001Okay, we hate to cut the soccer talk short, but we have an agenda today. Want to get through um this public meeting of the board of education uh policy committee for June 15th is called to order. Um good afternoon and welcome. Uh thank you all for being here. Today's agenda includes a review of a of a proposed new policy protecting school access and safe schools, discussion on screens and classrooms, a discussion of purchasing and contracting rules. Um, we've also got public comment comment uh I mean sorry proposed uh district student council bylaws and I believe that's it and we'll start with introductions and Patty is a guest. Come on. Uh, Patty, Director Sullivan. >> Hi, I'm Patty Sullivan. I'm not a member of the committee, but I'm joining today because I'm very interested in what
002you're discussing. >> Michelle Chase Miller, committee member, zone 4. >> Michelle, the pass policy committee chair. >> Uh, Stephanie Englesman, committee member, uh, zone six. Emily Courtnage, senior legal counsel. >> Sharon Tonrey, chief legal officer. >> And bringing up the rear. >> Thank you, Rosanne. So, um, next we have public comment. Um, Rosanne, we you've shared the list. We do have people that have signed up to speak. >> We do. Um, we have one person that's supposed to join us virtually, so I'll wait for her to join in. But we have Elise Wang, Holly Hoffamp, and Kelly Albrech. >> Excellent. Do you want to come up, please? So, you have about two minutes to begin begin your comments. Clearly state your name and spell your last name. And if you would indulge me because I
003like to uh I I want to find out where where we're hearing from. So, if you could say your school community, that would be excellent. Thank you. Um, you want to start? You can go. >> Is this on? >> You're right. >> Okay. So, you have two minutes and just state your last name in your school community. >> Okay. My name is Holly Hoffamp. H O F K A M P. I'm here as a mom of three access students and a co-lead for the newly formed chapter of Schools Beyond Screens in Portland. I used to just worry about the distracting effects of screens in schools on my kids learning. But this year, I saw AI creep in its way to the classroom in concerning ways. My daughter's fourth grade class used Common Lit, an online
004reading platform to check reading comprehension. Instead of receiving personalized teacher feedback, she received AI correction versions of her work with no teacher comments, no writing. She couldn't even tell her writing had been revised when I asked. My son tells me that when he searches for an online calculator to help with his math homework, a Google popup appears, tempting him to scan it into an AI homework helper, which spits out the answers for kids, sometimes correctly and sometimes not. This is not feedback, and this is not learning. Last week, my 11-year-old uploaded his own picture into Canva using AI tools to morph his image to make trading cards. A tiny message on the screen informed him that by using this tool, he was helping to improve their model. I believe this is actually illegal. Um, violating
005COPA laws and Canvas own policies for minors. And at a recent baseball game, a group of Crestston Elementary parents told me that Amir, a cartoon chatbot reading program, was piloted in their schools without much transparency or parental consent. They're worried about how their children's voice recordings are being used. And one parent even noted that Amira seemed to get frustrated with their child when they struggled. Meanwhile, their reading specialist is being cut, and the PTA was told they can raise funds to purchase a subscription to Amira, but not to pay a human reading specialist. It's not hard to see why this is a top concern of parents, educators, and union members. As you draft your policies for screens in schools, please go farther than LA did. Please disable student access to all generative AI tools, websites,
006search engines, and apps on schoolisssued devices. We learned the hard way about screens and other edtech over the last 10 years and are now trying to create policies to write this. Let's not make the same mistakes with AI. >> Thank you. What about great timing? >> Yeah, >> appreciate that. >> Hello, my name is Elise Huang. H U A N G. I'm a student at Irvington Elementary. I just finished fourth grade. I spent kindergarten through third grade at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School. Thank you so much for having me here to talk. I'm here to talk about the importance of kids learning from a real person. At King during math, the teacher would sit us down, give us the math problems, and have us work on computers. We barely had any actual learning. That's
007when my parents noticed that I was having problems answering basic math problems. Like, if they asked me how many strawberries I would have, if I had two, my dad gave me three and my sister ate two. I wouldn't be able to answer. All I know is that I'd be really mad at my sister. During the second grade, they had me do more math at home. And I got much better. My recent teacher, Miss Carolyn, would have us do more face to face learning. We would play math games with each other. And we had math quizzes almost every week. I got really good at math. And once my class went on a field trip to BisTown, I was even CFO of the Wellness Center. But not all people have that opportunity. Most people are stuck with
008I Ready because some parents believe that if the school says something is right, then it's right. I is a math program that Portland public schools use. When I used I Ready in my class, I didn't find it useful at all. It was super easy to guess, even if I didn't understand the question. At my current school, Miss Caroline would teach us to do something, then have us work on math problems, then do I ready? It's hard for me to learn when someone doesn't tell me how to do it. Me learning more from an actual person boosted my knowledge. I need a real person in my face telling me how to do something. I believe that we need more rules. What I mean is if schools don't have rules, then every class can do whatever they
009want, however they want. Which means if a teacher just has the kids work on computers all day, they rot their brains and we don't want that. Thank you again for letting me share. Thank you. >> Is that okay? >> Yes, please. >> Hi, I'm Kelly Alrech, parent of a child at Richmond Elementary School. Uh my timing is not going to be that spot on, but uh there was a great product u couple hundred years ago. It was a paint. It had great drying time, superior coverage, so you didn't have to do as many coats of paint. Uh the colors just really popped. It was durable. It prevented mold and rust. And uh people knew around then it wasn't great for humans, uh kids especially. But it wasn't until almost 200 years later that Congress got
010around to banning the use of lead in paint. And still today, even parents here in Portland buying one of our beautiful older homes, that's one of the primary worries. Is there lead in the paint in the home? Another great product uh that came out 20 or so years ago in the realm of education was balanced literacy, a hot new reading program that was going to teach kids to learn by finding a book that was just right for them. Look at the pictures. It'll tell them how to read the words. 20 years later, an entire generation of kids didn't learn how to read at grade level. Not such a hot reading program. We went back to phonics, which was what I learned in the 90s as an Oregon Trail generation. [snorts] As an Oregon trail uh
011trail generation kid in elementary school, we got to practice computer typing or play the Oregon Trail when we were done with all of our classwork. That was our screen time. It was pretty fun. Uh my child is now going into fifth grade has not learned to type yet. Um, and yet Chromebooks comprised the majority of her classroom time this last year in fourth grade. Her enthusiasm for school dropped dramatically in that time. At the same time, uh, in fourth grade, you learned fractions, which is one of those concepts if you miss one, it's scaffolded. You're going to miss the other and the next and the next. >> If you'd like to follow up with written testimony, we would appreciate it. Um, >> yes. To the school board. Thank you. Thanks. Is there additional um test?
012>> Yes. I just we have Lisa Jackson virtually and I'm sending her invite. Here she is. Hi, Lisa. Can you hear us? >> Oh, yes, I can hear you. Sorry, I I've been sitting in here. Just couldn't get in. >> No worries. Um, I don't know if you heard um me say we we would like you to spell your last name, although we can see it on the screen. And you have two minutes. And if you could identify your school community. >> Okay. So, Jackson, J A C K S O N, spotted Elk, S P O T E D E L K. Um, my I guess you could say I'm in the Southeast community. Um, but I I advocate across the board as a parent. So, I'm I'm in the whole community. Anyway, I just
013wanted to come in and talk about policy now that I can address policy. And I'm so grateful that I chimed in right away because um, you know, you guys don't even have a policy for AI yet. if we really want to um get down to policy. But the reason why I am wanting to speak as well is because you're you're you're wasting time, you're wasting time by changing words in policies and um removing policies and you know what I mean? So it's like when we're when we're addressing people with with policies and stuff um being transparent as a whole like where are these policies going then? Um you know what are we doing to help the community? Why is this happening? I get that's why you have these board meetings, but sometimes your policy changing
014is happening at like 9 at night. And so, and you know, and not everyone can engage, but once again, I'm here speaking for my child and myself advocating to the for the community as a whole, but when you want to talk about policies being important and stuff, you know, we don't we don't have a AI policy. Um, this online learning stuff has been a lot for our kids. Um, and I'm grateful that the kids that are speaking on this stuff um are here and because we need to try to make things better. Like you're our board, you know what I mean? And and as a whole and as a parent, it's just it's not good out here for a lot of the stuff that's going on. But moving forward, you know, you're here to help
015help as well. And so when we're advoc advocating for the uh racial equity policy stuff, natives should be in everything. And I I get they're in there, but if you look at the bottom where you're taking out all of this stuff, they're not mentioned once. So it's like that's where I go back to. That's why I advocate and I'm going to come to every board meeting and speak. If I want to come every board meeting and speak, I shouldn't be denied. There's no reason why one time a month speaking stuff will ever happen and should ever happen. And as a board member, we should advocate to have everyone speak. Everyone's voices matters and everything that's being said at any time should matter if you're a board member. >> Lisa, >> I want to cut you
016off. Um, everyone has had two minutes. We're trying to give everyone the same amount of time. We, as usual, appreciate your testimony and I've noted um multiple things that you were advocating for. Thank you very much. >> Can I tell you something though before you cut me off? Don't cut any. >> No, I'm trying to uh allow everyone the same time to talk. And to be fair to people that are waiting, I'd like to cut everyone off at two minutes, including you. Um, if you'd like to follow up uh with the whole board, you're free to put uh your testimony in writing and send it into us and we'll all see it. >> But I do need to move on. We have a um a healthy agenda to get through today. Okay. So, our next
017thing is Oh, I meant to say um our student rep is not able to make it tonight, unfortunately. And she wasn't sure if there was another student rep here. Um and I don't know if I don't know how to move forward if we just go ahead and move forward without them. >> Uh they've requested to be put on the August policy committee meeting agenda. >> Okay, that's fantastic. And then our D our our district student council starts meeting in August as well. So that'll be great. Okay. So our student rep is not here and we will uh just scratch the district student bylaws for now. Our next policy, our next um item we have rather is protecting student access and safe schools. Um I want to thank Will Fernandez. Thank you so much for drafting
018this. Um, and if you'd like to come to speak to it, that would be great. Thank you. Hi, good evening everyone. Um, the draft policy in front of you aligns both Senate Bill 1538 and House Bill 479. House Bill 479 is what requires districts to have a policy confirming what both bills are asking for by September 30th, 2026, which is why we are having a bit of an urgency at the moment. Luckily, this does not create anything new for PPS. We've had guidance since 2016 and I spent the last year really expanding and refining our guidance. Um, so we wouldn't have to create a lot of new things. And what you'll see um throughout the policy is a toolkit that was already created this year that would serve as like our AD and really explaining
019how we're going to execute what is in the policy. >> That's fantastic. I know that um in practice we've been kind of we've we've had this toolkit. I haven't seen the toolkit. I've heard about it from multiple school communities. I'm really glad it's in place as we see ICE activity and uh around our schools. Um some of them more than others. And so does um I guess I'll open it up for questions or comments. I don't [clears throat] have questions, but I'm really glad to see this policy before us. Thank you. >> Also, apologies that you haven't seen the toolkit. I can make sure I get to Sir Roseanne so that I can get to you all. >> That would be Oh, the toolkit itself would be fantastic. Thank you. >> No problem. >> Just
020really appreciate your work on this. >> Cool. Thank you. So I I do have a question and it um it's very timely to talk about this paragraph with the public comment that mentioned Amamira with some of the contracts that I had asked for and looked at with the AI specifically um on the protection of student information on page two of this where PPS will protect the confidentiality of student and family information to the full fullest extent. Um student education records won't be disclosed. We will disclose PPS will not require disclosure of immigration or citizenship status, collect or maintain information. And I bring this up because I had requested um AI policies. And I know this is separate from you, but I'm just bringing this up because we're also going to be talking about screen um
021policies and the fact that we don't have one and AIS and the Amira um contract that was entered into by the district sometime in the last I lost six months or so um does in fact have an entire section of the data that Amamira will be collecting. And so I guess I'm curious and if you can't answer it right now, I would love to know how PPS plans on dealing with it because I just lost my page, but Amira in its own contract will be asking for place of birth, gender, ethnicity or race, language information, student school enrollment, student grade level, English language learner information, student disability information, IEP living situation, and um on page 17 of the contract typed in migrant, gifted, talented. And so we have a contract for AI um information that's
022apparently working with our elementary school students that is collecting data that is now in if this policy is accepted by the board going to be in direct conflict with what we're doing in our >> policy. So >> I appreciate that. I can't speak to Amira or that contract, but what I can speak to and what maybe we need to be clearer on in our policy is that policy means that if someone comes knocking on our door and says >> I'm an ICE agent or whatever, we are not going to share information unless they have a judicial warrant that forces that. And even a school would not do that. The policy clearly says and the toolkit is that you're going to reach out to legal. Our legal department is going to verify everything. And then if
023we have to share um student information, we will. And then what changes in the house bill is that we used to have no obligation to tell a family that someone came looking for your information or we had to share your information. And that's also what would change is that we would do our best to make sure that we get in contact with that family to say, "Hey, we had to share this information about you >> for XYZ reason." >> So that is specific to this this policy. And again, I can't speak to >> Right. Yeah, you can't speak to the contract. I will tell you that um >> federal immigration officers, if they get hand their hands on data that shows that a family is a migrant family and or where someone is born, they
024can get a judicial warrant based on that information to then show up at a school with a judicial warrant or wait for someone outside. And so the Amira contract and perhaps other contracts are very problematic in that data being collected and outlined in the contract by the company is handing over protected and potentially very harming data on our families. Yeah, >> I would say I would want to know exactly like they I'm sure their own they have their probably their own privacy laws and things like that. So that I can't speak to it. I can just say that we will not make yeah >> do everything in our power to make sure that we do not share that information about our students and families with um immigration enforcement. >> I also Oh, almost done. Um,
025I would say that the way also I I I would say that this doesn't necessarily read as that information pertaining to only immigration law enforcement because it is its own Roman numeral subsection instead of being tucked under >> interactions with immigration enforcement, which is Roman numeral 2, protection of student information is Roman numeral 3. And so I would I would read this as a lawyer as saying all of our information and if we're interacting with a law enforcement, we have these rules, but sub three is its own sub3 separate from sub 2. And so I think that it probably is asking us to protect that information regardless of who is asking or who is collecting it based on how I read it. And I like that. I don't want to tuck it under too. I
026think we should be protecting that information. And I'm looking at you because you're there, but I'm talking to the board. like we should be protecting that information regardless of whether it's the letter carrier or ICE asking. So that's just mine. Thank you. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. And and um we do have people in the room that can speak to that and I think it's a really uh valid point. Um I had a question in section one subsection B sub. two maybe pertaining to the same thing that PPS will review and align related policies including those governing enrollment, attendance, and withdrawal to ensure that students are not unintentionally excluded. But I would go on to say that um we'd also want to make sure that there are no policies or practices that are in
027conflict with um the safety protection that we're trying to uh codify. That was my just my comment. Um my comment was or my question was is that review happening and is that why we're starting a little bit ahead time to get this in place by September 30th that that someone is crosswalking um this policy with any other policies that might be in conflict. What I can say is to that point that specific line comes from when creating this policy I did not do it in isolation. And so when working with funded programs and other programs that are work with our students families that are highly impacted when it comes to immigration one of the things that continually came up was Mckin Vento >> and we have a Mckin Vento policy. So we decided to make
028sure that we're ensuring where we already have a co- a created policy that we are following that pol like mikinto has a policy let's make sure we're following that policy and not um unintentionally impacting our miniv students more or within this policy if that makes sense. Yes, it does. It does make sense. And again, so is that review underway already that or are we planning to do this >> where we're looking at whether there's a >> I didn't know if you I didn't want to cut you off. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um it's sort of underway already because there's been an administrative directive already in place for a long time about immigration related to protecting our students. So all of that work has been incon uh done inconsistently with the current policies. But as we
029go through each one of the tanches, as you all go through them, but as staff go through them, then we will make sure we're crosswalking and as you all talk about the student privacy and screen time and all of that, that will get reflected back through. >> Thank you. >> Can I can I step out of line here and just say that I do want to call out Will and the entire team because the Oregon law changed, but we didn't have to do very much to meet it. And that's because of Will and the partnerships that he's got across. And I'm not sure who else to call out besides Will. So, you name anybody else. But as from my chair, it was like, "Oh, read the statute." I'm like, "No, Will's got this covered. They've
030got this in place. It's been nicely >> nicely developed over the course of a year and a half." Well, well, before we had to react. We were not in reactive mode and that's due to the team's credit. >> Yes. And I realize that's not my job. >> I became the face, but I I mean I student assessment health under James Loveland, Mckin Vinto, and funded programs with Kamedra, Dr. Commander Jefferson. Many people looked, touched, and supported this work, and we it could not be done in isolation to truly support our families. >> I appreciate that. Thank you so much, >> Michelle. >> Yes. >> I have a question for Stephanie. So, when you >> are you talking about like any um anything we sign with another company should be following these rules is what you're
031you're saying. >> I mean, I think so. And I think we >> we go back and if we're putting this policy in place, I mean, if we've entered into a contract that is collecting data that's protected, >> yeah, >> there's probably a a word a line in there about how to exit a contract that is no longer safe for our families. >> Okay. So, yeah, I think yeah, >> I think I would add that that the contracts also are supposed to comply with our rules and what they're doing with it. So, I'm I don't know about the Amir contract off the top of my head, but we'll take that as a to-do because it may be that we're also requiring them to disagregate the data to de excuse me, deidentify the data. They have to
032comply with our rules about it and there may be more there that and and I think it's it's something we'll take back in circle. It may not be there and it should be. >> Did that answer your question? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Awesome. We're now going to talk um have a discussion. There's no action tonight on screens in classrooms. We have a a presentation um PPS use of technology. And I requested this because as I was thinking about our screen time, I uh really want a I want to understand the current state so I can then understand the future state. >> As they are coming up for discussion, can I take us back to um the immigration policy? I think and maybe you did, but are we prepared to move that forward to the
033board? Are you all prepared now? >> We uh Yeah, we we need to Sorry about that. We need to Yeah, our three voting members are I think I'm ready. Yes. >> Okay, we have a three thumbs up, which is fantastic. >> Thank you, colleagues. Um so, PPS digital ecosystem. And again, I requested this because I didn't understand um I've we've heard testimony um we've heard testimony from people and so I wanted to kind of get an understanding of what we're what the current state is. >> Thank you for that chair to pass. Um Chief Buno and I are here to provide a high level overview. Um, I want to start by acknowledging that while we have many things in place, those things may not be as broadly published or um, implemented in the way we
034would hope. And because of that, we understand that parents and families and students are having uneven experiences across the school district. I was particularly concerned about uneven experiences because again I I asked everybody for for their school communities because I I'm trying to determine I know that we have 81 schools but I was trying to get a heat map of whether some of our practices were um in play in some places and not in others and and also didn't understand the current state. So thank you. >> Okay. So um Dr. Adams and I have a brief uh presentation for you where we want to talk about our our digital ecosystem is kind of how we're referring to it which includes uh things such as specifically screen time which is of conversation but also digital literacy
035how educational tools uh our online safety and then research. So Dr. Adams will start. >> Sure. As Chief Bruno mentioned, um, our digital ecosystem contains or is informed and guided by the, uh, pillars you see on the screen before you, undergurtded by what the research says. And so, we will share high level information tonight about screen time. We could get into some weeds about screen time, but not tonight because we don't have those data with us. But we do have the ability to understand how screens are being used. We want to talk about digital literacy because that is important especially as things uh as technology continues to evolve and includes things like artificial intelligence. Important to note in in digital literacy is that at the youngest grades you don't necessarily have to be on a
036device to learn about digital literacy. It's a really important point I'd like to make. Um >> can you restate that? So >> when if we're teaching about digital literacy, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be on a device to do that. >> Okay. >> Um for example, if we are um teaching about media literacy and talking about one of the earliest ways that then translates as we go up is when we have um photographs that are with text on news articles. That's a piece of media literacy. And one of the things you might see in upper grades, and I'm thinking beyond elementary school, is um in a digital lit in a digital literacy curriculum, would be trying to discern whether images or videos are um seem actual and factual versus generated. I'm not saying
037this is something that a kindergarter should do. Um, but I just want to be clear that that um, when we talk about teaching students about the tools and options and how to be safe, it doesn't necessarily mean they need to be on a device to do that. >> Um, we'll talk about educational tools. So, we'll talk about broadly about curriculum which typically does now come with um, digital components. Uh we will talk about online safety a filtering and monitoring processes that we have in place and then again we'll touch on some what some of the more current research says and we have friends that we can phone in the audience should we need their depth of expertise. Uh so first the first pillar is screen time and it's really important that we think about as
038I mentioned I was once in a district that went completely onetoone back in 2012. So, prior to the pandemic, which sort of forced everyone to have to flood um students and families with devices in order to stay connected and one of the things that we had to be really clear on is what's on the screen and is it active participation and what's on the screen or passive participation. So, content matters. Um, and so screen time on YouTube, on Netflix, on social media is not necessarily the same as screen time on an educational tool. And so the modern research really talks about that idea of like how do you use screens for good? I've seen kids as early as third grade coding um and that requires screen time because you are doing that on a device.
039um some support with problem solving, creating and again not saying that this needs to happen at a kindergarten level or at a second grade level, but these are things we can work towards over time. And then the current research also talks about how appropriate engagement skyrockets when there is um caregiver or peer interaction and so that people aren't on uh or interacting with screens individually and independently especially at those young younger grades and ages. We also included um some text from the American Academy of Pediatrics um which recommends considering that quality of the interactions that are occurring not just the quantity of interactions that are occurring. Okay. And then we have digital literacy and Dr. Adams referred to this um actually quite well as we were opening. And so this is the the work that
040we are doing across our system and moving forward. um with teaching students or teaching kids how to engage with how to use how to be in a world of where technology exists. Um it sometimes and in some places you you call it being or becoming a a digital citizen digital citizen. Anyway, our our focus um aligns with our graduate portrait and um ISTY standards which is the international society for technology in education. Um what we hope to do and starting at at kindergarten um all the way up through our uh advanced grades is is is teach students how to learn, think, be critical and and and work in digital spaces. our our our focus is preparing students for a world after they leave us. Um so in in cases this means many many times that
041you're engaged in instruction engaged in conversation that doesn't actually include the use of technology for the delivery of that content. We have curriculum or we have resource that is will be rolling out. It was developed through cross collaborative effort between our IT department, our health department, our NTSS department and our library services department. Um and in moving forward that will be part more specifically part of what we deliver in each grade level. Then in the next pillar is our educational tools. Um and and this is uh frequently when we are getting feedback we we are hearing of students who are using tools and using tools on on technology. Most all of our core ccurriculars are paperbased and I'll just like paper pencil. Um our math curriculum for example is paper pencil. Um it they all
042have digital components to them. um some of the content for example that um at the last board meeting you adopted social studies curriculum where we talked about kids will be getting a textbook um but then there is a digital resource um that can be accessed but in addition to these core curriculums or or the supplemental materials um this is also assisted and assisted technologies. So, so we we have kids all over the system that use digital resources to support their learning um through either because they have a disability um some students um it uh use it um that are multilingual learners and then augmentative tools. If you walk into our classrooms, you will see um students who are using digital devices simply for communication like to to be able to communicate with their class members.
043Um in addition to that um we we use digital resources um to support intervention um so extended practice or intervention and then this is where AI falls. So as as a um instructional tool or an educational tool >> okay I'm sorry I sorry I paused because I saw the chatting. No worries. Oh, >> okay. >> Anyway, so so um I >> we'll we'll work it out. I want to chime back to um the last slide for just a second, Chief Buno, and talk about what I've observed with textbooks and digital textbooks. >> A couple things um that I've seen that have been beneficial. Um one, digital resources allow for upper grade students, secondary students to take those textbooks home in the digital format. Also, when a lot of curriculum providers are providing digital textbooks, you
044can change the readability level of the textbook for the student. So that if the textbook, let's say, is a US history textbook, but I'm, you know, in a US history class and I'm reading at a third grade level, you can drop the read the Lexile level of the textbook down to the digital version of the textbook down to a level where I could then comprehend the material that's in the textbook. and not have as much reading struggle as I would normally have if I just if I only had the print version. >> That's fascinating. So, you can use one textbook across different grades because you're able to change the readability, which you can do in Microsoft Word, too, right? >> You you can do that in Word. But what happens when what I've seen in
045my career, what happens when technology is used appropriately and for the right educational purposes, it actually can augment teaching and learning and not detract from it. And so with those textbooks, instead of a teacher having to manually create materials at different level at different reading levels for students, the textbook can sometimes do that for them. So it takes workload away from the teacher. So, let's say a 10th grade class, but you've got readers that are reading at different levels. >> The pro the student the teacher is able to differentiate for those different comprehension levels. >> Yes. >> When you when you have digital resources that allow for that, yes, you can. >> Okay. I imagine the content could be updated a lot easier than >> with a textbook. Also, >> that is true as well.
046>> There's something about the book though that's part of being in school. But thank you. >> Absolutely. Um the last thing I wanted to touch on is this idea of online safety with filtering or we wanted to touch on was online safety with filtering and monitoring. We know that we need to keep our students and our staff safe. Um, I want to begin by saying we're working on creating a closed system where that keeps sort of outside entities away and keeps our students and staff from getting to those outside entities that may be a little less than savory. Um, we have device level security. Um, for example, that includes things like I cannot install programs on my computer. There there are um productivity programs that I can put on it because I had to get
047a new device like Docs and Microsoft Word and Adobe, but I cannot go to an internet website and download a program or an app and install it on this device. And the same old is true for students and staff members in buildings. We also have filtering on our laptops and staff phones that block age inappropriate content. Um and I know that we have um senior director Adamson here. he'll wave. Uh I know that he's in constant conversation with this idea of the last topic academics partnership when we see and observe because technology evolves and so you can have a filter list and eventually something new is going to come up that gets through the filter list. The great thing about the tools that we have um centrally is that we can notice that and then
048respond by eliminating access to those tools as we see them being used across the district. We also have um that leads me to network operations so we can um report on device usage and screen time um which was something I was really happy to hear about because we can actually measure it. We have, of course, responsible use policies that students and staff agree to annually. And again, we want to make sure that the tools that we have in place support the um academic program and don't deter from it or don't interfere with it. Um I want to mention uh I mentioned this when we were at the TLE meeting, but I I heard lots of testimony tonight and have heard it around I Ready. I just want to remind everyone that the I Ready curriculum
049is for first and foremost a textbook paper and pencil curriculum with a digital component that when used according to even the publishers's recommendation is only supposed to be 15 to 20 minutes possibly twice a week. And so we understand from that testimony we hear that some students are being placed on the device and into the program longer than they should be. And that's one of the things we can do with senior director Adamson's technology is understand when and where that's occurring. That's kind of what I was getting at when I was curious about um hearing from school communities was is is there a way to monitor in real time where that 15 minutes twice a week is going over where there's someone that's in the classroom that's, you know, got to get through a lesson
050plan and just has students on the device way more than what our guidelines recommend. There is a way to understand that. Yes. >> And then in in real time. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> The the system's always watching. >> That's so true. [laughter] >> No such thing as privacy on district issued devices um for students or staff. So >> we should probably remind all of the students of that too. Um yeah, there's no such thing as uh privacy. >> And so as I mentioned, uh Chief Buuno and I know just enough to be dangerous. So, we provided a high level overview to hopefully fill in some um some gaps. I don't believe that we've answered a lot of questions that occur and we have um certainly more in the weeds information we would be happy
051to gather if that would be the direction of this committee. >> That's fantastic. I I learned something. I love that you put the learning targets um for people that maybe haven't reviewed this um at the front of the presentation. And so it says, "I'm learning about the PPS digital ecosystem pillars and system recommendations for technology integration and use in schools. I can I identify the five pillars um screen time, digital literacy, educational tools, um online safety and research. >> You you get to go home. [laughter] >> I studied this." And um I also appreciate the um American Academy of Pediatrics. I also know I just I think on the news today uh the UK is banning social media for students uh under 16 in Australia. Mhm. And so um there's a lot of interest as
052you can tell. There's a lot of advocacy here. Um this is the start of a conversation. Um we're not going to do anything tonight except maybe discuss and I'll open it up for questions or comments. Hi, thank you for that. >> Um, okay, I have a few questions. Um, so when when you talked about math curriculum being paper pencil, I saw a pretty strong reaction from the parents in the back. Um, is it ever the case that teachers are only using the digital tools and not using the paper, pen, pencil versions? Um, it sounds like >> so I'm I'm not in every classroom every day. So I'm not I would not purport to refute or challenge what parents are saying is their experience. What I can tell you is not the intention of the curriculum
053that students are on the device more than at most 40 minutes a week. >> Okay. So, if it's being used outside of that, then it's being misused. >> It's being misused. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> That's one clarification question. When you say 40 times a week, do you mean per subject? So, >> I I is just our our elementary mathematics curriculum. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, it's it's just K5 and the usage um for the um my path is what it's called is less for younger students. It's less for a first grader than it is for a fifth grader, but it doesn't their recommendations don't exceed 40 minutes per week at even at the fifth grade level. >> That's good. Um so, you spoke about working on creating a closed system. How close are
054we to this? I need to phone a friend. [laughter] >> And um while you're at it, can you please help us understand what things are automatically blocked and what's not? And like why doesn't just like why isn't like why aren't most things automatically blocked? >> Sure. So I have Mark Lancaster, director of infrastructure and security in our technology team. So we use multiple layers of security for content filtering. So the multiple layers would define the closed system. It applies to all devices on the district network. We use agents on the laptops as described, the student devices, the staff devices. If you are on the district network on a personal device, your cell phone on the wireless network, you're part of that closed system of content filtering. So the automatic blocking you're referring to is category
055based and that that applies to the age appropriateness of the content filter. So that's based on content categories, adult content, inappropriate content, content deemed harmful to minors. So we have multiple service providers that categorize internet websites for age appropriate or inappropriate content and those are updated continuously through the day as new websites appear on the internet, content changes on websites and or as things are flagged or reported to the team. We can go in and manually block content even if we deem it was categorized inappropriately. We can also report that to the vendor for an inappropriate category or we can just have our own block list or allow list for district content we want to allow. Does that make sense? >> It it does. And we've we've heard not widespread, but we have heard testimony
056that talks about inappropriate content. And so I'm wondering, you know, is there a tolerance level that, you know, how many rat hairs are in a candy bar that were accepted is are acceptable or is this all content because I mean, we've heard from maybe two people >> that there was content. >> It's not a perfect system, the filtering system, right? It >> updates as quickly as it can. People establish websites in minutes now with the tools that are available to them. And so it does take a combination in my experience of the multiple filtering partners and systems and catching some things manually. Um >> it it does take both of those those things. The other thing we didn't touch on that we've heard testimony about in this presentation we did not touch on is this
057idea of when is Jay a student accessing something that appears to be inappropriate versus when is maybe a teacher using a screen with the whole class. So we've heard both of the we've heard that in testimony as well. I've gone into the classroom, I've seen or my child came home and reported that the teacher showed. And so that is something else we need to explore. >> Did you Oh, I think this is my final question. Okay. The system is always watching, but is the system always paying attention? like a kiddo who is on the screen more than they're supposed to be. Like somewhere the system knows that that's happening, but how do we like identify that while it's happening and then what do we do to correct it? >> I I can think of an
058example that um senior director Adamson shared with me probably a week or so ago um where we found a student accessing some video. Um, and it's not that the video my if I'm recalling correctly, it was not that the videos were not appropriate, but the amount of time the student was spending on the videos was inappropriate at high. And so this was an example of a a site or a mini site, a subsite that had gotten through our filters because it wasn't flagged as inappropriate content. And at the same time, we don't want a student spending 10, eight, nine, seven hours over the course of x amount of days in content like that. And so, um, what I know, um, senior director Adamson did was he added that, uh, site to our filtering system so
059that would not continue. Um, it is not my understanding that we have programs that say Renard's been on the device for two hours. Alert, alert, alert. Um, I don't know if something like that exists, but I'm sure Mark and um, Russell could help us with that. Um, but we, my understanding is we're not quite at that level yet. >> It looked like you might have had a question. Director Sullivan, um, yes. Um, sorry. [clears throat] Something I've been hearing is more directed at the very young, the K12, and not just computers, but any kind of screen time. So that there's watching too many movies. >> Um, it just seems like there should be a policy that says interaction at that level should be persontoerson. Get rid of the screens. I mean, and that's that's what
060I've heard the most. So, that K2 is kind of a separate part. You've been talking about keeping mainly older kids online and watching appropriate things. I'm talking about is it appropriate at all to be looking at screens? >> Sure. I I think that's a a really um that's an important question for us to ask. I I do want to um remind the board that the OD has um required us to start giving assessments down at the K2 level and those assessments are digital. So even if we were to say no screens, students would still be on those screens three times a year per the Oregon State Department of Education and the Accountability Act that the governor um passed that passed on the governor's behalf. Well, three times a year is different [laughter] than a long
061time every day. Not >> disagree, director of having a um a policy >> that we could >> I mean, we've we've heard some we've heard some of those stories, too. I was talking to >> um senior director Dr. Blascal who's in charge of our prek to five academics and she talked about hearing stories like in kindergarten you're there are songs that we want the teachers to sing with the students >> and in some classroom the teacher puts on a video of the song and plays it for the students which is not the same experience and not what we would want to have happen. So, we understand that things are not perfect out there and they're not even as we would wish them to be, even if that might be slightly different than what some of
062our families wish and we're committed to working towards making it better. >> Yeah, I guess that's just what I'm asking that we keep working toward that put our policy so the teachers know. I mean, maybe they already know and they're abusing the policy, but I kind of think a lot of people maybe don't know. They just need more direction. >> Yeah. And I appreciate that. And and I think that I think we could and and need to provide stronger guidance um related to the specific recommendations of each of the um curricular materials and and how they're used uh moving forward and and and again I am also not questioning what I hear as experiences. Um I think that is perhaps connected to not as strong guidance across our system. Um, at the same time, I
063also want to recognize that, for example, you all know that I work and have worked to support special education. So, I'm actively teaching first graders to use digital resources to overcome the experiences that they have every single day uh related to their disability so that they can learn in the classroom at the same rate and and and and capacity as students who do not experience that. So I also so I understand as we're thinking about this and having this conversation we can make an exception for you know unique needs and disability related needs. I also don't want to be have those children be the only children in that space using technology in any way because that is also as secluding. Um and so it I think that um as we're having this conversation there is
064uh much that we need to learn and and we can help provide you that information. And what I mean by that is like how much right now um kids are spending at those age levels on on um screens. Um and again I'm not in any way denying what I'm hearing from parents. um what what what we would expect to based on how the curriculum's delivered and and and see like if there's the need to actually create that um proclamation um that doesn't have an unintended consequence. [snorts] >> I appreciate that. And we haven't heard from you. >> Uh thank you. Um, I I I also like the quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics, but um, my training has made it so that I always know where a quote comes from, and I always put
065where a quote comes from when I use it. And I think it's a great quote, but I think it's also really important and I would ask that it get added to this um that it actually comes from the American Academy of Pediatrics who are looking at stream screen time guidelines for social media applications and that that specific quotation comes for quote recommendations for parents and caregivers. And so the the article that these quotes come from, as great as they are, don't actually apply to school use. They apply to parents as they're trying to navigate social media use at home. And so there it makes sense that, you know, perhaps you have a ninth grader whose friends are all on social media and you're trying to navigate how to focus on balanced content and co-viewing and
066communicating about everything rather than a ban because you might feel like they're missing out on something. People are struggling with that all over the world. So those quotations are great, but when taken out of context, I think it's so I would like context to be put in just so anyone who's looking at this later knows that that is not about schools. Um I am super interested about the I Ready 15 to 22 times a week because I don't for my kids that has not been the experience since they went back after COVID. Um, and I actually was in a school where the school was having contests to see which classroom could finish as many I Ready, what are they called? Like >> units. >> Modules. Thank you. >> Lessons. And so they were like, the
067contest was do more and tell us how much more you've done and then you're going to get a prize because if our school does more than the other schools, we get something. And so that was something that I saw on the wall that was being run by the school and that's disappointing um because if the recommendation is two times 20 which is potentially okay and then schools are having an incentive to do more those don't match up and then suddenly any recommendation out there is just kind of like a letter to Santa. Um I um I also am like I appreciate that we're working towards a closed system. We just had on the agenda a policy that was written in response to laws that were changed about 18 months ago and that we're trying to
068get through by September 2026 to abide by that. And so 18 months we've come up with this policy. It was March of 2020 when the world crashed and then September of 2020 when screens became everything our kids used. And if we the board then couldn't make a policy in those six months, certainly by September of 2021, we the board should have had a policy then because there had it's sort of it it went my kids in kindergarten did no screens because they their world collapsed in kindergarten and now kids in kindergarten use screens and so we have had ample time to have a closed system and to have a policy and so we need to do now I'm talking to everybody. we need to do this immediately because there's just no more time to to
069wait and certainly with how fast AI is moving. Um, I also am worried that PE and music, to your point, Dr. Adams, that sometimes a teacher is putting on a video. I have had the pleasure of going into a lot of schools and I have seen elementary school kids who were kneeh high to a grasshopper standing in their PE room looking up at a screen and doing right like >> and that's not what we it it it was actually very um I felt very odd seeing that. It felt very much like we're creating little robots and it was very strange and I felt sad for those kids and I remembered my PE which was never fun but it was certainly at least interactive with kids my age and with a with a teacher rather than
070standing up and trying to figure out what the go noodle thing is saying what to do next. Same with music. Um I will I will close with saying oh I will say that I I really appreciate the information we got. I asked Miss Powell to put up the Los Angeles Unified um screen time policy, which took me a long time to find, but I actually found it with all of its red lines and what they voted on. And I don't know that it's Sorry, my kids are home alone and I have to make sure it's not them. Um it may not be perfect, but I think it's a good start. But frankly also this um paper that we were handed is terrific place to start when we're trying to move quickly through a policy that
071needs to react rather than take a whole bunch of time to talk about something that's been happening for now six, seven years. Now I will close by saying I asked my own kids um what they think about screens in school and their first thing was I think it's great. And I was like what? And they're like I'm so glad that screens got banned the cell phones because it's changed our world. And they're in middle school and that was and my kids do not have screens. it's their friends who don't have them at school anymore. And so then I said, "Well, I'm glad you like that, but I I wonder what you think about screen use in schools." And and one of my kids said, "You know, there was this Canvas thing recently where all of
072our data got taken." And she said, "And thousands of educators use it, and I don't like knowing that my data that was taken from me without me knowing it is now being taken by somebody else." And so that to have a 12-year-old tell me like understanding that someone is sort of data mining or taking same point to this immigration like um uh contract that someone is taking her information and then it is getting leaked out. It was scary to her and it should be scary to all of us and it's happening only because we you know every time I log into some new app there's like a oh this password is part of a leak and I like literally don't even do anything anymore because it happens every five seconds. I'm like oh well. Um,
073but my 12-year-old is recognizing that we have a problem with our privacy and our protection and her privacy and her protection. Um, so I, you know, I um am very much in favor. I I very I like this. I would love to see how much our kids are actually on it rather than what the recommendation is because we all are hearing that it's much higher than that. Um, I think that's all I have. Thank you. >> That's amazing. Thank you. Um, thank you for the presentation. Um, again, this is just a discussion item tonight. Um, it's something that, uh, that 100% of the board is interested in in um, in pursuing. And excuse me, my my phone is recording my voice right now. >> Speaking of AI, >> not text I wish I was texting
074to myself. [laughter] It wasn't to me. But, um, we know that a lot of kids come into the school already having been exposed to devices. Um, I've seen even my own family members um giving iPads to the twins because twins are exhausting, especially if you have them at 40 years old. Um, I I when I'm commuting, I see uh parents handing a device to a 2-year-old, three-year-old. So, we know the kids are coming in already. And so, I'm looking forward to working with parents uh to solve this because everybody has devices at home, too. I know also how hard it is to to manage at home. It's It's horrible to try to take a device from an 11-year-old at dinnertime. It's very hard. Um I got a I I did that by changing my Wi-Fi
075password every day and we didn't have a television. So it forced conversation and doing other things to uh fill your time. I I think that um I know that the board is 100% um committed to doing something and I think that it's important to do it right. um understanding that the the uh the landscape the ecosystem changes it's really quickly changing. I guess what I'd like to see and and we did thank you for asking Rosanne to post the LA Unified. I have a friend on the LA Unified board. Um she's been on the board for about seven years and I've talked to her a couple times about this how they got it passed and it's not a policy as much as it's a a resolution. Um and it's got lots, you know, it's it's
076a resolution. Um, so I'm really interested in doing this. I'm interested in doing it correctly rather than quickly. Uh, because I think there's it's complex like lots of the things that we deal with and we need to, you know, just understand. I'd like to understand the current state. I'd like to understand the system who has um we we've got families we learned during co that don't have internet at home and so we've had to work with a you know Verizon to help uh bring internet. So it's very complex. I don't think it's a quick solve. Um, but I know that we're I would say 100% committed to doing something. Um, but we also need to learn where those spots are that um where where our our own staff are not following our own guidelines. I'd
077really like to um I don't know how quick we can get that, but that seems like a that seems like something that we should know. If we have certain buildings that have higher use than we would expect, then we we need to know that and we need to hold those um you know administrators and um educators accountable for following our our own guidelines. Um so anyway, this it's been really interesting conversation. Does anybody have any final thoughts? >> Sure. >> I have one final thought. Um I see this whatever we do moving forward as two policies. Um it is it's a screen policy and an AI policy because >> AI happens without screens and screens will happen without AI and we we cannot and should not try to make them one policy. >> Yeah. And
078I think that um that has been considered. Yes, it would be two. Um so director Chase Miller and I got together weeks ago to talk about this as um director Chase Miller chairs the teaching and learning. I chair the policy committee. We wanted to signal that we were very interested in doing something. Um and so we've gotten together and drafted um it it's also a resolution uh based almost word for word on LAUSD. That was our model um our model resolution. So I would just say uh more to come. But I I think before we move forward, we need to know where where our own staff are out of compliance. Um I I think that's a first start. we need to understand what's actually going on. We have a student uh body of about 43,000
079and we know that, you know, there's lots and lots of parents out there that we're not hearing from as well. So, to, you know, be uh equitable and we we'd like to I would like to hear from from more families, the families that aren't here today. I also want to just appreciate that um and I hadn't considered the use of assisted technology for students that have um either communication problems um reading and writing issues. So um appreciate that there are there are times and exceptions when technology is really amazing for uh to provide access for kids that um that that we want to educate as well. >> Yeah. I'd just like to add I know we want to do it right, but we also I think fast is important too if we can start it
080at the first of the year which probably isn't possible but if at least that people can know that the first of the year something's coming up this is what we're thinking about. So um I I don't know how to do it Michelle but it's just so hard starting later once once the first day of school is over. It is dire. And I I I kind of um when I think about like uh doing something really well versus something quickly, I go back to the um those tenants of white supremacy that we see in institutions. And so maybe that's I'm not thinking about it correctly, but I really want to I think this is important enough to do intentionally and to do correctly. Um we want to make sure that we are not leaving anybody behind.
081I'm speaking for some of those people that are, you know, maybe left behind. And um so I think it's really really important to do it in with intention um and with you know adequate community engagement and to to to get the best product and the best outcomes that we want for our students. Uh we we really do need to hear from families and we need to understand where it is in the system that are that we're breaking down. And we also know, I think we've all talked to enough parents, we know there's people out there who are putting together really interesting policies that we can use as well. So, let's not ignore that. >> Absolutely. And and we're counting on the parents that are wearing yellow um to be our partners in this work. We
082have kids here, too. You know, I'm a person that's aging in this community. I want the kids that are taking care of me in a retirement home to understand how to do math concepts, measure medicine medicines correctly, um, and and be critical thinkers. That's that's top of mind for me as well. And for me as a PPS grad and as a mother of two students and the daughter and granddaughter of educators. So, this is not something I take very lightly. And and thank you again for putting this prop this um presentation together. Really appreciate it. And we we definitely do want to talk to the tech guys and understand, you know, we're looking at you. >> We want to understand um where our system what the boundaries are our system and and how we can
083best use uh the tools that we have at hand uh to to prevent access in appropriate. >> So thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, we're now going to move on to purchasing and contracting rules. Just kind of trying to get to the right spot here. Before us, we have a clean copy of the public Portland public schools public contracting rules. The board voted to approve the updated contracting rules on April 14th this year and the 2026 rules are attached to the to the agenda as discussed in this committee and before the full board. The purchasing and contracting department's long longstanding practice has been to require contract amendments that cause the contract amount to exceed 125% of the amount previously approved by the board to be brought back to the board for additional approval. Board
084members referred the 2026 rules back to the committee to discuss whether the 2026 rules should be updated again to specify which contract amendments must be approved by the board. Um, but I I believe that they're they're all so there I think it was maybe you director Englesman that had a question about um I can't remember exactly but it was about this topic. >> Yeah. And I don't know that we need to or can do anything today but at the policy committee meetings before we referred it out to the board and then before we voted on it I had kept raising a couple of concerns. The way that I see that this was written before and is now written still and includes our ads is that contract amendments of anything from one anything from 100.01% all
085the way to 124.99% just simply don't have any oversight. Um there's no AD that applies. There's no policy. There's it was never in here. And in a contract that is 151,000 that would maybe come to us and then be uh amended at the 101% that seems very small. But at a contract that we might approve for 10 million, an amendment of 101% is a large amendment. And there's no so there's nothing in our previous policy or our current policy or our ads, I don't think, that cover any um oversight of amendments between 124.99999. So that's a concern I have and I think and I I'm not sure we can do it tonight. So I would ask everybody to just start thinking about I think it was um legal and miss who suggested you don't want
086to see every amendment at 101% because if it's 151,000 and it's amended a thousand but that's 100 you know you don't want to see that. >> I can I can say as a longtime board member we we definitely don't want to see everyone but I think we want to see everything that's over 150,000. I you mean what do you mean? >> Well, you're talking about let's say on a $10 million contract that had a >> Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. I mean, that's an interesting number. Um >> Well, it's a number that you used. You just said 10 million that would be, you know, it's a lot bigger when you amend it at 125%, it's still big if you amend it at 102%. >> Right. And now at 102%, we don't even know
087it got amended. And so that is already a blank space in our policy and our ads. It just gets amended with no us not knowing about it. The policy that we had before um required that amendments over 125% come to the board. And as I understand it, we're removing it because it's still >> just to clarify, it didn't require nothing required 125 came to to come to you. What it said was reporting >> that the policy said that a report would be sent to you that >> the team couldn't do it because our system didn't work. So the default was no report we'll just give you everything for 125 or above. >> Yeah. Thank you. And that still is what happens but it's is it in the policy or is it just in practice? that
088is in practice and there is now well after the discussion the plan was to put an ad in place okay >> to make sure that it's there but it's also a question an open question you all are discerning so you need to let us know >> what that is so 125 or more >> 125% or more >> okay >> and so for me >> while I appreciate that we currently have a policy that does that or not a policy that's the wrong term um a practice an ad that does that we know that a practice in an AD is governed by who's in charge, our superintendent and her staff. If and when our superintendent is no longer, Dr. Armstrong and her team is no longer committed to that >> um oversight themselves and sending things
089to us, that just goes away if it's not in our policy. Um, and so this came back through conversation I had with Miss Chonray about like when does the board want to know first of all about those amendments between 100 and 124.99 which we currently do not know about by practice or policy and do we want to have something in there about 125 and above. So that's it. >> And also so we do get a report currently though. >> Oh we don't get a report on those. No, the confusion on this stems from the fact that the policy actually did say you're supposed to get a report, but we couldn't the team couldn't generate a report because of our systems. So to ensure visibility, which was the spirit of the policy, you got all the
090contracts. That's the the nuance there. So you saw them. It's just you saw them in lie of a report. >> Okay. And then is our >> 125. Yeah. >> Will our once we get our new ERP, would we be able to get reports on those? >> I have zero idea. Do you do you know? >> I do not know. I'm not sure about the functionality of the um contract uh management system there. I thought that with the ERP system that we were looking at, you know, finance and operations kind of being able to communicate back and forth. So, I would I would hope that we would be able to get it, but it it sounds like we don't in the absence of we don't have a report currently >> there. We can run reports. It's
091it there are some challenges and nuances um and caveats that would come with those reports, but when I was in charge of the purchasing and contracting team, we determined it was just easier to get the board's approval on the front end for those uh significant amendments rather than trying to keep track and report after the fact. >> And the gaps, the risk of the gaps, that was so it was easier to just send all the contracts, make sure you got them. That was the logic. It was it was to comply with >> a little bit of overkill, but at least we had everything in front of us. >> That's right. >> Um Oops. Do you have any questions about this either of you? >> I was looking through this isn't the redline version. So I
092was looking I scrolled through the whole 184 pages looking for because there were just a couple of changes. I'm, you know, I'm I've been on the board for a long time and um I I have never personally been bothered. I've seen all of the um amendments that come to us. I also managed uh bond construction projects for a while and I remember when I first started here having an issue with um any contract that went over 125. That was kind of a red flag for me, you know, because we get at least with the city, we were getting low bid and you you take the low bid and it ends up getting contract um amended until it ends up being as high or higher than the top bid. So um that was a flag for
093me and it isn't anymore, but it was when I first started here. I just wanted to add one thing in talking with legal. I had asked what if and this was reassuring to me. What if a an initial contract comes in at 1499 and then to your point is then amended to be 151 or 175 million. Um it doesn't matter if it gets amended to be above the 150 board threshold then it comes to us. Um, and so that was reassuring to me to think um, there's no way to avoid the board knowing by simply going under and then amending. >> Correct. Which was good. But >> I think that we should maybe all think about is there a number and you said 150. Like is there a number that we would want the board
094to know about? You know, a $149,000 contract gets amended once to be 151 and then we know about it and then it gets amended another one another 15,000. Like that's not 20 125% of it, but it still is a significant amendment on a small contract. Is that something we want to know about or do we just want to know about the big ones? I think these are questions we should all think about and so that we're not seeing every amendment and what do we want to see? Well, I mean, some of our board members might want to see everything. >> I don't. [laughter] I've been here long enough where um I think when I was new, I I might have wanted to, and I I'm confident now in in the um the contracts that come
095before us and the amendments and knowing that if they go over 150,000, we we will see them, >> right? This is not that though. This is that was just me like putting some reassurance out there. I this this hole as I see it is when something is over the 150 we do see it initially we do vote on it initially we have all the conversation and then it gets amended 100 to 124% we don't ever see and 125 we get a we just get the new contract so I want to talk about that gap >> would uh so does this go back to the full board then for conversation because they the full board sent it back here for conversation My suggestion, this is not Robert's rules of order, but my suggestion based on the
096conversation at the board is that if you all discern, it sounds like director Englesman is suggesting maybe for next time you all discern and we can revise a draft based on what you all discern and then whatever if there is a policy amendment, it would have to go to the full board. But I think my understanding of the conversation at the board was this is a policy have the policy committee talk about it and then you all decide whatever you decide we'll do it accordingly and then treat it as a policy that goes forward. One thing that I >> I'm sorry >> it's the last one for the year but there will be a policy committee >> in August. >> We'll keep track of that. staff will keep track of that bringing that forward if
097that's the just the way you decide you want to do that we can keep track of it and have it there for the next whenever the committee reconstitutes >> the >> again this one isn't urgent so yeah I guess it could be you know addressed anytime >> I think a thing I'm stepping into just kind of offering advice I think for you all as you think about this is where is the real governance level in this for you all because this organization is huge and you you know, 10,000 either way is going to be a lot for >> seven volunteer board members. And so there's a there's a point at which I'm not trying to I don't know where it is, but as you think about it, there's a point at which oh yeah, that's
098something the board should know about, but it's probably not at a $10,000 swing either way. And how do you discern that? And one of the things I shared with you in the one-on-one was instead of it being potentially 125 as a blanket, you could think about things like 125 on any contract over 10 million or pick your number or over four million or over 300,000 or over 150. I mean, there's there's a way to do that that will um kind of ensure that you all get what you need to feel like you're governing appropriately and also not inundate you with every single thing that comes your way because this is a large complex district. The other thing I would offer as long as I'm offering random advice is we could look and see what other
099districts do as well because I know that 150 for an organization this size is low and that's fine. I'm not advocating to change it. I'm simply saying that is low and it may get as you discern what you all think is the right level for governance if you if you had that visibility on what other entities and what city whatever it would be and we can we can get that if that is going to be helpful as you all discern that in the next policy committee meeting for the next policy committee. >> Did you have some comment? I was just going to say I think that would be helpful. >> Yeah. I I also think that like really understanding the governance role is really important here. Um our job is really vision, strategy, oversight. Yes.
100>> And there's a balance in there. >> And there's a balance. >> What what you all need >> and not to manage, right? So not to get too into the weeds, especially as volunteers that do this, you know, part-time. Um I think it's a really good question. I'm I'm a little bit agnostic, I guess. I'd like to hear from from you two if you think we should set some clear boundaries or not. I I'm I I'm an oldwathered person that have been here a long time and I feel like it um I'm not gaining any new information or providing an additional level of ever oversight if I'm looking at 10,000 $100,000 um every time we have a bump contract amendment. >> Yeah. I mean, for me, this isn't something that I feel super strongly about.
101Um, and is not why we were revisiting the contract, not the contract, the policy in the first place. Um, I mean, yeah, I'm I'm [laughter] agnostic about it as well. And I mean, to your point earlier, you know, I can see us having um an amount [cough and clears throat] like that triggers >> additional oversight. Um and um from from what I understand, our thresholds are already pretty low. Um so it it would be helpful to be able to compare with what other districts are doing, but this I mean this is just isn't um something that I feel super >> my suggestion was going to be to look at something other than other districts because you're the behemoth in or we're the behemoth in Oregon, but the what does the city do? What is what
102do other public entities around with our size budget? What what would they do? And I I truly don't know. >> Um but trying to just help you all get information to discern where your governance threshold is and what do you want. >> Yeah, I I would welcome the information. Um but yeah, this doesn't like this doesn't get my kettle boiling. Exactly. Just to clarify because this is my least favorite topic since I made a mistake at the front end. We staff are going to get comparators and get you information and then when you all discern who's or decide who's on the policy committee that will be on the agenda. We will hold it we'll hold everything in stasis until we have a chairperson and whoever decides that and we will say this is what this
103committee wanted and then it will move it forward. That's what you all are directing us to do. >> Yeah. Okay. Just want to be clear. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> That might have been a little bit of overkill on >> No, no, that was great. I um I'm interested in not just Oregon because we are the behemoth of course like Seattle, Chicago, LA. Like there's a lot of school districts out there and not just what their threshold number is because I'm pretty comfortable with the 150, but what their percentage increase is. Um that's what I'm curious about. >> I suspect there that second part may be harder to find, but we will do the best we can. we have contacts and can try and get that information. >> I would just add, you know, when
104we talk about peer districts, LA and Chicago are not our peers because they're like 800,000 students and I can tell you at least for LA Unified, they're definitely a governing board. They're they're not down in the down in the details. Um, but I I think yes, and it'll be a topic. Maybe it'll be the first one of the year. >> I mean the it doesn't to me it doesn't matter who the new policy is committee is because the full board sent it to the policy and so >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Um so and moving on we have just a few minutes left. Um as a note the board held a first reading of the revisions of the section 2 policies at the June 9th meeting. Those policies are currently open for public comment with
105a second reading scheduled for our first meeting in July on July 7th. I'm not going to go through all of them and um just to because we're uh running low on time, but those section two policies are naming school district property. That's a revision non-substantive uh changes. racial educational equity policy. There are non-s substantive changes that's also being revised but updated um to add a sentence that codifies a a practice that we has been in place for a very long time um 15 years. Uh religious and cultural observances also is revised non substantive and outdated language and then uh student participation is being rescended because the it's an outdated policy. It's also duplicative. it's addressed in other places. Uh public access to district records is a revision. It's non there are nonsubstantive changes and we're
106uh we've modified the language to align with Oregon public records law. And finally, student educational records has been revised and updated to align with Oregon School Boards Association and the Beaverton School District language. And then my last thing is are there future topics that we'd like to speak with? Maybe we hold that question for the next uh committee. How about that? So, we're adjourned unless there's anything else.