2026-05-05 Board of Education Retreat

001Treat of the board of education is now all to the order. Everything's being streamed and I'll hand this over to Cindy. >> Okay. Well, thank you. We are delighted to be back for our last we'll say for this year's sessions. Um and we've done a lot of work in the last two of building the skills and our intent of today is to take those skills that we've been working on and put them to work on not we're not going to write policies. So everybody take a breath. Nobody we are not words smmithing. Nothing drives me crazier than having people argue over the rectum or something. So, we're not writing the policies, but what we're going to do is have a conversation so that those on the policy committee can take that back to their work

002specifically around the 10,00 series. Um, and I >> the one series section one section one and the 10,00 correct. >> Okay. All right. Well, good. I'm glad everybody understood what I was saying. That's the key part. Yes. Perfect. The section one series. So, that's that's our goal. We're going to um by the time we get through this evening that the policy committee will have a good sense of what the values and what's important to the Portland board in creating of those um policies in section one. Okay, everybody feel good? >> All right. Okay. >> What did I do? >> I know it worked. Okay, go. Rosanne was very kind instructing me where to point a clicker. >> Oh, it worked. >> So there too. >> Okay, so we're very mindful. We've been through several. We

003have this we we coined called Northshore Spring North in our school district. Every spring something would happen. We could go on. I mean, think about it. Pandemic was March, right? Like every spring that was kind of the penultimate. But um so we're very mindful that this time of year can have a lot of work. There also is a lot of celebrations. >> Um, and so it can it's it can be a lot. So we wanted to take a moment um to to give you a second to take a breath and reflect. So this is called the blob tree. I don't know if you all have ever seen this. A friend of mine who does leadership development for tech companies, she shared this. She loves this. So what we want you to do is take a

004moment and think and hopefully you can see the numbers. And by the way, we know it's the end of the day. We're going to be encouraging people to get up and move around. If you want to get closer to see the numbers, please don't don't don't hesitate. But what you want you to think about is which of the people on the tree are you feeling like today >> and where would you like to get to? We'll give you a minute. Student teacher use this every class. >> Oh wow. I've never seen it. Where would you like to get? >> Where are you today? And where do you want to get to? >> I need more time. in a South Virginia. >> Oh, wow. I would say >> don't forget everyone's allowed to pass. >> No,

005it's okay. I would say I'm at there's a couple. I guess it be number three. And >> um I feel like we have some big challenges in front of us. And I would want to get to number 15. There you go. Make your way up then. >> Yeah. >> So, so Virginia, can I just follow up? Does do you feel like you're being supported as you >> launch yourself into these huge challenges? >> That number two person. >> Okay. Okay. >> Just think about that. >> Thank you. >> You have any thoughts there? Um well because of like the last 20 minutes of my life I felt like I was a 24 or 21 coming into this. The person sort of hanging by a a branch but that was I I thought you meant like

006today generally because I was like all of these things today. Um sitting here today I probably feel I don't know a little bit maybe like a 10. Not sure what my next move is going to be. Um, I probably would like 15. I like Virginia is sort of waving, holding on to something stable. >> 15. 20 feels like just 10 higher. I'm going to stop at 15. Stop at 15. >> It feels welcoming. >> Well, the wave. >> There's something about the wave. >> Yeah. All right. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you for that. Thanks, Stephanie. What do you think, Eddie? >> So, you've seen this before? >> Yeah. >> Uh, probably a 14. >> Why is that? >> Uh, I just feel like I need to like let go, >> drop somebody. >>

007Right. >> My daughter's going to turn 13, so she's probably 13 and I need to let her go. >> Context matters. >> Yeah, >> matters. Okay. >> Her own little grown outfit. Mhm. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a that's an interesting parenting life position, huh? >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> I would like to be four. It looks like it's a good place to take a nap >> on the ground. >> I see. >> Yeah. I also don't know if I always question if up is better >> versus down. So, down's a place to be. >> Can't fall from there. safer. >> Thank you. Are you still looking? >> No, I um I was also going to say 14. Um just because it feels like we're handling a lot and there's things are slipping

008a little bit through, you know, through the fingers. >> Um and I was just thinking about this. I haven't really had as much time to reflect today as I normally do. So I was like, where am I on here? But I think 14, yeah, we have a lot going on. We have a really challenging budget uh conversation this year. It's been challenging for several years. Uh but this is this is big. Um and where I'd like to get kind of collectively is 1112 as a board. Not just me. I would be I guess maybe 12 or 11. Either one. >> What do you think? I'm a 19. Um cuz I'm just kind of pissed off. That's a lot of things >> and I'm kind of just like feel a little isolated like um some of

009the stuff that we're dealing with at this school district is being mirrored in my work life and it's just a hard time with a lot of hard decisions that I have to own and hold and um people don't see the big picture. Um, so I feel kind of alone on Big Picture Island having to um, you know, drive drive some hard stuff. Um, I would like to be out of five. That guy looks like he's having fun. >> Agreed. Agreed. >> Similarly, but lower. I was feeling nine. Um, one, I do feel like I cross my arms a lot like this, like as a general like posture, especially when I'm uncomfortable or feeling like I'm thinking hard. >> So, that just kind of felt like me, but similarly just feel a little separate and less

010pissed off, but more just like mildly frustrated or something. Definitely by myself. Um, I would like to be number two because I like to be helping. I like to be a helper. >> It's very self to think about posture. >> Yeah. I mean, I think it's partially like anatomy or whatever. It's just more comfortable for me, but >> Okay. Okay. Well, I feel like 21 in a positive way. I love the feeling of hanging like that, stretching out. My body is giving out. So, that feels good. I'm having trouble with my knee. So, it feels good not to be touching the ground. And I'd like to be able to climb clear up to a 20 and just stand there really firm and tall and strong >> and not worry about it. >> Thanks. >> Um

011I will say I'm entering feeling like five and I hope to get to two. Two. Oh, that helps. >> Mhm. >> Yeah, I think so. Just >> I feel like there are a lot of individual mission and vision statements and everyone all over the place. And I don't I don't know if we are all on the same tree, >> but like I'm like trying to stay attached and hang on and understand. And I'm like, I just want to like see if we can reset and all climb in the same direction. I think our kids are depending on that. >> Thank you that Armstrong. Yeah. No, very important point. And um so Sandy and I when we were driving down were reflecting on on the three sessions with you all and um just want to quickly

012we have a lot to talk about so I won't lick her too long but I just want to validate the season that you're in as school district leaders. So thank you for all the work you're doing in your community. It's hard. Um it's hard and so the fact you're wrestling with big questions is the important thing. So thank you for that. We're here to be supports for you today. We're going to go slow so you can go fast later today. We're going to unpack some things um to support your ongoing work because that's really what we want to do for you today. Any questions before we dive in on the agenda? We will we have built in we have not picked a specific time for a break. We're kind of going to find the flow,

013but we will have a break. We won't go straight through because again it's a long day. But anything else before we go? Yeah, >> I just heard something on NPR today about moving, the importance of moving every 30 minutes >> and I think about some of our long board meetings and that I mean it's like literal health benefits to moving. >> Yeah. So, honestly, >> so I'll probably get up because I heard that I was like I believe it. >> Yeah. 100%. 100%. And when we get to the point where we're discussing together, working together, we're probably going to get you up and shift you around to help. >> Okay. So um so again our conversation scaffold used this before but we put them in every time we're we're working even though it's the end

014of the day we're working on staying engaged doing all we can to honor this time together. Um and that involves that part of that honoring is not just by mentally staying engaged but in conversations as well. again as we coach each other and challenge each other as we're going to emulate creating policy today, right? That empower empowerment dynamic that involves honoring each other even as we wrestle with questions and you all are showing really great skill at that. Um making space for everyone transitions into the yes and conversations when we can avoid the no butts. Sometimes no butts pop in, but we're really working on the yes end. And with policy, this is really true, not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, right? Just working on that incremental um progress because we

015know especially in the poly crisis era is really really helpful as a leadership skill. So um we are again going to start with some foundations and get you a framework before we talk about policy design in general. And so the first place we wanted to start was the governance ecosystem. Remember this from last time where in the middle is the work right student centered organization and the layer of B are the supports around and then the C is the how the leadership moves. Um that's where trust lives, values lives. Um just want to throw it out with there. Where do you think policy design lives in the ecosystem, the governance ecosystem? How? >> Yeah. What are you thinking? Why are you thinking about that? >> Policy kind of sets the the parameters of what you

016need to do >> and so you that's the very start of the hub, >> right? >> You have to know what you want to do first. >> There you go. All right. Thank you for that. Any other ideas? Any or anything to add on to that? What P just shared? I was going to say like 100% agree with Patty, but I thought that the way I envisioned it was a the work because it defines what the work is, right? Like we're educating every child. >> That's the work, >> Right. We're >> being fiscally responsible. That's the work. >> So it same thing just different category. >> Well, and it's multiaceted. >> And yeah, >> sorry, what was that? >> And it's it's multiaceted. policy design is multiaceted. It doesn't involve the how um the leadership

017approaches and frameworks of how to do the work together. The actual work itself is documenting for the organization and for the public and sometimes what the work is. Um so absolutely what do you think about B about >> I would have said A or B. >> Yeah. So why why were you thinking that Michelle? Because when I think of the how I think of that's the work of kind of not the board that's the how is up to the professionals to figure out the work is um kind of defining a direction defining an outcome and the support I feel like the policy might be a support to getting the work done. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing >> and and I think you can make an argument that policy design law was in all

018of them and this is what can be challenging about policy design because are you talking about specifying what the work should be? Are you talking about a framework under which you communicate that to the organization and the public and the students and everyone or are you talking about documenting your values, right? whether they're explicit or implicit as to how students are served. And that can make policy design really challenging. And that's what we're going to help you unravel a bit today to make it a little easier to move forward to do that. Does that make sense? So we thought, okay, one of the other things that gets a little raveled um is the difference between what's a policy, what's a procedure, what's a protocol, what's a guideline. And we found this really great resource. So,

019the University of Wisconsin at Madison, fun fact, a couple years ago redesigned all their policies and they left up this really helpful tool um reference sheet for their own people and their their partners um as to what is the difference between a policy and a procedure and a guideline. So, I'll give you a minute just to review it a little bit. On the back, they provided examples, but we're going to go through the front of it really quick cuz um S and I think they really outlined the differences pretty well because again, this is going to help us as we go into policy. That's obviously these are for you to keep, right? Right. So, if you want to run on them or unpack them a little bit more or two and we'll start talking about

020it. >> Excuse me. I was just asking somebody. What do we call our procedures? I guess they're called like directives. >> Administrative directives. Administrative directives. >> Okay. That's what we call the procedure. So some of our policies have a how to implement >> and that's >> the 80s. >> Oh. >> All right. And so for our friends at home watching, I'm just going to summarize what this document talks about. So a policy is what establishes the standard, right? So this is um the written statement that puts down and I'm again reading this for folks at home. Um you know either mandates things to do, maybe prohibits things to do is systemwide that widespread application that the document talks about has a systemwide look. Um it is written in a way that it's very you know

021not often do we wrestle with binaries but policies are written in a way they use the term non-negotiable >> but you know stating and affirming what should or should not happen in pretty clear terms. It's designed to change infrequently right so it's it's it's very solid and tells what should be done sometimes why. Okay, where a procedure or an administrative directive works on implementing that policy. Okay, it's the description of the operational processes that support that policy and guidelines. These show up in schoolboard work quite a bit. Um, and often in our work as opposed to what they talk about here at University of Wisconsin Madison, they can be very verbal in conversation between the school board and the superintendent. So these are general, they're not mandatory recommendations, but as the superintendent is talking about

022solutions to implement policy and getting feedback from the board, they're not often formal. There are times when the board is giving feedback, right? And that that's one reason why we love this space, this document. It puts a space in for that conversation. That's what um this school calls a guideline, right? And again, this is why policy design can be tricky. And we wanted to separate out these pieces. >> So protocols would that go under a guideline. >> What's the question? >> Board protocols. >> Ah, we're going to talk about that today. >> The board protocols are resolution. So it's not >> it's captured in a resolution. >> Yeah, >> it's the resolution. >> We'll take a look at them. >> Okay. Um it could within this framework it would we would say most likely fall

023within the procedure >> but it's a procedure for the board. >> Yes. >> Right. So it's a unique and that's why talking about section one is we're going to focus on that today and when polit policy design happens of course you want to think about the context of that area of work. So we're focusing on section one which is about the board defining its work itself and how that work should happen. And so that's um as we go through we're going to again give you a framework to help you take a look. We're going to look at the resolution and a few of the section one policies. Amy, I wonder if um one of the reasons why we we enter and maybe sometimes present all over the the tree is um because most of our

024conversation as a team is on the procedural the operational uh process then getting into guidelines or policy like is that something that you all see for dysfunctional boards and superintendent? I wouldn't limit it to By the way, you are not a dysfunctional. >> I would not want to be clear. We do not when we're in the car together with this is not one of the districts that we talk about as dysfunctional. Um and there are them. Um it's it is >> I shouldn't say dysfunctional as a permanent state but we do have quite a deal of dysfunction happening amongst >> it's very common because in fact we are dealing with this in our own district and that's how we came up with this value. We have a vote on Monday on whether to renew a

025contract with a vendor. Very >> straightforward except the vendor is one of our city's police department and it's for the SRL on campus. Right. So while we're trying to have this very straightforward voting on a contract with the vendor, does it comply with the state law requirements? We have a board trying to insert policy into a procedure question and that's why we're creating space today for you to have those values and policy conversations so that you then refer back to that. Okay, as a board we agree that we have a shared value over sustainability or um right students first or whatever equity students farthest from racial educational justice whatever it is then you use that back and then you're not as tempted to get into what we call the weeds and the operational procedures because

026those sit under the policies and then Dr. Armstrong comes back and says this procedure that we the staff have created is a reflection here's how we think it's in alignment of what you have said your values and that that we've built these policies on. So, and this is this is what we're going to unpack today is because there's a tension between the fact that in order for a policy to be effective, it has to be it has to be implementable. And for a board to know whether or not it's implementable, it's not impossible because of the role of the board. That's why the superintendent will come back and say, okay, this is how it can be implemented. But for a board to understand that will impact how the policy is written. So that's the gears

027of of the work, right? And so but understanding where the conversations fall can be really helpful and that's why the definition of policy is they again they say widespread application. It's, you know, we've talked about it's within the Oregon state standards that system thinking, right? It specifically impacts policy design. And it's very common for all all three of these areas to be woven together. And understanding what you're talking about when can be really helpful. So, do you think there's any in like inter um interdependencies between those are there's relationships between these three categories? What do you think? >> No, it's all good. Uh if there's any interdependencies, any relationships between these categories? Yes, >> it seems to me certainly a policy has guidelines in it. >> Yeah, it could very well. Yeah, >> it might

028not have all of them. >> Maybe not all, but certainly >> quite a few. I mean, >> absolutely. >> Yeah. >> And it um it guidelines and policies would definitely be in relationship with each other. Correct. >> Which do you think should come first? I think the policy should come first. >> Yeah. Why do you think it should? >> Because the policy is kind of like defining the what >> like what whatever the thing is like this is this is our objective. This is the outcome we're driving towards. Um this is the intent of this policy. And then um the the procedure protocol like tells you how you do that but you can't decide how to do it until you know what you're doing. Um and then the guidelines feel like you know like like

029the third layer that comes in afterwards that is dealing with like the things that are um situational or specific to um different different circumstances or um like like the non the non-mandatory stuff recommendations actually. >> Yeah. Yeah. feedback loop maybe in for an informal phrase where guidelines might be feedback loops over time. Could you give an example guideline like >> right can you do a one two three >> oh yeah so for instance um if you're implementing a curriculum right so it's it's if you have a policy section around curriculum adoption so the policy itself provides clarity it sets the guy see I should use that word sets the um sets the standards by which curriculum adoption should happen and administrative directive would start to implement that. Say a specific curriculum, let's say math for

030K through 5 is coming through and Dr. Armstrong says, "Oh, we're kind of, you know, we're we're piloting these different curriculums and we have the policy and we have the, you know, the adoption process that we've had in administrative directors for a while. You know, we're toying with these these two are kind of rising to the top and we're looking at the pros and cons." Board members could offer thoughts. They're not in policy. They're not voted on, but it's feedback. Is that right? Because that often happens. Um, now superintendent will get seven feedback loops. It can be tricky, right? And board members need to know their lane sometimes saying this is not my role. um you know but as as things work their way through it can be a really slippery slope but that will

031naturally happen and that's why we want to acknowledge it. What what makes it tricky again if the superintendent has seven different sets of feedback >> that start to veer into policy making either by context or by frequency and things get muddied. The the ideal with policy is you want to provide clarity for the organization so the organization can really home it's an organizational effectiveness question. How can the board communicate to everyone in every classroom in every room in this building right the the standards by which to do the work and so but guidelines there there is time when like the conversations happen. >> Yeah. So like a specific one using Amy's you're piloting two math curriculums. A guideline from the board could be we encourage that it's the piloted at two different elementary schools that

032have different demographics or in different don't don't do it at two neighboring elementary schools or you know a brand new principal and a experienced principal or right something that a guideline can be here's how we recommend that you choose where the curriculum will be piloted or what grades or right That's not going to be something you write in policy and it's not going to be a procedure but it's a guideline of here as you go through this process of piloting here's what is recommended >> with the focus on non-mandatory. >> Yeah. So would the policy be you will um implement it in a variety of schools before >> you could write it you could write it in policy. So that could be policy and the guideline would be to say do schools with different demographics

033>> or you know for that for that school year as conditions have evolved. That's the idea. So if policies are longerlasting these are just conversations that tend to happen. Um and I'm going to pause for a second and get Dr. Armstrong's feedback here for a second because there might be an example to come up that we should talk about maybe that you know where when conversations happen with the board it can sound like it's an additional layer on top of policy because that's the board's role to write the standards and policy where it's actually a non-mandatory recommendation that helps fill in some context for that that sometimes semester. Yeah. What do you Dr. >> Yeah. I I think that uh the board does a really good job of on the guidelines part. So I'm trying

034to think of something specific. I think the only time where maybe we wonder is um if there's a guideline that's being asked for proposed and we already have it spelled out in the AD. Um, and so then we wonder is that a request to change the ad or is that going back to to policy? But I don't I don't know I can't think of a time when I um had questions on whether I mean though we haven't specifically named it as here are guidelines. I can't think of a specific time when there was a question or some guidelines that were presented that didn't feel like they were out of Does that make sense? I >> Yeah. No, that does make sense. And that that means the feedback loop was productive. If you go to the

035backside, let's look at one of the examples that University of Wisconsin gives. of the second example around financial aid programs where they give the example of the policy language some of the I either you know procedure administrative directive language and then a guideline. Oh okay you might want to send repeated reminders that might help like because that could be because you all in schools might see things to help make the process better right and you can provide that feedback. Yeah. Is there a place in this framework for guard rails? And if so, how do they like interact with guidelines? >> So, help me understand what you mean by guardrails. >> Well, if the guidelines are general non-mandatory recommendations, I think of guard rails as like what's the example we're using? Um, math. A guard rail

036might be um we want you to pilot um this K through five um and we don't want you to pilot it in 7 through 9 or something. >> So getting into the weeds like in the vernacular. >> Yeah. or like like we don't we don't care how you do your pilot, but we want to make sure that you're um piling it with these age groups or that you're only doing it in the spring or whatever. >> It's like setting a boundary >> boundary. Absolutely. >> I mean, one of the guardrails is going to be who are you buying the curriculum for, >> right? So that's going to be an automatic guardrail like oh well it's only 4K through 5 so we're not going to pilot yet and then another great guardrail around curriculum adoption is

037the time frame right it are we piloting for a full school year are we piloting and then um Dr. Armstrong can talk about well this is when there's state testing and that takes a whole month of our life so that's not really a great time to be pilot right that those are kind of built in guardrails around when is the best time to pilot when are kids going to be the most receptive to a different where we're going to get the best evidence um and data >> I think I can be helpful on this I think um most of this year has been spent I think the things that we've grappled with the most as a team or is on the operational side. So I think the curriculum one is a is a tough one

038to engage in because most things school closures boundary right uh bond high school contracts it's like all finance deductions. So, I'm wondering if the example that you started with with like the um the SRO that that contract, could you give an example out of that because I think that might reach a little bit better because that's where we spend most of our talk time. Well, I think I um because SRO is kind of a sort of anyway. No, but I I think our budget so we had to cut >> a big chunk of our budget uh two years ago and so we have a policy around budget reductions and and budget planning, right? And then we have procedures. And Amy, it was Amy and I, um, we had a brand new CFO and a brand

039new superintendent that said, "Okay, we're doing this." And we said, "We are going out to the community. We're not rolling this out next June." And this was September. We said, "We're going to the community. We're not doing what should we cut surveys, but we're going to do what are your values? What's important? What should we be focusing on keeping? We're doing this in September." And oh, the white faces of my lord, we can't do this. And so the guard rails to uh Relle's question were we have to get this done before May because we've got to let people know. The guard rails were we can't ask people what to cut, right? Because that just, you know, we're only going to ask questions that we can do take the information and use it, right? you don't

040ever want to ask your community a question. They give you an answer and you're like, "Uh-oh, we can't actually do that." So, those were builtin guardrails that uh were not written out loud. U but as we said, this is something and that's your job as liaison from the community is to come in and say, "Okay, we are going to support you in this work, but here's some things we think you need to do to make sure that this goes smoothly." And that that's how guidelines those are guidelines. Those are you coming in and saying let's let's help you get this done in a way um >> right because you all are doing community engagement around right sizing schools. Correct. Right. So that's very contextual. That's something that this situation needs. So that's not written in

041policy. It's very contextual to how you're you know meeting the the needs of the system and the students. So what's Yeah, Patty. >> Well, garbles have always been our way to figure out what they are, >> you know. >> So, um, and you know, you mentioned some, but that would be so obvious. I mean, that not guard rail, that's just makes sense. So, >> we're going to guard our rails when we're doing our community um you know trying to get from the community what we want for ride. Do we have guard rails? >> I I would think some guardrails would be we don't want kids on buses for two hours, right? We're not going to take kids from this school on one side of the district and move them to that's a guard rail. >>

042They're actually developing that. in our meeting next Tuesday, they're going to share out about guiding principles >> that they have in regards to right sizing, which I think kind of presents as um guard rails. >> And that's that's a reflection of your values. Another guard rail would be >> we don't want to create a very white school and a very, you know, high minority population school, right? that can be a guardrail that you don't say in policy, >> but that you reflect to the administration of don't don't don't be gerrymandering your >> right your schools. We >> we do have a like a guiding principle just to start with that talks about um not creating more harm, you know, not forcing a move on a community that's already had lots of moves, >> you know,

043and so we this is this is perfect. this is the perfect conversation to have. We framed it a little differently. So we're we're building kind of four steps in this framework. So the first one is to evaluate where the conversation lives, right? And so we're going to again we're going to practice with your actual policies in a sec. Um the second one >> is to talk about assumptions and that's what we framed. And there might be a difference between guard rails and assumptions but the idea with policy design is you want them I'm so sorry. Yes, >> I back up. Um, is that you want the assumptions to be resilient so that so the idea is when you are when you are working on policies, you want them to last for a while to be

044systemwide, right? That that have some um some life to them so that really the system partners and all can can take advantage of them. what folk cuz we're also busy. This is not a judgment station statement, but what often happens is folks don't take time to talk about the assumptions that are going into the policy design. That might be what you're thinking of with guard rails. I just want to make sure I might not be capturing at all, but it might be implicit assumptions. It might be explicit assumptions. So for the budget example Sandygate gave, our implicit assumption was that we wanted to be in partnership with our families and our staff and our community over 15% of our budget getting cut. So how are we going to make that happen? Right? Um sometimes they're

045very explicit. So and it's nice to sometimes they're just floating around like oxygen in the air. And we're going to practice here for a sec calling out assumptions. It's just to get you thinking about how they impact policy design and we're going to do it around section one policies because assumptions will shape how you define problems. Right? For us, the budget conversation was not just a financial conversation. It was a problem and making sure our our community was walking with us and they we weren't leaving them behind in the conversation. Um which solutions are prioritized assumptions were really impact. Um how risks are balanced, right? How do you decide which tradeoff to do? >> Assumptions feed guard rails feed directly into that how resources are allocated and then the long-term impact on whether or not

046these the policies again you can always go back and edit but it takes time. So are these policies really going to flex with what your students and and staff need over time? So we're going to practice. Okay. I I really like that we're talking about assumptions because, you know, we all come in with our own mental models um and our own even the way that we uh kind of define if whether there's a problem or not or if there's a problem that actually needs something done about it. And so I think um bringing these assumptions to bear, bringing them up front is really good cuz I always assume I nobody thinks like me. So I I walk in assuming but I I think we don't all think alike and we all might define a a

047problem different quite differently than one another. >> And when it's implicit, you all may not realize you're operating off of different assumptions, >> right? and it can cause inadvertent friction >> just because of something that hasn't been. So again, just sometimes going slow to go fast later is helpful, right? So sometimes taking a sec to talk about okay, what are what are we building in as assumptions to this policy? >> So are you talking about making assumptions assumptions explicit? >> Yeah, we're like to voice. >> Okay, >> we're going to practice. So thinking about the fact that the section one series are about defining how the board what the board does and how the board does it work does its work how relationships are put into process even. Um we have a couple assumptions we're

048going to walk through and talk about. Okay. So are you ready? We're going to do the first one. All right. So we're talking about section one. Why do we have boards of education? I know it may seem really high level, but it relates directly to how we talk about what work does. Why are there boards and not just a single executive? >> Popular sovereignty, I guess. Sorry. >> No, no, that's cool. What do you mean? What do you mean by that? um uh just that we as a society tend to want to govern ourselves. >> Mhm. >> And or we do govern ourselves and so we have these sorts of bodies all over the place that are voted on by people who then h have sovereignty over that particular area for like you know power.

049Um gosh, being asked to define popular sovereignty. >> No, that's No, that's totally fine. But yeah, just like we like vote in our city councils, like it's like just how America works and has worked for apparently New York Times said 250 years and we're expecting a lot of foreign visitors for our 250th anniversary since the Declaration of Independence. I was like, why? That's so random. Anyway, that's normal. It's been maybe even Yeah, it's a cultural norm and that's just like how we operate. So we just don't tend to have one person in charge of any sort of democratically established body. >> Why else? Why else? So why education? That's pretty unique. >> It provides a check on power. It serves as a >> Balance of power. And um I was not thought partnership but as

050a as a check on balance of the balance of power. >> I was going to say bringing different opinions but then that can cause a real problem. Different opinion >> that was some sort of I think of initially and that is that we are the public's link to the district. We're the public's linked to our public schools. How and how might the public's links with all the diversity of opinion impact the mission of the district? How does that play into the mission of the district? What do you think? >> You ask that again. So what what do you think was the impact of having a board of people a group of people who have diversity of experience and opinion and education themselves? Because again this has been going on 200 years. This system is pretty

051baked in. What is the impact on educating students of a community? Why do you think it's designed like that to have multiple people be bridges to the what do you what do you think the desired outcome is representation I suppose >> representative >> why >> I think schools belong to um their communities and not any one group or or entity but they're like you know they belong to their communities and so having representatives from those communities to regularly input or uh create or change policy I think helps then leadership um know how to lead a district for >> all all the inputs all the all the diversity of needs from students. >> Yeah. But I'm I'm just reading a book about the clan right now and you know there were boards of education got all

052clan members on it >> and that I guess was what the community wanted at that time. Not that it's good >> but >> well yeah >> that's what can happen when you get people voted in too. >> It is. Yeah. What do you think? >> Oh I was to answer your question. I was thinking this is not going to be popular. I'm sorry. Um, an anti-change agent. >> Oh, tell tell us more. >> I think back to like history like scopes trial things like that, right? Where education is uh you have one side where you have educational leaders that study education, they know, you know, they study what's best practices and want to change the system. And then you have um so I I want to rephrase, let me back up a little bit. I

053think the ideal is representative democracy. The ideal is yes. bringing diversity of uh of ideas and things like that. The ideal is that you have a separate body that oversees a district and and its operations, right? That's that's the ideal >> and that's what we all want, >> right? In practicality, how it's turned out is that it has be it has often acted in a way that uh resists progressive change in terms of like say for example the way we have it set up in Oregon which is it's an unpaid position which means only certain people can are able to be able to run for board and therefore um you get a certain representation of people who tend to be let's just be blunt on the wealthier side, right? And the system that works for

054them is a system that reserved typically. So historically um this system hasn't really worked very well for a lot of uh populations of color um or people, you know, people who on the lower SCS uh uh scale. So in order to change that, you have to be very conscientious about how the system is set up and again surfacing assumptions >> and making sure that we are deliberate in terms of how we take action if we want to push against that structural design. And so it's not going that's my assumption and that's not going to be very >> well and you actually no it's it's and that's again diversity of thought. >> Yeah. And I'm thinking about lots of like for example examples and maybe you know not necessarily a PPS for example but I'm just

055like countrywide and think I mean you have a lot of boards that like the example the client took over or you know book burning in some places where some boards came on specifically to ban certain ideas from being taught. >> Even in Oregon. even in Oregon just recently >> right DEI >> and that's the situation so the next assumption you all are already starting to surface all all these assumptions that feed into the system right you know the fact that school boards are elected not well in New York City they're appointed right there's some places where school boards are appointed here they're >> right >> Massachusetts >> you know and um there is there is a conversation to be had on the role that how that impacts um disruption and change and you know that's

056I don't I won't unless you want to Sandy like profess to have the answers to that but the fact that we name it can help us keep it in mind as policy is being designed. So appointed um is not necessarily better than elected because appointed is by we have we have um we have seen in Oregon recently where um bodies of people who are boards have gone from being elected or put on by and they they've moved being appointed by one leader um which you know there are of course problems with having 120,000 people participate in an election and decide who are going to be on a board of fill in the blank. But there are also significant problems and it is certainly no um rose colored glasses to the idea that one person appoints

057a board of fill in the blank >> and can also hire said board of fill in the blank. And we've seen that in Oregon in the last couple of years. And it's a there's a very contextual example if you want to look up what's happening in Houston right now. >> Okay. >> Because they were declared failing. The state came in and appointed their leadership. >> Yeah. >> School they're having the school closure conversation. It is very different than what's how it's going what's transpiring here because they're >> I mean I guess with appointments depending on who's doing the appointing I don't know how it works in other places. The sort of idea is that whoever that appointinter is can pick people who are aligned with them. This kind of gets back to what Eddie was

058saying >> where you could select people who are going to be the change agents that the person who's in charge wants in your scenario to like align with them. So you get more alignment and probably more um harmony. But the downside is that you don't have that accountability piece to the in the same way. >> Mhm. >> Or autonomy. >> Okay. And then what was that? >> Or autonomy. Sure. Yeah. Sure. >> In the reverse board is appointed, >> right? >> State board is appointed. And if you watched their last two meetings, which I did not watch and just watched reporting of, so let's just pretend I watched them and just trust journalism. Um, but it sounds like it's been conversations where everybody's like, "I hate this." And then they all vote for it is

059what it sounds like. >> That happened. >> Yeah. >> Stamped all the way. >> Yeah. >> They'd say that they were like not happy with what I'm hearing. But yeah, go ahead with it. >> And unanimous. Unanimous. >> Did you have a point, Dr. >> Well, yeah. I feel like there's this duality like I get. So, we're elect, you know, run elections and folks are voted on in their communities. And I feel like there's this um I don't know what to call it, maybe gray area or or or something where there's the piece where you all elected by community and groups and definitely um representing that group and the work that you do on the board and in policy. And then I also feel like there's this also this this split role of then also

060believing in the work and the direction of the district. And I feel like sometimes that little gray area gets really or line or whatever you want to call it gets like really blurry. Like not that you have to like stop representing the people that voted you in and then give all that up to be down with leading the district forward, but it's more of like, you know, fully clothing yourself in community and helping to move the district forward. Like those two things go together. But I think the way that sometimes they're viewed is that it's either or. Either you're for the district >> or you're for the community. >> You can't be for both. >> Yeah, we're elected from the whole community. >> We're not elected in our mind. >> Correct. >> I feel I

061feel that. I try for that. >> I'm always trying for that. >> I don't feel that. >> It's a both end. >> Besides earlier, it's both end. We are elected citywide. We're not >> districtwide. we represent all all PPS students and once we're in on the inside we also have a kind of dual you know balancing act between being playing both those roles both listening to the community and being a liaison and supporting the overarching uh mission to educate kids in Portland provide access it's doing both >> yes yeah and >> it really is I'm I'm still learning after seven years. But that's >> there is a duality there. That's true. And and something that Sandy and I thought about, another assumption is when elected, what qualifications are looked for in a board? If you

062think about the fire commissioner, right, compared to a school board member, what types of qualifications are expected in school boards? >> We we did try to change that in Oregon. KOSA tried to change this a couple years ago. Do you remember anybody where you had to be qualified to uh serve as a school worker to run as a school board? >> I feel like there should just be two >> from the community and believe and be unapologetic about the advancement of a school district. >> I think it's problematic when there's only one of those. So, let's um dig into this a little bit more because when you think about when you vote for a judge or for a firefighter and it's not an explicit policy, but when you are reading their statement in the voter

063statement, you're looking, are they a lawyer? If I'm going to vote for a judge, I'm going to be a little squishy on electing someone to be a judge who isn't a lawyer. fire commissioner. Have they Have they been a firefighter? I'm not Does that happen with school boards? Do you go through go like, "Oh, are they a teacher? Have they taught?" >> I think like I think it's an interesting question, but I have to just share because like um you know when I I got appointed and then I ran and I ran against somebody who is lovely and whenever I was in a room with him, just as smart as me, etc. But I had like teaching experience and had kids in the schools and lived here significantly longer and had experience working in politics

064and like in every way he he matched me as far in a lot of ways but the experience clearly mattered because I got all the endorsements and won by quite a large margin. Sorry, Ken, but like um really nice guy, but just it the experience clearly mattered to the limited number of people who vote in schoolboard elections and who are um king makers, if you will, in those decisions like that the people who had the endorsement voices, you know, were they really wanted to see that and then it kind of played out that way. >> I think there was like the conversation around that person like just in community was like why >> like it was hard to understand like what his motivation was. >> Um because he didn't have a background in education and

065he didn't have kids in the schools and it was just it was hard to see the through and he didn't have anything that he was like I have this really amazing skill that I'm going to be able to bring to the school board and it's going to accomplish this or whatever. So let's think about it's like I guess what I was getting at is like it's not like are you a lawyer. It's more like can you show like a commitment or like an understanding or like that you're part of this and it didn't matter about like your education level or how smart you were your ideas. It was just like that connection has to >> that's the implicit assumption of what right is sought as a qualification for school board >> right it and so

066we're we're surfacing that right that that's an implicit assumption that we all make of okay why is this person running for this office oh they don't have kids in the schools >> so the link the link to schools matter >> having background and educations matter >> to the community >> right if they think falls in the two categories but because I I think that the more you see someone that's connected or have a history in education, you have this this belief or this assumption that they're going to be tin toes down for the mission and vision and success of that district, right? >> Yeah. >> Um and and so >> for sure, why do you think I >> mean it it's all soft like >> it just it's all very soft, right? because like we

067don't we don't know and it's also kind of the luck of the draw, right? For example, >> I ran unopposed. I heard through the grape vine that a few people dropped out because I was they thought I was highly qualified having been working district and so I mean that that's just what I heard but I don't know for sure right >> and right school board elections typically are consistently one of the lowest voter turnout >> elections. So like is it real democracy if only a small percentage of people in the school? I'm kind of going back to the appointed thing because I know in some states what happens is like the state representatives uh select the criteria for the appointment >> and then there's a state board of education that using that criteria select the

068appointment and more people vote in state representative uh elections than they do in schoolboard elections. So therefore, you could technically say that that's even more democratic. I'm sorry, I'm I'm kind of throwing >> because that goes into the next assumption because you know a lot of a lot of elected positions there is an assumption whether or not this concept are any elected official or let's talk school boards are they elected to be direct representatives or to be trustees. The idea that are they elected as under a trustee models they're elected and they're that word trust is in their right there's a foundational word in the trustee where >> there's an understanding that then the board will do its work and without having that direct review Sy's the lawyer she can explain this better than I

069but do you understand the difference between the idea this is very goes back to the founding fathers like do we have the senate versus the House of Representatives. Do you have a smaller group that is a trustee model that has been entrusted to make all these complex decisions or do you have a house of representatives that is elected every two years and so has a very tie and as a direct representative of of their and you know that this was eighth grade but it's >> I just want to say thank you because I was actually trying to make that so you were in my mind I was trying to make that connection to tie all those four points to lead to the next point >> right so am I when I'm sitting here am I

070making am I making a decision based on I know that this impact to right sizing of schools is going to negatively impact the elementary school my kids go to and the uh community that I live in and so that's how I need to vote and that's how I need to voice my thoughts or am I and so I'm a direct representative or am I a trustee am I looking at the whole and there's not a right or wrong here and it's a lot of times It's you're kind of jumping back and forth and blending, but we're we're earthinging those implicit assumptions as you come into this work. Am I doing the work of what's best for all 50,000 students in the Portland School District? >> I wonder if you might be willing to indulge this

071idea, but I'd be curious if each of us could say what we think. >> Well, and Virginia's been waiting for chip in too. Yeah. Oh, I didn't I was I was bringing back this. >> Oh, thank you. I didn't >> um I believe that we are trustees because we are chosen by voters and we are accountable to the public and we're expected to listen to their concerns and we're not advocacy coalitions. Um we are governing a public institution and we have to consider the entire community, not just parts of it. >> Can I just ask for a clarification because again, sorry teacher, I'm sorry, but like generally this direct representatives or trustees to me means a little bit less myopic than your own school or your own community cuz we are districtwide. um that like

072if it's the difference of this. If you were to survey your voters on an issue and you had a different opinion than them, this is how I think of it. >> Direct representatives would say, I have to vote with what the survey of the people said. A trustee might say, I got elected, but it's through my lens of what I think is right because you all selected me to decide in the moment what I think is the right thing to do. >> That's the distinction. That's my So just to be clear on my understanding of the distinction just so we're all on the same page. >> Okay. Because we're districtwide, not like zonewide. So just >> Well, and also sometimes, at least a while ago, it was said that people who wanted to get ahead

073politically would run for the school board because that was a first step. >> I don't think any of us did, but I think for quite a while that was happening. >> Scary because they probably didn't care at all. >> There's a joke that that's not in Portland. Like the joke is like that's not true in Portland but true everywhere else in Oregon. That's usually what you hear. >> But anyone else before we move on to the last assumption, anyone else want to weigh in on this, you know, how how it looks in Portland, trusteeship versus director >> or who as an individual? >> Yeah. When you come to this work? >> Well, I don't I don't know just the the terms, right? I I don't know. We need those. >> I don't know what it

074means uh not an advocacy coalition because I feel like um people might have different beliefs about what an advocacy coalition is. >> I Yeah, I definitely think if if that means listening to the people in your district, I'm certainly an advoc advocate for people in the district. >> Yes. >> A lot of people come to me and ask me about things and me too. So if I believe it, I won't fight for it. Do you mind providing a little more clarity on that? >> I'm talking about groups and factions of people, but we're not here to represent small groups. We're here to represent everybody because it's a greater public interest like to what you're saying. That's what we're here to do. Sometimes it is oftentimes it is making those big decisions that may not be

075popular with some of our advocacy cos. So, it's not our job to be >> the coalition's popular, right? >> Because I guess I just when I hear that, I guess that sounds to me like will represent the majority of people and not the minority voice because >> that's not what I mean at all. I don't think >> because it sounds like that though. No, I think what she's saying is um you know like in our district we have >> I'm sure in Portland too a very strong high cap highly capable gifted group and some of our board members have kids in that program and so are they a direct representative? Do they speak for the gifted students of the district or are they when they're sitting in these chairs thinking about what's best for all

076of the students because sometimes those moments end in conflict. So it's not >> Yeah. But I also think just on the other side, I appreciate that, but I think to uh director Split's point about, you know, hearing from community and then bringing your own lens, I think we have diversity on the board that may be highly capable, that may be special education, that may be representing BIPO, that may be representing all these other different groups. And so I guess I I just wonder like, you know, I I think it's important to have that lens, you know, and then if we racialize it, I one of the ways in which we've gotten entangled as a board is that when we racialize things, it goes really bad really quickly. And I know that that's uncomfortable for everyone.

077And I think if we don't explicitly say it or um you know figure out what our norm is or where we're all like meeting in the middle, we're going to continue to trip over that. And that's where sort of the dysfunction and I normalize saying the word dysfunction because I think if there's behaviors that is not allowing us to fully function, it's dysfunctional. It's like accountability and feedback. Some of these words people term as like bad words. I don't think they're bad words. I think the words we need to address because I really want us to be functional for the benefit of kids. So, an example, I was working with a a school district to to this um and we we surfaced an implicit assumption that in some areas they were direct representatives in that

078there was one person of color on the board and even though it was minority majority district, the belief of all of the board was that one person of color was responsible for connecting with all of the communities of color in the district, right? And so that's kind of where that can be problematic when we get into that direct representatives and we want to surface that. >> Um I unfortunately could not get the other >> non board members of color to be like, oh, I also represent those communities and I need to get out and hear what they have to say. Um but that's that surfacing that because there yeah there's times where it is a good thing to be a representative of your community and bring forward that voice of hey there's some things that

079are really not going great with kids on 504 plans. We're really struggling to get those enforced. That's great. I just >> So is that not an advocacy coalition by your definition? That's a bringing that's a representative of hey we're I'm raising awareness that this may be going on. Um in in my district I just raised awareness. So we have a policy around you have to prove that you live in the district in order to enroll in our schools. Okay that's a very simplistic policy right very straightforward. Uh, and the procedure is you have to bring in either your mortgage, a bill, or um the lease. Well, we have a trailer park community that doesn't do leases or what if they're homeless, >> right? And so this Well, then there they can mention, hey, I'm not

080advocating. I'm pointing out we've got a problem with our procedure >> because we can't get these kids enrolled in school because they don't have a lease and that's you know right. So those are roles as direct representatives of coming in and in my community this is the as I was trying to buy my milk and to put it back in the refrigerator I've been made aware of a situation and that's because it's a dual role. I just don't see where advocacy is a bad word, I guess, is the word. >> It's not a bad word at all. What we're talking about governments, we're talking about the board and what our role is is to balance all the obligations. So, I mean, when I ran, we're talking about our campaigns, all I talked about was being

081an advocate of kids and being a parent advocate. That's constantly what I talked about. So, I don't think it's a bad thing at all. I think when we're on the board in the context of what we're talking about being trustees, we are here to balance competing interests, not to beat each other up over one or the other, but to align. If I can help, I'm hearing a lot of similarities. Sometimes instead of advocacy coalition, I hear this termed as the single issue board member. >> So, right. So the idea that someone comes with a single issue and that's why they want to get elected for whatever reason you maybe they really want dual language everywhere. >> Right. And so >> perhaps that would be another way to phrase it, you know. >> Excellent. Right. >>

082Okay. Okay. Because otherwise I'm hearing a lot I am hearing similarities. >> Yeah. Eddie. >> Um I think maybe it might help to phrase it. I was thinking about this as well because I think as board members we play different roles. There's different hats we have to put on occasionally. So like one thing you know the trustee is an important issue because it's like that's goes back to con I was talking about this with Christie wall because we both have social studies backgrounds about constitutional philosophy right which is like direct democracy versus representative democracy and we have representative that works not direct because you get elected you know you learn about you know how the whole system works and therefore you can make decisions while still like holding up front the community's priorities versus direct

083democracy and you know not everyone who goes to you know local school here or there ABC knows exactly the whole picture. It may make decisions that could actually make >> things worse. So um so but I think maybe framing in different hats may help like for example when we are voting on the budget when we are uh debating policy and and passing policy and making decisions we should be acting like trustees right like what we're talking about here not necessarily like advocacy coalitions or things like that. However, the other hat that we also wear is like, hey, we do have policies. Are is the district following the policy? There's a bunch of 504 kids are not whose kids are not being met. That's violating some policies. So, I mean, we're like extra eyes on the

084ground kind of giving feedback for the district. It's not making a decision. It's not making a vote. It's not passing a new policy or or um you know decision-m but just kind of like a >> check >> separate role that we play that is outside of governance. >> I love that Eddie. And I also want to normalize that giving feedback to the superintendent because I think a lot of times we use the word the district or district and just to be clear it's like really superintendent, right? and we dress it up to be the district when really it's the superintendent. So I just think the more we normalize who we're giving feedback to or what we're asking or questioning isn't the district but it's the superintendent >> which is I think fair >> for the

085example you gave. So great conversation by the way great conversation really important right really multi-layered >> so this is why we put up this final assumption what role do values play in the school boards >> I read your mind I think I >> you were helping me with the segways today so much Eddie >> you really are what do you think >> paramount How explicit are they stated? >> Our collective values. >> I would hope that we have an opportunity to kind of define what those are because I think I think we're >> we haven't done that and I think it'd be really important. That's to say that we all have different values. >> Um and we all bring those into the room. Sometimes, you know, when you make a hard decision, what you have

086to fall back on are your own values. And it I think it'd be helpful for us to kind of talk about, you know, that helps us de develop a north a north star, too. If what we value is access for all kids to quality education, then everything we do supports that. We're not choosing the color of the window sills. We're actually providing, you know, access to high quality education for the kids. >> Yeah. Everything leads to that based on what we value. >> Well, Virginia, so we brought this up for months about doing work around what our values are. Are we doing that today because Okay, good. Because that's been one of my frustrations as we've talked about it because >> you're saying that we have different values, but I don't even know if we

087have different values because we haven't done that work together. >> So, >> yeah, there we don't know. Yeah, >> we're going to work on it. Yeah, Christie. Um, I guess one thing I just wanted to say is, um, I also think like getting to a place where we talk about our shared values and also develop an understanding of where they differ and talk about how that works. I think back to I don't know that meeting that was at out in past Woodlon. Um, where was that? Concordia. Is that Oo now? Yeah. Okay. when we were there. Concordia said um when we were there um when we were in that meeting like you and I had a different value around harmony where you were like that's not a value that I share but like it's really

088important to me. So, I want when we have that conversation, I hope there's space for us to talk about like how we can like navigate those differences a little bit or like think about how there's there might be like some sort of in the ven diagram way to make it so that um we can have those differing values around work style or whatever um but not have it be like a problem going forward. So before I Michelle and um Stephanie haven't shared a whole lot in this conversation, so I just want to create some space for the two of you. See if there's anything you want to add to any of these. >> Okay. Okay, that's fair. I guess the only thing I'll say going all the way back to three is I would guess

089I would worry about a board that decides what qualifications are expected to be on that board um instead of letting the voters decide what they want to have on a board. Um, and maybe it ends up not being the right qualifications, but presumably, um, you don't want to have everyone having the same qualifications. You want to have, I think, I believe we want to have people with different qualifications on our board. Um, I also think that we have created uh by having our special elections in May a sleepier election and that we could change that if we want to get more people voting on schoolboard elections. We don't have to have them on a special election in May. we could have them when governors being decided in Oregon when hundreds of thousands of people more

090are considering voting. It would be much much harder on candidates, I think. Um but but until we have a schoolboard election on a November general, I don't know that we can say no one votes on school boards. people just don't vote in this country and they don't really vote in May special elections and I don't think it is about school board. I think if we just threw our election when people are decid I mean there's a reason that the transportation tax is now and not in November. If we just stop ourselves on November, we'd have a whole lot more people >> deciding and maybe that's something we want to talk about if we're worried that not enough people are voting on who is on the school board. Um >> the only trouble with that is

091you might get people who don't really care and just check a box. >> Well, it's a special if it's a special board election people might >> it could be something to talk about. Yeah. Pros and cons probably looking to other state. So, is is Portland an anomaly with or in Oregon or was is Oregon an anomaly within the country? Because most school boards are elected in >> general >> or the >> is it a primary and a general or just even number? >> Yeah, we are odd number years. So, we're off years. Our November oddnumbered year election is even dead than our May because the only thing that's going on is the school board election. >> Okay. You do November, >> odd number of years, city council, school boards, county councils, >> but then you

092have runoff >> after they don't get >> No, we have a primary in August and then the general >> if we do August though and then November because that's why we could if if if we were to go to a November election for the school board, we would have to do some kind of rank choice voting or something that's just a one hit wonder as opposed to having a because our primary is in statute in May and our um general You know what though? We don't we don't I mean Relle, did you get 50% of the vote? Oh, you did because you did. You did. But did you get 50% off the vote? >> There weren't enough like write in or if there had been a third candidate, >> but like point is like we

093don't have like um >> winner takes this. This is a pretty big question. You probably want to do a little research on this. >> They probably don't want us talking about this, but I do think it's not 50% plus one. I think it's winner. That's what I was trying to get at. I >> I'm just curious. Does Portland have the authority to change when you have your elections? >> I wasn't do it. I was just saying I don't think we get to say no one votes on school boards, which is the problem when we've planted ourselves on a sleepy election. We don't know if anyone will vote on >> We'll look into that and see if that's even something you get to change. One of the original reasons why it was put on May was

094because it was so expensive to run a campaign in November. >> So that was part of the >> if I remember historically that was one of >> techniques to try to increase accessibility was putting in May but the the the definition that pointed is actually in our policy. So I wonder made use of our policy. >> What were you going to say Virginia? >> I was just going to say you know I sit here and I look around at the makeup of this board. I would somebody for 20 years now and I'd say we represent a really wide swath of Portland. I would say as a collectively we're pretty representative of the city, you know. So I feel like you know when we are we get aligned like we'd be pretty powerful. >> I feel

095like that's not true >> really. I mean, I can see why you say that, but I think there's a lot of this city that a lot of the city never sees. And those are people who are not >> and also we don't hear from here the public. We don't they don't like the people in my zone don't come to our schoolboard meetings. >> So, >> well, really the percent that come to our schoolboard meetings is pretty small. >> Yeah. But I guess what I'm saying is there there is a voice. There are voices that we don't that we don't hear from that don't for some reason a challenge for a lot of >> Yeah, it is a lot of schools. >> I think we are an anomaly because >> traditionally our EPS school boards has

096been very monogous >> homogeneous like you was going to say the wrong word. Yeah. Until very recently until maybe two election cycles ago. >> Yeah. And it's a yes and you can be representative of your community >> and still not hear from your community. you could that both things can be true at the same time. >> I think that's probably true for every zone that we don't hear from a lot in that zone. I mean zone is I think ever a lot of our things >> thinking about kingy Elliot but I'm like I don't think I've ever heard someone right like so I think every zone is going to have >> even even when we were there were a lot of people who want to act. So I think >> everywhere is going to have

097whatever reason that just don't get engaged. >> It's important that you all important takeaway is to think about it. This is an aspirational goal to get voices from the entire community especially one as large as Portland. So it's important to bring it up. Um, we would like to se segue. I don't know if you've noticed these have been numbers which this is the third aspect of the framework to think about with policy design to build out some values. They don't have to be perfect tonight, but we want to ask for that. >> I'm wondering it's 7 o'clock. We've been doing this an hour and a half. Do we want to take an quick five minute break? >> Just stand up at least. We have a lot we still want to do with you. >> Hour

098and a half. But um and what we want to do with you still. >> We've been sneaky. You've actually done a lot of values conversation already. You just don't know. >> We're going to we're going to get it down. But quick five minute even just to stand up. >> Yeah. >> We're about to get a little technical. We need some brain power. >> The lid of my pen and it's right under your chair. So Um, you've received a whole lot of pieces of paper while you were on break. What I'm going to suggest or ask is that you get out the one with the columns of words. >> This one. >> This. Yeah, that's it. Perfect. >> This is Bnee Brown's list of values. It's just a list of words that are values for people.

099So, what we're going to have you do is spend a couple minutes um by yourself uh and go through these lists and circle eight words that are the best words that describe your values. But I'm going to put a before you start jumping along and circling things. Um that you have it be reflective of your work as a board member. >> Uh because my eyes went right to travel huge value of mine. >> But that and it would absolutely if it was my personal values that would have been one of the first things I circled. Not that obviously obviously as a board member I do not that's not a high value. So there's I was capturing the big picture ideas of what you were sharing when we talked about the why. Why why do we

100do this? Why are there words? So you can look back there if there's some words, but circle eight words that are you think capture >> Eight total on the of the three columns. >> Not eight each column. No. >> That you think capture your values as you come to this work as a board member or superintendent? >> Um, and please disregard the prompts at the bottom. I pulled this from workshop and forgot to delete them before I had them printed. So, Okay, looks like everybody's about wrapped up. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start with Patty and I want you to pick one. It can be the first one alphabetically. It could be the one that spoke to you the loudest. Um, but just share one uh value that you circle.

101>> Um, responsibility. >> Okay. Did anybody else circle responsibility? >> Just did it. There you go. >> Okay. We got one, two, three other people circled response. So, four people total resp. That's because if I ran out of steps after eight, it would have been nine. >> It wouldn't. Okay. >> It doesn't count. >> All right. Um, wow. Orange does not show up at all. >> It does not. Okay. Forget orange. >> That's funny. >> Okay. Uh, Christy, a word. >> Love. >> I love too. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Anybody else? for an LL similar comment like it's caring >> I yeah I I think we if you want to write love caring okay who I've heard wait I know another raise your hand if you had either love or caring one two three on

102>> responsibility >> there was four total like structure of thinking about it. >> Uhhuh. >> Yeah, it's very >> Okay, Michelle, >> I feel strongly about this. Um I I felt like actually a combination of certain words um could replace other words. Does that make sense? Like >> go for it. Um, well, I think if you equity was not on this list, but I felt like if you combine love and justice, um, you get a lot of things. You get responsibility, you get fairness, you get equity. >> Um, fairness goes on here. Yeah. >> So, let's Okay. Fairness. What other words do you think combined with love and justice? Um, equity wasn't at a diversity and inclusion trying to like get that. >> Okay, let's let's back up. Who tried to get at equity through

103other words? There we go. >> I mean, I think there's a reason why equity isn't on here. I do a lot of trainings on it. I I don't want to take up too much time, but I mean the goal isn't equity. The goal is justice. Justice is what changes systems. And there's a reason equity is a violated justice. It's not justice. They're two different things. So I think the question is who put justice? Okay. >> It's a total different concept. I'm sorry. >> Wow. Equity is 1 2 3 4. So, we have a lot of justice. Okay. I already completely upended my own very rigorous schedule. >> Okay. Michelle, why don't you share a word? >> Uh, I put integrity. >> Okay. Who? Anybody else have integrity? >> One, two, three. >> I thought about

104it. I put um ethics, which is >> I don't know. To me, they're Integrity if everyone accepts my ethics as an integrity could be ethics integrity. >> Okay. Ethics integity. That's totally fine. I just be I just saw. >> Okay. Raise your hands again. Ethics integrity. >> 1 2 3 4 5. Okay. >> Okay. Eddie. >> Oh, I'm having a hard time. Uh would you either pick gratitude or humility? So much gratitude for everyone who works in education. I also feel like humility is of scarce resources. >> We're not done. So pick one and we will be back. >> Humility. >> Okay. Humility. All right. Anybody else have humility? >> Okay. >> We should make We might Stephanie. Um >> what does the third one say? The third one is love/caring and then love plus

105justice plus fairness. And I've threw in equity, but mostly it's about justice here. >> Justice. >> Yeah, I've had several too. >> So, we're kind of doing synonyms, too. >> If Well, let people are popping out with synonyms and so just >> I'm a rule follower. >> Me, too. You think it's a create word or go off the >> list? No, it's not that. It's just that I think like I mean I could find a synonym on my circled ones for for everything that's up there. >> What do you have that hasn't come up yet that you feel strongly about? Is that a fair facilitation? >> Community, but I that might I think that's up there. I mean, >> no, I don't think we haven't community. >> Okay. Who else has community? One, two, three,

106four. >> Four people have community. Okay, Virginia. >> Accountability. Who else has accountability? Okay, we've got >> I almost chose that one, but I went for achievements. >> I had it and I squiggled it out because I thought that finding other ones brought you to the >> Okay. Um, how about accountability? Responsibility. >> Yeah, I had responsibility. >> Responsibility. >> Okay. 1, two, three, four, >> five, six. Okay. We got six people with accountability/responsibility. >> Well, we already did responsibility. >> That's okay. I'm linking them. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we did. Our first one. >> Okay. >> I know we clumped them together, but I actually think they're two very different things. >> Okay. >> Say more. Well, I feel like accountability means different things to different people and I think that's where the confusion

107comes in. Responsibility is something different because I think that that has to deal with um that leans more into the ethics component of the accountability equation. >> That's interesting because I did both of them. >> Go ahead, Michelle. >> There's different. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> I might be wrong, but I feel like accountability is more external and responsibility is more internal. >> The same thing, but there's an internal external play >> because you're accountable to others. >> Yeah. >> But responsibility is like something intrinsic that you're carrying forward. >> You've never been able to read this, Andy? I'm so sorry. It's okay. I'm already excited because we've got some good things in agreement on >> and I have heard responsible being responsible to your community and being accountable to your community. Those words being used

108interchangeably and in the same context. >> Okay. Dr. Armstrong. >> Collaboration. >> Teamwork. Collaboration. >> Okay. Teamwork. One. Two. That that got everybody. >> All right. Okay. Uh, Patty, what words are not up here? I know it's a little bit messy. >> Let's see which one. >> Honesty. >> Truth. >> And truth. Okay, that got honesty. Truth. >> Integrity. >> No, we already did integrity. Under integrity, I put truthfulness. >> Okay. >> It goes with trust. >> Yeah. We have >> in truthful >> integrity and ethics. But honesty and truth, let's just capture that one maybe. >> Mhm. So, honesty, truth, >> we'll all together. >> I thought a couple >> I had I had I had truthfulness under integrity. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I'm in agreement, but I did not I picked ethics and

109integrity. >> Okay. Combined. They're all very close. >> Okay, Christie, what is not up there? >> Um, I think like we kind of had the discussion about justice and then I'm trying to think about because I had a lot that kind of fell under that I guess umbrella even though I understand they're different. But if we have justice then I guess I wonder like I think about I had diversity and inclusion as well and I just don't know how to quite like square that conversation we had before but those are the only two I have left and obviously inclusion has some other things going on with it like belonging to me right is kind of in there >> so Yes. And I feel like inclusion has like some connotations for like special education in a

110way that maybe some of the other words don't. So the only thing I think I'm missing is inclusion of the two that I don't have up there yet that I have. >> Did you have diversity? Did I write down? >> I have diversity and inclusion. I'm just saying I wonder if diversity falls under the conversation we had about like >> I don't know. I'm having a hard time with articulating >> that I have them both. I like think they're both super important, but if people feel like I guess I just feel like inclusion is maybe a little bit less was less present in that previous conversation. >> Okay. Anybody else have inclusion? >> Okay. >> I had a square around it, not a circle. >> That was one of my extra words should I need

111it. >> Okay. Somebody said, "Let's go for 10 words." >> 12. Okay, Michelle, any words uh that have not been shared yet? >> Courage and stewardship. >> Cou courage and stewardship. >> Okay, >> I have courage. >> Anybody else have courage? >> We have one other taker for courage. >> Anybody else have stewardship? >> Yeah. >> Okay, we've got one other stewardship. I had courage with a do >> I did I like that. All right. Uh Michelle, >> um I don't know if this is up here. I put down excellence >> as a >> Oh, it's not up here. >> Uh that is like what I envision when I think about the school district. I think excellence. >> Okay. Um >> anybody come up with something that is analogous to excellence? also went off the

112page. Felt the need >> but I think excellence is more what I >> when you put learning. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Achievement. Learning. >> Achievement. So learning. Okay. Wait. Learning. Achievement. >> Okay. Raise your hand if you had learning or achievement. >> Well, I'm going to take mine back because I don't know that I meant excellence. >> Okay. I don't think I did. >> Okay. All right. Raise your hands now if you're on team learning and achievement. One, two, three. >> Well, I'm on team learning, but not that I didn't I didn't mean it for like >> I didn't see it as a synonym to excellence. >> Okay. >> I'm on team learning with like a different >> Okay, explain. >> Yeah, >> well like I don't I don't know it all. None of

113us know it all. >> Oh, I wouldn't worry if we had a board member who knows it all. And so I believe that we are all always learning hopefully until our last breath. >> Um and so while I of course love excellence, I don't see those as a synonym. >> Okay. >> Um so would you say you saw learning as growth? >> Yes. I also have forgiveness for the same reason. >> Okay. Okay. So um let we're going to keep So raise your hand if learning, achievement, excellence were kind of synonymous in your head. because we're going to come back to growth. We're going to do >> this. I just don't I I don't mean to raise my hand for it. I'm just >> Okay. So, >> we're going to put five. I'm making it

114up. >> Put excellence down. When I'm thinking of excellence, I'm thinking of academic excellence. So, that why systems excellence. So, systems excellence. >> I'm thinking academic excellence. I was thinking academic operational like it's all one. >> Um yeah, not just academic because I put achievement down too because we've talked about achievement a lot. >> Okay. >> But I see that as very different from like if we if we envision excellence and that's what we're driving towards. >> Okay. Eddie, what words uh do you have left that are not already up there? >> Uh the other meaning of learning. The other meaning of learning >> which would be >> growth. >> We're an educational institution, >> right? >> We're learning curiosity >> and it's important that uh everybody up and down the system models learning >>

115learning. Okay. >> As our students are learning, we should be modeling learning. >> Okay. So learning/growth >> kind of goes with humility. >> So what's the word? >> Learning always trying to be better. I think maybe >> so all your words are taken. she was saying. >> Yeah, I think all of my words are taken. >> Oh, okay. >> I mean, I I do get an extra bonus one because I crossed off equality and wrote equity, but that's not real word. Um, and so I didn't I cross that off and I do only have seven, so maybe I >> Okay, so I've heard some commonality around the idea of the adults in the system modeling growth and improvement and learning. How many people would agree with that statement as a value? Okay. So, that that

116was an that's an 18. >> Okay. Even if it's not on our list. >> Yeah. Because I'm going to add one here in a minute. All right. >> I'm like, yes, I'm learning and not as much on excellence, I guess. So, outlier on that one. >> Amazing learning opportunities. >> Okay. >> Always a pursuit. You never >> Stephanie, any words left on your list? >> Um, competence and confidence. Confidence and confidence. >> Okay. Um trying to think if that's synonymous with anything we have up there. I >> I don't think confidence. >> Okay. Any anybody else have competence? >> I feel like competence comes into that like same thing we were talking about with like stewardship and learning >> and like the systems excellence. >> Systems excellence to me. >> Resourcefulness. >> It was yours.

117I'm just curious. >> Resourceful. Yeah, I do. I think so. >> That many >> is resourcefulness. I mean, it's not it's a different word, but is that confidence going to have to be very resourceful? >> Probably >> like resourceful. >> I mean, I didn't put it as a circle of resource resourcefulness, but I think it's probably the same like way on that one. Okay. >> Resourcefulness. And I would not I would not >> the same. Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh, and then you had another C word. That's >> confidence. >> Anybody else have confidence? >> I would like to say something about competence out loud that I just chat chatted to somebody. I think competence is more comfortable for me than excellence with the same kind of thing. >> Okay. >> Anybody else

118have confidence? >> Okay. Uh, Virginia, what words? Oh, >> I just I have resourcefulness and then I have also I had that's my backward back and forth was drive. >> Drive. Okay. >> Anybody else have something like drive? >> Okay. >> Three words left. >> Okay. >> I'm waiting for my three words. >> All right. >> Balance, grace, and hope. balance, grace, and hope >> and not to make one word. Those are the actual three words. >> Yes. Okay. I understand. We're not mcking about. >> I would I would join you in the grace with this news or the learning and the forgiveness is kind of where I was going with my ideas behind the value of that which to me is very similar to giving and showing grace and affording grace. Okay. >> Also,

119I gave some good thought to Grace in our um interactions with each other >> and also also another and also it came to my mind with like how we're viewed by the community because I think sometimes the community doesn't give us any grace at all. They >> Sorry, I'm just laughing. Sorry, community. you. >> I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Mhm. >> Doing our best over here. >> Like up a bit. >> Like having 150,000 teenagers. >> Okay. Are we ready for the last >> balance balance and then hope would be >> Okay. Uh this actually was kind of like drive. Perseverance. >> Yeah, I think that is very much like drive. Perseverance. Okay, >> I only have one more left. >> Okay. What is that? >> Should I say it? >> Yeah. >>

120Innovation. >> I was waiting for that. >> That's a good one. >> Well, I thought growth was personal self resourcefulness, but >> I don't know. >> Innovation, I think, is even more than that. I'll put it next looking at something different. >> You all were very innovative in how you did this. >> So they modeled that. >> The only word I have left I already seated. So I had harmony. But when everybody said collaboration and recruit, I just went with that. >> Okay. >> In a harmonious and collaborative way. >> Okay. >> Elements of talent. >> Yeah. >> But so collaboration cooperative. >> Okay. So now what we're going to do is narrow and I it's not going to be nearly as hard as it sounds. We're going to narrow this down to four or

121five values that really speak to all of you. Um, and I heard um, we're going to start with that con and we we couldn't quite get the right word, but the concept of justice and the concept that all students should have access to the system, right? Inclusion, diversity, equity, right? That that seems to be a core belief held by all of you. Yeah, >> and I'm saying seeing head nodings. Okay. Um, also the idea that not only the board but all the adults in the system should model that there is you have more to learn, right? That you're never done growing. You're never done learning. Um, and that there is always work to do. >> Continuous improvement. >> Can I can I be like for a second? >> Not at all. cuz this is sorry.

122This was one that I had feelings about and so I don't want it to be one of the ones that were four. If we're only going to have four or five and they're all agreeing, I just that wasn't one I agree with. So, >> so what about it do you not agree with? >> I just feel like it too. >> But this is as a board though as a board superintendent team. >> They're saying that's what one you feel strongly about. I don't I don't feel so like I don't want to lose like collaboration because we decided this was one of our top four >> for example. I'm just not sure that it's four. >> Okay. So >> well um >> we're trying to stay to four >> collaboration we all agreed to right off

123the >> So I am going with the ones that got the most votes. This is that majority >> qualification that we all agreed to should go first. Okay. Okay. So, collaboration and teamwork also got all eight and then we were very close to eight with the learning achievement growth concept. >> Didn't we all had community? >> There was only four people that raised their hand with community. >> There there I find a theme in responsibility, accountability and stewardship. I don't know. It's they did I don't know if they're they're different concepts, right? Added >> internal responsibility, external accountability, and stewardship to me um might be a grouping. >> I would agree to that. >> Um just for me when we when I said achievement, I meant student achievement. >> Me too. I don't know like

124my own encompasses like everybody like kids and adults together that that's like a value around like learning and growth or something then have it just be about the grown-ups. Yeah, I don't know collaboration. >> Okay. >> All right. So that for sure the justice. >> I'm just going to throw equity. Sorry, Kimberly. I'm throwing that out there. >> Oh, it's important. It's an important step. Nothing here was part of the justice. >> Yeah. Okay. Um I'm trying to >> um it's all I know I'm putting too many words in there. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So we've got these two that we're all in agreement on what we're trying to get to and maybe we need to parse it out. >> I think we all have agreement on the accountability, responsibility and integrity. >> Integrity

125was part of >> Okay. Do we have a show of hands that a value is around your integrity, your ethics, accountability, responsibility? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Are you >> And then community was a um a high rated one. >> They already shot me down. >> What was that? There was only four people that had community. >> Oh, >> but I think >> Well, so many words. >> It's only 8,5 and four. Oh, there's a >> Okay. So, let's let's do this. Let's have this values conversation because I think we're starting to have two separate conversations and we want to and it's okay. We can have two separate ones. There's one about student learning and achievement and excellence. And there's that conversation and then there's a conversation around learning and growth as a board, as

126a team, as >> right. So those are two separate conversations. So let's and I think that the student learning one I think I've got a sense that that is something that this board values. So let's talk about some words that's reflective of your values around cuz you are a school board that is the mission >> with that color shell just said like why not growth and it's like both and that makes a lot of sense to me. What do you all think of that growth is a value that's like every human is every human us >> growth for teachers for me but I think it might work. thumbs up if that works for you. It's okay if it doesn't. >> I I do like that you've said there's two kind of ways that we're looking

127at student learning and organizational learning. And in nature, you know, things are learning all the time. Plants are learning how to be, you know, got the tree down. They're learning how to be in the sun versus the shade. And so I place a high value on organizational learning, like learning as a team. >> Um basketball teams go through this. um teams go through this learning and I think I mean for me that's really important. It's it's not just learning as an individual, it's learning in community. >> Um it's a symbiotic. >> Okay. So like we're still kind of working through this. So I just personally So those of you that weren't that aren't wild about growth, tell me more about what is not getting you there. What Would you rather see >> I think I'm

128and maybe this my perspective of our audience I'm thinking of this as an external facing document to the PE people we represent. So if I'm if I have to pick I'm going down the academic excellence road because I don't see anything up there right now about that. You don't consider growth to be that in the context that Michelle's talking about it? No, because we're not talking about students. We're talking about the organization. >> Oh, the company. >> So, the proposal was growth as both in one word. >> In order to get to the students, we're going to have to get to ourselves >> because we're like collaboration. >> I am to Yeah. growth. I have like a weird thing with excellence because like what about the kids that like the growth is like the excellence

129is not I don't want to be like the excellence isn't there. It's also horrible. But like growth is like the name of the game for some of our kids and I just I don't want them to feel I don't want the vibe to be you have to get like a 98% on your English test to be successful in the system. >> Yeah, I really like that. I was talking to a friend the other day whose daughter has a developmental disability >> and she's a math teacher and we were talking about math and kids and she was talking about recognizing like her daughter is never going to be the what's the top like proficient across the board. She's never going to have that report. It's just not going to happen. Um but what she considers as

130success for her daughter is every time there is growth and her daughter can appreciate it and feel it and recognize that she's grown. Like it's not about like the straight A's or the straight P's or whatever we are now. Um but it is about like >> really >> the growth and the the achievement and the the progression. >> Yep. >> What about something like learning success or um strong learning outcomes? Is that what >> So we put it something like I mean the role of the school district is to educate all our kids >> and so grow we grow is so we can grow to do that better. We want to do it better than we did last year and the previous generation. So in a way it is academic the pursuit of academic betterness.

131Right. So, I I um I like the idea of growth. I think you should stick with that word because that that addresses all of your students because if we focus on excellence, then you can have students coming in that are already scoring at the top but don't see any growth. >> Mhm. >> Right. So, growth is a really good word. What I want to tease out is is that enough to capture both or do we need to separate organizational growth from student growth? Do we want to have two separate values? One for organizational growth and one for student growth. >> I tried to combine them but it might be too many words. So, are we just uh just for clarification, are we talking about our values in terms of working together as a board superintendent

132team or are we talking about values for the organization? >> Yes, >> I had that same question. >> Um, so our goal is to give the policy subcommittee five or six values. So as you go back and do this work of writing your section one, you have this reference. Uh we have prioritized collaboration and team. This is important to the board that we have collaboration and teamwork. So then when you're writing those policies that will reflect that back, right? Okay. So collaboration and teamwork is how do we vote? How do we uh respond to a vote? How do we get information so that we understand what we're doing? Right? That is all going to be reflected. The justice inclusion act, we got to come up with something to that, right? We want we know that

133there are students that do not have access to our system, meaningful access to our system, right? And for all of us that is important that that's a lens that we are looking at is this as we do this work around budgets right sizing schools um you name it whatever crisis dour we've got to keep that front and center is how is this impacting those kids accountability and ethics right so when you're writing those policies we know that we are a board that values being accountable to our community. So with that's why we're going to talk about how you respond to emails, how do you have public comment, how do you um when you take a vote, you support the vote, even if you're not in the majority. Those are all part of accountability and ethics

134that we have all agreed are important. >> So you actually just brought us back to guiding principles and guard rails. >> Yes. >> Got it. Um I am just sitting here listening and thinking and because we have the grace of having five to six. Um we could talk about student growth as one and then I'm wondering about bringing back. Okay. So, like competence is not a sexy word, but I think it's so critically important. And I didn't even put it, but like but I I I think that when I think about like the organizational side of the equation, >> that's fine. I'm wondering about if there's like a if one of the words that we had up there that we haven't talked about in this context yet that that like competence or excellence I feel

135much more comfortable with excellence as like an organizational side conversation or competence if we want to think about it more tactic tactically maybe um I'd feel comfortable with separating them um if people think that that would be helpful. I do think that growth in general is a good thing. But whereas I think asking every single student to fit some definition of academic excellence makes me uncomfortable, I do feel like fitting a definition of organizational excellence is something we should >> question >> policy. I was just going to say I think that the comment about policy changed everything because then I imagine the people that that's coming together to talk about policy is a simple question on how does this contribute to the growth of the the student the organization or uh the member the board

136right and I feel like >> right >> that kind of clarified it for me with all of these words thinking what would be that question to ask to ensure like What does accountability look like in this policy? Is it specifically named like that? That's really helpful explanation. >> Just had a clarifying question cuz what you said kind of struck a chord. Um when you when you mention when you're talking about competence, sorry, I'm not discount. I think I agree 100% what you just said. Um I um do you mean like a level of performance that we're not doing we're doing more good than harm? Like for example like the Socratic oath, right, which is like do no harm. Is that like kind of what you mean by like competence? Is that >> I So like

137I'm going to like just be annoying for a second. Sometimes somebody wrote this like bio for me for the bus project which is now next up. It's where I like started working in politics a million years ago. And the first thing they said about me is that I was competent. And I remember feeling sort of like insulted at the moment. But then like over time I've been like man I can like write a grants application. I can like do a spreadsheet. I can like So there's just like this. So competence to me when I say that it's like just like I'm going to damn it's like just like getting things done. I wanted to swear for the case of the recording in case you thought I was going to say something inappropriate, but like it's

138like getting things done. Like that's to me like competence is just like being able to do the things you need to do to get the job done. >> Um that's why I put competence out there. But I do think what we're striving for is like excellence and I think growth does the trick for me as long as it does it for everybody. But since we were talking about I just wanted to offer a >> thank you >> alternate idea. But when I'm saying competence, it's just like getting things done. >> That makes way more sense. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So, at the risk of overstepping here into inserting myself, what about the word sustainability? >> That was one of my words. >> So, getting to your this >> I'm good with growth though. We

139don't need to go ahead. >> Yeah. So we both for students but in terms of talking about the organization the lens that you're looking for is this a sustainable decision that we're making right when you're in contract negotiations are we creating a contract that's sustainable? Are we right sizing our schools in a way that will be sustainable or we going to be right back at the drawing board two years from now? Are we um creating policies that will be sustainable? Are they for who we are today or will this be a guiding document for the next iteration of the board? >> Yeah. No, sorry piggy back on I think policy discussions is absolutely vital. You know that's like the whole thing with unfunded mandates, right? nonsust. >> This is like values for policy writing, right?

140>> Well, they're your values as a board member that then when you write your policies because section one is a reflection of your values. That's where your section one comes from. Uh >> so I think what's really brilliant about where you're you've walked us through is um getting to a place of naming values like hey as a as a group as a board superintendent team these are the values you hold but then going back to like the purpose of a board and policy and how are your your values living out and the policies that you create which >> I think is um >> right. >> I I did have sustainability as a um a very long-standing board member. And so I was thinking about several steps out like next year, the year after, the year

141after, and what those look like from a budget perspective. >> And so that was a bonus word. It was word number 11. But I was like I I I tagged it because it was it's important because of what I'm and seeing what how we're thinking through today's challenges and uh looking at how we dealt with last year's challenges and in some cases we've made decisions that were good in the moment and I just really want us to think out will it be good for the moments next year and the year after that. So >> passing future bonds, passing future levies, right? Those >> Yeah. I mean, we're going to be getting through a hard time and we can move away in in in a way that is not harmful for our next year's conversations and

142the year after that. >> Can I can I can I insert myself? >> Absolutely. >> I'm going to put that sustainability as a bracket around here if that makes sense. Collaboration that sustains the work, right? Justice, inclusion, and equity that sustains that that tension of of of moving the system along when sometimes there's systematic things that pull us back. Sustainability. um of systems that support accountability and ethics like you can see sustainability of the growth. It takes a lot of effort the time you're investing today. So I'm thinking about making a little bracket here. >> What do you all think? So I'm just hearing you talk about it in so many different ways. >> Yeah, I'm thinking with the foundation. >> You also need flexibility. Um so sustainability shouldn't mean static. >> Yeah. >> No.

143And that's not what sustainable means. That it doesn't mean that you do one thing and you do it forever. That you make choices about how do we keep the system operating? How do we keep >> taking from nature sustainability is adapt adaptable. >> Okay. >> I was thinking and it's not on there. >> Yeah. >> I'm wondering if >> Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. No, I was just going to to comment with Patty like I think flexibility is one of the tools create >> I agree. I think what made me think of resilience though is because really resilience is that combination >> of like future focus, >> flexibility, sustainability right now. Yeah, I think resilience might be an interesting >> um framing um in like that might be a little broader than sustainability but good

144at the same >> I guess if if sustainability is on the y ais then maybe resilience is on the x >> a way to bring algebra into the room nice >> that >> also we're just sustainability we're not even using the word sustainability like in clim clate anymore. It's all climate. It's resilience. And it is that seventh generation thinking. And >> yeah, but I think resilience resilience. >> I think resilience is a really good word for us. And if we all share, >> we all agree that that's for it >> because I think it's like also personal as board members. It's us as a group. It's the system, the kids, all of it. >> I think it actually applies to kids too. Okay. >> All right. >> Good work. >> Look what you guys did.

145>> So, I want to point out if we had had more time, I you know, if if you feel like a little homework, the other ones that we passed out, you know, you could find a lot of values in in the state standards. So, we brought that in case that would be interesting. But also, we thought your racial educational equity policy and the language around in the board goals, like you didn't just make a bullet list of board goals there. This is laden with values as well. And so, if we had more time, we would unpack these as well because there are a lot of value threads in these. Just if you're curious, take a look and you can make them. They're they're sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit in here. If we had any if we

146had time for extra credit or homework, I would love for us as a team to go through this racial educational equity policy and just I'd love to hear people speak up. It was last adopted in 2011 cuz you all set the stage. You know that, right? Like in our Washington state, we had your equity lens bookmark passed down. >> Wow. >> Yeah. courageous conversations. >> Yes, I was say that was Glenn Singleton's work and then Seattle and then up north to shorine Patty Wood brought it. So, let's do this. >> We have we have 35 minutes and we want to do a little bit more to support policy design for the committee. So, let me just point out one more. So, we've we're actually we're going to pull it together here in a second. Um,

147back. So, we're not going to go through this list, but we want to call out the fact that the work is obviously very important to the policy design. Again, that idea of the policies capturing the standards of what the district is to do. In the section one policies, the work is around your board work, but your policies around facilities, right? The work list would be different. For section one, we just threw up the board standards, but it's important. We don't want to lose the important context when we get all these other pieces of the framework as well. But thinking about what details of the work to do to include, what granularity gets that resilience and sustainability like in there as well. How do how does the work relate to your values? um your values. I

148could see this carrying over to I'm just going to use facilities because it's so operational. Um I could see this carrying over, but some of the like the growth of the organization and the board that that does have a big focus on section one. There might be other values um to bring forth if you're having other conversations about other sections. I don't want to make this seem like this has to fit into every single conversation, but don't forget policies would capture work that is clear, adaptive, and systemwide. Those are the the three main points to think about what goes into a policy, what goes into an administrative directive, and then we're going to look at your your uh resolution. Okay? So, >> system. >> So, this is it. This is this is what we're piecing

149together and we're going to practice here a little bit. Again, the idea is we are getting feedback for your policy subcommittee so they can take your input and go off get the support from legal rights. Obviously, you got to do the checks with with current law, do checks with staff on what practices are, but >> and have all this board input as well, right, on values and and how they work together. So the focus values which work to include in the policy calling out making the implicit explicit when it comes to assumptions and then choosing does is this the proper tool does this go in a policy or does it live should it live somewhere else? >> Yes. >> Uh resilient assumptions. >> Mhm. >> Can you describe what that we talked about assumptions and

150we might be entering with different assumptions. >> Absolutely. The idea being if it helps focus the conversation, the assumptions that are most supportive of policy design are ones that are forward thinking. So that resilient word is used in that context that it's an assumption that is woven into this area of work that will have lasting power and it will help the policy. Like for example, if the assumption is you're doing something to respond to the pandemic, that's not a resilient assumption, >> right? >> It might have been in 2021, but in 2026, it's not. So, you know, try because again, having the organizational effectiveness aspect of policies, you want to to think about those assumptions that really will help forward focus your policies. Does that help? >> Yes, it does a lot. And I I'm

151happy to hear you say that because I I completely want to be future focused and forward focused um and not so much backward looking like very much forward thinking. >> Yeah. Forward like >> and just to help cuz sometimes the list of like the assumptions can get long >> sometime. It just helps you narrow it down sometimes. So we're going to practice. We're going to we chose we'll see how much time we have. Um we chose a couple policies. We um thanks to Rosanne's help have the role of the board of education policy and we're going to have you do you all how do you want to get up and move around a little bit and pair up or do you want to sit where you are and because we have 30 minutes maybe we'll

152just sit where we are. So this is what we want you to do. >> All right. So the this is the lens. Here we go. we want you to think about again and in oh look at you um so look in the little badge that this whole idea the purpose of this conversation was to provide input from the policy committee. So, we're going to take a few minutes, think about what values are particularly relevant here. And if we could state it as a board position, you know, the why, the values combined with the work, that's great. But that's don't worry about that too much since we're we want to make sure we can support this entire conversation. Um, we want to think about this this provide clarity on what's expected. Okay? Because that's a role

153of a policy. And then check again what from the University of Wisconsin Medicine check are all the elements in this policy are they in line with the focus values? Do they involve systemwide applications? Are they long-term in and nature? And if no does it belong in the resolution. Cool, >> right? Because if it's short like it might it might it might not be relevant. We can't talk about it, but let's take a minute. I like to ask some So that's just a question justice. Exactly. Exactly. But we want that to provide. Yeah. >> Yeah. No, but we don't have versus I'm sorry. No value around. Don't get me started. Just another minute. So, Thank you. Yeah. Hey Sharon, >> yes ma'am. >> Can you tell me what student eligibility refers to? >> I do not

154know. Let's establishes policies governing student. >> I looked up the revised Oregon revised statute today. >> Okay. >> Talks about where they live there. >> Oh, okay. Whether they like go to our schools like transfer in. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I caught up and I agree with what Michelle said. But but there's a bunch of them listed. It was the OS 339.133. >> Um >> just for the heck of it, if you take a picture then. >> Okay. So here's what we're going to do. And one because it's time and two because I hate words. What we're going to do is take uh we're going to go paragraph by paragraph and just say does this in essence reflect what we have said our values are those five or six items and

155again we'll keep working on that. If the wording isn't exactly right that's not what we're going to get into tonight. That again is the work of the policy committee to finetune that. But if you feel that one captures kind of that essence of what we've talked about, let's give it a thumbs up. For the first one, I think, and this is I know this is going to sound like word smithing and scare you, >> okay? >> But I think the use of the word citizens does not fit in with our values of justice, inclusion. We had that too. >> We scratched the >> citizens. Okay, it's all scratched. >> Okay, >> thank you for that. >> Okay, so we'll just put a you know word citizens. >> Do you think this was the mission statement

156the last time this policy was adopted of the board at the time? >> I think it reflects the language of the time. I I do >> because I just >> using the word citizen is a great example >> because I know that you all have interests in um rewriting the mission and I guess I wonder if that rewritten mission >> would be number one I was going yeah >> okay >> maybe for the time being if they're not ready to redo our mission at least >> yeah take out what's there >> it'd be really great to hear from everybody on this though but because I agree with you um today in today's language uage on that first sentence, we would say the mission of the Portland public schools is to support all students, especially our

157black and Native American students because we're data informed and we know that they're not performing um we're not serving them as well. Um their their scores aren't as on par with their with other students and so we would add that in if we are doing it today. Um the word love is in that first paragraph. I thought that was really cool. That's a inspiring a lot of learning. >> Okay. So for the policy subcommittee to go back with our work, I'm hearing word smithing. >> Yes. >> But a general consensus that the essence of what's happening in this first is okay that that you're not asking the policy subcommittee to go about completely upend it. Well, we would want to hear though how the the values that we most agree on are reflected in this,

158>> right? And that's so you'll come back and say, okay, here we changed this wording and and we've put in black and you just did an excellent job of saying here's why we've changed that wording because it's reflective of our work around justice, inclusion, equity, right? Um the word citizen, right? That's in a resilient sustainability, right? Edwards and it's not it's oh 19 20th century right so that um that is how you would come back and present to the board here's the changes we've made here's why and base your why in the values >> yes >> okay so let's unpack number two >> with with the idea that it there might be some legal >> right >> wording in there. Again, >> you know what surprised me when I got to Oregon is um the

159that you can be hired or start in this district without being approved through the board on the consent agenda because I've worked in both California and Washington and you don't even start until your name is voted on by the board and I that's a that's a Oregon specific thing. So like reading this it's from where I'm typ where I'm from it's common to have you know the board on property personnel and finances personnel being you don't hire without board approval first and I just remember being hired in Portland and I was like okay so what's the board approval date >> there isn't one really >> and it does say charge and control of all activities certainly be >> yeah I think this is old language I don't think the the practice today m that's the

160point in other places it would be true >> or other states or neighboring states it would be true >> so that all programs language perhaps need some revision as well >> also in in paragraph two would be a great opportunity to tie in our values around teamwork and collaboration I'm going to add a word in after shall uh shall you know work together to govern the activities. However, we want to talk about we're not controlling everything but we want to say that we're working collectively. >> Okay. So, let's write for two >> that we're going to ask the policy subcommittee to add in um some language that's reflective of your values around collaboration and teamwork, >> probably accountability. Okay. Cuz this gets kind of weirdly specific in a way that a policy >> best practices

161usually. >> Yeah. >> So yeah. >> Yeah. So that so that's not good to have it that specific is it as a policy. >> Well, this is this is why you're asking your subcommittee to do some work because I think >> we want to be sustainable. >> Yes. We want sustainable policies. >> Yes. >> Um, one thing we're missing is that uh it looks like this was like 2003 that we are the local object for Oregon statute and that's not really at all. So >> okay. So including its property, personnel, finances and review of contracts and that would be all government bodies have local contract review boards and we are it for EPS by the state. No more >> I think that's all boards in all states. >> Yeah, it is. But I think what

162you're saying is we could align add some language and this would happen when it goes to the legal review. It'd be like oh this is >> it's not spelled out. >> It's in a separate policy. Does that matter? >> It does actually because again you want clarity, right? And so you want to think about how this policy interacts with the others >> so that they're organized in a way where people can find, >> right? Because this is about the role of the board and if the role of the board is to review and approve contracts. >> Yeah. And it's kind of implied maybe here or maybe 24 years. >> Revenue and expenditures. Exactly. >> Doesn't say finances, but that's the >> Well, that's I mean that's right. That's it's revenue. >> That's what I was

163like the finance the contract part is actually >> Yeah, the financial >> Okay. What? What? One is that J a typo? What is that J? >> Because what's key about that is that the board doesn't vote on >> That's our That's our district number. >> Your district number is 1J. >> That's correct. Yes, it's 1J. is a historic hold over when it was a joint or something like that. >> The board doesn't vote on the board doesn't vote on all contracts though like it's not I I think it's a it's it's connect to the expenditures and the revenue that's coming in. I think that's a a difference >> because we can go into contract with someone and it >> board action >> that kind of is umbrella underneath the finance >> deliberates and adopts an

164annual budget >> thresholds that we set as a board. >> Right. Okay. So is there like a dollar threshold that that >> how because I'm trying to think of a contract that we don't >> approve a dollar threshold. >> We it's based on a dollar threshold. >> Yeah. as local contractor be delegated to the superintendent for certain thresholds. >> Okay. So, there probably should be a delegation line. >> So, can I jump? >> It is number four. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're going to >> delegates executives. >> It's number four. That's true. >> And on the contracting stuff, there's a whole separate >> policy and authority about because we have a bunch of contracts that are not even expenditures and revenues. So trying to incorporate it all in here is going to be crazy making

165for y'all would be my suggestion as many pages. This is not the moment for legal advice, but this one is probably one that you want to stay a little bit more general knowing there's all that other stuff >> because I think if the contracts is going to be in there, why not put everything else in there then you >> Well, that would So that's we have a separate policy though for >> Yeah, >> you'll want to think about the role of the board of education and that is one of our roles >> that to delegate >> executive supervisor >> contract review It is. It just it feels like one eye. >> Well, yeah. So, we've noted it. It's something Yeah. because again, you want to make sure it doesn't conflict with another policy. It'll take

166some study, but we definitely put it down. >> So, because if if it's there's more detail in another financial policy, you just want to take it along. >> I think what we can do is crosswalk >> crosswalk those policies, which we do anyway as just in process to make sure that they're not conflicting with anything. But I think we're really clear that we don't move contracts for without board approval if it's a certain amount. >> Number three to put those. >> Okay, let's talk about number three. >> I think there's something in number three that is out of step with our values or is a missed opportunity to bring in our values. >> And that's our gosh. >> Y accents. Which one's the >> up and down? the y ais of sustainability. I feel like

167um we say that we're adopting our annual budget in compliance with budget loss and statutes to ensure the legal expenditure of funds. I might think that sustainable could go in there somewhere or sustainability could go in there somewhere to >> find us to gain long term and >> not just sustainability of the district. You earned your money then >> anyway. Not I'm not words smithing on where it should go, but just saying I think that's a ripe opportunity to throw that in there. >> All right. Sustainable something. Do do you want >> like more of a overarching first sentence there? Um, this is kind of a jarring paragraph where it jumps into laundry listing and we want more of an overarching >> that. >> Yeah. statement about um a board's duties are to in order

168to support student growth and um the sustainability and resilience of the district. I'm just throwing all the word on word salading here. But then you can say here are the duties of the board to do otherwise it can sound like your number one duty is your budget and your least important duty is your superintendent >> the way it's written. But if you have a here are the duties in no order of importance. It's also talks about schools being, you know, the we um establish policies for the conduct of schools. Schools don't conduct. They're just buildings. >> Um so I think it's kind of written a little strange. >> Conduct feel. >> Yeah. >> So it sounds like >> an eye to clarity on that section of >> Yeah. And it also feels it feels like

169it's come out of some old >> stale >> um probably Oregon state standards. statement and >> but I think accountability was a word in here too in collaboration and I want or not in here but an opportunity because I know that there's been a lot of conversation on oversight district oversight and I feel like there's an opportunity to put oversight accountability as it relates to the board over um oversight over the superintendent >> as opposed to like district that we sometimes get caught up in. I love that it's really of the superintendent um as the chief executive. >> Um since I'm not on the policy committee, you know, it says it says like school buildings and outside activities. Um I don't want us to I would be sad if we took that out >> of

170the outside activities. What does that mean? >> I think it means like the use. Sure. or just like the use of schools buildings as community spaces like that's what comes to mind for me. >> So I am I am raising some implicit biases on what that language means that I think needs to be >> absolutely >> more clarity >> clarity but I don't want us to like shut the door because >> we're having a lot of issues with the item be wells construction about like wanting to shut the doors to the community use of the space. It's on my mind. Uh, and we have a policy that we >> I was gonna say that's a policy that's >> use of buildings policy. >> Yeah, that's a whole separate policy. >> Right. Right. >> So, this

171is another one where we would I think I think what you're mentioning Sandy is um to clarify because what outside activities are >> and >> or maybe just put civic I mean because there's an opportunity to reference other policies within the policy. I typically see that in school district policies and this references the OS but it doesn't reference other policies >> policy. >> So I wonder if civic use would have been one that was referenced. So, I'm wondering if laundry listings all of the things that you do is the best use of this that this is about your role. >> And so, it's oversight of the school's facilities might be a better way. You have oversight of your facilities. what other ways they get used might lead you down a path that's way too detailed

172for the purpose of this policy. >> This number one >> and then you facil >> Yeah. civic use of buildings. >> Yeah. I just don't want us to like inadvertently like >> knock that out. >> Yeah. And to your point, Christy, in policy, we've had a couple of times where we've amended something before we amend the other place and only place that it's mentioned or therefore not mentioned anywhere anymore when we strike something. >> And so I think I hear you saying that if we're going to take something out of here, we want to make sure that we don't leave a gap >> where it's not anyone else. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think that's very important point, Stephanie. Yeah. or direct >> surgery. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> We have time for one more. >>

173So that would again be that crosswalking where we're making sure we're removing >> Yeah. And Sharon helped us the most recent one by like >> cuz we were removing something very critical before we put it somewhere else. And so she suggested a like a tie over like this doesn't take effect until this is changed. And so we could >> vote on the change that had me concerned, but the line says this won't take effect until the new until this other one is also >> there's something else in place. >> Okay, >> that was >> and and that's great. The the good news is the role of the board. You're not going to write something that you don't then you don't do it anymore. Your role as the board will still be the role of the

174board. You still have to oversee the the budget and your facilities and the superintendent. If you don't mention it, you still have to do it. >> So, it's not like you're going to write something here and if you don't laundry list out everything that it will stop happening. What this is is a communication device for the board as well as your community of what your role is and you want it to be reflective of your values. Can I just say that number four if it didn't fit in three for the words smmithing people I think um accountability as listed there should also be number four since it's talking about the delegating um and I also think the um you know the board shall work together to delegate so we can also put in something about

175collaborating when we're doing this all together. We're all going to sign off on it hopefully whatever version you um >> yeah I think that could really that's a four is a great opportunity to really bring in the the collaboration teamwork with your superintendent as well. Um >> absolutely it's kind of an interesting state. >> Yes. Um and you can even bring in for the growth of the organization, for the growth of students. Yeah. >> What does it mean when it says retain full legislative authority? >> Is that just by being appointed member or am I think legislative policy? >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. >> But but that's a great question and that probably could use >> but it's all financial language out the statute. a way to make it more accessible when we need to

176have >> just to the everyday person reading wondering what does it hey I'm thinking about running for the board they do >> I have no idea >> what kind of >> I know >> all right >> so so let's do this because we're we're almost done here and we want to capture a couple things before we send you off on your way so we if we had time we had in our back pocket, the board member duties policy, >> which you know, would it be a great additional conversation to think about how the values and what aspects of the work to capture there as well as board meetings and protocols because here's here's standing my observation a lot of what's in your resolution for um public Portland public schools board and superintendent staff expectations and

177operating protocols is an overlap of these. So for a clarity perspective and the idea that when you start thinking on the protocol level, right, the implementation level, the resolution helps add how to put these and the values into action. Right? So from a clarity perspective, it would be nice if it contains information and clarifications like is it narrow in scope? Can you adapt it over time to help keep things efficient? Does it list who, when, what, and when, and and give instruction over how those things are to transpire? That's ideally what's in your resolution, right? And the policy is sets the standard. If that makes sense. And that way it's really clear when you use what, which tool comes into into work into practice when. Does that make sense? >> No. >> Okay. And the

178way you all are talking about what we just you know 1.10 uh 010 what you just tal the way you were just doing it is exactly the way you would you would reconsider and then delegate to your policy subcommittee to start getting the words on the page. So hello >> very much. So, one other thing to consider before we we want to do a quick wrapping up. Where else besides policy development might these values be helpful for you? >> It's not I think it is going to be a resolution. I don't know if it counts as policy. Probably not. But we're building the um what are we calling them? Guiding principles. Thank you >> for the right. I think you've known exactly what I was talking about based on um on the right sizing conversation.

179It might be good for us to um make sure that when we're drafting that policy, we make sure that these values are accounted for. And even in those meetings, um I might have launched one of your meetings which I thought was excellent. you like your community meetings in the school to talk about right sizing and how you kicked off the meeting and the community in those in those times when you had an ability to introduce the conversation on why it was important that everyone took their time to provide input to right sizing great place to introduce your values and probably would add a lot of context for people without you know very much time >> any other ideas >> um well I think this process process that we used. You've talked about updating your racial

180educational equity educational equity policy, having a conversation. What are our values around a racial educational um equity policy? Use all those words. Um and the how do we want to create that policy? Is it just going to be the eight of us? We're going to have community student involvement. And then the what what are we using that policy for? Because the reasons of why you created it in 2011 are very different than they are in 2026. >> So you want to make sure it's a living document that you're creating. So having those values conversation around how do we want to do it? Making sure we're reaching those, you know, the justice component growth um as well as the how how is it going to be used? Um, and then they're going to be slightly different

181values, but very similar accountability, ethics, and then using that to create or start the process of having it created um is another way to do that. Another way you could use this tool. >> So before um we wrap up here, we wanted to give you that we just did a lot and the values list that you all came up with. Um, and we're going to leave obviously the whole diagram I tried to make to capture the richness of how you were weaving values together was really beautiful. Um, but we're not done. You're obviously not done. So, we want to provide a space. This is a compass protocol um that I learned from a superintendent actually. So, just it just uses a pneumonic pneumonic device to capture kind of where we are and to help plan

182next steps. So, if you want to think for a second, you can capture all of these or one of these or whatever. Um, E helps us think about what we're excited about. W helps us think about what we're worried about. N helps us think about what we need more information on. And then s suggestions for next steps. So, if you want to take a quick minute and this is kind of how we'll pull it together. >> Supposed to think about some duplication >> if you want. Some people do, some people only pick one. >> Yeah. Yes. So, it is we're being flexible. You don't have to have all four, but you don't have to limit yourself to one. Is that >> what did you ask us to do? >> Just think about what what if

183anything you're excited about after tonight's conversation? What if anything you're worried about? What you feel like you need still need more information about? And any suggestions you have for next steps? You haven't got to go first yet tonight. >> You're calling me because of my quizzical look on my face of >> nothing. Um I don't operate very well when the sun goes down. Um sounds silly, but it's true. Uh I I don't know. I'm just sort of looking at these and I think I saw a TV show once where someone was saying the word seeing the word I'm watching like I'm just watching these bounce around unfortunately I'm I'm a little stuck um uh so I don't know sorry >> no >> just reflection >> maybe I'm worried that I'm stuck like I I don't

184I don't know >> we all just did a lot of work at the end of a work day well >> we we'll keep going around if all of a sudden you're like aha I have it let us Eddie, but we'll go to you next. >> Um, I'm excited about modernizing our policies. >> A lot of need modernization. Um, I think I need more information about actually I'm going to skip around suggestions, next steps. I'm actually that's actually a question mark for me. I was actually going to ask you too for not for now but what your suggestions are for us and are able to the next level and then um yeah that's it. I I'm so >> from our whole time together or just today or like whatever you want. Yeah. Um, I'm excited to

185I feel like this was really productive uh use of our time. I'm excited that we did it and uh excited to get on with the work. Um, I do need some more information. Uh, some of the things that came up are things that will probably go to Sharon. Um, I have just questions for the like nuts and bolts. Um, process information process. I'm curious about um suggestions for next steps. I'm I'm kind of like where do we start to move this work forward? Where does it fit to the work plan? And >> to to your point like where where do we go with you as consultants to kind of keep the the work moving forward? Thank you. Um I think I'm excited about finding some values alignment and um I guess my S is like

186a curiosity around what um else we can do with this shared set of values. So this application to policy but then also like how else we can leverage those shared values. My E was excited about finding a way to not share values. Um my worried is there's so much for us to do and that makes me wonder as far as needing more information what are our sort of shared priorities given the long list of what we have to do. And my suggestion again is that we accept that between the volume of work that we have and the changes in public meetings law in Oregon that make it so we have to talk about everything al together that we consider how we can organize our work um and consider how to um I don't know work

187smarter not harder if that makes sense but like I've talked a little bit about maybe we have It sounds wild. I feel like saying it. You guys are all going to look at me with daggers. Shorter, but more meetings so that we can rationally discuss things, not at 10:30 at night >> and have staff leave at a rational time, etc. So, figuring out how to like accept where we are and try to be innovative in our approach to collaborating. Um, I'm really excited about this information on developing policy because right now I'm working with um our internal auditor on the auditor's policy and this will really help me understand what we're doing. she really understands, but I need to have and then I know we're going to be working on it all together in the

188summer to put it together, you know, present it to everybody to see how that works. So, I this was really good for me because I'm right in the middle of it and I'm not I don't know much about. So, it's been great. I need more information. I know I'll get it um when you um Michelle policy committee and you've got a lot of information about that and from Janice and I for me I have my next steps because I'm meeting with her tomorrow which is really nice. So I feel like for me this was perfect and I just really like today even if it has nothing to do with a values part was was really good that we shared I think we shared together we did and I really appreciated that. Um and that's it.

189>> I'm feeling pretty northeast as well as some of some other folks. I think I'll start with E. I think I'm extremely excited that we spent time on values and there seems to be some common shared values um amongst the board superintendent team and so that is um I'm beyond excited about that and then just need more information. I think I'm gravitating towards director split and her comment on priorities. we have a lot of things in front of us and so how do we look at sustainability and resilience and some of the big um rocks that are ahead of us so that okay I have um I'm excited to create a shared set of values and the vision as this board excited about that um I'm worried Um, I'm just being honest that we won't

190follow through in a way that's collaborative and I really want that to happen. Not that we won't follow through that we really are collaborative and suggestions. Um, I agree with Christie 100% on how to manage the cadence of the work. Um, and also to this might be getting another move ahead, but to use these in a way to rework our board goals. As you know, we're working on evaluation. I see a lot of things that are missing like, you know, as a goal like, you know, work towards, you know, improving attendance that I want to be able to be like, you know, yes, we're doing great. I feel like, you know, there are other big things that we're working on that are part of this that I would love to see us incorporate into those

191goals. >> Anything come to you as we me turning into >> I don't mind being put on the spot. I just didn't work earlier. Um, I think I now that I realize this whole time together, I am I don't know if excited and more like relieved. It's like a excited slash relieved on the um like going around that we came up with last time. I think it made our meetings >> um better. So, I'm happy about that. Um I suggestions, next steps. Yeah, just having shared values. I think every time we start talking about stuff, we realize that there's a lot of and I'm grateful that we don't have a war people like agendas to burn books or or do things and I think we have a wonderful set of shared values that is nice

192reminder. Um that's all okay. So um you know just a quick suggestion you might and we will put it in a prettier format have printouts of the values sitting in front of you on the dis so that you can remember oh yeah we all agreed that we and please don't use them to bludgeon each other that can be a temptation you're not collaborating with me and you right um so that might be a way to kind of keep that fresh in front of you we have given you the tools If you guys are ready to do the work, you're a great team. Your your priorities are exactly where they should be. However, we are just up high five and we would be happy to come back if you wanted us to facilitate, but we're not

193saying that because we don't think you're capable of doing that. You absolutely can do this work that you need to do and you're ready to handle the challenges that you're facing. >> That's that's been our whole goal is to give you the skills. Right. Right. We've teach we're teaching you how to fish. We've taught you how to fish, right? Instead of just feeding you for a day. So, I would say that don't underestimate there's a lot of research that proves the focus you put in your governance practice is the great is the best place to start because figuring out your board meeting cadence, figuring out, you know, how your policy committee will get input, all these things that feel very tactical because you're starting on a basis of values and how you communicate with each

194other and everything. it it will support the very complex work you have in this district in 2026. So it it can um I know you all are very busy but even thinking about like public comment structure to help make that a very productive time it's like just a great investment and research has shown that you know focusing there if you have to prioritize like focusing there first is a great place. I just wonder if it's appropriate to ask if um just when we think uh we're in that now 2627 planning and calendar and setting time aside and I have uh the board office team here if I love the toolkit and like we got enough build the house and lay the foundation and I guess I just wonder not to extend the meeting but am

195curious if the board feels like um do you all feel pretty uh toolled up and and ready to go or if just as a collective um we I'll get with Rosanne and and and chair and see um how else we might think of the calendar as we move into next year. Mhm. >> So, are are we are we feeling like we we have the tools and give it a try or >> I heard that we value growth and to me that means professional development. Um we want our students to grow. >> Um I know we're not going to um take advantage of any wild um you know all board travel, but I think that we still have a value around growing and learning at the job. Yeah. I mean there's because there's no manual. You're

196just we're learning right now as you know you get on the board you don't know anything about the district except for maybe your own children you know and there's a lot to learn. So right >> I would be in favor of doing additional training personally but I've also been here a long time and I could manage without maybe >> I was going to say the same thing. I kind of think of it as like well it's definitely professional development. I think we need that ongoing, but I also feel like it's um not like you guys are our therapists, but I feel like um opportunities to be self-reflective um and to work collaboratively in this way as a board on governance type things. I think that would be hard for us to um just do on

197our own. I think it is helpful to have like that that coaching and guidance that we both have. >> I think it's easy for us to not have the conversations we need to have like dayto-day business ahead of need for conversations like this. I think facilitation and expertise is really valuable. At the same time, I also think we could mix it up and have just hold ourselves to having these conversations and have some different models of kind of self or staff facilitation given the budget constraints we have. So, I think we could kind of mix it up, but um I think having um having your like have like a mix I think would be an interesting way just to make sure we get that expertise and wisdom, >> but that we also um kind of

198hold ourselves to these conversations about bigger picture items that we need to >> gradual release. >> I like the fishing metals. You know, I would I wouldn't mind Michelle and Christie's points like having something coming up to you guys because like when I what I'm worried about is that we won't follow through because we get so busy and I think making investment in we may need a little help right now and we are buried and um I found this really helpful and it sounds like I'm not the only one. Maybe we do do maybe you know a couple check-ins like maybe one in you know two months two months after that just like hey how's it going like what's what's working what's not working um I always like that sort of followup so like I

199said I just my biggest worry is that we won't do it >> not not for not wanting to do it but because >> it is what's our thought around um we're going to be having some difficult conversations around the right sizing >> and um just throwing out a question about what support might look like during that. We're going to we're already seeing advocacy coming in really strong. >> What we're not seeing is everybody else um have lots of communities advocating and so I'm just wondering if it would be helpful to get some support around just how to navigate those extremely difficult uh conversations. I mean, I'm used to being nailed as I'm like, bring it off. >> But it might be helpful for us as collected to figure out how what do you do with

200200 people that come in, you know, how do we square what we're hearing with what where we need to go to get the outcomes we value. So, >> well, I think that's so I we'll get with the board office and maybe present to to board leadership to send to the rest of the board just like a menu of options on whether you know facilitation and any upcoming conferences both in Oregon or in the surrounding area and then other workshops happening just to give you all some >> some options that you may or may uh not want to use, But um just that commitment to growth >> I agree with you know Michelle what you're saying about professional development and I really like when we do it as a board >> so it might be nice

201to maybe pick like one one thing that we commit to doing you know budget constraints you know that we commit to doing together um >> next that would serve that >> yeah there's OSBA things that I've taken twice or three times in a row so that wouldn't be whole board but I think would be really valuable Um, yeah, there's local. There's two OSPA conferences. >> They're going down to one. Okay. The follow one or the one. >> We could be helpful in just pulling that information for you all. And and of course, if there's something we forgot, adding to the list just to give you all something as we plan forward, though. >> Yes. >> Thank you for indulging me in that. >> Yeah. I I definitely find something like this much more helpful than

202going to a conference. >> Yeah, true. >> Cuz you're really Well, especially when you got leaders that you've got to focus really helps. >> Yeah. >> You all you have you have a heart for this service completely. Sandy and I could tell you stories how how we've been personally impacted by public schools and you all are like the right person right for this moment. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's really nice. Thank you.