April 16, 2025 Board Work Session

0016:00. Okay. Good evening and welcome to the Gresian Ball Board of Education April 16th, 2025 regular board work session. Follow order. Roll call. Uh in attendance, Chris Howlet, Holly Regelman, David Lotic, and Dr. Myra Gomez. Uh we have one vacant position. We have not heard yet from uh Blake Peterson or Sean Barnes. They may be joining us later. Um we do have a quorum. So our meeting is uh active. Um we have an agenda and I just wanted to call to everyone's attention. We do actually have two action items on this agenda. Usually in work sessions we don't do action items but we have a couple of them as well as some other presentations. So if there are no questions about the agenda, I would uh accept a motion to approve the meeting agenda. I

002move to approve the meeting agenda as presented. Second by David to approve the meeting agenda as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I I All right. Post. We have an agenda. Thank you. So our first item is um Senate Bill 3 request for waiver and this has presenter Dr. Tim. So welcome. Thank you. Um sir, do you want to put through? Do you want me to click through? Um I can do get a click. Well, sir, you can I can record. Yeah, this meeting has been recorded. So, we go to the next. Yes, perfect. Um, so this is just going to be a presentation that I covered at the meeting back in February. So, it's a quick review just to see if there are any questions um that come up. So, this

003is really about Senate Bill 3 uh looking at opportunities for students around both personal finance and also career pathways. Um both of those are required courses that the state put into play this last session. So, it's looking both at opportunities and also uh we want students to achieve and align the work that they're doing in high school setting with whatever their postsecary plans might be. So just wanted to align that the boarding conditions and let you see that connection there. So once again uh what the state has said is out of the 24 credit requirements that has not changed that remains exactly the same. Um but what has changed is we are adding one credit half of which is this higher education for faculty skills the other half the credit is personal finance education. Um

004and what we're proposing within the district is that those will be offered the junior year will be the pathways work and then the senior year will be the personal finance. As we look at the standards um if we left the career pathways higher education the senior year it's too late. Um most of our students have already decided what it is they need to do where they want to go to the junior year is kind of the sweet spot with that. As far as personal finance education, a lot of our students have told us that as they're making that transition from senior year to whatever happens next. That's where they're most um curious about how do I how do I make those transitions? What does it look like to balance a checkbook? There's no checklist, but

005you get the idea. How do I manage credit card and debt? What does it look like to apply for a loan? Those sorts of things. And so just the relevance of being on their own in a matter of months um the content is very relevant for our students in that senior year getting prepared to whatever that next step might be. So that's our plan. Um right now uh it's required for students who graduate in the class of 2027 and beyond. So next slide. Uh this is just the overall timeline. Right now we're in 2425. Um, as far as putting together resources, uh, we've got a meeting actually next week on Tuesday where we're going to finalize what our career pathways course looks like, uh, and get that, um, all signed and sealed and then after

006that, we'll start working with the personal finance and what that would be as that course into play. Uh, as far as implementation is concerned, what we're proposing is instead of starting in 2526, we're proposing that we start in 2627 with the waiver. So, we're not going to start with um our uh our classes this year. We're looking into that fall 2026 27 what we're asking. And the rationale for that is really around FTE at the high school level um at both our big high schools where we just got done doing some cuts. Those cuts actually rejected related to some position. We were hoping to have flag for these two classes specifically. So, that's the reason for the request for the waiver. Next. Um, this is just simply saying who can teach the course and it

007basically means anyone can teach the course who has a teaching license in the state. Next, um, this is about awarding credit both for personal finance and also higher education. Uh and again we're looking for the personal finance education to provide opportunities with our financial algebra allowing them of course to meet both financial math credit or math credits and also the personal finance because there's a significant overlap and we want to make sure um that we're not hindering students from what it is they want to do in terms of elected courses. There's not the same sort of opportunity for the career pathway skills but that's what we're doing as far as those two courses are concerned. career pathways will be its own separate course and the personal financing its own separate course as well. So the

008next two slides Sarah just really said we could push those um math standards or other sorts of content standards into these courses but we can't push those standards out. They have to be spanned along courses both for personal finance and also for the career path and the next slide basically shows the so next um as far as the waiver process is concerned uh we'll be asking the board to make an action or motion on tonight um is to request a waiver. The waiver has to be submitted reading down to the very bottom no later than July 1st 2026. my recommendations that we do that sooner than July 1st, 2026. Um, and that's would be board approved. Um, a projected date for implementation and the reason for seeking the waiver needs to be due to staffing

009and the lack of staffing students in play. Next slide. Um, so as far as implementation plan, I talked about this just briefly. Um, but the postsecondary pathways is going to be a grade 11 course. The concept is almost finalized. personal finance will be in grade 12. The content for that we will start working on this year before the year gets done. Um as far as the reason for requesting a waiver without additional funding um that the state has not provided, it means we'll need to collapse our elective courses in order to find that FTE to produce. So any budget cuts have impacted our ability to implement the beginning of the fall of 2025. So um requesting for the board to approve a waiver give us one more year to implement as far as these two

010requirements. some questions. Just for my clarification, Tim, when we're talking about collapsing electives, that's CTE things as well as music. Those would Yeah. Well, it would most likely come out of CTE um and other sorts of electives I think required. There's not there's not a lot of room to collapse like a choir, but choir and Vander are running pretty tight in terms of FTP. So, it most likely would come out of our CTP electives by and large, our CT. Yes. All of them. Anything they've chosen. Yeah. All of that. [Music] Question for Chris. So, there's only four of us here. That's a Y. If the vote is three to one, it doesn't pass. Okay, they pass the password for is what you have to pass it with. So, so that's okay. Okay. So, it would

011be implemented or class of 2027 would have a requirement. Yes. No, no, no. So what what we're requesting is instead of that instead of implementing for the class of 2027, what we're requesting is a waiver for a one-year pause so to speak to be more strategic in how we implement in order to make sure that the class of 2028 in the have those two courses. If if it doesn't pass and we have to cut it push into the math or is it still its own course? It's so most of our students will take it as its own course. There are a few students who will benefit who are taking financial algebra. Um, and once again, we still need to work the details out to to figure out how that would potentially work in terms of

012credit by proficiency. Um, but the number of our students that are taking financial algebra is only a small segment of of our class of 2027. So, the personal finance course will be taken by the majority of our students. And there's not enough staff right now to fully implement that. Is that what you're saying? But some of the people that would be available to each those segments correct because of the current budget situation that we're correct you calculated is it five FTE to be able to roll correct that's about across the correct it's one FTE of the courses that we offer at the high school so take about um 12 sections or so of personal finance and there'll be about 12 sections so to speak of the career pathways they just take the the size of

013the class and just divide it by about 35. I think it ends up being like 11 courses or 11 and a half classes and a teacher typically in a year will teach 12 sections and so it's basically one section for each of those courses that are bigs and then spring water trail will be included in that as well. So it takes us at about four and a half to five right around. So sorry this is a big one. Yeah, absolutely. Um let's you can't do another way around for this but let's say we get into that 20 to 2028 correct budget shortfalls I mean what are what are we planning on to not cut us in 2028 like what are we saying so we're looking to be more strategic around taking a look at where

014our course numbers fall especially this next year to see where the where the cuts will have the least effect is what we're asking for the question at this point. Um did you have another question David? So um I would sort of assume that we're not the only district in the state that's facing some of this because of the budget situation. You are correct. Um and is this something that um that it's it could be available in the future near future as online course that kids would just take it or does it have to be with a teacher at school in a classroom? We would have some contractual um challenges with that because that'd be outsourcing our work. Teachers would have to be responsible for teaching it. Okay. um not state mandated but contracting our cont

015our contract. Yes. Okay. Um and then um and so if if for some reason we don't if we don't do this tonight then if we have to continue to do it into next year 26 27 then it would mean that the electives that students choose would be limited because one of them would have to be something would go away in order to fund this for the staff member. Correct. Okay. I'm making I connected A to B to C. So, as of right now, so students have done forecasting for next year already. Um, the students that will be juniors this next year. If we don't apply for the waiver, the students that are juniors or sophomores that should move into their junior year next year because we want to do a two-year sequence, grade 11, grade

01612, we would need to go back and readjust, remove elective from what they forecasted forward, and then put the career pathways in place because it's this year's sophomores that are the class of 2027. And so what we're saying we need to go back and readjust but that same group of kids would get personal finance as a senior. They we would have the waiver because then they would not be getting the pathways. Is that right? So we think of a two-year sequence where we would put pathways in starting in Sarah. Can you go back to the timeline slide? Perfect. Right there. So instead of starting 25 26 um with pathways and then 2627 personal finance because that's what we would need to meet the 2027 graduation deadline. What we're proposing is that we shift it a

017year so the career pathway starts in 2627. Personal finance comes on board 278. Our waivers always approve by the way. Our waivers always approved once they're when you apply for it. I wouldn't say always but often for sure. Yeah. Regularly consistent. What would make it not if they added funding to measure 98 with the expectation that it's supporting this work? Something like that could happen in the past, I would think. Well, probably your reason for applying if the reason for applying is we just don't want to. Yeah. So, this is a CT or these are CTE courses. wouldn't and we have other 16 courses already in place. Are we not getting additional funding for completers especially non-traditional completers from the state? That was my understanding with 16 courses a few years ago that if you

018had completers kids who completed the pathway and you had non traditional students completing with additional funding and that supported the programming of the students are we not doing that? I don't believe so. No. Well, maybe we should look into that if that's still fit. The and Tim, you correct me because you've been in the conversations more than me. If we didn't approve the waiver now, we would be in a position of revisiting some reductions here in April and May of staff late to be able to fit these into the classes full. Correct. We need to we need to so we need to reduce we need to reduce electives. Well, it's it's one and the same. We need to find the FTE to teach it. that has to come out of personnel that are already employed.

019So it's both. We would be we would be reassigning to say you you'd been slated each of this course this course and future. Correct. So none of our CT pathways are selfunding because I know schools have pathways where they're self sustaining the compet. Not that I'm aware of. Yeah. And I don't I don't if they complete the whole cause or another meeting even if we're wrong to what end even if we're wrong uh and we are funded we still know the bottom line budget that we have right and it is where we are. We're in reduction mode and sorry Becca um it's lost because the state is requiring certain components of the personal finance piece. Correct. But within our other coursework do we have finance related? It's not like the kids are totally not getting

020anything at this point or that they haven't gotten anything. It's just the state is saying we want something a little bit more structured. So students are they're not going to be left in a void. So correct. So students are receiving personal finance as a part of the economics course for example high school. Okay. Um so there are a couple weeks that are devoted to personal finance both aggression and at wheel as a part of the broader umbrella of economics and senior. So at one point we were looking at can we um can we take the standards and push the standards into different courses right and by the time the student graduates from high school be able to demonstrate we've met all of the standards because they they've taken these standards here and they've taken these

021standards here and they demonstrated proficiency. Um the state came back in June last year and said that doesn't cut it. We want an actual course that says personal finance on the transcript. So there there are personal finance concepts that are currently embedded in various places across the curriculum most of which happen in economics uh in a student's senior year. Um the personal finance standards go beyond though what could be covering in in four to five weeks of that personal finance content which makes sense. The personal finance standards are designed to meet a semester's long course as opposed to just a few weeks. Okay. But they're not going to have it on there. Correct. Okay. Yeah, I feel like we should find out why we're not getting park funding and find out like why why would

022we have players that help us get park funding especially if we've seen cuts that would help us anyway even if we apply for the rent the Perkins amount of money we get is not it and it's the same we're withdrew some from the consortium or did we recipient but our total budget is about our total 30,000. Yeah. So, barely covers a teacher. Uh, and we usually use that money, but I have to go back and look at the budget for equipment, supplies, other things, especially with CTE class. I guess maybe Tim, can you talk through because it looks like the waiver is not required right this moment. Correct. So what is the benefit of deciding on the waiver now versus waiting till fall when other dust has settled? Yes. So to me the benefit of

023deciding now according to the school year um is it gives us the chance to determine if if the waiver is not approved or the board says no to the waiver then that won't impact what we need to do starting the fall of next year. So that's why the reason we're requesting the waiver now um because there's going to be a two-year implementation process here to your implementation cycle. As you take a look at student schedules, for example, if we were to try to squeeze all this into a student's senior year, both personal finance and the career pathways, the career pathways would make sense in a student senior year, we simply checking with the box office. We're trying to make this the course valuable and relevant. So it does seem to be a two-year implementation as

024opposed to simply a one year is the reason we're asking now knowing the the cycle. Can you answer one more question for me too? Senior year they're usually light on credits. What was the discussion related to not having both courses in the senior year? Yes. So, when you take a look at the content for the pathways course, um it's applying for scholarships, applying to colleges, um a lot of those sorts of things that a student would have probably done by the end of their junior year. Um and so, especially if a student were to take that at the end of their senior year, there's very little relevance to the content that students not as a reason to approve or not approve this. Um, but I would suggest looking at pushing something else from junior year

025to senior year. So the junior year, junior year seems to be the heaviest. And it's also when they're applying for scholarships and doing all of that stuff. So it's unfortunate to me to add another um requirement that year, but maybe there's something that could be from junior to senior year. I don't know. I would look at that. Not that that's so I know that the counselors have been involved as we putting the the sequence together. This was their flexibility. You are correct. The sophomore year and the juniors would be most impacted as far as required courses graduation. Um but the the counselors felt that within the junior year there is some flexibility of things that you can make it work best in the junior year. The sophomore year is actually even more than just based

026on courses that students are trying to take as far as graduation requirements. You hear any resistance from staff because I haven't heard any about resistance to the course. It's more about logistics. Yeah, it is about logistics. Um and and how we so the greatest concern around the courses is um because the number of credits has not changed and we don't have any more uh classes that a student can take within their schedule. We have 28 courses or 28 credits that we offer. So the greatest concern is around um we are reducing the number of electives that a student has the availability to take within the course of their four or six weeks. That's where most of the angst comes from is around there's no there's no hesitation with the content. Um personal finance has much

027stronger support than the pathways people as they look at pathways they say I understand it personal finance people are like personal finance makes sense. Um so there's no hesitation regarding content. It's more about options and choices for students and their um their availability to make choices around courses that they get like basically what they're saying is that we don't take away. One last question and might not need to answer it now is we'll have to update KL eventually or is I is it like graduation? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much that's complained. Yeah, it's just procedure. I didn't want I didn't want to forget it as venture to guess and that the concern is not about implementing them. It's about waiting longer to implement them as opposed to implementing them now. Is there a way that we

028can approve the waiver but still implement some of the content in other classes even though that won't I understand that we can't do that for the state but can teachers start getting familiar with that content now in some of those other classes that then would become a standalone class so that it's halfway implemented but the waiver still of sorts I would say as far as the career pathways for example that's already been embedded within a lot content they were able to to pull that out and develop them actually. So the um uh mock interviews that Sam Barlo hosted for example those are directly aligned with the the career pathways right so we are we are doing many of these things spread out in various content areas what this bill does is it says these need

029to be one course one class and one time um so many of these things are being met in various forms and same thing with personal finance personal finance many of the the standards uh I don't think is the right term but personal finance standards are being addressed in various courses in various ways and different courses that students are taking for example AVID is right down the line of the career pathways and there's a significant personal finance component there students that take the AV class um and I know for yeah health has been a catch all for a number of long time as well. So if we do not if we don't do the waiver tonight, we still have a little bit of time. If we don't do the waiver at all, then it would mean

030we have to implement it and it would mean something else would be cut because the budget students would lose options. Yes. That was a qualified guess. Yeah. Be too simple with it, but kind of I'm just thinking timelinewise. Uhhuh. We do have time and the clock is ticking as well. The longer we wait whether we approve or don't approve the waiver. Um if we approve the waiver, that leads us one direction in terms of forecasting and creating our master schedules for next year. If we don't approve the waiver, that leads us a different direction. Um, and we're not actually approving the waiver. We're approving the submission of the waiver to the state to say whether or not we can do it. So the longer we wait, then it puts the state at I would say

031the biggest the biggest risk risk is for our school counselors and our students who are forecasting. That's the biggest reason to not wait. And Tim, correct me. The one thing I have heard and I don't want to give misinformation for sure was um students being forced to take a course as opposed to one that they would have chosen and having given that option does have an impact on motivation and won't even be there. However, many students want personal that's true many absolutely I mean I would not say this student course not for whatever but the question would just be at the expense of something else. Yeah. at the expense of that's that would be the the difficult situation. Sorry. Question. I mean, I guess the other thing is, and I'm sure you guys have already

032thought about all of these different options, is the classes that we're pulling things out of because they have pieces of this for, you know, like we said in health, we're pulling things out of help. So, there's going to be less content in help. Can we push other pieces of that class into something else because maybe there's not an army that we can't push. So that then that isn't taking up a separate credit. That makes sense of sorts. So the challenge is that the course has to be a state for health also. Yes. Okay. We can't we can't push health content into the into other courses. So health has to be on the transcript just like these courses have to be on the transcript. I will say that the advantage of being able to pull like

033the mock interviews out of health. Um we have a lot of standards to cover in health. So by pulling some of these pieces out is it does free our health teachers to focus more on health. Um unless I'm trying to cover all of these other kind of [Music] nutri but the course does have to be a standalone on the transcript. Yes. Usually the chair doesn't make a motion that I'd be willing to move to approve the submission of the one waiver for the Senate Bill 3 reged by Holly. Is there further discussion? Okay. All those in favor? I [Music] opposed. David, what is oppositt that we're not going to submit a waiver? I'm opposed. All right. So, motion fails. Um, so will this be brought back to us then? Um, I'm not sure what other

034information um we would need for this. Um, I think we'll have to and I think Well, no. Um, all right. Um, so our next item is the postponement of elementary science adop adoption and uh this has got Dr. Collins. No, it's got Heidi on. I got too far down the line. Um, so in 2023, science curriculum was on the OBD adoption review cycle for implementation of fall 2024. But back um when we were adopting math curriculum in elementary level, we engaged in a two-year process for that. So we proposed both our adoption cycle for science. So this year we have engaged in the um staff have engaged in elementary science curriculum review process. We're currently piloting curriculum this school year. However, given the existing one year remaining on our STEM scope subscription, the staff recommends

035that the board approved submitting a postponement um request to the Oregon Department of Education for elementary science curriculum implementation until the 26 27th school year to ensure budget management. So basically, we engage in adoption process. We are piloting um instructional materials. to make a decision but delay the purchase and implementation by a year because we have an existing subscription to our current science. Is our current science curriculum in consideration for real? It is not. Well, no. Yes, it is, but it's updated. Sorry. Yeah, hold on. Let me let me answer that again. OD did approve a new version of that science curriculum, but it's not one of the two that we're piloting. that because of general dissatisfaction. Um yeah and just overall what we looked at a bunch of different curriculums and had curriculum presentations

036and other curriculum were um staff were favoring over our current curriculum. Anecdotally, when we come up on curriculum adoptions or removals, how often do we pivot to a different solution? Well, an adoption is typically seven years. So, it's not uncommon to we did with reading, but we did not with math. Um, for middle and high school, both of our math programs were new. For language arts, both of our language arts programs were new. So, it's it's really what services at the time. A lot of publishers make some pretty significant changes through the year to adoptions. So you have that curriculum for seven years is that same publisher obviously will update their curriculum when you go looking typically and some do it mid cycle. So think is a good example of that for math. A few

037years in they gather feedback from staff and they make adjustments. And so when we adopted math last time, about halfway through our seven years, they had a like update that then kind of was more responsive to where teachers were at with that. Not all of them do that. Um, as we get more web- based materials, some of that happens a lot faster because you don't have a textbook that you're needing to replace. So that's kind of part of the shift in the curriculum. But our language arts curriculum, we adopted the 2020 wonders and they have been updating that curriculum, but we have a sevenyear um subscription to the 2020 wonders. So they do make changes. Just out of curiosity, then we go from textbooks to web base. So obviously we're paying for a license expensive.

038Um in some cases, yes. And some of our materials have both, right? They have a text and a web. And so sometimes there's options to print the materials in house too. Some of the text so that we're not purchasing from the publisher gives rights to do that. So there's different ways to kind of offset some of that. And I think that anecdotally when we just had the textbooks it was cheaper because we didn't update them for 10 or 15. So you know there was that as well there. Okay. Go ahead. Well I was just going to say I think the other factor. So number one we already have a science curriculum that we've paid for that gets us through next year. So that's one layer of this. I think the other layer of this is

039you're going to hear about our health adoption as well. So, we have had elementary teachers that have two years ago started a new reading program. This year started a new math program. Next year we'll be starting a new health program. So, do we want them also doing health and science at the same time or do we bump that out of here so there's actually some time um to roll those things out more strategically? But it might be beneficial to this conversation when you because you'd said earlier staff you know it's not one of the two that staff are looking at or correct what does that staff review look like? How much of that is classroom teachers? The elementary level, how many how much of that is administration is classroom teachers? The majority of the group

040is classroom teachers from DLI and English instruction classrooms, special education teachers, special education TOSA. Um we won't there's there isn't very much administration on the team and gathering student voice gathering um parent voice went to conferences gathered parent voice now they're piloting the materials they finished the first curriculum pilot and now they're into the second curriculum pilot. It also gives them they they will keep these units. still have a couple units of study from whatever we choose um to potentially practice implementing to bring their expertise to the table when we do decide to purchase. Any questions? This is also an action item. Second move to approve the submission of the postponement request for the elementary science curriculum implementation until the 2026 2027 school year. Second. Been moved by leg seconded by David to approve the

041submission of a postponement request for the elementary science curriculum implementation until the 2026 27 school year. Is there further discussion? See none. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, I'm sure that is unanimous. All right. And now we have a first reading health adoption. And this has Dr. Collins and Heidi. Yes. All right. We have a slide for this. Yes. But for this one, the Oregon Department of Education reviewed instructional materials in 2024 formally recommended materials to meet the needs of districts health classrooms. Um the materials currently being used are in need of update and we're going to go through the different uh OD will not is not scheduled to review health curriculum again until 2031. Um we have a slide deck to kind of go through the process that each of our levels

042start. And this is not an action item. This is simply the first reading that we see when you're done so far. So Sarah, I'll you click on through. Um, a lot of this will look familiar uh because we're taking the same slide deck from previous curriculum adoptions and have used that that we're listening as well. So, as far as the why, we wanted to make sure that for every curriculum adoption, thinking about culturally responsive graduates who will thrive in an everchanging global community. That's really a driver what we're looking at as far as the curriculum is concerned. We want to make sure that it's aligned with GBSC's equity policy. And so we're thinking about how do we make sure that every student with this curriculum is provided with a high quality education, access to materials

043um and resources that support best practices. So that's really the the drivers for us as we went through any sort of curriculum implementation and also thinking about how it's embedded within culturally responsive framework. Um you'll see actually some of that culturally responsive element. Um some of the student specifically thinking about do they see themselves in the curriculum? they see a connection between the curriculum and their real world lives and those sorts of things. So that's our driver, that's our why behind the work that we do. Next um as far as our non-negotiables are concerned, it is a collaborative process meaning that we want the teachers um and others that are giving feedback to come to agreement and consensus so it's not just one person driving. Um and actually with this one, one of our teachers

044actually said, "Did you guys already decide in advance what you're choosing?" like if that's the case, just let us know. We like to know like this is really a process where we value the feedback. It's collaborative. It's grounded in effective and equitable teaching practices. Um so for all of these, we take a look at what are the best practices. Um with health specifically, it's around that practical component. Our students are able to apply what they're learning in a practical sense. Prioritizes the variabilities of our learners. So thinking about how does this material provide access to our students who are multilingual? How does this material provide access for students who are on IEPs? So thinking through those ones specifically as we look at materials and then finally center student voice. So we do spend quite a

045bit at a time talking to our students getting their feedback around what connects with you what what materials allow you to take the ideas and the content and see how those apply and are relevant to you. So those are the things that we walk through with our team multim process. to the next piece. So, our middle and high school um as far as centering student voice, Shannon Parbankin pulled these quotes out from a couple of our students and I think they're kind of humorous. One student said, "I'll never touch drugs. They are nasty and so are vapes and cigarettes. I want to live my full life." That was one of their responses to seeing one of the pilots that we went through. And the high school suit talked about it's important that we have mental

046health talk and talk about drug usage. Neither has talked about enough. Um once again that was their reflection based on the pilots as we got their feedback specifically. So really centering student voice in the process. Next uh timeline is something that you've seen before for other adoptions. Um we start by reviewing the standards. What's required? What's new? What's changed? Um for health specifically they've incorporated the transformative social and emotional learning standards into health. So those were the some things we took some time to walk through to see how those were connected back to the health standard specifically. Um step number three, we review the materials that OD had said met the requirements for um health curriculum. Uh invited the publishers to come out and present. And then number five, next there you go. Um our

047teachers identified two different curriculums that they thought would work well with our students. We highlighted both of those. uh gathered community feedback, heard from our students and teachers and then based on that feedback are making the recommendation for the board tonight. So that's just a brief overview of our topic. Next, um so as far as materials, uh we're looking at GW publishers for our middle school materials and then kinetics is a publisher for our high schools. Both have a print and an online component um that are part of the adoption itself. Uh and with that um even though GW for example had both high school and middle school materials uh the teachers felt that human kinetics for example at the high school level just a much better package and a much better program. So next

048uh as far as community engagement is concerned. This is just a quick overview. We hosted some open houses. Um our instructional coaches went around to a couple of different PTC meetings to get feedback. Uh and also to a nth grade parent night. So, we tried to do community feedback in a slightly different way than we've done in the past. So, instead of going to basketball games and those sorts of things, uh we tried to do a different way to engage our community and get their feedback. Even with that, um we didn't get a lot of community feedback around the health packages, but it wasn't for lack of effort on the part of our adoption. Yes. Uh next, uh this is just talking about um the pilot team feedback. So we'll take a look to see

049really quick. Next, um we got student feedback as well both in the middle school and the high school level. Wanted to get their thoughts around what was connecting with them specifically. the next. So, middle school um community feedback um people talked about they like the materials were adaptable to different learning styles that students were reading into the classroom as the main feedback we in the community. For the next one, as far as middle school teacher feedback, um they talked about good variety within the courses, thinking about vocabulary is intentional, um good scaffolding within um the content integrates well with Canvas. Um and also this idea of building on the foundational skill-based learning focus of health education. So once again health is about skill-based education not just learning content but learning how to apply the content

050was what the teachers noticed um as part of their feedback and then student feedback. Um as far as students were concerned they talked about the fact that this curriculum they felt like it connected with them. Good stories, good visuals, good vocabulary definitions. Uh the last one I kind of liked that it compared to my life and that I knew what I was doing. So really that strong connection that the students felt are the things that we were looking for um from student feedback. High school fairly similar sorts of ideas. Uh community feedback similar um as parents look they said it was easy to read, easy to navigate. It felt relevant um to what their students should or could be learning. Is that Holly? No, I don't see because that's it's aggression high school. As far

051as pilot teacher feedback, they talked about um they like that there were many perspectives that were part of um the curriculum, graphic organizers and sentence frames. So thinking about how do we address some of our multilingual learners, students on IEPs, thinking about getting them into frames to talk, to respond, to discuss. Uh the students talked about it connected to their own lived experiences. Um and the accessibility was something again that really stood out to the teachers as they looked through human kinetics. As far as student feedback goes, next same sorts of things you saw in middle school, but the students talked about easy to follow prompts, things that relate to real life. They felt like the stories made a real world connection within specifically um easily accessible, concise, easy to follow. Same sorts of feedback

052that we saw here in the screen. I think that's it. Elementary. Elementary. So this is our timeline. We gathered a health committee of teachers to review the standards and the general requirements and um review the OD um materials that were approved by OD which is one curriculum that was approved. We did gather some community and student feedback limited we got limited responses from the community but we did hear from students that they appreciated the magazines and the famili familiarity with the great body shop which is the one approved run by the state. So our health committee made a decision to move forward with the final decision to present. We will be presenting to you for um our next read but great body shop was the one and only curriculum. Next slide that was approved by

053the state and um met favorably with our with our teachers as well. And next slide. These are some of the bullet points as to why we decided to move forward with a great body shop. It's the only curriculum that meets the OD uh standards and requirements. Our teachers and families are familiar with and like the materials. Student materials are available in Spanish. It's the only curriculum that was reviewed that was available in Spanish. Um student magazines provide physical copies that can be sent home to families and you can see what students are learning in classrooms. Um the online resources are accessible and um the continuity across local school districts. We're all using the same curriculum and we do have um we can provide professional de development on this curriculum in October 2025 pretty excited. So

054any questions on the presentation? I think just comment for me and nothing to you guys, but it seems a bit ridiculous that OD only approves one curriculum. It kind of takes any option. Yeah, it's it that that should not be the case. Like it should have to be a mandatory three or more or they shouldn't have a requirement if they're not approved. That's just very ridiculous to be self. Is there something in general why they didn't approve? Why these others did not need to? Um, it met our standards, but it didn't meet OD. Why does it not? It met OD. It metricular standards because it didn't meet it didn't follow this OD standards mainly. You know what standard it didn't? Yeah, I don't know specifically which ones. Um, I do know that staff felt very

055comfortable with continuing with the same curriculum for the familiarity. Think about an elementary talked about this just a little bit ago, an elementary teacher that has a math curriculum, a language arts curriculum, a potentially a new science curriculum. Um, yeah, I I like the great body shop. I like that the magazines come home. So, it's nothing against the curriculum or the process or the piloting or any of that. It's just as good. That's why there only one as a standard. from OD. It's like you can't do that. Independent adoption, but this the committee preferred workshop over going down that kind of a route. That look like an independent adoption. We have to go through that whole process with a different curriculum, find something and go through the whole process that you goes through. You would

056approve it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if you're doing an independent adoption, you're simply telling OD that this is what we're doing. And you're telling OD this is how this curriculum meets the standards in areas that it doesn't. Then you tell these are the other resources that we'll be using. Yeah. To the bigger question though, I think when you compare like language arts to health, um when you take a look, so for example with the middle school, high school, it's only going to cost around $200,000 for our health adoption. So if you compare that to our language arts or our math, part of the challenge that has is there's not as much money in health curriculum as opposed to science or math. Um so there aren't as many publishers that are willing to have their materials reviewed.

057So that's part of the challenge as well is the is smaller just based on the economics. But does this renewal cost for health per it'll be around 300 for seven years really have an option to not renew because it would just our service for that curriculum. Is that what would happen? So being as we're functioning with the same curriculum, we'd lose a license to purchase yearly which would be exponentially more than a sevenyear or do independent would be the other options. But by doing subscription, we get a discount rate. Yeah. And when does this need to come back to us for we're not asking you to do Right. Yeah. So, we'll bring it back the first board meeting in May to both the publishers of the high school setting. Uh because we've piloted um both

058the middle school and the high school, we already have about half of the textbooks that we purchasing anyway because we needed those for the pilot. So, the physical materials, half of them are already here. Most of the cost is in the subscriptions to the online um components. And so once the once the board approves or if the board approves the turnout is fairly fast. There's other questions on them our way between now and our next release. Again I it's nothing against I like the great body shop. My kids all went through that. They brought the packets home. So it's it's just the frustration one option even if you wanted to look at others right it does come across it's a control thing by OD and I don't think they should control okay all right so

059we're going to move on to our next item is um just make sure here update on our dual language immersion DLI program and we have with this this evening and Dr. Collins and um Heidi, you are welcome to stay for this presentation. You are also welcome to even listen to my Okay. Well, I'm um I'm here just for for the fun part, right? This is very exciting for me. I think that our our district is very exciting excited that we're moving um up our our program and um well we started I don't know if you read the description we started our program back in 2019 and right now currently we have 21 classrooms that are um DI. So this is exciting. Uh we have our logo. This is also very exciting. Now we have a

060logo. A lot of our districts um that have had the for many years um have a logo. So we started looking at logos and then we send it to the to the teachers. We send it to our admin. We didn't have uh time to send it to a lot of uh people. We send it to our administrators because we had the job fair. It's our first job fair and so we had to do all of the everything for for our job fair. So that is our logo and it's in English and in Spanish and it has a world because that's what we're trying to to do, right? Create um citizens who are more conscious of uh the world that they live in today. And uh the first job uh fair I thought that it was

061not going to be that successful because we it is hard to hire people who speak both languages. So we said, "Okay, we'll do it." And we did it. And we had um over 12 people attend our our job fair and a lot of them were very um highly qualified. So now we've posted our positions and we are sending them the links so they can apply. So we won't um have hopefully a problem this year hiring the teachers that we need for our elementary schools and for our middle school. Next slide please. Miss uh well you already know the why I mean other times that I've been and I presented that right our district is very diverse. 26% of our students are ever English learners. And the population at those schools, that's why we chose those

062sites when we did right at Highland is 57% um Hispanic or Latino. 43% of them are ever English learners. So, it was um it was better to to teach those students in their native language, right? And support them to learn um English. and um also adding the the community that speaks English so that they can enrich their linguistic repertoire by adding another language. Right? So, it's a win-win for for the the entire community. North Russia, we started the the next one and you can see also the high population of um Hispanics or Latinos and the 38% that were English learners. We cannot staff those buildings with all of the EML teachers that they need. So if we're teaching those kids in in their native language and teaching in English as well, I mean it's a

063easier way for us to um close the achievement gap that we historically have had between our ENLs and our um English speakers. And then we're moving on to Clear Creek next year at the middle school. And as you can see, the population there is also very high. 46% Hispanic, 35% um ever English learners. And then we're moving on to um Gresham High School. 44% Hispanic or Latino, 38% ever English uh learners and 70% to 80% of all of our EMLs are um Spanish speakers. So that's why we decided to start our PLI program and uh Spanish be the target language. Next slide please. As you can see our population of students was pretty steady but this is a a count for the past 10 years. I mean we had between 1300,400 and then you can

064see in 20 2021 we had 1300 and then uh for the past four years and that's when I started uh back in 2021 and now we've added almost 500 students in the past four years 500 students to our program. So um it is this is a a program for designed to support all of the these students right so next slide please these are our recent arrivals for the last 10 years right we've had an increase if you can see I mean we used to have 79 back in 1415 and now we have 418 um recent arrival students that come from other countries and the past the first three years that they're in our country, they are um recent arr language support. Some of them come from countries that um English instru English English is in

065the their um language of instruction. But um 530% of them do need language support. So this is a very good way to um continue to support their language while they're learning another language. What is the difference between newcomers and restorers? Well, we use them as um like that some recent arrivers do not need language support if they come from a country where their um language like the Philippines, right? Their language of instruction is English. They speak Tagalog and they speak other languages, but their language of instruction is English. So when they come to us, they're recent arrivers in the sense that they are moving to our country, but uh they do not need the language support. So they wouldn't go to the newcomer program where we are supporting them learning English. So they already know,

066right? So we have you can see the a little bit of a difference of 527 right now. That's how many recent arrivals we have in our in our school um district, but only 418 of them need language support. Are all 418 of these students then also considered newcomers? Yes. Yeah. The newcomers are the 418 for ELL is would be entertainable. Okay. I had the opportunity to visit Polytail for Spanish speaking had the opportunity to Highland and North. What a program. I mean just flourishing, happy, smiling. It's awesome to see. It is. It is very exciting to have those programs. I think John took me there, but uh and um I don't know if you remember this, but these are the three pillars for our um DLI program. And it's bilingual and biiteracy. They're not only

067speaking the language, but also reading and writing in Spanish and English, right? All of our students are proficient in reading and writing in both languages. Uh the second pillar is a high academic achievement in both languages. So all students in all content and subject areas, not only the language but also math and reading, writing, science, everything is in both languages. And the social cultural component, those students are more um critical conscious and they're glo global citizens. they are exposed to a lot of other different cultures and a lot of other different languages because we not only have Spanish speakers and English speakers. We have students who within our program speak another language that speak Russian or speak um uh Portuguese and so they want to learn Spanish as well. So they're triilingual or multilingual. And

068so those are the three pillars and we we want to make sure because people focus more on the bing world by literate right and high academic achievement but we also focus on the social cultural component of the program and this is the the vision and um statement. Our dual language immersion program is committed to graduating bicultural and biliterate students who sustain high levels of academic achievement in both languages and are also social cultural competent individuals who will thrive in an everchanging global community. So that is in um with our mission and mission statement from our district. A quick reminder of the the why the research right uh the dual language bilingual um education that's how the New Mexico we've been working with New Mexico and that's how they defined it right we we don't want

069to forget bilingual because we used to have bilingual education now it's called dual education bilingual it was just one way all uh speakers of one language let's say Spanish were learning English and in our program dual means both languages right students who speak English and students who speak Spanish are learning both languages. So our dual uh program are is the most effective um service model for EMLs. If we pull them out, it's kind of like segregating, right? And if we put all students together who do not speak the language, they won't learn from each other because they don't have language um models, right? Then I I I I consider myself an a language learner and I will always be a a language learner and I have um colleagues right who um learn English like me

070that learn later um age and I won't learn anything from them right if I talk to Josephina one of my colleagues I'm not going to learn anything from Joseina but then I go and talk to Tracy or I hear and I'm like what oh you're using that in that way and what how okay so now I I get it so if we don't segregate our students and pull them all out, right? If we have them in an environment where they um have language models, they learn uh better. And there's a link right there, right? Uh if you want to take a look at that. And those are researchbased um uh the language um guidance guidelines that we're using. So that's the research base. The students that we're serving in DLI currently we're serving 483 students

071in kinder through um fifth grade. Multilingual learners 1,14 in K5 right out of those 259 24% of them are in ELI. Uh currently at the secondary level we have 247 newcomers in grades in secondary K uh 612 and uh these students could be serving the LI so we couldn't expand I mean fast enough in our results and I think that um Heidi already present those results to you. We're closing the gap and we see it in DLI at a faster rate than in our other schools. Our EMLs compared to the rest of the district, right? We're closing the gap in DLI at a faster rate than in um the rest of the schools in our district. Next slide. And uh this is in preparation for Cliff Creek Middle School. um they're preparing to receive uh

07250 about 50 students in September of 2025 only two classes only from one building but next year we'll be they'll be receiving close to 100 students because it would be two and two oh no three classrooms because we only have one classroom moving up this year three three classroom 75 and then after that it's going to be four the year after that but that is our team and we've been working with um dual language education of New Mexico for a couple of years. So, we've been um uh talking to them. They've been here with us and this is the whole team from um middle school and we've had a couple two three uh trainings. We uh received coaching from them if we have any questions. We've been very intentional in uh preparing the staff at

073that uh clear and they're all on board and they all understand our mission and they all understand their students and they all see a need for this program specifically in that building underway at the foundations right we're preparing the environment like we said we've been working with this community for a year uh and we started before that. But with that community, we've been preparing for a year. Uh curriculum, we've already we've chosen the the the classes, the content classes that we're going to be teaching. We have the we've revised the curriculum. We are ready. We're partnering with other districts that have been doing this for 20 years. Salem Kaiser and um they're supporting us with language arts. So our coaches are meeting with their coaches and to learn and they have researchers that come with

074them. um Dr. Escamia uh Dr. Jose Medina and they're working with them and they're they're inviting us to to work with them. So we we are already working in our curriculum for for the next year. The class schedule we are making sure that we have all the students that we need for all the class sections that uh that they're going to be teaching in um middle school and the newcomers. next year are going to be attending um Clear Creek instead of going to Dexter. Right now we have them at Dexter for one year and after that they go back to their uh neighborhood school. But the but uh when they go to um the incomment program, they're going to have the we're going to invite them in. The families want they can stay with us

075and they can finish their six through I mean until they graduate from from high school. They can stay with us and then we've been recruiting families very intentionally. There's other students that are not in our DI program and that are there they are heritage speakers. So we go and we talk to the family specifically for for the feeder schools just the feeder schools north fifth grade at North um well Highland the two fifth grade classes right and then uh Hollyville and we're asking the families we're interviewing the students we're seeing if the students have the language skills to to be in our DI program. So we've recruited um families to join our program and we have about 50 students that are going to be in our program. Uh, and we want to explain what heritage

076speakers are. Well, heritage speakers is um students who have been in our country all their lives. Um, I don't mind my is a heritage speaker of our Spanish, right? I mean, she grew up in this country, but her family Spanish. So, those are the the population that we're going after. Sometimes they lose their Spanish and they lose their themselves. It's not only the language, it is the your identity. Language has a lot to do with who you are and your identity. So, we are recruiting from um heritage um speakers and we're collaborating with the whole staff. We meet every two weeks. Every two weeks virtually we meet and then the principal, the assistant principal, our team, um some coaches. Um, so and they we all talk and and try to solve all the things that

077we think are going to come out next year. But it is been very uplifting. Everybody's on board. Everybody's doing what we're supposed to be doing. So hopefully we'll be there next year. And then we're also preparing Gresham High School. We have a couple of um teachers in Russia that want to teach in Spanish and they've been wanting to teach in Spanish since last year and this year I mean we said last year we said no let's give us another year and this year they're they're on board and they want to do it. So we said we have 120 newcomers at Gresham High School right now and we have to shelter instruction in different content areas. So, for next year, we're going to offer two classes in Spanish to support our newcomer program in uh Fresham

078High School. So, we're going to be teaching algebra, uh freshmen, newcomers who need algebra, and biology for juniors or seniors, possibly sophomores, um depending on the student and what they're what they're needing. We're also assessing their language um skills, right? their language profic proficiency and we have a team we have um a couple of teachers or when we have our coordinator supporting all these efforts and we have Mr. Sadal, our DI um you know instructional coach also supporting these process and we work very closely with Tim. We talked to Tim and so so we are offering those two classes and also language arts and language arts is for heritage speakers right students who speak Spanish um at home and uh this is also for newcomers that come from Spanish speaking countries. So we are going

079to also be giving them credit u for the uh language arts. This is um with access to linguistic inclusion as well, but they will I mean could potentially be receiving the three classes in Spanish. And this is how we prioritize students. Um we first um from Spanish speaking and simultaneous bilingual um students from the Brooklyn schools. That would be the first priority. Spanish speakers, newcomers from any school in our district and the district. We provide transportation because we know I mean how important it is to have those students and support them. Heritage Spanish speakers from the neighborhood schools, we also um are inviting them. And then English speaking ELI students from our neighborhood uh three schools that we have, right? the Spanish speaking students from other schools in our districts if our families want to,

080if their families want to, but they must transport them. We won't be able to transport them. Heritage Spanish speakers from other schools in our district and their families need to transport them. And then English speaking, DLA students from other schools um in our district and they provide transportation. And the last one is students outside of our district with a transfer and correct transportation. And we assess the language of all of these students to make sure that they can I mean handle the the classes they're they're going to be taking in Spanish. are are students who are currently in Highland or Northression programs that would metriculate into are where do they are they sort of re-evaluated in the lottery or no students are already participating they're going to metriculate it okay these are just for new

081yeah these are just for the ones that we're trying to recruit from our heritage Spanish speakers or newcomers and newcomers of course they have the language but they come from these countries Am I the English language learner? It's a same thing in Spanish. Um and then these are things that we uh were thinking about our expansion, right? Our newcomers, like I said, they're not going to Dexter, they're going to um go to uh Tear Creek now. And um starting in um next year they're going to be going to sending them to Clear Creek and then newcomer high school already go to Gresham High School instead of Sarlo unless they opt out of our program. Now in addition to the to the support of the newcomer program, Spanish speakers will have access to the core uh

082content classes that I was telling you about the two classes and the heritage Spanish. So, three classes in Spanish and students who enroll in the LI program as newcomers have guaranteed transportation through 12th grade, right? Because we're that's what the district is going to support the the new cars. Next slide. Um, and this is the last slide and this is uh well, this is what we've been trying to do, right? Does everybody know what DL is? And so, we've been talking to our liaison. Our leases have been working with us since I mean since we started the program but I mean we're still talking to them today. We gave them the the posters. So they're going to go and post them at in Laapatia and different places where our families can see it. So we

083work very closely with the liaison. Our EML teachers are the ones that identify and test our students and tell us if they're newcomers. So we send them to the the schools that they they have to go to. our counselors. We had a meeting because we had to translate uh transcripts when they come from other countries. So, we had a meeting today just about with counselors um well with our newcomer counselor and she was telling us okay we need to do this, we need to do this and this is how we're going to prepare and we have the interpreters who's interpreting these transfers and how are we doing it. It is a lot a lot of work. the principal is super involved and the assistant principal they've been amazing um at the middle school and we

084always get together with the elementary principles as well. Every week I meet with the elementary principles uh and yeah we talk about the the newcomer referral process and it is pretty we have it step by step and we talk to the secretaries because it is very important they're the first uh people who receive our our new cars. So this is very [Music] exciting questions just to see it in action. Seriously, it's opened my eyes to, you know, you can only imagine a student who barely speaks English that gets put into a classroom of all English speaking and they're not going to flourish as well as if they're in 100% of our students in that class, 100% of them are uh language learners. They're either learning English or learning Spanish. So everybody's talking and even if

085they don't understand each other, they just talk. That is also accurate. So I have a question. I don't know. It's not related to DLI. It's more about the numbers with the increase of newcomers to the district and then following going to question five. How are you doing with the space? The FT is there. it's allocated the building. Uh the space I mean there's adequate number of classrooms we're putting everybody in. The real challenge is they're not in their home school. Uh and the challenge also is Gresham High is the hub of many programs. So master scheduling is difficult. You have singletons all through that master schedule. It makes it very difficult for kids to get classes they want at times of day that they want because we're always trying to put in those oneoffs or

086two offs. So that's a challenge expanding the program to borrow eventually. We've talked about this. It seems like a reasonable thing to do. That's an FTE thing as well. So we're we're also doing this, right? Um Julia and Amy have been great at um um doing PD for all teachers. Sure. I mean everybody's responsible for our new virus. So we're trying to do more sheltering, right? because our teachers do not know how to shelter the the the language for our kids. And I I'm not a language teacher. Everybody is a language teacher. Everybody is supporting our newcomers. So, how can we better support our teachers with BD on shelter instruction? How do you shelter? I think that's why those three classes at the high school for next year are such a big Oh, I know.

087A lot of kids fail algebra and fail science and then they wouldn't graduate on time because we weren't scaffolding teachers. Not all teachers were scaffolding and providing shelter instruction. It was it was it was a new teaching responsibility. And I haven't looked at the master schedule but just on the surface there that looks like it will do a great deal to free up the schedule so kids will have more options just by doing that and be able to graduate on time. And I think part of that for us was the relief that having our elementary Spanish speaking newcomers go to Highland, the relief that that gave us in newcomers. It's like we can't wait. If we have teachers at the high school that are ready, we need to jump there now. Um, let middle school

088do its thing and start to absorb some of those Spanish speakers from the middle school level. Um, but it's been a it's been an amazing process. And I just want to shout out to RSelli here. Um, when she was like presenting that slide about doing um a DOI job fair like those first years we were like, are we going to have a teacher? And um because of a lot of the collaboration that she and her team does across the state, like people are coming to us and so kudos for just amazing work. And remember the first year of this was 1920. So kindergarteners started English and Spanish and then ended that year in a pandemic. It started at North online, right? So, it's it's um pretty exciting that we're seeing the growth that we're seeing

089even with all of those circumstances of these kids out elementary and headed to middle school. Now, other districts are coming to observe us. Next week, we have David Das and they're going to be coming to observe our program. So, it's like we used to go and we still do. We go and visit other um districts, but now they're and we're like, "Oh, okay. You can come and visit us." Yes. And I think that's important to note that other districts have supposedly had a delight program for 20, 30 years. And they never made it out of elementary. And the fact that Fargo is already studying at the high school, that's very impressive. Well, and added to that, I mean, if you pair our literacy efforts with this, part of the reason we're seeing these results in

090year three, and we're seeing a lot of positives right now, it tells me that next year I have a lot of hope, uh, for how far we're going to come. This is really an effective pairing of instruction, too. Kids are getting what they need, particularly literacy wise. And I think it's also like shout out to the whole team, right? just in terms of the collaboration with Heidi and Tim, the collaboration with principles trying to just figure out how do we really support folks? How do we figure out this curriculum thing? How do we pull the hardline, you know, I think the other thing that's exciting is we also have student teachers now within our DL program who will be able to hire, which I think is super exciting. So, not only do we have the

091the job fair here, but we also have people in the pipeline who have grown up here in the district who will now get their teaching license and start teaching for us, which is incredibly something we were all very close to. Should I ask question? Sure. Do our bargaining contracts support the importance of those positions and the specific skills that it takes to teach those positions? Yes. Okay. So, retention would not be a concern. We actually just bargain say it. Yeah, we we offer a stipen for for our teachers who teach in the DI program as well as the concern would be last last in first out type of oh situations. Oh, there's new laws that that kind of help us to protect um any staff member that brings either a cultural perspective or remember what

092the language is in the law, but it does allow us to use um special programs as a way to retain that would kind of supersede. To be pretty honest though, we talked a lot in in cabinet and I don't see you as we're going through the budget reduction process still our staff who were newer and that's many of our uh staff of color are newer. They were impacted more than others even though we fought not fought we worked hard to make sure it didn't or avoid it happening. The contract still does have some limitations for that, but there are some laws that and for classrooms, it's required that they speak Spanish and so you can't bump into that classroom, correct if you're not fully fluent. That's in the light of instruction. That's a very logical

093thing to me. It's still worthy of the question sometimes, but it is part of the job description. So, we hire, we actually hire stating this job requires that you speak the language of instruction. And so even in these bumping scenarios, if you don't speak the language of obstruction, you can't go to that position. And all but two are um bicultural and bilingual, I mean people of color. All of our our staff that works seem their own people of color. My last comment is disconnected from this program that I think it's so wonderful because I think language instruction is so wonderful and I think global language instruction so a lot of the same defenses that we use to advance DI. We go dead silent on when we reduce our foreign language opportunities at the high school

094level. And that I will continue to voice. That's a disappointment not just for me but from the community. [Music] We're having we have less language offerings than 30 years ago. We used to have French. We used to have Well, we have French currently. It's getting dropped. Used to have German. Uh, it was restricted pretty far back. I remember when there it got cut pretty seriously. Well, 2003 it was still viable. [Music] Sure. I will just voice. We talked about No, I agree with you. No, I agree. We have two languages. One of them it's not actually communicated outside the United States. So, we have Spanish and doesn't always qualify for college credit for foreign language because it's not a foreign language. I don't know if this off topic or not, but iOS 19 when they

095do the update on Apple, you're going to be able to wear your AirPods. Yeah. And speak different languages to each other. That's cheating. Like you can do No, I'm saying the article that I read was check is here. I just I looked at that, wow, that is true. Well, I've been talking to Tracy and they said that the next language, the next dual language program should be Russian because that's the second population that we have. So, if we or when we open up another website, it would be Russian for us and our population that's what our population is Russian. Any other questions? All right, we do have another agenda item coming up. Um, I will Okay, I will offer the a brief moment. We'll just take a brief five minute recess. What is that I

096stayed I'll teach you. All right. Good evening. Are we back? All right. We are back. Uh continuing our agenda for April 16th, 2025 regular board work session. We are up to facility fields policy and procedure. Dr. Ser boy. Good evening everybody. Um, tonight we will be talking just about some of the updates that have happened since this policy was adopted in November, last November or November 2023. I'll have a date. Go ahead. November. Um, so for our board conditions, um, this actually touches both on safety and belonging. Um, obviously a lot of our facility and field use um types of requirements in our guide books have to do with safety and and we also believe in the community aspects of this policy and how it impacts belonging. So um this should be familiar to you.

097This is just a piece of policy KG adopted November 2023. Um but basically this was the policy that um stated that the the interests of our educational programs and also our community and taxpayers need to really be thinking about um that use of school district buildings and grounds and having the priority of our of those best interests. So we were directed as a district to create that set of regulations that um really applied to all of that. So an AR was developed alongside it and then um this year we implemented it and like with anything once you implement something you learn oh that needs a little tweak or maybe that's not working the way we intended. So we sort of um watched watched and listened and have had a lot of conversations. It's been really

098great actually got to meet a lot of our community partners and worked really closely with um Terry Taylor and Adash who does schedules all of these things and what are you hearing seeing. So these are some of the changes and updates that we've made to the AR only the policy of course um does not get changed. The first one is that we had some conversation about how the softball and baseball turf fields were at the same rate as the stadium and we decided that the stadium is really a much bigger most more expensive rental so the cost should not be the same. So we've lowered the costs for renting softball and baseball. Pretty pretty logical. We also um decided to lower the requirement for our tier 2 users to 80% previously 90% GBSD students and

099that was because some of the tier 2 groups are quite small. So if you only have 40 kids for example once you had four you were bumped to tier three which is a big price jump. It goes from 30% of the full cost to 70% of the full cost. So, pardon me. That is a big job. It is a big job. So, we really wanted to be really thoughtful to that we have some of those tier 2 user groups that are smaller groups and we didn't want to penalize them so heavily and we kind of worked them out to figure out what would happen and um decided to make that change. Um, in turn, we raised the requirement for our tier one users who do not pay a fee to be 100% um GBSD students.

100This is in alignment with our other districts. I've read a lot of policy on field use in our surrounding districts and districts from the metro area and also it's just descriptive of our tier one groups. When they started talking about it, I'm like, well, is that all of our kids? And it would be like, but yeah. So, um it really just made sense, but it also makes it really clear that um who those groups in tier one that would be using fields and facilities would be in charge would be. I also want to put a caveat in here that they still even as a tier one group may have to pay for things like um custodial or monitor, but they're not charged for the use of the facility. Um we also made it really clear

101within the AR that tier one groups playing out of season will incur tier 2 fees. That way we don't have tier one groups that dominate a field all year long because we'll have other tier one groups that need to give get on that are in season. Um, and we've been able to issue keys and possibly a limited badge for facility access in really exceptional circumstances, but that facility would be contained such as the um the hitting facility would be an example. It wouldn't be a badge into a whole entire school. And it really just depends. So, we're being careful about that. We're taking it case by case and doing a a deposit that's refundable at the end with our keys cuz that's money and we want people to be responsible with them. N I ask

102Sure. Just real quick before you move on number four. Yes. What season is uh is that based on like OSAA seasons? Yeah. So based on like um whatever don't necessarily follow OSA seasons is why I ask right. It really is mostly dependent on our teams, our school teams use of fields and making sure that that's not interrupted. So it go falls in line with the policy. Got it. Um but we also know that there are soccer clubs that are literally they're year round. Um lots of clubs like that. So we just wanted to make sure that there was also equal opportunity for other people to get on the field whether they were our junior leagues or not. Got it. The next is just a little changes to the AR to just be more descriptive and

103incorporate some of our updates of who these different groups are. Um, tier one, I think when you see this level includes is the most helpful statement we started adding. I can't remember whose policy gave us that idea, but it helps a lot to see, okay, who's in this group so I can get an idea of which one I fit. Um so our community partners like Sun for example, our um district and school sponsored activities, our endorsed youth programs, they're all tier one and they have additional um requirements to provide scholarships for youth and to support field maintenance and debris removal. So being out there when they're done picking up their garbage, helping out with our field maintenance, that's that's tier one in a nutshell. Tier two, um the noted change there to 80% this is

104um people that are predominantly serving GBSD youth that are youth leagues and scouts and 4 and such um and also nonprofit youth leagues that are just not district or school sponsored. Now jumping up to tier three, this is more private schools, nonprofit youth organizations that have fewer than that 80% adult rec groups organizations, things like that. And finally, tier four. Um, these are private parties. A perfect example would be like the Blazers. They run, um, they have run programs out of our buildings before. They're a tier 4 user. They're commercial organization or, you know, and then it would be political organizations as well. One question on this slide. How do groups um, show that they are GBSD endorsed youth program? that's actually in the commonly asked questions and um the way that they do it

105is they have to provide a roster of everybody participating in their program and provide um you know addresses that's with that and then we I mean actually we have people that are so amazing at this like they can just look and be like yes yes yes I don't know just keep going and then be able to look further into kids and if they know already that they're out the district which is really helpful. They just write it on there but sometimes you don't know. Yeah. I mean so we work closely with the with the user group too but they have to provide us a roster if you're those groups. The next is just a graphic through the end of March of who have our user groups been. And I feel like this is an important

106graphic because whenever you have a big change like this that's not necessarily super popular, there can be interesting rumors that go around. And one that came back to us that was that we were cancelling tier one and tier 2 reservations so we could have more tier four groups because we make money off of those. Um we've had three tier four user groups this whole time to this point. Um, we absolutely, I want to make it really clear, prioritize the programs that serve Gresham Barlo School District youth. And as you can see, tier one is our largest, more than half, 57% of our kids. And that's no fee. And that's not like our high school teams. It's our tier one users. So, just making it really clear who these people have been. And it's just interesting

107to see how how they fall. There's not a lot of users in tier 2. Um, so it's been interesting and this may change over time as people are kind of acclimating to all of the the changes happened in this year. I had some voiced very voice concerns at the chamber meeting a couple weeks ago because of that. No, it was not because of that. It was I used to get this stuff for free all the time. Why are we being charged? Yeah, it's it's been a lot of um patient understanding conversations on my part because I know and Terry's and Janet's and John and a bunch of people because it is it is a little abrupt and there is something written into our policy um that our superintendent can on a case-byase basis kind of

108consider special situations. example, we have a charitable organization that comes every year that raises money. Um, it's a wheelchair rugby team and they end up in the tier three bucket obviously and they were um seeing a huge they were paying before but now it was a lot more. So things like well for a charitable organization can we do some sort of a step-up plan in the first year? People have been wonderful. Yeah. And they were willing to pay the full they wanted to pay the full thing. It's just that surprise there. They hadn't budgeted yet. So you make an exception. Your [Music] grandfing understand how their reservation can mess them up unintentionally. So, example, um talking to some of our church groups that are using our buildings and saying, "Okay, let's really talk about all

109the rooms you actually need and are using because are you inflating your cost when you don't need to?" Um, let's really talk about what you need. And that's actually gone very well. People have been very very understanding. Just so you know, a side note on this is our total um invoicing to this book, the end of March, was about $60,000. So, we're not making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars because most of our users are tier one and most people use it once, not on and on, and they use it for a few hours. So, we do a lot of penciling things out um and helping people with that. I also had, for example, a tier 2 softball user group that wanted to block out every Saturday, Sunday, two fields from 12 to 8

110and the hitting facility. And I was like, whoa. So, let's talk like when are you actually intending to use it? And instead of just holding it so that you have the flexibility to come in, you're going to need to say, I'm going to be here at this time. And that's reasonable and helpful once they did that. So, how when those fees come in, is turf field use then set aside for turf replacement fund or does it all go into the market? It should be, but I don't know the answer to that right now because I haven't gotten that far. It's definitely coded in a specific way. That's how I know field or and just on um the facility use in general so that we'll know that's how I know about how much we've invoiced and

111how much we're making because it's chat handles that keeping but and also up through the business office of course they have a way of seeing but in terms of how it's set aside I'm I'm sure I thought we had an answer for you our business office peeps um part of that is just me wanting to make sure I'm saying accurate because yes I I'm connected with a lot of those communities. And I' I've heard it. My message has been consistent. We have these beautiful new facilities. Yes. And if we want our children's children to have beautiful facilities, then we need to pay for the use of those facilities or it's going to go away in a generation. They do cost to maintain and keep. There's a and there's a couple of groups that I have

112a feeling as we continue to say no. It's just one or two that would prefer that they have preference over our students at different times of the year. Uh even like stage and concerts and that's not going to happen and they don't understand that we've given you our dates in February or March. Why can't you make this worthwhile? Because the play is happening when you want to do this. We can't take the stage up and down to do that even if you give us the dates in advance. Yeah. So, we're having some of those conversations that the kids in the building want to come to. So, as mentioned, these are some of the common questions that I'm getting that kind of falls in line probably some of the things you're carrying. So, um I've had

113questions about what about donations um that are monetary like we donated this much money. Can that be credited towards our reservation? No. Um, can we, you know, right? We we actually bought all of this equipment. And so, usually my way of explaining it the the kindest way I can is to say really appreciate the donation. First of all, that's amazing and thank you for doing that for our student athletes or student performers. And I'll give you an example. If a person came into my school when I was a principal and said, I I want to donate 25 laptops, I would say, that's awesome. Thank you so much. I would not expect that person to turn around and say, "So, I can come and use your computer lab anytime I want." Right? That's not how donation

114works. And I I realized that there were old rules and old ways of doing things. But one of the biggest problems with that is we have Title N regulations around donations where we are really supposed to be making sure there's parity between programs. And it it's really easy for that to get out of whack. you have to monitor it really really closely and make sure that there is parity and equality in the in in those um programs across the board. So we have title N agreements around it. Um there's laws around it. So it's it's a shift and we're just trying to be just step by step with people. We got a lot of questions about can we check out keys? I've already addressed that. Yes. Um how we show our proof of our 80%.

115And then this is a recent question. Is there a chance our reservation can be bumped? Yes. Um, but you usually would only get bumped if a game has to be moved to a different place that is like our own high schools or our own playing their own games. You're not going to get bumped by another tier 2 user because you're a tier three. That's not it's not like a hierarchy except for our own high schools and our own students programs. So, if they have to move a game, which happens sometimes that um our athletic directors were talking about here situations, are we then rescheduled? If it can be, absolutely. We'll work with you to reschedule. And if it can't be, um you're not build for that time. They don't bill until the end of the

116reservation. So, then they count up how much use you actually had. Um, so if you had to cancel or if you had to um, uh, if you had you were bumped and you had to not be there, then you don't get bill for that. So yeah. Could I ask the parallel question that what what's the cancellation policy? How how long do users have to I think it's written in our user guide and I think I would just be worried about 248 or something. I need cuz that's that's unique to bill at the end. Yeah. Usually people are build up front and then if they cancel it's on their shoulders if they don't meet your policy. I have asked and I do want to make sure that does happen. We need to bill up front. Yeah.

117we haven't been to this point and I think it was becau maybe it's because of the novelty of this and just making sure that we're being fair and not overcharging and it is reimbursements are not necessarily the easiest thing in the world. Um I think also there's just been because it's kind of been this open door. Um there's just been so much leeway on timing. So I had a group tell me, well I just work, you know, whenever the the coach for that school is going to be on the field, they let me know and then I come in around them. And so we just had to tighten things up a lot. Like if you were to reserve a space for your birthday party, you'd say this hour to this hour and when I can

118come in and I have to be out. And it's the same exact thing. Um I this this is really encouraging to hear and thank you for all the hard work. Of course. As a little side checking out keys, the easiest district I've ever worked with is Oregon Trail. Oh, really? And they have a badging system. Yeah. So the key is behind a badge so you know exactly who has it, right? And then it's air tagged. And so yeah, we still do have some physical keys to our gates and to the fields and things, but the we can track all of that. And in fact, just say I guess it's good for the public to know that when people are using their badges or they're not being used appropriately, we can track all of that. And

119I because we are so thoughtful about energy conservation, they see a weird anomaly like why is the air conditioning on that whole day or what happened here and they just track that and then we we check it out and see what happened and who's who's using the facilities. added to this because part of my conversations with you two brought a few things to my attention like okay this isn't working right now and why when we forwarded the first hour we thought it was good but before gave it to all of you uh I do think this one is better as we arrange it and we're still going to be learning something there's something that we missed so I have to know what we have to know and my next question was more Sarah and Sarah

120is um the new AR have we gotten that posted yet or is that something we need to It was submitted correct Sarah. It hasn't posted yet because I checked earlier today. But it takes them a minute. Is it OSBA that uploads it? It's OSBA. Yeah, it can takes time for them to get it up there. But we can certainly make copies of that so that you have access and you can if we could then we can put on the facilities website. Well, most people will schedule. That's good. done. And the other question is, how are you pushing the new one out? Because I know we have meetings by season or at least Janet does. How is this information getting out to people? Well, in terms of some of the changes, I mean, those have been

121fairly recently because it wasn't until really we hit spring sports that some of these came up a little bit more. Um, so I think that what we've been trying to do, I know there's been meetings for our coaches in the past to help scheduling in the spring. Um there's been different things like that, but the first step was really just making our ads really aware because the other thing that people don't know is reservations start at a school level because they manage who's in and who's out because they know what their own kids are doing and then that goes to facilities. Now, you can still call facilities first and they'll help you figure out how to do this and what you need. But really, it's like someone like Tana over at GHS that's figuring out

122that schedule. So, I've also had personal conversations with those um amazing assistants on here's some things that we know have happened that can't happen anymore and here's why and let's talk about it and what's your schedule looking like. So, it's a learning process, but we wanted to start with ads and then those athletic um secretaries because really athletics is mostly the issue not so much performing spaces. My yeah my question was going to be on roll out of the information. I have a husband who coaches just saying that. Um and you know he does coaches submit their time for their you know practices and things like that. But if they don't know kind of the ne next step in that process, they might not know that they need to submit some other times like if

123they're doing a youth clinic or if they're doing a a youth camp in the summer or whatever. So I I think we can do some work on the roll out of who knows and then how we're giving them that information. As well as a lot of the youth um organizations that use our facilities, the more that the sooner that they know that these things are coming the easier it is. Totally agree. And we know even with the new policy, there was an attempt to do lots of communication. People sometimes don't pay attention until it's actually hitting them personally and they're like, "Wait, what? I didn't know about this." But we just need to communicate in as many ways as we can. I think adding it to the website since it's not it's a good idea.

124Um, and honestly, Janet and our athletic secretaries have to just be wellversed in the process. So, when people call, they say, "Oh, have you have you filled out an application with facilities?" You know, back and forth. My my only hesitancy in in that is that I know how it's been run in the past. Yes. For better or for worse, it's just how it is. Um I would say that most of those people are not going through the athletic secretary. They're either speaking personally with a coach that they know that coaches the same program that they coach at a Yes. younger age. um or they're connected in the community some other way with a teacher or another staff member or somebody who has access to a building. Um, so I mean I I would recommend us

125doing like a Zoom call or something and inviting anybody and everybody that anybody can think of that uses our building um to try to get all of the information out the same information all at once to as many people as possible because I I think some of those people won't be caught by the athletic secretaries. I would say the majority majority probably would not be cut secretaries. They're amazing people. Oh, they are. And they're doing their best. Do amazing at the high school, but people the these programs I don't think are mostly most of the time calling them. I have had a few sit downs with some coaches, not going to name names, and talked with them about some of this too. And I I just there's no blame and shame. It's just the way

126we used to do things and we just don't do them that way anymore. And maybe this too strong of a word, but there has been resistance of our staff because they feel this is unfair to who's been able to use it for a long time. So there's several perspectives in this and it does take some retraining, rethinking, lots of talk. Yeah, I like your suggestion having some meetings and I like sit downs with coaches and I know the ads have a seasonal meeting with all their coaches as well, but this has to be part of that process too. Exactly. I think you have a couple of questions and you said that you're these things that you've mentioned are going to get updated in the AR. So kind of making some notes about that. Um uh

127yeah making sure because you say no keys are going to be issued. So that okay and then um mostly where I have kind of the two qu first of all there isn't schedule. Yes it's it is listed on the web page though where they have to fill out the application. So it's not in the policy. It's not in the policy and that was purposeful. We decided that the last time because sometimes fees need to change and it need to be more nimble and that way. So should that be because it talks about a schedule of a schedule of fees. It talks about fees. They kept talking about them in the policy and the AR but I didn't know where to find that. It could be linked on there, but not right somewhere somewhere on you

128know it just to say it says current are available through the facilities in person but that still doesn't tell me to go look at the website. Yeah. So okay so that would you know I mean there's there's folks that have been doing this for years but it's more the people who didn't know that these things were available you know they didn't build it are building and I would venture to say that people who have been doing this for years also would not have yeah we're calling a coach so yeah so that it's you know where you where do you find schedule um and then um where was my other one limited badge fee schedule okay um we do have I I know that we have some long-term rentals. It says here, you know, negotiated separately.

129Um, is there something that's used that um uses a long-term rental? Is there a preference? Is there a certain time period where you have to say, you know what, let's talk about does anybody else want that space? You know, I don't know. I know of some that have used our buildings for years, years and years and years. And I don't want it to be something where someone says, but you were saying, I want it scheduled from June to August every Saturday from these to these times and this is when I'm going to keep it because this is when I've had it for the last 5 years. At what point do you say it's now open for somebody else to say I'd like to have that time to, you know, where's the grandfathering in or the

130seniority or preference? And I don't know that because I'm not involved in renting these things, you know, so I don't know if there's already a conversation among people or just a dissatisfaction that they can't get access to the fields or buildings during prime time. I have not heard much dissatis dissatis dissatisfaction. Okay. Uh the only long-term rentals I can think of top of my head are church groups on Sundays. Those are not prime time and buildings are in use on Sundays. So, I don't I haven't seen that as a challenge, but it's it is something that needs to be addressed because someone may say, "Well, I didn't realize we could do that." I didn't realize or is there an assumption that someone gets to continue to use it? It would have to be a pretty

131compelling reason for me to approve a long-term rental for anyone other than like the church groups on Sundays or prime time and anomalies Janet brings to our attention immediately when something like that comes through. I would also say um the cost has become prohibitive. Even if you're a tier one user, if you're trying to block out lots of time, it adds up fast. So when you show someone, okay, if you go from what you want to reserve to this, then you're going to be that's part of that. That's part of that billing. That really really helps people to um prioritize. The other one that I didn't see really specifically called out and it's been brought up a couple of times to the board and I know I've brought it up a couple of times when

132we rebuilt Gresham High School and we put in the theater. We talked about how we designed that that it had access that you could close off the rest of the unit so that someone could rent and it had to be rented with people who also knew how to rent the stuff and I didn't know in your fee schedule or even if saying you know facilities that saying that certain facilities may require additional personnel or something because that that's been a question that comes up to me is how do I use that theater space and I think that's in the feed schedule but not noted in the A. So with the theater you'll get build for microphones, you'll get build for that person. You'll get build for other equipment that you use of other equipment. It's

133all item itemized out and is that is that qualified then that says you have to pay for that person to be there as opposed to well I know how to run the pool. You're required to have a life on the I remember seeing it on the schedule. Yeah. Okay. Maybe I want Okay, I think it's I think actually Sarah this is really good. Um I'm I'm not nitpicking it. I'm just at the areas where we've looked at it a lot over the years in policy committee and just trying to get it clear because we want people to be able to use our buildings and our spaces but also use it in a way that says there's value to it and we're paying for it. Right. Well, and I give all props to Terry and Janet

134because they kept catching things like Terry put in the line about field lights have to be off by 10 o'clock. Like making sure that's in there like we were catching things here and there and being like, "Oh, we better note that. We better note that." So, we want to be honest and transparent with our community so there's no surprises, right? Um, and Janet's really as the person that's usually having the first conversation sometimes then sends them to us, but um, has taken a lot of time with people. So, I really appreciate that. Okay. I would prefer not to look at the AR again. Too late. Never. Okay. Nope. All right. Let's go on. Um, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh future board agenda topics. Do we have any new ones coming? I don't think

135so. I think we're pretty well caught up on stuff. Um so we're up to announce. Oh, let's see. Um announcements. And I did want just to put in an early plug because I found out about it. Um this is just something to for Sarah, the other Sarah. Um OSBA has uh set the dates for when summer board conference will be is August 8th through 10th in Salem. So, if we could kind of start getting a a notification for that. And then, um, oh, the other thing is when we were at Gordon Russell and we were sitting with our, um, principal groups, we found out that Gresian High School girls have a flag football team, okay, we got the Gresian schedule. So, so anyhow, there's still some games coming up in April and May and um,

136it's on their websites to go and and do that. So, I'm going to try and get out there and see the games. Um, I don't think there's any other, you know, stuff going on, right? [Music] Our budget meeting got cancelled. Budget meeting got Well, it didn't get cancelled. We took care of it at the previous We adopted the budget, so we no longer need to have that. It is crossed off on my list. Um, was that the Yeah. Yeah. So, the 23rd is no longer. Okay. So, announcements. Um, yes. The April 23rd, 2025 budget committee meeting was cancelled because the committee approved the budget at their April 9th, 2025 budget committee meeting. Um, our next meeting is May 7th, 2025, our regular board business meeting at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of public safety

137and schools building. And there being no other business before the board this evening, we are. Thank you. And off the