001the Portland public schools and it's going to be virtual today. Do we want to uh go around and make announcements? Um in case there's people in the room that don't know who everyone is, I'll start with myself. I'm Michelle Depass and I'm the chair of the policy committee. Um could we go to director Englesman? >> Hi everybody. I'm off video but I am Stephanie Englesman. I am representative for zone 6 in southeast Portland. Hello >> Michelle. >> Director Chase Miller. >> Hi Michelle. Chase Miller, zone 4. Uh Roseanne and then Cara. >> Roseanne Pal, board manager. And Cara Bradshaw, executive assistant. and um Miss Tonrey. Uh do you want to introduce yourself? Um Miss Tonrey. Um and I see now uh Emily and Patty if you want to go after Shar and just introduce yourself.
002Sorry, I did introduce myself and I wasn't on proper setting. I apologize. Uh, I'm Sharon Tonra, chief legal officer for the district and Emily is I'll let Emily speak for herself. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Emily Courtage, uh, senior legal counsel. >> Hi. Um, Patty Sullivan, board member, represent zone 3, and I'm not on the committee, but I just had time to join you, so I'm here. >> Excellent. It's always great to have you. Um, did I miss anybody? I don't have I don't have a full screen of participants. [snorts] Um, if not, then we'll go ahead. So um for this meeting we have 13 policies in front of us that um in an effort to uh take a look at the entire policy manual and follow our own policy about uh reviewing policies every
003four years. If you've um scrolled down to the bottom of those redline policies, you'll see some of them go back as far as I think 2002 and even uh I noticed one last night that was even beyond that. So, we're looking at doing this um review and revisions in tanches. Um today we have section one policies um that cover the role of the board, the board of education composition and member duties, um orientation of new members, uh the student rep and district and student council, [snorts] um board committees, attendance at state and national meetings, board stipens and reimbursement of expenses, the role of the superintendent, the district performance auditing, board meetings and protocol policies. and administrative directives and non-discrimination anti-harassment. And um I don't know uh if Emily are you prepared to do a little
004preamble um maybe summarizing the staff memo. >> Sure, I'm happy to. But let me give um Sharon the chance to um pop in in case she wants to take the lead. >> Okay. I wasn't sure who was taking the lead [laughter] on this. No, I want to give Emily credit for having done the bulk of the drafting. Just to orient um just I do want to say two things. One, what we what we've done is go what she primarily and I have done with her is go through the OSBA comparators which are primarily from Beaverton and Salem Kaiser. And so what we're bringing forward are changes that we've seen in those. There aren't any specific legal changes that are needed. It's more to things we've seen in those other policies. and then um I'll let
005Emily jump in with a greater with greater detail. >> Sure. Um just as I as I stated in the memo, um some of what we're doing here is just is just consistent formatting um and bringing language up to date um and bringing these policies into the modern world and in terms of how we now um format policies. So, some of these policies have been rewritten uh fairly recently, and for those there are not going to be um a lot of changes um typically, but we did do at least some reformatting and updating of language. Others, as um director deass noted, are very old um typically dating back to and needed um some significant updates. Um, you know, for example, just starting with the first one, you know, the board's mission state or the the district's
006mission statement has changed. So, we wanted to update that. Um, and then, uh, we brought in recommendations that we saw particularly in Beaverton policies, some in Salem Kaiser, um, that where we thought they had really some really good language and it might add some substance um, or detail to the policies to add those. So, you know, those are all discretionary. I think I noted in a couple places where there are um updates to uh bring us in line with current practice or law, but those those are far farther and fewer between. So, most these changes are discretionary. >> Thank you. And I I made note, excuse me, just a moment. I made note that in in many of the cases we're replacing the word shall with will. Um we're replacing district with PPS. We're replacing
007his hers with theirs to kind of modernize that language. And um we're wanting to comply with the applicable, you know, um revised statutes. Um I failed to um we do have some people signed up for public comment. So before we talk about these revisions, re review recisions, um I'd like to see if we have people signed up or start hearing from public comments so they don't have to sit through our whole meeting if they don't want to. >> Vice chair to pass, can I just or chair to pass for this? Can I just say I don't I have refreshed a number of times and I don't see a staff memo in board books. Um I don't know what I'm missing, but if somebody could send it to me that would be great. Oh, I'm not
008sure um what happened there. >> I can send it to you by email, Director Englesman. And it may be that it's in the privileged part. So, but I will send it to you by email. So, you'll have it now. >> And um Director Englesman, that's a really good grounding document. um literally kind of explaining it's got every policy listed. There are 13 of them. And what the proposed action is, whether that's to revise it or resend it in some case combine with another policy that's um it's more modernized and and yeah, updated. Um, but before we talk about those policies and how to move these forward, I would like to bring um anybody that signed up for public testimony um into the room. And Cara, do we have people signed up? >> We do. We
009have three people signed up today. I'm bringing them in right now. >> Excellent. >> I see some familiar names. >> Yes. We'll start with Blake Good. >> Hi, Blake. Hi. Uh, my name is Blake Cud. I use hehim pronouns. Uh, my family has two children at Cesar Chavez School. For the past year, we've been advocating for changes to our school's model as the only K through8 that offers neighborhood and DLI options. Through this work, we've come to realize that PBS's approach to incorporating equity into major long-term decisions is not working. [snorts] And so, I'm here to ask to revisit amendments considered to the school closure policy in 2023. Here's what we face today. If we if our families focus all our advocacy on changing our school's unique model to better serve our students, do we
010end up missing out on muchneeded infrastructure investment that isn't currently being shared equitably? If we don't advocate for things like seismic retrofits today, is our school more vulnerable to closure when those investments go instead to schools with more affluent families able to focus their advocacy on a single issue? If PPS considers school closures in the future, will it follow an approach that genuinely focused on delivering equity? Or will we see a decision that harms schools like Chavez undermined by years of disinvestment patched over with another resolution that promises equity without meaningful accountability? I don't believe the district's current school closure policy will produce an equitable outcome. I'm speaking for myself, but this is what motivated me to help Oregon PTA develop guidance on school closures, which recognizes that this cannot be done without without also
011changing capital investment decision-making processes. Both are big, important decisions, and they are deeply interconnected. It's my sixth year at Chavez. My daughter's in kindergarten. We plan to keep advocating for our school because it's a community that we love, but it's also a school that is underserved and that I feel is overlooked by PPS. We are the elephant in your room. I worry that the pattern will persist unless PBS actively elevates the voices it doesn't hear from as much when making investment decisions for schools. The current school closure guidance is not set up to deliver equity. If school closures become necessary, you have to be inside schools like Chavez and invest in making sure everyone's voice is heard. I urge you to revisit the amendments drafted in 2023 and build on them using the Oregon PTA
012guidance to adopt a policy that ensures families can meaningfully participate in decisions that profoundly affect them. Thank you. >> Thank you, uh, Blake. I appreciate your, um, testimony. >> Eie Greyhouse. >> Hi, Effie. >> Hi. I am Dr. FE great house, a PPS parent who is very proud of our district's landmark climate crisis response, climate justice, and sustainable practices policy. On behalf of the Safe Indoor Error for Oregon Schools Network, I want to thank Director Depass for um hopefully bringing to the committee the community proposed additions to our climate and sustainability policy. The heart of uh the additions are the three indoor air quality sub goals added to pillar two on health and wellness. There are a couple other items we're proposing as well. Updating the environmental literacy goal in the introduction so that it
013doesn't emphasize individual action to the exclusion of understanding systems impacts. An environmental education goal is strongest when it gives equal footing to the effects of personal choices and the effects of systems. We also added an explicit goal to develop emergency response plans for climate events, ice, storms and snow, wildfires, flooding, and to maintain and update the extreme heat plan. I'm a parent at Robert Gay Middle School and SAFEOS has a lot of supporters at both Robert Gay and at Markham, the two schools that faced extraordinary strain on teachers, students, staff, and families due to an extreme weather event that is consistent with climate disruption, the widely forecast disaster level ice storm that shut these buildings down in January 2024. Gray and Markham flooded for 10 days because we didn't have good prevention and preparedness plans
014for this kind of weather and climate emergency. We've started experiencing these extreme events in Portland. The wildfires in 2020, the 2024 ice storm, heat waves baking our schools every year. Our climate policy should make explicit that we need to plan for them. >> Thank you. Um, Effie, I appreciate your testimony. >> Kylie Manau Johnson. >> Okay. Hi, I'm Kylie Mina Johnson. She, her, and I'm a public health educator and SAPOS board member. My daughter recently graduated from Franklin and my son is at Benson High School. I'm here today to speak in support of the three indoor air quality sub goals SAPOS is proposing with support from board chair Wang. From both an environmental and public health perspective, indoor air quality is one of the most powerful yet overlooked shapers of our health. Clean indoor air
015reduces respiratory infections and asthma risk, protects cardiovascular health, and prevents cancer. In schools, it is associated with better focus, attendance, and academic performance and is an occupational health indicator. Temperature matters, too. And it's not just about comfort. It's about thermal health. We need to put thermal health and safety management strategies in place to reduce the dangers of the more and more frequent extreme heat and cold events caused by climate change. Thermal health also affects attention, memory, and learning and is recognized as an occupational health hazard. Sub goals 3, four, and five help the district better manage and monitor temperature and air quality. They are not mandates with deadlines, but they do set clear priorities and a clear framework. Sub goal three aims to mitigate extreme heat and cold by updating HVAC systems, creating more flexible
016window usage practices, and using clean, safe, temporary measures, long-standing educator and school community priorities. Sub goal 4 recommends evidence-based technologies to improve air quality through energy efficient in room air filtration and ventilation with 6 to 12 air changes per hour. Sub goal 5 recommends continuous in room air quality monitoring rather than a complaintbased system. This makes air quality visible, understandable, and actionable for students, staff, families, and for the district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'm curious what the I heard an acronym used a couple of times. Is it um I I'd like to just jot that down. >> The safe indoor air for Oregon schools. >> Okay, thank you. It's confusing because it's I before A [laughter] say. >> Thanks. >> And then HVAC is of course is heating ventilation. >> Ventilating >> conditioning.
017So >> air conditioning. >> All right. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate your testimony today. Um, so, um, we're going to go back to, sorry, our policy review, uh, conversation that we started a little bit earlier. Um, you'll see once once you get the staff memo, um, Director Englesman, that the again there's a proposed action. Um, I'd like to give everybody a chance to kind of read and make comment on these. And some of some of these policies are literally just grammatical changes. And so I think those would be easy enough to to to approve. Others might require a little bit more uh reading that have um content that's changed out and are a little bit more substantive. [snorts] Um, and in in terms of process, I have a question for staff. Um, ho how
018would you like us to how would you like to receive feedback on these? Um, is how would you like to receive feedback from this committee in order to start the process where I think we would have to do and another question I have is would we have to do a first reading have a 21-day period and then a second reading if it's just changing the his hers to theirs for instance if it's solely grammatical. I think even if it's solely grammatical, there aren't exceptions to the policy on policies for that. So, I think the better practice is to go ahead and and have the first reading and then the second reading just to be sure. These are not time-sensitive. So, um I think it's probably better to just follow that even though they are several
019of them are just simply grammatical. In terms of process and feedback from you all, it's really a question of what works best for the board members. We're welcome. We're happy to receive them in this meeting or also if people want to take the time to if if board members want to take the time to read them offline and follow up with feedback on particular policies, we can then bring them back to this committee again. Um whichever of those works better for people. Since this is a virtual meeting, I didn't know if it's really helpful to have it brought forward again. >> Yeah. Um I I would be I would I would like to propose that we have a kind of a date to finish the review of this. >> Sure. >> Um as a committee
020if we could all commit to um sorry I'm looking at a calendar now. if we could all commit to looking like within the next two weeks maybe wrapping up a review by the 6th of February and that would be to make comments on any of the redlinined versions and you'll see in um many of the cases there's a redlinined version with comments and so you'll be able to see you know uh comments and attachments and so you'll be able to see Beaverton School District or Salem Kaiser um you'll be able to their policy and kind of look at them side by side. I don't think you're going to find anything alarming in this trunch of policies. Um, but you never know. Um, and could we could we commit to having the committee members review these?
021It's it's a pretty quick review, I think, um, by February 6th. [snorts] This this is Stephanie. I'm happy to to have that date. I'm not um I'm not waving any opportunity to review them further or ask questions after that. Like it's not a as long as it's not a hard date like oh you missed the opportunity to do something more. But February 6 sounds good to me. >> Okay. I I'm guess I'm guessing that um once you sit down you can sit down do it all in one um sitting that that's how uh you know in many of the cases it's literally just changing a word shall to um it's shall to will. I did see that and since we have um Miss Tonre on the phone or on the meeting right now, I think
022I would love to understand why. Um my understanding of the legal terms of shall and will is that shall is much more definitive than will and AI helped to support that for me. Um certainly when courts are ordering someone to do something or the expectation is clear that something will happen then shall is used. And so I'm curious as to why it's being changed everywhere and who um who led that change thought. And I just love to understand the legal. I I just don't think it's as strong with will even though it feels stronger in a lay person's context. It's not actually in a legal I don't think. And so I would love to understand that. >> Uh this is this is Sharon. Um I'm sorry I didn't switch so I could see if I
023could speak. Um so will and shall from a policy perspective have the same weight. You're right, courts usually say shall because they are higher power ordering others. It's also um a desire to make the policies a little bit more accessible. Um you will see when we get to the personnel trunch section five trying to make those accessible and meaningful. So I from a legal perspective with the board writing a policy that says will I don't think it changes one moment of the commitment that the district will do something. Um it's I I don't think it will change well I let me try that again. it from a legal lens. It doesn't change the obligation of the district to do something and it's a stylistic rather than have on high it's a accessibility kind of approach
024in when you read them you'll see that it's mostly interchangeable. Um if we are going to do one or the other then we we need to be consistent. So if there's a really strong desire to keep shall for some reason then we also need to be consistent. That's part of what where it came from is sometimes it's they said will sometimes they said shall suggesting they meant different things and really the obligation is created by the will. When the board says we will do something we have we the district have to do that >> that is super helpful. Um when you said uh will you will you um could you please just confirm um for me that there is no case law out there that is still good law that looks at a policy and
025says you used will instead of shall and so you have some ambiguity there and so plain language blah blah blah. Um could you get me that um by February? >> Oh excuse me. I talked to you at the end. Not sure I'll find a specific case, but we'll find the I will follow up with you on everything I can that says will and shall won't change the obligation of the district in a policy. So, let me let me take that as a followup. >> Okay. And I just from a lay person's perspective, um for me, the word will sounds it sounds more modern and um less paternalistic. Um, and so yeah, I I like I like Will and I I love the consistency, too, especially if they if they really kind of mean the same
026thing. So, um, but you'll look into that and see if there's any case law that makes us makes makes a distinction. And and Miss Tonrey, like obviously if Oregon, you understand this, but if Oregon hasn't looked at this, but there's something somewhere else that has, like I I agree that will sounds better from a lay person's perspective, but we're not working in lay person's worlds if we're doing policies that oversee PPS and we're look being looked at by a court in the future if something goes wrong. So, um, can we look I mean it's not a bigger search just federal nationwide because if Oregon if it's a case of first impression but then they start looking at North Carolina or Ninth Circuit and they say oh look shall versus will does matter we should know
027that now before we start making a difference but I agree from a lay person's perspective shall seems super stuffy um >> we can also I'm sorry uh yes I will look outside other jurisdictions the other thing we can do is simply have a have a note somewhere that says when the district uses the word will it is interchangeable with shall and you made your will clear. >> So it's really your will as the board articulated in the policy and we can we can work through that too but I will I will get you all of that. >> Thank you. Um, did anybody else have any other questions or um curiosities, wonderings about about this body of work? Um, not really. >> [clears throat] >> I appreciated the um the memo and the way that it
028was laid out and um made it very clear and like where the significant changes had been made and where it was just language and things like that and really uh facilitated the process of reviewing. So, thank you for that. That was very helpful. I wish I wish everything that was this clear and like in a table and um Okay, so it sounds like we've agreed as a committee to give it two weeks, but we're not holding to that date just in case. Um the the goal would be to get your comments in by the 6th and I can I can do that as well. Um, and we'll bring we'll bring these back and I I think the next step in the process is then to move it to the full move this tunch to the
029full board. Is that correct? >> I think that's right. You can also move them individually. Um, it may make more sense to move this particular section as a tunch together. Um, if in fact this committee is ready to do that. >> Okay. So, on our next committee meeting, we'll be um our agenda will be to list these out and move them to the full board. That's okay with everybody. Um I think that's the bulk of our discussion today is how to move these through. I do like the idea of keeping these kind of together in a tunch and if it makes sense to do, you know, other sections um individually, we can decide at that time. But for now, I'm uh I would just propose that we we get these back, we put them on
030the agenda, and we move them to the full board with with our comments. And that is unless there's any um further discussion needed on some of the changes. You mean at that next one? That that sounds good to me. I don't I'm not ready today to do further discussion, but at that next one. Um certainly. Yeah. When is that next meeting? I'm afraid I don't have it in front of me. >> Um and I don't either, but I'll take a look. I >> think it's February 23rd. >> Thanks. >> It it is 23rd. Yes. Thank you. >> Um we have a couple of other um items that I wanted to bring forward just to get some feedback on. and that that's that um we we heard uh today about uh revisiting the climate action policy
031and I'm [clears throat] enthusiastic about doing that if if this committee desires and we heard testimony from a student regarding a cell phone policy um that that uh the request was to uh look at that as well and so I wanted to bring those two ideas forward for us to consider is there. Um, is anybody else interested or would be okay with kind of reopening those policies as long as we're reviewing um to test out the the some of the public testimony we heard around pillar 2, the indoor air quality, the thermal health and um and then also the cell phone policy. >> I think so. Yeah. I haven't um reviewed um and the student's testimony. I I'd like to go back and and listen to it. Um but it was um it was compelling.
032I remember when he wrote in and um I thought he brought up some really good points. Um any thoughts about the climate policy? And that's that's a newer policy. Actually, both of those are fairly new, but um I think they could both be um strengthened. Um [clears throat] for the for the climate policy, I'd really be interested in, you know, all of the things that came up uh would require some capital investment. And so, um it seems like not a great time to talk about increasing um capital expenditures, but it does seem like a good time to talk about uh climate resilience. because uh the impacts of climate change are are here and they're here in Oregon and and they do impact our operations. I I think it would be terrific to talk about my
033understanding from some um the education I got um on this is that there might be like some I don't know guidance that can come from the district about incorporating turning these air um air what what the heck my air filters on in classrooms and sort of making it a student's job to alleviate it from a teacher like building that in as something that can be fun and also gets the job done. And then I I also think we might want to look at are there other filtration systems that are somewhere in storage that we could bring out to make sure that even our modernized high schools as an example are getting the and I'm not an expert in this and so I'm sort of going to stumble over my words. So, we're getting the air
034filter change as necessary to promote learning and promote health, especially, you know, I've got two home with the potential flu right now that it sweeps through our schools. Um, so yeah, I think it would be terrific, but there uh it might be that some of this change won't cost anything because we already have some devices available and or it can simply be um guidance coming down from district and principles to teachers and students about sort of the fun in turning on their air quality machines every morning. >> Right. Right. I um I think the cost neutrality piece is important to understand. um if we could find a costneutral um solution and I think for me I'm just I'm interested in kind of learning more um about what that looks like. I I do have experience
035with climate resilience in buildings. Um yeah, so but I have lots of questions about how this would roll out, how how we look at um you know if if there's an inventory, etc., etc. So there's I've got a lot of questions I' I'd love to um to bring back to this committee once we have a chance to look at that um that policy. And so we're we're talking about revising and you know rescending policies for the staff. Is um is there anything that you you would need to do or is this something that we just take on by by reviewing those two policies? I I'm not sure how to move that that work forward. Um, uh, we are here to, you know, manifest the will of the board. I guess I have a suggestion though
036about making sure that we have that you all have the right experts. And I'm wondering if you want to hear at all from the right internal experts at the district on air quality as you look at that policy. Perhaps that's a discussion item where we could bring the right people to to have that discussion with you. It's certainly not Emily or or me. And then we can take it and write it. you know, that's that's our role. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't I I'm not sure who that was. Somebody in facilities, I'm guessing. >> I was kind of thinking and I was actually just writing an an email to Chief Audgers and Super Chief Franco. Um just to let them listen to this discussion and they would I mean, if you all want
037to invite them and have them be in your conversation, they could they would be the best people, I think. >> Okay. Um Okay. So, why don't we um if it's okay with the committee members, we'll plan to discuss these two policies at our next meeting and hopefully move this tranch of section one policies ahead so they can kind of keep going. >> Um we so the uh the we we've got experts and then we also have um the safe indoor air for Oregon schools. We have a report that's not commissioned by the district, but it um it does have and I I'm not sure if that's been shared with the facilities folks. I think that might be a good idea to have them take a look at that. Um it does have measurements in different
038schools. Um it's got particulate measurements um and information. It's a really thick and very dry report. To be honest, I haven't read the entire report. I I don't know that I ever would, but I do see it as a resource that has some uh you know, actually tested data in our in our buildings um that I think would be useful for the facility staff to to review and without you know, forgive me for not knowing better, but would a presentation I'm looking at the report as well right now. Would a presentation from Safos um Dr. or great house or someone else perhaps be appropriate too because this report I think could be very helpful >> perhaps. Yes. >> Virginia might be con um working on having Dr. Great House present at facilities. So it might
039be worth connecting with her and um finding out what her plans are so we're not duplicating. >> I will do that. I will do that. Um yeah, I saw that coming that coming up. Um so I will check with Virginia um to see what the plan is. And um I think for me I just want to we have this you know um kind of unsolicited report and we've got in inside experts and how do we uh you know kind of bring everybody to the table is is a question that I have >> and I have um I I I am being told we also have external consultants. So with your permission I can follow up and identify the right in kind of internal but but who dive deep and to be available at the next
040policy committee if you like >> that would be fantastic. Yeah I think that's that's so technical I think it would be really helpful >> for us to learn >> to to learn more. Yeah >> we will we will work towards that for the next meeting the 23rd. Does anybody um have any uh other ideas for things that we can We've got three topics on the table for the next meeting, which might be enough. It's probably enough for a 1-hour meeting. Um are there any other topics that um the committee's interested in exploring? Director Sullivan has her hand up. Yeah, >> I'm I'm not on the committee, but I sent I think I maybe just sent it to you, Michelle, that I'm sure a lot of people have seen it uh from a parent of I
041think a fourth grader where they learned about AI in their classroom and she's saying, "Hey, this isn't appropriate. It's too young." And a lot of stuff I've read says the same thing. And it kind of goes along with our cell phone policy. Not not exactly, but if we get rid of cell phones and instead we're using computers to distract us, um we haven't really won the battle. So, just wondering if that's a topic you might want to bring up later. >> Uh the just the subject of AI in general. >> Well, not AI. No, uh computers in the classroom. >> Oh, computers. Yes, I I remember that. Um, I was like, "That sounds like Waldorf, you know, like to have a more nature-based, you know, screenfree experience." Um, I'm interested in finding out more about
042that, too. I I appreciate you sharing that letter with me. Um, >> yeah, and I just read an article, my husband passed me one from the economist pretty much saying they're finding computers has not helped with learning and but we're depending on it more and more. And we had that one um it was a while ago a kindergarten parent saying the kids were being looking at screens to move around. The teacher was doing something else. So it's like having too much technology take over. >> You just >> Yeah, I I think I think that's important to look at. Um so we've got cell phone, climate, and computers. We've got everything has to start with a C. Um um >> vice chair pass. >> Yes. >> I wanted to let you know that the teaching learning
043and enrollment committee is talking about the topic this computer topic in the classroom like screens at the next upcoming te. I was trying to send you mental messages director Miller but thank you Rosanne [laughter] >> I was I was sort of picking up on them. I've just now now I've got the whole screen here but um okay so teaching and learning is going to be um okay I think that's great. I've been thinking myself about an AI policy. We've heard from uh some testimony from educators. Um it's kind of already here and it's just for me a matter of um [snorts] how we teach our how we model using AI, not whether we do or not. So um maybe that's a discussion for another day. So it sounds like the computers in the classroom is
044kind of um teaching and learning. >> That's great. >> Yeah. hear from the teachers about what how they feel about computer learning, especially primary. >> Yeah, especially primary. I I wish I could share this article with you that um somebody forwarded to me and I actually subscribed to the Atlantic just to read this article. Um and it's about the we asked kids why they're why they're on their phones and they pulled children and their parents and uh children were saying, "Well, we can't even play outside by ourselves, you know." So, this is all we have. Um, we can't go to the park. There was a statistic that said most eight and nineyear-olds, the majority, hadn't walked down a grocery aisle by themselves. And, um, and then they contrasted the the parents and the parents were
045asked like, "What do you think would happen if you would if they went to the park without a parent?" And the parents said, "Well, obviously they would they would be injured." And so, you know, I'm I I agree that we use computers too much and we're not touching the ground and hugging a tree. And um I'm really concerned about it, especially in the earlier grades. Um but that also means that we need to provide outlets for kids to do things that are outdoors and developmentally appropriate, maybe even sometimes unsupervised. um you know uh sometimes without adults just with other kids. So you know playing at the park for instance walking to the park um used to be a really kind of a normal activity [snorts] or walking across the street and asking your your neighbors
046if they could come out and play. And um the kids in this article said that they weren't able to do those things. So they're they're they're they're online, which is actually probably less safe now, but um that's what they heard from kids. So I think there's um like there are there's layers to this. Um I think one of the reasons we put it on the agenda for TLE was um we heard testimony from a parent um recently who was talking about not even just like technology being used for learning but like being used to fill time um and supplant instruction like watching movies and things like that. Um, so that's a piece. There's another piece. I was at a meeting at uh my kids school last night. Um, so there in my capacity as a
047parent um is the class size committee which was part of the teachers union contract and um is a step in the process if if a school needs another section of a grade. um and like as a mechanism to make that happen. Um but during that meeting, one of the teachers spoke about the size of her class and that sometimes she has to put kids on I Ready just so that she can work with other kids and she knows that's not how those students are best served and her hands are kind of tied. So, um, as we think about this stuff from a policy perspective, I want us to make sure that we're thinking about the way that the dots connect. Because if we're saying as as a district, you can have 31 second graders in
048a class, we also have to think about like, well, how are we supporting educators in having the ability to teach 31 kids? What does that look like? And are we going to put policies in place that make a really difficult situation already even worse? And like what are the unintended consequences of that? >> I I appreciate that. I think it's it's um definitely interconnected and um it's it's a both and situation and yeah, it's it's it's a challenging problem to solve for sure. Um I'm glad that you're taking it on in teaching and learning. Um, and I would be happy to support, you know, with the policy if it if if the unintended consequences, which I would hope we every time we look at a policy, we also look at unintended consequences. I know we
049do that as a practice at the city. Um, and so yeah, I I appreciate your your giving us a systems view of the problem. Um, unless we have anything else, I'm ready to close us out and give everybody 16 minutes back. It's my kiddo's birthday. I have presents to wrap. >> Happy birthday, kiddo. >> So, >> okay. >> Use the 60 minutes. >> Yes. Thank you. And I appreciate everybody that's on the call on a Friday and Rosanne for scheduling us. Um, and uh we'll see you soon. Thanks all. Bye. Bye.