most of our for example our middle schools were built um as first of all this k8s um true and and second um when they were built half of the student population wasn't allowed to play sports um and after after Title 9 the demand for our facilities is way greater than we had the capacity because I think if you I think if you ask individual board members if if we could allow everybody to that served youth in our community to use our facilities the answer would be of course we'd want to do that but we don't H have enough and so like for example um when my kids were in Middle middle school before the Middle School Pro program was run by P Sports routinely they couldn't even get their own gym time to play basketball because other groups had used the C Cub so the the irony of kids at Hosford not being able to play in their own gym um because other groups even though it was their you know school team but it was before pil Sports and the fact that private schools could come in and you know use or and private clubs use the gym um you know I I don't think it it's just a matter of prioritizing again I think if we had unlimited facilities and resources that most people would say yes we should allow Our Community Partners to do that and there and there's there's no reason why and I think we already do that to some extent to allow especially our outdoor tracks and field the community uses it without paying for things there there's a lot of use at we there's there there's a lot of use yeah we have to pay all right so I was trying I'm trying to get us out here about student director oh mine is just going to say that I am going to support this but I wanted to clarify that it's primarily due to the Amendments um and just that like again I think it's highlighted in here that like the lease will come back and that we
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have these requirements for the conversation now so I feel a lot more confident all right so and trying to get us out here by n anybody have any other comments we got like 25 minutes all right all right so we need no more comments I'm call we'll call the vote all in favor please indicate by saying yes CH sorry I'd like to point out we do have someone signed up for public comment yes would you like me to call them now yes please okay um Ike Harris not looking at the list yes good afternoon my name is Pastor Ike Harris I am a 43y year residence of northeast Portland I live in Concordia district and I'd like to uh greet each of you with a good afternoon and thank thank you for this opportunity to be here I'm here I am a board member of Concordia uh Concordia neighborhood association I'm one of their board members and we the concorded neighborhood association we we'd like to thank chairperson Hollands for this vision and we the Concordia neighborhood association like to throw all of our support uh behind this project first of all I'd like to mention the name of four men and I'll let you know where I mentioned their names uh one Matthew Prophet Nelson Mandela uh Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Paul Allen the question would be what do all of these men what did they have in common and what these men had in common was they left something behind they left a legacy behind when they left this world according to the Bible we all going to die one day unless Jesus come back and and take back his own in the Rapture so when you leave this place tonight I'd like for you along with myself to ask this individual question what am I leaving behind when I leave this world because this world is not going to end when we leave it's going to continue until the almighty uh brings in the kingdom of God Dr Propet uh he left a legacy of stability with PPS uh and prosperity Nelson Mandela under his leadership into uh Aon in South Africa Dr King a rich Legacy and the Civil Rights Movement uh Paul Allen uh left the motor Center which is still uh of course being a blessing to all of those who like to go and watch uh Sports and ball games NBA basketball games i' like to name 10 blessings of a albana of the albana sports complex Vision uh Slash Community Center I like to name 10 it will unite the community it will provide volunteer opportunities it would support it be support for Community projects it will come combat loneliness positively impact the lives of young people promote healthy living and encourage creativity and culture share valuable a place where people can share valuable information offer educational opportunities provide unique and much needed facility and just for a few of few of these I'm going to bring them to uh explain them in a palatable way so that we can all digest him uh number one number one I like to say there's a lot of chaos going on right now in our world we see chaos in families politics uh
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immigration the homeless a community center can uh a a a United Community can increased social connections a place where people can come together and connect with one another socially it can connect people from all walks of life and these uh these these four men that I mentioned they were all about connecting people from all walks of life and so the albino Sports Complex uh Vision SL Community Center uh would certainly be a way to integrate all people together uh as a side note gentrification so we we we actually over our time so if I can actually like wrap it up in like five seconds yes sir uh gentrification did great damage to the Northeast uh Community uh an airb Sports Complex Community Center would be a great way to bring about some Redemption so that people uh can come together uh again and uh connect with one another thank you for your time thank you thank you and as I exit uh I'd just like to show you a few pictures of what the community center uh uh complex does to people it brings people together uh bring young people together young adults together uh just a couple more pictures PE people of all ages can come together thank you very much thank you so much for coming thank you and and don't forget the question that the preacher want to leave with you tonight uh what are you leaving behind thank you thank you thank you we don't have any other comments public comments all right we're just going to go ahead and go to the vote um all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes all oppos pleas by indicated by saying no no no student director cin yes so I will be abstaining so motion resolution 6778 is approved by a vote of 4 two and one so motion passed all right so next we're well chair Collins any times we have a significant resolution like this I appreciate you proposing a really bold idea uh tonight's vote and action your resolution um comensis are exploring the feasibility the viability I appreciate the Amendments I think it lays out some important guide guide guard rails uh and makes explicit some of the elements that we're going to want to see uh in the end uh I see lots of tasks for superintendent I serve at the pleasure uh so I look forward to if I read it correctly uh working with Vice chair green uh to facilitate a conversation with the board Sans chair Holland on uh receiving some initial Direction on next steps yeah you're kicking me out all right so big Power moving forward um we have school Spotlight so tonight is the first a few meetings where we are highlighting some of our schools through school spotlights superintendent would you please introduce our schools um I'm actually going to introduce Chief Dr John Franco to come down I hope that our three School leaders uh will forgive us I know we just announced an appreciation uh this is your month as school leaders uh appreciation uh and we've kept you here this evening knowing you have to be there bright and early uh but I think we have them here Dr Franco you want to introduce our VIPs yeah absolutely I'm actually going to um turn it over we have our senior directors of schools uh who directly supervise the three principles here today and so I want to give um Carl Logan an opportunity to introduce uh uh the new Doctor trise Brown [Applause] Warren thank you thank you um good evening I'm Carl Logan I'm senior director um for schools for the
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Jefferson and Wells elementary schools and I'm honored here tonight to um introduce to you um the principal of Markham Elementary School um Dr trise Brown Warren um three three four days doctor yeah a couple days couple days Baylor um Baylor University sick Bears yes um in my short time that I've worked with um Dr Browns Warren is um I've been really impressed with her tenacity her focus and um she she has a depth of wisdom that's beyond her her years and it's just been a joy so far to work with her um and I invite all of you come out to Markham and see her um her school her community and um and her work well thank you I do it like this oh hi everybody so I am Dr trinice Brown Warren I'm excited to be able to say that especially for my community uh we are in the Southwest side we have a very diverse campus and um we have some amazing Educators that allowed the work that you all saw to be done so a lot of times we give the principal the credit because they're at the top um but that's not my leadership style my leadership style is to give my staff the credit to give my community the credit and to give my students the credit I'm just there to make it look good that's it so we did a lot of great things at Markham Elementary School that cultivated Excellence joy and um the fact that we are here to get grade level standards and line curriculum I I know that it's in our framework and it is a really a framework that got me to stay in Portland Public Schools because there was something that I can anchor my leadership on with my staff and so we decided to dive into the curriculum and to learn what we could and to pull what we could for our kids that meant some things didn't get done some things did get done and what we saw was an amazing outcome um we also centered Excellence which meant that students were going to have systems in place that allowed them to learn whether it was making sure our tier one systems were together so that our tier two and our tier three systems and interventions could be lower so we allowed students to have access to the learning that was happening in the classroom while we worked with restorative justice and we worked with um mtss to make sure that we were truly giving students an opportunity to thrive and then we brought Joy oh just Joy the joy of coming to school and so one of the things that I implemented was um my staff reading Energy Bus um by John Gordon and so Isaac cordona helped me buy some books and then I paid for some books out of my pocket because that book changed me it's about choosing Joy not the talk joy that everything is okay no really looking at how do we choose to show up every day and make a difference the driver of the bus her name was Joy ironic right changed this guy's life and it changed mine and so we just brought the joy of learning and the joy of picking up a book and reading it it was so amazing to watch my kids black brown and white walking around my campus reading a book like that's what they wanted to do at recess I I was like that you know what okay they came up to me and they were like Principal Brown Warren we want to learn this kid is distracting our learning environment yes they still are mad they lost recess but more importantly they were like it's distracting our learning environment and then my Educators really really did the work they showed up to the cadres they dived into making sure they were providing scaffolds and not modifications I'm going to say that one more time my Educators made sure they provided scaffolds and not modifications because every kid deserved access to grade level standards aligned curriculum that's what we did we banned together and we made ourselves a team no matter what was happening on the outside we knew at Markham this is what we stood for and so going into to my second year we made sure that we revamped our mission statement feel free to look at it at our website it's pretty cool thank you to sit in elementary school we did use yours as a model um and we really looked at what's working for our kids and then we bought a really cool book vending machine yes and so that's how we're celebrating kids is with tokens for books yeah like kids are doing well because we were giving them books um and then this year we're also focusing on the learning pit how do we look at providing students with learning traits not just compliance traits but learning
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traits and so for October September and October we've been talking about productive struggle because when you're in that learning pit you need to know that it is normal to want to give up and we're starting to see a decrease in most of the behaviors you always have the tier three students that need more support but when we look at our tier one and our tier 2 systems my kids are thriving and what they're doing and again I will say I have some of the best teachers at Markham Elementary School and I have some of the best staff and even though we always feel like we don't have enough my community has made it feel like it's enough and shout out to Masari um in Black excellence and shout out to Emily as sun because I'm nothing without my Community Partners and shout out to my whole Markham Community because I am absolutely nothing without them so thank you and we uh look out for what we do this year it's gonna be exciting [Applause] thank so if I could get uh John Melbourne and Heather come on down so we're very proud as well to um introduce or I am to introduce the the two people here and so senior director John Melvin is one of our new senior directors of schools this year who was a former principal of James John Elementary and so um I'll let you do the honors good evening everyone I'm happy to introduce tonight uh principal Heather Thompson from from Whitman Elementary School and I've had the pleasure of working with principal Thompson for the last few months and uh it was great introduction uh to meet her because we have a background both being teachers and principles in Oakland California and we worked blocks away from each other and I was a admirer of her school in Oakland Lighthouse School uh with really Innovative practices and I got to learn a bit more about her background and I can see her Innovation and her courage as an educational leader in the school At Whitman uh I love going to Whitman there's a lot of great things happening there around culture and climate around academics you can feel it in the school as you walk around and so turn it over to principal Thompson to talk about the success At Whitman Elementary hi everyone um thanks for having me um just a little bit about Whitman um we are uh in South East Portland on 72nd in Fel which for the public a lot of people don't know cuz we're kind of on the edge of the city um we are a small campus but Mighty um and with enrollment boundary changes we've grown from 153 students last year to 179 students this year um we're really fortunate to have robust Staffing with full-time art PE Library instructional Specialists and social worker and we also have Partnerships with Head Start sun and mecp um so lots is happening on our campus um and we have two kindergarten classrooms and one classroom at every other grade level um something we're really proud of um in our student achievement from last year is that we did grow 11 points in Reading um as a school overall um and as a principle I think one of the really important things we have to do is think not just what we're going to do to make um School the best it can be for the kids in front of us today but what we can do for the growth of our school long term and so we're also really proud to say that um our kindergarten students were 89% proficient on our kindergarten end of year literacy measures last year um and that's um such an achievement and um speaks so much to what's going to be able to happen in the future for our students um we saw really strong growth for our English learner students um as well as students in the underserved R and race and ethnicity demographic group um and so we're really proud of that as well um to um build on uh what Dr Bron Warren said our our highly skilled teaching staff is the key to all of our success always um as well as our highly skilled student support staff we have really excellent EAS and Paras as well um we implemented our tier one Ela curriculum across all of our classrooms last year um and we also were really fortunate last year to have small class sizes or to be able to split students up into small groups um for a lot of their tier one learning which we think really had an impact um and finally we have been providing a lot of support for student attendance because if kids aren't at school they're not going to be learning um as well as getting families back into the building um post pandemic we had a back to school night last year where so many people came that we ran out of pizza um so there's always something to celebrate in places to grow so I also want to share where we're looking to grow next year our um goals this year are really around um making sure that our latine multi-racial and black students are showing the same amount of
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growth or more than our white students um and that we're decreasing by at least one half the amount of our students who are scoring in the lowest proficiency categories on assessment so we're really focusing on that this year with um a lot of focus on our tier three interventions um in our what I need intervention block um and currently we have 72% of our students who met the goal of 90% attendance for the first 30 days of school so we're really proud of that thank you thank you okay can I get uh Derek and Chris and team to come on down be great so I just I'm proud to introduce uh the team here uh Derek Johnson is one of our new uh senior directors of schools he was the former principal at William Walker in Beaverton we're able to steal him away very happy about that and he's going to uh uh introduce Chris and team good evening everybody I'm Derek Johnson um I'm the senior director over the Lincoln and McDaniel K5 clusters it's a pleasure to be here and it's a pleasure um and sorry for not addressing you superintendent Guerrero chair and directors I'm just excited to talk about uh these wonderful leaders um Chris silvus and cinnamon bftt have done amazing work uh their energy passion and expectation that all students must learn and succeed is contagious um they walk the walk they're not the type of leaders that you will find in the office when you walk in the building they're they're inspecting the classrooms they're really focusing on accountability and making sure that their focal students don't fall through the cracks and they're going to talk a little bit about that St uh staff members at rler know that they make an impact and that together through collaboration they can continuously improve to best serve all members of the rler family um without further Ado Mr silvus thank you board of directors superintendent Guerrero uh before we begin I want to I want to just note a few people in the crowd Brenda Brenda cheers Amelia Gilbertson Nair PES Diana McCay Evan Williams Cheryl McClure this story is about them I do have something I want to share share with you I am Chris Elis principal cnon the regular learning family takes responsibility to engage all students in our school in particular our black Native American and latinx students through rigorous instruction using grade level content within a healthy positive and inclusive learning environment we collaborate and reflect on data to address student learning needs both with our staff and community members students develop high levels of proficiency in both Spanish and English as demonstrated by multiple points point of data students learn and practice our school agreements we reflect our students unique cultures fostering a sense of belonging in our curriculum and practices our Panthers are kind mindful engaged and safe so who is the regler family we're going to share with you just a few views in to some of our students and some of what experienced since they came back to school this fall we see some of our fourth grade students some who have been at Rigler since kindergarten and some who are new to the United States and new to our school engaging in academic conversations about the text that they read we see our third grade students engaging in yoga and mindfulness lessons during one of their movement classes we have another view of our third grade students participating in a celebration of diverse Latin cultures through the um ELO celebration which took place in September and was sponsored by our Visual and Performing Arts
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Department there we go and we have a glimpse into one of our second grade classes in which students are engaged in grade level and standards aligned curriculum they're reading their ristas or what we call our student readers so who else is in the rler family Jill Nia is our instructional coach you see both of our interventionists in this group talking about student engagement and how students can be better connected to the lessons we provide another group doing the same thing they're reporting back to our ilt so that we can include their input about engagement as part of our skip um we also have to recognize our parents who are supportive who care about every student in the school uh who want us to thrive who come together on these nights where they want to talk about how we can best serve our kids as I look at these images I see three people who were on our hiring committee who wanted to know how some old high school guy could make a difference at River and I'm proud to say that together not me together we have been able to do so I want to say this and I want to say this as clearly and as respectfully as I can um I in this family we're accountable to the board to the district leadership ship and to the idea that schools meet the needs of everyone that's our responsibility I I don't envy the position you're in at times to meet the the needs of so many families of so many different people who have needs and wants our our our teachers and their their demands for dignity there's so many things that that that pressure this board and we appreciate the position that you're in but one of the reasons we've been successful is focus so I have to say that we but understand what I mean when I say we work for kids families and our team in that order that's our Focus that's what we do that's what we do best and because we do that we've been able to make some movement at regler which is a school that went through six principles at one time over a eight-year period who has always been the you know the cute little school that could but never talked about at this table about being academic Achievers so we're a work in progress there's a lot to do uh Rigler has made progress uh in reading and Mathematics over the course of the two years that we've been able to work together with this team uh we're here tonight because we did make a 9.8% increase in literacy um for all of our students uh which is the third highest of all of our elementary schools in the district and for Rigler to be in that sentence means a lot um that's not the end of that story however uh as you look at the numbers you know we're still not at the proficiency level we feel that all kids need to be at we certainly haven't met met the the goal of 80% but we're working we're working towards that direction and not just some students but all students are making progress and our intentions are to ensure that every student meets meets the goal so just in in closing how did we do that rler has focused on instruction Equity cannot stop at culture and climate alone we have professional development led by practitioners in terms of instructional framework we listen to them they tell us well how can we move forward we want to move forward how can we do that uh in particular I want to name Jill Niar our instructional coach who has been critical in lending a practitioner's point of view to how we approach curriculum and how we approach instruction the regular instructional leadership team Diana here is a member of our team has engaged in discussion about student outcomes not just you know what are we doing for this date or what's happening no how do we know kids are learning more importantly how do we know all kids are learning uh our professional learning communities who have been uh LED predominately by cinamon through our through our uh PLC leaders has focused on essential standards what is it that that children need to know so that they can move to the next level we've uh Faithfully um implemented our curriculum with thoughtful adaption for the places where it needed to be adapted to meet the needs of students uh focal students carry the conversation we talk about what students need and who are the most needy students in the building data conversations to determine who gets interventionist support and none of our interventionist are here today but but they they work with our teams to build
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uh quarterly data meetings to descibe who gets tier tier three support and lastly active and supportive parents who are who are out there watching some of them if they're still up um who want us to thrive who believe in what we do we work for kids families and our team in that order because that's true regler will succeed did we finish the presentations because I didn't want to cut anything off but those were the three yeah I just want to thank everybody uh for being here tonight and thank you for I know it's after 9:00 you all had a full work day um but that was really inspiring so yeah that the work that's going on is incredible thank you for sharing those stories superintendent thanks for scheduling the time chair Holland and thanks to these teams who are doing the incredible work in our schools just really want to say I appreciate that I want to say the same thing thank you to our school leaders all of our school leaders uh they're all doing amazing work uh I have to give credit to chair Hollands this was his idea to say let's make some time and highlight what's happening for our kids out in the schools and so I'm going to take that and run for it so always happy to highlight the work in our schools because that's why we're here uh to talk about what's happening to make sure that they're achieving thank you all right all right so any other comments All right so we go kind of move through this pretty quickly um how how what's your guys' appetite because I mean I think we can kind of go through board committees and reports so I'm going just say anybody who wants to report out can um and we'll start on my left with director Wang Wong yeah um don't have much right now we last last time we explored um equable grading practices uh but I just want to make a note that it's just a pilot program at this moment um so it's not like something that's implemented the whole district and and we're looking forward to seeing the results from that I don't have anything all right so I passed out some information from the cube annual conference um it was an awesome conference um just hearing about the stability piece of what makes a district successful um that's the biggest thing I got out of that you know they had board members who was like on boards for like 20 years 24 years I I I I thought director BM Edwards had a long time but I mean some of these folks was like 26 years and and then I old sorry I apologize I said that old I mean Long Time season exper experienced but the purpose was to say the the fact that people the stability comes from of course longevity making sure that people um the board have a direction that they're going in um and they're sticking to that they're focused on on those plans so it was it was just a great uh great conference and um I'll leave it at that um we have a policy committee meeting tomorrow and um we just are sort of filling the the the pipeline um and really bring raising at the the beginning of the um the year um issues that we're going to talk about in committee um so uh our agenda is posted um but no major action tomorrow and we already got our student report done all right next is division 22 report to the board well board this is an annual exercise I'm going to direct our Deputy superintendent to be concise Direction taken hold on it's GNA be a quick ride y'all ready all right pleasure to be uh before you again um as I as I go through the presentation I do want to note that um a presentation has been provided to board
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hopefully you've had an opportunity to review it um if you um if I go a little bit too fast feel free to reflect back on uh said presentation that is available for you um so division 22 um really is uh a a cluster of rules uh by the state uh Board of Education under chapter 581 which OD um you know uh provides it's through the provides standards and rules for elementary and and secondary education schools elementary and secondary schools the education standards that either um the legislator bring forward um has been determined and and through this presentation I'll show share areas where we have met uh standards where we are um where some rules have changed and been amended where we have uh new waivers coming in from the state and then also looking at um upcoming discussions by the state so I note that the presentation is not presented yet um so I can continue um with that presentation as I uh go through uh the next slides um on the presentation really talk about just the categories of the rules and how they fall and how they're organized by the state um some of the requirements of of these rules uh fall within a certain uh categories um od's rules at a glance summary is where we uh find some information regarding these uh requirements and rules uh the Secretary of State Oregon administrative rules database is also a space where we consult towards those rules and od's division 22 standards newsletter is also another space where we continue to get information and updates regarding the rules um so with that I'm going to flip through on uh the why and so really division 22 Oregon administrative rules assurances really signals for uh signals our commitment to providing high quality uh educational experiences and Equitable outcomes for all students division 22 we could keep going and I'll say when to stop um articulates um you know just the base requirement there we go uh right back one yep um the base requirements uh for providing students with uh quality education and it also offers an opportunity for districts not in compliance to reflect on these areas and to uh take attention to what needs to be done uh to make correct um technical fixes if we go two slides over some of the areas where we've been we were able to meet compliance in the past seven years um is listed here for us and so it is an ongoing process to ensure that we continue to be in compliance uh with the state and if we flip I could uh to the next slide we could talk about the changes to rules and for last year so as as some of you may know and I'll state it again this reporting is regarding how we um stood with the state uh when it came to division 22 during the academic school year of 2223 uh So within that uh year there were some changes in the form of waivers new rules and revised rules so the next slide highlights two areas where there were waivers essential skills graduation requirement was waved for students graduating in the 2223 school year and the 23 24 school year and PE data collections were suspended last year districts will be required to um submit data for upcoming year and uh that is um another area where we'll have a further discussion the next slide talks about rules that are new in division 22 and there are two and so the first rule which is the agreements entered into with voluntary organizations requires the adoption of policy governing uh participation in the voluntary organization that administers inter Scholastic activities uh the second uh new uh rule is not necessarily
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a requirement but uh school districts and Charter Schools must periodically submit to the department a plan for operation during the 2223 school year okay the next slide then speaks to a revised rule that came by the way of PE U the heart of the revision really it was the shift from a weekly time requirement was reduced from 225 minutes every week of the year uh to 150 minutes of the week and so this this revised rule um speaks specifically to grades 6 through 8 uh we are in compliance this year for uh K5 and I will speak to how we're going to meet uh this requirement in the coming slides the next slide then takes us into looking at our current corrective actions so coming right back to PE um on the next slide you'll see that uh we submitted uh an extend ition to become uh to come into compliance uh for by the 2526 school year for PE in grades 6 through eight um it's been an area where um not just PPS but many districts across the state struggle to meet the 225 required minutes hence why the state made the revision we do have a stairstep approach um to demonstrate how we will get to the 100 now revised 150 uh minutes and um you will see that this year uh overall will be offering a quarter of PE then upping that over the next two years so that we will be offering ultimately 3/4s of PE and to be in full compliance the next slide then reinforces what I shared before is that we are expected to be in full compliance with PE for grades K5 this year as we have put measures in place um with the scheduling following that we were also in corrective action regarding tag and gifted and so with that uh there was an action plan with a timeline that was put in place because we were not able to verify that every tag student um in PPS classrooms had their rate and level of learning addressed so what we were able to do we um while we did have some training and PD for teachers and staff um the next slide will demonstrate that the corrective action was really focused on um this conciliation agreement with sag to ensure that we were remedying those areas this agreement can be found on our district website and under this agreement uh we will uh follow through with specific corrective action steps related to Tag Services identification and notification uh next slide then speaks to some of our progress in um thus far with our corrective action for tag we' made progress in areas of identification communication with families and services and I will pause just so that you could glance at what some of those progress areas were I just have one question on the PE requirements yeah um even though they went down um the state went down were we not still meet we still not even meeting that number so what we are across the district we wanted to have a consistent model uh for PE I will ask Jenny withc to come forward uh to assist but with that no we we we made a recommendation in uh a proposal for this year at how we can uh with some additional State dollars bring ourselves to full compliance so right now we are offering one quarter of PE and the one quarter of PE was uh our best attempt and so now we are expanding that out but in order to because the school year had already started once that ruling came through once the adjustment uh came through our budgeting season had passed with the new dollars uh we're looking at how it is that we could work towards getting into full compliance anything you want to add on that um yeah so the um the 150 minutes a week um as averaged across the school year comes to 5,400 minutes across the school year so if our students are having if they're enrolled
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in fiscal education at a middle school they're getting 225 minutes a week and if we do that for 3/4s that comes to the 5,400 minutes um but even when we reduced to the 150 uh a week spread across the school year um with one quarter we're still not meeting what we need for the 5,400 minutes so that's where our implementation plan comes into place where we can move to two and three quarters which will then get us to that to that number yeah I I guess I I get the plan to get there but I'm guessing if we was at I'm say what 225 and that's what the state was was and they dropped it to 150 so we wasn't even close to 150 when we was at when the when the requirement was at 225 correct so they wanted 225 every week all school year long um rather than averaging it out across the entire school year and so we were looking at it more when we were averaging it out for the 150 so that's we could do that we could do we were not close enough even at the 150 to be in compliance across the school year we were about most of our schools when the the shift came were about 2,250 minutes so about halfway about close to halfway to where they needed to be so just a vault question because the PE minutes went into um which were based on best practice I know you know this sorry um but based on best practice guidelines um um we're instituted uh 2007 with a 10-year implementation um so we're and we had a pandemic but we're six years behind the the deadline so I'm curious what what it is that's going to get us in compliance are we um changing how the schedule works are we adding more PE teachers in the Middle grades like and if so um is there a reason we didn't do that this last year yeah yeah so so we are yes and yes we are um adding we we are making a proposal it has not been fully uh approved yet when we were with the board but it is a part of our budget amend Amendment again this this shift in the policy occurred um just towards the end of the summer if I remember correctly and so with that our schools scheduling had already happened and so we started to look at the possibility of how we can invest these dollars to ensure that we're coming into compliance for PE in grades six through eight and with the board's approval moving forward we are looking at yes adding additional PE teachers in the six to 8th space um where we were not able to do that uh previously because of funding and so with that we would be able to expand on um the offerings and then expand on the number of quarters that we are offering uh PE so are we changing the schedule too or we're just adding more more PE teachers you could speak to you so a little bit a little bit of both so some of our schools are on a six period day some of them are on a seven period day and it definitely uh helps us as we have both models that have have are adding PE this year um and and and they're making it work but really the six period day really needs to shift to a seven period day to make it most effective um for us to work the fiscal education in and maintain the other elective options that students would like to participate in um so we are but we are also adding teachers and we're also doing a Facilities Review and you know so we're we're having to come at this from lots of different angles so scheduling facilities FTE um all of those pieces are are working in this year and again these are the components that are um in the proposal for our budget all right uh director Sullivan yeah I think they answered my question I think I got asked but I was just wondering is it mostly because there's not enough teachers or is it space or everything yeah um actually there is a combination of teacher and space we do know that while we are able to um look at a model that would add additional teachers we do also recognize that some of our schools uh would need some um retrofitting if you will so that we could convert uh some of the limited uh physical education spaces and create more spaces where the physical education activities can happen um yeah just a really brief comment there's a state requirement around PE there's not a state
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requirement around English or math or arts or music is that right correct yeah so I just I like to point that out every time PE is very important but we're in the middle of a of a achievement Gap crisis and I just want to make sure that we're keeping focused on student achievement which P can play a role and I don't want to say but again I I'd rather make sure that we're really prioritizing some of those other things as well I would like to just go ahead oh yeah um I would like to add that PE helps and a lot of the other learning because I mean there's all this brain studies that show that exercise helps the brain grow um yeah yeah I agree I agree that's a good point um I was actually going to move to can K through five PE questions but I don't know if you want to questions about yeah I was just going to respond to just the general is like I don't think any schools um we test in English math um I haven't seen any school districts cut that and the concept around the minutes is based on again um guidelines from health professionals about what students need and I I think to to me it goes into the space so I'll just say like I was a PE major before I changed course Midway through my college career um but having had you know a child who that was like essential every day to be active at school all the way through senior and high school um is that there is a real benefit but it's it's slightly different than other courses and again I don't think there's there's never been any time in my like last 20 years of um at PPS in which we have said we were going to cut math languish arts or any of the other things and we um we really dis disinvested in the Arts and Music um and PE and so to me um each St students need different things and have different passions and for some kids it's PE and others it's art or music and um so so I wish our state law differentiated I I'm not taking anything away from PE and students need different things and some of our students need PE some of our students need more math some of our students need more English some of our students need more art and music I I think it's I'll just say it's a failure of our state to sort of say here's one area where we got successfully lobbied and there's lots of attention to say we're going to require this they don't do the same thing in other areas and I think that's so again not taking anything away from PE but I would like to see some of those requirements for other things as well because there is a trade-off during the day and some of our students might benefit from reading or math tutoring instead of PE not all of them some won't some will awesome awesome so let's try to move this along any other um okay what just quick question what happens if we're not in compliance like what are ramifications we just uh the state asks us to go into corrective action we create a corrective action plan and we are expected to yeah to meet compliance through that plan just reading through the memorandum it seems like because I was got has some questions about the k35 PE um seems like one of the big reasons that we're unable to meet some of those minutes because of space issues right well K through five we are in compliance this year yeah well I I guess the I guess I I kind of have an issue with one of the and you know correct me if I'm wrong but um one of the ways to get in compliance is that we're now saying we're doing 60 Minutes of structured movement during Circle time in K through 5 right and I guess I've volunteered in in in K through five and circle time is very difficult to do structured movement I'm just I'm just saying that out loud that it it feels a little bit like a fudging you know and so it's not real PE because and the other thing I kind of have an issue is that if we're requiring this of our classroom teachers we're putting something else on their plate right which could be creating more work for them and that is in a time when when when teachers are struggling I kind of disagree with that so I I guess the reason I asked the compliance issue is like is there any harm with just saying we can't meet these minutes in PE class and the reason for that is because we don't have the space and now we change the conversation to being like Oh it's not you know it's not because we don't have enough PE teachers we're not trying it's just because now we don't have another space and you know maybe State you could help us you know I just I just I just saying like is there any harm in just saying we're not going to meet this well there are some things that are allowable by the state and we were in corrective action regarding our K to5 and when we presented the plan to the state and working with Dr wome and looking at how it is that um we could provide movement um because also during those Circle spaces it we are also incorporating our T tsel um and adding some movement to that
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and that holistically um you know um allows for us to meet the needs of students and also meet the compliance requirements and it was and as such the state has said that we are in compliance but wouldn't that be taking time away from tsel transformed to social emotional learning right if I got that right the the lessons in the curriculum is built out to include it I just want I just want to uh ask about that because it seems a little it was interesting it it kind of it stuck out there in terms of like we're adding Circle time but anyway yeah it was actually a recommendation of the state so nationally there was a crosswalk done with the castle competencies around social emotional learning with the national physical education standards and the new physical education standards that will be released in 2024 incorporate social emotional learning as a key component to them so it was actually a strategic move to align with uh the shifts that we're seeing with regards to fiscal education and its integration with social emotional learning you are correct that it isn't going to be the same kind of physical education that they're going to get with their physical education educator um and we're going to make sure that we're capitalizing on the time that they have with their fiscal education teacher to make sure that they're working towards the standards but there are a number of Standards particularly three four and five that are really well integrated and and aligned with social emotional learning Concepts so it's a good fit appreciate the questions they're the same ones we've been wrestling with with uh as a team I think you've seen the attempt to be creative uh districts in the entire State I I can't name any for you that are fully in compliance for all the same reasons all the same constraints and we all believe in the value of a wallr rounded experience education for our students so we're going to keep making improvements in in the areas where we can okay so we G to know time all right so as we go to the next slide um oh we went done okay sorry sorry sorry okay it's an obligation by districts to present the reports during the month of October so this is a part of the state requirement did they say had to be oral or written we must go through the presentation I'm going to go as as um as efficiently as possible so as we uh also look uh at corrective the corrective action plan so remember this section of the presentation is looking at the areas where we were in corrective action and where we uh the progress towards that so uh part of that is a local performance assessment uh this requirement was waved because of the pandemic in 2021 and during uh the 2122 and 2223 school year we adopted curriculum in math language arts k12 and because of our new adoptions we were not in compliance in 2223 school year but we did recommend the teachers to do assessments tied to those curriculums so for the current year uh we will come back into being in compliance as we have um an assessment calendar indicating when those assessments will take place and need to be given so next year this time when we do this report it will be an area where we will be in compliance next slide and as we go there um when it comes again to the instructional material instructional materials adoption was another area where we were out of compliance and incorrect action and so you could see uh how we have implemented new adoptions and I will pause so you could take a glance there and these corrective action plans were approved by the state and we are moving um in accordance to that plan hold on I'm going just make one quick comment yes sir when you guys use the state as a reference point yes sir you know and especially when they give like you know um recommendations on stuff it's hard for me to really put any valid validation behind that because they also recommend a qem too and they don't do that so I'm just putting that out there yes yes and so part of the correction planning action planning process is us coming up with our our deliverables and then sharing that with the state and the state then approving that so next slide we could look ahead at compliance for 23 24 school year um and there are some um new revised rules um yep there we go and so the rule regarding health services was last res revised in uh 1996 uh the revised rule will be in
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effect for the 23 24 Academic School year and will uh first report on we will first report on our uh compliance with that new rule um in November of 2024 that's next year next slide now there are all and this is the final slide there are two potential uh rules uh that are being dis discussed currently um the assessment of essential skills for graduation requirement is coming up again as a point of discussion and part part of that discussion is looking at the possibility of suspending it again uh the state is looking at suspending um even for this year we will get notice of that um if that occurs and they are looking at suspending potentially through the 2728 school year and then another uh potential new rule that is being discussed this month is the requirement of uh menstrual dignity for students uh this will um uh it is something that is being discussed by OD and will be voted on um this month and that concludes the report I have a question about the essential skills and maybe this is a question for the whole team do we have a point of view on the state waving that it um given our grad given our given our graduation requirements um somebody can graduate with the required credits but with D's yeah um the essential skills was sort of a yeah another way in which we um were able to assess whether our students were proficient yeah I really appreciate that question so much and I'm very proud of the work that the uh Student Success committee sir is doing uh under the leadership of um director Wong because we are looking at the possibility of exploring all of our graduation requirements and adding a little bit more RI rigor and ensuring that it's more robust we can as a district um bring in tighter requirements beyond what the state currently requires and putting in a measure for demonstrated proficiency um using a variety of tools or offering a variety tools is one of the things that we will be discussing as well in the Student Success committee so have we weighed in though with the state I guess I'm oh you're just looking at Statewide yeah yeah I'm curious um we have a point of view about a lot of things um and if the essential skills which seem to be be sort of um a minimum essential um that whether we think that's a good thing for parents and students to know whether they have sort of basic proficiency so it seems like PPS would have a a point of view yes um I'll speak Dr Proctor's point of view I will let the superintendent speak for the district um but I do think it's very important to have a measure Beyond um accumulated credits for high school graduation um proven or demonstrated proficiency is one whether it's on uh a state assessment whether it's through uh sat or act uh examination scores whether it's through nocti um assessment which is used for CTE courses there are multiple ways that we could measure um um literacy and numeracy Proficiency in our high school students before they graduate and actually um in advance of that right by that by by that ninth 10th grade year to really ensure that we're able to put in measures of support and um growth for them yeah we'll be tracking the conversation uh with the state board I think Dr Proctor sort of called out there's multiple tools or Avenues or options we can say as a school system uh is a way to demonstrate you have uh the proficiency the level of skills at a minimum that you should have so you know it'll be a great conversation for our success committee uh and again it kind of points back to the conversation overall uh uh with this report is you know there's regulations around what the experience should look like uh and ways that uh we're held accountable for those things and then we' got to be able to deliver on the experience and the support to make sure every one of our students can pass uh uh those exams or ways of demonstrating the proficiency so uh you know it goes back to the trade-offs conversation so now are we done with the presentation I'm sorry now we done with the presentation yes sir we're thank you concluded that was great thank you yes all right so we're going to move to
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the first read reading next we have the first reading of revisions to 5.10 025 diversity employment policy formerly named the affirmative action policy and 2.22 sorry 2.20.20 DP naming School District policy property policy director brim Edwards would you like to introduce these thank you chair Holland so we have um as you mentioned two policies which are having their first reading which is really an introduction so these were um both um policies that came before the committee we had several meetings in which we discussed them um the the policy which was previously named the affirmative action policy has been renamed it's now the diversity and employment policy um there were some changes that legislature made in terms of the passage of the uh minority teacher act um and also some additional changes legis made so we incorporated those but I think importantly um we we had a lots of dis discussion in the committee the we actually re substantially rewrote the intro to it I want to thank um the board members who contributed to that uh so that was recommended by the the full committee for our first reading and then the second um was a revision to um the school district naming po um naming School District property and it did a couple um of minor things there was a major rewrite to this in 2018 to this policy in 2018 and um some additional changes that are being made is that there's sort of a clear uh if if we get a petition that we have a clear uh um decision by um the board or whether to proceed or not um also we in response to the superintendent um raising the question about resources um have added a um section relating to um if there's resources needed that um certainly we'll take that into consideration and the and the superintendent's um a guidance on that so that was also um came out of committee with recommended for the first reading and I think that's back to you um director Holland un or chair Holland unless you want me to read the um next portion they're going to be post I'll go ahead they're going to be posted on the board website uh there's a 21-day public comment period um we'll also have opportunities in the uh next two policy committees that if uh people want um to either comment or have changes to them that they could come to the policy committee and we'll consider them and then we'd have a second reading on the revised policies um at the either the November 7th meeting or a subsequent meeting thank you all right next is the consider agenda uh the board will now vote on the consider agenda board members there have any items you would like to pull for discussion we will set those aside for the next time we meet and then what we will do is we actually will put them on the open Agenda at that point Brash are there any changes to the consent agenda yes resolution 6772 the expenditure contracts and 6773 the revenue contracts there were a handful of them where the responsible staff member was changed to Dr Proctor those are posted it wasn't a change in dollar amount just a responsible the contracts that are on there or any of the dollars or any of the descriptions none of that changed the only thing that changed was in the Callum swis responsible staff okay bman is any items you would like to pull all right do I have a motion and a second to adopt a consider agenda all [Laughter] right so director Scott motion director Julie B Edwards second is there any board discussion on the consent agenda all right hearing none the board went vote on resolutions the board will now vote on resolutions 6753 through 6754 all in favor please indic indicate by saying yes yes yes all opposed indicate by saying no student director Silverstein yes all right no extensions the consent agenda is
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approved by a vote of 70 with student director Civ unofficially voting yes all right we are adjourned this meeting is adjourned next regular meeting of the board will take place November 7th almost by

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

2023-10-10 PPS School Board Regular Meeting

Documents / Media

Notices/Agendas

Materials

Minutes

Transcripts

Event 1: 2023-10-10 Board of Education Regular Meeting - Starts at 2:15:30

Sources