001Great. Um, sorry with my mouth full. Um, this public session to conduct self evaluation of the board of education for March 31st, 2026 call to order. This meeting is being streamed live streamed to the PPS YouTube page and will be played on channel 28. Good evening and welcome. Tonight the board will be engaging in self-evaluation. Before we begin uh tonight's session, just want to take a few moments to frame the purpose of the discussion. The session is focused on our board self- valuation. As a governing body, it is important that we periodically step back and reflect on how we are working together, how we are fulfilling our roles and responsibilities, and where we have opportunities to improve in service of our students, staff, and our communities. Board self-evaluation is a common healthy practice for school
002boards. It helps ensure that we are operating effectively, maintaining strong governance practices and staying aligned in our shared goals and commitments as a board. Uh to support us in this process, we've invited a facilitator who helped guide our discussion. Uh keep us focused and sure that everyone has an opportunity to participate. I want to thank Director Sullivan for helping to organize this whole thing, getting this whole thing off the ground and actualizing it. And I also want to uh welcome Dr. Kristen Miles, the director of board development for the Oregon School Boards Association. Thanks for being here. >> Thank you. >> Uh she brings more than 20 years of experience in education, leadership, and governance. Uh Dr. Miles has be uh began her career in early childhood as an early childhood educator and later moved
003into district administration. Since joining OSBA in 2016, she has supported school boards and charter boards across Oregon with professional development, governance, consulting, and strategic planning. Uh Dr. Miles's work is centered on the belief that strong board governance plays an important role in supporting student success. So, thank you again uh for uh being here and supporting our work today. >> Great. With that, I'll hand it over to Dr. Miles. >> Thank you. Good evening everybody. That was a lovely introduction. Thank you so much. Um, uh, I will just mention really quickly that before I went to OSBA, I actually worked here. I worked here for 10 years. I started out in the board office and, um, and then I was the director of the charter schools program for eight years. So, it's lovely to be back.
004The building has changed a little bit. And, um, and thank you for having me. Um, I would just like to do I know I've got you for a short time tonight, so we will we will work really expediently, but I would love to do um just really quick introductions around the table and maybe also share with me how long you've been on the board. So, um let's see. We start. >> Um yeah, for general. Um I've been on the board for nine months. Okay, great. >> Hi, I'm Stephanie Englesman. Um I live in zone 6 and I've been on the board also nine months. >> Excuse me. Michelle Depass. I'm the vice president this year and I've been on the board for six years. >> Um Eddie Wong, um been on the board for three
005years. >> Ian Rtor, student representative, nine months. >> Michelle J. Miller, nine months. Kathy Sullivan, three years. >> Um and then >> Kimberly Armstrong, superintendent. Um I I typically have to count down but um >> 18 16 month 18 months. >> Oh 20 >> 20 months. >> Yeah. 20 21 months. >> Well, I'm Deborah. I'm the chief of staff and I have been here the same time. >> Thank you. Um, okay. We will go ahead and dive right in. We got a great introduction to the purpose of um of this self-evaluation um by Chair Wong. And uh I will also say that um I think I probably mentioned this, but the the instrument that that we use to evaluate boards and that you use to evaluate yourself is a is 100% researchbased. It was developed
006by Dr. Tom Albury who is a researcher now in Seattle. um he is a college professor he's a superintendent of schools I don't know how he has the time to do both and um out of his decades of research um well known in his field and internationally he developed the 12 standards of balanced governance and so we teach to those when we train across the state and also this product is his product and so what the research shows is when you're working toward these 12 standards and improving on these 12 standards you will measurably impacts you decades of research. So um so that's why we use this tool and as you walk through as we walk through this together and you develop goals out of this um those you can rest assured that all of
007that is backed by research and not just what Kristen Miles at OSBA says looks good. >> So uh we will go ahead and go forward. You all received the um the questions to consider ahead of time and the packet. So I just want to ask you really quickly and not everybody has to answer this but as you thought through these questions the first question is what did you observe about the data as you looked at it and we won't make meeting yet just observations at this point but what did you see that stood out to you? I I saw there was a wide range of answers in every area. >> Mhm. >> Some wider than others, some >> at each end, but very wide. >> Mhm. >> Anything else? >> I was really happy to
008see that 100% of us um participated. >> Yeah, that's really important. Thank you. >> What meaning then did you make of the data as you as you looked at it, as you considered it? Were there any conclusions that you came to or preliminary conclusions that you came to? >> Go ahead. >> Areas where there's consistent disparity, >> it's probably those areas are worth looking discussing as a board to unpack and figure out where our differences and perceptions are. I was curious when I was looking I was also looking at the range um in the responses and wondering to um director Chase Miller's point about we we've had a hired a consultant to do kind of a analysis of each of our individual leadership styles and then us as a team >> and I'd be really
009interested in putting those two data sets together. >> Yeah. and seeing if we can glean something from what we've paid another consultant to go through and then how um how it's showing up here and where we can kind of go. >> Yeah. >> And during that first analysis, he did say this is some these are some things you could work. So >> Mhm. I wondered about um like as I looked at the range and the differences um I I wondered how much of that reflected like people who are new to the board, >> people who have been on the board longer um this seems like there I don't know if I'm remembering accurately but seems like there was like like some 43 happening or like 52 and two and just it made me curious about
010like >> how tenure and exper experience was reflected in there. Um cuz when we were doing it, I was thinking um a lot of stuff is like emerging for someone who is new. Whereas if you've been doing this for 6 years and you know the progress we've made in an area, you might be like, "Oh, we've got this unlock." >> Yeah. Some of that is calibration sometimes too of the questions and how how you've read them. And we do I will have a space for us to talk about that because that is that's one of the pieces we talk about is where were you congruent and where were you not as congruent and sometimes that's a conversation about like oh well my four is your three you know and I apologize for those ratings being
011cut off. There's something with the report that we couldn't fix. The two ends are accomplished and ineffective. >> You got the middle ones but accomplished and ineffective. >> And accomplished is green. Right. >> Correct. So yeah. I also was wondering about if if what we saw in the data could inform our next round of onboarding. So when people >> start the position then they they kind of you're already kind of coming coming into work that's already in progress. >> But if that where we see that there's um I guess is it ineffective >> we might be able to you know onboard include that in onboarding. >> Absolutely. knowledge sharing, >> all of this that you do together, professional development, um self assessing, all of that creates that it feeds into your board culture. And so
012when you create the culture of hey, we look at ourselves and we practice continuous improvement that also um sets the stage for new folks who are coming on as well. >> Um just in the interest of time um I'm going to skip you've already started to ask some questions and we are going to go over strength and areas of improvement. The last question we'll answer at the end is what do you want to do with this information? Because um it's all well and good to take the assessment, but if we don't do anything with it, then it doesn't mean anything. Then it's just something that you did. So, I'm going to move on. You saw this. This is the the snapshot and the summary of all of your ratings. And I will tell you then
013by the numbers cuz I've got a way to crunch that data. um overall themes by the numbers even if it looks different in that picture. Your strongest um strength self-identified strength was cultural responsiveness which is standard six. Next was using data for continuous improvement and accountability. And the third one was budgeting and financial accountability. So being good stewards of the money. So what I like to do next is just go through what do those mean? how are they defined um in how are each of those standards defined if you don't remember reading those. Cultural responsiveness um is in this case recognizing that um that all of your community is diverse and it's and it's the job of board members to or the board to ensure that there are um no barriers to access to the
014program and to education for students and to celebrate the diversity of the community and the student body and um and seeing those things as strengths using data. Of course, it's it's a little bit um self-explanatory, but using multiple kinds of data, and data just means information. It does not mean one thing. It does not mean just standardized tests, but um multiple sources of data and using the data to monitor progress on strategic goals. And then budgeting and financial accountability. That's being good stewards of the money, right? Um you are not in the daily business of spending the money, but you are overseeing it. you approve a budget and then also um how do you point your resources toward the strategic goals that you've set out toward the vision that you have said this is what
015we want for our students then how does the board ensure that the resources and that that's more than money are pointed at um at those goals. So that's an overview of those. The next thing that I do is pick out the specific strengths that you identify. Um, sometimes, and you'll see this in the in the areas of improvement, um, sometimes there are a number of them that are kind of thematic and in which case I will sort of crush those together and show you all of them at once. But in this case, as I went through your results, these things kind of stood out and didn't really there weren't a number of questions with a theme that really went together. But your specific strengths as you identified them was that board outreach and community engagement
016activities accommodate cultural differences in values and communication. That board members do not use their office for personal gain or advancement. And that board members come to the meeting familiar with agenda the agenda and prepared to discuss ask question ask questions and take on action items. So being prepared for the business. a really quick look at the areas of improvement. So again by the numbers the top one that you identified would be accountability. Uh the next one was a learning being a learning organization and the third one was systems thinking. So what do those mean in this context? So accountability um is obviously monitoring progress. How do you hold the system accountable for uh for reaching the strategic goals that you have set out in your own strategic plan and adopting policy and resources that align
017with that vision and set of goals. being a learning organization. Uh doing professional development, encouraging professional development for everybody, recognizing that everybody can lead from where they sit and um and using reflection and discovery kind of like this but in more ways than that um to just continue that cycle of of continuous improvement. And then systems thinking, looking at the whole district as a system and not just a a collection of parts. It also means when we're doing systems thinking, we're leveraging strengths over here for the entire system and also not taking a problem here and shifting it over here. It's really thinking about um what what does this look like as a whole and then also leveraging partnerships and collaborations and tools um without feeling like you need to reinvent the wheel every time.
018So specific areas of improvement and this is this is one where um I did find uh a few that were thematic were that board members model an empowering leadership style a culture of high expectations and promote change through dialogue and collaboration. You said that you wanted to improve those things or you rated yourselves relatively low in in that theme. The next one was the board supports recognition systems to encourage advancement of the district's strategic goals. And the third area of improvement was the board regularly establishes performance goals for itself. And I asteris that because I'm going to encourage you to do that today as part of as part of what we're doing or at least start to consider. I know that we don't have a ton of time, but I'm going to leave you with
019some things to consider based on um the evaluation. So then I get a report called a congruence report that I don't pass on. It's just a bunch of numbers. But um we look for that. We've already started to have this conversation. We look for where are you most in agreement and where are you most in disagreement. And so regardless of what the ratings are, if you're all sort of on the same page as far as how things are going, that's obviously high congruence. So the area where you all agreed the most or mostly on the same page was standard three which is effective leadership and that is you know how do you govern as a board? How do you model that empowering leadership style? What are the expectations you have for yourselves? How do you
020hold yourselves accountable to your own standards? And what does that demonstrate to the rest of the district and to your community? the area where you disagreed the most or the highest in congruence was standard 11 board member conduct ethics and relationship with the superintendent. So that's sort of the basic rules and responsibilities piece and we saw a little bit of fanning out of scores in that area. So I then go through and pick out some specific areas of inongruence because it is worthy of talking about that. um chair Wong I believe that you that you pointed that out that like um these or somebody pointed that I can't remember but um these are things where it's either a matter of calibration or and or um maybe new board members as director Chase Miller pointed out
021like how long have you been on the board how much have you experienced and and then also if there is true disagreement on how these how things go that's really worthy of exploration that's probably one of the richest conversations that you can have. And so this first area was the board collaborates with the superintendent to develop long range strategic goals, expects the superintendent to use relevant data in decision-m and ensures the superintendent holds staff accountable for high standards for every student. That's where we saw like those areas reflected in those questions were saw sort of the rainbow of scores. The next one was the board advocates for public policy that supports education. Um I didn't combine that with anything else. The next area uh a couple of questions reflected these. The board makes decisions considering
022the cultural diversity of the district and holds a district responsible for improving a culture of service. The next one that I did combine a couple of questions. board members preserve the confidentiality of executive session and redirect complaints through staff channels. And then the last one was the board reviews monthly financial statements and understands their oversight role of the budget. So again, this could be how did everybody read these questions or is there true misalignment um with how you all feel about that? And so, um, I wonder, I'll stop at this point and just ask, um, does anybody have thoughts about this, questions about these, or as you're, as we're reading through these, is something coming up where you're thinking, hey, I rated a this, I would be really curious as to how my colleagues felt
023about these areas because we can stop and have a little bit of discussion if you'd like to engage in the inongruence. I just thought the last one was really interesting that we were all over the place which seems like it's a simple thing. You either get it or you don't. >> So we obviously some people thought they were getting that. >> We sit on the same board. We hear the same thing and some thought we weren't. So I just and and I don't even remember how I rated everything because I try to do that fairly fast so they don't overthink everything. Mhm. >> I don't remember what even I said, but um I just found that one, which seems like it would be cut and dried >> that we were all over. >> Which one
024was that, Patty? >> Um Q84, the board reviews monthly financial statements and understands the oversight role. Just that seemed really strange. >> Um I I have a comment on the first one. The board collaborates with the superintendent. So you know in a strategic planning cycle there's like it's three year or 5 year and depending on where you enter into the work would depend on for instance we are at the end of a strategic plan and it's time to do another one >> and so there's a lot of interest on the board in kind of as a team developing you know our protocols how we're going to work together what what we want to what's the vision that's the biggest thing we can do is set a vision but um our newer board members haven't had
025an opportunity to weigh in because we're at the very end of a a long process that we did several three years ago, four years ago now. >> Um, but there will be an opportunity in soon I hope to to start that work >> and and and yeah so so but I think there's a lot of interest in helping develop some of those protocols and visioning. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Well, same thing could be said for um Q15 and public policy of sports education. like if you've been here 3 years like Patty and I, we've done a lot of policy stuff that has >> u dealt with specifically with student impact. Um but we may not necessarily have done much this year, >> right? >> So I think that that look looking the scope of time,
026the depth of time makes a difference. I think a lot of these responses >> I was actually kind of surprised to see that on the area because I think we've all done work in that area. maybe I was surprised to see that. >> I was surprised to see that one too. Um I was also surprised to see the one right beneath it because we rated we scored ourselves high in cultural competence. >> Um this seems adjacent but um >> yeah I agree. Sometimes the individual indicator, I mean obviously they all contribute to the overall score, but sometimes there's a question or two or an indicator or two that gets either a really low score or a very, you know, across the spectrum score within a high standard. So, and then that's always interesting. It's like,
027you know, which which part of this? Um, >> I think that your point about um not everybody has seen a whole cycle of everything is is a really good one. And I think that there's an opportunity there also to you know if folks um haven't seen a whole cycle of something to then hear about from your colleagues what is the work that you've been engaging in for a number of years you know cuz um cuz you all train each other as well and share that work >> and so um I wonder you know if if there's an area here that somebody who had a question about that or or thinks or remembers that they've rated that section rather um if there's something there that those of you who've been on the board a while can
028share with the other folks like just want to invite that conversation if there are questions and um some history that can be provided. >> Yeah. >> Sorry this slightly off topic. I do have a question though because I um it brought up with the Q84 the financial statements and stuff like that. >> Mhm. Now I know that earlier you mentioned about you know this this self assessment is based on best practices and research based which makes total sense um which I love. Uh thank you and but I'm also curious about what considerations were taken in terms of like the differential between the small school districts and the largest school districts. >> Right. Like for example, if you're a school district that has one high school, >> it would be a lot easier to read the
029financial statements than if you have 82 high schools. Right. >> Yeah. >> Right. And so I'm just I'm just kind of curious about like how on the self assessment on the assessment side and the improvement work side you know how much of that is taken account or calibrated to >> yeah fair question and I will tell you that that the research I mean right if you're Pinehurst you have 12 students maybe this year right very different uh and you have more staff than students sometimes um I will tell you that the research that was done um and the reason that this tool holds holds up so well is because, you know, it was it was done across the United States and for all sizes of of districts, you know, like in in Nevada there by
030county and so it's hundreds of thousands of students, right? And so I think the practice is different in certain cases, right? When we're a board of 100,000 students, you know, the system is is different, but the principles are then the same. So, you know, in a very small district with one high school or a single school district, you know, you're probably related to everybody else and also you're looking at everything in a really close way and in a larger system that may be different, but the context in which you operate. So, for your individual context, do you meet that standard? Right. So, so we expect and the expectation from the research too is that boards board members will take into their own context how they feel about their performance in a standard even if the
031practice is different and that research holds up across all sizes of districts and schools too which is a great point. Kefir, >> I I was just going to say I am surprised and somewhat concerned about the board members preserving the confidentiality of executive session as an inongruence. Um, >> and I think that different than all of the other ones up there, that one worries me because there's legal ramifications to it. And so I think that there needs to be some thought conversation something like that just really worries me if someone has concerns about that. It needs to be more than just a >> conversation here um and a put up on a screen and moved on from because that is potentially a >> I mean it's a legal problem. So >> yeah. Yeah. And this
032would be an invitation for anybody who wants to share about practices or what your thoughts are or you know if there are concerns we'll just invite that. I I don't want to minimize Stephanie's concern um cuz I think that's real. Um, but I I when I read this one and when I read um there's another one, the and is tricky for like maybe it's just like my brain, but when I read the question and it's kind of a two-parter, >> I think someone could be responding strongly to what is on either side of the and. >> Does that make sense? >> Um, so for some of them, I found myself wondering Maybe the in congruence is with a part of this statement but not the whole statement. >> Totally different. Thanks. >> Well, yeah. Two
033different You said you combined the two questions. >> so you were able to analyze each? >> No, they're all they're all in there. I mean, there it's it's each question. So, there's 74 and 77 and we can look at each of those um and see. Right. So that's why I numbered the the questions in there so that you could see which ones that I was I was looking at and I can pull that up as well. >> 74 that's another huge range. So somebody might have answered redirects complaints through staff channel and somebody else saw the other one. >> I have a different question. >> So 74 says board members preserve the confidentiality of items discussed in executive session. >> Right. And that one does have the whole range of answers, right? It's got >>
034three threes, two or yeah, three um accomplish uh two effective, one developing, and one ineffective in that in that question. >> And the other one, question 77, also has the whole range in it. So in this area, I only picked the ones that had the whole range. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So all of these questions represent questions where it's the whole the whole range. >> Okay. Ask a question. So I I remember talking to this was years ago so I it could be outdated. Um about board self assessments and one of the things that was brought up was that there was a technique that board members will assess themselves >> and then they also assess the whole board as a whole. And when there's a inongruence, that's kind of like the the like red flags,
035right? Like, oh, I think I'm doing great in this, but the board as a whole is doing awful, right? I wonder if like these questions are similar to that where like it's difficult to answer because >> maybe you think you're doing great, but you're paranoid someone else is not doing great, >> right? And so, >> Specifically paranoid. I'm going to use the word parad because I'm I'm trying to think positive. Um, >> yeah. >> So, or like for example like you know I get the financial statements but I'm not sure as a board as a whole we get the financial statements things like that right >> like I'm literally going through the things I'm like read the I know that I probably was want you know a red on that because we don't get the
036monthly financial statements and I think that that's something that's probably changing. We just got one. >> So uh that's why because it's not something so it sounds like you're getting them but we're not. >> No I'm not saying that. I'm just using a hypothetical example. >> Okay. >> Right. >> I know we had the stuff, you know, we've had the Michelle presents, you know, monthly, quarterly, and then monthly snapshots in our board meetings, but we have not been receiving monthly financial statements. So, >> yeah. Yeah. And it looks like now we are cuz that's >> Yeah, it's Yeah, cuz it says board members, so you're kind of considering >> the the tool is meant for everybody to consider the whole board. We do have another assessment where um and a board has to be ready
037for this where you rank yourselves in certain ways, not on these questions, and then everybody else rates you as well. And then you see you see like >> that's where it comes out. Where did where did I put myself and where did everybody else put me? Is there a difference between those two things? And then and then that's when we individually look at the practices, right? Like and and so maybe um Chair Wong that gets to your point a little bit is that there is sort of a two-part thing. This is the whole board thing and then something like that other tool would be how do I see myself compared to how the rest of the board sees me. That's a rather intense one. >> It's good. It's really good. >> Yeah. >> Start with
038a stress ball. Yeah. >> If you fail the stress ball, you don't continue. >> Um, great points, good conversation. Anything else that you want to talk about in the inongruence area? Of course, you will also have this um you you do have this report and you will have um my presentation that if there are other things you want to talk about at another time like a retreat, you can certainly do that as well. So, what do you want to do with this information? Because the next thing that I will show you are some draft goals that that I will just, you know, show you as part of what I looked at. Um, some boards, you know, like all of them, although I would, I mean, you're busy, I would only encourage you to set maybe
039one for this year. Um, and you know, some boards really want to come up with their own. I bring draft goals that I see in the data and you are the ones that know your board the best and what you do and already and what you do and don't do already. Um, so my question to you though is just an overarching one. What do you want to do with the information that you get out of the assessment? What are your thoughts? >> Could I Sorry, I was thinking about this too. I think it I guess I'm asking the rest of the board. um would be great to start with the ideas and suggestions and see if there's anyone we want to kind of springboard off of and then move into potentially adding more or less.
040Um because I think the possible goal areas that I get the next slide has some really great ideas >> um that I think would be helpful. And we do have another retreat coming up, right? Hopefully. And you know definitely that we could if we like any of these ideas, we could probably name them that way as well. And also for your I think you know we have had two retreats since we all build these out. >> So I really think some of our answers would be different. >> It could be. Yeah. Um, so I think there's been a lot of learning >> or working together since then. >> We've spent a considerable amount of time together learning. I really like goal one um transition to outcome based accountability. Um, but I also think because of
041the newness of our board in general that that that might there's so much to learn in your first couple years. It's like there's no manual and and so you have a lot more questions, you know, and curiosities, wonderings. um I think as a newer board member and really no way to get that information except to ask. >> But I like the idea of um moving from refraining from program programmatic questioning instead utilizing that standard rubric that asks what's the target, what's the current data, what's the systemic adjustment because we have um our meetings sometimes start at 5 and go until quite late uh 10 11 sometimes. Um, I think that might help us kind of hone in on um and and and also address accountability. And then the systems thinking too is really important because
042right now we're in budget season and we have a really difficult budget from now for for a while uh two biania I guess you know and so um we're going to be we're going to be looking at tradeoffs constantly and we're going to need to understand that if we remove something from the system that or or add something to the system it'll make removing somewhere else. And so having that systems based systems thinking um mindset will be really helpful for us I think to develop. >> You know like if we all had our wish lists out here we wouldn't be able to even open the doors in September. >> Um so we're going to have to figure out how we operate within a with a systems approach particular around the budget. And these two goals
043um are meant to be sort of shifts in thinking and and they may not be very big shifts for you, right? I and I this is the part that I don't know. They're you may already have some practices that that that make you think in a systems way or that keep you in a monitoring stance. What I got from the data was that you may feel like there's improvement needed in those areas. And so just trying to construct um something that um that structures that so that and um and vice chair to pass I think that you're you know saying that like that it's it's hard to know what to ask and and you've also and if you're new until or it's hard to know what you don't know until you ask and also that
044um that maybe wrapping around those kinds of of thoughts would help you keep moving and maybe um shave off some hours here and there. Um those are long board minutes. It's like a whole workday, right? Um and so so that was the goal here is just to maybe shift thinking and introduce a couple of practices that wouldn't be that that may change things but would kind of be lowhanging fruit in practice, >> right? And so um so just looking through the lens of and that system one the the goal number one is not only about accountability that is also systems thinking because what's the current data what's this what's the systematic or systemic adjustment because that's where the board operates right is it that 30,000 foot governance level >> um the second one uh is
045that you know how do we keep a page in front of us that says okay we are going to explicitly discuss how the decision impacts other other systems, right? It's it's easy to sort of get away from what our agreements are unless we have them in front of us. Some boards just keep their agreements at their table. Um, and that, you know, if you wanted to do both of these things that hopefully those practices during board meetings wouldn't seem so hard to do. I I think I with goal one we will have to provide some kind of a venue so those those programmatic questions can be responded to because that helps you do your work. >> Yeah. >> But I think maybe having it in a board meeting might I mean there needs to be
046a place. We do have a a table of questions that comes in. >> Um, so there's responses, but I think um moving them maybe out of the meetings might be helpful. >> As long as it wasn't taking something a venue away that we could where people could ask questions that are related programmatic. >> Can you tell me what you mean by programmatic? Can you give me an example? So any sort of um I mean programmatic just means the what whatever the system is that you're looking at. So if you're looking at um like a CTE program in a in a school or the CTE system all together, what it looks like in in all of the various schools and you're thinking about that as you know what is what does our C what do our
047CTE strands look like? What does that program look like? If you're thinking about that as a whole or you're thinking about um uh counseling as a whole, you know, as an area that is, you know, or libraries or something like that where it's not >> transfer. >> Yeah. Yeah. Transfer transportation. Um Yeah. Those kinds of things that are big pieces of the system that that likely impact a number of schools or all students or big groups of students. So we've got little individual things that are hopefully you know don't necessarily reach the board all the time that those individual things are administrative in nature but when you are thinking in um in big pieces about all high schools for example or all elementaryaries and what that looks like when when I was here it was
048moving to K8s for a while and that was a big programmatic discussion >> and um so something like that >> um I' I've been a part of the um national fellowship program since I've been on the board that um advocated pretty strongly actually as schoolboard partners for um monitoring student achievement at every single meeting which >> you know um rather than some of the you know um programmatic pieces but to monitor achievement because that's really what responsible for outcomes. Yeah. >> It also gets to that kind of outcome based thinking >> keeps you honed in on you know what's important. So, >> can I ask a question about your previous statement? Because one of the things that we're going to be engaged in is right sizing and school closures and some of those things may
049be about colllocating, growing or or even um closing some of the uh programs that exist in some of our schools. And so I guess I'm just wondering like we I think we're all counting on the board to be like in that work and asking questions around it. So I guess I just was curious is that not a best practice then according to that goal area or just shouldn't be a >> which which one the second one >> the first one where it says the board will refrain from programmatic questioning. So meaning that um that it's not necessarily about not asking questions about you know the big like all high schools all you know all elementaryaries or moving to K or school consolidation but looking at the end of that which is what was the target
050what's the current data and what's this what's the systemic adjustment what that really means I think you know in that sense so we there are sort of two kinds of that there is sort of the looking at all high schools Elementary's transportation system. And then there's operational questions that we like the board to stay away from because that's your job and your team. Um, but we we really encourage and the data encourages or research encourages the board to stay at that what was the target? What's the current data and what's a systemic adjustment? So less of those operational questions. Could use that word instead. >> Well, I was going to >> but the downsizing fits on. I mean, >> yeah, you have to talk about that. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's absolutely obviously something that
051would be discussed at the board level. >> Um, sort of the the how part of that, you know, when we get into and and I'm on a board as well, so I understand this. So, it's super easy. I'm on the Tiger Tolitan School Board. Like, it's super easy to start getting into, well, what does this look like in classrooms? And then also, I have a suggestion, right? like or you know and because everybody wants to support and help and and that's what we refrain from are those operational you know why don't you try this strategy kind of thing that is your superintendent's job and her team >> this is like the thing of like >> we're directing the superintendent to get to Chicago we're not telling her if she needs to ride a horse or
052take a train >> yes exactly I love that I'm going to use that >> I always use the plane metaphor where it's like when I get on a plane I know where I want to go but am I going to get in the cockpit Oh, but I like that one. >> Yeah, I like that too. That's um >> Well, I there was another way that was framed that I really like was like the board should be focused on student output. >> Mhm. >> Not on adult inputs. >> Mhm. >> Right. Like the CT one was a perfect example because I think a few years ago there there was more like a push to implement more CT in more schools and the focus was looking on graduation rates because of CT and that was a student
053out outcome instead of looking at like oh Benson offers engineering but Roosevelt didn't. >> Yeah. >> You know they have graphic design but Cleveland doesn't right and and that becomes more programmatic. So that was kind of example I was >> Yeah. >> thinking of Yeah. And um and and these are all things to to keep you a in those standards, but also to keep to keep boards at that governance level where you are thinking about, you know, a decision a decision that you make one night can have impacts on students the next day, >> right? And so it's to keep framing that um and at that big systems level and as you move into big decisions like school consolidation, like budget, like you know, anything that you are being asked to adopt and then support.
054Um that's what these are meant to keep you in. >> Can I ask another >> Yeah, hopefully a tough question. Tough question. Um, goal number one, the one formal modern calendar has been a personal goal of mine for three, four years. I mean, when I was running this, it's like we need to look at like what we do and what's the output and is actually helping students. But at the same time, every year that I've been on the board, we had to cut tens of millions of dollars. Every year was focused on cutting this, cutting that, right? We cut over $120 million in the first two years of my uh work or three years. Um and and then now you know we're working on um the school bond building new new high schools and then
055we're looking at consolidations right sizing all these things. There's so much work that it seems like you know we only have listen so many blocks of like attention work and it's being shoved out by all these other important things >> in there. So like I guess my my practicality question is like how do we go about because I've been trying for three years trying to do this formal monitoring calendar um of of uh building this into our practices yet it just seems you know it it for example some years with some boards there was a lot I'm just going to bluntly say popcorning issue over here is she over there and there was there was a hard time you know we had a hard time focusing on on uh achieving a goal which is a
056goal Um and then then we had budget cuts, budget cuts, budget cuts, budget cuts. Um and so it's just the question is like you know what advice or what practical method should you would use to be able to like incorporate some of these best practices and I'm hoping like systemically so that they can continue in the long run long after I'm done here, right? Um and to do that in the midst of just constant crazies. I would say that if I could add something um in addition to you know how that looks from the board's perspectives like if we're measuring you know student outcomes you know on a monthto month maybe it's different but if we're looking at year to year it's hard how exactly do we factor in $50 million less or and and
057in their case $25 million less of teachers. you know, it's hard not to expect outcomes to go down. And then if outcomes do go down, then how do you measure, okay, how much of this uh decrease can we attribute to budget cuts? And so it seems to me that it would be it would be exceptionally hard, an exceptionally hard environment to try and make tweaks, you know, that would hopefully improve student outcomes. >> So So that So yeah, I kind of have that that similar concern. >> Can you explain to me what a monitoring calendar would look like? What do you What do you think? Well, I mean I think it perfectly describes here that we do it every quarter have two high invest at least two high investments strategic initiative. So like for example
058if the district is implementing a new curriculum >> we buy curriculums all the time right you develop you know we spend a lot of money on curriculum what is the monitoring calendar for that new curriculum we implemented on you know this and when do we start seeing improvements and then having that formally set in the calendar like this is we need to see the results >> or that we have new programs so if we're doing high impact tutoring we're spending all this money on high impact tutoring and this actually is a good example that we have done uh have monitored the um results. And so that's like a good example of >> or summer school. How did summer school? >> Yeah. Or summer school, right? So like when we make these big investments um we
059it's I personally think it's important to calendar >> like when we take measurements, right? And not necessarily like the whole I mean yeah, we always have to worry about graduation and and reading and and math, but um like you said, it's hard to like just cut $50 million and it still went up a little bit. That's that's big. How do we do that? Right. Um >> and it would be nice to know >> what is loosely set up that way. The bore goals. And I also recognize that majority of you weren't here for the burgles, but great news is we'll have an opportunity to go through that cycle again. As you know, the board goals expire in 2027. So it aligns with our strategic planning. Um but the way in which reports are brought to
060you um and the way in which we unpack it is based on the board goals that were established uh several years ago. So maybe not formalized as you know called a monitoring calendar but the information that we bring forth is based on the board goals. >> Yeah. >> And and those board goals by the way were greatly informed by community. There were numerous engagements uh over many months to develop those board goals. >> Yeah. >> I think in that area I think we've been >> the PPS has been doing well. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> I just in response to people like how do we do that? Like I think I've heard this um repeatedly over the last nine months in terms of like you know you know we want to do our vision you know
061we want to revisit board goals you know how do we do this we have to do it like no one's doing it for us so I think as a group how do we you know are we comfortable with somebody saying you know what I'm going to take the lead on that um are we volunteering like how how would that work because otherwise I just worry we're just going to sit there and talk about and never do it. And um so >> it it is on a calendar. So on the the strategic plan I believe is it goes through 2026. >> 2026. So the the I mean I was talking about it later but the plan is to get into that work because it's going to be uh paired with all of the community events that
062we'll be doing with growing growing great schools only because it is such a large community uh input. Yes. Then we figured we have already a really big community uh engagement plan. So it makes sense then to begin to understand from community what they see as the pillars so that you all can have some data to consider. But I think to Virginia's point, I mean I don't I don't know um how much or what you all feel about like that community engagement for like vision, mission um and and board goals. I mean, I hear >> I think the timing is good and I think that we we we're going to have a captive audience and we're going to have an opportunity to ask the community to help us define who we are as a community, right?
063Um what are we going to how are we going to relate to each other when this is all done? What are we going to look like? Um and that happens on a calendar. So the calendar is it's coming up where that work that strategic planning development will be on the calendar for this year. um and informed by community uh input. So there will be a process design. We don't design the process, but we would be participating in the process with our community. And it's like a road show. It goes around to different different communities. There's high school meetings in different high schools um with the outcome of you know we we have a a strategic plan that takes us through the next 5 years. But sounds like um you want to know like when it
064is. Yeah, >> I see it as being paired with the very deep engagement we'll be doing around the uh growing great schools. >> Okay, this is like the first time we've had that conversation. So, I feel like sometimes I feel like we're not because this is what this is about. We're not talking as a group. I feel like there's smaller conversations going on with board leadership, senior leadership that the rest of us are not here. >> I'll just tell you. Yes. I'm sorry. >> And that would be for me. >> Okay. I I just I'm going by my own history. Um and um having been through the strategic planning one time and the board goal development one time um a long time ago and it it's calendared the entire board is included and I haven't
065had a single conversation with anybody about what that looks like. I'm just saying in my history that's how we've done the strategic planning before or large community engagements that have um big impact such as the development of the portrait of of a graduate. that work was deeply you know influential and uh had deep deep community uh engagement. >> I mean this was six seven years six years ago. >> It was in the portrait of a graduate was in 2019. >> Yeah. >> And the board >> goal development was Michelle was >> chair and vice chair multiple times six years. So, >> so what do I incorporate it or sort of do it with growing great schools or start it like that's in a couple weeks like it's in less than two weeks that we're starting.
066So, um if that's something we're going to like I feel like we're starting now. >> Not that part of it though. That's a great question though. Um it's actually going to get more into the summer months. you know, one of the things that we had to to pay attention to is like all of the engagement around the budget and getting through that process. And so now as we're coming on to what the launch is going to look like, the first part I think that you all are talking about are those criterion that you'll use to sort of rank out and say like this is what we believe about the right sizing. So, we can frame that up and then there's a full-on engagement that we'll be in for the summer and the fall um where
067folks will be able to surface, you know, what they believe about Portland, Portland's public education and um the future and that's how uh we're framing it up. >> And that's part of tonight's um you'll learn more about it. >> Well, all in it's all in the right sizing plan. That'll do it all together, right? Kind of. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And we were That's the plan. >> We were presented with several models of uh this type of work in other districts. That's in our board book. And um different districts took different approaches to the work, different methods, different steps. So, it it'll be on us to define our own how do we want to do it here. Do we want to take elements of what happened in Albuquerque or in Denver um or Seattle or
068do we want to do it Portland weird or you know where are we want to develop a value statement before with some equity guard rails so I think you know it's up to us to define the process we'll have complete you know say in it >> so we we are close to time I want to make sure we have a chance everyone has a chance to talk make sure director anglesman has it >> you got nothing >> got nothing Okay. Okay. So, I guess I didn't have to do that. Um, >> appreciated that. Thank you. >> Um, yes. >> I just had one more thing to say on the just as we were talking about um review, you know, and and and measurement. Uh I just wanted to make sure um the student student input
069was a part of that because uh especially like student like just trying to measure how students feel about like like a new curriculum or something can be an incredible leading indicator you know of how well they might be doing you know u you know especially ahead of potential you know performance results that might come especially like a monthly on a on a monthly schedule you know like when like the the first month when kids get a new textbook as it's going to happen I think is it next the kids are going to get new social studies in some in some areas and so it's like just you know surveying kids how does this feel is this understandable to you could could be an incredible thing to measure and then review as a board >> again
070student outputs >> student outputs >> um I want to hand it back to Dr. Miles, I we are at time. It's okay to go over a couple minutes, but I do need to wrap up. Um, >> yeah. >> Um, no problem. And I appreciate you all having this conversation about what, you know, what does what does that look like? And I think that developing, you know, when you when you get into developing your new strategic plan, that is also just a good um time to refresh practices and um and when you go to develop a monitoring plan, like when I do strategic planning with boards, I never leave them without a monitoring plan because the district will be doing fantastic work over here. And if the board isn't monitoring, it's advocating its responsibilities, right? So,
071so you'll get an opportunity to do that and and build that in. And that takes a lot of proactive thought like okay we're going to work with our superintendent and her team as the educational experts to say what is the data that's available to us at what times during the year and then just really building that in way ahead of time >> and understanding that um as vice chair depass said that you know the research shows that when boards are focused on student outcomes like that is how you change that when you're talking about student achievement at at board meetings or things that either directly or indirectly support um student outcomes like that focus is how you move the needle as a board. Um I'll let you look at these later. There was one third
072goal and then or pick something from the inongruent slide. Sometimes that is a really good thing to talk about as well. Although you probably wouldn't have time to talk about that maybe until your next retreat but um that is what I had for you. I appreciate your engagement and conversation and thanks for letting me work with you. >> Thank you. appreciate it. >> Um, one more ask before we adjourn. Um, it feels like we have a lot more to talk about. I would I guess I'm asking the board I would love to have this continue perhaps at our retreat or build in time in other work sessions or executive sessions or whatnot. Um, okay. >> Is that because this is recorded so we can always give this to want Amy and Sandy to be like,
073"Hey, can we continue this conversation? So, but I I can follow up Michelle and I can follow up with everyone to see. >> That's a great idea. >> That's good. >> Um, thank you Dr. Miles. >> Yeah, thank you for having >> Yeah. Thank you. >> very helpful. All right. Um, with that this meeting is adjourned. Uh, we have another meeting downstairs and let's give everyone a five minute potty break. Started two minutes ago.