(Backup Recording) Corvallis School Board Meeting 4/16/2026

001Okay, think we're ready. The April 16, 2026 meeting of the Corvalis School Board is now called to order at 6:31 p.m. To support the health and safety of all community members, particularly those who are immuno compromised and their families, the board continues to offer a virtual plat part a virtual participation option for board members and district staff. Public comment is available at select meetings both in person and virtually. Details on how to provide public comment are available on the Corvallis School District website. Tonight's agenda, board packet, and a link to the district's YouTube channel are available in the schoolboard page of the website. All public meetings are livereamed on YouTube and recordings are typically posted the following day. Tonight, we have all board members in attendance in person. And the first item on the agenda

002is acknowledgement of ArabAmerican History Month. chair if may I may say a few words before reading the resolution that's fine thank you Medina. uh in English. Uh what I shared is that I am proud of my language and my culture. This is a gift I carry with me from my family's home. It didn't make me a stranger. It opened uh before me a window into a beautiful community and a rich ancient culture around us in our communities and across this nation. Arab Americans serve, build and give every day. I think of people like the dedicated workers in Corvalis, especially those who work in Corvalis schools who come from this Arabic community or those like Victor uh may he rest in peace who carried his Arabic name all the way to the governor's mansion and served

003everyone in Oregon with pride. We are all here and we enrich this country. Thank you, chair. Corvalis School District 509J, acknowledgement of Arab American Heritage Month, resolution number 22-03 02. Whereas the Corvalis School District recognizes and pays tribute to the significant contributions made in our community by Arab Americans which includes people with ancestry from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. And whereas the Corvalis School District affirms that students, families, staff, and community members should be valued for all aspects of their identities. And whereas ArabAmerican Heritage Month grew out of local efforts in several school districts throughout the nation in the 1900s and whereas ArabAmerican Heritage Month has been proclaimed by several states since. And >> whereas ArabAmericans are largely left out of academic discourse and whereas Arabameans have historically been and continue to be targeted

004by anti-Arab violence and actions of hate. And whereas the US Department of State designated April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month in 2021 and Whereas Oregon proclaimed April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month permanently in 2021 and whereas ArabAmerican Heritage Month has yet to be proclaimed at the national level at the time of this proclamation. And whereas Arabameans have contributed to the history and collective future of Corvalis and Benton County, Oregon. And whereas ArabAmerican History Month provides an opportunity to continue the district's growth in learning about the many contributions of ArabAmericans to the nation, world, and local community. And whereas education is a necessary component for creating a more equitable and anti-racist community, nation, and world. And Whereas the Corvalis school district has made a commitment to equity and anti-racism and whereas the Corvalis school district has a responsibility

005to honor and respect the diverse history of our community. And whereas the Corvalis School District believes each and every student must be celebrated and appreciated for the dis uh distinct and vibrant contributions made by sharing cultures, language, ideas, beliefs, and values within the school community. Therefore, let it be resolved by the board of education of the Corvalis School District does hereby proclaim April 2022 as well as each April annually as ArabAmerican Heritage Month in the district and strongly encourage students, families, staff, and community members to join in existing local celebrations and encourage all schools in the district to help highlight this month in great in grade appropriate ways as well as highlight the contributions of all ArabAmerican peoples to the local community, nation, and beyond, both historically and in current times. >> Thanks everyone. And

006as a reminder, uh we reread our proclamations um every year to reaffirm CSD's commitment to the words within them. And the next item on the agenda is board member reports. I wanted to mention that we have not had a business meeting since March 5th, so we probably have several things to report. Um, and I'm going to ask board members to maybe um, briefly mention, not fully explain perhaps so we can save time because I'm sure there's a lot of folk that have things to report or maybe not. Go ahead, Shauna. I see a lot of Garfield representation today in the boardroom. I just wanted to thank Garfield for inviting us to the Libros E Desuno event a couple of Saturdays ago. That was just such a wonderful collaboration of community, local business partners, the PTA,

007students, staff, um breakfast and books were students were leaving with books, families were coming enjoying a meal together and it was just such a beautiful event to be able to go and be a part of again this year. So, thank you for inviting us. The other just other quick mention was I really enjoyed being a part of the innovation team meeting earlier this week. There's so much work that is ongoing in terms of planning around the Corvalis promise upcoming changes really strengthening so much that's happening as well as planning new things in the schools and it was just really a pleasure to continue being a part of those conversations and really hearing the dedicated staff who are who are creatively thinking about what's coming next for students. >> Thanks Sean. izing your hand up too,

008Chris. >> Thanks. I have a few things. Um, one, I was able to attend one of the um the Corval schools foundations Golden Apple um presentation to Mandy Hunter at Bessie Coleman and that was really sweet with her family there and and all that the foundation has done in presenting those awards just really positive. And then um I've been attending several track meets and I just really want to give a shout out to our high schools and our middle schools for just organizing all these track meets. A lot of kids, a lot of events. Um but it's really well done and very well organized. Um and a lot of staff there and even in the very wet, cold, windy afternoon at CV the other day, there was still a lot of people there. So it

009was really great. Um, I too attended the books and breakfast. I was just there for a few minutes. I got to help set up a little bit. Um, but just a very strong sense of community. I was really um, honored to be there and appreciate the invite. I was also at Bessie Coleman one day when they were having an activity uh, afternoon where every teacher hosts a different activity for kids. Um so the kids are all spread out different places and again just a lot of community um showing in that and the kids having a lot of fun, teachers participating. Um I saw from one activity where there were thousands of Legos on the floor and kids were putting things together to um a classroom with little um battery operated tea lightss all over and

010kids reading quietly. So, it was different extremes, but so sweet. Um, and then I also was able to attend a couple of the open houses today um for the new families to different schools and that was just very there were welcome committees right out front just welcoming people um making sure that it was a really positive experience. And then I just also want to give one little shout out to our um student rep Thomas Sherry. mentioned it before that he had been nominated for fer future first and he received that award. So just want to congratulate him as well. Bernie, >> I also participated in the Garfield event, but actually my report is that I've sat uh in two of the bargaining sessions already and I am learning quite a bit and uh also learning

011about how the process work and and seeing the professionalism of both sides. Uh it's really encouraging. I'll continue to attend as uh my schedule allows. >> Trace Uh yes. So the Garfield um breakfast and books was a delight to get to participate in. Um I particularly enjoyed uh after the food had slowed down getting to help organize the book table and helping kids find things that they sounded like they were interested in and or oh no, I think I saw a book about dinosaurs. Let's see if we can find it over here. And um that was really it was really happy to see kids getting really excited about about books. And so I appreciated that. Um I also uh participated in the um career day for juniors and our high schools who do um uh

012practice interviews, mock interviews. Um that was really it's my first time actually participating um as somebody doing mock interviews. Um and it was great to sit with our students and to hear their perspective on what they're learning. Um hearing how they are pulling out real world learning implications from the courses that they're taking. And um our kids have done a lot of things and it was really neat to hear them talk about those. um and to practice uh talking about their accomplishments. So that was really um quite a delight. And then uh well there was one more but I have lost it. So if it comes back to me well I'll save it for next time Sammy. >> Thank you chair. So I did attend the Garfield event. very thankful for the invitation from the

013PTA and uh uh what I heard uh from one of the parents that they were able to fund raise uh enough money for the wish lists uh for the teachers uh and a little bit more as well and uh grateful that uh we have those opportunities when invited by staff or uh parents to interact and meet with uh a school community. It's been really great. uh also the golden apple opportunities has been wonderful and I'm really grateful uh for this opportunities. Thank you for the foundation for sponsoring this amazing uh way of celebrating our staff. Um one thing I wanted to share with you, I just came back from San Antonio and uh I was selected uh by the delegate assembly of uh the National School Board Association to serve as the secretary treasurer of

014the organization. uh the first time someone from Oregon is selected in uh the association's history uh in 80 years. Uh this is a one-year term and what it will allow me is to uh serve our community and uh the 80,000 uh board members across the nation with professional development, advocacy, and other opportunities uh that I will be sharing over the next uh year. A few things I want to share with you that you have in front of you today are the ASBJ magazine uh which is the oldest uh continuously printing uh uh journal or magazine uh or paper um in America since the 19th century and uh it contains uh articles related to board governance and uh there are some subjects that I'll be highlighting uh hopefully in the coming uh uh reports. One uh

015thing I want to also share with you from uh the National School Board Association. I shared with you an email about uh the proposed presidential uh budget uh regarding cuts or additions to the education budgets and their impacts and that has been shared with local boards and also shared with the state associations. So, we'll keep you appraised about them and hopefully members of Congress will uh have an insight from local boards what those programs on a program level uh what those cuts mean to our schools. Uh the other thing is the small book that uh you have is uh a book that was gifted to us uh uh on the uh National School Board Association by the exiting president from Massachusetts Devon Shihen. and I I wanted to share it to with you and uh

016with our student representatives as well. It's uh wi wisdom from the world according to uh Mr. Rogers uh important things to remember and uh I found it's really heartwarming words that uh I I would consider putting it next to me at the nightstand and uh things that may will help us also have to navigate challenges we uh face. I I think of Mr. Rogers in many ways. Uh during this past year when I was thinking about some challenges we were uh navigating, I asked myself uh what would Mr. Rogers say or what m would Mr. Rogers do? And a trusted friend told me well what he he would consider is uh approaching things from a child development point of view. So, I hope that you find some words of wisdom in this book and hopefully

017we get to maybe talk about them uh sometime. Uh I do have and to make my report brief today, I do have a bunch of books that I brought with me uh from the National School Board Association that I'll have available after the meeting uh that if you would like to borrow, happy to lend them to you. And uh I will continue to share some updates and insights from the conference in San Antonio over the next uh few weeks. >> Thanks Sammy. Anybody else? Oh go ahead. >> Sorry I forgot something. Okay. >> Um I I want to give a shout out to the foundation and the career day at OSU. um I attended and did uh a full day uh worth of interviews and it's amazing meeting those uh great juniors and their great

018ideas and and uh be able to help in that and again I want to thank uh all the sponsors but but also um the foundation for putting this together. Anybody else? Okay, I had a couple things. I know we're just about out of time. um since it's been since March 5th, I when I looked on my calendar, I had to go all the way back to um recognize that I went and seen Foot Loose at CHS and that was absolutely amazing. They did such a good job. Um so I know other board members also went to that. Um there's been two innovation team meetings like Shauna said just um seen the excitement and also um all the work happening with the staff through those. Um the Corvalis Public School Foundation board retreat uh was really

019great. um things with OSBA like their board meeting and their governance committee. Um I also went to the Garfield books and um breakfast event. It was thank you for the invite and um I enjoyed um serving food and helping get things prepared. At first I was like oh no there's nothing to do but I will I'm going to stand here and refill juice for a while and then got to serve food um when somebody needed a break. So that was nice to be able to spend the morning there. Um I was able to swing by the um open house uh for um for Corvalis Junior High for next year. Um so it's the open house for that iteration and um it was very welcoming as well. Um, I did want to also share that um

020I was reached out to by um Crescent Valley High School student Clarence um Fernando about um running for the um Oregon youth governor. And I'm really excited I have his permission to share this that um he was selected and he's the first um Corval school district student to be the um the Oregon youth governor. And so that's exciting news. And so, um, he's will be in charge of leading the YMCA youth and government program, the largest mock, um, youth government in Oregon. And they will have an opportunity to draft, debate, and pass mock mock legislation and the capital as a chance to learn more about the legislative process. and he will also be responsible for planning and presiding over their legislative session in 2027 inside the House and Senate floors at the capital and also

021signing and vetoing mock bills and be the student face of the state's entire program representing Oregon at the national youth governor's conference and he said this is an amazing opportunity for me to represent our community at the state level program the first Corvalis governor um in youth um the youth program history. So, I just wanted to share that and say congratulations to um Clarence on that. And um the last thing I was going to share is that OSU hosted the Pacific Islander Student Alliance Conference which I was able to attend um and I brought a couple of things um for everyone to take a look at. One is the um Native and Hawaiian Pacific Islander Student Success Plan, their interim plan that was published in July of 24. They're still doing updates, but it's on

022the web page. I'll pass this one around. And I was going to try to copy them, but I ran out of time getting ready for the meeting because I was working all day. And so, um, I'll pass this around for you all to look at, but with our data, um, lacking, um, information about the student population. I think it's extremely important that we know what resources are out there. And I was also able to get this uh, the National Enquir uh, Pacific Islands edition. This is curriculum that was produced by the USDA um and the US Forest Service, the Department of A and um you have those on each end um as well. And this is has um just different lesson plans that focus on Pacific Island um culture and community that meets also educational

023standards. And so I gave Ryan a copy of these materials as well. And I will give um Kim this one for the um board book for people to see later on. And if anybody's interested, I have a lot of these because they gave me a whole box of them. And um we also have plenty of those. So that is a lot of things, but thank you for taking the time to listen. And next on the agenda is um the superintendence report. >> All right. Well, um we're going to start with the recogniz recognition for our golden apple winners. And so, um, the foundation, um, as we go through and do the awards, they also, um, record some of the interactions. And so, they then put it together in a video that we can share. So,

024we're going to start with the video with the most recent Golden Apple Award winners. I am not the Golden Apple Award winner. I'm just reading something. HEY, >> we're here for a golden apples. >> As one colleague noted, when she shines her light on you, you feel special in a way that is hard to describe. >> No one teacher does this alone. My co-artner teacher Jen Carlin next door and Riley like really truly it's a team. >> Well, thank you Pride for letting us come today. So today, one of your staff members here is has won a golden apple. When I enter LP, I too am greeted by Maria Pon's smile and warm. >> She is the recipient of the Golden Apple Award. >> Everybody that works here, it makes it easy to work here.

025So, it makes me happy to see everybody that comes through the door and welcoming them here and be able to help them to whatever they need uh at the moment. And uh does. And for them to recognize that I'm happy doing what I do, it makes me happy, too. >> Hello. >> We are here to not uh recognize you with a gold nap. >> While others might simplify complex material, she maintains rigorous academic standards. firm in the belief that every student regardless of their starting point is capable of mastering difficult texts. >> The uh students and admin and and um my peers around me all the things that whoever wrote said that that means a ton that it's notice. >> This morning we have a special award that we're planning to give out um to

026recognize one of the SAP members here at your school. You might find him behind the booth as the DJ for school dances or motivating his colleagues and students on the for the occasional beatbox performance. Come on up here, Jerry. Whether it's students or staff, like the fact that people notice is awesome. Um because I just do it to make sure everybody uh that that they're supported and taken care of. So those are the golden apple winners for this school year. Um we have incredible people working across our district and it's always so difficult to narrow it down to just four folks to recognize. Um but we've did that um as a way of recognizing the great work that's happening this year. Um in addition to that, there'll be another video that will be produced soon

027for the green apple. So this is the first year that we um provided um the inaugural award to a staff member who is focused on the work of sustainability. Um it's a new award that um John Swanson and Jeannie Holmes helped to put together. um John baked pies that he delivered to folks who contributed to the award. And so this year the first inaugural award goes to Charlene Ellis. Um you will probably all see Charlene walking throughout the community because she walks everywhere. Um she's committed to the garden um at CHS and um that has continued to be the thing that um makes her and her green team run so well. Um, while we were giving Charlotte the award, one of the things she was sure to let us know is that she wanted an

028electronic uh an electric lawn mower. And so we've worked to make that happen. Um, and so we'll be delivering that to her as soon as it arrives. Um, so again, great people doing great work with kids. Um, and it's just fun to be able to recognize them. So again, thank you to John Swanson, Jeannie Holmes, and also the Pasteas who have continued to make that award um, possible across our district. A couple of other things I wanted to announce um or share with you. One of them is that we recently had our students from Nichidai um come to Calales. It's a um a tradition that started in the 80s and we had 24 students who came. Um I was able to have a couple stay with me. Um this year again um which is always

029fun to have high schoolers um in the house um because I miss that and um they had a great time and I just want to thank all the folks who allowed um and took kids in. Kim Nelson being one also having a couple of kids stay with her. Um but again it's just a great opportunity um for them to come and visit our schools. This year they were at Crescent Valley. Next year they'll be back at CHS because it goes back and forth year-over-year. Um and we're always looking for more folks to um take them in. It's a a quick visit. They're there with you for about a week. Um and then they're off to um see other things or do other things. And again, it's just a great opportunity. Um also recently we had

030the opportunity last Friday night to do have the first baseball game under the lights at Crescent Valley. um which was again a significant contribution made to allow us to add lighting at both of our softball fields at CHS and CV as well as CV baseball. Um and so those have been um put in at the two CV fields. We're still working on the CHS field. Um but again, contributions made by community members to make that happen is pretty phenomenal. Um, one more thing before we talk about con the consolidation update and that is today um there was an executive order um put in place by Governor B or COTECH that that put me back in CO times right there. Yikes. Um so she uh she um put together an executive order focused on instructional time.

031Um the state board heard that um made some modifications to it. Um but what we know for now is that school districts who have to cut days this school year or next school year um or plan to for next school year will have to make those days up in over the future years. Um so we're fortunate not to be in that situation. The piece that we're paying attention to is how the rules are written. there was conversation um or or in the initial draft related to the hours that we're able to use for um parent conferences for professional development and not counting those hours. That's where the state board said that they felt those hours were important to continue. Um so we'll wait to see there's a 180day period of time for rule making before

032that comes into um into action other than those pieces I started with initially. So for right now, there isn't any um change that we need to make here in CSD other to pay attention to the rulem. Um and this is the second executive order Governor Cotch has um put into place this year. The first one is around cell phones. Um and then this one um came into place today. And then finally, I'll share the updates related to school consolidation. And um as I've done in the past, I have just a couple of slides to highlight different themes. No pressure. >> That's a lovely ring tone. >> I don't know whose it is, but it's very nice. Okay, there we go. You can't advance. Okay, I'll just talk about it. Um so regarding um the first

033theme is around staffing. So we have gone through the staffing process for next school year um and we were able to communicate with staff the changes and then today was the opportunity for staff to come together um across schools. I know that um there were pieces related to school conferences and how they typically happen on these days and some modifications we needed to make. Um and so we're appreciative for the flexibility in being able to do that. But I was able to visit five schools during that time and folks were coming together. There was some laughter. There was some meeting um for the first time. Um it was exciting in a lot of ways to see these new configurations of great people working together. Um so that happened today. With regards to programming, there's been

034a number of pieces that have been happening there in the past month. Um one of the things that we're continuing to work on is planning around a convening on instructional technology. So a committee to come together. That's something that I think I've shared with you before, but that will happen um through next school year as our um iPad um lease comes to an end. Um so we're going to work on that next year. We're finalizing the instructional and curriculum handbooks because we want to make sure that we're able to share those out at the upcoming parent nights. Our math coaches are coming together and starting to plan that. Again, this these are new positions at all of our title schools. Um, we're finalizing our curriculum orders. Our steam teachers are working on vision and planning.

035Our junior high and Kate students have forecasted for electives. And um, we are going to send out a survey next week for the current fourth and fifth grade and sixth and seventh families around the zero periods and after school electives um, related to music. So those are things that are happening right now related to programming over the last month around facilities and transportation. We have finalized an agreement with LBLESD to utilize the Leticia Carson School for early childhood. Um so both the early childhood special education that's been at Dixie School as well as our Head Start programs will be located there for next year. So that agreement is in place. Um we have reported out transportation stops. um they have been published and then at the family nights transportation will be there to answer questions

036um and we've also provided an update yesterday on move timelines and details for staff. So in terms of facilities and transportation those are changes that are happening or have happened around student transitions staff have began student information sharing between schools for student transition. Some of that also occurred today. High school alignment work continues. Um and then teams of teachers are continuing to meet to share plans for next school year. Those are the dates for the upcoming family information nights. Um again, an opportunity for folks to come and hear a little bit more about um the Corvalis promise and where we're headed. And then the transfers, the second window closed on April 5th. And so we've been communicating with families this week on those transfers that we're able to make happen. School transitions. Um again, today

037was an opportunity for new staff to come together. Um continued move coordination and planning and then also continued planning for staff professional development to assess what staff need. And so when we went out and visited schools, uh, members of, um, cabinet, they got feedback in regards to materials as well as professional development that folks needed. And so those are all things that as we continue this move and the work around transition. These are the things that have been happening over the last month. Some of them are continuations from information I've shared with you in the past, but a um, a lot of those are new components that we're now working on. Um and so again, just want to make sure that you're aware of all that's happening as we work on the um consolidation um

038process and the transitions for next fall. So with that, any questions? >> Thanks, Ryan. >> I do have one question. >> Okay, we can probably do a couple brief ones. So yeah, >> uh thanks Ryan. I just had a question on the um the LBLED agreement. Um so uh how long are we How long is the agreement in place? Um, and I think the bigger question for me is in the event that with enrollment patterns, let's say that things shift in our district and we find that we need to have that space back for other um uses, what is the option? Do we have an option to end that lease or how would that work? >> Yeah, so the agreement we went with an agreement for 17 years. Um but within that there is the

039ability for um us to give notice um one year out um and then we would be able to move back into the space. Um and so there is the flexibility to be able to do that and at the same time recognizing our enrollment patterns. We felt like it was also important that they have consistency um in the location that they are. Um they've been at Dixie for quite some time and so we want to make sure that they also feel settled in the space that um that they're leasing from us. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead, Chris. >> Just curious about transfers. How did that go? Did you receive a lot of transfers and were we able to >> approve Do you want to take that one or do you want me to? Either way is

040fine. >> I have it. Um I have information. I think in the um in the cover letter today for your non-resident transfers, we gave some numbers. Um we had 398 people apply for transfers that compared to last year's numbers which were 253. So no, we didn't make everyone's dreams come true, but we did the best that we could with the rules that we have as far as the um administrative regulations for for transfers. I think that would probably be all that we have time for. >> Yeah. >> For questions, but thank you Ryan for the report. Um I did want to um cl I did want to point out when you said the title schools, we mean title one. That way >> since there's different titles that way. >> Yep. Title one. >> I just

041like to make sure people know that. Okay. Uh do you have a report? Student um representative report is next. >> Okay. Crescent Valley students are enjoying an extra long weekend off while the sophomore class presidents host exciting out of school events such as trash bagging and more. The junior class presidents are planning this year's prom on May 30th with a secret garden theme that is sure to impress and that students have already begun preparing for. For sports on this extra long weekend, boys and girls tennis plays against Woodburn today and against McKay tomorrow. Baseball plays at West Albany tomorrow. Softball goes against South Albany today and against Silverton tomorrow. And boys track is participating in a meet at Newber High School. Class president elections are coming up at Crescent Valley with candidates displaying their commitment

042to student government through entertaining campaign posters and videos. The Asian Cultural Club hosted a Lunar New Year celebration at Crescent Valley last month, resulting in a massive turnout in which students participated in games and ate authentic food across different cultures. Also, as we look forward to Teacher Appreciation Week, Crescent Valley would like to voice its appreciation for our amazing teachers who make our schools function and our education possible. I would also like to shout out our youth and government delegation and our delegation president who was recently elected the 81st Oregon Youth Governor. >> Thanks, Leo. >> Did you want to Did you have robotics out on your list? >> Robotics? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Yes, I would also like to shout out robotics. I'm sorry I forgot about this, but they I think believe uh

043they made it to worlds. So, that was really impressive and a big accomplishment. >> Yeah, they they um were third place at the Pacific Northwest competition. I think that might be the their strongest showing um in quite some time. >> I think I think they did they did really well up there. So, >> thanks. >> That's awesome. Thanks, Leo, for the update. Um, and the next item on the agenda is public comment. I'm going to do Okay. Um, we will now open the public comment period. We value the lived experiences of students, families, staff, and the community, and we welcome public comment as an essential part of the districts and board's work. The complete guidelines for public comment are available at the registration table outside the boardroom entrance and on the board's website. I will

044now share some important points. When it is your turn to speak, please come forward and take a seat and direct your comments to the board. And there's a button that you press that has a little person on it and there's a red light when your microphone is on. Sometimes people leave it off. So if it's red, it's on. Um, speakers may offer objective criticism of district operations and programs, but the board will not hear complaints concerning individual district personnel. As a reminder, you will have three minutes to make your comments. And there's lights on the um table right here. It is green when your time starts. It is yellow when you have 30 seconds left. And when it turns red, your time is up. And I don't interrupt you at the 30 seconds because that

045interrupts you actually talking. But I do let you know when your time is up and I do have to ask you to to um end your remarks at the three minutes. Um following your comments, the board will have three minutes to ask clarifying questions but will not able but will not be able to engage in conversation and that's really hard for us because we like to have conversations with people. Uh if board members would like to revisit a topic or issue raised during public comment, they may do so at the appropriate time on the agenda. And before you start your comments, please state your name uh for the record and state whether you reside within the school district boundary. I did want to remind board members that um we do not have to ask questions.

046Um and if you do ask clarifying questions to make sure to keep them on point and short that way we can get through because it sounds like we have 10 and that's already over the aotted time. We have 20 minutes so we'll see how many folk we can get through. Um, and we'll go ahead and start. Annalie Haberman. Okay. Good. Good evening, school board. First off, I want to thank each of you for all the work you do for our community. It is no small task to guide the future of education in Corvalis. And I thank each of you for the time and care you put into the decisions that you have made through your leadership. I'm here tonight to share my concerns and hopes for possible change that would have a rippling positive impact

047for our students throughout the district. All of us are feeling the wave of impact from the school closures and transitions in our community. And I know none of those decisions were made without much discerning thought. What I want to bring to your attention is how the shifting of numbers at our elementary schools in conjunction with the cuts to counselor position FTE across the district will impact our students access to mental health support. If you take a moment to look at the data comparing school enrollment at each level, elementary, middle, and high school, you'll notice that because of the elementary schools now being given the responsibility to care for our sixth graders, what had been a fairly equal distribution of counselor to student ratio previously is now dramatically heavier on the elementary level. And the amount

048of counselor FTE at the elementary level has been reduced despite our elementary schools now being given a much higher load of student need. Counselors at the elementary level have gone from an average of 310 student per FTE to a predicted average of 396 students per FTE. And some schools like Bessie Coleman, Adams, Garfield, and Mountain View enrollment predictions are way above that already incredibly high ratio. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250 students per counselor to effectively meet student needs across every tier and some of our elementary schools have been allotted double that amount per single counselor in their building. Garfield had previously been the school with the highest student to counselor ratio and the ability to support students through emotional crises, educate on proactive mental health strategies and teach strong social

049emotional skills has been stretched incredibly thin. On top of that, our school along with the entire immigrant community in Corvallis have had to navigate the current terrorizing circumstance of ICE and the greater political realities threatening the well-being of our families. All these factors this year have made caring for the mental health of our students a tremendous struggle. And now going into the next school year, three more schools will be put into this overwhelmed state where student crises pile up without adults train without enough adults trained to navigate mental health needs to offer them the care and comfort they so desperately deserve. I ask you as leaders who know that no student can learn effectively without feeling safe and regulated to advocate undoing the cuts that were made to counselor FTE in our district so that

050we have sufficient mental health support at the elementary level. I'm not asking for any counselor FTE to be transferred from the middle or high school level because it is so so incredibly important there as well. I ask that you speak to our district leadership and ask them what possible ways they can prioritize the mental health of their elementary students and give our elementary schools the resources we need to provide a solid foundation for a student mental health that they carry with them throughout their entire time at CSD to flourish both heart and mind. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can you please state your name and if you live with >> I'm sorry. My name is Annalie Haberman. I reside within the school district boundary. I teach first grade at Garfield. >> Thank you. Is there

051any questions from the board? Cheah, >> so you had me uh mentioned a recommended ratio. Does that change by age level or is the recommended ratio consistent across the ages? >> That is a really great question and I can look that up. Um it is from the American School Counselor Association. Um so they would be the one that is the resource where I got that data from. >> Thank you. Other questions? Thank you Annalie for your time. Will Roen Culper. My name is Will Roen Cobber and I reside within the district and I want to echo what the previous speaker said because it's just one symptom of this current consolidation. Uh, your current board packet shows a very healthy financial budget, one that reflects the need not to consolidate schools this year and I want

052to urge you to think about that moving forward. We don't have to go through this chaos. I went to open house before I came here. Nobody knows what's going on. Nobody knows what they're going to teach. They don't know if they're going to have student teachers. They don't even know what classroom they're going to be in. It's chaos. It is utter chaos. and it is unnecessary. And I think that it was I don't want to go so far to say a false flag, but it was a false sense of urgency that you needed to pass that consolidation vote when you did. You could have waited a week. We could have had the new projections. We could have had real data that said that we didn't need to close schools because it wasn't a financial disaster.

053But you did it anyway. And four of you knew that it was a bad deal. But you still move forward with it. And that's why I felt the need to buy you that book. And I didn't cheap out. I bought you the hard copy. Because at this point, it feels like your ego is the only thing keeping you from rescending this vote. The financial picture has changed since November. It changed in December. And we came to you with the fact that the figures were different and you said, "Oh, no, no, no. You're wrong. You're wrong." What would you do with 11 million more dollars? Do you know why the financial situation is so bad? Because 17% of students have left this district in the last seven years. Corval school district used to capture 90% of

054the students that reside within its boundary. Right now we're at 73%. And it's going to drop lower next year. It is getting worse because people are losing trust in this board and this administration. And what are you going to do about that? What are you actually going to do? Because you don't even know who's left and why they've left. You have no exit data. You have no understanding of what is going on in the community. You are here in a room by yourselves in an echo chamber. The community is out there feeling the effects of your decisions. Please reconsider this consolidation and resend that proposal. >> Any questions from the board? >> Yes. The question was if you identified yourself and I said yes you did. Questions. Thank you for your time will and for

055the book. You're >> welcome. I hope you read it. >> Amanda Cordis. My name is Amanda Cordis and I reside within the Corvalis school district boundary. I'm here tonight to make a public comment about public comments related to the discussion from the last board meeting. Um, I do understand that meetings cannot last until all hours of the night, and I'm appreciative of the time and effort and energy that board members take into meeting with people on their own time, in one-on-one, and in small group settings. That being said, there's a measure of accountability that is inherent to public comment and that everybody in the community can hear who said what, when, and what the response was that is lacking from all of those other methods. Um, as someone who has direct first-person experience with a

056board member saying one thing in a small group setting and turning around and advocating for the exact opposite at a subsequent board meeting, I personally uh feel very strongly about accountability. Um, but I also know going into all of the changes next year, there are adjustments that will need to be made. There's always adjustments when you're implementing a new system. That's to be expected and planned for. And to make those effectively and in a way that best serves our students, we will need public comment and we'll all need to work together. So, I'm here to ask the board three things. First, to be very cognizant of the time spent on board member reports and to think about whether it's information that the community and board need in the setting or if it's um for the

057purposes of building one's own self up. Um a similar concern for questions during the comment period. And then third, for the board to know and to understand that in the situation that we're in, 20 minutes of public comment once a month is not sufficient and will not be sufficient next year. And so to expect and to plan accordingly for additional time. Thank you. >> Any questions from the board? Sammy. >> Uh thank you, chair. Uh Amanda, thank you for your comment. I believe I heard you saying there are three suggestions. uh board members being cognizant of their own comments during the pub uh reports. The second one is related to go ahead >> questions and being again cognizant of how questions are framed and if it's for more information or to prove >> you knew

058it. And then third is to plan for more than 20 minutes once a month. >> So your proposal is to allow more than 20 minutes per month in the same formats we're having today. I think a lot of people have learned through experience that you only get responses if you come publicly. I think if there are other mechanisms and people start to see responses that way, I would expect the community to use them. But right now, people are using what we've been taught works. >> Okay. Um, if I may ask, unless there is other board members with questions, if I may use this opportunity for a question. Many boards limit public comments on topics related to the agenda to inform decision making in front of the board. Do you favor that or do you favor

059that public comments can be about any topic? >> I don't think we should be limiting public comments. We don't really know what to expect right next year. There's plans, there's hopes, but we do need that feedback so that we can serve our students and make sure that they're all supported during the transitions. >> Thank you for your time. >> Any other questions? >> Thanks for your time, Amanda. Thank you, >> Naomi Hartman. My name is Naomi Hartman. I teach music at Lincoln Elementary School and I live in Corvalis. This is the second part in my request for the district to restore elementary art and music to their former levels. If you are not a music teacher, you might not understand why we are unwilling to accept elementary music once a week. The reason is this.

060Music once a week is ineffective because skills require practice. Imagine if students were only able to practice math or reading once a week. If you have ever ever studied a musical instrument at any level, you will understand through lived experience that practicing 5 to 10 minutes six days a week is significantly more effective than practicing 30 to 60 minutes once a week. Music twice a week is the bare minimum for effective music instruction. This means that we were already at the bare minimum before music was cut to once a week. I imagine that art teachers would say the same about art instruction before the visual art reductions, though I don't know that for sure. The way that practice and skill building works from a neurological perspective is that you try a new skill, which feels

061very difficult because it is neurologically unfamiliar. You repeat the skill each time, noticing that it gets a tiny bit easier. Then you sleep on it. During sleep, your neural pathways solidify and when you return to this new skill the next day or a few days later, it has become significantly easier and you are able to build new skills on top of it. Music once a week does not allow for skill building. Even though our music minutes were only reduced from 60 per week to 45 per week, music being once a week rather than twice a week means that we are currently on track to teach less than half of what we taught last year. It is also likely that what we taught this year will not stick because once a week does not allow for

062meaningful repetition. Skill building has slowed to an absolute snail's pace and this trend of reduced music skill building will increase exponentially over the next 5 years because right now we still have the benefit of students who had music twice a week for the majority of their elementary career. That means that they came into this year with some musical skills but moving forward they are really not building skills in any meaningful way. This rips the rug out from under our secondary music programs. It means that moving forward, fewer students will be interested in continuing music because fewer of them will feel that they have the skills necessary to do so. Our secondary music teachers do an incredible job of making beginners feel welcome in mixed level ensembles. However, the fact is it is difficult for beginners

063to succeed when they are in the same ensembles as students who have had the benefit of extracurricular music. This points to the most heartbreaking effect of music once a week. We already have an equity gap between students who rely on public school for their music education and students who can afford extracurricular music. This equity gap exists in all subjects. Students who do extracurricular sports have an athletic advantage. Students who receive tutoring outside the school day have an academic advantage. Students who do extracurricular arts build fa build skills faster than their less privileged peers. Your time is expired. I'm sorry. >> Is there any board member questions? >> Naomi, could you conclude your remarks? >> The answer is to provide robust education in all subjects during the school day. We have the opportunity to do that,

064but adding a new Steam special while blocking the ability to restore art and music minutes is not the way. If we do not find a way to restore music to twice a week, we will see fewer students signing up for secondary music classes, and the ones who do will be mostly from families who can afford and choose to invest in private lessons and extracurricular music. In addition, the students who rely on their general music class for their entire music education will receive music appreciation more than skill building. This means that their ability to participate in music making, whether in or outside of an educational setting, could be stunted for life. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Any other questions from the board? >> Thank you for your time, Naomi. >> Clarissa Cisneros. Is

065it? It's on. Okay. My name is Clarissa Cisneros and I am a member of the Corvalis community. Um, good evening. My name is Clarissa and I am approaching the end of my fourth year as an educational assistant at Garfield Elementary School. To put it briefly, we run intervention groups and IEP minutes for a significant amount of our days. Meaning, if we have all these staffing cups that we have been facing that we would have less availability for our students to be able to handle their needs. We have wonderful certified home room teachers at Garfield, but when most of their day consists of managing the education of 25 plus students, they aren't as easily available to handle students in times of crisis. Having a counselor in these moments is extremely helpful. But when there's more than

066one student having a crisis at a time, EAS are the most available resource for those students. You cannot schedule a crisis. Garfield students have a unique experience that most students in the district do not face. We are home to a large community of students whose first language is usually not English and for a significant population, even Spanish. It is part of what makes our school so incredibly beautiful and at the same time their stories are uniquely complex for this reason. I've had the opportunity to serve kinder through fifth grade and here are a couple moments of these past couple years that I think about quite often. I've had a student come to me casually about how the day before they saw videos that were circulating in our community regarding an ICE deportation in Albany. In

067short, they had concerns about ice coming to our area. When discussing what they had told me, they acted as if this was a normal thing. After giving the students a space to process, they told me that they did in fact feel scared and upset about what they had seen in the video. Another moment in which I have seen the impact of sorry ISIS presence in our area was when one of our families had to leave the country due to a real concern regarding one of their family members. After they left, their classmates began to ask questions. Where do they go? Why did they leave? And are they okay? Many Garfield students are very aware of the current reality of our nation. And these are just two examples of many examples of how ICE has impacted

068our learning spaces. They are stressors that affect them emotionally and also their learning. Thank you. Our students are actively in a constant fear of displacement. Without appropriate resources and staffing, we are unable to give the students the support that they need. To the school board, I ask you, how are we as staff supposed to be able to adequately support our students when we are being pulled away in so many different directions? >> Clerks, I'm sorry that your time is up. questions from the board. >> Clar Clarissa, could you uh continue? >> Thank you. Like I said previously, you cannot schedule a crisis when our counselor is unavailable. EAS are often very often the most available person to support these students in their time of need until the counselor is available. What Garfield's needs is more

069assistant and counselor FTE for all these reasons I stated prior. We need the proper staffing to appropriately address our student needs while they are in crisis. I emphasize our students cannot learn when they are facing this constant state of crisis. Thank you so much. >> Is there any other questions from the board? >> Thank you, Clarissa, for your time. um Kim that we're at time for public comment and um I don't know how the board wants to proceed. We have we're only halfway done with public comment and I want to make it very clear that it's not that we do not want to hear public comment. We also have this is a business meeting and we have guests that come to our business meeting um that we have to respect their time as well. Um,

070so I just wanted to make it really clear why we have a time limit for public comment. It's always been 20 minutes for CSD. That's never been different. And so we've extended them extensively when there's certain topics happening. Um, however, when we have guests, it's harder to extend them extensively. I'm not saying I don't want to extend it right now, but I just wanted to make it very clear why we have a time cut off. So, if um the board would like to perhaps extend a little bit longer, um I would recommend that we think about asking follow-ups. Uh chair, recognizing that's we have guests and probably they drove from out of town to help us as well, I want to be mindful of that and if the board is agreeable, uh we could extend

071the time for uh 15 more minutes and the board will refrain from questions. Does it sound okay with the sliver? Okay, good. >> Claudia Cano, you guys are scarier up there. Okay. Um, hi, my name is Claudia Kano. I have um I do not live in the school district, but I have been in the district for 21 years. um having taught at Garfield, Linus Pauling, and Corvalis High School, all in the dual language program. I am currently in my fourth year as dean of students at Garfield Elementary. And in my time as dean, I have seen I've been able to see and experience many mental health needs. Our schools are different from what they used to be 20 years ago. Our students are coming to school with many more needs. And in my role as

072dean, I work closely with school counselor and mental health support team. Recently, with changes in the political climate, I have se even greater needs in our school. As a couple examples of that, during my morning check-ins, I heard a first grader who had to hide the night before in their home because the bad guys were in their apartment building. The bad guys referring to ICE officers. There was another student that I meet with daily who brings toys and stuffed animals every day as security blankets. I've had many conversations with that student about their fears about being taken away and about their family being taken away. Recently, uh last week during a whole group lesson on what to do with a fire drill in the cafeteria, a student asked me, "Maestra, but where do we hide?"

073I asked for clarification and they said, "What if ice comes in the building? Where do we hide when we're in the cafeteria?" I assured them that we do not let unauthorized people into the building and that they are safe. These are just some of the realities that the students at Garfield live with every day. While I am deeply grateful that our schools now have counselors and mental health therapists, the reality is that the level of need continues to outpace the support we have. Our students come to us not only to learn academically but also feel safe, supported, and cared for during some of their most uncertain moments in their lives. We often say that children do do well if they can. And right now, many of our students are doing the best they can under

074incredibly difficult circumstances. It is our responsibility to ensure that they have the resources and support necessary to succeed, not just in the classroom, but as individuals. I urge you to recognize the urgency of this need and to take action so that every student in Corales School District has adequate access to the mental health and counseling support they deserve. Thank you. >> Thank you, Claudia, for your time. >> Lizzie Wars. My name is Lizzie Wsh and I reside in the Corvalis school district boundary. Um, and I have been working at Garfield Elementary School since the 2023 24 school year as an educational assistant, primarily supporting students in first and second grade. I am also a former Garfield Gecko and a Corvalis school district grad. As an assistant, I provide emotional, behavioral, and academic support. I have

075also done reading interventions in English and Spanish across three different grade levels. This year, I have two intervention groups, one meeting four times a week and one five times a week, while also fulfilling IEP minutes four times a week for 40 minutes per day. Currently, we have 378 students while having 13 full-time assistants and one part-time assistant, which puts us at approximately one assistant to every 30 students. Given that we have roughly 60 students per grade, it is likely that we will receive about 60 more next year. With these additional students while losing two full-time assistants, our ratio will become approximately one assistant to every 40 students. If these numbers stay the same, we would likely have one, maybe two assistants assistants per grade level. Given that grades kindergarten through third each have three classrooms

076and fourth through six will have two each. This would greatly impact consistent in-classroom support. Aside from academic support, assistance can also be Sorry. The initial support in a moment of need. This year I work with amazing first graders all from diverse backgrounds and home languages. Because of our limited staffing, our students are suffering. At the beginning of the year, I was in classroom support during first grade English. But due to limited staffing, my schedule was changed in order to have another intervention group. Within the first one to two weeks of this change, a momspeaking student went to the classroom teacher I work with and said they did not feel like they were learning anything because I was no longer there to support them. Another example of how our limited staffing has impacted our students is

077I was also pulled from supporting a first grade first grade class to do IEP minutes in another grade level. Since that happened, there have been several instances of different students having crisises during specials due to limited support. Specifically, having two first grade classes, roughly 45 students, in our gym on Mondays. This has led to students shutting down, feeling discouraged, and like they can't be successful. This has also led to physical escalations that have occurred in PE, but other specials as well. The question I raise to the board is how can we be expected to raise our test scores with lower assistant numbers. We have the lowest percent of students at grade level across all subjects and we are the only school that has decreased from the previous year in all three subjects. This is based

078on the 2425 school year. We urge the board to consider how the district is going to support these students as reflected in their data. >> Melissa, I'm sorry, but your time is up. um if you can send us your comments. >> Two more sentences. >> If not, it's totally okay. >> We committed not to asking questions for this part. I'm sorry, Joel Inman. Good evening. I'm Joel Enman, a community member, parent, and a teacher. Uh um at Garfield Elementary. I see every day how a very effective school counselors at all of our buildings are providing an essential service that positively affects all students, even beyond their case loads. I'm concerned that Garfield, like all our consolidated elementary schools, is actually growing both in student body and in student needs. While our capacity to handle student

079fears, anxieties, frustrations, and disruptions, is not growing at pace. Garfield has the highest needs both in academics and social factors, including students navigating poverty, trauma, and especially now fear of ICE activity in their homes and community. For this reason, an equitable distribution of resources, especially counselors and support staff, would be based on need, not merely one per building. I'll focus for a moment on counselors, although this observation is accurate word for word for all of our support staff, too. I'm troubled by how a decision was reached to reduce counselor positions during consolidation, increasing student to counselor ratios, and impose higher case loads on our remaining counselors. Also in this process, I fear we are discarding the important relationships our counselors have formed with students who need a trusted adult the most. Part of this relationship

080starts with shared language and for our significant Spanish-sp speakaking student and family population across the district. I believe we need to ensure continuity and equitable access to a counselor whenever possible who speaks the same language as the student and their family. We can take a moment to walk through our guiding questions on equity, asking who does this decision affect negatively. This decision affects kids who are navigating trauma, interrupted schooling, and come from immigrant families are immigrants themselves and our students who are learning English and not yet able to express their emotional needs in English. In short, those who need it most. From my view, moving counselors and increasing their case load most impacts those who need their help the most. Another equity question. How might this decision ignore or worsen existing disparities? Increasing the studentto

081counselor ratio and increasing counselor workloads worsens the existing disparity between students who are facing multiple adverse barriers to their education and those who have an easier time navigating school. And what are the unintended consequences of this decision? There are many. Students who rely on support from their school counselor will have less access. This in turn leads to more class disruptions not just for the student experiencing trauma but for all students in the classroom. So how will this decision or outcome be sustainable? Another of our district equity equity questions. I don't see how it is. You'll see more trauma at Garfield and Corvalis Junior High due to government activity alone. Let alone the paniply of other obstacles to education our most vulnerable students face. This has a chain reaction of disrupted education up the chain from

082elementary to junior high. reducing outcomes for everyone >> and I'll submit my my comments. >> Thank you for your time, Joel. >> Thank you. >> Amelia Ingresol. Hi, my name is Amelia Ingresol and I am a teacher at Garfield Elementary. I have 19 beautiful third grade students. I feel my class functions very well and I'm very proud of how each student is growing academically. However, under those smiles and high-fives, they harbor emotional turmoil that is now rising to the surface. Here's my past week. Monday, a student informs me that another child is shaking uncontrollably. I realize that that student is having a panic attack over the math and I have her escorted to the office. Two girl Tuesday, two girls return from lunch in utter tears. Unable to talk about the incident, I ask one

083to write about it in her journal. The line that screams to me is that sometimes she wishes she were dead. Wednesday, I receive an email from a parent with an urgent request for a meeting. When I meet with her the next day, I find out that her daughter had the words, "You must die," written on her arm. The family has a history of self harm. That night, I receive another email from a parent concerned that her child is being bullied. And then there is a child whose grandmother is living with him because her house burned down and he lives in fear that this may happen to him. And then, because I teach at Garfield, there are the children living with the shadow of ice looming over their families. There are the children who hold fear

084and anxiety in their bodies, trying to get through the day, not comprehending why they feel the way they feel. and not sure how to express it. This past week, our school counselor, Alex Alisaraga, met with six of my students multiple times to talk through difficult emotions. These conversations were the most critical events that occurred in my classroom this week. While I helped the children to think through what twothirds of 31 is, our counselor navigated our students through their very real personal life and death anxieties. What I do is important, but equal as important is what Alex was doing to keep those six students functioning emotionally. Please remember these children are in third grade. They are eight and n years old. Next year, Garfield will add at least 60th graders to its roles. These are middle

085school children who are launching into a famously volatile period of life. My fear is that with only one counselor at our school, these sixth graders will consume all that counselor's time, who then will take care of my third graders who are experiencing suicidal ideiation, that are having debilitating panic attacks. We live in an extremely scary time that is affecting our children at younger and younger ages. One counselor is absolutely not sufficient for 430 students. Please allow Gfield next year to have two counselors. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time, Annayia. Daniel OA Kim, are you adding more time? >> My name is Daniel Ala. I'm a teacher at Garfield. This time I'm not coming here as a teacher but as a parent, a family and also as an active member of the community I've

086worked in different areas, different things especially in labor. And can you define labor? Labor meaning building um different things. And I'm referring to most of the comments that you have already heard from my team members because we Hispanics who work in building in kitchens, in cleaning, get so many things that we carry home and affect our families. I have a brother. He he builds he works in construction. He does roofing and most of the times the lead that is in dust comes to his clothing which is washed at home and that is a hazard to the family to her kids his kids. They also have friends who work in the fields and they are exposed to chemical. that are dangerous and pollutants that attach to their clothing that is also washed at home. Those friends

087of mine come their hug their kids and just an example is that some of their clothing get the it vanishes within two to three weeks. Um, dyslexia. All these activities, all these substances, pollutants uh that are affecting the kids are need to be understood and um and managed by the support at school. Um, Not to mention that besides this hazardous h aspects of labor, parents are most of the time away from home for long hours and abandon the kids is not on purpose but it results in negligence. And these kids are abandoned at home on their phones, walking alone by the streets. And the counselors at school who need to care for them need to know where the triggers for their cutings come from. So my goal is to uh highlight the the opportunity or

088the need to prevent otherwise it will grow kids will become um attached to bad relationships and will engage in crime. So this Help most begin in elementary and middle grade, middle school levels. Yeah, go ahead. >> And I'm also uh speaking on behalf of Linos Middle School. We have been sent two teachers, Jesus and John. They They are Hispanics, but just look at the representation on Garfield. Linos Middle School has only two teachers >> and Hispanic. >> And um I'm sorry, but the time just went up, too. So, thank you, Gracias. Um Daniel, >> is that everybody? Okay, thank you. Um and um like where are we? With no further comments, the public comment period is now closed. And the next I think we're just going to we're just going to keep going so we

089our guests can um come on up. We have two folk for our next item on the agenda is a city of Corvalis tax exemption and that's Christopher Jacobs and um Bridgeta Olsen. If you're exiting, if you could do so quietly. Thank you very much. Brigita, is that how you say it? Sorry about that. Yeah, >> no worries. Thanks for having us tonight. >> Yeah, good evening. Great to be with you for the first time. Um, happy to make the introduction to the school board finally. Um, my name is Christopher Jacobs. I'm the economic development manager for Corvalis and Benton County with me. And I'm Brigade Olsson, housing and neighborhood services manager at the city. >> So, um, between the two of us, we really are doing most of the proactive, um, housing development from the

090city side. Mine, um, being market rate and mixed use and Brigita doing a lot of the affordable housing. Um, and so you might be familiar with all of the housing in the pipeline right now, 2,000 units over the next year. Um, a great deal of those have been possible because of this program known as MUPI, the multi-unit property tax exemption program. Uh, it is set to double the number of residents living downtown, which is a tremendous thing for the benefit of downtown businesses and um, and really the the ability for for downtown to be a thriving place that we all love and want to be in. Um, the reason we're here today is to ask the board to adopt resolutions so we can continue to operate the multi-unit property tax exemption program and the low-income

091rental property tax exemption program. Back in 2023 when the school board considered a report from the superintendent legal council about the ordinances, um there was not a resolution passed as it um is required by the OS. And so this is something that um was caught during uh the last review um by our city attorney's office and um it didn't meet all of the procedural requirements that are needed. Um we went back to the uh Benton County Board of Commissioners the same way we're doing here and they unanimously approved those resolutions uh to allow for the MUPY and the LRY programs. Um, as I mentioned, um, it's been a a really a boon for market rate mixeduse housing in downtown. Um, representing investments of $158 million in just two applications. Um, 10% of the, um, tax

092exemption go to support affordable housing uh, as well as an affordable housing construction excise tax. Um, all told, this is millions of dollars towards affordable housing. uh provided by these uh market rate housing tax exemptions. Even during the exemption period, um the properties are generate generate more tax than they did um prior because of the commercial value that's improved compared to what was there uh before the projects took place. Um, in your packet there's a great deal of information about the impact on housing need and um the tremendous uh quantity of housing needed uh to support affordability um to support families and to support ultimately more students being able to um be in the district and and attend public schools. Um that's a a really broad overview of um what we're here to talk about

093and uh I'll ask Brigita if there's anything you want to add or anything I might have missed. >> I would just add you know our community spent about 40 years um restricting the growth of our community and that's had impact in our schools um and our community and so in having as many tools in our toolbox to help with the development of affordable housing or market rate is really important. These are not outright um exemptions. These are done with a but for analysis. There needs to be a proven need with a outside financial analysis that happens um and then goes to city council. So >> um go ahead. >> Which reminds me, um moving forward, if these resolutions were adopted, um the the school board would be asked to provide a recommendation before it went

094to city council. And so you would still have a step in the process to be able to um inform that decision. Um it's not just cart blanch saying um without any input uh in the future that that any project would um automatically um you know go without your your uh being able to confer with city council about that. So when you um took uh when you gave me um the responsibility of bringing back an opinion to the city, it was related to if there is costneutral or there is some financial benefit. So that's the threshold of the projects that had come up to this point. Um but again with uh requirements of the city to go through the process of approving the resolution um it will still would still allow the district to provide input

095in those decisions. However, that would really be a decision made at city council. >> Yeah. And and a lot of the reason for that is because um each project undergoes a really rigorous um examination by city council of the public benefits of the financial feasibility. Um and and it may not be great for the school board to have to go through that exact same debate that happens at the city council. um you know, you you all have enough business to take care of without having to rehash every um debate at city council. >> Are you open for questions now? >> Please. Yes. >> Questions from the board? >> Oh, Sammy. So, just to uh I will have procedural questions down the line, but for now, understanding where we're at, those two resolutions will bring the

096two applications already passed into compliance. Correct. >> Exactly. It would correct for the administrative uh procedural error >> and then for any future ones, it will give the superintendent delegation. We are we have a motion here to give a superintendent reauthorize a superintendent with delegation for any uh netneutral or positive. Uh you will evaluate or no? >> That would be your prerogative if you'd want me to continue to evaluate them. I would say that would make the most sense based on the thresholds you've provided me thus far. But really um it's going to I won't have any sort of um overall authority in moving those forward. It's again it would be a recommendation from the from the school district um to to um the coun to council basically. So if I'm understanding correctly there is

097tension between the two resolutions as written and the intention of the board originally. The two resolutions says city council decide on any future applications. You make your uh financial evaluation accordingly. Our intentional originally we delegated to the superintendent evaluating each application and you told us the first application you brought in front of us the first application. Is my understanding for that tension correct? I don't think there's tension because really the authority rests with the um the city based on the work of this um the city attorney. Um and so this procedurally this um is what we would need to do to be able to support um both um lurp and moo um applications. >> So there say there is a negative impact on the school district how would that work out? You want me to

098take that or you? >> Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy to. So, if there were a negative impact on the school district as projected, um that before city council were to make a decision about the exemption, um the school district provides an opinion as to whether or not they want it to be approved or denied. If a application were to come before city council with a recommendation to deny from the school board, um I think they would take that into strong consideration. Um I I can't speak for the city council, but I know they they think very highly of the school board and the opinion and um that would definitely inform how they ended up deciding on the exemption. >> I need to think a little bit more. I'll I'll defer to other questions as I think

099>> questions from the board. >> Um I had a question for you. It's more if you can so people aren't confused explain kind of like why it's just if you can reiterate why we're voting on something that has to do with the city like the role of the school board >> in these kind of um decisions that would be helpful I think for folk that may not understand. >> Yeah. So, the the Oregon revised statute allowing for multi-unit property tax exemption program and the low-income rental property tax exemption program required that um 51% of the taxing jurisdictions approve resolutions um to allow for such a program. And so between Benton County and city of Corvalis, um we don't have the 51% with um school district. We would um that's the reason why we're asking for

100the resolution to be passed. Um and ultimately it's in the pursuit of supporting housing production which has been closely tied to um housing affordability and ultimately um improved enrollment hopefully for for the 509J district. >> Thank you. I'm sure there's people that are watching that are like what's going on? So I appreciate you taking a moment to explain that. And I do appreciate that we keep talking about we need better housing and that's part of our issue. And if the school board and the district can help support more affordable housing, um that seems pretty um pretty logical to me. But other questions? >> Hold on. Let me see if anybody else has one first. Theres, >> thank you. You've you've referenced the expansion of affordable housing and so can you describe what that actually means?

101Um, are we talking about rent control buildings? Are we talking about properties that are guaranteed to be section 8 approved? Uh, what what are we talking about? >> Um, so the past five years or so, the city has helped um with the development of 358 new units of affordable housing. Folks are living in those units right now and they're home to many families. That um they did not utilize the low-inccome rent uh property tax exemption. They didn't need to. Um but it means that individuals or households are generally paying um their income is at 60% area median income or less. Um it depends upon how the developer did their perform or their financial analysis. Sometimes it's 50, sometimes it's 30% area median income. So they have to be able to afford home if they have

10230% of their income. Um, I would add that section 8 applies for most of these new units. So, those have not been able to be utilized in our community for a very long time, um, and had been actually used a lot more in Lane County for um, decades. So, having new units that are affordable, section 8's eligible, which is fabulous. Um, it's not usually rented per se as how you know and or city owned, but it's restricted from the area median income. Um, and then the rent control is coming through the state of Oregon. And so households can't pay more than what they can afford based on their area median income. We're having about 458 more units of affordable housing that will be coming online also in the coming year. So, um, those again are

103not needing to lo use the low-inccome rental property tax exemption to our knowledge at this point. Um there's been a lot of tools at the state that have helped incentivize um again mostly at 60% area median income um in which households you know will be at or below that income in order to be eligible and then the state helps with the rent um numbers. >> Just one second Leo I wanted to make sure you knew it's past 8 and you're excused unless you wanted to stay. >> Thank you. Just That's true. He doesn't have It's still I just like to remind the student reps that the one's eight. Go ahead, Bernie. >> Um, one quick question. I I just need some clarification on this 51% threshold. Yeah. Are you saying that without our approval, you

104cannot meet that at all? >> I would have to go to other taxing jurisdictions and have the same conversation. >> And And what what does that mean? can. So, it would mean going to the um Lynbettton Community College, their taxing jurisdiction. Benton County Soil and Water um their taxing jurisdiction. So, I need just about everyone except for the school district to get over 51%. Okay. >> And I would add, you know, we're in a housing crisis and home matters to everybody. And we um we know that the state of Oregon has underbuilt 140 units of housing and we have a lot of work to do as a state to catch up. And in order to do that, you need to have some tools. It's really expensive to develop in some sections of town because it's

105denser. So it's going to cost more money. Sometimes that means you have to have a property tax exemption. Sometimes that means you don't have to. And so having a financial analysis done with the performer evaluating can this developer actually move forward without our exemption is number one and we have experts that are doing that for us and our on our behalf. We then go to council and we get input from the school board. But um we're in a big crisis in our state and one unit of housing, even if it's market rate, will free up maybe a house that an a elderly couple wants to move out of that's a single family house that they haven't had another housing opportunity to live at downtown, etc. And so the whole housing continuum matters and we need

106to be addressing every piece of that puzzle, affordable all the way up to market rate home ownership. And um sadly, you know, our community spent in through a lot of public policies about four decades restricting our growth. Um and we have a lot of catching up to do. >> And Judah, >> um I went kind of full nerd on this. So, am I correct in my understanding that the overall analysis when we're seeing other communities adopting similar resolution is that we're able to project more income to the community that overcomes the exemptions that we're providing to these this taxing structure. >> It's not just postexemption. during the exemption, you're actually generating more taxable revenue. And it's it's a tricky thing because you would think you're you're exempting the property, but you're only exempting the residential

107component. You're not resenting uh exempting the ground um or the the commercial elements. And the improved value of the commercial piece of these mixeduse projects um far outweighs the the taxable value of what it's replacing. And so in both projects you actually see taxable revenues go up during the exemption period. In the case of the Gordon Hotel and residences, half of that project isn't exempt and so you see a dramatic increase >> and that's for the MUP program. >> Yeah. >> Other questions. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead, Sammy. I just want to make sure the rest because you asked questions earlier. >> Oh, absolutely. Thank you. First of all, uh I want to make sure I make it clear, Brigita. Thank you. And I want to put on record my gratitude for to you and

108Paula and the city manager. I think at least I can count tens of hours of conversations with each one of you uh helping me understand Lupy and Mupti. And um when I knock on doors, I I I try to explain as as as eloquent as possible and and I'm on board and really grateful that we're partnering in in this uh endeavor. And and to that effect, just now for the technicality to make sure this works in a way that's both fiduciary responsible and and uh consistent with what we need to do. Uh because I agree, we have a housing crisis. it will help us uh retain access of our children to the community. I have a question probably I should have asked this earlier. If I go with the recommended resolution delegates authority to the

109superintendent to approve lurpee applications when there is a projected financial gain or net neutrality for the district. That's the recommended uh recommendation. It is basically the third uh option that our legal council have presented as the most pragmatic one. And that does not mean we're signing on any of those resolutions. That means we're delegating the responsibilities without passing the resolutions. Is that correct, Ryan? >> Based on that language in the motion, I would say yes. >> Okay. If there is no objection, personally, I feel that's something I'm comfortable with. If we need to pass the resolutions, I would like to have further conversation. >> The resolutions are needed to um comply with the state OS adopting the miy and lurpy programs. >> I didn't understand your question. Sorry. But yes, so they would have to

110the the resolutions would need to be approved and then in future instances I would continue to look at that criteria of is it costneutral or is there a benefit and make when making a recommendation >> the way I read the resolution? >> I do need to do a time check though. have a minute left on this conversation. So, we either need to extend the time or end the conversation uh conversation part of it >> is >> could we extend by five to at least getification on what we're doing. >> Yes, thank you. >> I just want I'm just doing my job. >> No, no, thank you. >> Yeah, I'm very sorry. I'm going to be very technical here. There is a whereas that says whereas projects eligible for MUTI or lurp are expected to have

111net positive financial impact on the school district. Nothing in the therefore that says the superintendent is going to review this. Every application the superintendent is going to review it before the city manages it. What I heard Chris says is that the board may present their arguments in front of or the superintendents on behalf of the board may present their arguments on behalf of uh in front of the city and the city will take it seriously. However, we're automatically giving the in this these two resolutions is automatically authorizing the city to take that uh approval without without conditioning the net positivity. Am I reading that wrong? >> I'm going to go just read the language. >> I thought that this was these resolutions were about complying with what we already decided and not about like forever.

112It's These two are forever. >> They're they're adopting the policies of Mupti and Lery. >> Okay. >> Forever. Correct. >> Yeah. In future applications would need to be approved by city council with the input of the school district. >> Where is it here that says with the school district? >> That's how the programs are administered. >> Okay. >> It's part of the So that's not the resolution we're voting on getting in compliance. And the other part is exactly it's already in the >> um in the is it in an OS or is >> we're not proposing to change that process at all of how the projects come before council with the superintendent doing the analysis that you've you've already asked for. Okay. >> Um so process-wise it's going to be the same. Um this is

113just getting into compliance with the state os. I'm a big we I want to be in compliance and a strong supporter of housing and so this feels a little bit complicated if it doesn't feel like it doesn't feel complicated as in um helping us get there with the resolutions and it sounds like in the um the way that the program works that we would still have input and I heard you say that earlier that >> we would have input along the way each time there was something that came up. Um, so I just wanted to clarify that's what you said earlier too in your presentation. >> 100%. Does that help with that Simmyi or >> I would say as long as we're putting legislative intent on the record that whereas projects eligible for lurp or

114in the other resolution mi are expected to have a net positive financial impact on the school district and whenever uh the city will present its report to the city council it will take that whereas as a as a fact of a matter as an intent. We did not pass the resolution without that condition and the superintendent is empowered to provide that uh opinion. I feel comfortable passing the resolutions. >> Go to theres. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. >> The resolutions as written do have the caveat um that you've requested board member. >> We will sorry the res. No, go ahead. You go. You're going to know more than I am. Well, um >> almost certainly >> uh in this se section maybe, but not the world and all that good stuff. So, um we will we

115need the resolution tonight and that's based on OS and that's what our attorney said. We had some procedural mishaps three years ago and so we're working on getting back into compliance. We will certainly um come and provide the information we received from my our financial um analysts to the superintendent prior to going to the school or to city council and that will be included in the staff report as far as superintendent's recommendation etc. >> Okay. Okay. So, how I understand how when I read this, my understanding was that these resolutions have nothing to do with passing these resolutions has nothing to do with whether or not the school district can weigh in. These have to do with administering the programs as the programs are written. The programs have administrative regulations around how they are implemented.

116>> Exactly. >> Is that right? Yes. >> And so these resolutions, they say nothing about what we do. They simply say we are we are signing on to be 51% that says we're going to carry out these programs as they're written. If we don't like how the programs are written, that's really a different conversation. It's one that was three years ago when we decided that we were going to support these programs and then didn't do the resolutions. Am I right about that? >> Exactly. At the time the resolution should have been provided and for whatever reason um we didn't know that that was a requirement at the time. To be clear though, if you vote in um approving the MUTI tonight, that will also be approving the two applications that will be moving forward per

117the superintendent already reviewing that, etc. >> Yep. >> Because of the because of how the program is administered, >> right? Yes. >> Okay, >> Judah. And we also have 20 seconds left. >> Well, I can say this in 20 seconds. Um we had the debate three years ago. Okay. Uh, we are chronic overthinkers and I think we're doing that right now. I'm ready to vote. >> That's I I feel the same. And also I wanted to make sure people knew what um Muptian um >> lurpy sorry I was like how do you say like the the letters aren't reading in my brain. So it's the MERY is the multi-unit property tax exemption and >> lowincome housing property tax exemption. >> Yeah. I was trying to say the acronym again but it doesn't it's not registering

118for me without seeing the letters. So that's what they are um the resolutions. So >> So chair I'm ready to make motions and uh just to for clarity I'll read the action requested motion requested and then I will read uh resolution the first resolution and then I'll read the third resolution. >> There's two resolutions. >> Sorry the first resolution and then second >> there's two separate motions that need to be made. Do I have a different packet? >> A and B. >> So, we need there's resolution number 26-0401 and we also have resolution number 26-042. There's two separate resolutions. >> Is there a recommended motion under each one of them? >> Yes. >> Okay. I don't have it here. >> It's in the um it should be in the sidebar piece of the board book

119if anybody else has access and is interested. and making a motion. >> I also have it on my script if anybody needs to. But I need this back. >> I need it back to reread it. >> It's not in there. >> It's on the way back at the top. I found it. Chair. Uh, I move to adopt resolution number 26-0401 supporting city of Corvalis multiple unit property tax exemption policy under RS 307.600 to307.637. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Judah and seconded by um Sammy. Is there any further discussion? Okay, it's been moved by Judah and seconded by Sammy to adopt resolution number 26-0401 supporting city of Corvalis multiple unit property tax exemption policy under OS 307.600 to 307.637 Sammy >> I >> Judah >> I >> Chris >> I >> Shauna >> I

120>> Theres I >> Bernie >> I >> vote I motion passes >> there's another one >> you want to make a motion >> does any would anyone like to make a motion >> chair >> yes >> I move to adopt resolution number 26-0402 two supporting city of Corvalis lowinccome rental property tax exemption policy under RS 307 5 subsection 515 to 307 subsection 537 and OS 307 subsection 540 to 307 subsection 548 second. >> It's been moved by Sammy and seconded by Judah. Any further discussion? Okay. It's been moved by Sammy and seconded by Judah to adopt resolution number 26-0402 supporting city of Corvalis low-income rental property tax exemption policy under OS307515 to 307537 and OS 307540 to307.548. Sammy >> I >> Judah >> Hi >> Chris. Hi >> Shauna. I >> Theres I >> Bernie

121>> I >> and >> I vote I motion passes. Um I just wanted to say thank you all for helping work on housing affordability. That's um really important to the board and to the obviously the community. Um and I also wanted to u make sure folk knew that the compliance part was for the program not the school board in the district. >> Yes. >> So that that way that was clear. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thanks. You too. >> Um we do have um Kristen, are you okay if we take a short break? We're going to go ahead and take a fivem minute break before we have our work session with Kristen Miles from OSBA. Okay, welcome back. Thanks everyone. And um welcome Kristen from Oregon School Board Association. I just want to let the board

122know that um since we're a little bit behind, I want to make sure we we respect um Kristen's time and she does drive from a far way out. So, um we chatted briefly and we're going to compress our time a little bit this evening and um with hopes that we can um have a second session um just so we that way she has time to travel back to um her home as well. And we appreciate you making the time to come out here um and spend time with us as well. I'm going hand it over to you. >> Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Um really nice to be here. nice to see those of you that I've known for many years and see those of you that I haven't known for many years,

123but I have always I think I've worked with this board for eight or nine years and um have always really enjoyed that. So, thank you for having me be part of your evening. Okay, we can go ahead and share my screen. Okay. So, tonight you've asked me to be here to talk about community engagement and um as the chair just said um this is not something that um that a board or anybody can tackle in in one night in one session and I appreciate your interest in talking about this. My suggestion is going to be especially since we are going to compress a little bit tonight but I think you know as we're planning for this there are there are things on the agenda that that warrant deeper and further conversations as well. So, as

124we plan for this, I'm going to suggest that we get together more than once. Um, that said, we will go ahead and get started. So, um I can see all of your names, but one of the things is that uh if we if we could just do introductions and just also your time on the board and then what you are hoping to get out of maybe not just today, but this process and this full conversation because we may not be able to get all of it today, but as you think about why we're here, what are you hoping to get out of all of this? So, if I could start with Sammy. >> Sami Adrabo. I've been on the board for nine years and four months. I think uh what I'm hoping to get out

125of today is a deeper understanding what we're doing good and what can we do better. >> Great. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Julia. I use hehim pronouns. I'm in my first term on the Corella School Board and I'm really interested in learning how we can make um interacting with the school board more accessible for individuals with disabilities. >> Hi Kristen, I'm Chris Hawkins. my third year as school board and um I think just exactly what you're presenting to us how we can do a better job at um and and respecting time frames of you know people that are here every board meeting um as as staff. >> Hi Kristen, I'm Shauna Tomminy. uh pronouns are she, her, and I am in the first year of my second term on the board. Um, and

126thinking about community engagement, I know this is an area that this board different iterations of this board have identified in our own self-reflective survey over the last several years as an area for growth. And so it's been an ongoing conversation I know and um as the board and the district have looked at more ways to engage additional community voices like community listening sessions over the last few years and trying to grow in a lot of different ways of of hearing and uplifting and elevating community voices. We also continue to find more ways that um community isn't feeling heard and so continuing to also identify more gaps holes ways to continually do better. And so I know that will not all be solved. It's not something to be solved in one night. It can't be. It's

127an ongoing process of conversation and really looking at what are we doing well? What can we be doing better? So, I look forward to continuing that conversation. Great. >> Lu White Bear. I go by Lou and use she her pronouns. Um I was appointed January 2020 and elected 21, reelected in 25. So, I'm um in the first year, my second term, and um been board chair. This is my third year. And um what I'm hoping we get out of today is to start the conversation and build on it for one and for two for us to really think about how communication needs change from the community. Um because I feel like we've had sessions since I've been on the board about engagement have strengthened our engagement with the community on communication. Um, and right now

128I know that some people feel unheard and so understanding, helping the community understand our roles so they don't feel unheard by the limitations of board roles I think is really important. Um, because there's only so much board members are able to do. So I think under helping the community understand that is really important to me. Mhm. >> Um Ryan Os superintendent and I have this is my 10th year working with this um not all these board members but with a school board here in Corvalis. Um I am interested in seeing greater um I guess um the ability for everybody to get on the same page in terms of communication. you know, recognizing that there will be difference unique differences, but how do we do some calibration um and coordination? >> My name is Theres Jones.

129This is my um finishing my ninth year on the board and um I am there's a lot of I I think I resonate with a lot of the messages here but I think thinking more specifically about myself I think I'm hoping that I will better understand what in my own interactions in terms of my own community engagement what am I bringing what am I not bringing like there are times I think in spaces where I think I can show up very well there are some where I don't think I can and I'm not entirely certain um how to tell those apart from each other. And so there are times when community engagement happens and like I might not be the best person for that. Um do I can I tell that is is there maybe

130a time where I should step aside and maybe be allowing someone else to step in and so I'd like to understand myself I think a little bit better. >> Great. >> Hi, my name is Bernie Wong. I've been on the board 16 months. Um I'm basically filling out the second half of uh Sarah McDonald's uh term. Um, I am a blank slate. I'm trying to learn a lot of this. So, so I look forward to learning from you. And then the other thing is I I'm trained as a strategic communicator, but I would love to hear how to do it uh in a um definitely a local level. >> Thank you. >> I'm Leo Schwarz, student representative from Crescent Valley. Um I think I'm just looking forward to a productive conversation today. Thank you. >>

131Hi again, Kristen. Melissa Harter, assistant superintendent um and human resources director. This is my um year seven in the district and I think year seven in this job, not in the district. Been here way too long. Um but I have I think that in all the roles that I've had in the district, I engage with the community in different ways because of that role. And now as I enter into a new position um as the human resources director, I think I I would like to learn more about how to engage in a way to support the um school board. >> Thank you. >> Kim Nelson, board secretary. >> How long have you been here? >> Always. You know, this is my fifth year in this role, which I I still call myself new because it

132feels new every day. >> And as part of the team, what do you hope to get out of this? Um I you know I I think that when we talk about communication um it's hard and um I'm just looking forward to hearing where we can I where we might make changes where um we can be more effective. So yeah, >> thank you. Thank you all for sharing. Um we will tackle a bunch of that. Um some of that we won't get to tonight but is really good for planning for next time. And of course, um, as we move through, if there's something that you want to stop and talk about, I don't need to get through all of my slides tonight. And, um, what's most important is that this is your time, not mine. And,

133um, and that we're talking about things that are relevant to you. Um, for those of you that I don't know very well, um, just so you know, I am also on my locally elected school board, so I am I am in service with you. Um, so I understand the complexities of of community engagement as well. Okay. Thank you all. So I want to point out just sort of as an overall thought that when we are in challenging environments, we tend to increase our individual effort, right? Everybody wants to to try hard and they want to do what they can individually. And in board work and in governance, what we have to do is increase the coherence of the system, right? You all know from the training that you've had and just from being on the

134board that you work together as a collective. And while there is I mean Theres mentioned this like getting to know yourself, where are you like where are you the best person to do communication? All of that needs to still happen within a system instead of seven people out in the community doing seven different things. So, I'm just going to ask you a question here to begin, and there's no right answer to this, but when you think of the board, do you think of the board as a thermometer, which is measuring and reflecting the community's temperature, or more as a thermostat, which is setting the environment for progress? What do you think, Sammy? Sorry. Can I call on you? >> Yeah, Kristen's in charge right now. >> Oh, good. Of calling on people. Okay. >> Can

135I say both? >> I think it's um I'm going to lean on the research that Vince uh uh usually shares, which is we're both delegates and trustees. I think we're both thermometers and thermostats. Sometimes there's tension between those two instruments. Uh sometimes one is more salient than the other or we need both >> and we show up as a thermometer sometimes and sometimes we need to remember we need to be a thermostat >> but we we can't do it we can't be one without the other. >> That's fair. >> Anybody else have thoughts on that? If the answer is both for all of you, when do you think that you might feel the the need to be more one than the other? These are good questions, Kristen. And you're not a shy group. >> I

136know. I'm surprised everybody's so quiet. I saw Theres pull her microphone over. She did. >> That's okay. >> Yeah, Bernie. >> Yeah. Can I go out of the box and and say we're actually a real stat, you know, you you adjust the resistance and so on based on >> uh um so so based on all the inputs and what's needed to to make it right. So that >> out of the box a little bit. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Any other thoughts, Judah? I struggle with this analogy. Okay. Um we as individuals are one thing and we were elected for a specific purpose. We are both reactive to I would say government environments and policies and needed changes and what the community needs and then proactive in setting expectations and ideals to work towards. But the

137I would say to say that we have that level of control if we're considering the entire school district as an environment that nothing we do fully really you know can change the temperature of the entire environment and nor are we able to respond and reflect back all the needs of our environment. Mhm. >> Which I think is a great point because as you talk about how do you as a board also communicate what your role is and what it's not. I think that that distinction about not necessarily being able to control everything and and also being reactive to certain things is really important. It's just as important for you to understand what the community needs and wants as it is for them to understand what you do and what your role is. I'm sure you've

138heard me say this. Those of you have been around, nobody knows what a board member does and neither did you before you got on the board, right? And I mean it it is it is intuitive to think of a board member as like an individual legislator, right? You you get elected, you you have things that are really important to you. you come onto the board with your values and the reasons that you come on. None of that goes away. None of it. That's all super important. And once you get on the board, your individual authority is really limited. Unless the board gives you individual authority, you function as a collective. And that's super important for not only board members to know, but for the community to know as well. Okay. So within the whole realm

139of community engagement, what I will tell you is this is, you know, in all the research that has been done about board work and all of the training that we do and the model that we use and it's super researchbased. Community engagement is the squishiest piece because nobody can come into your community and say this is exactly how you do that. you are always responding to the expectations and needs of your community while staying in your board role and moving work forward. So I I can come in and and guide you in a lot of ways. I can't come in and tell you this is what Corvalis is about and and that's that's okay. You know that you are um you are the folks that represent the the district and the community. So within these

140protocols, just know that, you know, th this is sort of the most malleable piece of what we do as board members and it's dependent on circumstance. So public comment is a big piece. I was here for your public comment section tonight. I you know just as your caring disinterested third party I so appreciated you know listening you've got really invested community members and um who also you know want to speak to the board and that's great just in and of itself that's great and I want to talk just a little bit about sort of the the purpose of public comment and I've read your policy I know you've got a little bit of a different thing in your policy than than many boards do but um but let's talk about the purpose of public comment.

141comment just a little bit. So, ideally, public comment is really about qualitative data collection, right? You can't measure like this is not quantitative data that you're getting from your community. It's storytelling and it's experiential and you're gathering that information to inform your decision-making at its most basic level. So, what we really emphasize is this is the time to listen. And I know that you, you know, talk to your community about like this is your time to listen. It often feels counterintuitive to be talking along at a board meeting and then all of a sudden needing to be really quiet and for the most part non-interactive, but um you know, we really and like I said, I know your policy says something different. Um, we also really uh recommend emphasizing to the community that you are

142listening and data gathering during public comment. So, I know that you respond or you have the option to respond to your community uh during during public comment and and I and I heard that happen and everybody who wanted to ask a question asked a question. I will just put out there that there are a few risks to that. What you decide to do with that is what you decide to do. But there are some risks in um in responding or dialogue. Sometimes that can create potential friction or has the potential to create friction. So if if somebody is is speaking, I will just use myself. If I am speaking and um and I'm asked maybe a question that that is hard for me to answer or that feels confrontational, I'm not speaking to any of

143your actions. I'm just talking about in general. That might create more tension than than if I had just been listened to and not responded to. That there's a potential there for that. The other part is potential inequities in the system. So, I heard you tonight. Not everybody asked a question for everybody that that spoke. And that's that's great. And, you know, it it could look like that's an inequity to some folks who say like the person before me got asked a question by every single board member and I didn't get interacted with at all. So, there's that potential for that to happen. And then of course and um Chair Whiteberry did a great job with this, but there's the meeting management portion of it too, right? That like that that could become a really expanded

144part and you do have the district of the business to or business of the district to continue with. And so um so you know having other opportunities for can folks submit and I know there are opportunities for this. Can folks submit their their um testimony in writing? Is there an expectation spoken aloud that the board will read it? You know, how are other ways that um that if somebody doesn't get to speak because you do need to curtail time that um that they can still be heard? I want to pause there. Thoughts on that? How do you feel about your current process? >> Yeah, I have thoughts, but and it's funny because I usually go last because I'm usually facilitating the conversation. So, I'm excited to go first. Um, I am I don't really like

145us being able to ask questions. I'm going be really honest because of the reasons you listed and also because it takes away from the time hearing from the community. And so, I think about that too. So, if we have 20 minutes, that's 20 minutes, right? And that's what's on our agenda. And as board chair, I'm responsible for facilitating a meeting. And I think a lot of times um not just the community but the board forgets like our priority for these meetings our business meetings and then we u spend the extended amount of time on that component of it which is one agenda item >> and I mention every single time usually I didn't tonight but we have tons of ways to interact with us and um and I actually have spent some time chatting with

146board members from like all kinds of different boards like Lebanon and Central Lin and um and David Douglas and there's like several others too, but to say what do you do? And I've watched board meetings when I was the regional rep and seen how they do public comment. Everybody does it different and so there's no standard and that makes it confusing because folk expect one thing and then um we have our process. But I'm I would really um like us to consider that as a board, >> how we ask questions or if we should be Theres >> uh I would I just want to agree that I I don't I have not experienced in nine years I haven't experienced very many benefits from the opportunity for board members to ask questions. Um, and I think

147that's in part because we can't have a conversation. And so it's difficult to construct a question that's worth asking that will elicit a response that actually will inform our thinking that won't start a dialogue. >> Uh, and so it's it can be very frustrating. Um, and then it's frustrating for community members because now we're out of time and they may not we've opened up a a new point that now there isn't time to discuss or uh as one would in a normal conversation maybe say something like I don't know but but you're not going to say that in a board meeting where you're you're you're being asked a question and then the expectation is that you're going to provide an answer data. Um, I think a lot of folks come into public comment and data

148is not what they're here to tell us. And then if they get questions back from us that sound like we want data, it creates this image that if you don't have all of your numbers memorized, you can't come before the board. Uh, which is entirely not what that's not the message that I don't think this board wants to send. Certainly not a message I want to send. Um, so yeah, I don't know. I I really can think of very few instances where a question actually advanced my thinking on something um in a way that I would say I'm glad that that happened. There have been many times where it has had a neutral effect besides time. But there are really almost no examples I can think of where I would say that it has added

149to my process. Which makes me wonder why are we allocating time to something that by design is not going to add to our immediate process. Bernie. >> Yeah. From uh a newcomer's perspective, I um I always wondered about the section because we have 20 minutes to hear one particular uh point of view. Basically, we we don't get the whole picture and part of I thought what we're supposed to do is to have the community talk to each other, right? just just because one person think one thing does not mean somebody else does not think the opposite and and but we there there's no way for us to really engage or even represent a different point of view and so on. So sometimes I I'm more frustrated by that than anything else in in my the

150short time I've been here. >> Thank you Sam. On the matter of questions, I think statistically probably asked the most questions and I want to really share I'm okay with giving up questions. Just no more questions. I think there's benefit to it which is it's clear for the community. This is not time for us to ask questions. I have benefited asking questions of course, but I think the the negatives outweigh the positives. And if it is always expected we're not going to ask questions, it's going to be clear that there's other opportunities to engage with the community. Like I'll I'll use an example with constituents. I like this is great opportunity. I want to ask you about uh like should we limit it to the agenda? >> I should be doing that outside the business

151of the board. I don't know if this is important for the other board members. I could do it with the constituents and then maybe report it back. So on the matter of questions, I really support let's just give more time for the community to share and for us to follow up with the constituents because we have their names. Um to the public comments itself, I think it's very archaic, culturally not accommodating and creates lots of false expectations. Uh an example very recent I just heard from a community member saying um some community members were frustrated that they provided public comments on the day of the decision, an important decision the board made and they felt that because we made the decision the same night uh it felt that their voice did not matter. >> And

152I engaged in a very brief conversation. And I was like, well, the way the system structured the you're doomed if you do, you're doomed if you don't. That specific decision, we had community engagement for like months and many opportunities, including public comments. If the board decided on the day of the decision, they're not going to hear public comments. That's worse. And if they decided to hear public comments for the person who's showing up at that last night, they're going to see a decision that's been uh made on that night and they feel like this is very recent to me. And I struggle with that because uh arguably very critical as critical decisions in the legislature, they make those decisions without any public comments on the day of. They do a public hearing or work session,

153no public hearing before their work session. Sometimes there's amendments that change the whole thing and they don't hear from the community and they hear from the community weeks before and it's very structured where they don't ask questions very limited time uh some people get privileges to speak more than the other community members who sign up and I feel we have more access to the community and community have more access to us and still community members feel that they're not participating. So in summary, I think it's not working for all the purposes of community engagement and we need to think about it as one tool but not the only tool and emphasize that and for those reasons I really agree maybe we should give up the questions. I have no issue giving up the questions, but

154I I want to like I really like connecting with people and sometimes public comment feels like the only time. There's only so many times I can sit up here and be like, "Please email me. I will meet with you. We will have a cup of coffee. You know, I really want to talk to you." So to to say if we're taking away questions, that we're also creating other opportunities to maybe redo our forums to say, "Hey, are you all right?" if a board member has a question that they can follow up. If yes, please provide your contact information and then we could connect with them that way because we do present all these options, but it really feels like sometimes this is the only opportunity we have to to connect with the community because a

155lot of people are not exercising the other ways to to get in communication with us. I really like that suggestion because um if somebody hasn't corresponded with us, we won't know how to get a hold of them. >> And so I know like I've followed up with people after public comment before because it felt important like because they have brought some stuff up and it's not a time for a conversation or they had actually asked a question and we can't answer. And so I'm like and so I'm like oh I'm going to follow up and provide that answer. And I've done that with several folk and um but I only knew their email address because they've emailed us before, >> right? >> And if they don't, then we have no way of um of getting

156back to them. So I I like that suggestion a lot. And um I had something else, but I got distracted when I seen Leo's hand. So when I have it comes back, I'll write it down. Okay, >> Leo. >> Okay. Okay. So, if a board member were to ask um somebody to like conclude their remarks, would that also count? Like would that also be restricted or like how would that work? >> That was my other thing because um that was actually something I started um way back and it was because um I'm going to be like super real about it. It was because there were people were extended time to finish their comments, especially if somebody was emotional. Like it's so hard telling somebody you got to stop when they're crying. You know what I

157mean? I hate doing that. And but it's like if you're not consistent with people, then some people are going to feel like their voice is not as heard or like you're privileging certain opinions or views or voices. And as somebody that facilitates those this the public comment, that's really important to me that there is consistency. I've been I have been like cut off before like at testifying at the state when I didn't know how to do public comment. And I was like, "Really? That's it?" And so it's like it can be hard, especially if you're not used to it. Um, and I did that because of that when I was not chair and I was like, "Can you like oh, can you that you could tell they were almost done? Can you just finish that?"

158And so, um, there's pros and cons of that because then you're extending time for somebody, right? Or somebody's like, "Oh, we know like like Lou is going to ask us to finish so we can write a little bit longer on our public comment." It has come in handy when um people are emotional or um and people do time their things. I've done that too and then I start like slowing down because I'm like I need to take a breath and it like cuts into your time and so it has been helpful at times um for folk. But um that would mean like people need to just we would just need to be consistent. I don't think it's helpful to the community to not be consistent and I'm not going to be board chair forever. So,

159another um board chair down the line may not run it as much as I do, but I watch that clock and I'm like, "No, I can tell they're not going to finish because I've been doing this long enough." >> And um it is hard. But that's kind of I don't know if that answers your question about that. Um would be helpful like to add um like a certain like number like a a specific number like number of time like 30 seconds uh extension to finish um their statement rather than just uh can you finish because then it's like you know don't know how long it's going to be or like that. Yeah. >> Yeah. I can see pros and cons of that too because then people will be like okay I can write this for

160a little bit longer. We do I will say though that for um like we did tonight if somebody needs translation they get double time because it's two people saying that they we need to accommodate folk we do the same thing for like sign language um as well because that's really important for access to us. >> Yeah. So absolutely that was actually what I was going to say was thanks for asking that reminded me like that part right there is like the hard part too. Yeah. >> Yeah. No, that's okay. So, I'm still forming my thought, but something that's coming up for me is that we're really thinking about this right now from the lens of what is the benefit to the board of public comment. And as we're talking about community engagement, thinking about that

161as a as a multi-way street of what are the benefits to the public of public comment as well in that exchange. And so as we think about what's working well on this side in terms of like it it's hard because we can't have the conversation that we want to have. We can't always say in the moment oo actually that's different than what we know. There's more information that would be helpful right now or can we talk about this or can we work through this or can we bring in other information and and address this and it's not a great opportunity to do that. And so I really appreciate that others are acknowledging that there have to be and there are multiple channels for that information. Um, and also just thinking about what are what are

162some of those benefits that the public sees that we want to make sure we also preserve >> and we can't necessarily be the ones to determine that alone ourselves here. But just thinking about some of the things we've seen of solidarity and community. You know, tonight there was representation from a school that came supporting and affirming one another in highlighting some messages really strongly and then multiple messages as well. Um, hearing from one community member tonight that for some public comment feels like maybe the only way to elevate an issue or the only way to be heard or we hear from others it doesn't feel like that too. So, we also know that it's different for for different folks, but just wanting to make sure that we also think through as we think about what

163we most need from public comment, are there benefits to the community that we also risk erasing from that space if we make changes without just thinking through how that might impact the community experience, too. I have a lot to say about public comment obviously, but um because I keep raising my hand. Um I think that that's I don't think I know that's why I don't like us asking questions because for some people it feels like I've heard personally from people that feels condescending sometimes >> and we ask questions and that's not the intent and but that doesn't erase the impact. And so if that's why I'm like it feels like doing the community more service to have more time for them to be able to provide comment than to us because I feel like because

164we can ask questions we do and sometimes um it's like is that a critical question or we're trying to help them feel heard and I think that's the intent a lot of times when you're asking a clarifying question like to help people feel heard and sometimes it's doing the opposite and um I want to acknowledge that, you know what I mean? So, that's where that's why I'm I would rather see us not. And I've also like some of the other districts have two public comment periods. >> One I know Lincoln County does this. They have like the general public comment for anything and it's like restricted time and then they have an or >> no that the earlier I can't remember which order is one of them is for items on the agenda or first,

165right? Yeah. And then the other one's for general, but that's they have to wait till later. So the rest of the business can happen and all the public comment in the front end has to be related to something on the agenda. And so they do they have their split and then like other ones they have a full-on conversation with people and there's like no time limit and I'm like oh and there's like there's this engagement going across and I was like I don't know how effective that is but it works for their community I guess but um that would be hard to do here I think but anyways I hope that that's in thinking about what you just said. Yeah, and just to clarify that I didn't mean in response to no questions. I also

166think that just in hearing what others are saying around questions and and some of the problematic nature of questions and being asked in inequitable ways or not focusing on actual clarifying questions. I think that's something that we struggle with as a board. Um so I also am supportive of thinking about that but in favor of maybe more time for public comments so that we are spending more time listening rather than um interacting in such a limited way when we can't do it meaningfully. >> All right one more and then we'll keep moving. Sammy, >> I think the critical question we need to ask is what's the problem we're trying to solve? And if I go back uh nine years ago, probably some trainings they still do it and I'm going to do air quotes because

167I don't fully believe it, but I believe it's considered canon in many trainings where they say this is a meeting of the board and the public attended. So there's no legal obligations for public comments. However, it is the Corvalis way. It is the Oregon way. We engage with the community and we uh hold ourselves accountable to transparency by hearing from the community. Now the question is what problem we're trying to solve. If uh public comments help us conduct the business in a better way then how can we achieve that? If public comments help us elevate topics that we may not hear about in a different way or ensure community can be heard in a public setting uh in a way that's not possible in any other way then let's do that. But if there are

168some other have other other needs of community engagements, uh this is a tool we should not use this tool everywhere. Maybe we need to consider to give up some board business and uh in some months and have other avenues of community engagement that is more culturally responsive, more engaging beyond public comments where we sit, we break bread and learn about the experiences of our community in a way more thoughtful way uh and engaging way than public comments. That might be the path I would say we should consider if the problem we're not trying to solve is not addressed by the method of public comments. And it sounds like there may be I mean what I heard from most of you is that like yeah the the uh the the responsive the questions afterward may be

169something that this board is actually would want to actually consider that not obviously taking about public comment but your piece in your policy about like do we ask questions afterward and so I would encourage you you know to that would be a policy change for you and so I I encourage you to Yeah, it's in I think it's in your policy that says the board can ask. >> I think it's in our board in arms, right? >> It's in It's in like the AR for public comment. Yeah. >> So, the board unless the board has adopted that, the administration can change that, but I was looking at that today. >> Did you Did you see it? >> Unless you're talking about something different than BDDH AR. >> You're not seeing it. I'm not seeing it

170in BDDh AR. >> Okay. >> BDDhR AR doesn't talk about it in the uh Yeah. And then the uh BDH itself the policy talks about public comments but doesn't address questions. It's no norms. >> I'll send you what I found because I was looking at it this morning. But >> even if it is I mean we can always request Melissa to bring that forward for us. Exactly. That's something when we do board comments we can ask for that. Yeah. >> Yeah. You that can that can that can be changed. Yeah. Leo. Um before I head out, I just want to say one thing that um I really appreciate the board's willingness to like come meet with our student government throughout the school year. Um it's been super helpful. It's cleared a lot of things up,

171especially back in November when all the consolidation stuff was going on. That was super helpful and honestly, it just builds trust. Um it's it's been a really big help. So, I just want to voice my appreciation. >> Thanks, Leo. And have a good night. >> That's good. And that's a super important kind of community engagement, right? Hearing from students. Um, yeah, Chris, >> sorry, keeping quiet on it. But what Leo was saying, I had written down and I just was trying to find the right time to say it, but I think it's really important when we hear from our students. In fact, that's my favorite time is when students come and speak. And um yet when we've had large groups, some of our students had to wait till the very end, you know, it was

17210:00 at night when our students spoke and when even when asked for community members to step aside, some didn't, you know, to allow our students to speak. And so I wonder if there's a way we can prioritize our students because that's truly who we represent. Um, and so I just wanted somewhere to say that because I think it's really critical that we allow >> for student testimony >> and and sorry and like we had fourth graders, you know, waiting till 10 o'clock at night to speak and that was really tough, you know, and we they didn't even know how long they were going to have to wait. So, I just want to make sure that we put them at the front if we can do that somehow. I will say that in my years of

173working with this board, there was a project that you all did for those of you that weren't around during this time um during uh during COVID that we did online and there were students involved with that. I don't remember if that was strategic plan or if that was it was what was that Sammy? >> Uh the racial equity policy. >> The equity policy. Yeah. And there were students involved in that and that was an incredibly enriching experience because students are not shy. they will tell you what they need and so having that voice and listening to the board respond to the needs of the students I think was was really a model thing to do. So if you want to talk about what you are doing well like that kind of practice is really good.

174Okay. I so appreciate I I think this is I I don't know how often you talk about this but hopefully you all heard from each other things that maybe you hadn't talked about before and can think about um maybe a different practice for that but that's up to you. So what we really want to also do is institutionalize the why. Why are you interacting with the public? What do they need from you? What do you need from them? And and that's part of these protocols as well. So we talk about informed oversight as when we talk about balanced governance, which I'm obviously not giving you a training in that tonight, but there is the there's a researchbased model that we teach from. And the point of being having a balanced governance model is that you

175are neither in the weeds nor are you a rubber stamp board. We don't want you to be either. We want you to have informed oversight where you have enough information to make your big decisions. Um but you are neither managerial and you're not just saying okay okay. So to that end then how does that get communicated to the public? And as somebody said, and I'm losing track of who said what now, but um it is a two-way, right? You are communicating out to the public just as much as you're hearing from them, but it's important that the board is able to point to a clear rationale for all of your big decisions. And and I don't doubt that you do, but if there is something lost in that translation, what is the gap? what's the

176gap analysis between here's what we know we need to do and we believe we're doing and what is being felt over here. And so when you're talking about um systems or big decisions that you have, always bringing forward that clear rationale for the decisions that you're making. That can even look like creating a statement of decision or a fact base as you know you operate as a team, right? So again, it's not seven of you out there going and doing different things and saying different things, but you know what is in writing when you make your decisions? What is out there? What are you what are you saying as part of a preface to the decision that you're making and why you're making it? Having something that simple. And again, I'm not assuming whether you

177do or don't. Just these are really recommended practices. Always linking your decisions to other decisions for the community so that they don't ever feel like something big is an isolated trauma. And so if a decision is made over here, what decision behind it informed that? and what decision in the future is reliant upon what you're doing now. Right? There is a system in place. There's a lot of sense making that goes into the recommendations that come to you and then the decisions that you make. And then how clear is that to the community? How how easy is it or how how much information available um is there if I'm sitting in the in the audience and I'm an engaged community member. Do I know that the decision you're making tonight is predicated on all of

178these things and informs this then over here? And then you know your decisions are always and I know that nobody doesn't know this that are are part of a larger datainformed strategy right and this kind of relates to what I just said but everything that you're doing these big critical decisions that you're making in general I mean including the budget every single year right that is part of a datainformed strategy and really talking about things in that way so that if if I'm a community member I'm really understanding like the richness and the background of what you're doing and what it's based on, right? We talk all the time in our trainings about how, you know, talking about student outcomes as part of or or student impacts as part of your board meetings, the more

179you do that, like the more possibility you have of positively impacting student outcomes. That's researchbased and that's all based on what information are you basing your decisions on. questions about any of these things. Yeah, Judah, >> we are nerds. Um, so am >> I. You too, Chris. Um, but when we're talking about So, we've made a policy and we're gauging impact. So much of how we are able to gauge impact is the qualitative data that's returning to us from those who are impacted by that policy. and how can we I guess manage that tension. So we're putting this information out but in order to inform the next decision that qualitative that experiential data the lived experience is the most for many decisions the most valid and only like metric we can gauge the success of

180our previous policies. >> So and that's a great point. I think you know when you make your decisions there's probably an expected you know when and how you're monitoring when and how do we hear about the impacts of these things right if if you're going to adopt curriculum say right you're probably going to want to know along the way how is that being implemented how are teachers feeling about that how are families feeling about like how do folks feel about that and there would be that expectation that you wouldn't just adopt curriculum and never ask about the implementation right So, so in general and the same thing with a budget, right? In general along the way, you are likely doing some monitoring and expecting some of that. So, when you make other kinds of decisions,

181it's important at that time at the decision point to say and how do we monitor this and what information comes to us and when I say because when I say data, I just mean information like that, not talking about just student achievement data, right? any information what comes to us at what points so that we can monitor the impact of that so that when we do get to the next thing we have a clear picture of that. So I think that discussion has to happen like getting ready for the decision, right? And you know the district is behind you doing a ton of great work and and one of the um sort of the t and I see this everywhere. One of the tough things is translating in real time in in a board meeting

182what that work is and how that's informing all of your decisions. Right? So district folks make presentations to you. They give you a lot of really good information and is there some sort of lost in translation moment of then how that informs you and then why you're moving forward with a decision. But I think that monitoring conversation happens early. Okay. Oh my. All right. I'm we're gonna keep moving. So some practical suggestions. So work sessions, right? You're probably already doing that. Do you have work sessions? Okay. Right. So, that's just one thing. You're already doing that. You're looking at financial, logistical, or student outcome data that informs your decisions. Keep keep doing that. Make sure that those are well publicized. The other, you know, another thing because Sammy was talking about like, you know, that

183public comment is just not the only way and maybe there are times where you need to do something extra. So really organized, you know, town halls or listening sessions, which I, you know, I know you do. I think one of the important caveats here is really making sure that the community knows what you're asking for in a town hall or listening session. I recommend really targeted questions. This is what we want to know from you. Not that there can't be open-ended in the end, but like it is really hard to get usable data if if it's just a blank slate. if it's just here's the topic we just want to hear like it's really hard to sort and code that data later. So asking really targeted questions on here's what we want answered by our

184community gives you good data later and then being really clear about how that information will be used. Right? At what point do you take that in? How is that used when you make your decision? Is it something you're you're going to consider? Is this like six months ahead so it's gonna you're going to do it again or what is that? So, if I'm a community member and I walk in to a town hall or a listening session, I know what I'm giving you. I know what I'm being asked and I know how you're going to use it later. Sammy, did you have Oh, okay. Okay, great. And then what we heard during board meetings. If you've had a community input session or you've had community input on something, not everybody else heard that, right? Not

185everybody in your community knows that other people have spoken up about something. So even reflecting, you know, here's what we heard as we move forward with things or here's what we're hearing, especially as you have multiple opportunities to have community input. A couple of things, and this is maybe a little repetitive, that the board must be are able to articulate the why before the community is expected to. So the community can't say well I know why the board is doing this unless the board has really articulated that first and this is a this is a question for more discussion later but when the community provides feedback that oh my little thing is in the way um that is different or counter to a board's decision then how can the board make sure that the community

186knows that they were heard right because you are always going to make decisions that are counter to somebody's thoughts every time. So how you know so what is it what does it mean to feel heard I think is just that's just a question for everybody all the time but then how can you ensure that the or assure the community that you heard them and it was used in this way and you still made this decision. When we look at repair with a community, there are times for every board where a relationship um is tested between the board and the community and there needs to be repair afterward. So, we will talk about this more deeply. I mean, I would recommend talking about this more deeply in a in a future session like like we talked

187about, but just to give a real overview of what does that look like, it's always important to validate the impact and to, you know, be really transparent and honest about that. We know that this was the impact, but what is so the the next one is agency audit and non-negotiable participation opportunities. So agency meaning the community feeling like they have agency. So what is you know you're looking for where did the community have non-negotiable participation opportunities. So as you're looking at a big process or a big decision and obviously you're collaborating with the district because the board doesn't set up all of these individual things, right? A lot of this is is district work that the board is participating in. But where along the lines in these big big decisions or big processes will you

188have non-negotiable opportunities for here's where we're going to hear from the community, right? Like if you're doing strategic planning for example, here's where we're going to engage the community before we move forward. And that's just part of the plan. And then what changes were made in response to the feedback. They may be small, they may be huge, but it's important to reflect on that publicly too as we heard this and here's how it impacted our decision. And here's where we moved forward with a recommendation that some people disagreed with. It's always going to happen that way. So what I would like um I would love to schedule another time with you and what I would like to give you for homework to think about even if you just discuss this amongst yourselves is what is

189one perception of the board that you would like to see changed because there will be work on that. But if if you will all individually think about that and then um would love to come back together with you and really dig into that because then there is that gap analysis. Here's what we want to see and here's where we are now or backwards. Um and then there can be work on that on those perception things. This is what I would recommend for next time. As I went through the agenda and thought like we can only cover so much. Um whenever I see you next we'll do updates. Um again, so this is what I just talked about navigating the gap of what is and what is desired. So that current perceived situation with community connection.

190How do you perceive it? How does your community perceive it? What are these things that you would like to see changed? Um would love to hear and have you discuss your current community feedback opportunities and the role of the board as messenger. What is it and what is it not? Because for every what is it, there is a what is it not, right? And and that is almost as important like if if you're having a tough conversation with somebody, it's every time you say here's what I mean, it's also important to say and here's what I'm not saying. Right? Because given the opportunity, people's brains will fill the hole. So, um, and then the other thing I would add to this as you were talking, um, is individual board community engagement. Like what does it

191look like as an individual board member? what is that role? That can get really slippery as well. So, I would love to talk to you about like where's a good place for individuals to be involved and what might be not good ideas for that. Um, the board and community expectations about timelines for change. Change in some cases happens really slowly and it's important for not only the board to have realistic expectations for change but also the community to have expectations for change and also knowing that some changes are tough and what is what is the realistic expectation for timeline and then what does repair look like? I know they don't have a ton of time. Um, I will ask you one last question because I know you want to leave with this and I think

192it's really important. I have always seen this board as a board that is super invested in its community. First of all, like every iteration of this board that I've ever worked with has spent significant time on community engagement and it's not always easy, but in my almost 10 years of experience with you, um, that has always been really important to the board. And so the fact that you just keep pursuing that is a is a really good message to your community and is super important even when it's tough. Um let me ask you just really quickly what do you think you're doing well? I would like to leave this conversation with that thought. >> What are you doing well? >> Is that broadly or is it community? >> Yeah with respect to community engagement. Sorry,

193I should have been more precise. Shauna, >> I think it's a really challenging time to be involved in public education in all every sense there is. As a parent, as a community member, as a board member, as an educator, administrator, and as a board, we continue to show up. And every time we come together and have board member reports, everybody has things to share about ways they're engaging with students or going to music events or theater events or athletic events or robotics or um it's a board that continues to show up even when it feels hard. >> Anything else? It's important to to look at continuous improvement and it's important to say we recognize we have strengths. So yeah, Lou, >> I think that we all take time to engage with the community, you know

194what I mean? Like on an individual basis in um in actual like Shauna says like even um when there's challenging times or um maybe people don't agree with whatever decision whether it had been like with school consolidation or any other thing, budgets, anything. Um we still make time to meet with people when they are willing to. Mhm. >> And so I think that that's important to recognize because I think some people in elected positions don't do that. And I feel like this board is really committed to actually engaging even in tension. >> That's great. >> Anything else? Judah, >> I think that we operate in very diverse ways. Um like I didn't I didn't share my board member report. I'm involved in some Senate committees. That's not very exciting to announce in your board member

195reports, but that we show up to events, we show up for policy, we show up for schoolboard association, we show up at individual schools. And so we are um each of us is kind of operating at a slightly different in a slightly different way. Mhm. >> Ryan, >> um the comment that came up earlier about where when public comment happens, um boards could easily have public public comment at the end of the meeting, um and do the work and then have public comment. That's there's no no reason you can't do things like that. But this board has always like been outward facing and community oriented. And um I could like never imagine this group coming up with that as a proposal, right? because they're they're just thinking always thinking about how to how to do

196this better. Um and it's always on their mind. And I think that um you could just stick with status quo or make it more difficult. Um and that none of those things even register with this group. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? Any other reflections? I I think consistent with what was shared when I joined this board and with all the accolades for those who came before me, many of them uh are or were men mentors to me. The culture of this sport, the composition of this board is the most diverse and every meaning of the word word uh that it's ever been since uh Corvalis existed as a city or the school district existed as a district. And that's not just a a description. It's actually a feature of acknowledging that we're seven with very

197diverse experiences, lived experiences, cultural experiences, uh, age diversity and at the same time and busy. Every one of us is busy uh don't have lots of time on the side. They're spending time in many avenues and at the same time acknowledge that there are circles beyond our immediate circles that we need to outreach to and we need to make sure each ch child each community is heard and I can see that intentionality. I don't know if there's a correlation there or not. Personally, I reflect on my own experience. Uh I know it is important for me to be represented by people who say uh Sami you don't look like me and I want to hear from you. I don't go to the same store you go to. I want to reach out to you. And

198I can see that in my colleagues that we really do our best to go beyond our immediate circle. And that really helps us truly represent uh the amazing diversity of this community and the children that we serve. I think we do that well and I want to say we can always do better there until we truly hear from each child. >> That's great. Chris, >> as everybody has mentioned about this board really spending a lot of time in in uh our school community, whether it's at school or at community events um related to our students. That's also another time where we we are all hearing public testimony. You know, people are always speaking to us about their concerns or their celebrations. And um many times when we hear these things, these comments, we're bringing it

199back to the board. The public doesn't always see or hear that. Many times when I hear things, I'm calling Ryan or emailing, you know, Lou or somebody that's saying, "I just heard this. What can we do or can you tell me more about it?" And our the public doesn't always hear and see that. And so, um, but the the positive thing is we are out in the schools and it's we share that information at board reports because we want people to know that we hear them and that we see our students. Um, it's not to build our egos or anything else, but to really, um, let our kids know that we acknowledge and our staff know that we acknowledge what they're doing and the hard work that they're doing and their celebrations. So, >> I

200think that's another thing we do. Well, it's great. >> Yeah. Bernie, >> I'll just go with a story. um 16 months ago I was appointed to the position and one of the reasons I dropped my name in a hat to be considered for that is because I saw in all my all the things that I volunteer for I got involved with there's at least one or two board members there all the time and and they were talking to us they were engaging and and that's when I said you know I want to do that too >> and u so so that is really a good example and and part of what we need to do is continue to be out there so we encourage other people new voices to keep coming in and and raise

201their hands and say, "Hey, I see all the board members and and these and uh uh this and that function and I can do that too." So, so I think this is what we do well. I mean, I I'm coming in with that's why I joined a board. So, >> thank you, Terres. In a slightly different vein, I I and I think I think we do this individually. So, collectively, I think this is something that is true about our board as a as a whole is that um we we get a lot of uh questions that are really not board questions, right? Like we get questions about um just policy. I mean, not policy, we get questions about practices within a specific school. And the truth is that most of those times there is less

202than nothing that we can actually do. That's not our role. And so when we are communicating with people in the community who are asking these questions, I think it's really important and I think we are committed to not misrepresenting what our actual authority is. We have one employee and we have um budget authority to give them a budget not to manage the budget at the granular level. Right. >> Right. And we know this and so when we are interacting I think that where it could be really tempting. This is early board member training is not to make promises to people that you have some realm of influence that you don't really have. I think sometimes to the frustration of community members, we say actually that's not really within our our scope. We don't have the

203authority to do that. And I will I will never forget getting a phone call from my son's friend. I do not like the way that my math teacher is using the Chromebooks. What can you do about it? And I was like, oh man, I love you so much. Not one darn thing, but thank you for telling me. What I can do is I can help you figure out how to print off a hard copy because I have figured out how to do that. Right. That was a hard moment because here's this person who's got under this impression that as a board member I'm over something. >> Mhm. >> And it's like fascinating and also um no I can't do that. Right. So I think we do that well. I don't hear a lot of >>

204I don't hear a lot of within our conversations misunderstanding about what is really within and that is sometimes harder. Sometimes I'm like, "Oh, I really wish that was on our list because it would be so much easier to have this conversation if it was." It's really hard to look at people with the best of intentions and say, "I am not the right person for this question. I appreciate knowing your perspective in terms of taking action." >> I can't that's not something that I can decide. >> Um is really hard to do. >> Um but I think we are committed to it. Um, we don't probably get it right every time, but I think that's I think it's something that we're very intentional about >> and that's really important. That role clarity is super important. And

205every time you have the opportunity to to communicate to the community about your role, what it is, what it's not is is a really important thing. I will wrap up. Um, I know this was short and also long. Sorry. Um, thank you so much for having me. Really hope that we can continue this conversation. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for your time, Kristen, and safe travels. Um the next the next item on the agenda is consolidated action. Is um does anybody have anything out of consolidated action that you want to discuss before they entertain a motion? for a very quick brief explanation. None resident transfer spots. >> Okay. Is there anything else? That was what I was going to pull to, but is there any other items? You were too. >> Okay. Several

206of us have a question about that. Okay. Um, so let's go ahead and There's no other items. Sammy, then Shauna, then I'll go. >> Actually, can I defer to both of you before I go to my question? >> Sure. I always go last. Go ahead, Shauna. Go ahead, Shauna. Melissa, I know we've already had some questions around transfers, around transfer requests that came in. Those were that were able to be met. Can you give a just a brief description just to help folks who are listening in and wondering about um the non-resident numbers or non-resident policy that you have here just for folks who may not understand what it is so that they can >> Oh, sure. So by um we when we run a transfer process in the district, we run the resident process

207first, which we did and this year we did two windows. When it comes to non-resident entrance, then we're bound by uh state law as to how that operates. We have to ask the board to approve the number of spots that you see on the um in the grid on your paperwork. We can't just decide how many spaces we have. These numbers came from knowing how many students are in these grade levels at these schools. That includes students who live in the boundary of those schools and also students who um have asked for a transfer and have by and are close to accepting. We just announced the um second round of transfers on Monday afternoon, Tuesday. So um we have an idea of how many students are going to fill spots. So given that then this

208is what we really have remaining. We um you know po contrary to some popular belief we do have a lot of students who want to transfer into Corval school district and um so we try to make sure that we have spaces available for them. So what you're seeing here is an agreement between um the assistant superintendent's office and these schools as to how many spots they have available. limitations like siblings only are because it's very tight. And one thing that we want to make sure is that we is if we have students who are non-resident transfers at a school already that if they have siblings those siblings can also remain with the family. It makes it easier on family for tra you know transportation that kind of thing. Is that helpful? >> Super helpful. Okay.

209Thanks. Can I ask one quick follow-up just in terms of thinking about non-resident transfers in one of the priority groups that was also named in that was staff >> who have children coming in? Um it looks like there are at some schools really no spots just on account of being full others where there are more. Um do we expect any impact on staff who may want to bring their students along with them if they're driving in from out of town? We already have um staff in staff apply during the resident window even if they even if they live out of the boundary and the contract um for both our classified staff and our certified staff that is listed as a fringe benefit that they are able to bring their child in the agreement that came

210with that um with those unions was that you know that might raise the number of students in that building or in that class and that was fine with them because this is about staff and it's about um benefiting our staff by bringing their students to their building. >> My questions already has been answered. Thank you. >> Has it? Okay. >> Yes. >> Um I just wanted to clarifate um that the siblings only for example like Adams only has in the whole school only has two spots for kindergarten. Um, and so that would be like if a family was from Monroe and they were coming and they wanted to go to Adams, it would be like a incoming kindergarter sibling only, something like that from Exactly. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then um the other

211thing I was looking at the chart and um ah sorry it my phone turned off. Um, our schools are super full it looks like and um, I was very surprised at that cuz it seems like I've heard that more students were transferring out but it is looks like we don't have very many spots, >> right? Um, and I did have I wanted to also point out that with Corvalis High School because I in um Crescent Valley High School, I know there's been a lot of um concern from CV and so I noticed that's a sibling only for CHS. And so um I think that kind of helps with that concern that's been presented by CV students. They actually have uh double the amount of spots and they're not siblings only. And so I thought that

212I just wanted to appreciate that because of that concern they have raised about the number of students going down. >> Thank you. Thanks for recognizing that and not only listening to um students but also to staff at CV who were worried about that. Um we've we um for a long time were allowing in um CHS students to go to CHS just because we're trying to you know after COVID we're trying to build our you know our numbers back up but realizing that disparity um and going back to that rule about um making sure that we're not allowing students into CHS if we have such a discrepancy between both both schools. Um I think it says in the paragraph on the um top of that um cover sheet that this was the first time in a

213long time we've have we have a wait list at CHS because we don't have any spots and we're um we're holding um st we're holding students until we can see if there's a space available. >> Okay. And then for the the the school with the highest number of spots available um is Mountain View um especially in the um sixth through 8th. Is there there's enough students though to still have those classes out there, right? >> To have those classes. Yes. Um but we do need to beef up those numbers in seventh and eighth grade. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Those were all my questions about that. Anybody else have questions on this topic? I'm willing to entertain a motion since nothing else in consolidated action was pulled. >> Chair. >> Yes. >> I move to

214approve consolidate action as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved by Sammy and seconded by Theres. Is there any further discussion? Okay. Has been moved by Sammy and seconded by Theres to adopt the consolidated action items as submitted. Next item on the agenda is consolidated information. Oh, we have to vote. I'm sorry it's late. Thank you. Procedural. I'm tired. Thank you, Sammy. >> Judah. >> Hi. >> Um Chris, >> hi. >> Shauna, >> I >> Theres, >> Bernie, >> I. And I vote I. Okay, now it passed. Motion passes. Thanks for the reminder that we need to vote on >> I looked down and I thought, wow, I like missed a moment. >> I should have somebody could have motioned. I should have said, you know, mis consent. That was I

215had that in my mind. I just didn't say it. Yeah, in retrospect. Um, next item on the agenda is consolidated information. As a reminder, the items under this portion of the agenda are for discussion. Would anyone like to discuss any item in consolidated information? Um, both of you have here all three of you. >> Financial summary. >> U disposal of district property. >> So both the items. >> Okay. Okay. >> Do you want to start with the dispos? Let's start with the policy first. Go ahead, Judah. I just have this smallest thing, but under number five of the amended, could we make sure that we just um the remaining unsold materials may be recycled, disposed of as scrap or junk, or donated to appropriate charities or educational agencies. Just to make it clear that we're

216following through with our we'll recycle things when we can. if there's nothing else we could do with those materials. So that that's it. >> Yes. >> Did anyone else have any comments on the >> Yeah, just a quick question. >> The DN Okay. Uh this is um reflecting the state code, right? The OS. So is what's the basis of of the modification? Uh I mean why are we modifying the policy from pre the previous >> why are we modifying the policy because the current policy requires us to um uh bring anything that is surplus to you in a list. >> Yeah. um to surplus the items which requires an immense amount of staff time to do all of that and um also creates a big um sort of pileup and additional storage required because of

217the amount. say if we can only do that once a month um for every single item um then we have to store it somewhere in the interim before we can get rid of it through whatever pathway that is v via a sale or um giving it to another um intergovernmental agency like all of those different pieces. So the current policy as is is extremely time conssuming and inefficient. Um and so this is giving us the authority to dispose of property under certain limits. Um all with following public law, public property um and then only bringing to you those higher dollar items. >> Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. uh the public law um that drives this is this in keeping with with uh the provisions of that? >> Correct. There's no there's no uh the

218limits for like the dollars is not um required. Um but and this is also a sample policy from OSBA. The thresholds that I used are similar to what the procurement policy is. So it gives a simil similar level of authority needed to procure an item of that dollar amount as it does to dispose of an item of that dollar amount. So >> and and just for quick clarification, the dollar amount, is it the fair market value or the original acquisition value? >> It's a fair market value, but I mean that's up to uh >> some discretion. For example, um we have a fleet of copers that will >> be out of commission. They're no longer they're end of end of life. >> Um and we have to um procure a new fleet. And so we'll

219have all these copers. Um >> and they truly like would have no value because they're not usable. Um, but people other districts may want them for their parts and we'll dispose of them that way probably most likely and then get rid of uh the rest that's someone doesn't want. So it I mean it just it is following what is happening for the most part and letting us do that process in a more efficient way. >> Okay. >> Especially with reduced staff time. This is um some of this impacts my staff, but most of it impacts our operations staff. And so this lives under the financial um section of policy, but really was a request from them um to be able to to make this work happen more efficiently. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other

220questions on the policy? Okay. um financials. >> So Lauren, thank you. Uh could you remind us the associated payroll costs? There is a very unfavorable uh variance. >> Yeah. >> That we're anticipating slightly less than 10% not there yet uh as of February statement. So what is it and are we expecting it to stay under that limit by the end of the year? >> Um so for the associated payroll cost that's all related to PERS. um a sort of I'm trying to answer it in the most concise way. We have a fund that's an inner um internal service fund that we can use to offset PERS cost. Um and for um some cleaner and simplified accounting, we decided that we actually are just going to flop what we are spending out of that area. Um

221and so we will be um significantly under spending and it hasn't reflected yet because those journal entries haven't gone through um but in we will be under spending in our um in our category for insurance premiums because we're just going to move the um expense over there. So it's just a flop of what we're paying for where both allowable expenses under the internal service fund for accounting purposes. It's just cleaner. >> Okay, that makes sense. And but when it was budgeted, it was budgeted in that fund in the internal services fund, which is why there looks like um there's a difference. When we did the supplemental budget, I didn't correct it because what you see here is um objects and you we are doing the appropriation on function. So it doesn't require me to do

222any sort of supplemental >> but I could have added a narrative in the cover which would have been helpful. >> Yeah, thank you. No worries. And I don't I don't want to steal the thunder from next week or the following week, but how do you anticipate that working next year? Do we have any forecasts how the pers rates are looking and if we will need to tap into that account or not? >> So the PERS rates um will be the same next year as they are this year because it's established in the for the bienium. >> Um and so those won't be changing. We will be budgeting all of the PERS expense in the fund in which the position is paid for. Um this represented a split of about uh 4% and 2% I think

223for a total of six on the pickup which is a employee benefit which is why we are able to use the internal services fund. Um so you will see it all reflected in in general fund next time. The reason why we actually decided to make this shift um is to help with um historical trend data and having it all built out of um paid out of the general fund to kind of smooth the trends a little bit um because PERS is going to be something that we continue to talk about over the um well I don't know how long forever >> at least 10 years maybe 20. >> Yeah. So I mean it's going to come up. So, we wanted to make sure that our historical data and our trends um were as accurate as

224possible. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Did you have financials too? No. Anybody else? >> Everything it was already asked. Anybody else? Thanks, Lauren. >> Next item on the agenda is board member comments. Is there any board member comments? Oops, I dropped my P. >> Shauna, then Chris, just in thinking about a lot of the public comment we had tonight around concern for students, their mental health and well-being, counseling support, mental health support in the coming year, what that's going to look like. Um Ryan, it might be helpful in in the coming whenever it makes most sense in district process if that could be something that was shared as part of the consolidation update or reports just in terms of how's the district thinking about that? What are the ways that the district is

225thinking about both in terms of there being more students in schools but also ensuring that they really have um that mental health and counseling support needed? I think feels like it would be I know that that level of staffing is outside of the board purview but at the same time helpful for us to hear about and it sounds like the community is asking for that too. >> Sure. >> That's okay. Mine's going to be a minute and I apologize to everyone, but I have a few things to say and um I'm usually pretty quiet about things. Um but with all that's happened in the past few months with recall efforts and everything surrounded surrounding it, I've spent a lot of time reflecting. I was very quiet during that whole process. Um, and yet I feel

226that um, I really need to speak my truth. Um, and what I want to center it around is really around the community because if you've listened to me for the past three years or if you've known me as an educator or in my role supporting students in crisis, you know that building and supporting community has always been the the heart of my work. And for me that meant helping children develop a strong self strong sense of self, feeling confident in who they are as individuals, building classroom communities rooted in respect and anothers cultures and identities. And at a district level, it meant that bringing community together supported families that were experiencing loss, students facing mental health challenges, and those navigating homelessness or other hardships. and meant for me rolling up my sleeves and showing up

227in people's homes and working side by side with families to connect them with the resources they needed. I understand deeply that closing schools is painful. It's a significant loss for a school community and at the same time I also understand the responsibility we carry as schoolboard members to ensure that all students across the district including those impacted continue to have access to opportunities that matter like the ones I mentioned earlier and that they have classes in art and counseling and mental health support. And these are the very programs that we consistently hear heard from our community to preserve. This whole process was really difficult. And what was most challenging to me personally has been the attacks on my integrity and the threats made towards me and my colleagues. My professional work supporting families was questioned

228by individuals who have not seen or could fully understand the countless hours I had spent beyond my workday serving this community. Sitting with families who had lost a child, staying with them in the weeks that followed, and helping them begin to navigate an unimaginable grief. And that is the work that defined me and still does. As I said, I've remained pretty quiet about this and I'm deeply deeply grateful for the many community members who had reached out in support of us and my colleagues. This encouragement mattered. The decisions we made were not easy, but they were made with the goal of ensuring that all students in our district continue to have access to the opportunities that they that they need and they deserve. And I stand by those decisions. And yet now I believe it's

229time for us as a community to move forward together. Corllis has long been known as a place of caring and compassion and connection. My experience with crisis response healing happens when communities come together with a shared purpose. When we take something difficult and transform it to a collection collective action. The students and staff of Corvalis Junior High and the other affected schools were going to need us. They will need us to help build new commi communities where they feel seen, supported, and connected. That is the work ahead of us, and it's work I remain deeply committed to. Thanks. >> Thanks, Chris, >> Bernie. >> I guess it's almost anticlimactic, but I I I do want to bring up one one thing that I've been hearing um quite a bit. and also as um during some

230of the bargaining sessions is that uh we need to start talking as a board about AI policy, artificial intelligence because it it it's now not just a student learning issue but rather it it it it over everything from how staff do work uh uh what resources are available how students um h how we can teach students to use AI responsibly and and also keep up with the times because I think if we get behind this issue, it's going to drive us rather than than than uh what we can do at this point. So, I would encourage us, you know, to figure out a way to to get it into our agenda and and work with all the stakeholders on coming up with a good policy that we can move forward with. Any other board member

231comments? Sammy. >> Uh, thank you. I I want to dto uh the the suggestion uh from Bernie and I might have some ideas or thoughts. I'll pass it on uh to your chair and uh Ryan. I want to just acknowledge what Chris has shared. Thank you. I love you my friend and I love each one of you uh my colleagues. I think the work of public service is thankless and it's hard and um um I'm I'm out of words to share how really significant is. It's really the honor of my lifetime that we're stepping in for the kids. Um and we're we're taking time away from things that we love to do. Um and I I really hope that uh we can move on with the optimism that uh every child needs us. Uh change

232is hard and I personally struggle with change and each one of us have lived experiences where change um may not have been smooth for us and whether as adults or children we need to navigate how we can make the best out of change and adapt and recover from uh changes. And I think uh I I just want to thank you Chris really. You spoke from the heart and you spoke to my heart and I have a lot to say. Uh I know my colleagues have a lot to say. Um, other than childhood trauma, I haven't experienced as traumatic and personal the personally disruptive experience as I have experienced the last few months. And I usually say it's okay. It's worth it. But it's not it's not worth it. Uh, serving the children or public service

233should not be at the cost of personal costs. Um, I've heard uh things about me or my colleagues that's like you're not talking about that person I know whether it's myself or or other people or people talk about what we wear, what we what we look like, our complexion. It's it's sad and I think the best way to move forward is to both call it out so we can heal and redirect toward uh what the children needs. Um and uh I think the best thing I feel I can do right now is to really uh process it in a way that's traumainformed, sets an example for uh future board members who want to step into this seat and and also for the children and leaders who want to serve the community. So I don't know

234what that answer looks like. I ask from every community member those who agree or disagree with anything we do that they hold us accountable but to walk in our shoes and help us walk in their shoes as well and that's only happens when we break bread assume the best out of each other and give each other grace. Um I think that's that's really important and Chris I'm I'm I'm really grateful for what you shared. I don't know what's avenue we can do to help us move forward with a better healing. Um, but I'm very very very very very grateful that this is a community that overwhelmingly believes in public education. Believe that children deserve education that's honors their culture, their language and the dual immersion experience that we have and they support us. We have

235really good indication from the community that we're doing good work. We can do better and we should do better but we're doing really good work whether above average with the state or better than the last year or the year before. Um we are doing good work and I want us to not lose that insight as well. Uh celebrate the good and build on it. Um thank you Chris again >> Judah >> on that I I I hear and I I deeply respect my colleagues you know with it has been excruciating but throughout that process I don't think I think that we need to approach with accountability and with healing for how there there are mistakes that that we made in this process I believe and so to to hold both things as true that we

236need to be accountable to what we did um and also be saying that did happen and moving forward. I don't see healing without accountability. Um, my original thing, which I'm still going to say for my board member comment, is April 25th, Huo Hawaii, uh, the OSU, um, Hawaiian student organization has a their 71st annual festival on April 21st with a lot of fantastic events and uh, dancing and food and songs and stories. And so, as we're talking about um you know bringing attention to our Pacific Islander students is also you can go to this awesome festival and it's just coming up. >> It's called um Hoik. Yeah. Is the name of it and then they also Pacifica Fest in May. There's two celebrations that are both awesome. Thank you Judah. Anybody else? Go ahead. Um,

237well, I think I just mostly want to affirm that we've been in a difficult period and we still have some really difficult things we need to figure out. And so, um, I don't know exactly where that leaves us. There is definitely um as has been identified among the board and among the community um places of still very deep grief and very much will be in need of healing. Uh and um and we have a responsibility to um our school to our kids um to prepare as best as we can for um a strong school year to finish this year well and to prepare for a strong school year. And so I I have been wrestling a lot with just trying to find the balance of um how do we continue to do the work um

238while still creating space um for reflection and creating space for opportunities um for healing. So um it's not really I I don't have a a recipe I don't mostly I'm just I'm sitting with this question of realizing that both of these things need to happen concurrently. Um I do want to share that uh as we are approaching budget season, it is um always a difficult time because we we have um so very many things that would be fantastic to provide, wonderful to provide. we have a budget and so the consolidation was one in oh a series of difficult decisions that will have to be made and um so I I guess that the weight of that it's like that was part one and now we have to do the rest of that and um and

239so there still is a need to hear from the community um about what's to come and uh in that I just want to highlight one thing um which is that I think we have heard in a couple of different ways. Um, this is a board goal. The actual decision-m is outside the scope of the board. So, let's clarify that it's outside the scope of the board. But related to a board goal, I am concerned about our staff wellness um as we look at the distribution of students across our buildings. And I um I think that to the best of our ability, we just need to be really really certain that we know why we have made the decisions as a district to allocate resources in the way that we have knowing that um we have

240heard pretty clearly that um our staff are worried about supporting the mental health of students in their buildings and I am worried about their ability to h support their own mental health when they are carrying. I think Chris spoke very um beautifully about what it is like to be an educator and to walk with families and these folks are going to walk home and it's not going to go away for them. And so every ounce extra that is stacked on that that weight for them um will ripple into their lives. So, I I just want to make sure um when we start to have conversations and we start to hear and take staffing take shape that we are asking ourselves how we are centering wellness and if um we're certain that the decisions and the

241allocations that we're making are the best way to do that. >> Um I have a few things too there. I have like a couple little things, but I just wanted to um also mention say thanks to all my colleagues for your thoughts across the board with the um about the experiences over the last few months and want to try to think of how we can have voices come to us because right now what I feel like is that people are talking about the work of the district and the board but not engaging with us or with the district and I don't know what the answer is. um other than to continue to say please work with us and alongside of us instead of on the outside because we have information, the district has information and

242those things need to talk to each other. And so I want to extend that invitation again. I say it all the time. Please work with us. Um we're here for you. and um and everybody that may have thoughts about whether or not we should be sitting in these seats right now, every one of those folk are still our constituents and I still want to hear from them. And so I wanted to share that. And um and also just that being an elected official does not give permission for us to be um threatened and harassed. And um that's never part of the job description. And I advocate at this at the state level. Um I've talked about it publicly many times at the state level around um safety of public officials. Uh that's just not part

243of the job and it should not be expected. Um so I just wanted to share that part. and also um again extend the invitation that we still want to hear from people and we want to work with you all and um I've even sent emails about that. Um and I don't want to take up all the time doing a personal reflection on it. I um have done that in my own way already. Um but I wanted to um suggest too that we think about updating our web page. I think I've mentioned this before because what I did learn through the last through the process of um efforts for the recall is a lot of things are were outside of the scope of what we do and so I think there's not clarity around still around

244the board role because it says operations on our web page for example but what does that mean to everybody like that might not be as clear um so I think that there's some work to be done there and um I would like to ask the board if you're okay if I work with um Ryan on helping update our web page a little bit. Is that okay, Ryan? >> Um that way from a board perspective of like the questions we get and assumptions that are made about our work and what it is I think is really important um that it's clear and I think that gets to some of what Kristen was saying too about like clarity and things like that too and so we can get a head start and we'll have something done by

245the time she comes back. So I'd love to do that. Um, thank you Bernie for your um suggestion on a AI policy. Um, I think that we should um also think about screen time for students in school. Um, the mental health support um the public comment tonight really um always lands and hits home for me because of my own experiences um with family members and stuff. And um I brought this and because it was a gift this week actually. It's a little bit older, but it's um called to live to see the day that or to live to see the great day that dawns and it's preventing suicide by American Indian and Alaskan Native youth and young adults. And so I I brought this today to like say like we always need to focus on

246mental health. And then we had all of the I was planning on bringing this already and um sharing it with um folk for us to continue to think about that. And I specifically brought this in the Pacific Islander student information because those two populations, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders are always left out of the data, not on purpose, but because of the numbers. And that's part of the um story of eraser with data. And I think it's really important that we always keep that centered on like we don't always get that information and we got some of the stories tonight of some of those populations that might check another box too but also are part of this group. Um and so I am really concerned about the impacts of immigration enforcement with

247ICE and Border Patrol on our community which we heard about this evening. um again and um we may have a resolution that we um did um but I really want families to understand that that's just not words on a paper like the district is committed to those um things and um yeah the other thing I wanted to bring up was and it's still related to um suicide prevention is at our last um business meeting we had public comment from a constituent around um support for students um who have um learning disabilities and isolation in schools and um specifically was brought up because we had our resolution for disabil uh developmental disability awareness month. It's also autism awareness month right now. So I just wanted to bring that up as something like that I think is

248important. And I don't know what we can do as a board, but knowing that all the changes and um the impacts especially on students that um fit those categories um it's pretty intense. And so I um wanted to bring that community members um comment back up. So in connection with autism awareness month. And then there's two more things and then I'll be done. I swear. Um I also brought these for the district. they are about learning Chinukua which is the local one of the local languages. Um there's credits available through Lane Community College. Our students are eligible to take classes. They're online um remote and um the language specifically um has been worked on with the Grand Round Tribes several years ago, like decades ago at this point. Not a lot of decades but some.

249Um, and it meets the education standards of course because native languages count for second languages for the state of Oregon to graduate high school and they can also be gaining credits for college. They count in Oregon colleges as well. So, I'm going to leave these with you Brian for you and Marcianne to learn more about. Um, and then the last thing I wanted to mention was, um, I found out at a meeting at work today that Kids Spirit, um, canceled their contract with Oregon State University. And that is the all the services for like non-school days that people are accessing at OSU. And it's also closing Beaver Beginnings, which is one of the daycarees in in um town. And so that's I can't remember how many hundreds of kids that is without >> at Beaver

250Beginnings. Yeah. So I don't know if other folk that are affiliated have heard that news yet, but it's um that's a pretty big deal for our community and I mentioned that because it's um I'm thankful for that contract with the ESD because that's such a critical service. And I'm not laughing like it's funny. It's just like the timing is just like bananas. And I don't think anybody nobody's seen that coming at OSU. It's a huge deal there for and those are families in our community, students with kids, and I don't know what they're going to do because there's weight lists everywhere. So, I just thought that share that with the board as connected to one of our contracted buildings now um for next year. Um and also that impacts people living in this town which

251impacts future enrollment as well. And so I just wanted to you got info on that? I was just going to clarify because you named Kids Spirit. So, Beaver Beginnings is owned by Kinderare. >> Oh, Kinder Care. Sorry. >> So, I just wanted because I know Kids Spirit is the like the schoolaged program that's run through. >> It's the same company though. >> Is it? I wasn't sure. So, that's what I wanted to clarify if it was both or if it was. >> Yeah. So, it's from what how it was explained to me. Maybe >> it's not Kids Spirit. >> I don't think Kinder Care has >> because Kinder Care is a >> Okay. Kinder Care. >> I thought they did both. how it was explained to me earlier, but I might be wrong. So, anyways,

252I don't know OC's contracts. That's outside of our purview, but Beaver Beginnings is closing. That's the thing I wanted to share with you all is more important, which impacts people living in this town. So, yay for housing that we talked about earlier. Sad that we're losing a huge daycare facility. So, that's bad news. Okay. Sorry to end on bad news, but um thanks for your time and thanks for everybody for hanging out with us who's still in the audience. appreciate you all being here this evening and everybody who did um public comment as well this evening and we meeting is adjourned at 10:18 p.m.