2026-06-09 Board of Education Regular Meeting

001All right. Thank you everyone for being here. Uh we're Let's get started. Rosanna, are you ready to go? Great. Uh thank you everyone for being here tonight and apologies for the delay. We were finish up an executive session upstairs which went a little longer than as always expected. Um all right. This public regular meeting of the board of education for June 9th, 2026 is called to order. All items being discussed considered this evening are posted on the PPS website under the boarding meetings tab. This meeting is also being streamed live on PPS YouTube page and will be replayed on channel 28. Good evening and welcome again. Thank you everyone for being here and taking your time every day to care about public education. Before we get started, some uh housekeeping reminders. Uh if you brought

002a sign or display, we ask that you hold that below chin level so people behind you can see. And also uh signs and stuff need to be stay on your person the whole time. Please don't post it anywhere. Um, also make sure the aisles and hallways are clear. There's uh some tripping hazards out there. Just be mindful. Um, and also lastly, but most importantly, let's all be respectful to each other. Thank you. We have a pretty full agenda tonight. Uh, I will again try to do my best to remind people of the time allotted for each agenda item to keep track of time so we don't go past into Wednesday. Um, all right. So, the first item on our agenda tonight is the resolution to recognize June as LGBTQ plus uh pride month. And I'll

003hand this over to Superintendent Armstrong. >> Excellent. Thank you for that, Chair Wang. And I am going to turn it directly over to uh Chief Renard Adams. Thank you, Dr. Adams. >> Sure. Um, good evening everyone. Good evening, Chair Wong, Vice Chair Depass, board directors, and student directors. Happy to see all of you. I stand before you tonight to speak in support of this resolution, which affirms June as Pride Month in Portland public schools. We live in a time where the national landscape for our LG LGBTQ plus community often feels fraught with uncertainty. We see legislative efforts to silence voices, to restrict the display of identity, and to challenge the simple right of our students and staff to be who they are. In this climate, it is easy for some to retreat and for others

004to feel that their place in our schools is fragile or conditional. But that is exactly why this resolution matters. A resolution is more than a document. It is a declaration of our values in the face of adversity. It is a loud, unequivocal, unequivocal promise that in Portland public schools, we do not just tolerate diversity. We celebrate it. We recognize that when we honor the full spectrum of our community, our LGBTQ plus students, staff, and families, we're not merely checking a box. We're actively fostering an environment where every individual can thrive. To our LG LGBTQ plus students, please hear me clearly. You are not just accepted here. You are essential. Your identity is a strength. Your experiences are valuable. And your presence makes this district richer, stronger, and more whole. When we fight for your safety,

005your right to use your chosen names and pronouns, and your right to exist openly, we are fighting for the very soul of our educational mission. We know that acknowledging our community is the first step. But we also know that that support requires daily intentional actions. It means ensuring our policies protect you. Our curricula include you and our culture wraps around you with unconditional dignity. So tonight, I ask this board to not only pass this resolution, but to carry forward its spirit in every meeting, every classroom, and every policy discussion that follows. Let us choose to be a safe harbor. Let us choose to lift our flags high. Let us choose to live louder and love harder, ensuring that every person who walks through our doors knows that they are seen, they are valued, and they

006are home. Thank you board directors for your commitment to this work. Let's make this a pride month that reaffirms our resolve to be the district that truly stands for all. Happy Pride. [applause] Let's get this on the table. Do I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution 7311 resol resolution recognizing June as LGBTQ plus pride month in Portland public schools? >> So moved. Second. Director Chase Miller moves and Director Sullivan seconds. Board discussion or comments, questions. >> Just thank you for your comments. Um it's meaningful to me to hear um a renewed commitment to our students and faculty, staff, um administrators, and um just appreciate you and your words. Thanks. I just also want to thank you for also volunteering again to speak um again and it's always great to hear your words

007on this and 100% agree on everything you said. So, thank you. >> I appreciate that. I um want to add just briefly, I had the opportunity to um visit with Lewis Elementary School this past Saturday during their pride celebration and it was magnificent. Just really did my heart good. I would encourage um next year for you all to think about attending even if you can. I mean, even with the downpour, nothing stops the rainbow. Nothing. >> I love that. I hope anybody that's listening, um, just invite us. We I I've never said no to an invitation like that, especially for Pride. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, Miss Pow, is there any public comment? All right. The board will now vote on resolution 7311, resolution recognizing June as LGBTQ plus Pride Month in Portland Public

008Schools. All in favor, please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. Opposed? Extensions. Student Representative RTO. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Resolution 7311 is approved by a vote of 7 to zero with student representative RTO voting yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Sorry. Hold on. I'm going to myself. All right. Next up is board leadership intentions. The board utilizes a process by which in order for board members to be considered for leadership positions, board members must notify the board manager in writing by June 1st if they plan to run for board leadership in July. Uh then at the first board meeting in June, which is tonight, the board chair will publicly confirm board members who are interested in serving leadership. Uh, senior board manager Powell has informed the board that both director Englesman and

009I would like to be considered for board chair and director Chase Miller would like to be considered for vice chair. These position positions will be voted on on in our July 7th board meeting. All right. Next up, we have our superintendent report. >> Excellent. Thank you. We're putting it on the screen. [clears throat] It's really a quick one dedicated to graduations and just taking a moment to pause and and celebrate all of our students that walked across the stage, [cough] excuse me, last week. So, as you know, graduation happens formally at 11 of our well, nine of our comprehensive sites and and two of our alternative sites. And so super exciting to participate in that. And so just a couple highlights. Um now I have the video. I've seen it 11 different times of your

010message and I I think you all have seen it maybe and so maybe we'll save those five minutes. Um but I I do appreciate the message, but I have no problem pausing to spotlight you and your message. Okay. Okay. Well, then we'll move on um from the video. Let's see. [snorts] There we go. Going back one. Okay. We had Jefferson and I think you all know I sent this message to you all. I started the tradition last year of being at every graduation and taking a picture with the last person to walk across the stage for that particular school. So, lots of highlights. I think things that stood out to me uh were of course the student speeches. I think of Lincoln and the way they did their student slideshow to welcome folks into the

011auditorium. You know, all of our graduations held at Portland State. Um it was super exciting. Uh we had some wonderful experiences uh or I guess performances from choirs. um some pretty cool student senior videos and senior signouts uh which I think is a new thing as we've saw multiple times. So that was exciting and fun. Um again just pausing to reflect. I will say one of the cool things um that so it was my first time hearing the Cleveland choir. They're fantastic and so I look forward to going to some of their concerts next year as well as many other groups that performed. Um, what was really cool though is getting to the Alliance graduation and the validictorian did an interpretive dance of their speech as opposed to an actual speech, which was pretty cool.

012I've never seen that. So, that was great. And then I think um Grant High School graduating over 500 seniors was definitely exciting to see an experience. Uh definitely a celebration. And they exited with a um New Orleans style um second line which was pretty cool to see. Um that lead out with the umbrellas and all. Also um ending with MLC that's graduation 11. The 12th graduation is summer graduation and then that concludes graduations for 2026. But what MLC one of the things that really stood out was uh the six seniors were led out um with they walked out with their kinder buddies hand in hand and that was really adorable to see. So super exciting for uh those half dozen the kiddos and really just thankful across our city and our schools. Uh there were

013definitely milestones and lots of moments and things to celebrate and so just really excited that uh school the school year students are off in their homes and will be returning shortly for summer learning some of them. But really just exciting and hoping everyone has a healthy, restful summer break. And really that concludes the report, short and simple for tonight. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. I'll hand this over to student representative RTO. >> Thank you. Um, we don't have a whole lot to talk about since our DSC year has wrapped up, but the next student, Representative Rose, would like to give a short report on some of our DSC seniors and what they're getting up to next year. >> Yes. So, we have uh I think we had five seniors on DSC this year and

014they are all going to amazing schools. Some of the schools include Colombia, Princeton, Lewis and Clark, and Lynfield. and we're just super excited for them to take their next steps. Can Can I give one one comment? Um I just wanted to uh acknowledge that um student director RTOR is heading to nationals for speech and debate next week and I just wanted to tell you congratulations and good luck. >> Bring it home. I think my flight's at like 5 in the morning. So, I'm really I'm super excited for that. I think this Saturday. So, but it's been changing around cuz you know all the stuff, >> right, Nick? Next, we have uh general public comment. First, we'll start with our students. And before we begin, I would like to review our guidelines for public comment. Uh

015first again the board thanks you for taking the time to provide us public comment. It it helps improve our work and we look forward to hearing from you. Uh some thoughts and uh reminders. As board members, we are here to listen and listen intently and not engage in conversation with those who are testifying. Our board office may follow up on board related issues during public testimony. We we also request that complaints about individual employees be directed to the superintendent's office as a personnel matter. As you know, the board does not oversee personnel matters. I'll also remind PPS staff who are giving public testimony uh and public comment that they not may not provide testimony that could violate students confidentiality protections under FURPA. This includes testimony that could include information that identifies students, especially their school

016community, by use of direct or indirect linkages such as school grade, special education, or other status. For materials that you would like the board to receive, we ask that you hand them over to Miss Powell over there on your left. and who will distribute them to us. Also, in order for the board to conduct its business, we also ask that audience members please refrain from calling out. Um be respectful to our speakers and um yeah, that's basically it. Uh when you uh come up to the um I forgot it's called Das Podium, whatever uh stand uh you have three minutes wait two minutes to speak. Uh when the yellow light goes off, that means you have 30 seconds remaining. And then when the red light goes off, that means please finish up your sentence. That's

017the end of time. To keep it fair for everyone, we ask that you please end promptly when the red light goes off. Uh when you begin your comments, please clearly state your name and spell your last name. Lastly, if you two miss not enough, you didn't finish. You're always welcome to email the rest of your public comments to us at um public comment pps.net. All the board members do every time I check in do read all the emails although it takes us a lot of time because sometimes they come in by the hundreds. Um I think that's it. Yeah. Thank you for bearing with me through all the guidelines. All right. Uh let's start with students. Miss Powell, can you call the first three? >> Yes, we have two students. We have Lilith Lilith Pritchard

018and Zoe Williams. Thank you for being here. Whoever wants to start first can go ahead. >> Yes. If it's green, then you're good to go. >> Hi, my name is Lily Pritchard. Hi, my name is Lily Pritchard and P R I T C H A R D and I just finished fourth grade at Sunnyside. I like how we go on a bunch of field studies where we actually learn stuff if and I like how deep deep we get into our learning. Sunnyside is different from other schools and I really love that I get to go there. Last year in third grade I had a teacher who was new to Sunnyside. She was a great teacher and I learned a lot. But I had a very different experience experience experience from the fourth grade from fourth

019grade when I had a teacher with lots of years of experience at Sunnyside. This year flew by because I was so engaged with my classroom. I don't think we should choose to replace teachers with with without ex I don't think we should choose to replace teachers with experience experience at my school with teachers who are not for as familiar as the way Sunnyside does it. >> Thank you. >> Do I click it [applause] again? >> Do I touch it again? [clears throat] >> Hello everyone. My name is Zoe Williams and I am 10 years old. Um, I will be in fifth grade next year at Sunnyside Environmental School. Budget cuts hurt all schools. I have a chance of being in Mary Loy's fifth grade class, but if she gets laid off, we will have a

020different teacher who might not be as familiar with how Sunnyside teaches. Mary and the other teachers who are being laid off from Sunnyside are already used to this community in school and they are a part of what makes Sunnyside Sunnyside. Sunnyside does things differently. At Sunnyside, we focus on environment more than most other schools. For example, in fourth grade, we went to Mount Taber and restored some of the forests and learned about the human impacts on our local community and wildlife. We also learned about Salilo Falls and how the indigenous people had to leave their homes several times. Also, how the salmon population is going down. We visited Eagle Creek Fish Hatchery to see the salmon returning last fall. And the year later and later in the year, we went to the Lamut River and

021released the baby salmon that our grade raised. This was part of our storyline theme this year. I'm worried that some new teachers to Sunnyside maybe won't understand our environmental focus and storyline like Mary does. Why can't the teachers stay at their schools instead of being pulled away from the schools they were cut from? Their te their students are probably sad, too. Budget cuts hurt all schools. We need to tell our state leaders to help our schools. Please, please tell our teachers to or please let our teachers stay at Sunnyside. Thank you for giving me a chance to speak. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Next, we have Jonathan Pulver's, Travis Pritchard, and Andy Presman. Hello again. >> Hello again. My name is Jonathan Pulver, PUL Vers. I'm the advocacy chair at Access Academy. Thank you again

022for listening to us and for making space for compromise that you will hear about later this evening. Since we last spoke, a true partnership built on real trust has grown between district transportation staff, that's Brandon and uh Lee who are here and Dr. Franco and Nayana and access families. We had a productive community meeting with staff and then a more granular follow-up meeting which has generated three strong bus routes and two that while improved likely need a little more iteration over the summer. We added title one stops. We plugged gaps in St. John's Arbel Lodge and Cully. Of the 15 recommendations from our PTA survey, PPS has acted or suggested they will act on 13 and given us concrete reasons they don't feel they can act on the other two. What we're asking of you

023tonight and in two weeks is that you approve at least $500,000 for a transportation system to access a savings to the district of up to $1 million. We know that this comes with trade-offs. We appreciate PPS working to find the trade-offs that do the least harm to students and families. We promise that we will continue to collaborate over the summer to put that money to its most efficient use. We're hopeful that we can ring a sixth bus out of those funds to better cover northeast and southeast Portland. And we'd like to explore moving access's school day later by 5 to 15 minutes to allow buses to arrive from the northern and eastern edges of the district. I will have to leave in a few minutes to put my kids to bed, but I will continue

024viewing this meeting virtually and I will be available to answer questions either by phone during this meeting and I know some of you have my number [snorts] or by email thereafter. Thank you again for all of your time and effort and for getting this compromise over the finish line. >> Okay, thank you. >> Hit the button. >> Don't press the button. Okay. [laughter] Uh, good evening. My name is Travis Pritchard. P R I T C H A R D. I'm the parent of two students, one just finished kindergarten and one who just finished fourth grade at Sunnyside, who just spoke a minute ago. Uh this week, just as the school year was ending, our principal informed the school community that due to classroom closures at other schools, our school community was going to have three

025teachers replaced by teachers uh based on um some calculated seniority list. Look, I'm a union guy. Uh, I work in the public sector. Uh, I'm a member of the Ask Me Union and I strongly believe in union rights, contract, all that. I've also seen what happens when layoffs lead to positions being filled with employees that don't have exactly the right qualifications to fill those roles. Um, it doesn't always work out great for everyone, especially in the public sector. Teaching jobs at these focus schools can be very different from teaching jobs at other schools. Each of the teachers at our f focus schools have committed themselves to a pedagogical it's easier to write than to say uh program that students from across the city seek out. Our focus schools are a strength of PPS and I

026know many families for whom schools like Sunnyside are what keep them and their kids remaining in the district. I'm not saying that the program or teachers at Sunnyside are better than programs for teachers anywhere else or just that the teaching jobs are definitely different. It's my understanding that due to some of these differences, such as blended middle school grades, teaching a blend of class subjects, that the district required many of these teachers to get multiple different certifications to continue to teach these unique programs. And those teachers got those certifications uh on their own time and their own money uh including some of the teachers who are being laid off due to seniority bumping. So my my request to you the school board is to help ensure that any teachers who are who are replacing existing

027well-qualified and prepared teachers meet these same exact qualifications. Ensure that we are not replacing teachers who have made the time commitment and investment in these unique programs with teachers who don't have the same multiple credentials or commitment or investment into those programs. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. Hello and thank you for the time. My name is Andy Pressman. I'm a parent of two children at Sunnyside. Um, Sunnyside has been integral to my children's development and caring, thoughtful members of the community and all credit for this goes to the teachers and their dedication to the curriculum and their dedication to the students goes beyond anything I've seen in public school education. And when we heard that those teachers would be impacted, we were disappointed, upsetted. But it was understandable because we also we support the

028union. We understand that if the union bylaws require seniority to uh to determine assignment that was okay. But we then began hearing about the process and about how the district seems to rehire teachers into temporary positions which deprivives them of seniority. and how the district had previously treated SCES core, the heart of this middle school program as a unique teaching position which required multiple uh licenses, certifications, but now a year later seems to have ad hoc reclassified that role and changing the requirements. Um, we've learned that the district won't disclose its seniority list to Sunnyside's administration, thereby denying Sunnyside the chance to look over this and confirm that the seniority rules have been applied correctly. We want to make sure as a parent, right? We want to make sure that that this is handled appropriately.

029We want to trust the district. We want to believe that the district has our school and our students best interest in mind. Like that's my default starting position is that the district wants what's best for us. But we also want to make sure that there's transparency and that there's consistent criteria. So I urge the board to please release that seniority list as requested by the president uh principal and vice principal of Sunnyside. In doing this also I want to emphasize how important Sunnyside is to the community. Um I've heard from many parents who only enrolled in PPS because of Sunnyside. It is a unique program. It is a uh a difficult one as I understand to teach in but it is one that the teachers who teach there are so committed to the work and

030so committed to the students that they are willing to step into that role. We are concerned that teachers who are not willing to step into the role may be put into it. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank all of you. Thank you. Next we have Mary Lloyd, Marcy Sunny Vagora, and David Rutland. Good evening, board members. I'm Mary Lloyd, LLY D, a fifth grade teacher and parent at Sunnyside Environmental School. On Monday, June 1st, I received notice that my full-time teaching position was being terminated. This news blindsided me. After unsuccessfully trying to get information from various sources, I reached out to Dr. Angela Freeman. I asked that HR provide me with all information regarding these layoffs in the district, a seniority listing to see if my seniority was calculated correctly and to know where

031I fall in the list. I hope to receive that information to inform my comments today, but I have not received anything. I've been working for PPS since 2010, starting as a sub and then a temp at Sunnyside. I began teaching fourth grade full-time at Abernathy in 2012, having Roseanne Powell, uh the board manager's oldest daughter in my class. I worked full-time until starting a family. From there, I subbed until taking on another full-time position at Sunnyside in 2024. I've worked at several schools and Sunnyside is different. It has a curriculum exemption and we go on frequent field studies. Parents want to send their kids there. Sunnyside is not my neighborhood school even though it's geographically closest. So, we like many families applied to the lottery. Sunnyside has a 50-50 lottery neighborhood ratio to kindergarten uh

032with 126 applications for the 26 spots this year. 196 applications overall through the K5. While I love teaching at Sunnyside, I know from my 15 years of teaching with PPS that this job is not for everyone. You cannot just uproot and replace a teacher here. There has been a tremendous lack of transparency with these layoffs, which begs the question of whether it has been mismanaged. These notices do not comply with provisions of our contract. PPS needs to provide clarity, data, information regarding these layoffs. I know I'm not alone in seeking this and it's your responsibility and it's required by law. I know there are budget shortfalls and tough decisions need to be made, but fundamentally I'm asking that the board reconsider this plan and figure out a way to preserve more jobs so that people

033like me can focus our energies where we should on building the next generation of Oregonians, not combing through the union contract and speaking at school board meetings. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Hi, my name is Marcy Cinevakora. S U N I V A G O R A. I am a parent of a Sunnyside kiddo and a qualified mental health professional here in the district for the last seven years. Um I I just want to speak from the heart and saying what a special place Sunnyside is and also for the heartbreak that I think many of us have. I know many of you have children or know the impacts of these budget cuts and they are profound and they are hard and I think my biggest ask is that there's transparency for the people who

034are impacted. I think people are waiting to get that information and that it would provide some healing and some understanding and some next steps that isn't happening right now. And so I just I'm hoping and my ask is that um that the information was released and that PAT leaders and principles are consulted um as we move forward in this process. I'm advocating too that um in whatever ways possible, and I know the pat contracts can limit some of this, is that schools like Sunnyside that have special place-based learning and environmental justice standards get consideration for having teachers that fit that. Um, and there are other focused schools, too, that need the very same thing. um our our middle school teachers had to get three credentials at their own expense in order not to get fired

035immediately at the end of last year is my understanding. Um and two of those teachers have been laid off after doing that. And so just asking if they're being replaced that the same three credential requirement is um is out there but also the commitment to the environmental justice. I have a first grader who is sweet and amazing and anxious and so didn't want to go to school and he's thriving and loves it because it's a place that welcomes him and I just um uh I ask you to consider consider fit and involve teachers and principles and Pat as much as possible. Thank you. >> Thank you. Wait for Yeah. I still remember things that I learned from my third grade teacher. And indeed, I think if I've had any success in my career, it's because

036of the outstanding teachers that I had in grade school and secondary school. Also, I know we have a great public school system here. And I have some personal experience. My partner has two grandchildren that are doing extraordinarily well at Sunnyside. And by the way, she has two children that teach there, and I see how enthusiastic they are every day about being teachers. I know also that we've had I understand also that we've had some challenges with completion of high school and with uh uh results on uh standardized testing. And I guess I would urge the board if you can do everything you can to maintain the absolutely outstanding teachers that we have in the system is at the same number. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you [applause] Cecilia Calf, Philip Deus, and Kaden

037Leash. Cecilia Cauth K A U T. Whitman Elementary just lost a full third of its classroom teachers in this current in the current layoffs. Barack Obama was still the president when I started working at Whitman. Seems like a long time ago. It was an amazing fit for me as a teacher after serving my first years as a third grade teacher in M Haven in the South Bronx. It is my preference to be in a title one school serving kids and families with diverse backgrounds and needs. The staff and families at Whitman have become like family to me. This investment in community along with being trauma informed, setting high expectations, and constantly improving on content and teaching practices has allow allowed me to thrive with my students. In the 2022 23 school year, we were really

038hoping for a second child for our family. However, after over 18 months, multiple miscarriages, and trips to the doctor, it was not happening. So, I decided to resign from my job to give my body and space the time it needed to try for a healthy pregnancy. I also wanted to give Whitman clarity and consistency. I also did not anticipate this horrible fiscal situation Oregon is in. Thankfully, this time away from having a full-time classroom led to our ability to have a second child, for which I am very grateful. During the two years away from full-time teaching, I took the opportunity to get my reading endorsement to gain new skills in the science of reading to help struggling readers. My amazing and sweet second graders thrived this year, but I was one of the 80 plus

039teachers laid off due to 56 million dollars in a rich country. It is important to note that Whitman has become an inclusive neighborhood school model with even more diverse and high needs. It is layered. It is a school where everyone, we are all hands on deck all the time. We go the extra mile for all of our students, doing all we can to help our students access the learning that they need at every moment. It's a job where knowing how to deescalate, regulate your own nervous system, and providing the ideal balance of love and firm boundaries is essential. It is absolutely important to have teachers here that choose to be here. They have to want to be here. Finally, in a strange twist of fate, the person coming to teach second grade at Whitman should

040have been my seven-year-old daughter's second grade teacher at Rose City Park. Now instead, my daughter will have a second and third grade blended classroom with almost 30 children in it. In a city, in a country that claims to be pro- family with companies like Nike, Adidas, Salesforce, it's unreal that this that teachers are being uprooted, laid off, all children in our world deserve thoughtful and care attention. That's all I want to do. Please, please find a way to get us back in classrooms and let us do that. >> Great. Thank you. [applause] AGAIN, just just a reminder, if there's parts of your um testimony that you weren't allowed to finish, feel free to email it to us. We'd love to read it. Thank you. >> Hi, Philip Delus. D L A H O U S

041A Y E. Um, thank you for providing the space to advocate for my colleagues during this difficult time. I'm here today to ask you to give new guidance to the PPS human resources department as they consider seniority for staff layoffs. I wish we could avoid these layoffs altogether and I hope that PPS leadership finds way to do that. But if we must lay off educators, we need to do it ethically and in a way that follows the language in our collective bargaining agreement. I believe the language regarding our regarding seniority and the collective bargaining agreement is clear, but the interpretation from HR is wrong. Our collective bargaining agreement says, "Except as required by OS 342934 as it pertains to cultural compet competency and linguistic ability, professional educators shall be laid off according to length of

042continuous service with the district. Length of service seniority shall be based on the first day of actual service with the school district. The language does not say continuous service with the district as a certified teacher. Right now, an educator who has served in PPS for over a decade as a PFSP member and a and one year as a certified teacher or counselor only has one year of seniority counted by HR. PFSP members are are educational assistants, paraprofessionals, secretaries, college and career counselors, and other studentf facing positions. Our school counselor, Nikki True Blood, a PPS graduate and Indian education program alum, began working for PPS in 2014 as an administrative assistant to the VP and counseling team and transition to a college and career counselor position in 2021, both at Cleveland High School. After much encouragement

043from PPS leadership aimed at PFSP members to make career advancement by getting a master's degree and becoming a school counselor, she made the sacrifices, did the work, and joined our school staff for the 202526 school year. All 11 years of her previous service were disregarded when she received her layoff notice this week. The current interpretation from PPS HR is that only service as a certified teacher counts towards seniority. This does not match contract language. Many black, brown, and indigenous teachers that work in PPS followed the same career path as our counselor. Miss True Blood is a Native American educator. Disregarding the service Nikki and educators like her have given to the students of PPS merely because it was not the right kind of service is unethical and disrespectful to our nonPAT colleagues. On top of

044Nikki's layoff, Sher Malone, our assistant principal, was also laid off because her seniority is only counted as 1.5 years even though she has served as an administrator in PPS for six years. HR is saying that her service is not continuous even though she has only tr only transitioned to a substitute administrator position for 5 months in order to receive and recover from chemotherapy and cancer trans and cancer surgery. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Her service has been continuous, just not the right kind of service. >> Thank you. Again, if if there's more that you um didn't get to finish, please email that in. Thank you. [applause] a couple online. >> Yes, we have two online. We'll start with Jessica Hansen. >> Hi. >> Um, I'm a parent or I'm Jessie Hansen. Hen. Um, I'm a

045parent at both Sunnyside and what used to be Creative Science, um, which is now just Bridger. Um, I'm I know firsthand what it's like when you mix a really specific kind of teaching philosophy with a more traditional philosophy. Um, and it in our case or in that school's case didn't turn out well. Um, the teachers were really miserable. The ones that hadn't uh experienced doing a storyline or having students that were encouraged to take a more active role in their learning. And ultimately I I had to take my child out of uh Bridger and move them to Sunnyside because he had gone from loving school and thriving in school to feeling like a failure and losing confidence. And um you know that teach the teacher that he was first placed with when they first merged

046the schools um eventually like a one month after starting they removed all of the creative science school kids from her class and put them with the creative science teacher and put Bridger students with the bridger teacher. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that there there's a really specific philosophy at Sunnyside that's really special. And if you're not trained, if you don't if you're not like fully engaged in it, it's going to be difficult to get dropped in from another school system like Bridger. Even if you're a great teacher in that kind of school system, it's just like you wouldn't take you know, a teacher from a Spanish immersion school that's fluent in Spanish and then replace them with somebody with more seniority that doesn't speak Spanish. That's just set up for failure.

047And I'm I'm just really worried that now that we're at Sunnyside, which is a lot more similar to what creative science used to be, Otis, my son, is back to thriving and loving school. And I'm just >> Thank you. Can you finish up? >> Sorry. Thank you. >> Again, feel free to email the rest of your comments if you did not get to finish. >> You did. Thank you. [applause] >> Next, we have Laurel Nicholson. Hello, my name is Laurel Nicholson. N I C H O L S O N. I am the parent of two students at Sunnyside Environmental School. I'm here to ask you to reconsider the layoff of three SCES educators, Moa Yonamina, Emily Liy White, and Mary Lloyd. The loss of these educators will have profound repercussions for the Sunnyside community. Three

048years ago, my son Miles won the school lottery when he was able to transfer to SCES after experiencing significant challenges at his previous school, which deeply impacted his mental health. Over time, I watched the teachers and administration create an environment where he felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable again. They didn't just educate him, they helped him heal and grow. We were absolutely devastated to hear that his teacher would no longer be part of the SCES community. I understand the diffic that the district faces difficult budget decisions. I also know that SCES is not a typical school and these are not typical teaching positions. Teaching at SCES requires a special commitment. Teachers build their own multiddisciplinary curriculum, integrate environmental studies across subjects and regularly take students into the community to placebased learning experiences. These

049positions require experience, training, and a genuine desire to teach. In this model, the district has recognized that SCES educators require unique qualifications. Those qualifications should be they should matter when staffing decisions are made. Replacing experienced SCES teachers with teachers from other schools solely based on seniority regardless of their interest or familiarity with the program is unfair both to our students and the teachers who may be placed in roles that they are unprepared to take on. Sunnyside is the district's only environmental studies focused school. They are committed to climate justice education, something that PBS has identified as a priority. At a time when declining enrollment is contributing to budget challenges, SCES is one of the programs that attracts and retains students. For families like mine, Sunnyside has been transformative. I urge the board, please do everything

050in your power to preserve the people who make that transformation possible and protect the integrity of the Sunnyside program. Thank you. >> Thank you. All >> [applause] >> right, I believe that concludes our public comment. Again, thank you everyone for make taking your time out of your day to be here and uh provide us your input. I guess that tells me I need to I'm done. Um next up, uh we have our comments from our union partners. Uh first off, I want to invite Thank you. We welcome Dylan Cirin from the Amalgamated Transit Union and uh President Bonia from PAT. [applause] And did I miss anyone? You don't have to press anything. Just go for it. Just real quick, my name is Aaron Flores. I'm the executive board officer for ATU757 for PPS. >> Is

051your microphone on? >> It should have a green. >> It's green. Yes. So, maybe I'm just not projecting enough. All right. One more time. My name is Aaron Flores. I'm the executive board officer for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 7574 PPS. Um I'm here with Dylan Cirin, the um one of the shop stewards here for um PPS and he is going to be speaking for us tonight. >> Thank you, Erin. Is that working? There we go. Uh hello, my name is Dylan Cirkin. That's s K I N. I am a special needs school bus driver. I've been with PPS for nine years and I'm a shopster with our union ATU757. Uh thank you for your time and letting me speak today. I wanted to start by talking about what our job entails. Uh my department, student

052transportation, manages the entire transportation network for Portland public schools. My office and my fellow drivers focus on specialized transportation and the transport of students with special needs in small buses, vans, and sedans to and from school. We drive prek and early childhood special education students who have graduated high school and are attending the community transition school. We drive medically fragile students with their nurses and we drive students enrolled in various assistant programs. Our writers live across the city and surrounding areas and they come from all different backgrounds. Yeah, they they come from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, economic situations, and living conditions. One thing all our students have in common is that they are federally or statemandated to receive transportation. My fellow bus drivers have always stepped up. I'm just going to try to rotate it.

053It doesn't seem to be picking me up. >> I'll fix it in the back. >> Okay. Yeah. [laughter] Really? Uh my fellow bus drivers have always stepped up in times of need. We drove curriculum, laptops, and school supplies to families during the pandemic. We worked closely with amazing food service workers with SEIU to deliver meals while students couldn't attend school in person. We installed hepailters on our buses, clean daily during COVID, all the shutdowns. We kept kids safe. We drive kids home during ice and snowstorms, often staying up late until midnight, early in the morning. Make sure the last kids get home, all our drivers get home safe. Along with my department of drivers, PPS uses two different bus contractors. First Student and Student Transportation of America to transport students in big buses and some

054specialized transportation in small buses. These are for-profit companies that own, operate, and repair their own buses, often paying their drivers more than us with better benefits, starting wages, and even bonuses, hiring bonuses. After all that, these companies still generate a profit. The Department of Transportation has a $44 million budget. We spend 30 of that, $30 million on our contractors. They have the same jobs that we do. They're qualified. They can drive these students, but we receive much better training and are more personally and professionally engaged with families of these students and their individual needs. Some of our drivers have driven these students through their entire school process. Our PPS transportation team just competed at a statewide Oregon Pupil Transportation Association bus safety exercise. It's a competition. We scored first, second, and fourth in the individual

055events. >> This guy right here got first place. Uh, our team scored second in the special needs event statewide. We are experts in the field and we take our jobs and our skills seriously. Each one of our students has highly specific needs and we get to know all our students and families. We work closely with schools, teachers, programs and we give these students incredible support. Our department never seems to receive enough funding to meet the bare minimum asked of us and what is legally mandated for our students. We just signed a tentative agreement on a new contract with PPS and voted on its ratification yesterday. Our members voted yes. It's the best contract we could hope in the current financial restraints. Given the planned cuts in the future and current shortfalls, we are worried the

056future does not look good for an already underresourced department. We are allotted around 90 bus driver positions and 18 van and sedan drivers. This FTE is limited and we do not receive more even after being asked to add more students to our routes or to our workload. There are currently 80 bus drivers and this shortage makes it almost impossible to cover all our routes. On top of the shortages, drivers still get sick. They need time off. Drivers have family emergencies, medical leave, kids of their own to take care of. Uh we had at least two drivers injured on the injured on the job this year, one by a student on the bus. On a given day, we may be short 20 to 25 drivers. Our office is overwhelmed. We have we have qualified office staff

057driving students, radio operators driving buses, and being covered by managers. and on a few days even our director and assistant director running radio. This leads to their work not getting done. When managers can't do their jobs, we all suffer. Communication isn't happening. Minor issues that could have been resolved early turned into major problems later on. This year, we lost 12 drivers. We've hired a few new ones, but we're but more are going to leave soon. We had very small raises on this new contract. Our lack of resources, lack of lower wages, and our contractor starting pay makes it almost impossible to hire new drivers. When we do hire new drivers, they take weeks of training, sometimes months, to get them up to speed. The overwhelmed workload and lack of support has caused many drivers to

058seek new employment or retire. PPS owns and operates, by my count, 97 buses. Most of our buses are aging or downright old. Many buses have over 150 200,000 miles on them. They have various levels of maintenance needs. These buses have been bouncing down Portland roads for decades. And it shows we have received we've received 11 new electric buses in the past few years. There are three more on the way. We are currently only able to use two v due to various issues including factory recalls, charger station repairs, and we actually have to get all of our bus drivers trained on these electric buses. These buses cannot be repaired by our union mechanics, but get contracted out for all of this work. Even with the eventual addition of these electric buses, we do not have enough

059buses some days to drive all our students. This means more and more routes are getting sent to our contractors who have their own bus and driver limitations. We have buses from the late 1990s and buses that still have tape players. These are old, old buses. We have buses that leak water on drivers and students. We have buses with mold issues. Buses with holes in the driver's seats. Drivers in holes in student seats. We have no AC for kids except for what? One bus, maybe two. All the new electric buses have AC, but we haven't been able to use them yet. We have half our fleet has AC for the drivers. We get a 90 degree day. It's not good. We have buses break down in the field. We have drivers and they have to wait

060for a repair or a new bus to come with students on the bus. Most of these older buses can't be repaired or updated due to parts no longer being manufactured for them. There are at least 10 buses that are so broken or damaged, they will never be driven on routes again. We had 22 downed or broken buses on the last day of school. As you can imagine, any mechanical issues these buss have are distractions. This is not great for a bus driver trying to get kids to school safe or home. Uh these buses are parked at two yards in North Portland. We spend extra money every year on fuel wear and tear just driving these buses from North Portland to the rest of the city to pick up students. It's nonentralized and it costs a

061lot of money for us to have those buses up there. Uh both our yards are protected by electric fences and one with the addition of daylight security to limit theft and keep drivers safe. One of our yards has no bathroom facilities and drivers must use a porta potty. Along with our past funding and resource issues, we've been working without a contract since July of 2025, coming up on a year. Our current contract is a start, but comes drastically short of the cost of living increases and the 400 to 600% increases on our insurance that we've seen. Um, some drivers are going to get less hours on their contract next year and drivers working paycheck to paycheck. That is a big hit. We have uh our our subcontract bus companies make profits while our drivers take

062furlow days and some qualify for SNAP benefits because their wages are so low. Why should our drivers suffer from a decadesl long broken budget and money going to the top and not our union drivers who keep our kids safe in school this year? I've seen more parents and students with hardships. I've seen more anger and violence on our buses and directed at our drivers from parents. Just last month, I had to explain to a mom our department's lack of resources are why we can't pick up her kid on time and why she can't get a hold of anybody on the phone. There's nobody to answer the phone. They're all driving. Um, and I know that other drivers are having these similar conversations with parents. We're the face of the district when we're out in the

063field. They're the only we're the only employee that they see. Some of these parents were the only adult student transportation PPS employee. We're the only one from the school district that they see on a daily basis. Uh and we don't want to add to our parents struggles by being late to pick up their students while they try to get to work on time. Uh we we work with amazing kids. They struggle more than most to get fair and equal treatment. Our lack of resources, lack of drivers, and lack of buses has led to shortened schools days for many of our riders. Yes, students are getting shortened school days due to our delays. We constantly endeavor to get kids to school on time, but sometimes we run late 10 to 15 minutes day after day after

064day for the same kids, and that adds up really quick. As the school year progressed and our driver shortages worsened, we had students who didn't have drivers assigned at the start of the day. They may arrive 45 minutes to two hours late to school. All of these issues have led to less instructional time for students and many of our students won't go to school if we're late. Families with no backup transportation are left hurting. If we're late to school in the afternoon, teachers and staff have to wait for these buses to arrive, so they're extending their school days. This community of underserved students already struggles with attendance and school resources. We hate to see our department adding to their struggles. Why should these students get shortened school days just because they ride the special needs

065school bus? I have amazing, skilled, and highly trained co-workers. We have hundreds of hours of training, classes on everything from driving the bus to managing students with special needs, safety equipment, emergency situations. Um, we do first aid training, CPR training every year. These drivers are patient, helpful, and work so well with students with different needs and different life experiences. Our student success is personally rewarding to all of us. We get to know our kids and their happiness and their safety. We take it seriously. There's nothing better than a smile or a silly knock-knock joke from a kid. Uh, excuse me, smaller. Uh there's nothing better than getting um a fist bump from a non-verbal kid after the end of a really tough week. And we we you know, we feel like these students are amazing

066and we want to be there for them. We're role models. We're mentors. We're counselors. We're safety experts. We're friends to the students on the bus. Uh and there's nothing better than knowing we're a stable adult who shows up every day for these kids. Uh, we want more drivers at PPS, not less. We want more working buses that are safe for our students, not less. We want more in-house work, not outside contracts. We want a fair raise that keeps us working and not taking a loss since our last contract. We want insurance contributions from the district that are the same as other PPS unions. We're asking the board and the community for help. Everybody here Our union along with other PPS unions need your support. We see the district continuing to move budgets deeper and deeper

067in the red. We see more and more uses of contractors who are only profit driven and not PPS union workers. We see a decline in student enrollment worsen by failing to meet even the minimum our kids and parents expect and what is mandated, federally mandated. Please reach out to your elected officials and our governor. We want our special needs students to receive equal treatment, equal school days, and every opportunity possible. We don't want the district to balance their budget on the backs of the workers who help these students and to keep our schools moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> [applause] >> Hello. Um I am here with um one of our substitute educators, Ian Mullen, who has some short remarks and then I will uh close this on up. >> Thanks, Angela.

068Hello. Sorry. [laughter] Uh my name is Ian Mullen. I'm the chair of the substitute committee for PAT. Uh, and I'm urging the district and the school board to provide an extension of restricted licenses to those substitutes who are pursuing a full teaching certificate. Doing so would demonstrate a reciprocation of goodwill to substitute educators who have served Portland schools during a period of turbulence and disruption beginning with COVID closures and continuing to the present day with significant staffing cuts and budget shortfalls. I'll note that this would come at no additional cost to the district and it is as it is merely a request for an extension of a timeline. Furthermore, the district is already on the books to provide payments for insurance insurance benefits for subs who have qualified for insurance through the end of September,

069which is when the benefit cycle restarts. And I'm asking the district to extend these licenses until December 2026 to provide subs who have been blindsided by the decision to cut restricted subs ample time to enroll in a teaching program. Last Monday, PPS notified subs with expiring restricted licenses that they would not be renewing their licenses for the upcoming school year. This caught myself and many other subs completely offguard because the district has renewed restricted licenses as recently as last year and gave no indication that it would be discontinuing this discontinuing this practice at any point during the school year. Whether that was in contract admin meetings that I had with district officials or when we even asked questions about restricted licenses. Had I known that this change was so imminent, I would have enrolled in

070a relevant program and begun pursuing a teaching credential so as not to avoid uh uh so as to avoid the risk of potentially losing healthcare benefits amongst other things. I've subbed in PPS for about 5 years. I was hired on as an emergency restricted sub uh which were granted to applicants during COVID closures. I've worked over a 100 days in each of the last four years including 144 out of the 177 school days last year. The majority of these were at Irvington Elementary where I am a preferred substitute and have covered for every classroom in the building. I share these historically accurate drawings from students to emphasize the extent to which I am, like many other restricted subs, deeply deeply integrated in the community of PPS schools and to demonstrate the commitment subs make to

071provide quality education and caring relationships to the communities they serve. It is in PPS's interest to retain subs with experience in Portland schools with PPS students and to support these subs in their pursuit of teaching credentials, especially in a time when fewer educators are pursu are staying in the field in the field. It did not feel representative of my commitment to PPS to be treated so disposably. I visited Irvington Elementary last Wednesday and assisted with their end ofear field day. I was not scheduled to work that day and I signed in as a guest volunteer rather than as a substitute. I wanted to say goodbye to a community that I have cherished for about 5 years uh and have enjoyed getting to know all of the students and the staff there. It was important for

072me to get to say goodbye because I would have been deprived the opportunity because the news came so late and without no warning. Substitutes are an integral part of our education education system. Having reliable coverage from persons who are familiar with the needs of our schools provides continuity for students, which ensures that their education is not disrupted when their home room teacher is out. As much of as much as 10% of a student's instruction time will be conducted by a substitute educator. That figure is likely higher now that more teachers are are leaving the field. In a time of uncertainty, not just within PPS, but worldwide, continuity in the classroom is vital to a student's health and their growth. The loss of these dedicated substitute educators will exacerbate the disruptions caused by the significant layoffs

073to staff in the last two years. PPS should prioritize retaining dedicated substitutes who wish to continue their work as subs by pursuing a teaching license. In this way, PPS can grow its own and prevent talented educators already serving in these communities from seeking work elsewhere. Thank you. [applause] Um I Hello. Uh good evening. Um I just want to shout out the students uh phonics skills in spelling Ian. E I N or E Y I N. Definitely makes sense. Een. So um my name is Angela Bonija. I am the current president of the Portland Association of Teachers. Um hello board superintendent um current and outgoing student you know incoming and outgoing student representatives. Um the kudos I have tonight is for our educators who have been waiting since February for any information about their placements who

074have been actively advocating for transparency and consistency in application of layoffs. I see you. I know you wake up every day and come back to work with our students and our community despite not receiving the dignity and respect you deserve as the backbone of this district. I know you took four furlow days and gave up pay to keep this district afloat. And you have finished the year without knowing if you will even have a job. You deserve better and we will fight for this process to adhere to our contract until the bitter end. I want to give y'all some things to think about. When we were told about furlows, we were told the district was working on layoff on a layoff list in March. Why then has this layoff list taken so much time to

075produce and to notify educators that folks have left the year without an assignment? You know, PPS leadership often struggles with the truth, but were they struggling then or are they struggling now? I received an email from an educator who has worked at PPS for 26 years, has been unassigned, received no communication besides the bulk communication from PPS HR on February 27th. They had to end the year with uncertainty and not knowing whether to pack or not, say goodbye or see you later. Another educator, an English language development educator at an elementary school was unassigned through a seniority exception. and the less senior educator without any recency in the subject has been retained during layoffs despite being in this district for very for less than two years. Uh the principal at the site has a lot

076of time in the district and has been known to manipulate staffing to push educators out who push back and assert their union rights. So who is ensuring principles are acting in good faith? Several educators with partial FTE at different schools. So think you know 6 FTE at one site point4 FTE at another have been unassigned 2 and then all of their placements have been changed including the 6 FTE placement at the one school and the point 4 at another. Why not let them maintain the relationships they have built during the year with these students instead of ripping them away from the community they've been a part of all year? Personally, I wanted to apply for a pre-K Spanish immersion position. Yet, that position was posted externally and then offered to a candidate who is out

077of state. How can we take the promise to do this process well and respectfully when experienced educators are being laid off while new educators are being brought in? The process for staffing this year, from unassignments to layoffs to placements, has been an absolute disaster, and it does not build trust or faith in this district. to not receive basic notification of the potential of the potential layoffs, the total number, the assignments placed in February has seriously harmed our ability to advocate for our members. As the union, we don't protect people, we protect process. And we do that by ensuring we provide educators who have dedicated years to this district the respect that they deserve. and we see that these educators will be unceremoniously laid off despite contract protection that both PAT and PPS have agreed upon

078in bargaining. I share this because these decisions are connected to the budget that y'all will review and pass before the end of the month. And now that y'all have heard about the impact on educators, from the folks who testified before to our substitute educators, I hope that you will pause the budget process to deeply evaluate where funds are going and why we don't have a number for how many people will be laid off by PPS before we approve a budget. Last time I was here, I asked y'all to do a little bit of homework. I wonder, have y'all had the chance and reviewed the committed funds made by resolutions of this board to see if any of these projects can be cut to fund educators? Have you at all challenged the information district leadership has

079provided on the cuts to central office staff versus studentf facing staff? Or will this be another year where we have seen school boards rubber stamp the budget we've been presented without amendments? We know that budget decisions are difficult, but trying to find as many ways to ensure that funding moves towards instruction and away from contracts for AI or for-profit bus drivers, from positions, away from our schools, from central office supports is a responsibility we hope that y'all take seriously. Our students and our educators deserve better than what we've experienced this spring. And we hope to see y'all advocating for us, for our students, to have a better process and to ensure that every every penny possible is going towards our schools and towards instruction. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you,

080Chair Wong. I just wanted to see if I can insert myself here and just make a couple of comments. As we know, we've heard some pretty passionate um testimony and and I will say that we as a as a district team stand in agreement that we have some amazing people out in our field across our space, whether they're driving buses, they're supporting what's happening in the classroom, they're in the classroom, or they're leading our schools. That that is true. So when I began as superintendent 24 months and 4 days ago today, I knew that we were facing a deficit that was pretty significant, a structural deficit that would be over $160 million. And so to date, we're only addressing about 60% of that. But what I do want to share is that the human resources

081team is in a situation that the district hasn't been in in over 10 years. I think at most what we found was maybe a layoff of less than five individuals, but never never this amount. And so what I do know is that my human resource team is moving with care. Um wanting to make sure that every layoff um and every unassignment is done in a way that is um protecting, you know, our our employees as as best we can. We don't want to move too quickly and have folks misplaced or restart the process. So, what I will share is last Thursday all of our employees that were being laid off received notice and we do agree that June is a terrible time to receive that information and I think as we think of next year

082and the budget reduction that we have in front of us. You know, we want to be early with our information as best we can and also we're still in the midst of our budgeting process, right? So, that's another reality. We know right now that there are unassigned staff and we anticipate having those notices out to all of our unassigned staff. We have some notices out, but to complete that process by June 17th, again, not an ideal timeline, but what we can say is that if staff are unassigned, they're guaranteed a job next year. That's different than the um 79 employees that were uh laid off last Thursday. And so I just want you to know that we are going to continue to prioritize our staff. I know my team is meeting with PAT leadership tomorrow

083evening going through the layoff lists um or the unassignment list, sorry. And the other thing I will say is that I've heard a lot I've received a lot of emails on seniority lists. The seniority list sits with our principles and it also sits with our PAT leadership. And so my team is actively addressing the concerns that are are coming up and I just wanted to make sure that we had um all of the information moving forward. So I think I'll just end by saying that we absolutely a we don't want to have the conversation at all, but we also know that it's a conversation that we're going to have to have again next year. And we want to be able to have those conversations as early as possible. And what we want to do, although

084it may not feel like it um to the community or those impacted, is we want to make sure that we're moving with accurate information as fast as we can. And sometimes those two things together can cause delays. And so I just wanted to make sure that you know that information. We have a long time to be in this conversation about stabilizing Portland public and I want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that is effective and um gets us to where we need to be and we're holding our adults, our staff at the center of the conversation. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh I want to thank our uh union leaders also to take the time out of your I know it's been long days these days and um being

085here and sharing your input. Thank you Dr. Armstrong for also sharing that that um input as well and yeah as we work through this very difficult season and change of schedules as uh kids are home and people are uh having to adapt to a new lifestyle. So again, thank you everyone for being here today um and and um sharing your input and taking your time out to care about public education. We'll commit to doing our the best with the information that we have. Uh next up, I was hoping the ATU uh reps would stay because we are going to be voting on the agreement between the Amalgamated Transit Union and PPS, which is next on our agenda. Uh, so if I I'll guess I'll hand this over to Dr. Armstrong. >> Thank you. So tonight

086we're asking you to vote on an agreement with our ATU labor partners and we have Dr. Freeman, Chief Human Resource Officer, will share the highlights and you will have an opportunity to consider the resolution. Okay. Well, I am actually here in um place of Kimberly Gibson who is out on furlow today, but I am representing PPS and the and the bargaining team that presented before you today is a three-year agreement um between ATU and PPS. And you heard a lot from ATU about all of the wonderful things and the ways that they contribute to um our district and the lives that they touch, the students that they impact on a daily basis. and we couldn't agree more. Um I want to say thank you to the ATU team for um coming together to work with

087PPS um our team to come to an agreement that is I I and we heard them speak about it earlier um less than ideal again um at this point in time in a budget crisis. So, um there's a lot of a lot of um coming together that all of our union partners and PPS has had to do over the last few months. Um so, we're really appreciative of the ATU team. So, thank you. That's what I have for you today. All right. Do I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution 31? Sorry. 7316 the 202528 agreement between the Amalgamated Transit Union and school district number 1J Multma County Oregon. >> So moved second. >> Director Split moves and director Lefort seconds. Any board discussion or comments? >> Um I have comments. Um I

088wish that Dylan was still here but maybe he'll watch this later. Um, but this is also directed at um all of our drivers that work with our special education students. Um, they serve my family and everything that Dylan spoke about um [sighs and gasps] rings true. Um, there are more days um than I would like to count where um transportation has been delayed. It's not the fault of our drivers. It's uh consequence of a system that is not properly resourced and the result of that is our kids um who are most vulnerable missing out on important hours of their education. Um these people put so much care into driving our kids and um showing up every day. Um they're exactly right. They're the people uh in my children's education that I see the most often.

089Um, and they get they get my baby to school safely. And um, my kid is not the most medically fragile of the children that are transported, but um, they do have to know about his disability and how to support him and they do a really beautiful job of that. Um, I am very much looking forward to the day that we can do better by uh these vital employees of our district um and compensate them um in in the ways that they deserve. Um they have really important jobs and um I appreciate them. So I just wanted to go on the record with that. >> Thank you. Also, yes. Want to share my appreciation again. Um, I wish we could do more. >> Yeah. >> Director Svin, >> I'd just like to [clears throat] express the

090appreciation for accepting definitely less than they deserve. In fact, all the unions in this hard time. And we know we know you deserve so much more. and appreciate it that you're going to get us through this year, hopefully through the next one, and then hopefully things will be better. That's my hope. And we'll just work really hard with the legislature and with trying to do the best we can where we cut where we can and make it work. But appreciate you all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Miss Pal, is there any public comment? Thank you. All right, the vote will the board will now vote on resolution 7316 2025 2028 agreement between Amalgamated Transit Union and school district number 1J, Multma County, Oregon. All in favor, please indicate by saying yes, >> yes, >>

091nos. Abstensions. Student representative, >> yes. >> Thank you. Resolution 7316 is approved by a vote of 7 to zero with student representative Verto unofficially voting yes. So, I want to thank all the people who uh all the hours that were spent on getting this over the finish line. So, thank you all. >> Clap for that. All right. Next up, um hopefully something a little bit more exciting and uplifting. Uh we will be voting on a name and mascot change for Joseph Lane Middle School. Uh we have aotted 20 minutes for this item. I I'll hand this over to Superintendent Armstrong to introduce the item and our speakers. >> Yeah, absolutely. We're excited to get this item in front of you and we have Chief of Schools Dr. Isaac Cardona to introduce our speakers. Thank you

092for being here. if you can introduce your speakers. >> Good evening, Superintendent Armstrong, Chair Wong, Vice Chair Depass, Directors, Student Representative Torto, and Student Representative Elect Sandall. Good to see you. Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening. Uh, across Portland Public Schools, we continue to see school communities engage in thoughtful conversations about his history, identity, and belonging. School naming processes provide an opportunity for students, staff, families, and alumni, as well as comm community community members to come together to reflect on the values they want their school to represent both today and for future generations. Tonight, we are bringing forward recommendation for Lane Middle School. This work began several years ago. And throughout this process, the school engaged students, staff, alumni, families, and the community to gather input, narrow down options, and ultimately

093decide on a recommendation that reflects the community's vision for the future. More than 400 votes were cast during the final phase of the process, demonstrating significant engagement and commitment from the Lane community. I would like to thank everyone who was a part of this work, particularly the members of the renaming committee who dedicated their time and energy to ensuring the process was inclusive and communitydriven. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Principal El Yousef, as well as her team, including Beth Gardner, a sixth grade math teacher, and Owen Bagby, who just finished 8th grade and will be attending Franklin in the fall. They will share the community's recommendation and provide an overview of the engagement process that led to it. >> Thank you so much. Good evening and thank you for your time this

094evening and for um giving us the opportunity to request our school name change. This is a long time coming. My name is Rosemary L. Yousef and I am the proud principal of what has been to me LMS because when I first started I knew that the name change was kind of on the horizon and something that the community was passionate about. And in order to prevent further harm by using the name, we adopted LMS, as you can see on Owen's t-shirt. That became our logo. We didn't use the word the name Lane at all. We tried to just um be LMS, which isn't enough of an identity, right? So, I'm really excited uh to be here tonight to share with you a little bit about our work. A clicker. Oh, fancy. Which button? Oh, good.

095The right button. Got the right button. Okay. So, the renaming committee was originally established before I was hired. And I was hired in the summer of 2023. It started in the spring. It was made up originally of staff, students, alumni, community partners, and parents. Um, and since that original um committee was formed, none of those people are here anymore. Um and so we had a brand new committee formed when we restarted the process. But in between that time from the original um the origin of the renaming committee and the process to when I was hired, there was a change in building leadership. There was a change in superintendence. And so things were stalled for us a little bit. And we went back to the data. We looked at it again. We finally figured out where

096we really were in the process because there was so much change. And this year was the year um that we did all of the work. We pulled the initial survey from 2023 and the leading name even then was Brentwood Middle School. And so we kind of brought that to the forefront as we pursued our um survey this year which we shared with alumni, with alumni, families, with current students and staff, community partners. Um and again, Brentwood roast the top. Um, we also pulled in other ideas and sat together as a committee to eliminate names of other schools because we didn't we're we are very unique and we did not want to share a name with any I'm named after somebody and I really feel very strongly about not sharing names. [laughter] Um, so we also

097eliminated names that were people because we wanted to avoid being in this situation again in the future. And Beth is going to share a little bit about that in a in a minute. Our process for voting was held in May. 414 votes cast. That's a lot of engagement for a community that doesn't tend to engage in a lot of things. So, let's just tell you how passionate they were about it. I mean, kids wanted us to name the school after them, and we said, "No, thank you." Um there was a 67 suggestion as well that we um decided that would would not make it to the ballot. So um >> it might have won it. >> It might That's the scary thing is it might have won. >> All right, Beth Gardner, thank you. Um

098okay, so am I on Am I good? There we go. Uh so if you go back in time a hundred years, um Lane is coming up on its centennial. uh this this continuation of this community. If you go back a hundred years, it was actually originally called Aerrol Heights School, which is one of the neighborhood uh neighborhoods in our kind of larger grouping. Um and then they had this brilliant idea in 1926 to name it after our a governor who was unfortunately an anti-indigenous child hostage taking pro-slavery kind of guy. Um, and that obviously is in direct, you know, uh, conflict with who we are as uh, Portland public schools and, um, the LMS community and the city and everything. So, we wanted to go with something geographical. And I was thinking, you know, I

099live just a couple doors down from a school that's named after its neighborhood. And, um, we kind of zoomed out and looked at Southeast Portland. There's more than a dozen schools uh in Southeast Portland, District 3 alone, named after their neighborhoods. So, it seemed like uh both what kids and staff and alumni were voting for and what we saw modeled around us made perfect sense to go with Brentwood. Um I of course when I first thought of that, like when I first heard Brentwood, feverishly Googled Brentwood and making sure that it wasn't some dead white man who did horrible things. Um, and luckily I was so happy to find out it just is old English for burntwood, like forest clearing. And so being able to go to something geographic, something that has been a part

100of the community for more than 100 years, you know, when you hear Brentwood, people often think of the beautiful park right next door to uh soon to be Brentwood Middle School and the neighborhood Brentwood Darlington, which was named in the 90 80s9s. they decided to kind of take these smaller neighborhoods and bundle them together under that name. Um, so going with something purely geographical does keep us from having one of those moments that, you know, poor Caesar Chavez is having right now, too. Um, and it just insulates us from from those moments. So, um, it really kind of sticks with us and the community that we are and the community that we want to become by putting it on the name of our building. So, uh, that that's why Brentwood Middle School is the perfect

101name for us. >> Hello. Hello. My name is Owen Bagby. I'm a web leader uh and or that web I'm a part of the web leadership program at our school and I'm also part of the student senate uh leadership program. Uh, yeah, as you can see up there, uh, Brentwood, you know, dominated the ballot. um 207 with the runner up being 60. You know, that's, you know, pretty big win, I think. Um, of the 415 votes cast, bears, bobcats, ravens, and otter were the leading mascots from the 14 original options. We wanted to see how current staff and Oh, we wanted to see how our current students and staff would vote between the most the four most popular, sorry, and Bears was the leading choice. This one was a lot closer with 78. And then

102the two leading ones, 77 and 77. Uh, that's, you know, all I really have to say, but >> this the sixth graders really wanted to be the Ravens and they like rallied. Like I've never seen those sixth graders rally before, which was really cute. But also, I did not want to be a Raven. They don't even live in Portland. They avoid Portland, which is not not what we wanted. So, um, bears and bobcats, it was it was really really close. Uh, but Bears was always the leading option um in from even the original ballots. But there were a lot of a lot of good suggestions. The Raptors, I mean, we could have been the Raptors. Um, but there we go with our mascot. And um, Beth Gardner likes to put really cool techy things together.

103And so she reimagined our school building from Joseph Lane School to Brentwood Middle School. Uh there are people who live in our neighborhood. There are people who've lived in the neighborhood for a really long time. They I mean we have there's a man who lives on our street whose grandchild goes to our school who I mean one of the first people I met and he's lived in the neighborhood forever. And the neighborhood has a lot of pride around like our streets, the Dairy Queen that's right down the street, those poor people who host our kids after school on hot sunny days. um the park where people congregate, there's lots of soccer games and things like that, the corner store, like our kids, it's their home. The whole neighborhood is their home, not just the place

104that they live um when they walk in and shut the door. So we take pride in carrying Brentwood as the name of our school and we ask that you support our request to move from Lane Joseph Lane Middle School quaazars which what even is a quaazar to the Brentwood Middle School Bears. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I just before we put this on the table, I just have to say as someone with a physics background, [laughter] >> you're going to quazar inform us. >> I I'm a little sad about the removal of quaazars [laughter] >> being the most powerful one of the most powerful things in our universe, the super massive black hole in the center of galaxy. And you want to change it to a little fluffy furry mammal. [laughter] I believe in

105democracy. So >> applause. >> I will hold my peace. [laughter] compared to a super mess. >> Hard to put on t-shirts >> in the center of a galaxy. Yeah. Anyways. All right. Um, do I have a motion uh second to adopt resolution 7312 resolution to change the name and mascot of Joseph Lane LMS uh middle school? >> So moved. >> Director moves >> uh vice chair to pass seconds. Thank you. Um, director Lefort moves vice chair to pass seconds. for discussion and comments. Director Slate, >> I just um quickly want to thank everyone um for participating. I'm watching a process play out at the middle school. My own child is on the renaming committee, so I know it's work and practice showing up at meetings. It's um been interesting to see that happen in our

106house. Um mixed results uh on a walk. God, I can't find her. But anyway, we're doing fine. Um but just want to thank you all for participating. I also really agree with the neighborhood school correlation. I think it's just the right call and builds pride in not only our neighborhoods in Portland, but the school itself and it's like such a nice two-way street. I live in a neighborhood named after our school. So, I just wanted to say sometimes the same name in the same neighborhood isn't that the neighborhood was there first. Elizabeth Hayhurst, the very first Oregon PTA president, um is the namesake for our school. Haven't heard of her doing anything horrible yet. Um, but that then became the name of our neighborhood. So, [cough] it can go both ways and I think it's

107pretty neat. So, thank you so much for all your work and I'm happy to support this today. >> Thank you. >> I just really appreciate the presentation as I was um looking over this weekend. Um, one of the first questions that was posed to me today at 7 in the morning was, you know, why are you renaming all those schools? And um, asked by someone in a gym class. And um I was able to explain that, you know, there's alumni involved, community partners are involved. Um it's studentled and any chance that we get to vote on someone who was pro-slavery and displaced Native American communities is a strong yes for me. I'm really happy to contribute to to to vote yes for this. So, thank you. And also I think that um the presentation I

108was wondering if we could put that on social media so people know that it's not some it's not the board coming up with a a name. It's literally student le um and that placem making piece is really important. I also love the etmology of the word burntwood. I just thought that was really cool. So thank you. We'll look forward to visiting um visiting soon maybe next fall. And you know, you have an amazing farm across the street, the Black Futures Farm across the street. I don't know if your students um participate in that at all, but it's a great farm. >> We'll invite you to our um we're we're planning a 100y year. So, next year is our 100th year. Okay. >> And so, we're planning a big hopefully when the vote happens, I shouldn't

109speak too soon, um but we are going to do a grand reopening and have the whole community and alumni. And so we would love to have you join us for a big celebration prior to relaunching our 100th year this fall. >> Fantastic. Let us know. Thanks. >> We will. >> Thank you. Um Miss F, any public comment? >> Yes, we do. We have Kristen Tegan. I just want to say before public comment starts, um, my kid grew up playing soccer at Brentwood Park. We go to Lane all the time. I mean, it's literally our backyard. I'm really glad to see this change and, um, I'm going to say go quasars right before you vote [laughter] one last time before it change. So, yeah. All right. Uh, sorry. Thank you. Um, you have three minutes. You

110may begin when you when you're ready. And [laughter] yellow light means 30 seconds. Red light means please stop soon. >> Got it. I feel like I'm being redundant at this point because people clearly know who Joseph Lane was. Um, but just to introduce myself, my name is Kristen Tyen. I'm a parent of two PPS graduates and I'm here to strongly support the renaming. Um, to be clear, I'm not a member of the Lane School community, but rather I'm an educator at Portland State University, where I teach the history of white supremacy in Oregon. And as many of you know, um, Oregon's history of racism places us among the most notorious in the country. There are many people who got us that odious history, and few stand out as starkly as Joseph Lane. So, who was

111Joseph Lane? He was a dead white guy. Um, or is luckily um, and so he was our first territorial governor. He then went to Washington DC and served as our first delegate. He returned to Oregon in the 1850s and earned a reputation of being a particularly brutal and vicious fighter against indigenous nations. Um, among his many inhumane acts, he was quoted as saying that he liked to quote take a turn at the squas before murdering them. Um after he did that um he became our first senator when Oregon became a state. He was on a failed presidential ticket representing a split the Democratic party split and he represented the southern faction of the Democratic party during like right before the civil war broke out. He failed. Um and he was also a leader of an

112organization called the Knights of the Golden Circle. So that organization envisioned a geographic circle um of southern states, Caribbean nations, and parts of Mexico that allowed for the enslavement not just of black people but of Asian people as well. Um when he came back to Oregon, he aided the Knights of the Golden Circle. It was a precursor to the KKK. and he bought guns and ammunition to help the Knights of the Golden Circle in their luckily failed plans to overthrow Abraham Lincoln. Um, so you know, in the racial justice uprising of 2020, many of us clapped when a lot of Confederate statues came down and names were changed. And I love that we're going to have some of that energy here. Joseph Lane deserves no accolades. deserves no honors and so I am deeply appreciative

113of you taking on this measure. If you want to know more, that was an overview. Unfortunately, there's more. I'm more than h well more than happy to share that information with you. That's again just a brief snippet of his inhumity. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. The board will now vote on resolution 73. Wait, hold on. Go Quaazars. The board will now now vote on seven resolution 7312 resolution to change the name and mascot of M LMS. [laughter] >> This all in favor please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. Opposed extensions. Student representative RTO. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Resolution 7312 is approved by a vote of 7 to zero with student represent voting yes. The name has now officially changed. Go Bears. >> Bears. [applause] >> Thank you very much. >>

114Go Brenwood. >> Go Bears. >> Before you turn the page really quickly, I did mean to quick when I was talking before I'm out of turn, but just you can kick me out if you want, but um I just want to say that we have been getting like a smattering of emails who from people who are concerned about name changes. And I think Professor Tyen's testimony is exactly why we should embrace it when school communities are standing up and saying that they don't want kids to be educated in a school named after somebody with a legacy of hate. Um so I just for just because we've been seeing those emails, I meant to say something about it when I spoke and just want to um reiterate that I don't see it as a waste of

115money. I see it as a civics lesson for every single kid at a school that's going through a renaming process for this reason. So, um, for those of you writing, I hear you and I I vehemently disagree. That's all. Thank you. >> And just speaking of funds, just to to clarify that the schools are responsible for raising the funds for all mascot and marquee changes and anything on their building. Um, and it's typically something that they do with their um family or or um parent association group or um just a staff driven thing. So it we don't spend district funds on it too. Just that and just because we're on clarifications, I said 79 earlier, the actual number of layoffs is 82. So those three people are important. Thank goodness for our students because this

116is student driven and it's the adults asking the questions. So, >> and I'm glad 67 wasn't picked. Um, let's take a five minute break and we'll be uh back here at 7:59. >> All right, let's get started. Please, if we can >> return and pipe down and >> oh my gosh. >> All right, the next item on our agenda, and again, thank you for staying this late, is the bond accountability committee and our quarterly report. Uh, we've allotted 15 minutes for this item. >> I got this and this. So it's about a minute of a report. So >> they say brevity is a sign of leadership >> and it that's well thank [laughter] you. >> It's okay. >> Uh so my name is Greg Derto. I'm the BAC chair for this year. We met on

117April 29th which was our quarterly meeting. And as the written report shows, it was a productive meeting with really no outstanding issues. We now have a full committee of 10 highly qualified members and we thank you for those appointments. So just some highlights here. The meeting focused on three main areas. A presentation on the structural engineering work uh developing the criteria and seismic improvements for PPS facilities, the consolidated projects update, and an update on the ERP project. The BAC also considered the recommended changes to its charter which you're going to discuss after my report. From the 2017 bonds, $165 million was allocated for consolidated projects of which $122 million has been spent in the areas of ADA, asbestous abatement, other consolidated projects like HVAC, IT improvements, and other smaller scale projects, fire systems, lead paint

118removal, radon, and security improvement and water quality. From the 2020 bonds, $260 million uh has been allocated for consolidated projects. And good news, the staff has nearly completed the reconciling of accounts and we now have a good handle on the financial position of the bond measures. So based on these reports, bond funds from the 2012 bond measure are nearly 100% spent. Uh they last approximately $350,000 remains. Bond funds from the 2017 bonds are 95% spent of which little under 49 million is still available will be reassigned. Bond funds from the 2020 bonds are 59% spent with about a half a billion dollars available and we've only spent 6% of the 2025 bond funds. In addition to a presentation by the consulting structural engineer on the selection of schools for seismic improvements, we learned that nearly

119all schools are receiving some seismic upgrades within the project. So, for example, they do a roof repair, they also incorporate any seismic improvement into that roof repair. The committee was impressed with the work of the consulting structural engineer in their rationale and selection of seismic improvements. Our next meeting scheduled for July 29th will focus on school modernization at the three high schools. Additionally, I have received a copy of Prescidio's project team management plan for each school. It's quite impressive and I'm going to ask that it be put on our agenda uh and that they go over it with the committee. Committee, thanks for the opportunity to be of service to our community. >> Thank you. Thank you for that um very efficient overview. Um I just want to remind everyone that the Portland Public Schools

120of Education is the one who or appoints the community bond accountability committee whose charge is to advise the board on the planning and progress of the bond on bond programs related to voter approved work of scope and schedule and budget objectives. And again, thank you uh Greg Dorto for um our BAC chair uh for presenting this. Um is there any questions or comments before moving to the next? >> I just want to say I'm really pleased to hear such positive news coming from the BAC. Um, I used to, uh, be the liazison to the BAC and I think maybe when you were first coming on and worked really hard to diversify it, get some people under 40. >> Um, and that, um, I'm I' I've just kept track of the work and I love the

121good work that's happening. It sounds like, um, your next conversations will be about looking at the Presidio uh, org charter management team and that should go well as well. But thank you for the positive uh, report. It was really good to hear. >> Thank you. Thanks, Greg. >> Sorry. Thank you. Next, we have the uh bound uh sorry, thank you. Uh discussion for on the bond accountability committee charter. The proposed revision came from several several uh I can't talk tonight. I'm sorry. Uh several sources including the committee itself, auditors, and staff, and each was discussed by the committee. The resulting recommendations to the board are reflected in the redline document posted for this meeting. I know we are all appreciative of the work that the committee the BAC put into these recommendations. I want to

122thank you and um everybody who's present and those who are not as well. Um, just as a reminder, the BOR board is one that approves the charter for the BAC, which should reflect the work that is most helpful to the board in exercising accountability oversight for the bond programs and can be reasonably charged to a community volunteer committee. We will discuss the proposed changes tonight uh and hopefully vote on the final version at the next board meeting. If all it all goes without saying that the BAC is critical source of expertise and accountability that greatly assists us the board and our work. So thank you again. Uh if you haven't picked up on the theme I can't say thank you enough. So, uh, we all have the, um, the charter, I believe, in front of

123us or online in front of you. And I think we have we'll have Liz, um, Liz Large to also be a reference to ask questions to as well as people from RISE and Greg if if you're willing as and also Dr. Armstrong um, to help answer any questions or help with discussion. So, let's start. Um, we have the red line version which is uh uh many changes from the original. We'll let's go around. Should we let's just do the rounds and go around and see who would like to let's start with director angles. >> Before we go around, one thing I just want to say for context setting, I just want to remind everyone that the board initiated this as part of the bond auditor recommendations around our BAC charter. I just think it's important

124for all of us to remember that context. Um, you've kind of done some context setting and I feel like it's important for everybody to remember that came from a request from the board to direct the BAC to take a look at their own charter, the audit recommendations and come up with this. If you don't mind me just putting that out there to start us out. Do you remember? Um I guess my question is to you. When was that request put in and was it through through the audit committee? >> Um well we talked about it at this group last summer sometime um when we were talking about the um audit report. I think it was in our whole group last summer. I didn't realize that maybe there was question about where it came from, but

125I remember having that conversation at this table last summer. >> Okay. I just I didn't remember exactly when it started. Yes, >> I can look up the date for you. I can try to find it while no need. That's good enough. Thank you. >> Yeah, I wasn't a recommendation from the bond auditors >> that we work on the charter >> and I think we discussed it when we accepted the bond audit report here last summer. Yeah, I think that's when it when that came up. >> Yes, thank you. That that jogs memory. Thank you. >> Do you want um should we go around or do you want a popcorn because I don't I'm I'm getting a sense not everyone has the same amount of questions. >> I have a few questions turn. >> Right. Well,

126let's just popcorn because I feel like um there's also some discussion items that may want to just kind of go >> I didn't want that to be my turn though. >> No, that's not your turn. Can can I give a little just a little sort of like timeline of of the review that that has been gone through just for the board is because I don't think everybody up here like you to look at Ian. So just is that okay? >> Yep. >> So we started this process. So uh in the facil we talked with the audit committee and our office of internal uh performance auditor. I can't say that right. The OIPA I'll take the acronym. Um and it was originally placed on the December 9th FIO agenda and at the request of one of

127our committee members it was removed. I'm sorry. It was removed from the 9th and moved to January 20th. And in between those two meetings, our OFPA prepared um a document uh that went through the ask from our bond auditor, which was um revisiting how to um best use the BAC and strengthen the committee's role and involvement in oversight to enhance the bond program and project delivery through their technical feedback and insight on these types of details. Um some of the recommendations said it could include PPS providing the BAC with the same or similar bond data and staff analysis and memos currently provided to would have been previously provided to um the FAO committee um in prior years as well as other documents like contract templates detailed schedules with critical path or um project priority criteria

128for review and involving the BAC with the annual bond performance audit. So this is a recommendation that came from our external auditor. So we took up the issue in um FIO in you know coordination with the audit committee to move the work and um that presentation was shared with the committee on um via email on January 15th and then we had our meeting on January 20th um and had an extensive conversation about it and um kicked it over to the BAC for their review which they took it up on I believe it was January 28th and uh with staff and legal and Prescidio and then held an additional work session in April and I want to thank Greg for your leadership and keep you know helping us you know keeping this moving um over the

129few months that it took and staff and like I said staff Presidio legal everybody it's the committee for um all the work that went into this um we so yeah work session was in April um we had it scheduled for review on May 19th um unfortunately we did not have a quorum of the committee um but considering all of the feedback that um was given you know, I felt comfortable having this conversation. The BAC sent it to the board. So, I just kind of want to let everybody know how much input and how much time has been spent on this and um and uh that there was a lot of due diligence along the way. >> I guess I can go next. So, I had some um when I first read this uh the redline

130version, I was I got stuck on two words and those words are planning and execution. And I stuck on those words because I've um actually managed bond construction projects before for a local jurisdiction and for I did that for about 11 years. And um we also had a citizen we called it a citizen advisory committee. I realize we're not using that word anymore, but the words planning and execution kind of stopped me in my tracks because that to me felt like a little bit of overreach or a a little bit of excess work that we're asking a volunteer group to do. And we know and thank them tremendously for their expertise. Your expertise has actually helped the work along. But to say that the um the charter is to plan and execute is to duplicate

131on hired folks that we have to plan and execute. It also has to do with um the timing at which the bond advisory the bond advisory committee kind of comes into the work and the bond advisory comes into the work after the work is been completed not not before. Um, so there's a couple of question the a couple of questions I had about planning and execution is the timing at which the BAC >> Can you tell me where you see plan and execute? I just did a control find and I can't find either. >> It's under background and uh let's see. I've lost it a couple times myself. >> It's in the last sentence in the background section. Just >> planning execution. I don't know why the search didn't work. >> Monitoring the planning execution

132and progress. So >> control find fail. >> Yes, it did. it it can fail sometimes. Um so anyway, the bond accountability uh in my mind comes into the work after the projects have been planned and actually after they've been either um noticed to proceed or executed, but not before, not during the planning phase because we we have a rise team that does the planning and the permitting and all of that pre-work that happens um in construction projects. Then I started to think about what other words we could use and I came up with the words review and advise because that's actually as a volunteer committee what we're asking the bond accountability committee to do. We're asking them to review uh us and review the projects and and the status of the projects and then report

133and advise the board. We just heard a report that is completely clean and an amazing report and apparently we're doing very very well. So again, thank you to the team that makes these things happen and thank you to the bond accountability committee for for for verifying that. I I then came on a bigger question for me and it's like what do we actually need the bond accountability committee to do? What do we need it to do? Where are they adding value? and do do they have the capacity to deliver on this very detailed charter and that's something that I'm asking of like every [snorts] decision we make is do we have do do we have the capacity does staff have the capacity does this volunteer committee have the capacity to deliver on all of this

134like very detailed work um it's a question that I have that's outstanding I don't want to tax them I'd like the bond accountability to stay with us and we don't want to grind anybody to a halt. Um, we'd love you to serve as long as you would like to serve. Your your service is extremely valuable. And I'm I have a big question about the capacity to when we codify this in this language, does that committee have the capacity to turn out that that level of work? Um so going back to the two words planning and execution. If I were um I would I would like to I would like us to discuss that those two words. Are are we asking the bond accountability committee to plan and execute or are we asking them to review

135and advise and and we're asking them do they come in before projects are planned which I don't think is the case or do they come in afterwards? their a look back uh function. They're looking back at work that's already in progress um that's already been budgeted um but not before. Michelle, thanks for that. I had um some of the same questions actually. Um I had flagged the word execution also. Yeah. Um uh it felt like not aligned with what my understanding of uh what the BAC's role was. Um, and I also had some concern about the scope. Um, I agree that it feels like a lot for a volunteer committee. Um, and I have questions about staff capacity. Also, also kind of feels like we're delegating some of our work as a board to another

136committee. Um, which I I'm just not sure why. Um, why would we do that? Um, let's see. Yeah, I think those were those were my flags. >> Um, when I look at that, it doesn't say to plan and execute. It says to monitor the exe execution and planning. >> So to look over it. >> Um, so I don't think that's too much. I also, yeah, we as a board could look at it, but we don't have the expertise. That's why we have >> this committee. Well, you do, but no, >> not really. >> Not many of us do. And so I we need a committee that has the expertise to report to us. I happened to watch one of the meetings where you were discussing this charter. And it just seemed to me that you

137were so careful about thinking about what you really could do. Um there were some things I know people say, well, I don't think that's our role. There was just a lot of thought that went into that. So, seems to I mean, if you think you can do it, uh it seemed to me something that that we needed as a board to be reported back to. >> Um I Oh, sorry. Did you want to go again? >> I just wanted to say so envisioning like the work happening, the work stream. Um there's a whole let's see it's in under committee charge. Um the work includes including bond project and program status reports. That seems doable. But what happens if a critical path schedule if you see a critical path schedule that does not fit with um

138or that you need to report on but the critical path schedule has already been contemplated and has already started. How how does that conflict how do we resolve that? Um, >> so because typically you, yes, you could take a look at after the fact the critical path schedule, but you're not in a position as a committee that comes in after the work is already undergoing to be able to influence that critical path schedule. But I'm also looking at like the budgets, the expenditures again would be after the projects are, you know, have expenditures. Um there's some of the things that are redlined here that I think would be very difficult as an advisory committee to come in after the work has been contemplated and started um to come in and then I guess tell the

139board you know we need to stop all the projects because I see a discrepancy in this critical path schedule. We're not going to get the steel posts in time. So I'm just wondering that's a question I have for the board how we deal with that. >> Can I jump in? >> Sure. Um, I think >> I'm sorry. I have director split and then we'll go to director >> Lefort said popcorn for some reason. I think I ruined everything by trying to help set the context after chair Wong said it and I felt like it wasn't quite enough. [laughter] So, sorry for ruining the the usual way we do it. Um, there's a couple things I just want to put out here. gone through most of this process as the BAC um liaison from um both

140um and I just want to give a little bit of context. Uh we had a really tough time passing or we had a really tough time on this board talking positively about the bond when it was on the ballot. Does that seem like a fair characterization of that dynamic? And so when we were having those conversations, one of the thing I things I rested on and publicly vowed to do um was to rely on our BAC to help us going forward and making sure that we were following the um the right processes, etc. that we held ourselves in the district accountable. Um and that's literally like the function to me of the BAC. So, I we talked about the BAC, at least I remember me specifically, talking about wanting to bolster it. Um, it had

141been um reporting to a committee that was closed. So, right when we were having these conversations, the BAC was kind of reporting to nowhere because they had been directed to report to facilities and the committee wasn't meeting. So, we just had this dynamic where the BAC just wasn't in front of us enough in my humble opinion, which we've resolved. And I'm very grateful to the superintendent um and and others for for making that happen. and probably us frankly for helping to bring that back. Um we then know that we heard from auditors that our current BAC charter is compared to other charters for similar organizations just doesn't have the same rigor that our bond auditor wants to see. So that was the context in which we are working on expanding the scope. Um to me

142what's incredibly important about the BAC is that they're experts. Um, and I know that Michelle has expertise. I sure as heck don't. Um, and the reason that I wanted to be the BAC liaison is because I had talked about how important I wanted the BAC to be to the board and it was really important to me to like put I guess I can't think of I'm mixing my metaphors, but I wanted to like honor that commitment that I had made. Right. So, I've been going to those meetings and hearing their expert questions and it's different from what we ask. They have a different experience than what we have and they have a lot of value. And so, to me, I want their advice and I want to trust them when they say they think that

143they can handle the things that are on here and do their work. Um I tr even though I understand the board is the one who tells them what their charter is, it matters to me what they think their charter ought to be very deeply and from what I heard in those conversations they wanted to accept that additional responsibility um and um feel that they can handle it because they think that it's really important that we bolster that relationship between the board and the BAC. So I want to take them at their word about their own belief and their own capacity to do this. And what I have seen is a well I've seen a lot of kind of change which is fair. I think I'm looking at Sarah. I don't have my glasses on so

144I can't see you but now I'm Can you Yeah. Okay. We see each other. Um I we had some we had some fun meetings in the middle with trying new reports and so we had some meetings that were very focused on change but when we've had the chance to really dig in the way that I hope we will under this charter the advice has been invaluable to me as the liaison and their reports to us have been helpful and I don't agree with everything like they've come in and talked about thinking that we're building high schools larger right and I don't agree with that but still I want to hear it from the experts and I want to I don't need to take everything they say and agree every time I'm going to be my

145own we're going to be our own board. Um it doesn't take responsibility from us to me to have them give us advice and information and reports. Um I looked at the language. I agree with um what Patty had to say about how we're actually the committee will assist in monitoring planning execution. We're not charging them with executing. I'm not going to follow my sword about that word being there. I think what we what I want to see is them be able to give advice to us along the way, not just when things are done. And I realize their meeting cadence might not always agree, but I don't think the BAC has the power to tell us or anyone to stop construction because they see an irregularity. All they're doing is telling us in their expert

146opinion that there might be an irregularity. So that going forward, we might do things differently on the next project. That's how I view it, not as some and it would be up to us to make that decision if we wanted their word to affect and up to you if we wanted their word to affect our behavior. So to me, this charter is all about them [clears throat] giving us advice and um I don't think it ties our hands or binds us. Um it there's a reminder that the superintendent has the ultimate responsibility which I think is really important that that is in there. Um and I think I've said enough. I feel like I almost want to like hear everybody and come back and I won't do that because it's unfair and it's not the

147way we've decided to do it. But ha having sat in on this process and watched it happen to me it was really important that the BAC members with their expertise the bond auditors with their expertise um rise with their expertise Liz Large with their expertise all had a role in crafting this and I feel confident it in it as is but willing to make changes if it can bring other people along as long as it doesn't get to the point where we're actually not honoring the reason we're doing this which was to bolster the BAC charter to address the concerns of the auditor. So, if we go back to where we were, we're not doing the job we tried to do. So, I just want to make sure we all understand that that would um

148kind of make the whole exercise a little feudal to to not move forward. So, thank you for listening. >> Dart. >> Um so, I just wanted to some comments and what uh we've discussed. So, the accountability the BAC is required. It's a it's a required committee per our um ballot measure language and an accountability committee that only reviews expenditures and timelines and critical path schedules after decisions are made is just documenting problems. They're not actually providing, you know, the advising that we're looking for along the way. So, you know, a real accountability function, uh, reviews, planning assumptions, risk management, audit findings, program performance indicators. so that we can identify issues before they come up before they become problems. Um, and this is why it was flagged in our audit. So, I believe that the public

149expects accountability for outcomes as well as, you know, expenditures. And if our projects are consistently overbudget, delayed based on flawed assumptions, um, I believe that taxpayers would reasonably expect the BAC to identify those risks before they become failures. And we've run into this problem already um with Jefferson over the past couple of years and it cost us tens of millions of dollars. So for me, I don't feel like this is a time to dial back any oversight into Director Split's points. It's really time to lean into leveraging the BAC as much as we can and the tremendous amount of expertise um that they have. Um I did watch the April work session and they spoke in great detail about uh the responsibilities um what would fall within their scope, what would not um in coordination

150with legal and with staff and Presidio and it was amazing to watch everybody involved work so collaboratively together and uh I really appreciate that. Um and um just another note um to the changes in the language the the the monitoring it says monitor in the charge but adding review and advise that actually is included in the committee charge is to receive and review reports. Um the committee informs and advises the board but does not have a decision-making authority. That language is actually there already in the committee charge. So, it looks like it's covered. >> I'm going to go next. Um, >> thank you for the overview. Um, appreciate the background. I do have some questions. I don't know. I'll throw this out in the ether and anybody who wants to answer can answer. Um, usually

151when we get a recommendation, it, you know, comes with a staff memo. Usually, uh, the changes. I guess this is my question. And I would like to see a document where it shows the changes and two answers, two questions answered. One, number one, what problem is it trying to solve, >> right? Um, and then B, how does this solve that problem? >> Uh, I don't know if the if the BAC could provide or an auditor. >> Yeah, they actually have an analysis of that that was used at the April meeting that goes through each of the changes and we can circulate that to the board in advance of the next meeting. will show the purpose, the source of the change, whether it was from an external auditor, internal auditor, staff. Was it clarifying language? Was

152it substantive? So, >> yes, >> I brought my own cheat sheet. If I had thought about it, I would have made copies. >> Yes, I would love that because it's very hard for me to >> decide on anything without understanding the context behind these changes. >> We'll send it out tonight or tomorrow. >> No, I don't really have any huge opposition to it. There's there's some concerns that I do have that I want to just kind of bring out. Uh number one in the background it does state that the bond audit committee sorry again I can't talk tonight I'm having a really hard time the bond accountability committee is an independent group so independent is is important and one of the issues I have here is that on underneath uh page three near the bottom

153before committee meeting protocols it says that oh sorry before reporting structure and cadence it says that the the board may request the committee undertake other reasonable duties related to the bond programs. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that because I like the idea of the BAC being an independent body who finds her, you know, if there's issues and stuff that um that they discover needs more oversight and not necessarily requested from the board just because uh the board is also its own oversight committee and having that independence I think is very important especially since it's stated as it's an independent body. Um I and often sometimes when the board wants to request some you know the it's the board in capital B which I appreciate which means the board is a body. Um but

154you know the board is also a political entity which which sometimes can be a little bit weird. Would you like me to speak to the context for that? At least as it was discussed in the moment, um that language, as I recall, the discussion um was designed to to allow some flexibility if not every single task that the BAC may be asked um by the board to accomplish is in the charter. So, some of the language was some of the detail that could have been that was discussed was moved out in because it just was getting very granular. So that allows the the board to say and further consistent with the bond programs and assisting the board and monitoring the and overseeing those components. The board may have something that's technically not in the charter,

155but it can by resolution ask the bond accountability committee to look at and that you can't anticipate all of those pieces. I think the independence doesn't speak to independent of the board because it is a boardappointed committee but it is independent from staff. It doesn't take direction from staff assists the BAC but um the BC doesn't report to staff. I think that's my best recall chair as >> you're talking about that and and we that can be changed but that's the orientation of that language as I recall. >> I think yeah maybe >> can I ask a question about that too? It's a question not a comment. Is that allowed? >> Yeah. Um, I heard what you're saying about wanting them to come up with things that they think are important and deciding that, but

156I'm not sure. Could they actually just decide to do something different than what's in the charter because of their independence? I'm just don't know that that's the case and I'm curious if you >> No, what what I'm what I'm worried about is the board. Let's take worst case scenario, right? Let worst case scenario, let's say all of us are replaced by by real idiots. Not saying that that's ever going to happen. I'm just saying let's let's do that with a real uh agenda, right? And the board vote is trying to weaponize the BAC to do certain things. Like again, just thinking about worst case scenario. I don't think this is ever going to happen. But when we have an independent committee, I guess I'm afraid of when we have an independent committee and another body

157that is, let's just admit it, sometimes political. Um, that keeping that independence is something that I feel is important. Um, so I guess it's not like a a hard no on this. It's just a more of a question mark about why that's in there. And then so the second thing is also if we want to keep it in there I think I would maybe appreciate stronger language. I know it's capital B board but um being very specific about what that necessarily means like we don't we don't want a situation where one board member is making all the suggestions right and obviously capital B means board as an entity which means the majority vote everything but I just want to make sure that's clear. So I think that's that's one concern. Again it's not a deal

158breaker it's just big question mark for me. Could the board by resolution make you feel that could that work? Just curious. The board by resolution. Yeah, I think that >> that works fine. >> Exactly. Right. So, um something to clear. Uh I think I I do have another question, but I'll save it for later. >> Thank you. >> Um did I hear you say when we talk about a board? So, this the whole board big B board refers um the bond to to the ballot. >> It's it's defi board is defined in the first paragraph. So it says board of education and so every reference to board throughout the rest means board of education. Yes, that's helpful. >> And um I as somebody that fundraised in all of her spare time for the last bond

159um I was talking very positively about it um knowing that you know some of the public had questions too but um when we refer it we refer it as as a body and you know we need to fundra to get those lawn signs out and get the word out. So I hope there's nobody out there once we revote to refer that is out there uh not talking highly of the promise of these bonds. Um [clears throat] I uh I guess in my line of work if someone is nodding along I I wanted to pipe in and say let the record reflect because I saw a lot of nodding from the BAC chair when questions were being asked and so I kept seeing you like do you want me to come up like I wish you

160would come up and just answer these questions because for me most compelling is that this >> propos charter has >> Thank So for me, I think what's most compelling is that I I heard the sort of timeline and I heard the recap [snorts] and what's most compelling is it sounds like this was a collaboration of a lot of different teams and that there's been a lot of work that's been put in it and it sounds like that the BAC themselves thinks they can take on this work and I that's the nod that I wanted to put on the record. Are you comfortable with this extra work? Well, understand that the comment about your staff is important because we rely on the things that your staff gives us. I mean, we don't go in and create

161the data. We don't go we we're not auditors. You know, what we do is we take the data that your staff provides and then we use our expertise to look at it and say, "Okay, this is reasonable or we've got some questions." That's why you see things like we're looking at things we want to advise you on. Okay? Things that you need to know as policy makers. >> Risk is one of them. So, we've asked the staff. So, point out where you see some risks. We're not as a BAC, we're not trying to play gotcha with the staff or with anyone else. This is a, you're right, this is a collaborative effort where we want to make sure this 4 billion dollars worth of projects gets done and it benefits the students in the Portland

162public school system. So, risk is one of them. Uh, schedules, you're absolutely right. We're we're not looking at a critical path schedule and saying, "Oh my gosh, we've got problems here and there. We're going to look at it overall. Are you gonna you know for us the critical path is do these schools open on September or whatever year it was you were promised that they'd be opened on that's the critical path to us whatever happens to get you there I mean if we see something like you know we had COVID and we had supply side issues right we advised the board at the time that we had supply side issues there were costs associated with those supply side issues there were costs associated we'll give you the remember we're looking at it as a 30,000

163foot level we're not down you know even though many of us did this for a real jobs we don't do. You know, most of them have other jobs and I have other things. So, um, our goal here is to just provide that expertise at a 30,000 foot level and point out to you some issues that may affect the policies that you're going to have to make as a board of education. So, yes, we you're right. We went through each of these and I said, "Okay, do do we think we can do this? Do we think we can't do that?" And our committee said we could do it. But again, remember the parameters at the 30,000 foot level. >> Thank you. That's helpful. I also saw another for the record Sarah back there nodding yes. Um

164I also um I noticed in the redlinining that we already have a charter where the BAC is already monitoring like monitoring the monitoring the planning and progress of the bond programs. And for me monitoring the planning is like sort of planning be before and progress is during and between before and during there has to be a start. And so adding that word execute doesn't bother me as much because it just feels like we're already since I don't know whenever this original charter that's being redlined. We had the bond account the district has established a bond accountability committee to assist in monitoring the planning and progress of the bond program. So that's something that's already been happening. Um and so we're just saying don't just look at before and during. >> Well, we were anyway. I

165mean you were anyway. All of our reports were about the execution of the program. So I give you my report tonight. It was how are we doing at this point in time. So >> this kind of just says what we already were doing because it's a natural outgrowth of what we should be doing. >> Oh, that's okay. Thank you. Um, I guess I also Oh, I also was found it compelling at the reminder that our external bond auditor said that our BAC charter currently doesn't align to what other districts are doing. And so, it makes me glad that so many entities have put the work in to to raise us up to a charter that reflects the work that needs to be done. And to that point, you know, all the staff are doing their

166work, but the vol in this time of budget crisis in all facets to be relying on volunteer people who are stepping up, people who believe in our schools, people who believe in our communities. So, I just want to say thank you for stepping up and doing this work because we need to rely on your expertise and your willingness to do this for nothing other than feeling good about the accountability. So, that's really important to me. Um, I think did I have anything else I wanted to say? Uh, no, I think that's it. Thank you. >> Sometime I got >> uh Oh, the last thing I No, I I did want to say last thing. Um, you know, we as a board collectively consistently say we don't want to make decisions based on fear. And so

167the idea that we could be replaced by seven idiots, if those seven idiots really wanted to weaponize the BAC, they would just add this language into the BAC charter or they would just erase it entirely. So, >> I'm not terribly worried about seven idiots. And frankly, if there were seven, they're going to do a whole lot more than just [laughter] >> They're not going to start here. But if they do start here, they're just going to erase it all for They're not going to be like, "Oh, the prior board that we replaced." >> True. >> Didn't want us to. >> It's a stress test. And when you say worst case scenario, it's a stress test meant to be actual real. >> Yeah. So, I Yeah, that to me was Yeah. >> But I guess that

168since you're up here, I I did have some questions. I was waiting for you to come up here, Ed. Um, it's really good. Uh, one of the things that was identified previously was the curriculum. Uh, I remember that from a long time ago from our external auditors and stuff recommending that we have some kind of we add curriculum to overview as well. And but I also remember one of the issues with the BAC was it was having a hard time finding an expert in curriculum development that could advise on that. Is there is that been remediated or is that still an issue? >> I don't know the answer to that. We have three new uh three new members to our committee. [clears throat] At our next meeting, we're going to go around the table and

169have kind of an in-depth of who you are so that we get to know them better. So, I don't know if one of the three we I think it is the case, but I don't know if one of the three has the curriculum expertise. >> I think I know the answer for what it's worth because I asked when we were in the process. I think I asked like offline um because it's one of the recommendations I think in the bond audit or something was that we have curriculum and technology experts and we do have the technology expert. We do not have the curriculum of the new three people. Not one of they're not curriculum experts and there was nobody who'd applied and so when I talked to is it you Sarah? I don't even remember

170who I was talking to about it. This was a while ago. It was suggested that the next time we would need to do like aggressive recruitment to look for somebody with that curriculum experience and that we would likely have attrition on the board and could put these three new people on and then likely have a vacancy in the future and then in the next vacancy. I was like, "Okay, I'll make sure that I remember that we need to find the curriculum." >> I mean, the way we treated it before was like a project. So the people doing curriculum for your organization came in and said here's where we are in the process and here's how much money we have to spend and here how much money we have left to spend and yes we're going

171to make our budget and we'll have the materials delivered on time and that's so we we those of us in the construction field that's the way we treated it like it was a project and not technical expertise >> and we wouldn't get into the technical expertise of what books you buy or that wouldn't be our area but are you getting it on time? are you going to make the goals that you set forth? And we looked at it that way, but to have somebody that actually knew about curriculum would probably help us. >> Thank you. I actually appreciate I assume the answer is probably pretty similar for the technology infrastructure and >> we've had somebody on technology, Cara, the the chair before me. She was specifically brought on for the IT piece of the program

172back in the well 2000. She came on when I came on. So we did we do have at least one person with a technology background um which is good. >> Yeah, I guess. Thank you. That that's very helpful actually to hear. I guess my last comment I think I'll make comment question I don't know one of the above. um is it also be nice to have it I don't know how to say this nicely um [snorts] advise the board on the board's own actions about because I remember a long time ago we've had uh audit external audits done that were critical of the board and board actions and and the actions that the board took that had caused delays and increased costs >> and so you know one of the things about the BAC And

173leaning on to director Split's point, you know, we lean on the BAC to be helpful advisors. And helpful advisors also tell like the people that appointed you that, hey, uh, you should probably do things a little different, but anyways, I I I don't know if that's reflected in this, but I I would like to have some kind of avenue where that is allowed or or even encouraged. So, thank you. >> I think director Split's correct. for this group. We were somewhat marginalized a little bit, right? And um we didn't make reports to you. In fact, we didn't report to the whole board. It was a different dynamic than what you're proposing that we do now. I don't think any of us have a problem telling that's the whole point of it is to tell you

174where we think some things are going to be an issue for you. You still have to make that final decision. You're the policy makers. >> Great. Thank you. >> Can I ask Hold on. Director Lefort or let me just check in. Does anybody else have any questions or >> No, we're good. Director Lefort, >> since since I've got you up here. [laughter] Um, so the number of meetings, it says meeting no less than quarterly, do you do you plan on meeting more often? Was this language that what what is that good enough for you or you would you prefer every other month? Do you feel like we would need stronger language? Do you need to meet more often and do you need us? >> Honestly, we did not want to make it more often as

175a part of the language. If we want to meet more often, we will meet more often. But when I asked the rest of the committee members, I mean, if you put it in here every month, we'll have to meet every month. So, the idea was leave it quarterly. If we've got some issues coming like we had with with actually this itself, we'll do a special meeting. And that's what the that's the direction the committee wanted to go. Now, again, it's we are your committee. I think you need to remember that we are your committee. And so if you want us to meet every other month or monthly, you put in our charter. >> Well, I'm not I'm not suggesting that. I just want to make sure that you were comfortable with that and that you're

176right, you can have a special meeting at 30,000 foot level, we think we can do that, particularly given the relationship we now are having with the board of uh education. >> I think the great news too in terms of like, you know, I think somebody said something about a shortage of staff. This is one area where we do not have a shortage of staff anymore. So, um I'm looking forward to uh regular updates >> except for I will say and I appreciate you calling that out on how critical it is to be dependent on our staff to provide the reports and information. And I know that we as um a leadership team have been talking about the number of times that staff are pulled into meetings and how it disrupts the workflow. And I I

177know Rosanne had captured a number for the number of board meetings that have happened across committees and regular board meetings. Was it somewhere in the 70s? Some [snorts] 70s. Yeah. So over just the last 12 months. And so what I will say is that if there was any um conversation around more than quarterly um or special meetings that we consider kind of the flow of the FIO committee as well because and I know that we have these reports too monthly or however that's going to move to the board on bond updates. we have a we have a lot of uh uh talk going out and oftent times the information is the same you know so just want to value people's time and use it respectfully I wonder if there's a way to um to reduce

178the duplication of um the times that we hear that same see the same presentation maybe even a day apart if there's a way to have your committee report instead of the RISE team. So to re looking at efficiency if because it doesn't make sense to me I I could be alone in this to to have the BAC come in and and report [clears throat] >> and have the staff come and give the same report that that they've given you to report on. [laughter] >> So >> just on the same night, right? Not like in general. No, I'm just talking about we shouldn't we could have as we could have a meeting every night if we wanted to. I was suggesting that in order to be more efficient and especially of staff time that we rather

179than having duplicate reports that we choose one one report the same report it doesn't matter to me who gives it but maybe the BAC report is not duplicated by the rise team. The rise team gives the BAC the information. We shouldn't get presentations from both >> or I think when the when the solution >> we shouldn't get the same presentation >> from the BAC and the RISE team if the presentation is the same. I'm my suggestion is that we have we just choose one. It doesn't matter to me which. >> Right. >> I' I'd love to table that for another time, please. >> Okay. >> Well, maybe not. I don't know. I' I'd ra in the interest of time. I don't >> Okay. Okay, we're right now going to talk about whether we're going to

180stop getting >> the question I had also was are we going to be receiving exactly the same presentations? So, I mean I'm I'm >> But does this seem like the same presentation that he just gave as Rise gives? I'm just saying when I was reading through a concern that I had was um are are the are they going to be presenting on the same things and I mean it's not a reason not to change the charter but I think if we can avoid because also like we get reports at FIO also so are we going to get the same report at FIO that we get at the full board meeting from Rise that we get from the BAC. Um, and can we find a way just not to like triplicate the same information? >> Yeah,

181I think one of the I do want to move on the conversation because we are supposed to be talking about the charter. I think that that's a good thing. I do want to also add that one of the solutions to that is that I think at least me personally was trying to schedule the BAC to report directly to the full board. >> Yes, >> as a full board. And that would saves, you know, extra meeting time. And not only that, but it's also just it's appreciative of the BAC's work and the volunteer time that they put into it that they they report directly to the entire board and um you know, not to committee first and then coming coming to the full board and duplicating. It's just extra work for a volunteer group and I

182think that that's one of the solutions that we've talked about. >> I think aren't they already? They're a board committee already. >> Yeah. >> So that would be >> Exactly. Right. That was that was a new again one of those changes that was incorporated >> and they shouldn't ever have the same report because the BAC's report is on like their completely different uh purposes even if some of the information was the same their lens is entirely different. So I wouldn't want to see one substituted for the other. >> I guess I'm just thinking in terms of updates like it seems like an update is an update the the part of the charter that speaks about updates. So like yes, if if BAC's report is um deeper than just like a general update like yeah totally.

183Um but if it's just going to be like repeating what we're going to hear from Sarah then but it's I mean it sounds like from the charter that that it would not just be an update. >> I don't sorry I don't I don't know why this is confusing. uh because I in my experience with BAC reports, they've been entirely different than the RISE ones that we see over and over and over again. I don't know why we have to see the RISE reports over and over and over again. That to me is a different issue. But the BAC reports in my experience have been these like written word documents and then you come in and summarize it. Before that, it was pretty similar. Um it's a ve it's not a PowerPoint. It's not going through

184project by project. It's basically just like things are on track. Here's where there's some issues. It's very very different than the RISE report. If we want to get to a point where we're getting I I don't quite understand why we get so many very similar reports across so many different places from staff that do look the same, but I think the BAC one is distinct. And that's my concern is that the BAC one would replace the RISE one. I actually kind of want to get the RISE one maybe a third as often as I see it or maybe half as often. Um, but but I do I don't want to give up the C one [laughter] or I I don't know. I still want to get both, but like I think the issue that we're

185all maybe experiencing is seeing the rise one too often. >> The BAC one's quite different in my experience. >> I'm just going to say I'm thrilled to hear that we're giving you too much information and too often. That is amazing because the whole goal of the bond program is to be transparent. So this is actually accolades to what the changes that we have made since we've been here. So I I don't think that you guys could sit there, you know, six, eight months ago and say the same thing about the bond program. So I just want to highlight that because you're kind of lifting it up. Uh but I do want to tell you that we have made a concerted effort to consolidate our reporting. So that what we are reporting to the board of

186education is also what we are reporting to the BAC. Um and so from a reporting perspective all entities that are uh PPS entities are receiving the same information. So just wanted to clarify that a bit so that you all know that from staff from Presidio all everyone is getting the same information on a regular basis. >> But what I do in the report from the BAC is I put it in the lens of the charter. So I answer the question or committee does and then I write it how I answer those in the for your charter which is different than what she's going to tell you the projects and how you're doing. I'm going to put it are you staying within the bonds? Are you doing what you told the voters you'd do? That though

187that's the lens that you'll get at least I hope you're getting that from us uh from the BAC. >> Yeah. And I appreciate I love that one and a half pager [laughter] and and and that 30,000 foot lens is great. >> Great. I did have one more thing to say. Remember when it was my turn like eight turns ago? It's very quick, but it's also a little bit like spicy. So, everybody just be ready for it. So, we're getting ready to get the next bond audit. It's coming imminently, like in six weeks. And so, I just want to put out there that I actually am fine. We're not making a decision today on the charter. We could make it sometime in the near future. I also just want to say I hope I I would

188like it if we could have an open mind on um incorporating potential further changes based on the next audit if it has specific ideas. And even though this was a [snorts] very long process, I'd love it if we could be a little faster about it this next time. Um and and if we do get subsequent changes to work together, figure out how to get through that, make those changes. But I just don't want us to like get the audit the next audit recommendations and then be like, "Oh, well, we just updated it, so we can't do it again." And by same token, if for some reason this is delayed and we're voting on it like 3 days before we get the audit, I would be fine with if we all decided you and I don't

189want you to be mad at me, Virginia, because I know we just want to get it knocked out. That's my goal. But like if we're going to be hearing it like the day before it's going to be out, I don't want to hear the argument that like we can't do it again or whatever. I'm not being super articulate, but just wanted to point out that dynamic um that let's maybe move forward, be ready to to do it again real quickly and not not worry too much about that. >> Could we hold it until we get the audit to see? >> I think I'd rather not hold it because what if it doesn't say anything? I'd rather just get this done with. It's literally been since last summer that we started these conversations and I'd like

190to just wrap it up, but um I just don't want us to then not >> and also just to show, hey, we did a bond recommendation. We followed through >> and maybe it isn't perfect, but we followed through on it. And if you don't like if it's not perfect, we'll make it better. >> So, >> well said. Thank you. >> Um thank you for your time. I appreciate you coming and staying this late. >> No problem. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And like a wise person once said, "No good decisions comes after 9:00 p.m. So, let's move quickly." [laughter] >> No, I don't think it it was my um my uh mentor teacher actually. Uh all right, let's move on. >> Ne Yeah. >> Question. So, are we going to vote on

191this next meeting? Yeah. >> Next meeting. Okay, great. Yeah, it just it follows a standard process that we have where we have a discussion meeting first and then we have the vote later. So allow time for things to cook. Um I use the old version of cook. I dating myself. All right, let's move on. Uh the next up is the social studies curriculum adaptation adoption. I mean uh we've allotted 25 minutes for this item. I'll hand this over to Superintendent Armstrong to introduce it. Yeah, thank you, Chair Wong. So, as you all know, board adoption of curriculum is a requirement in the state of Oregon. And so, tonight you'll vote on the social studies curriculum for grades 6 through 12. The contract for the curriculum will be on the June 23rd agenda. So, important to

192note that. And Dr. Phipe Histiche, senior chief of academics, will say a few words about the process. >> Thank you, Dr. Armstrong um senior director um still but aspiring to be a chief one day perhaps [laughter] >> I switched out your name for Christina's and forgot to switch the titles. So for Christina out there who is virtual listening um I apologize. >> Uh [snorts] Chair Wong uh PPS uh board directors uh student representatives uh superintendent Armstrong thank you for your service. Uh my name is Phy Priest and I'm proud to serve as the senior director of secondary academics and I'm here this evening to speak in support of the resolution to adopt the the new 612 social studies instructional materials for the 2025 to 2032 cycle. This recommendation aligns with Oregon's newly adopted social studies

193standards taking effect this fall in 2026 and was guided by the PPS board policy and the adoption toolkit. Most importantly perhaps adopting common highquality instructional materials ensures that every student has access to rigorous engaging and relevant instruction. This recommendation is the result of a comprehensive review process. I want to thank our assistant directors of uh English language arts and social studies, Morgan Halibbran and Anginet Bryant, as well as the numerous teachers, students, and community members who engaged in this process with us. Our process began in the fall of 25 with the formation of the social studies curriculum adoption advisory committees. Uh by December the committees identified materials for field testing uh which ran from February to April of this year. Engagement across the district was robust. Approximately 40 educators participated across nine high schools and

194six middle schools. Nearly 900 or 950 students participated through classroom observations, focus groups with student action committee and direct surveys. We also hosted an an all-day in-person event at PC for families and community members to review the materials and engage with vendors alongside providing extended digital access. This community feedback was uh incredibly helpful in identifying where intentional district developed supplementation will be needed to fully meet Oregon's specific mandates. Based on this data, our recommendation is to adopt uh TCI for grades six through eight and Sage for 9 through 12. Uh student feedback in middle schools um was uh favorable with 84% of students um affirming that selection. Uh teacher feedback was also clear um all of the participating educators indicating either strong favor or favor with recommendation. Uh, as some of you may know, History

195Alive excels at turning traditional history lessons into highly engaging active classroom simulations and debates that bring historical events to life for middle school students. Uh, at the high school level, we're excited about what Sgage National Geographic uh has to offer. Uh, student feedback was also positive at the high school level with 93% uh favorable rating. teachers highlighted the curriculum's inclusion of diverse perspectives and strong literacy scaffolds. Uh Sgage uh National Geographic combines um impressive visual storytelling with robust embedded literacy supports that ensure all readers um and multilingual learners in particular can access rigorous high school content. We believe these materials are a vital lever for advancing educational equity across PPS and um I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Right. Thank you. Uh since this is a uh item we are voting

196on, let's go in order. Are you okay if I start with you, Director Englesman? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Hi. Um, the thing that stuck out to me, uh, um, I appreciate that it's 85% favorable student rating, but I did notice that, um, and maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I noticed that we only I mean 950 students participating in crossgrades 6 through 12 is >> I mean, with my quick math, that's like 10 less probably less than 10%, right? Because each high school has over a thousand. We have eight high schools. That's 8,000. We have a ton of middle schools. They're anywhere from 200 to 600. So 950 students feels like how do we get more engagement? And if we can't get more engagement, why are we including what is a pretty small sliver and

197probably maybe representative, but potentially also very not representative and is just representative of kids who are on their computers or on I I don't know. So that was something that um stuck out to me. Um, I don't have a lot of other questions except to >> I think was that a question or a comment because you could answer maybe and talk a little bit about like pilot like sort of the pilot nature of what this was. >> Yeah. I mean if if the if the call to action is to think about additional ways to engage uh students were we're were we're were we're were we're we're here for that. Um and just to say that our teachers did the best that they could in the time frame that they had. um the the students who

198participated in the in in the surveys got to experience the curriculum. When teachers pilot the curriculum, they're asked to essentially pause what is a familiar curriculum to field test these new curricula. They go through a training so they can deliver those curricular resources accordingly. So it it's it's a service to us and can be somewhat disruptive. So every time we go through the adoption process, whether it's science or language arts or math, we uh ask our teachers a lot who participate in the process. And so um we were pleased with that number and we'll continue to look for other ways to engage students. So >> maybe I misunderstood it. Maybe not all the students are participating. >> Correct. So of the how many students are participating in the pilot like 950 is what percentage of

199the total maybe it's much greater. >> I mean we have you know we have 40,000 students 12,000 high school age kids. I mean we have we have a lot of >> So are they all participating? >> No they're not. >> Only the 950 participated >> in the pilot or in the >> in the pilot. >> Oh. So then 100 did 100%. >> I should have wondering of the 950 who participated what percentage gave feedback. >> Yeah, I guess that's maybe what I thought that was and I misunderstood what that number was. So my whole question doesn't make any sense now. Um so I take it all back. Um my other my next my only other question is um is there and to what amount is there if there is an increase in online computer usage

200through these this pilot program in a world where we are all hearing daily from parents and we saw them in yellow today they've gone home because it got late um saying like less screens less screens is there an increase in screen time use through this pilot program >> how much this is this is the first time in quite a while that we've had a comprehensive secondary social studies adoption, maybe 15 years or or 20 years. So, for the first time in quite a while, all of our social studies classrooms will have dedicated textbook sets that are part of this curriculum. All of the curricula these days also come with an online component. And so some of the resources will be available uh digitally or all of the resources will be available digitally but the learning

201experience will be um supported by actual print text materials. So that should be helpful print. >> Yeah, that's cool. I have one question followup and that is there are there updates to the print >> books? No. >> No. >> Should there be? Well, the books that we purchase are the books that we keep for the next eight years or seven years. The online components will be updated. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. >> Um I was at the TLE meeting where we had a discussion on this. I don't have much to add. Um you all know I was a social studies teacher, so it was fun to get to think about something that I actually know know something about from the way back machine. I am reminded for those who have never heard the story of

202how I relied on library books to do a stud a report on Rwanda in the year 2001 or two when I was in college and it turns out there'd been a genocide that was completely missed in the library books and the p the teacher told me to learn how to use the internet and rewrite the paper. It was a really good lesson for early internet Christie. Um but it is kind of a reminder of how quickly those test textbooks and social studies get out of date which is not a criticism but just like yeah we can only do the best we can do and replacing every eight years is what it is. Um but that's why we have the internet um as well as the textbooks. >> Thank you so much for your work. Appreciate

203it. >> That's a funny comment because I remember in my um in my government class last year, I took it a year early. I remember there was something in there about Roie Wade and they're like and the and the Supreme Court never considered it again and I h and and wouldn't we all like that to be the case? Um so yes, it is it is just by the nature of things difficult. But I appreciate what you're doing. I got the chance to look at uh at some of these textbooks through my government teacher. Um uh and it looked it looked good. Um I I liked what I saw. We had a very long conversation about um about what it what it means to be a good textbook and you know whether considering the Lexile is

204important. Um and I think that things ultimately turned out uh turned out well with where that conversation went. Um so yeah, I I'd say good job and also I I would like to second the comments I heard about uh screen time in class. That is a continuing concern. Uh I think is something that I think a lot of districts are going to keep looking at over the next 10 years. Um, so definitely something worth uh continuing to consider. >> So a big shout out to um student representative RTO and alma mater Roosevelt High School. Um we we had a robust conversation with um Miss Fiser and her students who did a comprehensive analysis of our uh different social studies curricula being being used and so that conversation was very informative in the process. So thank

205you. Yeah. Rosa, do you want to go? Okay, Dr. Sh. >> Well, I [clears throat] don't want to make um everybody jealous of my extremely exciting life, but I spent um a couple of hours uh the other night um while my family was asleep u reading through [laughter] the textbook and uh really got caught up in it. And um as uh you know as a parent and educator um I thought that it looked good and I know that there are some concerns that I've heard from community members um about various things in social studies curriculum. Um and those were some of the things that I sought out intentionally and I think that um I think that it was a good selection. Um, I'm not going to get into uh the meat of that, but um

206I I I think it's a good selection. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um the board did get some email or at least one email uh parent concerned about making sure there wasn't too much technology with the program. >> And as I was reading through this, it sounds like there's not. and she very much wanted text. Sounds like there is. >> Yep. >> And also in reading it, it sounded like there was a lot of project based >> going on which would have been made my history lessons in high school much more fun than reading the book and dates. So it just sounds like it's going to be a really attractive program. If I can just add one thing and thank you for pointing that out. The new social studies standards, the 2024

207social studies standards for the state of Oregon do a couple of things. One, they establish what um the state is referring to as enduring understandings. These are almost like the habits of mind of social scientists, you know. Uh so rather than focusing on dates, names, places, battles, wars, heroes, etc. Um kind of the old traditional way of thinking about history as these kind of like disperate separate moments in time. Uh the new standards really push our students to be the inquisitive um thinkers. And so these curriculara are designed uh to promote that inquiry based learning uh which is really important. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> That's great. And it sounded like for tech it was sort of support people who needed extra support. >> Exactly. Exactly. So the exciting thing about what technology can offer is

208is accessibility that printed texts sometimes cannot. And so particularly for multilingual learners, making again the difference between a print textbook and a resource that is more easily translated um not as Google translation but as actual legitimate integrated uh feature of this resource is really exciting. Uh it's something that we we haven't had in a while. >> Great. Hi. Um, first of all, I want to say thank you for all of the information that was included in the board packet. It was extensive and detailed and I read all of it and it was great. So, I really appreciated um the thoroughess of the materials that we were given. Um, couple of questions. OD social science standards include Holocaust and genocide education, tribal history, shared history, civics requirements, inclusive histories. Are the requirements met by the selected

209curriculum or will supplemental materials be required? >> The short answer is that supplemental materials will be required. Uh the 2024 standards are quite robust in terms of what they add as a set of requirements. Um in addition to the things that you named uh ethnic studies is another um requirement Senate bill. These Senate bills were passed over the last several years at different moments essentially elevating the standards saying Holocaust, genocide education needs to be embedded. Ethnic studies as a lens has to be embedded. Tribal history, shared history needs to be uh embedded. The civics requirement and so the 2024 standards now integrate all of those requirements. And we are confident that these curricular resources provide a quite a robust foundation and starting point. But we will have to uh supplement because no national publishing house

210is creating resources with this level of rigor and expectation that the Oregon state standards include. So um as we transition from the selection of resources and we think about the implementation process which is connected but a little bit separate um two things that I want to highlight. One, we'll be establishing uh an implementation committee that will include our educators and central office leaders who will be uh monitoring how the implementation is unfolding where there are places where additional resources are are needed. And then we'll be working with community partners, culturally specific community partners, organizations, experts to provide us that guidance and expertise uh as we begin deciding where that those supplemental resources are needed. So, so now we're kind of finishing the the selection process of what are the resources that we think set us

211up for the implementation work which will unfold starting in August. you answered part of one of my other questions was how would uh community um feedback or partners be incorporated. So, thank you for and this is this is where the community feedback was really helpful. We've already started some of those conversations and those will continue. >> That's great. Um I wanted to and I'm just raising this because I received this question from a couple of people um about the public review of the curriculum that there um were four platforms that were field tested. >> Correct. And I think we'd heard that only two were field tested, but that was not at some point that the information that goes out there was incorrect that all four were field tested, not just two. So, I just wanted

212to clarify that. >> Um, and um, let's see about the supplemental materials in terms of oversight. I was looking at our board policy um for supplement supplementary uh books and instructional materials and Dr. Armstrong and I spoke about this as well. So our board policy um says that we will require approval according to a process established by the office of the superintendent. And then the AD addresses academic freedom and teacher discretion but does not appear to establish the approval process. And both of these were last revisited in 2002. So it's been about a quarter of a century. And I was curious about the appetite to um revisit this. Do we want to recommend and we can maybe come back around to this at the end of the meeting that the policy committee review what may

213be a gap between the board policy and the AD or refi, you know, revisit the board policy? It's been a long time. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Um and uh but I see seems to me like we're we're seeing a process, a committee. Maybe that's something we want to codify moving forward. Um so just uh throwing that out there. So um do we have a process? Should it be published? Do we need additional administrative guidance and uh or should the policy be amended to reflect current practice? So those are my thoughts. Thank you. >> I don't have any questions necessarily. I am a little jealous that um director Chase Miller got to flip through a book. I'm really happy that there are books, but it sounds like they will be outdated

214and so that's something that we might not need to plan for, but they might not need to be updated because we will be using technology. They'll be available digitally. So, that's a tension I think we're going to have to hold. [clears throat] >> Um but yeah, I have no questions about the adoption process. I think it's great that you um piloted it and got as much uh input as you did. Um, that's I really love those robust uh processes and again really happy that there's nothing like a new book when you come into school. There's just nothing like it cracking open a new book. That might just be me. >> Thank you. Um, my first year teaching in where I taught US history and I've been pushing inquiry based education ever since. So I guess

215my comment is finally thank you. It makes such a huge difference to have those resources available instead of having the teachers again that's a timesaver right there the teachers having to find this themselves which was the story of you know half my social studies career and most my science and so um uh inquiry based education or curriculum is something I've been pushing for over two decades and again thank you for putting that my my my I guess my question is on the flip side again you know it's a very hard process is to find the right curriculum and thank you for doing this. It looks great. Um, but also the the followup in terms of like how I don't know I was wondering if you could describe the feedback process for when the curriculum rolls

216out. How do we know like what are the metrics to figure out like where are the issues are coming up? What are the the feedback process? Uh how well it's been implemented. I'm just wondering if you could speak to that for a moment. >> Sure. So, our plan uh this summer once we lay in this decision and and can begin um uh conversations with with Sage and and uh teacher um History Live or TCI is to begin planning first of all the professional development that our educators will receive in August and wanting to make sure that that that that that's a robust opportunity for them to become familiar with the resources available. We'll have an initial set of the scope and sequence documents which identify the primary units of study throughout the school year and

217and we'll then identify this implementation team which will be a team of educators who will be coming together throughout the school year to reflect on what they taught and prepare for what they'll be teaching. And that information will be the most important information that we receive because it will be grounded in the actual experience of educators and and students. We'll also have classroom visits um which are also an important source of information uh for us. But those conversations with educators will be um crucial in identifying where do we need to spend more time, where do we need to spend less time, where do we need to dig deeper, who are the community partners that we need to bring in to have the additional conversations. Um so that that's that's the process that um we'll we'll

218be using >> and also probably utilizing PLC's and as well, right? Exactly. >> Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Great. Um, I forgot we didn't ask for a motion in a second. >> I thought of one one more question. It's fast. I promise. >> Okay. Fast you promise. >> Okay. Pass your promise. AP human GIO versus world history. What's going on with high schools? I'm hearing that all high schools be doing AP Human Geo. Is that not true? What's true? What's not true? >> We have, thank you for the question. We have one high school that does AP human geo as their core 10th grade basically modern world history class. And so instead of asking them to purchase those texts from their school budget, we're recommending that those texts are included in this adoption

219because it is their core social studies curriculum. >> Got it. Okay. So that's why that was there. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you. And >> about the policy >> I um sorry um policy committee has done a great job of working through a few tranches, but if there's something else that's from 2002, I would hope that whoever the policy committee is next year that they just continue because we shouldn't have something that hasn't been looked at since 2002. >> There there's a lot of things that haven't been looked at since even before then. So that's why we're going through the exercise. But yeah, I agree with you. >> Great. Thank you. Um, slightly out of order, but hopefully it doesn't make a difference. Uh, do I have a motion and a second to adopt

220resolution 7313 grades 6 through 12? >> So move. >> Thank you. Director Sullivan moves. And did I hear director Leort? >> Seconds. Awesome. We've had our board discussion. Miss Pal, is there a public comment? >> Yes, there is. Uh, Nadia Manv, you have three minutes. Um, yellow light goes off. That's 30 second warning. Red light finish up. Thank you for taking your time to be here and provide your public comment. >> Um [clears throat and cough] uh my name is Nadia. I am um um parent of uh two um graduates of PPS and uh I'm here today to talk about uh Sage um uh Singage curriculum. [clears throat] Since October 7th, 2023, we have seen an unprecedented surge in anti-semitic hostility. The Secure Community Network recorded nearly 7,000 threats against Jewish institutions and individuals in

221a single year, the highest number ever recorded. This included three deadly attacks, bomb threats, swatting incidents, vandalism, and assaults on on visibly Jewish Americans. Before October 7th, Jews who represent 2.3 of the US a percent of US population uh where the targets of 60% of religious hate crimes since then anti-semitic hate crimes have increased dramatically. Jewish communities now spend more than millions annually on security. Synagogue, schools, community centers, and even children events require armed protection. No other minority group in America lives this way. The crisis is fueled in part by years of anti-IL Israel indoctrination in K to2 education and college campuses. Because Israel is deeply connected to Jewish identity, this rhetoric translates directly into hostility toward Jewish students, resulting in harassment, exclusion, and sometime physical danger. Under title six Oregon law and PPS policy,

222the district has a legal obligation to ensure that no students faces discrimination or hostile environment based on their Jewish identity, including shared ancestry and national or origin. Federal guidance makes clear that anti-semitism connected to Israel or Zionism falls under these protections when it results in harassment of Jewish students. This engaged curriculum contains factual inaccuracies and one-sided presentations of Israel and Israeli Palestinian conflict. It [snorts] presents complex history in ways that mirror narratives contributing to today's climate of anti-semitism. Adopting materials that reinforce these narratives creates a foreseeable risk of a hostile environment for Jewish students. Many members of Jewish communities of Jewish community including myself reviewed these materials months ago and submitted detailed feedback verbal and written. Our concerns were ignored. We are here again today because we believe adoption of this curriculum will increase the

223risk of harassment and harm for Jewish students. Jewish students deserve the same safety. I'm almost done. Jewish students deserve the same safety, dignity, and protection as every other child in this district. I urge the board to the board reconsider adoption of the engage curriculum. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Can I make a quick comment? Is that um is it Nadia? I I just wanted to say um since you um brought this up that part of the question that I was asking earlier about the supplemental materials and community engagement um that there um is a commitment I asked about this today in writing from staff that they will be working closely with the community groups and one of those groups um is the Oregon uh Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. So hope as

224a board we follow up not just with the Jewish community but with you know other impacted communities as well as well engaging the comm community with the approval of these supplemental materials. So this is on our radar. So >> I understand I I believe that the supplemental materials working collaborative with collaboratively I'm sorry it's getting late. I can't talk. Working collaboratively with community organizations would address some of those those concerns. So ensuring that our community organizations are engaged in the supplemental material um adoption It's about All right. I Yeah, thank you for the um We do need to continue. Um I >> can I add something? I didn't read the section on Palestine and Israel. It was late and I couldn't find it. Um, I did read the section um on the Holocaust and um

225I felt like some of the concerns that I had heard about Palestine Israel curriculum um were reflected in the way um the curriculum talked about the Holocaust. So I don't I don't know um if there's difference or consistency between the different units. Um, and and honestly, I don't think there is a curriculum out there that um we're going to find our Palestinian families and our Jewish families like all feeling awesome about um I felt like what I read in the curriculum um was was doing a its best to thread a thread a really tricky needle. And I hope that with supplemental materials we can continue to probe at the nuance of what is one of the most challenging um issue literally [laughter] one of the most challenging issues in the world and um something that

226is really difficult to teach with nuance and sensitivity. >> Yeah. If I can add to that too as well. One of the natures of inquiry based curriculum is very different than traditional curriculum. Traditional curriculum is a very top- down type of teaching, right? Teachers like this is what it is and things like that. And so when old curriculum had very strong stresses on certain points of view, that was problematic because it taught it. It's like if the voice was like this is what it is, right? But inquiry is the opposite of that. It's saying, hey, someone's saying that this is what it is and these this group of people are saying, hey, this is actually not what it is. This is a different perspective. and then having the students battle with that is the core

227of inquiry based curriculum. And so by its very nature it addresses a lot of these um controversies, issues and things like that. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. It's a human created thing which is far from perfect. But it that that the core of inquiry based curriculum is taking tackling a lot of these um issues and bringing to the students to figure out how to talk about it, how to converse about it and what is what is history, right? And so I think that um I think with time and development things like these issues that have been raised can be addressed because of the nature of the curriculum and we couldn't have said that about our older curriculum. So I I think um any that's that's a comment I have to make about that. And since

228I made a comment if anyone else wants to chime in you're welcome to. >> Yeah I have a question and maybe because you read the Holocaust. >> Oh Ian was going. Sorry. >> Thank you. So I just wanted to say something very quickly. Um I 100% agree and I think that especially in regards to social studies curriculum uh I think that we should be careful that we don't shy away from criticism of government all government both our own and world government I think that you know as you said humanmade structures everything that humans have created to govern each other has been flawed and so I think that especially in regards to inquiry based discussion I think it's really important that we allow space for students you know to to come up you know to to

229again engage and we have to make sure these conversations are good and nuanced, but for students to to be able to bring their own experiences um and their own their own opinions and come out with hopefully an informed perspective um on again not just this conflict or this government um but governments all across the world and I want to make sure that we're just that we don't you know I don't think that's going to be a problem here but that in the future we don't put any caps on that you know and we say okay we're not we're you can't go there actually you know I think that's important um for our students Yeah, sorry I didn't see you. Um, can I just ask for someone who read the Holocaust or this inquiry based like

230this idea is not like that students get to battle out whether the Holocaust happened, right? Like someone is still teaching them that this horrific thing happened and then they're just >> Right. Okay. So, you read that it's still Okay. >> still required by or sorry, it's still required by Oregon law. Well, required by Oregon law doesn't mean that >> right >> we're not like letting them say it never happened prove it happened and then suddenly we have a classroom who are believing it didn't happen like we're they're still learning that it happened and then just talking about it. >> Yeah, I think Ian described it better than I could have is that the whole point of inquiry based education is that um we're not looking at history as like a top- down authoritarian type of

231perspective like old history books that the stuff we grew up were written in. It's not like hey this is the only version of history. The idea is that um it allows students to wrestle with complicated topics that are by this very nature complicated and have multiple perspectives and that's how you develop critical thinking like hey how do I how am I getting my new sources right and how do I think critically about what perspectives those come from how am I getting my history and how do I think critically about what perspectives that come from and often that comes from providing materials that show different points of view so to to kind of prompt our students to wrestle with very difficult and often um very real issues >> and also relating history, things that happened long

232ago to what's going on today and and providing that analogy to be able to crit critically think about what's going on today. That make sense? >> Oh yeah. A few years ago, my kids are like this. A few years ago, shortly, I think it was the year after COVID, there was an OB book called The Year I Got Polio by Peg Carrot, and it was all about vaccines and the disease that crushed the world. And my kids were reading it in OB. So, it would have been third grade, so it' have been two years after everything opened back up. And um yeah, anyway, it was like history being implemented right then and there when my kids were like learning about I don't know if director Chase Miller if you had more to add. I think

233it was you were looking her as well. Um >> is there any more where is that? That that was the only public comment that was sent. All right. >> All right. So now the board will now vote on resolution 7313 grades 6 through 12 social studies curriculum materials adoptions. All in favor please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. Opposed. Abstensions. Student representative to >> yes. Thank you. Resolution 7313 is approved by a vote of 7 to zero with student representative Torto unofficially voting yes. Thank you and hopefully you have enough time to get home and get homework done. Oh no, they're done with school. He's got >> get your summer vacation started. That's what I meant to say. [clears throat] >> All right. Uh next we have resolutions to rescend and adopt revised policies. Um

234let's start with the resolution to adopt revised policies. I'll hand this over to vice chair to pass. >> All right. Thank you. And I'll breeze through these because of the late hour. Um so we're going to be voting on two uh resolutions. One is all of the policies that we're rescending. The other would be the policies that we're proposing that we adopt. Um on March 30th and April 27th at the board policy committee reviewed and considered proposed revisions of 1.70.020 That's policies [clears throat] and administrative directives. 7.00.00 P Community Policies 7.10.010 School Site Councils. 7.10.020 Districtwide Advocacy and Fundraising. 7.10.030 District Foundation. And lastly, 7.20.020 020p volunteers and the recisions of 7.10.040P parental and family involvement in support of academic achievement 7.20.040p citizen community sponsored contests. And on May 12th, the board presented the first

235reading of the revisions to each of these policies and the recisions of the two policies pursuant to district policy. The public comment period was open for at least 21 days and there has been no public comment received during that comment period. >> I call the motion. >> Yes. >> Great. Let's do uh 7314 first, which is the motion is to revise policies. Do I have a motion and a second to adopt resolution 7314? Resolution to adopt revised policies. I'll move. Thank you. Director Englesman moves. >> I'll second to pass seconds. Board discussions. >> Um I have a question about um the public access public I really can't talk. It's like once 9:30 hits I'm just can't talk anymore. [laughter] Um >> public access to district records. Uh in the red line um uh let's see

236250. 010. >> So that's not in the motion. >> Oh, sorry. Yeah. >> See, you just got to >> It's in the next >> Sorry about that. >> It's okay. It's late. >> All right. Do we have any public comment? >> Oh, Miss P. Do we have any public comment? >> Okay. All right. Uh the The board will now vote on resolution 7314, resolution to adopt revised policies. All in favor, please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. >> Uh opposed abstensions. Thank you. Resolution 7314 resolution to adopt revised policies is approved by a vote of 7 to zero. All right. Let's do the next one. Do I have a motion second to adopt resolution 7315 resolution to resend board policies >> which is 7.1040p and 7.200040P. >> We have director split moves. >> I'll second.

237>> Director Englesman seconds. Do we um I guess let's go. Is there a public comment for this one? >> Yes, we have Lisa Jackson. >> Thank you. Can you hear me? >> Good evening. How long do I have? 3 minutes. >> Yes, 3 minutes. >> Okay, [snorts] good. Because I just kind of want to make this conversation with everyone loud and clear. The reason why I'm coming up and talking on this is because you're rescending like parent involvement, which is kind of crazy. Like, I don't know why you guys are rescending the parent involvement and just pushing it away. Um, if there's not going to be something to back up how to work with parent involvement because I am a parent and I'm here speaking to you as a parent. I'm kind of tired of

238this all back and forth. I've given everyone the benefit of the doubt talking about why Indian Ed doesn't have a home. I'm not here speaking for Indian education or anyone. I'm here speaking as a parent. I have not received anything from anyone. And it kind of like hurts my heart because I've been coming to these things and we're talking about these bonds and when Indian education wasn't implemented with Jefferson and we were told we were going to get 1.4 million. That has not been talked about. All of this stuff is is clearly has to do with everything on your bonds. And then we're talking about curriculum. I just sent the president and Miss Split the curriculum that I've been asking and bringing to the table for three years. Like as a parent, I'm really frustrated

239with everyone, especially Deepass, you've been here and you clearly miss facility meetings. No. And I'm I'm just saying this because I'm coming to realize that a lot of the board members that are sitting everywhere from the city council to the commissioners to everyone that's been here, you guys have all been here. So it's like what are we doing? Some of some people are new, but it's like all of this is a cycle and it's a cycle of pushing us out our native people and forgetting of us about us and and it's it's sickening and I'm I'm hurt because this is crazy. I'm wondering if it would be helpful to hear I appreciate your testimony. I'll let you finish, but I wonder if you want to hear why we've rescended or revised the policies. >> Well,

240no. I I I get that part, but I'm I'm here asking about why we don't have a home, why we don't have curriculum, why all of this is the way it is. Period. I've been in your community for 5 years going hard for this native community and I'm always the only one showing up. And you are letting go our native educators. They should be on top because we only have a few of them. Period. Pushing out our people over and over. That's just showing like for real. Think about that. And we talk about this curriculum. is there's a tribe that had a curriculum since 2020 and we're just now here that's not even being advocated for. So, it's about policy. Yes, I'm great that we're talking about policy, but this all of this stuff is

241way bigger and it's it's tiring because I don't know what people are here for, but this community and I'm talking about our community is hurting. And as a parent, that's why I got off all boards. That's why I don't work for nonprofits. I work for my kid. And I'm here for my kid because this ref this all of this affects my child. She don't even have faith in none of this anymore. I would like a email because I do want to hold accountability as a parent. >> Thank you. >> Great. Board discussion about uh resolution 7315. Um, I would like question you to answer that question, Michelle. Why are we rescending that? >> I'd like to ask staff to come. Um, so some of the the the policies that have been rescended are either showing

242up in other places. >> Yeah. >> Um, but I see that Emily's here, so I would take advantage. >> Um, because she's I'm hopefully more articulate. Yeah. So, we're not just getting rid of policies because we don't like them. Yeah, they're all just they're justified. Um, >> good evening. We recommended the recision of 71040. Um, it's a 2007 policy, a short one. It, um, references some rescended or replaced policies. Its subject matter is really, um, more thoroughly covered already in the school site council policy, which is a more recent policy, as well as the volunteers policy. Was that helpful? >> Um, yes. I suppose I should see those to be sure, but um I will trust you that that they cover >> with you with the with with the policy. >> Yeah, that'd be fine.

243>> Any other questions or comments? I think the site council and the volunteers, weren't they just on the resolution we just did? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I think they're they're it's >> in the front. >> I think the only ones that school site council and volunteers don't, as far as I remember seeing, don't really talk about are sort of parent and community involvement at home, but I do think they're otherwise very well covered in those two. >> Okay. Thank you. I don't really have anything to say, but just hearing that the part that's not covered is parental involvement at home, which feels like it probably shouldn't be subject to a board policy anyway. So, yeah. Yeah. Thanks, folks. Um, all right. The board will now move to will vote [clears throat] on resolution 7315, resolution

244to resend board policies. All in favor, please indicate by saying yes. Yes. >> Yes. Opposed abstensions. Thank you. Resolution 7315 is approved by a vote of 7 to zero. >> That's all of them, right? All right. Uh, next we have first readings of several policies that will be reviewed by that we reviewed by the that sorry that were reviewed by the policy committee and recommended. Director Ford, I think I gave you the disease of not being able to speak after night. um uh were reviewed by the policy committee and recommended uh be forwarded to the full board for the first reading. Uh we have five minutes on the agenda for this topic. I'll turn it over to vice chair to pass to give an overview of these policies. >> Okay. So we'll keep it under

245five minutes. At the May 18th policy committee, we discussed and recommended revisions and recisions to the section 2 policies. That would be 2.10.10p racial educational equity policy 2.2 20.1 Oh, I'm sorry. Those are uh 2.20.10p naming school district property 2.30.010 P religious and cultural observances 2.4.020P student participation 250.010P 010P public access to district records and 2.50.020P student education records. Staff recommended applying the following non-substantive formatting and language updates to all policies. Apply consistent template heading, margins, spacing, font, etc. based on an updated uh template developed by the board office. Apply consistent capitalization to the words superintendent, board, etc. Correct typos. Update language. Replace all instances of district with PPS and shall with will. And finally, change she or he to they or his her to there. Um [clears throat] 2.10.10p 10P racial e educational equity

246policy, non-substantive updates, and deletion of redundant language. Add a final sentence to the policy to require that the superintendent's updates and reports to the board on student achievement in include achievement data disagregated by race and reflect measures to address racial disparities in student experience and outcomes. And this reflects current practices. And um at least since as long as I've been on the board, we've always disagregated outcomes by race. Um but this reflects current practice and ensures its continuity. 2.2010P naming school district property, non-substantive uh updates and deletion of redundant language. 2.30.010 010P religious and cultural observances non-substantive updates and deletion of redundant language 2.4.020P student participation is recommended for recision it's outdated and duplicative 250.010P 010P public access to dis district records non-substantive updates and deletion of redundant language. And finally 250.020P student education records

247non-substantive updates and deletion of redundant language. We'd modify section six to add the words and students 18 years or older with disabilities and federal law to the second sentence. >> Thank you, Vice Depass. The proposed policies will be posted on the board website and the public comment period is a minimum of 21 days. Uh contact information for public comment will be posted with the policy. Uh the board expects to hold a second reading of the re revised policy with a vote to approve them on July 7th. Also of note is the next policy committee meeting is on June Monday June 15th where these policies will be discussed. >> Any more that? >> No, I was going to ask if they were going back on because it sounds like that's supposed to happen and it hasn't

248always. So they'll go back on. Okay. >> All good. Great. >> Did you have a question? >> Yes. Thank you. [laughter] I was like, I'll save it for next time and I might as well just ask it really quick because I'll be thinking about this on the public as access to district records red line. Um, section 8, we eliminated ex uh basically the appeal to the board. requesters who believe PPS uh has inappropriately withheld records or assessed fees may request an expedited review of such decisions by the board which will decide whether to hear the appeal and if it does issue a decision within 30 days. Um basically it eliminates the appeal to the board and goes straight to um the requesters's option to have a review from the DA. Why are we removing the

249appeal to the board step? I can address that. So, we were revising this section to bring it right into alignment with OS chapter 192, which provides an immediate option for appeal directly uh to the Multma County District Attorney. >> Doesn't somebody already have that opportunity? They can already do that regardless. This just this eliminates the public's ability to bring it to the board, >> right? it it's like I said in alignment with chapter 192. They get to go straight to the district attorney and uh we want our policy to provide the same. >> Okay. I'm just I just want to clarify they already can go to the DA like this isn't we're not giving that we we have a an additional option for community members right now if they want to bring it to us.

250We will eliminate that that option if we delete this. So, um I haven't read this entirely yet, but um just wonder having been someone who has done both. Um not just not sure how I feel about it. So, >> I think it sounds like it's in alignment with is it what is it 192 >> and we want to be in compliance with >> we wouldn't be out of compliance. >> We wouldn't be. Okay. >> So, I guess next step, thank you for raising that question. I think now that staff have the question they would be prepared to answer this in the policy committee on June 15th. >> Is that workable? >> We actually did talk about this at a policy committee already. I asked the same question and the answer that I remember being given

251by um Sharon Tonrey was something about to the effect of and I forgive me if I'm not going to articulate it well. We can talk about it on the 15th, but was that by the [clears throat] time it gets to the board, it has already gone to the DA's office. And so your quizzical look is something that I expressed because perhaps currently or perhaps it has always gone quickly to the DA's office, but with budget crunch and a different DA at the helm, it could easily change that something gets dragged out much further. And so the concern that I raised before and will continue to raise is that having both is not out of compliance with 192. It's just an extra. It's just more for our community if they want to have someone reviewing. Um

252and so in the event that the DA's office gets to it first, great. It doesn't ever end up in front of us. But in the event we end up in a place where the DA's office is understaffed or is led by someone who just doesn't care about this and so they don't make it a priority that there is a mechanism to come to us sooner. So this is something that and I would like to talk more about. >> So yeah, so the district doesn't send it to the DA, the requesttor does. So if I were making a public records request and I felt that PPS wasn't responding quickly enough, I I'd have two options. I could appeal it to the board or I could take it to the DA. So it's not work that PPS

253is doing. They're not sending it to the DA's office. That's work that you have to do as a Mhm. So you send it like I would like if I was in me as a board member, but me as you know, Virginia, you know, whatever community advocate would send a letter to the DA doing exactly that. So yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. So but >> talk about it on 15. >> I will be there. Thank you. Uh next, um thank you Cornish. >> Uh we next we have uh discussion on the access transportation hub proposal. I'll hand this over to superintendent Armstrong. >> Excellent. Uh we have senior chief Franco who is going to bring this item and Okay. And team, thank you for being here. Got it. Sorry. One second.

254right there. Okay. Good evening, directors, chair Wang, vice chair to pass, superintendent Dr. Armstrong. So we are um here as a followup from our last work session. And so if you can recall um we uh went in from that time to this time one of the pieces uh was to go to the access uh community talk through uh the hub model. Uh and I did send um or you received a memo um which outlines a little bit uh a little bit more detail about uh that particular meeting. Uh first of all I just want to say it was a very productive meeting. I think you heard Jonathan speak today on behalf of the access community. uh they were uh very very appreciative and know that um the options that we are exploring and I was

255very clear with with the community uh we have to it has to carry a weight of some significant savings and so just to summarize if we were to um which was the initial propose proposal if we were to eliminate access transportation it would yield a $ 1.5 million savings. [snorts] The hub model would also yield a significant savings of 1 million. Now, this is again, this is before the 70%. This is kind of how this this works. And so, I just want to be clear about that piece. Um, and so it does bring up a delta of 500,000 that we would have to um find some trade-offs for. and in the memo and I can talk a little bit more specific or if you have any questions about what some of those potential tradeoffs could

256be. Um I'm happy to discuss that as well. So what you have here and this is um the these initial pieces is what we currently what we talked about last time. I don't want to rehash those with you unless you would like us to. Um but and I have Brandon here. This was what our initial proposal was in regards to the hub model. You could see there on the left that's our current context in term and you saw that uh last time and you could see the streamline effect of the initial proposed hub model. This next slide right here incorporates some of the feedback that we have received from the access community. And I'm going to let Brandon kind of talk through this piece to give you a little bit more context based on the

257feedback that we've uh received. Yeah, thank you. Um, so we met with uh a couple members of the access community and we actually had a um a little over an hour meeting and just walked through our process. We talked through their points. Um, as Jonathan said, there was two of them that we really had to hone in on and say there's not a way around these. We can't do this. Um, for one reason or another. One of those happened to be TRAT passes. Um, we have a long-standing relationship with Trimetat and that is a partnership with OD. We can't budge on that. There's no way to get around that rule. So, that was one of those. Um, but the other points, uh, we dug in deep to those and saw where we could make some

258adjustments. Um, this map represents a lot of that detail and, um, I know it's five lines, but there was about 50 other lines that we went through to try to get there that just didn't work. um both with that group and then previously before that as well. Uh what you're seeing is really close to working. It's not quite there yet. Um there are some numbers here that uh actually had the slide previously. We can look at it in a minute, but there's some numbers that are just too tight to make it to school on time. Um but we did feel that this incorporated more of the stops that the community actually wanted. Um, we did bend on the rule of trying to keep these at middle schools and K8 schools and we will find ways

259to make sure that we don't affect the students in those schools at the elementaryaries that are already in class. Um, pulling stops to corners. Um, trying to be more efficient with some of those things. Um, we also looked at sites that have daycarees either on site at that stop or very near. Uh, and I think we gained at least three or four sites that have something like that. So, uh, we will need to talk to those providers and see if they can possibly add some space for students like that and see if that's a possibility. Um, but this model actually gives us another five stops on top of it, which was a a key part was we felt like some of these stops were just too far apart and it was going to be a

260big burden for those families. Um, and this really got some catchment of students and families that said, "We will not be able to go to school without this bus being somewhat near us." Um, so, uh, I can dig in deeper or I can let you guys ask some questions. I'm assuming you have some. >> Yeah. I was wondering how many or about what percent of access parents were involved with this? Do you feel like you've gotten pretty much everybody? >> Well, so one thing, one thing we did and uh we tried to get more data because we have a small we have a large portion of the student catchment, but we don't have 100% in our routing software telling us that those students ride the bus. We tried to fix that. There's not a way

261to do it quickly. Um it's going to happen next year when enrollment happens and um so we'll get some data then, but we needed something quickly. So, what we did is worked with the school and got it out to the families. Okay? >> And we sent a survey out and what I asked was that they give us the top three locations. If they could pick any site for any reason, what would it be? >> And we got almost 300 people that responded to that survey, which is well over the 80% that we feel is viable. Um, so we use that data to hone in on this as well as the questions that the community raised in their previous surveys. uh to look into th those questions and really answer those for families. Um one of

262the big ones we heard uh was North Portland, there wasn't enough. Um and it went from having what we thought was two maybe three stops to two for sure and two more as well. Um much more streamlined group over there. >> Um I'm wondering um John could if you could go over the financials again that you rattled off. Um so current state is that there's 1.5 million um for the transportation and then you mentioned a delta of 500,000 >> correct. >> Was that pre or post reimbursement? >> That's pre >> can you rattle off the whole what you said about the state? >> Yeah. So the init our initial proposal with the elimination of access transportation would yield a savings pre-reimbursement of 1 1.5 million. If >> it was eliminated altogether >> altogether okay >>

263correct >> that's what I missed >> yes and then uh the incorporation of the hub model would yield a significant savings it wouldn't be the 1.5s it would be 1 million but that leaves us a delta of 500,000 where we would have to find tradeoffs within the budget and so in the memo I listed some potentials um and I think it's important as you look at the next meeting to vote on the budget that you understand what those tradeoffs would be and I and I can go into those now if you'd like. Okay. So, if you go to um page six in the memo, so uh you could see the reduced contracted student behavior support on buses which would yield a savings of roughly around 150,000. So right now we currently have a resource and

264this is for non uh special education students that's an entirely different funding source. So non non um students who are not on IEPS if there are principles can request basically another supervisor on a bus right and so now we don't have it's it's not an infinite resource right so we have to prioritize and there are requests from principles that we can't honor right um but there are requests that we do um because the the alternative is um a principal could could if they become that if a student becomes unruly on a bus where it's unsafe, there's this option or you follow the student rights and responsibilities handbook which means a potential suspension of bus privileges. Um or as a former principal myself um who also had vice principles, that could mean that the the school

265administrator is riding the bus, right? And so that is and and I want to be clear like that is something um and we're not talking a complete elimination but a reduction in that resource. >> Can you tell us more about what is that resource comp? You're saying there's aund >> it's contracted support. >> It's $150,000 in savings is what's proposed. >> Correct. >> What is the line item currently or what would be left behind? >> Um so we cut it. What was it Brandon? I think it was we had it was we cut it by half. >> So, >> and you're saying already the 300K >> doesn't cover everything doesn't [clears throat] cover every request. >> Correct. That's correct. So, it doesn't can we can't honor every single request. So, we have we do have

266to prioritize >> any. >> And who gets hired? Who are these contracted people? >> Um all of these are through first student currently. Uh when STA, our other contractor, came on, we did not have them hire any of these monitors. Um so we and we have brought this number down a little bit. I think we're currently sitting at 14. We were at 18, I think, at the beginning of the year. So we have tried to bring them down to save budget. >> So these are already only available on some bus lines anyway, the ones that are under just that particular contractor. >> Yes. Correct. Okay. >> So not even available at every school anymore. Correct. That's correct. This any other questions around that piece? Okay. So, the second piece there is is a proposed reduction

267to the student travel equity fund allocation. And so, I uh Director Wong, Director Depass, uh Director Sullivan, you know what this is. I think even director Split, you know what this is. So the the board a few years ago um um basically directed uh so what we what we were experiencing is we found that that schools that didn't have the funds [snorts] outside of the general fund right like uh very supportive PTA um we are finding that you would get certain schools have access to more funds for field trips and those types of things right through PTA and those and and those other resources and so the student travel equity fund um uh directed staff to earmark funds very specific to schools that we know that don't have those additional supports. And so we had

268a specific formula based on uh the number of historically underserved students that you have and we allocated to high schools and middle schools accordingly. So this number of 130,000 but what we found over the previous two years is that with that 500,000 pot um it wasn't used completely right it wasn't used up to the 500,000 and the delta is basically roughly over the previous two years was 370,000 of the 500 was used and so what we're saying is we could take that delta of 130,000 from that student travel equity fund since historically, at least in recent history, it hasn't been used and we could apply that as a savings. >> Any questions about that? >> Yeah. Can I ask a quick question? >> Yeah. Um, if these numbers are post, I'm sorry, pre-reimbursement, are we

269looking for $500,000 because the travel reimbursement has already been reallocated somewhere else, or are we looking for 150, which would be after the 70% reimbursement? >> Yeah. So, the 70% it is it's a great question and I will say the reimbursement piece is um it doesn't get reimbursed to the transportation fund. it gets reimbursed the following year to the general fund. I mean just in general, right? So we don't >> we're getting last year. So it's still >> right. But it does help us in regards to you know to balancing the budget. I will say this too, right? Like that any amount that we can save is is an amount especially as we're looking we're planning for 2728 next year and we're looking at a potential $65 million budget deficit. uh we're going we have

270to plan and that's what I told the access because they asked the the exact same question and that's what that's what I I told them as well. >> So the reduce the student travel equity fund that sounds like it hasn't been used or it's gone unspent is wild is do people know about it? >> Oh yes >> the the school >> they absolutely they they receive a specific allocation. >> Okay. Okay. Uh, every year, every fall, each school based on our formula receives a specific allocation for field trips. >> Okay. And it's gone unspent. >> Correct. >> Yeah. I'll just just for just anecdotally, because I was a PTA treasure, um, the school my kids go to, the buses for field trips and all field trip costs are paid by our PTA, now our PTO.

271So, we gave a certain amount of money per student for field trips. I think we've had once where that whole amount has been spent that we've budgeted based on like a number per kid. So, I think it's just like there's other barriers to field trips in addition to cost. Um, it's hard to plan. Teachers often have to take the lead. It's it's stressful for the teachers to go on them. Like, we could go on and on. So, I think it's probably just to me it's it's very consistent with four years of managing um our field trip budget that we chronically underspent what our teachers um could have spent. >> I will say also there's field trips that every school wants to take at the same time and we just don't have 150 extra bus drivers.

272So, we do have to limit the amount of trips we can take per day. Sometimes that's a giant number still, but it is a limit. Any other questions about that? And so this last piece on here, the elimination of centralized CSA, I won't say elimination, reduction is probably the >> tell us what CSA is. >> Oh, sorry. Campus supervisor associate. >> Campus supervisor associates. Correct. Campus security. Sorry, director to pass. It's campus security. Sorc is our campus security. >> Yeah, I should know this. There's too many S's. We have a million acronyms. Campus security. They're campus security associates. >> So, and and this is one too. We're actually um I wasn't able to get high school principles yet. We're having this meeting with them uh on Thursday. So, if they're watching the board meeting, I

273do apologize. I wasn't able to hit you up sooner. So, we are actually allotted in our um in Molly Rome's budget 61,000 uh for basically er pay for campus supervisors to assist with um afterchool evening activities, right? And so that means athletic contests, all those types of things. And what we found and so basic so we've had to rightsize our budget to make up for the difference. So 61,000 is not enough uh to pay for everything that happens at a high school for example in the evening. Okay. So, we've actually supplemented this central budget to assist with high schools uh to be able to have CSAs present at athletics or activities, right? And we're not saying that um like I said, it's not a complete elimination, but I will say too, there's a piece, and

274again, you're talking to a former high school principal. I'll give you an example. Um, as a former high school principal, I would say home football games, every administrator is there, right? That's a given, right? Um, and so there's a piece with this where it'll be a philosoph philosophical shift for some of our school administrators to make that change because uh, not all administrators are present at every single thing. And I don't I'm not saying they have to be, but at certain points in time, you absolutely have to be, right? And so I would say it's a lot easier to be able to say, "Okay, I'm going to give some VPs the night off if I know I have this centralized fund of CSA support where I can just say, hey, I need two more people.

275Molly, can you help me out?" Right? And so what we're going to be telling principles is that we just don't have it because we've been supplementing this fund and we've had to rightsize the budget to be able to do this and we just don't have the means to be able to do that now. Okay. So, >> and let me just clarify too because the line is broken up on the page six and seven where it says eliminate centralized CSA. The other part of that overtime for athletic events. So, it's eliminating overtime at events, not eliminating the humans in that role. I just want to clarify that because it's broken. >> Yes, thank you, doctor. I appreciate that. It is overtime. It is extended responsibility pay. >> And so you could see there >> with the

276potential total would would equate to around again these are estimates of around 440,000 which can help with that delta of 500,000. I ask a question about that. Do some of our CSAs uh um rely on that overtime pay? >> Absolutely. >> Right. So that that's that's one of the trade-offs here. I want to make sure they vocalize that that >> depend on that extra pay. >> Conversely, we'd have bus drivers making less money without that the route at access. So it might be a trade-off on two pe two different groups of people that >> um are under underpaid in our system. I think we'd all agree. And >> and I will say this too is that um principles can still have a campus supervisor. they're just going to have to take it out of their

277building budget, right? And so there's definitely going to have to be a, you know, a a way of thinking where you're, and I'm not saying principles don't do this. They absolutely do. But knowing that you won't necessarily have this centralized fund that we've always just given for athletic events, they're really going to have to say, "Okay, if I really need somebody at this event and I don't have a centralized budget to pay for it, I'm really going to have to prioritize and allocate within my building budget." That's just the reality of of the situation. >> Yeah. Could they raise money for that like the PTA or is that considered staff and they can't pay it? >> Well, I mean they can because it's >> they could pay staff. Okay. That way >> that would impact

278I mean some PTAs can't raise money. That's >> correct. We're we're kind of in this. You're right. And so it it is a trade-off and I think it's important that you know what the trade-offs are. >> Is it um just a question on this? So we're eliminating that. We're not reducing it. It's just eliminating the line item completely, right? >> For this one. >> Yeah, >> it is. That's what I mean. It is a It is a reduction because we do have a 61,000. We have 61,000 >> that's been allocated. >> And so what we're going to do is we're going to we're basically going to take uh the comprehens or the high schools and we're going to give them a portion of that 61,000 that they can then use. But then anything above that

279they're going to have to pay for if they decide to. Again, it could be I'm I'm gonna have every single administrator at an event and work it out that way or they can pay for it out of their building budget. >> What I >> I think the reality is we we'll still continue to have opportunities for overtime for the employee groups. It just will be limited. Yeah. I was just going to say too that like I'd be open to maybe it's a good idea, maybe not. I try not to give ideas here because I know I'm not supposed to, but maybe it could be an opportunity to make that reduction, but consider how to do it in an equitable manner where maybe some of the high schools that have higher needs might be able to

280access more of that than the high schools that don't. >> Sure. Appreciate that. Can I have a I have a suggestion for another place to maybe look for some money. Um in the board budget we have $350,000 allocated for um elections and I know I don't know what the number the estimate is actually is for next year because we have four board elections h in our board budget we pay yeah you have to pay Multma County when so there'll be four open board positions that'll be on the ballot next November. So there's a certain amount of money >> May. >> Is it May? >> I thought it was November for for >> It's May. >> Is it May? Okay. So for some reason I thought the other ones were in November. I don't know why

281I thought that. Okay. So May um the district pays Multma County for every election we have on the ballot. Um we had $350,000 this year and none of it was spent. So it went back into the general fund. It's still in our budget for this coming year if you look at the board budget. So, I'd love to know how much we really think we're going to spend on the Moma County fees. And uh >> Hi. >> Were you looking at me like I'm crazy? >> We spend almost all of it. It's usually over $300,000 and we also have to pay Washington County and a little bit of the Clauus County. So, there's no extra. >> I got all excited because we didn't spend any of it this year. [laughter] >> Yeah. It's really tricky to

282get in tradeoffs. And I would say that if if there is a conversation >> that like if some of the trade-offs listed doesn't feel right to you or um you want us to go back out, I mean, we're certainly able to do that. Just want to be mindful of the time frame that we're operating in. And so, yeah, I'm >> I would love to know what the building admins or what what our principles, our high school principles have to say about the CSA because I would suspect that some of them have booster clubs who might be able to help with football games in terms of hiring additional staff. Some may not. So, I think that might be >> or I can guarantee you that I think that there will be some folks who are frustrated

283and don't want that to happen. I think the question that we have to ask is do we want access transportation that operate at a hub model and if so there's no easy choice that we're there there will be some loss there winners and losers I hate to categorize it that way but that's really the reality with a tradeoff. So, I think that's the question is if we want the hub model, there's going to be some loss, >> right? I'm just saying that I think that with within the CSA line item, there may be some community support there. Yeah. >> To to backfill some of that money. >> Have the um I can't think of their acronym, but the the principles, have have they been brought into the conversation yet? Do they know this is >>

284No, this is this is like I said >> okay. >> Yeah. Okay. >> We're meeting with with them on Thursday this week to kind of talk through this. >> And I think to Dr. Armstrong's point is that um this is a change. So we're definitely going to get some probably some strong reactions to this piece. But I will say that again this too. It's really really going to we're really going to have to push them on have you used every existing resource from as I say like an administrator perspective in regards to games and or events and kind of those types of things. Um and so it'll be a convers I'm looking forward to it. I mean the reality is um we're they understand we're we're in this place and we've been supplementing this budget

285right and so when you have a resource that is a centralized resource that people can just request and know that you've been given this this resource um I understand how you wouldn't look say internally about some things but now to me again you have to look at this as an opportunity you know to really revamp and and think about more strategically about okay do I really need this amount of people at at at everything and if I do I may not have a CSA or if I do have a CSA I'm going to pay for it out of my building budget and then oh by the way every single administrator has to be present which that's kind of one of the joys of being a comprehensive administrator >> and and not all the decisions that

286we'll need to make to um stabilize and also be responsive to the direction that you give will be able to sit in a collaborative conversation to find solutions. Some things we're going to have to decide and then mitigate later. Yeah. >> Um and I think that will be the whole theme going into fall of 2026 when we get into the conversations on closures and boundaries and program moves is we're we're not we're not going to be able to have a conversation with every impacted human. So, so how do we move as a unit that best um sets us up for a stabilized system? >> Thank you, Director Englesman. And then Vice Chair Pass. >> Thank you. Um of the 15 suggested, you said [clears throat] expanding high school try passes to include access middle schoolers

287was one of the nos. What's the other one? Uh, I don't remember off the top of my head that one was in there though. >> Okay. I I asked >> I think it was the I think the ask was the sixth bus >> and adding a six bus. There is there is a balance between elementary and middle school routes. >> Y >> and every time you increase one, you need to try to balance it on the other one. Otherwise, that cost becomes the full route because there is nowhere to pair another portion. Um, and we'll do our best to organize routes the best we can, but everyone you add just adds another cost. Um, and so that was really our hard line of if we need to keep this at 500, it has to stay

288at five routes. >> Um, so there's other things that we've talked about. Um, I talked to, uh, Chief Cardona about maybe looking at the bell schedule as, uh, Jonathan was up here talking about as well. Um, I think there's some interesting trade-offs there that could work because it is a um, it's a later bell, but it's not our latest bell. Um, so it wouldn't be too drastic of a change, but it really has to work for the school site as well. Um, so we we've got to talk through all of that still, too, >> because access starts at 8:45, right? >> 8:45. Yes. >> Okay. And so I noticed that a lot of these suggestions and it sounds like all of them were able to be implemented except those two are moving from a middle

289school to an elementary school. But is that just in the afternoon or is that >> No, those those stops would be mirrored in the afternoon as well. So whatever was in the morning would happen in the afternoon as well. Um it would be basically in reverse order. Uh in the PM though we have already dropped off students for the first routes. go back to the school and then pick up access students and take them home. So there's not a uh there's not as much of a barrier because you've already completed the other route and you have plenty of time to get them home now as opposed to meeting a bell schedule. >> Okay. So I think that I understood it and then I don't but now I do again. So in the morning the route

290goes to a middle school but in the afternoon it goes to an elementary school. No. >> No. So in the morning we would pick up elementary school kids. >> We would go and drop them all off. Y >> from that point most of these would actually start at that elementary school and access students would board the bus there. >> Some of them might start at a middle school that's uh or not a middle school. Some might start at a middle school or a K8 that is near the elementary that we dropped off at. >> Okay. From there, we have basically 8:05 is when we would depart any of those elementary schools. That's when our clock starts to get them there by 8:45. So, there's a countdown there. But in the PM, we've already dropped all

291the elementary students off. We go and pick up access students and then that's our last run for the day. >> Got it. >> So, the time frames are not as critical in the PM. We can stretch those out a little bit if we need to. Um but this hub model does keep those times short which is helpful um for budgetary costs. >> And so how many middle school sites are left do we h because it looks like a lot of them got moved to elementary school sites. >> A lot of them did. So um one of the K8s they MLC there was concerns there so we moved that to Chapman. Uh let's see there is there's very few middle schools left. Cellwood is one of them. Laurel Hurst is a K8. Um there's a couple

292K8s in there, but yeah, I think there's only one middle school left in there >> in all five route routes. >> Yeah. >> Which gave us the ability to essentially add an extra stop wherever we started that route, which is really helpful for the families. >> Okay. So, actually, I got talked to about this offline and it's I thought it was pretty smart. I'm glad that you took the idea or maybe you had the idea and I heard it that way. But if the bus is at the elementary school anyway, then why not just pick up kids that are there at the time that you'd be leaving anyway to go to the next thing. >> So, yeah, seems >> it is. We tried to stay away from that because it does impact that school, right?

293>> Now, you have two groups of kids that aren't together um and administrators trying to figure out who's who and what's happening and kids getting off a bus and also getting on the bus. Um, so that becomes a problem and there's a lot on our end that will have to be fixed for that, but it works. So, we'll figure it out >> and reevaluate it after a year. Yeah. >> See? Okay. Um, I Oh, I I I do want to voice um some concern at the request that after school programs and neighborhood schools accept access students. I would be concerned that we might end up in a world where a neighborhood school student who goes there from 8:45 to 2:30 is no longer sorry 7:50 to 2:30 is suddenly no longer able to get into

294their own after school program. And so I would hope that there is a caveat in there that only if there is space >> because we have to make sure that our neighborhood school kids get as many after school program spaces and that if the next year there's more of them that access we have to prioritize neighborhood schools after school programs. >> Yeah. And there are a number of those programs that are full already. >> Exactly. I think that's conversations individually with them and see if they can open more robust >> slots or uh if there's alternatives near. I know a number of these schools there are alternatives near um and hopefully those programs could pick students up from the bus stop. I I don't know what that looks like exactly. Each one's a little different,

295>> but yeah, I agree. There's there's a push pull there and um students locally in those schools definitely need those slots. >> Yeah. And then the last thing, I know that you said that expanding high school tryap pass program to access middle schoolers who apply. I know it's not it's a non-starter, but I think I would just like to put out into the ether that I have always thought and continue to think that it is absolutely crazy that the state gives us money that we then give to another public funding public entity to transport kids around our own city and that someone should just start talking about every kid. if you look like you're 17 or under, you just get to get on a bus or a or a max train and that no one

296is exchanging money and it's not costing anyone anything because kids should be able to get around our city for free like they do in lots of other places. And that if you're 18 or in high in college, you just show a pass. Uh and so city councilors, commissioners listening, like let's just stop the >> Yeah. >> Well, just let them on everyone. Just let them on. Try that. >> That's all. Thank you. >> I share to pass. >> I'm just too tired to comment to be honest. I don't have anything. >> And we, you know, just also for the sake of time, you're also welcome to email in your questions >> as well. >> Yeah. I had a question. Do they have an afterchool program at Access? >> Do you know? >> I don't think

297so. They don't. >> It's one of those programs that most kids don't live around there, so it's much harder to have one there. Great. Thank you again for your time and staying late. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Yeah. Please come in tomorrow late. >> All right. Next up, we have the vote on the consent agenda. Board members, if there's any items you would like to pull for a separate uh vote, please indicate that. Now, >> Miss Powell, are there any changes to consent agenda? >> There's been one change. We added um the addition of um I'm sorry, it's tired for me too. >> Mascot. >> The mascot. Thank you for Caesar Chavez school. Um to the resolution to direct the superintendent to begin the renaming processes. Um and also adding on the mascot for Caesar

298Chavez. >> Thank you. >> I didn't hear that. Added the mascot to what? uh for Caesar Chavez to begin the process to identify a new mascot. >> Mascot. >> All right. Do I have a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Vice Chair to pass moves. >> Second. >> Director Lefort seconds the adoption of the consent agenda. Is any board discussion on the consent agenda? As follows. Anyone who signed up for public comment on the consent agenda. board will now vote on resolutions 7298 and 7317 through 7322. >> All in favor, please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. >> Opposed abstensions. Thank you. Consent agenda is approved by a vote of 7 to zero. >> Thank you. All right. Last item is if there's any items you would future

299board meeting topics, if there's any items you would like to request to be or follow up to be considered on agenda item, please indicate that now or you can always email me later. >> I have something I'd like to bring up. Um, and it's an educational item and maybe more than that in the future. Um, thanks everybody. >> Thank you. >> Everybody's leaving. Um but um I would love to um have a better understanding of our layoff process in general. Um I think uh I just don't know much about it and we've obviously gotten a lot of feedback on it. Um I also am not complaining about it. I just want to know it and if there are things about it when we learn about it that maybe we might want to consider changing that

300might be worth the conversation. Um, and it might be something that comes up in contract negotiations in the future with labor. Like I actually am pretty compelled by and I hope I but I'm pretty compelled by some of the arguments and I realize we can't fix it today. We can't fix it retroactively, but in the future, like maybe it would be good if somebody who's been working in a school for 11 years in one capacity goes and gets a different license and in a different role and then becomes all of the sudden not protected by seniority because they actually worked hard and got promoted within their profession. Um, that shouldn't be something we've we've all seen those emails. Um I um for some of you know this, some of you don't, but my own daughter's

301very beloved. Like you should see how much this man is adored. Second grade teacher um my daughter Silvin's um teacher got laid off. She was going to come testify. We weren't worried we might not be able to get her here on time, so she didn't. Um but just speaking for her, it was really really hard um to see her reaction, her classmates reactions, and how disruptive it was. So, I've been writing all these parents to make sure they're telling legislators about it and everything because I feel like this is it. This is the thing that we've been fearing and warning people was going to happen. And it is so bad for kids. Like, literally watching kids who hadn't really been anywhere near grade level get caught up this year because they had this teacher and

302he'd been a PAR educator for years and none of his para educator experience in PPS counted towards seniority. And the reason he was so good with these really difficult I mean my daughter's quote on him was like he made the hard kids easy this year >> um that's huge and in a school with um SCES kids coming in pushing in and kids that have struggles just in general like every classroom. So, I don't want to make it about my experience, but it was just interesting to see that I saw that happen and then saw we're hearing a lot about a similar situation and so we might want to revisit policy down the road, but I think that starts with understanding the current policy. So, I'm wondering if we could have that. >> Yeah. And I

303just just remind the board that it is um through the PAT contract. And so we do have executive session as we get into negotiations where if there are some things that you all would like for us to um discuss, then I think we have a whole labor team that's prepared to do that. Um but our goal and our commitment is to follow the contract. And I think folks bringing up things that um speak to perhaps us not following the contract is definitely um something that of course I'll be looking into. the team has already been making sure that they're dotting eyes and crossing tees, but definitely um I know that it's caught the attention of of the board and so um yeah, just that it's it those conversations happen in the labor negotiations room. >>

304Yeah. Yeah, I understand that what I'm talking about is that space that's not board policy, but I'm still I just want to like understand where we are and then maybe down the road. I'm looking at you guys because I'll be gone. But it's something I hope you'll consider. Maybe it's a time to have those conversations if we're going to be in a layoff. >> When you say for policy, I guess confused because it's not it's all it's p it's all p it's all in the contract. >> I understand. But isn't there >> if we had a policy in place before we negotiated the next contract, we would board policy would >> I don't think we would create a policy that trumps the the PAT contract. Don't we have a role in setting the contract or

305is it just like even as board sometimes I know that as a board we're very limited in what we can do but I do feel like maybe we could help on a future contract with pat to make a difference in some things to help our kids. So >> you could try. >> We we did that a couple years ago. We inserted ourselves and it it wasn't it it didn't result in positive outcome >> during the strike. >> I should [clears throat] we were we were hopeful >> but we should understand what's going on. I do I do think I mean just to and I and this is Sharon's deep area of expertise but um when contract negotiations are beginning I think there's some there there are communications internally with the board about what are the

306priorities for the contract for these the negotiations that are going to to start. So I think that starting as you suggested director split with understanding current state >> is important and then as those new contract negotiations begin which is going to feel kind of like a resume because it's with a one-year rollover I think it's important and and I'm sure that the legal and HR teams will work with the board to understand these are the things we want to bargain and then there there's bargaining at the end that's at the beginning at the end only the board can approve the CBA right >> so the the um now I'm tired and can't find words. The legal and HR teams and those who are on the bargaining teams will um not recommend a contract for your

307approval that they don't think you will approve and that you've experienced that in this year of the executive sessions to check in and touch base and when if it's a much larger contract with more opened up um those planning sessions are really important. So >> yeah, >> mostly I just want to know where we are and maybe where we have the ability to make changes to this process because one, as you pointed out, the layoff notices were super late. I mean, you and I started talking about this maybe six weeks ago where I was wondering when they were happening, which is not not a blame game or anything, but it's just like I think I'd like to know what the process was and beyond just the contract issue. That was just one example of something.

308Um, but to understand how it happened and maybe how we can help you make sure that next year maybe feels a little better for everybody even though it's going to be terrible still, but it's better to have that layoff notice early enough to go get a new job before the school year closes out. >> Absolutely. And I think what's going to be tricky about going, which was tricky this year, too. Like I said, I mean, I truly know and believe that the HR team worked really hard to minimize impact as much as possible. Next year is going to be even more complicated when we think of the state school fund and um what's going to come out of Salem and the timeline that that creates. And then let's also think about this budgeting process of

309when I submit the proposal. If you all were to say, you know, today like, hey, we need a fund balance that has 5 million more. We're going back out and then it just all of the layoffs and process that we went through, we're going back at it again to be able to um meet the board's expectations. So, there's all of those like intricacies that are a part of the process that as much as I mean it felt really late. Absolutely, it was late. We want to notify people as early as possible. And I just want to put out that even though that's our wish and our desire, it still may not be possible because we're getting information from timelines from the state that may not go in as fast or come in as early as

310we want it to. So, I just I just want to manage expectations because we will be waiting on um our our heels and toes and everything to see what comes out of the legislative session and it may not be what we expect, right? It's always a very interesting topic. Um is anything else I think I I'll I'll talk to you after about how we can get that information and things like that and with the timing of it as well. >> Are we going to see if other people wanted on? >> Oh, yeah. Thank you. Is anybody else would like that information as well? >> Yeah. >> About how the >> just a briefing on how >> Yes, this process. >> Sharon. Yeah, definitely. But Sharon sent something out really good today, too. Did you get

311that? >> Yes. Yeah, >> I think you want more detail. I'm with you. >> Well, I think it's not just for us to know, but I think the public needs to know, too. >> I would love a simpler one for the public to see just how complicated it is. >> No easy choices. >> Yeah. >> Can I ask? >> I've been thinking that as we >> Well, you're thinking about timeline in terms of >> I think that I don't need it to be >> have a better understanding >> as well as ourselves. >> Um, I got asked about timing. Um, I am not in a rush. I realize our HR people are still putting this whole process to bed and we'll be dealing with it all summer. So, I think it's really up to you.

312Um, I just want to make sure we have it sometime so that it can help inform us going forward and inform the public on what to expect as well because, um, I also went to a high school event at a high school and had multiple educators and parents come talk to me knowing I was a school board member. And so, it's not just the emails. I think people are really concerned and curious. I think it's an opportunity for us and the public. So down the road is totally fine when it feels right. No rush. I ju just I just also want to put out sorry I know that there is a spike in emails and a lot of concern. And I just want to kind of reiterate the point that I made earlier this morning

313which this is the first time in over a decade that we have um laid off more than five people um in Portland. And so it feels horrible and it's hard and um it's concerning and just want to make sure we know that it I'm sure it will continue. Yeah. >> Anything else? >> I have a couple. I'll just I'll email it to you. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. With that, this meeting is adjourned. Go home.