001on that side yeah I think uh I have Jacob in here so he can pick up okay um go ahead and call the meeting to order for the bank School District uh September 13th school board meeting um move on to 1.2 for the flag salute given that it's the zoom meeting we'll postpone that activity until we're back in person uh was there any public welcome or recognition Jeff no not at this time okay um for audience comments uh just remind everyone that the bank School District Board of Directors request comments be limited to five minutes per speaker speakers will state their name and city of residence for the record the board appreciates community members sharing information during public comments while the board does not respond to public comments following the meeting the chair Vice chair
002and superintendent will together determine the appropriate level response speakers May object May speakers may offer objective criticism of District Operations or programs that the board will not hear complaints concerning specific bank School District personnel we'll move on to 1.5 do I have an approval of the agenda I move that we approve oh second it all in favor aye aye okay we'll move on thank you uh we'll move on to presentations Jeff it doesn't look like we have any is that correct that is correct okay and then we move on to audience comments um Jeff will actually be introducing everyone based off of the direction that was previously provided so Jeff I'll go ahead and turn it over to you okay so how this is going to work is like I said I was going to
003go in the order that I received these um we might have to track down a few people here but I will start the timer please keep it to five minutes if when you get to four minutes I'll give you a one minute warning and then when we get to five I will just say hey could you please finish up um and then and we'll move to the next one we have eight public comments live comments tonight um and one written comment as well so the first public comment is Jody Haley foreign so sorry did I was I on was I muted on that whole conversation no no we can hear you so Jody Haley is the first public comment um Jody if you are on one of these can you please turn on the camera
004so we can ask you to unmute I don't see her name under one of the uh one of the blocks and maybe go to the next one okay guys if you'll get behind and get in the video that'd be awesome all right thanks please um show yourselves if you would like so that's unmuted and the videos on all right go ahead Jody okay are you guys are we live ready yeah we can hear you okay well I wanted to start um when I after I spoke last time my I had one of one of my reactions to speaking last time is that I wish I had started with acknowledging that you know I really appreciate the work that you guys are doing and I want to um like to to acknowledge the good um intentions
005of every single person who is speaking on this who will speak and all of you even though we disagree about you know maybe on ideological issues and I I think it's really important that we start there so I wanted to say that and I wanted to First make sort of a philosophical statement about how I see public education and um so there are two things I want to speak to that and the vaccine mandate and and so I first I guess first I just want to say that in my view democracy doesn't work unless we begin at the local level and public schools belong to the public that's almost the first line when you look at the bank's School Board policy set of policies it's it states on you know unequivocally that this public schools
006belong to the public and should be you know that they that they should be under our governance so I brought a couple of things I just wanted to show oh like I use these in my school board campaign maybe it's backwards to you guys isn't it yeah read it or not Leslie yes I can read it I can't hear anyone okay oh sorry yeah yes we can yes it's we can okay so what it says this is how I believe Public Schools should be governed parents and community members and I said this in the last forum who elect the school board who hires the superintendent who works with the state and the education unions under that the administration teachers and students and instead my view is that this is how we actually function which is
007that state in the education unions run our local public schools the superintendent is next then the school board and administration's teachers and some more down here parents right so my position is that we are doing this but we should be doing this okay and I ran my school board Campaign which thank I I am so thankful Leslie for the conversation we had about this which is really believing that we should have local control of our public schools that means strong School boards right who are committed to representing parents and putting students first my experience of this last year is that the education unions controlled what happened we shut down the schools and that that is still happening and my my position is that our school board the way that is organized is not representing parents
008we are not Gathering the information from the parents the way that we need to do so this is my plea really for local control Reviving our Civic dialogue and and um you know making democracy work here at the local level the only place that we have control so that was the first part and the second part I wanted to speak to was the vaccine mandate I know there's a lot of that being talked about on on the uh um Facebook page it doesn't matter but masks are one thing in my opinion the vaccine mandate is utterly immoral and I believe that our community has got to come together to stand with those people who feel on principle whether it's religious or simply because they don't want to do with their body some that they something
009that they consider to be unsafe that we need to stand together with them and for them regardless of our own position on the vaccine and I'm asking that the school board would consider listening to the community asking the community for be feedback on that and if that is the community's broad position being willing to stand up to the mandates as they come down from the state because the public schools belong to us they don't belong to the state and we are asking as we're asking you to gather information to find out where the community stands on that and then to to be willing to take the consequences of defying something like that because it is so utterly immoral that is my position and I wanted lastly wanted to say that I mean you know this
010is this means you're going to lose some teachers it means that you're going to lose coaches it means you're going to lose some volunteer coaches some of who are sitting here with me it means you're going to have parents who are not able to volunteer in your classrooms because that we will many of them I don't need to be vaccinated many of them many of them won't be and the and lastly I just want to say I know I heard on that that if the the vaccine mandate for students comes into effect that our school district will enforce it but I want you guys to know that this our school will I mean I mean parents will take their children out so many of us it will be the end so why not do the
011right thing now and not just wait for the one where you're you will the school will come apart all right thank you thank you Jody foreign next comment is Kristen Accardi Kristen if you can I can you see me and hear me yes okay great I'm ready thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak my name is Kristen McCarty and I live outside the city of banks my child is a student in the bank School District starting seventh grade when she started CDL in sixth grade she was by all measures doing fine she seemed to enjoy distance learning learning and got straight A's her first couple of quarters by Spring that was no longer the case her grades dropped dramatically and she stopped communicating with us and started spending all her day laying in
012bed in the dark and we've been lucky during this whole pandemic we didn't lose our job or experience food insecurity or lose a loved one I didn't have to ask my child to stay home alone take care of siblings while I went off to work she didn't have to worry about her family risking exposure every day in order to keep a roof on her head or fear for the health of a medically fragile sibling or caregiver we were fortunate and yet she still experienced mental and emotional stress which I don't think I really understand the scope of even now I am far less worried about any learning loss that our children might have experienced then I am worried about the effects of the stress trauma and emotional hardships that all our kids have suffered to
013some degree or another trauma that will make it hard for kids to learn and eventually fully recover academically socially and emotionally the 2020-2021 school year really demonstrated how critical our public schools are to our children's physical and mental well-being our schools aren't just a place of learning they are connection safety and stability it is critical that we use every tool in our tool chest to keep our students in school in person full-time this is why when I hear audience members demanding that the school board forced the superintendent and the administration to reject the state's mask and vaccine mandate I just get angry we cannot afford to have our district exposed to this kind of civil and financial liability we cannot afford to have our teachers lose their certification these people are placing their personal agendas
014above the well-being of the school district and the students in it all while claiming to speak on behalf of the community which they have no Authority or right to do and some of these same people would like to convince you that they are owed a town hall Forum or advisory committee in order to discuss issues with the school board setting aside the detail that board policy specifically prohibit the formation of standing general purpose committees this forum would not create opportunities for constructive dialogue between the board and community members that do not already exist as far as their desire to have a dialogue with other members of the community besides the board they are welcome to in their own time if they can find some who actually to engage with them but this isn't the role
015or function of our school board there are over five thousand registered voters in the school district even if a hundred people showed up to a town hall Forum that would represent less than two percent of the registered voters in this District it would be nothing more than theater so would they then have you send out surveys to 5 000 plus people before making decisions even after the incredible inefficiency and financial cost this would cause it would still fail to give you an idea the will of the community without mass participation I urge you to reject these requests not only because they are a waste of your time and our tax dollars but because ultimately they would disenfranchise the majority of our community our community holds elections because this is the most fair and efficient way
016of ensuring that the community is represented in the decision-making process for our Public Schools Kristen you have one minute thank you I am grateful for the good judgment the majority of the bank's Community has shown in electing a school board that has so far been United in placing students first and recognizing that the district's top priority is to keep our schools open and our kids in classrooms full-time as far as my daughter goes the change that has happened since the beginning of school full time this fall has been remarkable she seems happy again and she looks forward to her activities in her classrooms so I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart and everybody at the bank school district for the hard work you're doing to keep our school open for
017all of our children thank you Kristen um next speaker is Catherine Williams that was hey can you hear me okay yes we can okay go ahead let me start the clock here um hi everyone my name is Catherine Williams and I live in Banks I have three kids one in the Middle School one in the elementary school and one up and coming Banks Brave um I think I can speak for many disabled families when I say that it is typical for our perspective to not be incorporated even when it comes to topics of access and Equity this is not unique to disabled families far too many voices um take Center Stage that are the loudest and most aggressive far too often the voices of the marginalized drown in the sea of the majority far too
018often a problem is solved from the outside in far too often a solution is presented without first listening to the lived experiences of those that can best Define the problem this is something that I've experienced myself for most of my life and as a mother since my daughter's first diagnosis the hardest part about a dampened voice is that you don't have the energy to get loud most of my energy is spent taking care of my family keeping track of medications feeding schedules medical appointments Medical Supply deliveries advocating at hospitals at doctors appointments at therapy appointments at schools and in the community the advocating and full-time care is day in day out and lifelong parents like myself don't have a large size group of fellow parents that share a common concern to stand with emails that
019share our grievances do not fill in boxes we don't get that large Collective of voices to speak as one strong loud voice despite the value in our perspective and that the change we advocate for as a positive effect on everyone benefits When access and Equity is improved for example my fifth grader brings additional funding to the school for being visually impaired intellectually disabled and having Orthopedic impairment what this means is that additional books education tools and playground equipment is added to provide better access for her to have an equal education what I've noticed at various schools that she has been a part of is that her peers both in the life skills classroom as well as General Ed have also used and enjoyed these books toys and added playground equipment and oftentimes with her which
020is really a wonderful thing in equity and education advisory committee as laid out in the signed Senate Bill 732 can be an amplifying tool for our marginalized student families so that a full chorus of voices can be heard specifically the school board can utilize such a committee to illuminate blind spots help Define problems and identify opportunities to better meet the needs of our student body early in the pandemic I became concerned that our special education students were slipping through the cracks understandably the focus was on the general student population and the unique needs of sped students became an afterthought if an equity and education committee were in place before that time the needs of our sped students would have kept pace with the planning for the typical students I encourage the board to meet the
021Milestone of establishing an equity and education advisory committee now and not wait for the 2025 mandated deadline I look forward to having a forum that has the process and participants to make progress and affect long-lasting change speaking of access I hope the board will consider having an online option to attend and participate in all future school board meetings this will allow busy parents and caregivers a chance to stay engaged and involved with decisions concerning our kids in school Catherine one minute thank you lastly I would like to thank the administration teachers and staff for their hard work and dedication to the safe return of our students to school you are appreciated you have our support and we see you thank you all right Catherine thank you um next speaker is Michael Haley thank you Michael
022was not able to come okay um net next speaker is Dan Williams thank you can you see me yeah okay thank you for the opportunity to address the board my name is Dan Williams I live in Banks and have a fifth an eighth grader in Bank schools I'm here to offer words of encouragement and advocate for the bank School District board to not entertain an invitation circulating in the community to create the Town Hall open forum for the school board the proposed form has the stated requirement of forcing written responses to any and all questions posed to the board and establishing a system of polling for any issue that comes before the school board once it reaches an undefined level of concern the proposed Forum places requirements on the board not supported by Oregon public
023meeting law the proposed Forum defines feedback mechanisms that are not that are at best redundant with the provisions laid out in Oregon public meeting law or at worst have the effect of undermining the decision-making authority of the school board the proposed form is not in the best interest of Bank schools Community because its requirements degrade the ability of the board to conduct the people's business especially in an environment where there are community members openly advocating that school board members violate their oath of office I respectfully ask that the board stay stay the course on current meeting policy maintain its integrity and maintain its ability to deliberate amongst the elected members of the board in accordance with public meeting law the August board meeting offered two examples of why the direct confrontation Provisions in this proposal
024are fraught first at the meeting the board requested and was compelled to re-request that audience Applause be limited so that the next public speaker could hear their name be called that effort to maximize public comment time for actual speaking was then misinterpreted as a suppression as evidenced by comments on the town Forum proposal poll second contrary to the board's standing policy of not responding to questions during public comment time a question was posed and public comment time was spent waiting for the board to answer the question did you read my email I expect the board will continue to facilitate effective use of the public comment time the polling requirement of The Proposal further degrades effective communication of banks parent perspectives and diminishes the board's decision-making Authority I submit that the board's business cannot be completed
025by a stream of polls instead I expect the board's collection of experience with District Operations significant professional credentials and long-standing track records in the community will yield better outcomes than polls subject to selection bias and sampling errors in fact the community already has in place the single single most impactful polling mechanism to adjust the course of the school board board seat elections those elections those election events are already stressful on on the community regular polling runs the risk of producing fatigue and division not producing better outcomes for Bank students all that said I have this I have disagreed with the board's decisions in the past and I will likely disagree in the future however in those situations I expect I will strengthen my listening before seeking to strengthen my arguments thank you again for this
026opportunity to address the board here's to a continued safe and successful school here all right thank you thank you Dan uh next speaker is Jared Benson foreign can you hear me yes yes we can yeah the video won't start but I can go without video that's fine okay go ahead Jared I'm I'm trying it won't uh it won't let me have to do oh there we go okay uh my name is Jared Benson I'm a resident here in Banks I have three children in the district schools thank you to the school board and to Mr Leo for the work you do for the district I appreciate the opportunity to make some comments today since school board meetings have come back to being open to public comment it's become apparent that there are a number of
027issues that community members would like to have a deeper conversation on that impact our children's education and not just covet related last meeting for example there were critical race Theory and Equity Advisory Board topics brought up in a prior meeting a redoing of the district mission statement was mentioned I personally would like to understand more about what is being proposed in these areas many members of the community feel like the current methods of communicating to the school board and receiving information about decisions from the school board doesn't allow for a dialogue I believe one member of the school board last meeting said that the meeting is not meant for having a dialogue many parents feel like a dialogue is exactly what's missing respectful discussion of all sides of an issue should be a guiding principle
028for policy and decisions for the district it's important that the board and superintendent understand how the community feels about issues before decisions are made by them to this end a petition was created to express the desire of many community members in less than a week it has more than 100 signatures this resp that this represents a meaningful number of banks families and school children and we weren't even pushing hard to get signatures I've emailed you a copy of the text of the petition and the list of signatures the petition reads local representation of the community and the decision-making process for issues that affect Banks children is an essential part of democracy this is only feasible through a healthy conversation between the community and decision makers before the October 2021 school board meeting the bank's Community
029requests the board and district superintendent make the following changes to the way the board and superintendent engage with the community number one establish a Town Hall open Forum to be held the hour prior to every regularly scheduled school board meeting the purpose of this forum would be to allow community members on all sides of an issue to have the opportunity to engage in respectful discussions and give the school board insight into the community's position on important issues number two establish a standard method for Gathering Community feedback on issues of concern similar to previous ad hoc efforts involving online surveys that Mr Leo sent out during covid solicit feedback from the community when requested by a to be determined number of banks community members number three be a hundred percent transparent in sharing the results of
030those surveys community members are to have access to Anonymous survey results and data should be shared to the public number four commit to responding in writing to every question posted to school board and Superintendent at a school board meeting this could take the form of a monthly q a publication for example that's the end of the petition this petition was posted on the bank's Facebook bulletin board page over the last week to dispel some misconceptions about the what the petition is about I'll address some of the concerns that were raised in the comments area of the Facebook page Point number one someone commented why we're asking via this petition for the school board to spend an additional 12 hours a month the truth is we're only asking for an additional hour of time per month
031in the form of an open forum Point number two some people commented that school board meetings and email are the forms of communication available to the public however as we've seen in recent board meetings the board members don't answer the questions from the public in addition parents have expressed to me and others the lack of responses to email communication Point number three some people commented that asking the school board to answer questions posed at the meeting is unnecessary that individual emails should be sufficient however the Q a monthly publication we are proposing the petition would actually save the school board and superintendent Time by answering all questions in one monthly publication you eliminate duplicate messages from different parents and community members and point number four one one minute got it thank you Point number four
032some people commented that this type of open forum is not needed since democracy worked in May when the school board was elected that's like saying once you vote for a representative or senator in Congress that no matter what happens throughout the time that person is in office there's no reason to ever contact them to let him or her know how you stand on an issue however that's not how democracy is meant to work new issues pop up throughout time and the community should be able to have an ongoing conversation and dialogue with decision makers in closing all we're asking for is to enable a dialogue no matter which side of an issue we all sit on if community members many having different opinions about issues are to live in harmony with one another we should
033learn about what each other thinks and why respectfully we the hundred plus signatures of this petition encourage the school board and superintendent to adopt these points to improve engagement with the community thank you Jared uh next speaker is Daniel's skovran discovering discovering sorry sir oh that's all good um yeah hi my name is Daniel scoverin I live in Banks I have two kids in Banks Elementary School one more starting next year hopefully if things go well uh so just real quick here's my stance on covid I support unmasking our kids based on parents rights to make Health decisions for their own kids and because maths simply do not provide a tangible benefit to outweigh the costs I do not support vaccine mandates for any one period and there's a lot of information out there to
034help people understand why that makes sense I do support everyone else's right to mask up themselves their children their pets and to be experimented upon with mRNA injections if they choose to do so so that is just one issue we're dealing with right now covid but there are many more that are also worth talking about so I have some questions to one of the points from Jared to the school board some coveted related some not these are questions on behalf of myself and many other parents and community members I have spoken to these can be answered now which I likely won't happen which is totally fine we don't have time for that uh or a written response is is preferred at some time before the next board meeting so I I have quite a few
035questions we don't have enough time I will email you a copy and I have a bunch of copies with me to give to others if they want it so question one are you for or against the enforcement of the Mask mandate for children in school number two are you for or against the enforcement of the vaccine mandate for teachers uh do you allow for the medical and and religious exemptions number three are you for or against vaccine mandates for children 12 and older this is becoming a more critical critical question now due to Biden's recent mandate and I suspect that more is coming are you for or against the vaccine mandate being applied to coaches including volunteer coaches which does not allow for religious exemptions are you for or against the requirement that all volunteers
036in our schools must show proof of vaccination are you for or against creating uh School District policy which requires parental consent with regard to all issues related to sex education gender and health issues such as vaccines even if this contradicts State guidelines are you aware that it is illegal in Oregon for a child to be given the covid-19 vaccine without parental consent as far as you understand it are you for or against the use of critical race Theory as a framework for discussing issues of race in our classrooms would you like to learn more about what CRT actually is perhaps from a panel com comprised of people who are both in support of and against its use as a framework for educating our children are you for or against the adoption of comprehensive sexuality education
037at the elementary and middle school levels are you for or against the inclusion of biological males in female sports if you voted against any of the initiatives above are you willing to help our community find a way to deal with the consequences from State and education unions should our school district choose to defy State mandates and that is all right thank you Daniel all right next speaker is Travis Schlegel nice I see him and I have a Travis s here I'm assuming that's you ask you to unmute okay I'm unmuted you can you hear me yeah we can hear you you you can turn on your video if you'd like or you don't have to oh there you go yeah you're good can you hear me can you see me yep you're good let me
038start the clock go ahead the lady using drama on the board thank you for taking the time to uh uh listen to the public uh comment and I realize that according to the public meetings manual you are actually not required to accept public comment uh the fact that you do so anyway especially during these contentious times uh speaks volumes to how greatly you care about this community and want to solicit uh feedback from them most members of the community greatly appreciate the opportunity to engage with our local government as a school we are facing many challenges right now of getting our kids back into school and and some semblance of normal whatever that might be now while normal isn't what it used to be we're all doing the best that we can the most important
039things for students is to return to in-person learning uh safely as possible while keeping all students staff volunteers and family members safe the leading scientific and medical authorities we have available to us that are not on Facebook or YouTube have determined several ways to accomplish this among them engineering better ventilation into our classrooms limiting class sizes a social distancing placing students and cohorts to better contact uh Trace outbreaks should they occur the two greatest protections we have against this pandemic are of course vaccination for those who can take it and wearing a mask now I remember any time that I wanted to participate in anything um that was important to me uh I usually had to get a lot of vaccinations whether I wanted to become a volunteer firefighter whether I wanted to become an
040EMT whether I wanted to join the Navy whether I wanted to become a paramedic all of those things required a certain number of vaccinations from the Navy a lot of them I had no idea what a lot of them were probably was experimental some of them but uh I'm just fine anyway now the vaccine that we have now while new is fully approved by the FDA masks it's just they've been around for hundreds of years uh they work it's just a it's a it's back masks work to stop the spread of Airborne diseases air sliced particles spit it's not that's that's how these things spread that's an indisputable fact the biggest protection they offer is to others the there are people in our community neighbors classmates they legitimately legitimately can't wear masks or struggle to
041wear them effectively when you wear a mask you are protecting those students as well as yourself now I would love to sit down with each and every one of you and have a discussion about CRT or bathrooms for transgender athletes or whether or not the moon landing was faked or if the Earth is flat all those subjects could make for a lively discussion but I would like to have those discussions on our own time over a cup of coffee because none of those subjects have a thing to do with getting our kids back to school full-time keeping them there and keeping them safe and healthy you have very important work to do very hard work to do I want to know what we can do I want to know what I can do Travis a
042parent of a special one minute thank you I want to know what I can do as a parent of a special needs child in the fifth grade who was one of those kids who has a hard time keeping his mask on what I can do to help you keep our kids in school in person full-time and safe that's what we need to focus on everything else is gravy thank you all right thank you Travis all right I've I had one public comments submitted by a letter and this is from Amy Seidel and she is the mother of three children in Banks she has two and B Banks Elementary wanted to speak today in support of the teacher staff and School Board I have had many great experiences with bes and have volunteered volunteered there for
043years so I've had a few instances where teachers approached me for input on upcoming lessons about diversity and book choices for a Martin Luther King lesson I thought such inclusion was amazing and showed they thought enough to seek a parent's perspective I have children of color in Banks and have been very happy with the curriculum and posters as they include diversity I am looking forward to the creation of an equity in education advisory committee however I am concerned about allegations that bsd's curriculum is indoctrinating our children I have not seen any proof or examples of critical race Theory curriculum and believe that such a claim needs to be backed up it has to be addressed or dismissed as an issue is becoming a Hot Topic that is a distraction for our board false rhetoric claiming
044curriculum issues in order to promote an unnecessary solution is nonsense it has never been proven to be an actual issue we have so many real and immediate needs to tackle in our school district Beyond keeping our kids safe and on track this school year we need to plan for a new high school building and bond we need to broaden our scope of electives trade school and AP courses offered the buzzwords take back local control is another distraction making that claim suggests that local control existed that the parents of banks controlled the school or school's curriculum as a public school we accept state funding we have to follow a set of standards and protocols to ensure that every school is maintaining a level of Education that is appropriate and Equitable we should not waste the school
045board's time on the false realities if what some people are really wanting is control that is a private school lastly I can agree to disagree and will continue to do so in the future I do not think we need to have a combative environment of meetings I hope that we can continue to work together to hear and respect each other put forth relevant ideas and participate when appropriate in order to help the board serve our schools thank you Amy Seidel us all right so that is the end of public comment for this evening that is who I had signed up um I want to thank everybody for their perspectives and their input throughout and for being here this evening we appreciate your comments Ron did you want to say anything uh nope okay just never
046see it okay we'll move on to 4.0 for the consent agenda 4.1 the board minutes uh of last month do I have a motion a move that we uh accept the consent agenda as as outlined go for it all in favor aye motion passes unanimously okay with that um we'll move on to 5.0 for the discussion items uh Jeff you want to give out your kova 19 update yeah so you know we've had covid-19 update on here since you know March of 2020 so um just a quick covid-19 update tonight we I would just like to focus on the positives tonight for my covid-19 update I know there are increasing cases and concerns throughout the Community State and Country um however I want to focus on the great opening we've had students are here they
047are happy to be here staff are excited they are back and we are wearing masks and following safety Pro protocols and it has been a very successful start a very exciting start and it continues to be we have to stay focused on the safety protocols to ensure that we achieve our main goal this year and our main goal this year is in-person schooling for the entire year with very little disruptions with quarantines this will be assuring the health and safety of students and staff at times while at school school events and on buses also to maintain a Workforce so we can have school in person this is going to be done by using all of the health and safety protocols protocol tools necessary to achieve this goal we now also need to remain focused on
048student learning we are beginning our assessments we're getting used to being back in school and we're getting in a Groove we need to make sure we remain focused on student learning and eliminate as much as possible the distractions of covet and what it has brought over the last 18 to 19 months we need to continue to move forward and focus on student learning in this entire school year to stay in person this is not always easy we agree we disagree we've navigated this throughout I as a parent I'm frustrated as well with many things that have gone on over the last 18 19 months we get stuck sometimes on recent announced announcements and mandates and I'm not saying whether you agree or disagree with those mandates I get stuck on them I've been stuck on
049one for the last two and a half weeks the time before with a mandate I end up working at least a week solid on these mandates as they get released so I have to give myself that I wanted that my own advice as well so it is it imperative that the school district and its staff remain focused on student health and safety and student learning very proud of the students and also the staff they have been great these first two weeks we will continue to face challenges as they come but again we will always remain focused on student health and learning I would invite questions from the board now um the principles are on here as well like I said it's gonna just been a very successful first two weeks um it's been it's been
050pretty smooth and you know we we're getting back in the groove when it's exciting um it's it's nice to see just this place alive again is there any board comments or questions I have a question but it's not related to covet or is that is now the time to ask it or um is there another time I think you know well it says covet update but I think it's uh opening to school update so um Now's the Time to ask principals different um student learning questions and and covid questions so um I just had a curiosity I mean I I think I'm very impressed with the with the work we're doing uh both using all the tools we have available to keep the students safe and I'm excited that everybody's excited I just had a
051just something I've mentioned before and I'm curious about because I don't recall um in uh Jacob in your write-up you you just passing note that Mr rice is scheduling PST as that Etc et cetera I'm trying to remember if I ever knew what the what is um Mr rice or the school doing with the ASVAB results student by student once they get them do you know yeah Will can you hear me yeah yeah so uh it kind of depends who we're working with as far as some of the military recruiters that come in from MEPS to help out with that um we we've had some some positive experiences with that where they've actually came in and met with each individual student and gone over those results and explained off the aptitude test maybe some potential
052careers or strengths that they have to look into and we've also had years where they come in and just say okay here's your score thanks next so um it it varies depending on on who we have on that in that given year helping out with that okay at the end of October early November that we do that uh last year we weren't able to do that on that timeline being at CDL uh so we offered it later in the spring I think in uh in February before we returned to in person we were able to offer that okay so we can talk about this offline if you want or you're interested I've I've used ASVAB as head of recruiting for the for the six Western States like literally day by day and and have a
053working using knowledge of it that most don't because the military uses to place people in their Specialties and that's but that is also very telling about their General aptitudes and very enlightening about what their what what areas of interest there could be but if they're not aware so I'd love to um you know if you're interested I'd love to explore that I may be able to help leverage it to to some additional use that'd be great thanks will we'll talk offline Jacob I also had a question for you I saw in your write-up that you noted that there were several um a number of students have been quarantined um that was much higher than what we saw in the spring I guess one of the things I was wondering about was contact Tracy and how
054are we how are we doing that I know the high school was kind of a tough situation with the number of classes and then the second part of if that if you could put your your hat on and if I know there's guidance if we didn't wear a mask in the school what that scenario would look like yeah something I mentioned in the in the Border Port was that we already at the start of the year had more cases but fortunately Ron that was uh people took the advice that if you're not well don't come to school and a lot of that was from the Summer where students had been exposed or tested positive before school started and so they didn't start the school year with us and so that didn't spark an immediate need
055for contact tracing because they had not been at the school and actually going through class by class like we had to do that in the spring um uh we are constantly monitoring that and just encouraging again as much as we can any kind of thing we send home about you know if you have these symptoms do not come to school to hopefully try to uh alleviate that and the second part to that uh of your question is uh the infographic the guidance that changed this year was if students are wearing masks and they are three feet or more than a student doesn't need to quarantine unless they develop symptoms um last year it was much more difficult it was six feet and so uh that's why we had to stay in that hybrid there wasn't
056room to social distance six feet in all those classes so uh this year because everybody's wearing masks and I'll say high school kids have done an outstanding job there's a few reminders about pulling it up over their nose but kids have been amazing with that um and I think they're so happy to be back in person uh that they're they're thrilled to pull up their mask over their nose to get into class and and seeing the smiles and laughter in the hallways has been great um the um so the current guidance if we did not have the mask mat date right now and somebody tested positive and uh there'd be a lot more quarantining that we'd have to worry about I understood and that's good to hear I that's good to hear that people won't
057recognize I'm sure that's coming in from the summer and recognizing I'm not I'm not there yet from a health perspective so that's that's encouraging to hear thank you is there any other board member questions foreign let's move on to Senate bill 732. all right so you've heard multiple public comments over the past couple of months referring to seven Senate Bill 732 and I wanted to put that on the agenda this evening just to speak to it a little bit I met with um Carissa oh about three weeks ago to discuss this and Carissa has a um has a has a great knowledge and and and works with Equity groups um at Pacific and um we had a great conversation so Senate Bill 732 was passed this legislative session and that just ended in June and
058and you've heard public comment but the the bill requires the school district to form an educational Equity advisory committee and I would say equity and inclusion advisory committee that is selected by the board and the superintendent that is composed of parents employees students and community members from the district it also states that it must ensure that membership is primarily representative of underserved student groups and this is stated directly in the legislation the committee must be in place by September 15 2025 and you heard a public comment this evening requesting of the school district to put that in sooner that is just a quick summary of the law included the law in your packet there's not there's not a whole lot of wording to it it's but I just summarize it for you there um the
059district has been to several trainings over the past years around Equity we received training from the ESD Northwest Regional ESD we have multiple discussions around Equity we focus on it in everything we do making sure for all of our students and provide additional support so that all students can succeed so moving forward working with Northwest Regional ESD we'll be putting I will be putting together the process to first form a committee following the guidelines work with Northwest Regional ESD to provide support with Equity training for committee members which I think is very important as we start this committee and I would ask for a little patience as we get the school year started I would like to work on this committee this fall and into the winter with Northwest Regional ESD I've already reached out
060to Northwest Regional ESD and their superintendent and just with getting school started in recent mandates and things like that they're working on it but like I said if if people would be just a little patient I am planning on working on it this fall and hopefully having something together early winter I want to form the committee um right away and have it be an important and effective Committee in the bank School District Equity will continue to be the center of our student learning discussions we need to ensure that students of color are lgbtq plus students are students of poverty students with disability all of our students no matter what they need are put on a path to success and I would just say you know this this committee I wrote this down and you know
061this is this is a tough job with tough conversations so I just wanted to let people know that I am working on it um I'm going to work on it with the Northwest Regional ESD who also has somebody at the ESD specifically works on equity in our school district so I just wanted to give an update and I am working on it then and we'll be working through it setting up the setting up the process for for the district foreign was there any questions board members okay we have no action items that takes us to seven uh superintendent comments yeah so not much to add here um you've you see my board report um I think I've addressed most of it this evening but I would like to reiterate our number one goal this year
062is to maintain in person and we will do what is necessary to do that um that's our goal and we need to stay focused on that goal and focused on student learning I would like to report I have been working on having OHSU come here and doing a vaccination clinic and we are about ready to finalize that and I will be getting out information to the community this is going to be open to the community to our teachers to our students that are 12 and older and so on um but OHSU does mobile mobile vaccination clinics throughout the region and we were able to I'm going to be able to have them come out and thank you Mr streblow all right uh we'll go to board member comments uh Leslie we'll start with you all
063right I I've loved hearing from our um administrators it was in our little uh book agenda book and uh in the elementary school I see that we've got our volunteers working to support our schools and they're going to have a PTO meeting um Thursday night at six o'clock if anybody's interested in helping with that support um I would really appreciate it because I know that those volunteers are are just so necessary for our school and in the middle school I loved it when they they asked uh what are you excited about and the kids said seeing my friends every day not really you know that's why we need to stay in school and in the high school um they have a canvas page set up so if a student has to miss a day of
064school for illness or whatever they can get on that right away and get their assignments and resources uh for their classes and they also um the high school recognizes a staff person and a student and I'd also like to thank you all for all the kind words tonight I really appreciated that and for those of you who that have written to me with your kind words that really [Music] um it just really makes you feel good and you're you're just thankful for um all that we can do for our school district too to keep it the wonderful District that it that it is to Leslie will um I guess I kind of want to let uh Echo Leslie I I was pleased to see all the reports and pleased to see that students are coming
065in greater numbers than we expected that's obviously a good sign um it certainly is unfortunate always when we have to feel like we have to give in a little bit on our own what we'd like to be our own personal choices and Liberties in the best interests of the greater good but unfortunately we have to do that in this case and I'm really pleased the way the school has responding to that and done that um your your focus on keeping kids in school that's that was our stated Focus as award I believe uh at the very beginning of this uh obviously we couldn't for a period of time in the worst cases but we committed to getting back in you committed getting back in school you have and uh I think the decisions have been
066made have been have been very good to to that end and that's where we are where we are and I I I'm excited to continue uh down that path um see there's one other thing I wonder coming on oh and I also just like also like let's say I want to say how much I appreciated the comments tonight and the comments we see through email uh both of those that I may agree with or not agree with um appreciate the support and appreciate the perspective of everybody's comments and uh it's okay and I I'll listen to as many as come and that's great I I do feel like we um I feel comfortable that we as a board have uh are responding to uh what the the the the majority of the community wants for
067their kids in the schools uh and I and I do make quite an effort to to listen for that and hear that and understand that I think the other board members do too so I'm pleased with that and but I do appreciate the input and it's welcome and uh and I just finally of course like always appreciation for the for the staff and the students and and Jeff and everybody that's running our schools so thank you thanks well Dan thank you so you're on mute Dan yeah I had that there you go sorry about that my dog's been crazy earlier um I I really want to you know Echo what Leslie and Will are saying it's so appreciative that we've been able to kind of get back in the school safely so far and uh
068I hope that continues because I think the most important thing is us getting back in school figuring out where the kids are at so that we can make the adjustments to make sure that we get everybody on track again um I also I did have a question during the uh the Senate Bill 732 um talk and maybe this is uh I can still get an answer for that um just because I think it's pertinent to to everybody who wants to be involved in that Jeff will there be an application process um and if so um what does that look like so we can get as many community members as possible involved in that yeah so I you know like I said I'm just starting to work on it I'm gonna have to work on with
069ESD but yes there's going to be an application process I think it's important um like like to honor the what what stated in the legislation so yes it'll be an application process that's what I'll be working on and that'll be the first step in getting the committee selected and making sure it has wide representation across the community thank you um and again congrats to the faculty and staff for you know working with our kids getting them back in I really appreciate the fact that we're using canvas as kind of a backup just in case some kids have to be quarantined we do have an outbreak um and so that we can continue with our seamless education thank you for that thank you Dan uh Carissa for everyone um thank you to all the comments that
070were made um by everyone this evening um I think it's very clear that there are some things that we all disagree on right in this in this world and in when it comes to education I've been in education for 22 years and it's very imperfect system right and we're doing the best that we can um so I think there is some disagreement but I think the commonality that we all share is the passion and love for our kids right and and the ability to that we want to move forward in the future and support them so I think even though there might be um you know disagreements on different sides of issues right now the unity that we do have is about taking care of our kids um so I just want to thank our
071staff for you know bringing our kids back they're so happy my two people my seventh grader and my fourth grader are elated to be with their friends again and to be in schools and it's just it's amazing so um thank you to all the teachers and all you do and to Jeff and to our Administration I I know this is not an easy path we were hoping to say hey we're we're over covid look at we're back to normal but that's not um where we're at and so we're making adjustments with all of that um I do still feel like we need to really focus on um you know the mental health needs of our students I think that's being echoed by people regardless of where they stand on various issues and um I think
072in public comment today um someone made the comment that we still don't really even understand how impacted our kids are right we know that you know with the pre-coveted data between 50 and 60 of our kids have experienced a um adverse childhood experience um for an ace right and that one or more of those um and I would argue that in you know our collective experience we've really all been through trauma and we're still going through it um so I think our kids need a lot more more compassion and empathy and understanding for how they're navigating this just in my own experience I know my little guy has been talking about death doesn't want us to die really concerned about his own mortality and others and that's not something that I think a lot of
073nine-year-olds are facing um and I think but I do think many more of them are now so I think it's just really important to be paying attention to where our kids are um and meeting them where they're at and I think that's the most important thing right now is just really taking care of their mental and you know emotional and social needs the academics will come and we have an amazing District here I'm so excited about it so thank you for all you do um and I did just want to acknowledge that I know um there are you know there are some people including the members that that signed the petition that would like us to um you know defy the governor's mandates and I just want to just acknowledge you know publicly that we
074all on the school board took an oath of office right we took an oath and off of office to be here um to uphold the US Constitution and to follow laws in Oregon and the federal laws so you know defying that would be going against the oath that we took to this community so um I think that's really important to remember we're doing the best we can that's the other part of our oath right we're doing the absolute best we can and we really appreciate all your support and everything that everyone is doing so thank you all thank you Carissa um and lastly I just uh to the administration to the staff uh to all the coaches everyone that's dealing with this um I just want to say um thank you so much uh if
075I put a parent hat on I see my kid go to school I see him struggle with the homework trying to get back into the groove of what school looks like um but the excitement is there and I'm just very appreciative of all the work that is being done and um all the scenarios that you guys have to manage um is tough I know it can be overwhelming as we just tried to get through uh through this year so just uh thank you chair everyone and the staff and the school district to my board members thank you if you have interest in the equity training please email me I think I Jeff mentioned that we could set something up with the ESD and thank you to the community members for uh joining the meeting and
076with that I will go ahead and adjourn the meeting thank you everyone thank you all thank you good night everyone be well good night