2025-12-16 Board of Education Work Session with a Vote on a Consent Agenda

001All right. Thank you all for being patient. >> Yes, thank you. >> We um had a meeting slash training that went to the just recently and went to the grant. As you know, board members are volunteers that usually come straight from work and don't have time to eat dinner. So, I gave him time to eat dinner so that we're not hangry for the meeting. Don't want that. So, let's get started. This public work session with board of education. Wait, Cara, we're ready to go, right? Sorry, I forgot to check. All right. Thank you. Uh, this public works session of the board of education for December 16, 2025 is called to order. All items being considered are this evening are posted on the PPS website under the board of meetings tab. This meeting is being streamed

002live on PBS TV services website and on channel 28 and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks. Please check the district website for replay times. Good evening and welcome. Thank you for taking your day out of time out of your day to be here. Uh, just a couple housekeeping uh reminders. We're so excited that we have community members here also in attendance that take your day out uh take time to be part of this. Um if you have displays or banners, which I don't see any at at the moment, um but just keep them below your chin so people behind you uh can see. Let's be respectful to each other. We have pretty full uh agenda today. After a vote on the consent agenda, we will just quick overview uh dive into the winter

0032025 data results for our map and I ready. Uh we have a B budget work session where we talk about establishing principles, policies, and priorities. Uh we're also going to have a brief discussion on boys volleyball. Uh we are receiving an overview on the academic program expansion for Jeff Jefferson High School and have a chance to ask questions. Uh we'll also have a discussion about board leadership and then we will give the committee and conference reports that were postponed from the last meeting. So full menu. All right, let's start with the consent agenda. Board members, are there any items that you would like to pull for a separate discussion? Doesn't sound like any. Do I have a motion and second to adopt the consent agenda? >> So moved. Second. >> Director Deass moves. Director Split

004seconds the adoption of the consent agenda. Any board discussion of the consent agenda? All right. The board will now vote on resolution 7226 through 7227. All in favor, please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. All opposed. Student director RTOR. >> Yes. >> Absentions. Consent agenda as amended is approved by a vote of six to zero with student represent voting yes. All right. Next up, we have our uh our um union partner. Today we have the president of the Portland Association teachers and others. Uh >> and as part of our agreement with the Portland Associate Teachers, we provide time on the agenda for uh board meetings for comment time. Uh while tonight is not a regular board meeting, we do have a request from PAT President Angela Bonia. Uh so thank you. Welcome President Bonia. >>

005Absolutely. Thank you. Um I will start off with kudos um and then allow uh our substitute uh committee chair Ian to to speak. Um so kudos and shout outs to educators who are holding the rigor while also providing moments of joy for students while we move towards winter break. Um a huge kudos to our board members who spent an educator for a day um with our PAT members at schools um seeing this the reality of the uh on the ground with our staff and then coming to debrief with us at the PAT office. It's always really great to have visitors at our schools and have them spend time putting in the work in our classrooms. Um, and then a kudos to the educators who welcomed folks to their classrooms. It's a very vulnerable thing to

006have elected officials in your community, um, your classroom community with the little humans and the young adults that you serve. Um, so just big appreciations to those educators. Um, and now I'm going to turn it over to Ian Mullen who is our uh, substitute committee chair. As some of you may know, our uh the PAT union has actually two units. It has our um substitute unit and our non-s substitute unit. And so Ian is going to speak a little bit about some of the issues um and uh hopefully some of the things that we we hope to resolve with our substitutes. So I'll hand it over to you, Ian. >> Thanks, Angela. That's definitely how we distinguish ourselves. There's the substitute unit and the non-substitute unit of the union. Um, yeah. So, my name is

007Ian Mullen. I'm the chair this year for the substitute committee. Uh, I want to bring to the board's attention how district-wide cuts to teaching positions, how the lack of class cap sizes, and other changes within PPS have impacted the work and livelihoods of substitute teachers. Uh, in addition to sharing concerns that many of us have with the system frontline that PPS uses to administer substitute jobs. Um, I've subbed for the last six years. Uh, five of those have been here in PPS. Uh, and in that time, I've seen Portland schools undergo significant changes. Uh, but none more dramatic than the widespread cuts to teaching positions that the district made the last few years. Um, especially this year. The the landscape is completely different for substitutes this year. um coupled with the lack of a cap

008on class sizes which has led to many classrooms being combined um including the school Irvington Elementary where I primarily sub there used to be two uh two classes for each grade there's now a blended class and there's three fourth there's three classes between the two fourth and fifth grades um these cuts have reduced the amount of work available for subs uh and then add to this fact that many of those teachers who had their positions cut have become substitutes there is now far more substitutes looking for work and fewer actual positions that we are eligible to sub in. Um so it's created an environment of competition and among substitutes that really did not exist in the five previous years. Um and that is primarily due to these classrooms being cut or combined. Um the lack

009of available jobs has ramifications upon our livelihoods that are greater in scope than just the loss of income. Um, you may not be aware of this, but substitutes in PPS do have eligibility for health benefits. It's one of the rare things that we that we get here as substitutes subbing for Portland. So, thank you, PAT. Um, we must work 55 days in a school year to qualify for and receive health benefits uh the following year. So, in the past, um, there's been an average of about 65,000 total jobs in a year that substitutes are eligible to fill. So meeting 55 days in throughout the year is pretty feasible. Um however this year and this is according to data that we've received from the district. Um we are on pace for about 50,000 jobs. So that

010that's about a 20% check. That's about a 20% decrease in jobs. Um so that that's a significant decrease in just the amount of work that is even available for substitutes to do. Um and this shortage of jobs has been so severe that many subs despite every willingness and effort to find work are at risk of falling short of the medium of the minimum benchmark uh for qualifying for health insurance. Uh and there's a concern among subs that the district is unbothered by this fact per perhaps even preferring to employ a greater number of subs to lessen the financial burden of ensuring them when fewer of them qualify for insurance. The lack of a cap on class sizes makes everyday instruction more challenging for main unit teachers and has downstream effects for subs. Of course, um

011many subs send me emails each week discussing how they're subbing for 35 40 student classrooms without any additional support. And this is not an isolated problem. As I've discussed, the cuts throughout the district really have taken away a a lot of those support systems. So, those people are not there anymore to provide support. And it's falling on substitutes uh to take, you know, care of a classroom that they're probably not expecting to see that many students in. Um, to give an example, Sophie von Roar is a substitute representative, a sixth grade math class at Roseway Heights that had 45 students. Um, you can imagine that that's a little bit of a shock to show up in a classroom when there's that many students. Um, students and teachers are not set up for success in classrooms

012of this size. Uh, and it should be noted that this quantity of students with just a single classroom teacher greatly inhibits the main unit teachers ability to provide quality instruction. And for a substitute uh who doesn't have rapport with any of these students, the classroom management is that much more difficult. PPS used to have a system in place that compensated substitutes for more challenging assignments. It was called incentive schools or incentive pay. Um, from at least the 2022 23 school year until last school year, so not this one, but the one before it, substitutes received incentive pay bonuses for working an assignment at any of the district designated incentive schools. These schools were designated as such because they had historically low fill rates. Fill rates just the metric that's used to calculate how many assignments

013are given coverage. uh incentive pay was a good faith gesture and effort by the district to create more equal distribution of coverage and it was borne out by statistics. We received data from the district on incentive pay fill rates before and after and sorry let me backtrack a little bit. The incentive rates used to be about $50 a day and 35 for a half day and after the 2022 school year they were reduced to just $15 a day and $10 a half day. Um this significant reduction in bonus rate greatly affected fill rates. So Oley Green which I think is a K through8 school. >> It's a middle school. Okay. Had a fill rate of about 84% in 22 23 school year. But the next year after these bonuses were reduced from $50 to just

01415. This fill rate fell to 61%. That's that means almost half of the time that a teacher needs a sub right there's not someone filling that. That's that's a significant decrease. Similarly, Roseway Heights fill rates fell from 78% in 22 23 to just 65% the following year. Both were incentive schools. Um the district has not designated any schools as incentive schools in the past two school years. And even this year when the fill rates are significantly higher due to the greater demand in light of job scarcity, schools that were formerly designated as incentive schools still have significantly lower fill rates than the average uh throughout the district. Oley Greens fill rate is seven or eight% lower than the district average this year. So incentive pay was an effective way to improve classroom coverage for schools

015with historically low fill rates and it represented a good faith effort on behalf of the district to compensate substitutes for this work. We are urging the district to reinstitute incentive pay. And lastly, I want to return to a point that I made about the difficulty many subs are having finding work. Um, despite the willingness and efforts to find work, especially amongst the scarcity of jobs, PPS uses a system called Frontline Absent Man absence management to administer our work. It's an app. You can get it on the desktop or on your lap or on your phone. and teachers when they do not directly coordinate with the sub for coverage will post um an absence there and then a substitute picks it up if they're you know interested in taking it. So the drastic changes to classroom

016positions have led to a significant decrease in available jobs and this has renewed questions that substitutes have about how exactly this app administers and displays jobs given that it dictates our access to work and our livelihoods therein. In the past, substitutes could expect to see assignments that correspond to their specific certificate displayed on their frontline homepage. This allowed guest educators to be matched with assignments for which they are most qualified and ensured that PPS students's learning is not greatly disrupted when their home room teacher is out. However, last year we had a substitute report that they could not see any jobs despite confirmation from other substitutes that there were available jobs. So, like comparing side by side, one of their apps is showing no jobs and the other one has a bunch available. Um, our

017our committee chairs last year learned from the district that there was inexplicably filters placed on this substitute's account that restricted them from seeing any jobs. Um, we have no way of knowing how widespread this was, if it was happening to other substitutes. It just so happened that this person was an active member of the union and they were able to bring it in front of union leadership and we were able to get an answer from the district who informed us that they didn't have a reason why this person was having their jobs filtered. There was no mark on their record. It wasn't for like bad performance or anything like that. It was just inexplicably there was filters restricting the jobs they saw. So they removed all of the filters. In one in one sense, we

018were grateful that they did something to help the substitute, but in effect, it now made essentially there was no way for a substitute with a specific certificate to see jobs that match their certificate. It removed all of those filters. We know from peers who have worked in other districts like Semi Valley that use Frontline that jobs that there is an ability to filter jobs based on your certificate or based on things that you want to see. So, we know that that's a possibility. just a matter of getting the district to change the plan that they have with Frontline. Uh we urge the district to make changes to the system so that permanent filters are reinstated. Another problem and focus that the substitute committee has had with Frontline and with job distribution and administration is in

019regards to third-party apps that are subscriptionbased. Um the third party apps charge a subscription fee to users who are often seeking them out for the ease of access that they provide and filters that Frontline doesn't provide. Um for one, the servers of these third party apps refresh faster than Frontline because there's fewer people on them and this means that a person using the third party app essentially has more time to review a job and accept it if they want to have it. Um, additionally, subs are able to apply long-term filters when they are using the third party apps. Um, they these third party apps, while I have never used them myself, were not really a concern to the substitute committee until the last year and a half. Uh, largely relating to demands of work changing

020and it being harder to find jobs. So, as these job opportunities have dwindled, we've had more and more people complaining and asking questions about these third party apps. And in the last year, we've done a lot of correspondence with frontline representatives and with district representatives to try to get transparency on this issue. Um the third party apps like Sub alert can refresh sometimes as much as 6 minutes faster than Frontline. And this gives paying subscribers an advantage when seeking work. Um given that the jobs may appear on Subalert well before they do on Frontline. This has created a pay-to-play situation within substitute work and represents a grave equity concern for PAT and the substitute committee. When we raised these concerns with the district, it was treated as if it was out of their hands and

021not their domain. The district has stated that they are working to find a solution and that they, and this is a quote, continue to discourage its use, that being third party apps, and stressed that is against both PPS and Frontines acceptable use policies to give personal information to the third party apps. However, PPS has done little to enforce this policy and even more, it does not appear that this is against Frontline's policies as Subalert touts being endorsed by Frontline on its website. So, that doesn't seem to be true. Uh, last year during a contract admin meeting, um, the district proposed providing a stipen to subs to cover the cost of these apps, but we have not reserved confirmation that these stipens will be given nor how retroactively they will be administered. The onus is on

022our employer to provide the equipment and services necessary for our job. Um because these apps essentially dictate our ability to find work. This is a is an issue that should be resolved by our employer, the district. One app should be enough and the pay-to-play situation raises not only ethical concerns but in structural ones. with clear advantages granted to substitutes who pay for the app. Assignments are effectively being bought rather than matched to educators with a specialization or certification in that subject. We expect the district to resolve this issue in short order either by enforcing its own policies or prov or by providing stipens to cover the cost of these apps as it is their responsibility as the employer of substitutes to provide us with the equipment, technology and information necessary for our jobs. Thank you.

023Thank you. >> Um, yeah. Uh, I I just want to emphasize uh a little bit of what Ian said. You know, when we came and spoke about the incentive schools uh incentive being lost, you know, there were a lot of concerns that this was uh an incentive to work at schools where we have diverse populations. But the reality is what we've noticed because racism is structural that those schools are also the schools that have higher turnover of administrators and staff. They have less support staff. And so not only are these schools that uh serve some of our uh historically and currently underserved populations. These are also schools that have struggled with maintaining structures and climate that can keep students and staff safe. And so the incentive pay isn't to say, "Hey, can you work at

024these schools with black and brown kids?" The incentive pay is to say, "Hey, we know it is hard to come into a school where you don't have the rapport, where there are no systems where you will call for help and no one will come. Thank you for coming anyway." And what we saw with those incentive schools is that some of our substitutes ended up preferring going to those schools regularly. So now even though that school might have uh a lot of turnover with staff or administrators, there were substitutes who became those consistent faces and voices in the building even if they were substituting for different educators. So we are strongly in support of providing another incentive to help us help our substitutes be able to continue to to win a living wage, get health benefits,

025and and support our schools that need consistent highquality substitutes in their schools. Um, and so I just I want to appreciate Ian for taking some time to come out and uh do the uh speaking at the board because it can be pretty intimidating and uh but these these folks are pretty friendly. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Can I say something on that? >> I would just like to say thank you both so much for coming and sharing what it's like in these environments and how these cuts are affecting teachers and substitute teachers. We need more people raising awareness for how these cuts are affecting again teachers and sub teachers because the reality is that is that with even more cuts coming down the line, it could get even worse and we need to raise

026awareness to rally public support behind changing permanently how our schools are funded because until we change how our schools are funding, we're just going to be in this situation over and over and over again. So, but thank you again so much for coming and sharing your thoughts. >> Thank you. Well said. >> No one's mad at you. That's amazing. >> Thank you both for sharing. It's very informative and we look forward to problem solving. Uh next up, we have a chance to review the most recent MAP and I Ready data. I'll hand this off to Dr. Armshaw. Absolutely. We're excited to dig into the data. So, we have Dr. Adams who will introduce the team presenting alongside him and launch the presentation. Thank you. >> Just waiting for Carara's awesome support. There we go. Good

027evening, board members. Good evening, Chair Wong, Vice Chair Depass, Student Director RTorto, members of the board, uh, Superintendent Armstrong. We're so excited to, uh, be able to again bring a data dive to the board of education. Um, as you know, since my arrival here in 2021, we've been pretty consistent with bringing whatever system level data we have immediately to the board as quickly as we have. So, this continues along those efforts. All right. As we've done previously, uh this presentation, our presentation is structured in a what, so what now what format. Um I'm going to display the data. I know you've had time to look at them. Our predictable and unacceptable gaps by race and ethnicity are still present. You know, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time um describing those because

028you can see them very starkly as we go through the data. and we're happy to take um we look most forward to talking about what we're trying to do about it and we're happy to take any questions at the end once we've turned things over back over to Superintendent Armstrong. So, um this is our learning target and success criteria for tonight's uh data dive. We're again trying to model what we expect in schools. Um, we're hoping that uh teachers are using these to help with teacher clarity and we're hoping that perhaps you are seeing them as you're going in your visits to schools um throughout throughout the school year. So, um we're going to learn about the current state of student achievement, which is what we do in the fall. In the winter, we'll come

029back and talk about student growth because we'll have two data points within the same school year. And um hopefully at the end of the presentation you could articulate that current state and talk about how these data are used to inform action planning in both schools and the central office. So starting with the what for um when I joined PPS uh PPS was already in the midst of using the MAP assessment. Since uh my time here, we have also started adopting the ready readymath elementary mathematics curriculum, which is where I Ready comes into play. Over the past few years, we've had lots of uh teacher feedback from elementary teachers about do we have to give MAP and I Ready? And we thought about that feedback and said actually we don't. We can understand student performance um

030in mathematics at the elementary level using I Ready. those students um are assessed less frequently than they would otherwise have been. So we use both MAP and I Ready to monitor student achievement and student growth over time. They assess MAP assess um content in English and language arts and we use the mathematics portion of the ready math curriculum um and ready math content to assess mathematics. And it really answers the question, are students currently on grade level at the beginning of the school year? We were here in October, I believe it was, and we talked about our OSAS results, and that was whether students met that proficiency mark for last school year. And now we're wondering where are we at the beginning of the school year, and what does that mean for moves that we

031need to make as either a school team, a grade level team, or a district level team. So, let's get right to it. First, uh we'll look at overall performance by grade bands. This slide shows reading performance in elementary grades, the middle grades, and across all assessed grades. That's grades three through eight combined. As you can see, overall in reading, we're seeing some increases in the percentage of students who are on grade level at this point of the school year compared to last school year. Similarly, in mathematics, we are seeing increased increases in the middle grades and in grades three through eight combined. At the elementary grades, we see a slight decline. And if you remember when we brought the OSAS data and we disagregated that elementary data by race and ethnicity, we saw um a

032drop in our Latina or Latinx or Latino student performance. And it's our belief that that's contributing to that decrease we see in grades three to five. We're still sort of working to unpack that. In elementary reading, most student groups saw slight to moderate increases with Asian and native students demonstrating a decrease in the proportion of students who were on grade level at the beginning of the school year. And those are, as you can see, you can see our um achievement gaps between and among student groups. Um I've referred to it in my career as the achievement roller coaster. Um in most places, the only way to make the hills and valleys look different. um besides like really pushing on students, but to make the data look different is to rearrange the order, right, of how

033they're presented because things tend to fall along um what we once called like the line of color. In elementary mathematics, we see some differential performance by student racial and ethnic groups with black and multi-racial students showing an increase in the proportions of students who are on grade level. When we turn to middle school, all student groups show some increases in achievement in reading language arts. And similarly in middle school mathematics, we see that with the exception of our native students, all other student groups saw increased achievement. Next, we'll take a look at the achievement of our students with disabilities. Here, achievement has remained consistent or flat this fall compared to last fall in reading English language arts. And then in mathematics, um, students with disabilities in the middle grades are showing increased slightly increased levels

034of achievement while their elementary peers saw a slight decline. And the data for um all grades combined 3 through 8 is relatively flat. And then finally, we examine the performance of our multilingual learners or our students for whom English is not their first or home language. Here, performance is very low compared to all other student groups. And we know we have much work to do in order to improve outcomes for this population of students. Similarly, in mathematics, we see lower achievement overall, an increase at the middle grades, and a decline in elementary school. Again, we are uh right now unpacking these data to determine root causes in order to develop and refine systemic guidance and support for our multilingual learners. On the next slide, Christina Howard, our senior chief of academics, and Dr. Isaac Cardona,

035our chief of schools, will outline how we turn these results into action at both the school and the central office levels. >> Schools first. >> Sure. >> Good afternoon. Good evening. Actually, um the school level, we provide grade level centers line instruction and supports and scaffolds to students. We also use this fall data to look at intervention. So, in some in elementary school or 35, we have wind blocks, the what I need blocks as students get differentiated instruction from teachers. Uh we also have intervention courses or interventionists in the elementary school. So based upon the fall data, students might have an intervention block or work with an intervention teacher both in the primary and then 68 as well. Um those could last a quarter or longer, but they're t typically tailored personalized instruction based upon

036the gaps that students are experiencing within the school day. >> Hi, good evening. Um at the central office level, we've spent the last um several years building MTSS systems or multi-tered systems of support um to be implemented at the school level. So thinking about our guidance around curriculum, our guidance around um tiers of instruction. So thinking about what all students receive, what um tier 2 support students receive, and then what tier three options are available. Um we also support a lot with professional learning. So, um, one of the things that we're working on this year is working with our, um, EL teachers, um, English language development, supporting our multilingual learners. Um, we're also supporting our academic interventionists. Uh, we offer high impact tutoring, um, instructional coach support, um, lots of tools and resources for buildings

037to use. Um, as well as providing staff to schools to support some of these systems level work. Uh that concludes our presentation and I'd like to turn things back over to Dr. Armstrong before we entertain any questions if she had any concluding thoughts. >> Yeah. No, thank you team. I appreciate you bringing forth a presentation. I think at this time just opening up for board discussion or questions, any feedback. >> I'll start us off, I guess. Um thank you for the presentation. Um it was great and very informative and shows a lot of work to do. Um I just want to also reiterate I think from a previous conversations I remember I was talking about how the map and I ready are a type of assessment right it tests how a student is doing in

038one specific thing at one >> um one specific task but the usefulness is that it correlates well with for example eventual need for intervention or uh college readiness and things like that and so that's that's kind of where the usefulness and then the other thing that came up when that discussion was also about um uh curriculum embedded assessments, right? And I know Dr. Adams, you pointed out the in previous in before you you pointed out the importance of I don't know I think you call like triangulation about how to figure out how well a student is doing. I'm I'm just curious. My question is just basically could could you maybe illuminate a little bit more about how the the status of that progress is is doing in terms of like uh curriculum embedded instruction where

039the district is at at that and maybe what what maybe obstacles that were the district is facing in terms of >> embedded. Did I say that right? Curriculum embedded assessments. >> You said instruction. >> Did I say instruction? >> It's okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for watching my back. >> I probably caught you too. >> Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah. >> Sure. So, coming in um to this year, we uh worked on some systems. Some of our curriculum comes with um the ability to either assess students online or to enter their performance online as a way that so that we can collect it and report it. And so that's a um fairly it's a new expectation as of this school year that that um is happening and we are um although systems aren't perfect

040and it's in process and um we are looking forward to being able to provide those data to the board as well as we move forward. um as you know we don't want to um I would um hesitate to bring you data uh where there hasn't been a lot of student participation and so I know that um our educators are using curricular materials and I also know that um it is not always um easy or timely to get all that entered into our system. So we want to be mindful of that. We know in year one it um takes some um adjustments and getting used to a different routine. Um at the secondary level, we've um we're leveraging our student information system that has an assessment platform to be able to have students complete their assessments

041there. Um and that again will give us a window into that. My belief um is that one, it's great to know if students are growing. It's great to have an approximation or an understanding if they're on grade level. As a teacher, what I benefited the most from at all times were my curriculum embedded assessments combined with the things I did daily as a part of what they call the formative assessment process. So these are um a data point that we can look at centrally and districtwide. So we can know how every fourth grader is doing in math or how every sixth grader is doing at a point in time in reading. And we're just not quite there yet with our curriculum based assessments in the ability for us to look at it districtwide. Yeah, I

042think you pointed out that issue nailed it because I think one of the things that I see as a challenge is that I see teachers doing this all the time, right? Informative assessments and curricwide summation of how our students are doing, right? And so I think that that's a monumental challenge. So, thank you for eliminating on that. I think Director Lefort had a also a question. >> Yeah, I was just curious um in some of the uh I'm sorry, were you gonna go? Yeah. >> Oh, sorry. >> Go first. >> I was just wondering in some of the earlier data on uh I'm looking at slide five um when we see differences like you know.3.5 or 0.9 in terms of increases do you consider that um an increase or do you consider it statistically significant

043or flat? >> That's a great question. So statistical the concept of statistical significance comes into play most usually when you don't have everyone taking an assessment or everyone you haven't captured the entire population. With these assessments we are capturing um well over 90 to 100% of students and so the differences could be attributed to a couple things. It could be attributed to the difference in the achievement of the student. There's also a possibility and there's no way to really discern this. I was talking about this with um Dr. Dan Farley Far Farley at OD at the teaching with purpose conference. Sometimes the students themselves are just different and so they perform differently because of innate differences that they have. And so those those types of things come into play. What I would what I would

044say to you is the greater the difference the more likely it is that it's because of what we're doing. So it seems like from the data we're seeing math the you can see these increases pretty dramatically in the math but um the reading not as much. Is there are there what sort of targeted interventions do we have in place for um particular our black students with that that gap we're seeing right now? >> Sure. I'm seeing >> so reading. >> Yeah. So we have I mean I think it depends some of the areas reading is increasing even 35 right if we're looking at there's what 2.3% gain for for black students. So I think um just as a system for system implementation we have um student intervention teams at every school. So they're analyzing teams

045of teachers and counselors and administrators are analyzing data regularly, academic data, also climate data from students around behavior supports and things like that. And they're deciding from there who are students are using a wide range of data that they're using. This is one data point, right? There's classroom assessments, there's um inclassroom observations, things like that. And they're deciding from there who is in need of support. We also have um academic interventionists at uh several schools where their students below a certain threshold of 40% are in MAP are getting support and then we also have um high impact tutoring. So it's a wide range of things. I don't know Isaac if you want to share or Dr. Cardona if you want to share a little bit more. >> I would say also the professional learning especially

046in the primary school. So 35 is largely focused on literacy. We're in a three-year um process of having all students, all teachers trained in the science of reading. So, it's currently year two. And so, every early release, so when you know students go home, teachers are staying with their principal and they're get learning about the science of reading and then implementing in that um in their classrooms and getting feedback. Um and so we're I'm seeing really great results in classrooms, especially in primary school, of just like the shifts in how they're teaching literacy, teaching students to read, um and the impacts that that's having on student growth. Is there one more follow-up question? I'm sorry. I don't mean to. Um, for our middle school students, like I'm familiar with what you're talking about, the science

047of reading and the targeted interventions for our younger students. What are we doing for our students that are in the middle? >> Middle school is similar where they have interventions as as uh Dr. Howard or not Dr. Howard as Christina mentioned. And so students who are falling below a certain threshold, so there's a multi-ter system of support. If they are within tier three, they do have an intervention class that is taught by a teacher typically with 15 or fewer students. um in a quarter to help to really like solve some of those gaps. And if students are progressing, they might leave the intervention, other kids might come in based upon their performance, but it's very much targeted small group instruction with an interventionist to to support their learning, both math and reading. >> But also,

048oh, >> sorry, >> uh just one more thing to add on the middle school part. Um we have uh we've been awarded the the grant from the state around um supporting some of the secondary. it it's there's you have to use funding across K12, but some of that will be allocated for secondary in particular. Um providing some robust professional learning um using some of the same systems that we've modeled with elementary around the science of reading but implementing at a secondary level and what that would look like and really focusing on literacy at the secondary level. So that's coming. We haven't built that out yet, but that is one of the ways that we're going to be using some of those dollars. And and what I'd like to add is one of the things we

049know as um school districts shifted to um standards more aligned with the common core standards is that mathematics became even more literacy based. And so in a previous district, for example, we showed an SAT item, then an eighth grade math item, then a fifth grade math item, a fourth grade math item. And the SAT item was all text. there was two columns of text and had maybe two numbers in it, but it was a math problem. And so we know that literacy and reading continues to be and is more than ever a gateway skill because they don't have um math content and curricula don't necessarily anymore include what um what I was always taught were like naked problems or like one or two sentence word problems. That's not the nature of um the standards and

050the way they're organized and the way they're expected to be taught. So there is typically um there is a high reading demand on the math assessments and in the math curricula which if you're struggling some students struggle with their reading but they're really sort of soant in math and they overcome that other students don't and so we want to recognize that it's also something we need to work on. >> This is kind of uh related. Um, so I was going to ask a question about um, you know, of course I love the stuff about the science of reading. Sounds amazing. Um, what else is specifically different or is going to be different about this year as opposed to years prior in terms of like the the so what of the of all this or the

051now what? >> Yeah, I think um I mean the science of reading over three years is probably the biggest shift both in professional learning and the way that um, all schools have the ability to learn and grow from that. uh in this current year, we're also seeing principles have some ability to shift within PLC's um you know what they're working on with their teams. I was at a school recently where they were talking about how their instructional leadership team and their PLC's were focusing on math and they each bringing a lesson they were going to work through and talk about um you know how best to support students whether it's multilingual learners, students with IEPs within the lesson. So just a lot of collaboration and and time built in for folks to to talk to

052each other. >> Thank you. Sounds great. objects pass. >> Thank you. I have just two questions. The first is the science of reading. How many how many um about percentage- wise have our teachers been trained on the science of reading now? I think you might have is it 2/3? >> So we're in year two of the grant and each year is 20 schools. So we're after this year we'll have 40 schools that have participated in it and next year will be our final year of the last remaining 20 schools. So yeah, two things. >> Okay, great. And then um we've gotten some mail about the limitations of the I the map and the I Ready and I, uh worked full-time today and did not read the letters fully um or your response that you gave

053is can you explain to me what the limitations of the map and the I Ready are and um if we're doing anything to address those limitations. >> Sure. Um >> like a kind explain it like a kindergarten because this is this is o over my head. It's not my area of expertise. >> Sure. So what we know of assessment is that no assessment gets clearly at something. If you think about um the example I always there's always some error. What the example I like to provide is when my kids were young and you take your kids temperature because they're sick. My doctor or the nurse on call would always ask me how did you take the temperature? And that matters because in the ear, the forehead, rectally, they all have a different air amount of

054air around them based on the thermometer. And so assessments are no different. And so um the limitations of assessments are their point in time. These assessments aren't um at least well MAP isn't a direct tie unit by unit to our curriculum. Um it is attached to the domains of reading, but not unit by unit. So the scoping sequences don't line up exactly. And at the same time, what companies like the parent company of MAP and the parent company of I Ready do is they do what are called linking studies where they look at student performance on their assessment compared to students performance on each state's assessment to determine at what level of performance should I expect a student to also be proficient on the state assessment. So, as always, um, I always like to say

055that an assessment like MAP can tell you something's wrong. It doesn't always tell you what exactly is wrong, or it can tell you something's really right, but it may not tell you exactly what's really right. And that's when we need to triangulate those data with the daily instruction and experiences of students and teachers in the classroom every day based on that formative assessment process. >> And then is that the curriculum based assessment? That's a piece of it. That's a piece of it. >> Not point in time, but it's actually like in real time in the classroom. >> Sure. So, real time in the classroom might be an exit ticket that I give all of my students before they go on to their next period or to their next teacher. Um, that's more real time. More

056real time to that is just as I'm looking around, I'm I'm making assessment decisions based on the expressions on your faces. So I may do that in the classroom as a teacher based on how engaged someone looks. Do they look like they're struggling? And then as a unit progresses, we have those curriculum embedded either checks at the midpoint of the unit in some of our grade levels and contents and or at the end of the unit that helps us understand the extent to which students um the facilitation of learning has occurred for most students in the classroom. And we call it formative whenever there's really it's more formative the more time you have to adjust before the next thing you do. >> And just to take your point a little bit further, Dr. Adams is

057using the temperature as a guide. I don't know any doctor that would fully diagnose just with the thermometer, right? There's always other data points that's used to determine what's going on. And it's the same in the classroom. >> Yeah. Yeah, we we call that like a balanced assessment system is kind of a phrase that you would hear. You would want some some portion of this formative daily happening every day. There's there's assessments happening. Then you have like the once a quarter, once a uh six or you know eight weeks happens, there's another assessment. Then you have the once or twice a year assessment. And you're trying to look at the whole picture to be able to make you know recommendations. And then one final question, are those then uh curriculum based assessments, are those also

058used to inform the instructors of where they're maybe missing? You know, when you administer a test and half the class doesn't get it, then you you're like, "Oh, maybe maybe I didn't mention that." >> Uh are those for feedback in real time to the instructors in the classrooms? >> What I will say is that's certainly something I learned from my high school government teacher. um he always did an item analysis. If more than 30% of the students got an item wrong, he used to say, "I didn't teach that well enough." Um that was a practice I took into my own classroom. I can't speak to the extent to which that happens across the district because obviously I'm not in every classroom talking to every educator. Um but I know that our educators work hard to

059make adjustments based on the information they're gleaning from students and all the various ways that they can glean and capture that information. At a systems level, we would want our professional learning communities, right? We've set up systems to support after an assessment, they do a student learning analysis and understand, okay, where are the gaps? Which students need more support? What do I need to reflect on in my practice that will improve over time? collaborating with another person who teaches either the same content at secondary or the same grade level to understand or a grade band to understand, hey, as a PLC group, what could we potentially, you know, adapt or change? Um, or hey, did this person um do a really great job here? How can I um use what they're doing to support what

060I'm doing? So, that's where PLC or professional learning community work comes into play, too. >> Thank you. And then with um as we develop more into proficiency based grading and standards based assessment that process becomes more direct and easier or more common right >> well I'm excited to hear we're going towards >> yeah I just want to make sure sorry um since we're headed more towards you know um I think about like I guess this is a little common and some questions um I think it's great we're moving in the direction of using more curriculum based assessments. Um, I also want to um give a shout out to a fifth grade teacher that wrote last year about the shift and really wanting to also like help um figure out how to help kids be able

061to have assessments not always on a computer, right? That's something that's on my mind. So, I just want to remind everyone that I think that's always um good to try to maintain that ability for us to give teachers the academic freedom to assess their kids sometimes in different ways even if we do make sure that sometimes they are doing it in a way that you can get that data. But especially until we maybe give up something like a map or some other test we're currently giving because now we're using the curriculum based ones. until we fully make that transition, I just want to be mindful of how much time they're spending on computers doing these assessments because anybody who spends time with kids knows they don't look forward to testing days. Um, and you know,

062we get the emails about making sure they're wellfed and they have snacks and treats and keeping their moods up and making sure they're getting enough sleep because it's it's kind of a drag. So, I just want to kind of put that shout out out there. Um, and I know you guys are thinking about those things, too. Um, I am curious about a couple of things. Um, as we're getting data now and able to look back at the folks who had science of reading training last year, are we seeing the impacts on the test scores this year? Have you guys unpacked to see if that's the case? >> We're actually in the process of doing u a larger understanding of that. That's one of the things the team's working on now. Um, we don't have that

063right this minute, but we could um we could definitely um share that once we have that. >> Yeah, great. My question was more like are we able to do that? If we are, I think it'd be really interesting because it does seem to be like the thesis statement for all of this is like the science of reading training is what we're really hanging our star on here. So, let's make sure that it is in fact actually turning out to be the case. And then if that is turning out to be the case, I think it's something we should really be um you know, telling folks all about um I think the state continues to turn out people with teaching credentials that are not learning science of reading in their teacher training programs. um which I've

064heard about quite a bit from folks across the state. So I think we can maybe be part of like shifting that narrative and actually making a change that can matter for kids all over the state because we're kind of leading the way on this. Um I also am just curious if you're seeing we see these significant gaps between um kids of color or particularly the three groups that we've mentioned today and white kids on the on these tests. Um, is there a difference when we're looking at those test scores between the norms based testing like a MAPS or an I Ready and when we're doing standardsbased testing, is the gap as is the gap persistent across? And if we don't have the data to show that yet, maybe it's something we can think about showing

065like a year from now when we can plan to show that. >> That's a great question. And so I believe what I'm inferring from your question when you say standardsbased is criter criterion referenced or curriculum based which means like OSAS. >> Yeah. you have to get to a certain standard, right? A certain level of performance to be considered okay or doing well. Um versus norm reference which can compare you to peers nationally typically with >> it's like the maps versus like OSAS or curriculum based assessment. >> So we see those gaps um and the magnitude of the gaps. I've observed them irrespective of the measure I look at. If I look at PSAT when we gave that, if I looked at PARACT, if I looked at SAT, if I looked at MAP, if I looked

066at OSAS, there is a predictable gap between those between and among those student groups that we have to continue to work towards disrupting. >> Yeah, I was just curious if it persisted. And then finally, I think you all know by now that I have like a special place in my heart for our low-income kids who are at non-title one schools. Um, and um, those title one schools get Title One funds. They get um funds from the Student Success Act. They get attention from us trying to move the needle on the achievement gap, right? But then we also have kids of color, low-inccome kids that are at schools that don't have those same resources. And I'm curious if you have done any um looking around to see where like how that dynamic like might affect these

067overall like we're trying to move the needle for black kids, Pacific Islanders, natives native kids. Um can we do anything to kind of like look at the data to figure out okay they are we are moving forward. we're seeing gains where we are leaning in, but not seeing those same gains where we're not leaning in because it's not a title one school or not a school with a lot of kids that are diverse. I'm just curious if we can see if maybe those kids might need some triage in the future. >> Yeah. And we we provide academic interventionists. Um I don't have the list right in front of me, so I can't cite it, but I I think we provide them at a range of of all schools. And then we also have with the

068science of reading training just um one piece around that is that we're really focused on um teachers and administrators understanding the science of reading but then applying that to their everyday curriculum or instruction that they're giving in the classroom. And in when schools are part of the science of reading cohort, we have a set of interventionists that are part of that model too that are centrally based but deployed to the schools to support as well as coaches. So we're trying to if you're in that cohort of schools that year and all elementary schools and K8 schools will be part of that eventually, they'll have those allocated supports too. So that's another example of how we're trying to create lots of systems of support. >> And and to um chief super chief Howard um senior chief,

069excuse me. That's a >> like super chief. I think that sounds cool, >> right? It's an inside joke that we use with one another. Um, as she mentioned, when we provide academic interventionist FTE, that isn't based on title status or not. It's based on student performance being at a a level that's low enough where we allocate. And so, in those instances, um, resources have gone to schools that are non-title one. And it depended more upon the number of students that were performing at a particular, uh, lower level of achievement. And then you receive some staffing to support them. And that's along with high impact tutoring is also similar, right? So, we're trying to look at where the need is regardless of uh just a designated school, right? >> Okay. I love that. I just I

070think also I think about it from like a school funding perspective. We do spend a lot more money per student at title one schools than we do at non-title schools. So, I guess I'm thinking about everything you're saying sounds great, but I just hope maybe we can consider as we unpack data on this going forward, just making sure we're not leaving behind those kids just because of where they're at school. But I realize based on your approach, I think it's less of a concern. But just from a school funding concern, I think it's also worth thinking about >> smaller class sizes, that kind of stuff. Um my question is also around the racial achievement gap and um like I hear the answer that um we're analyzing data and using the data to decide who needs

071what supports. Um, I'm curious about uh to what degree um those supports or interventions are culturally responsive um and and like what to to what we're attributing um the disparity that we continue to see between outcomes for white kids and kids of color. you want to take us? >> Um, I think one one thing to note is that I think we could we could also I don't know if this is a future TLE conversation too that we could look at our um we have another set of data too specifically around the intervention supports as well as the high impact tutoring that also shows growth in a lot of areas and it would be we should we should look at that too. Right. Right now we're just as one point in time, one piece of data

072and we have a lot more data too to show how our intervention set of supports are working too and growing and regardless of the starting point where how students are growing with that support. So that might be helpful. >> Okay. It is um in my experience it has been challenging to find curricula that are widely and deeply culturally responsive. And so that typically falls upon the shoulder of the educators who may or may not have the experience or the background um to do that or the knowledge, right? And so it's one of those things that we are currently struggling with is how do we um ensure it's it's why we've been focusing on grade levels and grade level instruction standards aligned instruction because we have a deep belief that um believing strongly that all students

073can meet that level of rigor is really critical. Um, when I I think I've shared this with the board previously, when I was in the classroom, my students went as far as I believe they go and as far as I believed I could take them. So, it was sort of like belief in self and belief in them, which was a lot shakier when I was brand new um than it was um after I had some experience. And so, um, we just continue to work on trying to make sure the bar is the bar for everyone and helping them and making sure or I wouldn't say making sure, but attempting to supply supports and scaffolds so that we can help them get there with um the appropriate levels of support without lowering that bar. I'm not

074sure if this is a question that you all can answer right now, but um do we have any sense um whether the racial disparities and outcomes are greater in a district like PPS um than they are in communities that have um more racial and ethnic diversity. and and so like correspondingly um teaching forces that are more reflective of the backgrounds of the students. >> What I I can't exactly answer it in the way you're asking it, Director Chase Miller. What I can say is as I joined PPS and I exam and started looking through our data um the historical data that existed as the time, what surprised me is um typically in other districts you see sort of white student achievement, black student achievement, students with disabilities and here in PPS it's a little bit

075inverted in that sometimes and on on a few measures our students with disabilities are outperforming even our African-American or black students. And so that's always been a curiosity of mine that I've had since I've been here is trying to understand um why that might be um because that does that is not um in keeping with my experience in some other districts and in in another district and having friends in other districts in my role where we talk about these things on a on a regular basis. >> Director Englesman. >> Uh thank you. I have um just one sort of question um which is from prior conversations and presentations. It's um correct me if I'm wrong. It's my understanding that not every school has a math andor reading interventionalist in the building. And so I guess

076my question is how the district is supporting um those schools that don't have someone in the building. So to um director Split's question, so we're not missing the students at those buildings that are sort of below the threshold for having someone in the building, but those individual students at a smaller number are at increasing risk of not having what they need. >> So in in the classroom, every you know, the number one key lever is a teacher in every classroom that has the ability to really move instruction forward and to help close gaps. uh in every school in K5 there's a block of time called the what I need block or the wind block and that's a time where teachers even without other interventionists can help work on those interventions and so they work with

077small groups of students tailoring their instruction and so every school has that capacity or that time built in every single day the interventionists are allocated based upon the number of students and the the need there and so you know as a as tier one measure it's great instruction in every classroom and as a tier two it's that teacher working with students in the wind blocks or even in during instruction time they might pull a small group and work with them on just some lagging skills. >> Can I just I just want to re-emphasize Thank you for that. I think that's a great question and I just want to emphasize uh what what you said uh Dr. Cardona which is uh teachers are our key lever right so when we think of the supports and the

078resources even you know we can have like the best intervention program in the world but the only way for it to actually be you know actualized is through the hands of a teacher right and so when we think of especially coming up on a time when we know that we're going to have to talk reduction soon um we want to continue to think about how we are listening and responding to our teachers in the classroom about what um they need to be able to to move student uh progress and performance along. And it does look different in different spaces. And while we talked about data, we talked about curriculum and all of that, we also and being culturally responsive when our teachers also have um academic freedom under article 10 where they're able to also

079um take some of those those liberties to uh really enrich with the student. So it's really like the total picture when we think about what's needed to move performance in the classroom. And I I don't want to miss that, especially as we know that we have further conversations about some of the investments we've made and how we're just not going to be able to make some of those same investments. So, just don't want to over overcommit, but to say that while all those things around the a classroom are wonderful and helping to lift the work, you know, we believe that our number one way to impact students are through our teachers. And so listening, responding, and supporting them is the best way to move. So >> thank you. Um I guess I I don't have

080another question. I just have a comment. Um I was one of the um I think many board members who got to do the PAT educator for a day. Um and I was in a title one school. Um and so where were putting a lot of extra resources and extra money understandably. So, um, and I will say that I was, it was incredibly eyeopening to me and, um, tragic how much time it felt like instructional time was lost because of the number of students in the classroom, the lack of assistance in the classroom for the teacher in that 4x4 um, four walls. And it I got the sense that it didn't matter how many math or reading interventionists there were in the building outside of those four walls. Um because in the moment and the moments

081that were three hours that I was in there, I mean it was amazing how much um redirecting and um working with individual students just to get them to try to learn, not actually learning. So instructional time was just decimated. And I know it was a Monday morning and I was told that that is a time that is more challenging, but still those students were losing instructional time. Um, and so I guess, uh, you know, to the legislature that didn't want to talk about classroom caps and that won't fund us properly, we need to start being honest with ourselves, um, that there is a number that's too many and that teachers can't be the exceptional teachers that we know they can be when we have classrooms just jammed full of kids who are. So, to everyone

082listening who has the funding, like we need to we need to stop pretending like we can't talk about that. So anyway, I just wanted to say that it was really um eye opening for me. >> Um thank you. I I do have one more question. It's a followup from what director Chase Miller was pointing out. Um you mentioned that you know there's a shortage of curriculum that is culturally responsive or things like that. Is there do we I know with all the funding cuts in third year in a row, this is becoming exponentially more and more difficult, but is it possible or do we have a program that um because we have a lot of teachers that do develop really amazing culturally responsive curriculum a way to help identify and elevate the teacher those teachers

083and um you know a program to help share their curriculum and things like that because I I think that's a that's a big resource I feel has been is huge. Right. And and it'd be great if we could tap into that. >> Yeah. I mean, I think um at the school level, right, with the professional learning communities and the the ideas that they're collaborating around lessons, they're collaborating around how the lessons went um what uh what do students need um beyond, you know, analyzing the data from the lesson and then continuing that cycle. Um and that's where they share a lot of resources. they share a lot of um maybe potential adaptations they've made to either their curriculum resources or when there's maybe not a fully um applicable curriculum then they would share you know

084lessons they've created and things like that >> I've also seen collaboration amongst instructional coaches between buildings so they get a chance to walk each other's buildings um sometimes with principal sometimes together and they can I've been like I've seen them say oh man I really want to like bring that back to my school or this is really great can I borrow this like resource and so there's a lot of sharing across crowd sourcing amongst teachers as well. >> Oh, I just wanted to say I just wanted to thank you guys so much for doing all this work. I know that we're asking you to do more with less every year, you know, and that's probably going to continue. I just realized that I have not had the opportunity to again rail against funding in this

085conversation. Um, so again, I'm going, you know, I'm going to say that we need to change how our schools are funded because this because we can't keep doing this forever. you know, our state legislature has had, you know, about 20 25 years to figure out how to fund our schools under this model and they haven't done it. Um, so again, thank you guys for all the work that you've put in because it's it's not easy. >> Thank you again. Well said. >> Any last questions? >> I want to thank you all in your teams to for providing this information. All right. Uh, our next on our agenda is, uh, turning to our budget conversation. >> Dr. Armstrong, >> if you would like to introduce us. >> Oh, thank you. So, we've been sharing, as you

086know, with the board and community that uh we're facing a $50 million deficit. That's 10 million more than uh what we were facing last year. And so as we get closer to our decision making uh process, it's just important that uh we make very clear for you the purpose and the principles and um that we're using to make some of those tough decisions. And we're hoping that tonight's conversation um will be helpful as we begin to create a shared understanding. You know, we anticipate that in January we will be going out for engagement in the community on our budget and proposed reductions, but we're still working to get to that place. And so I'm excited that leading tonight's conversation is Chief Morrison. So I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr.

087Armstrong. And thank you, Cara, for being uh my tech support over there. And I'm so thrilled to be here tonight. I missed my opportunity to thrilled to >> be here at 7:21. >> I I know I had a little party over there before I came up here. So, it's wonderful to see you and I hope to get um use some information you've been looking for and waiting for and also gather some questions and kind of get some idea of what you're thinking. Um I was excited to see our union partners here because I think it's important that they are feeling strong in this information as well. So uh with that I think we'll go ahead and get started. Oh click click. All right. So together we rise and we are uh firmly behind that all

088the way through the finance team and all of our business functions as well. So, you're going to continue to always see this frame up here. All right. So, I think I missed our agenda slide. Too fast. Go back. Go forward. All right. So, here are topics. We're going to uh talk a little bit about our uh new monthly and quarterly financial reports. I hope you've had an opportunity to see those. Our uh update for our annual financial report which shows us uh will show us in the community firmly where we landed last year. We're going to show you some information request that you had. It was quite some time ago and we're just now really getting that information out to you now. And then really talk about some principles and polit policies and priorities around

089our budget development process as we move forward. All right. So just a quick one on this. our new monthly and quarterly financial reports. We came into um PPS and when I say we, it's it's myself and a new leadership team and it seemed like there was a gap in um our financial reporting where we believe you should be seeing a financial report from us every month for the prior month and then also quarterly reports that kind of show our progress against our budget throughout the year. So those have been made available to you in the supplemental materials through board book. Um, you're going to notice uh a little bit more narrative. There are some talking points around the highlights of what's in those reports. Some folks like to see the numbers. Some folks would rather

090see the charts and hear more of the story. And so we've tried to include all of that information in those reports. And we're what's under development for us right now and I think is a important component that we haven't been reporting is on our contracts. So, what we've found is there's a gap in uh the point where you are reviewing and approving even multi-year contracts, but there's a disconnect between uh that process and then monitoring where we are and spending in those contracts throughout the year because we could be authorized for a contract for a certain amount, but then the budget holder will only use those services as needed throughout the year. So I just want to um develop a report that will be added to the monthly financial report so that you can see

091that on a more regular basis. All right. So our annual financial report status uh we had some federal guidelines that were released really late to our auditors under the uniform guidance rules and so they were unable to complete their work on time and this is an issue throughout the nation. Um the Oregon Department of Education has sent a notification letting us know that they understand there's an issue and we'll be bringing our final auditor along with our um auditor opinions to you in January which is a little bit later than we'd like. We have a draft report now but we want to kind of wait and do it all at the same time. So been working with um Director Sullivan on the timing of that. So you can expect to see that in January. All

092right, the state revenue forecast from uh November. This is information straight from the forecast. So, I'm not going to speak to it directly. There uh is a link that goes to the full report if you're interested in finding more. These are just some of the highlights that I thought you might find interesting. There was a little bit of a shock to the system after um HR1 went into play. our first quarter uh forecast wasn't very positive and we've uh come back from that quite a bit. One of the things that I found very interesting in the report from the state economists was the the number of missing data points due to the federal program shutdown um that left them with kind of holes in their data. And so that leads me to kind of question

093a little bit around their forecasting given that they can't use apples to apples uh like we like to see. So um that's just something to keep in mind. This was another interesting slide I found and it and I I don't think it's a surprise to any of you here. Um but just in terms of um the secondary metro, the drive for job creation, it's definitely slowed in the portion Portland metro area. So I know that we're working hard as an employer and with our investments even as far as the bond funds to keep our um employment stimulated locally. And so I just thought this was an interesting slide to share with you. And this is the little tiny table at the end of their uh revenue forecast that shows we went up um from our

094first uh very negative uh revenue forecast that came out in September. And so that's a more comforting picture, but still the long run for the bienium. This was uh February 4th will be the third um revenue forecast out of eight. So we're still pretty early and I know the state is taking a really conservative approach in terms of spending at this time >> something like can you go back a slide? >> Yeah. Um, so I think most of you know I work for the state and like we're also dealing with the same exact numbers and how it affects us and I feel like this is my chance to tell Michelle what I'm hearing and I'll tell all of you. Um, but um, we're hearing that like and we'll see what if you know this is

095just we're hearing. We'll see what actually happens. But we're hearing that the legislature is really seeing like like it might feel like a big relief like oh few it's only 63 instead of 309. But I think what they're seeing is like the long-term trend is that the state budget is going to dramatically fall because of the lack of federal funding for the programs that we put the most money toward. In case you don't know, the the biggest piece of the pie for the Oregon state budget is healthcare. And there's been dramatic cuts um in the um in HR1 to basically to to basically reconfigure and say, okay, we're no longer as the feds going to cover those healthcare costs up to states if they would like to continue to continue to do that to pay

096for it. And we happen to cover a lot of people, maybe the most in the country potentially um in our healthcare system. And so that's a huge huge deal. And so just so you all know what I'm hearing is that the legislaturator is going to be thinking of making cuts now that they don't necessarily need to make this bianium, but to make money available for future biania um because they know they're going to have to cut. So it's like the strategy is like let's just go ahead and take it take like a say a 5% cut has been the the scuttlebutt. um now even though we don't necessarily need to take it. 63.1 million is far less than 5% of our budget but that way it would put more money into play to minimize the

097cuts and this is expected to be a multi-year trend um I believe through the 2931 bianium which is when it would start to stabilize um at that lower amount. So, just so folks kind of know what it's like extremely bad news for school funding. Um, but I feel like I just want to tell the public and you what I'm hearing um out there in my own state budget conversations. >> Yeah, I definitely appreciate that perspective. I know that my colleagues across the state, we're all, you know, watching every thing we can and appreciating that opinion. So, I'm going to share that out. All right. This is a response to some uh an information request from the board. I heard from a couple folks. We want to see uh proportionately the the pension benefit up here.

098It's represented in the table. Uh down at the bottom is the PERS PERS UAL portion. That entire table uh shows an average uh cost per FTE of a teacher. So today our current average is 160. You can see at the very top that average teacher salary is just under $105,000 and then all of the other associated payroll cost um that go towards that position. So, you know, that pension benefit at this time is is right up there with our uh that annual insurance contribution for staff. So um just something to reflect on especially is me we move towards bargaining really the only um places up there that have uh any influence at all would be uh in the salary and then also the insurance. All of those other components of this position are they're just

099driven by the a percentage to the dollar. All right. There was also a couple questions around unfunded mandates and valuation. Um I had a few resources here. I didn't go uh I didn't spend days and days and days. These were some of the lowerhanging fruits that I found um that could be easily shared with you and I'm sure it could be a a study unto itself. But we have our KOSA legislative reports and there are links there um to dig into those. But some of those longstanding rules that are are a challenge uh based on our funding funded situation are the division 22 requirements. I don't know if you've read through them thoroughly, but there's a lot in there. Um the free and appropriate uh education requirement is um also we we automatically lean into

100that. We don't question that when we're offering services to students. um participation in the uh public employee retirement system, which is a tremendous benefit for all of our staff members, but it is um uh quite expensive over time, has a lot of members uh already retired. And so it's the working population and employers today that are funding that system for the future. Um and providing our equitable access and instruction to our English learners and then student transportation and access. So, it's really critical that we provide student transportation um within the state of Oregon rules and that I do believe that's linked to division 22. There's so many more, but those are that's some res resources for you if you'd like to dig deeper. All right, let's talk about budget. Okay. Uh these budget principles were

101um kind of agreements that weren't in place last year and so we brought brought them forward again to you this year um to see if that's if they're still right on target for you guys. So we have providing students with an exceptional educational experience, ensuring their academic success should drive the budget process. So trying to keep that student uh experience uh front and center using data to make our decisions. Um be thoughtful about the cost effectiveness of the decisions that we're making. Um prioritizing the core program in all of our schools. Um re-examining patterns of spending. Making sure that we're not just automatically doing things the same way we've always done them. So there's a lot of assessment and evaluation that goes into that. providing every student with equable equitable access, of course, um taking

102that longer term perspective so that we're not at it every year that we're really trying to get to a a stable um system. And then be transparent, you know, coming out early and often, sharing the information that we have today, and if we don't have it today, letting you know when we might be able to bring that to you. Uh just to touch quickly on our reserve policy. So it's the goal of the board to fund and maintain a reserve in the general fund ranging from 5 to 10%. We are down to 5% as of the end of 2425. That's our budgeted amount for the current year and in all of our budget assumptions moving forward. We're striving to maintain that 5% at this time. And those reserves, they're onetime dollars. They should be seen

103as an emergency fund. All right, I think we're going to come back to this slide and I don't know how much time we're going to spend on this this evening, but um having an opportunity to share your insights and perspectives on uh where you think we have some opportunities to improve and also where we have some strengths that we need to um double down on. So, I think our teaching and learning um leaders have shared this with you before about our ideal student learning actions. I'm hoping this information looks familiar to you. Um this information has been shared across our systems and so as leaders of even operations departments, we can anchor back to these things and understand what we're doing and how that might impact that student learning action. All right. And just anchoring

104back to our continuous improvement plan. So this is um our kind of our beacons. Uh really our work has been focused on attendance, literacy, math, and nth grade success. And so uh as we move through this budget development cycle, it is going to be very challenging. And you're going to hear uh from so many passionate folks about so many other things that are amazing in PPS right now. um and and there's going to have to be some decisions made. So, I just wanted to anchor us all back to our continuous improvement plan goal areas. And with that, I think I'm going to go back one more. Okay. um offer if you guys are today want to discuss some goals or shared insights or um Chair Wang if you'd like prefer to do this more offline

105and have them collected in a form I'm happy to do that as well. >> Yeah. And I and I think I'll say as you all know uh there will be an active um budget discussion and when you all turn into the official uh official state of discussing um right the budget I think for we had this here just in case there were some things that you all wanted to bring up in this moment as we're continuing to work towards coming up with a list of proposed reductions and you know now understanding the current state if there were some words you wanted to offer. But we are looking forward to a more robust conversation in another uh few weeks too. >> I have a couple things on my mind if that's helpful to share. One thing

106is that I think I shared this when we were having the budget conversation for a few of you. You weren't um getting all the emails that we were getting in like March, April about the blended classes. So, blended grades, I assuming I assume we're going to need to do more of that where you have, you know, second and third graders group together or whatever. Um, and I shared the perspective at our school where everybody hated the idea and then in practice everybody was like okay with it. Um, and it worked out fine. Um, and you know, we group teachers appropriately or the teachers and it's like they thought through who was going to be in which class and it all kind of worked out seemingly just fine. um when I was the PTA president, people

107were freaking out about it and then I never heard anything about it after it was actually happening. Um, and I I wonder um if it might be helpful to like h have a I don't know hear from folks on the street about how it's gone um to make that transition or something just might be helpful as part of our budget conversation like things that we've had to do to adjust to cuts already that we might have to do more of like how has it gone if we think that it's going okay or it's a strategy that's working. I don't know what other strategies we've employed that might be working out for us to talk about that maybe I mean class sizes are one we hear a ton about the blends we hear a ton about

108losing teachers from schools um you know my school we lost all of our teachers years ago at this point so we're kind of used to it and have lower enrollment now but um but I think um for those schools that haven't had the experience yet or whatever. So, I just think it might be good to do some stories about like how it's been to adjust. And it might be that we hear it's going terribly, but I still feel like it might be helpful for us to have that a little bit of a more qualitative side, a human side, if you will, to the numbers. Um, yeah, ahead of of having these tough conversations. Just just a thought. Um, and I'll just say that from my perspective, and I think I don't want to speak for

109everyone, but I kind of think we might all agree that trying to keep, you know, our teachers and and um educational assistants and pair educators, um, you know, those are the kids, the people that are working most closely with students. You know, I would just say that I want to see us do everything we can to keep as many of those as possible, but also understanding that personnel is what cost money and most of our personnel are directly student facing. So, >> um the the one question I have probably as as it comes up during the budget discussion is just um it would I think it would help to have Also just an understanding what the future impact of some of these cuts are like especially if we're looking at central office cuts. One of

110the concerns that was um you know I think we're living in that reality right now is that any cuts is going to come with future costs whether that be monetary or services not performed and and things like that or increase actually the potential cost in the future for things that are not getting done today. Um so I I think it would be helpful to have you know when possible is you know the the um future impacts. >> That would be my comment as well is to understand what the trade-offs are and also I like that slide that had kind of a north star. We need to ask ourselves you know the attendance the literacy the math and the nth grade success. Yes. that with each difficult decision are we addressing one of these you know

111four values or four things that help us improve overall. Um so yeah I'm I mean this is going to be my third discussion that we're cutting lots and lots of budget and I have felt the impact of not having central office staff that we used to get things twice as fast and things are half as half as fast now. Um I've just noticed it over time. So, I'm looking to more of that probably next year and really wanting us to focus on what matters for the kids, that's the studentf facing positions as much as possible. Um, just one comment and I think I could tie it to attendance and probably literary and math um, as a result, but I think for me um, the early start time of our elementary schools I think is really

112affecting especially the kids who don't have a lot of support at home to get breakfast into them, get them to school, all those kinds of things. I think it's affecting our kids. I think it's affecting the front office of the elementary schools that are letting kids in probably the first hour of school and then those kids are then disrupting the classrooms as they go in because they're a new kid coming in. Um I don't think it's great. I know it's not great for working families to have our elementary schools ending so early because they're looking for after school care. And so I think if we're tying things back to our district improvement plan and I've been emailing with Dr. Armstrong a little bit too. I wonder if we can look at um whether there were

113some marked declines I think in some attendance at some schools and if we can link it to these early start times because I am hearing from a lot of parents districtwide that it's really hard to get their kids out of bed and so it's really hard to get them to school on time and so it's really hard to so I I don't know I guess um that would be something for me to figure out what we can massage to allow our elementary schools to go back to starting a little bit later that is more conducive to learning and more conducive to the kids and the teachers and the parents and everything. Yeah, that's just >> Would the school day shorten all or would it be like start an hour later and extend an hour? >>

114Yeah. Because it used I mean at least some of the there was it used to be that there was all stagger times and some elementary schools started a full hour late. And so I'm curious from just looking at the developing brains and the sleep they need and the the darkness at this time of year how hard it is for me to get up. I I just wonder how it's affecting our attendance, our literacy, our math if kids are coming in during math which is first. So it would be interesting for me to >> start having that conversation. >> I just want to say something really quickly. In the past when we had our conversation about outdoor school, I mentioned um that I think that the that at this point, I mean, we're about to cross,

115you know, if we go through with the five $50 million cut, we're about to cross a $100 million worth of cuts in just three years, right? Um uh which is which is a lot. And so the idea, you know, of student facing cuts, you know, seems a bit like it feels like again like we need all our people at the district like every cut is, you know, is going to be is going to be student facing. It's just about degrees of separation, you know. Um, and so again, it's it's a really hard situation to be in. And again, entirely the state legislator's fault. So, their emails are public. I guess maybe it's worth just quickly throwing out there that um I've seen some like advocacy from various parties that do education related advocacy. I admit

116I have not been paying as much attention as I was before, but um there's seems to be like a strategy developing and I don't know what our role is in supporting that strategy where most education groups seem to be encouraging um avoiding cuts to schools this during the February session. Just to remind everybody, I think it's very much on the table for there to be a cut so that we would be cutting even more than $50 million from our budget. Um, and so, um, I just want to remind us very inarticulately that we need to figure out how to lean in and, um, be part of fighting against cuts during the February session to education. I think my only remark is that I can't um when I when I think about uh this fall and

117the emails that we received about class sizes across the district, we we're pushing this boulder uphill of um trying to improve student outcomes while we have these really large class sizes and we're hearing from students and their families amilies and their teachers. Um the the struggle it is for kids to get what they need. So I don't I don't even know. I don't even know. It's really discouraging. >> Thank you for the candy canes. >> Been crunching on our welcome. >> All right. So here's just a little bit on budget engagement. So as a leadership team, we just haven't stopped talking about budget. I'm not always popular every day because it's it's a lot for people. There's a lot of emotion and a lot of passion around all the work that we do. Um so

118we have uh we're undergoing an academic program review which involves principles and school staffing. Um and so that will inform uh the information that we bring forward to you in January. We're doing some central office benchmarking again, just kind of checking in, see how we're doing, um, in terms of comparisons with other districts, um, performance levels, uh, performance indicators, things like that. Also trying to make sure that our union partners are fully informed. So, we are currently in negotiations with uh ATU and DCU and so trying to bring some financial information forward to them about our district's uh state of um the budget so that they're they're just informed, they're getting the same messaging. And so, uh as as we all know, those negotiations can really uh impact our future projections and our position um

119financially. So for community awareness, we have a transparency website. We talked about the little videos that are going out there. Um and then as we bring forward information to the community uh in January, our principles will be um provided a toolkit because we know that they are the key communicators for their school community. Um we'll be there to support them as well. um offering to hold time with their staff or uh parent groups or or what have you, but we're going to make sure that they have clear communication tools around this topic as well. So, all right, I can take questions tonight. You guys know where to find me. And I do want to offer if there is an opportunity or something that you're wondering about and I know that director Split as soon as

120she uh made it to the board, she reached out to me to just get a better understanding of not just school finance basics but like Portland public schools position around revenue and our expenditures. Um so I really appreciate that and I'll offer that to anybody at any time. >> Thank you. >> Great. Great. >> Thank you, Chief Morrison. >> Thank you. >> I'm really appreciating the monthly reports, too. Like, we're such pros. I just love it. Yeah. So, great. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, next up, uh, we have an update on boys volleyball. Director, you want to >> Yeah. start us off? >> Thank you. This was a request by two of our directors and I know there's been lots of conversation and I'm excited to bring senior chief John Franco and senior director Marshall

121Haskins for to talk about boys volleyball. >> Super chief. Sorry. Um >> super chief to you. >> I couldn't let that one slide with Christina. Uh thank you Dr. Armstrong. uh directors and student director. So before we kind of open it up for uh questions, we know that this is a topic. Um we're happy to engage in a level of conversation. Um so both Marshall and I are here to answer any questions uh that you may have. I think before we get started, I do want to highlight a few pieces which um I've stated in person to a few of you and in uh reflected in in some memos that I sent ear earlier and then also reiterated during um a board meeting. Um first I just want to again reiterate that this is not

122a question of want. There are over 80 5A 6A teams in the state of Oregon and less than 30 have signed up with OSAA. Um that includes the four Hillsboro schools that have just they were initially were on the list but they dropped out uh and that was just recently. The remainder of the schools not competing as a part of OSAA are in the same predicament as we are and that is due to financial constraints. There's also some confusion about the definition of a club. Uh, and that club sports are permitted to sign up for OSAA. Club sports, and I just want to make sure that that we're on the same page here in terms of the definition. Club sports are entirely outside of PPS's control. Club sports can hire their own coaches. They do

123not need to follow academic eligibility rules. Club teams cannot themselves sign up to be a part of OSAA. as a district, we would sign up um for and therefore sponsor teams to be a part of OSAA and as soon as that happens, the team no longer is a club team, they are our responsibility. Um even if we are not funding it and I think there is a little bit of confusion from that end. Uh last year we did have club teams sign up for OSA and proceed to act as a club because boys volleyball was not an official OSAA sanctioned sport and it was in an emerging year. Uh this has obviously changed the requirements given now that they are OSA sanctioned. This means transportation, trainers, dedicated practice times, full game schedules, banquetss, letters, PIO

124level coach clearance, athletic director support are all things that we do uh with our OSAA sanctioned teams. There's also disagreement from some community members that the cost isn't the cost. Uh we stand by the cost needed to effectively run an OSAA program. And I want to say that clearly is that it's not just a team, it's a program uh that we strive uh to build. There are things sure that we could take out, but bottom line, we would still incur a cost in a time of immense budget reductions where we would be reducing athletic programming and staff. There's also a question regarding fundraising. Can individual schools fund raise is a question that continues to be brought up. uh we do not support individual schools fundraising because it is an equity issue. There is a question

125whether or not we will support groups if they can fund raise for all teams. I would say in theory this sounds great but the concern still exists that fundraising is an unstable resource. We don't want to get into a place is actually a huge fear of mine. We don't want to get into a place where we bring on a sport and then have to cut it the following year. Also fundraising needs to be able to support a program and not just one team. OSA sponsored programs are open to all students of interest. As a district, when we offer it is when we offer an OSA sanctioned sport, it is open to all students eligible for that sport. If 45 students want to participate, then we offer three teams. The proposal is fundraising for one team

126only. We don't support excluding excluding eligible students because the school can't fund raise enough money for multiple teams. If we were to approve this, if we were to approve this and fundraising is the mode of funding, schools would also need to agree that any amount not picked up by fundraising would be the school's responsibility to incur. And in a time where school consolidated budgets will be decreased, again, um we're heading towards some very tough decisions in regards to budget. So, I do want to reiterate that we support of course as many opportunities for our kids. There's no question that boys volleyball belongs. However, adding it is adding it is like adding another floor to a building without reinforcing the structure first. And unfortunately, there are many difficult bud budget decisions headed our way. Michelle talked

127so eloquently about that and it would not be physical fiscally responsible to add OSA boys volleyball at this time. the club rate, the club route uh is the best route at this point in time. Now, with all that being said, we've been brainstorming some pieces. Uh we did have a very good meeting with uh Patrick Gibson uh and we are committed to helping coordinate club teams from across the metro area, even potentially across the state, so that our kids can have consistent opportunities to play and compete with other schools. For example, Tiger Tiger Schools, Hillsboro schools, Beaverton schools, Clakamus schools. They're all examples of districts who have not opted into OSAA, but who have school club teams. Our plan moving forward is to reach out to these districts and to help coordinate a a season

128uh a volleyball season for our kids. And with that, I will turn it back to Dr. Armstrong, unless Marshall, you have anything. Okay, >> I think open for for questions. >> If I could Sorry, I just want to read it really clearly because I got to be part of this meeting with with Patrick Gibson who >> he said you didn't have a title. So, I'm going to give him a title. Director Coach Patrick Gibson um who's the person who organized a lot of the um boys volleyball. Uh, one of the one of the things I think that really came out in terms of like I I really thankful for both of you for being there uh for helping. I think the focus was on problem solving and I think we're we're getting to a place.

129So the I'm just kind of clarifying that the solution that we were work or sorry no we you all uh were talking about I just want to read it where you just said really at last is that um volleyball can continue as a club and when we look at 6A 5A teams are more teams to play. PPS is willing to help coordinate with other districts in order to keep this league style play and and um competition with other districts. And I think I think that was a big thing. One of the I think one of the one of the concerns is that because it's an OSAA and just reiterating some of the things that we heard is that you know people might be upset that there's not a um you know can't compete in the

130OSA championship but there was some brainstorming going about how to create something similar equivalent on the club realm right and then um so I think there's there's a lot of potential solutions I want to just highlight that I think it We had um you sorry had some great progress in that that conversation. So thank you. >> Yeah, it was a really good um as I mentioned I thought it was a really good conversation and and currently if we think about I think we identified 17 teams who are not currently who had club teams last year or the past few years who are currently not registered with OSAA. So obviously our first mode of business is to kind of reach out to to those districts and and to those schools and to see where they're at

131from a club perspective and and see if we can help coordinate uh again some opportunities for our kids to play and compete and that's um and that's what we want. >> Director Lefort, >> so thank you so much for um providing this memo and following up with Patrick. Um, I had the opportunity to meet with uh Grant last week. Their student leadership um invited me to come talk about um numerous issues affecting students and part of that was meeting with a coach and the volleyball team and um they were distraught and there was a lot of confusion. They did not even know that they could um they were going to have the opportunity to pursue this club route. There was uh it sounds like there was uh some communication breakdown. It sounds like not from

132you because the club's different. They're supposed to be doing their own thing. So, I just want to say that I really appreciate that you are helping these teams coordinate and coordinate a schedule. Um, I know they're going to be really excited um to hear that. So, um I wanted to ask when sports are added um by OSAA, do we have any sort of process to reassess the sports that we are offering? Um, do we go back and take a look at that to see if there's anything that, you know, I don't know how to say it, like doesn't have as much draw anymore? Like at what point would we look and see if boys volleyball and potentially girls play football might be a better fit for our students right now? >> So, we actually assess

133every every year. Um, we offer all OSA sports at all of our schools and student interest drives that. So, for example, you have some schools who might not have softball. It's because there's not enough girls who want to play softball, but we still offer it until they don't have enough numbers. So, if we were to add another sport, girls flag football or boys volleyball, uh we would hopefully have a time to budget for it so that we would still be able to offer it across the system. What happened in this particular case is it was it was approved midyear. So, it was approved in October. Our budgets are made in April from the previous years. You know, we're going through. So, there was no way to plan for what it would look like. Uh I

134think Dr. Franco has shared with you that in the past three years, you guys have cut 500,000 from athletics each year for the past three years. So, even thinking about adding something would be taking something away. and it's harder to take say um the third team at Grant Soccer away to add girls flag football. That's not going to fly, right? So, we'd have to figure out how to budget for it. Offering everything that we can offer and then after each season when we didn't offer something we can maybe go, okay, maybe there's something else could be paid for in the spring because we didn't offer something in the fall. >> It's a great segue to my my last point. Um I just this is more for my colleagues up here. You know our current athletic

135budget is already way upside down. The PIL Foundation fills in I think is it at least a million and a half of our current budget is paid for by the PIL Foundation which is a completely separate entity. So as we go into budgeting I just do think you know in terms of our overall student experience sometimes I feel like people look at those areas and think like oh that's an easy place to cut. It's not. They're already grossly underfunded. So, I just want to keep that in mind as we start looking at numbers and um and students who want to participate and just the overall um you know school climate experience that we have for our high schoolers. It's really important. So, um just keep that in mind. >> Um I have a question. So,

136the memo talks about we're going to be potentially reducing about $400,000 and so where where do we you know if we add boys volleyball, which it sounds like we're not going to fund it, right? that we're going to encourage collaboration elsewhere. I was just wondering what are we going to what are we losing for for that $400,000 >> in the current plan. We wouldn't be losing anything because they would be funded as a club >> current how they're currently funded now. We're just creating opportunity because clearly there's 17 teams that literally if we don't do this they're not going to play right. So they're able to to I'm going call it sho stringing their budgets together on their own to create the opportunity. The question will be as we look to budgeting for next year,

137right? Yes. When we get look to make cuts is going to be, wow, is it just going to be us in this predicament, which I know it isn't. I think we gonna have to look across the state to see how everyone else is doing that because if we fund it and no one else is having it because they got to cut it or more teams see that the club routes the route to go, it could be it could go either direction and we just going to have to play that through this spring to see what happens. >> Excellent. Thank you. Y got your >> um I have a question and I you know honestly maybe this is a simultaneous request for at some point to learn more about how how and at what rate and

138how athletics funding and athletics works because I think I'm a little ignorant maybe a lot ignorant but I guess my question is designed entirely to make middle school parents around the city hate me but how much do we spend on sports on on athletics for kids in like that aren't in high school, I guess. Does that make sense? >> Like if we're looking at making cuts or changes, like is the answer to boys volleyball maybe not cutting a high school sport, but is it maybe cutting third grade soccer somewhere? I I don't know what we pay for. >> So, I I I would welcome the opportunity, director Split, to um come and educate the board on athletic funding. I think that one of the nuances is the thought is that if we cut middle school

139sports, then we'd have more for high school. Well, truly we don't get enough money for high school. A lot a lot of our funding fundraising is to cover middle school and part of that are middle school fees. So, if we cut middle school, we lose those fees also. So, but so I do think the the the opportunity to educate so then everybody's on the same page and then clearly I could then ask you to give us money too because you would see our need. We'll do that. >> And I and I'll also say too, our middle school, like we're very unique in that we offer a comprehensive middle school athletic program, which as if you go to other districts, it is entirely recreation, right? And what our high school principles would say is that middle

140school sports, just the kids that opportunities to play in middle school and directly tied to to high schools in terms of feeders has built up the the level of engagement, right? When and that's what you need ultimately for a great comprehensive athletics program is you need kids. You need kids to experience it and then uh increases the motivation to want to play in high school. And so I think our numbers overarchingly have been better than they ever have been I would say since Marshall and his team and since that inclusion of the middle school PIL program. Um it's it it's been significant. >> Marshall, is it fair to say that the foundation is basically funding the middle school sports program? >> Um I wouldn't say that because I so like I would I'm ballparking some

141numbers. I think our number this year was 8.2 2 million in general fund. So next year, let's say we'll cut that to 7.7 with the $500,000 cut. Well, when we just say salaries for our coaches is $5 million. You add in the two or 3% for PA, let's say 3% for PAT, that's 150 off the top right there. Um, our trainers are almost a million dollars. Our transportation is 1.5 million. Well, those three numbers alone are already greater than the than the number we have. So part of our fundraising is stability of high school and then the rest then go towards towards middle school. I just want to share one one other thing that kind of came out of that conversation that I thought was actually a big plus for staying club is that um

142keeping the club status for at least for the near future may actually help grow the program because it from what it sounds like there's a lot of schools that maybe may not have enough students to fulfill a full team if you're OSAA there's really strict rules for how to do that. Um there's some high schools that actually collaborate with other high schools to fill a full team. Um and not only that, but like um going straight to OSA status would mean that's a high higher barrier for entry for especially a lot of communities and school communities. And so there in terms of like looking into the future and trying to grow boys volleyball, it it also seems more prudent also to stay the club route for now. Yeah, I think that other club sports, lacrosse,

143um water polo, um rug, uh girls rugby are all facing the dilemma. Do we want to become an OSA sport? And when they get to the rubber meet the road to make the decision, they go, "Wow, we like our flexibility." Right. We have some lacrosse teams who travel the country, right? You can't do that with OSAA because they have a very strict window that you participate. We have like you said some schools that collaborate grant lacrosse has I think some Franklin and some McDaniel kids can't do that anymore. I think the other question I I want to add one other thing for uh director split's question is the biggest piece of our middle school program is our equitable access. Grant to be honest Grant Lincoln they can do middle school sports wouldn't be a problem.

144The other schools when I got here we just file didn't have them. Kids just didn't have the opportunities. I think there's some sports we wish we could do a better job of and I think based on uh the ability to spend a little more time fundraising. I think we'll be able to create more opportunities for kids whether it's club or OSAA. I think kids being involved helps with academics period because they have another positive adult blah blah blah blah blah. So we want to have as many opportunities as we can. >> Great. I think thank you team and I will say um I appreciate the presentation and and the question and I know one of the things for us that that we talk about and wonder about is that if we were to look at

14550 million and we know that like there's uh salaries on a on a spectrum right can go in a variety of places but if we look at data from last year and imagine this year we know that we're talking with the 50 million um at least at least 200 FTE reductions across central office and schools. It's going to mean programs. It's going to mean services. It's going to mean changing the way that uh we do business in some ways. Um not all the ways, but in some ways. And I know for us, and this isn't um and it's not an item to discuss now, but it I it'll be something that I'll be checking in with each of you about. And so as a collective, you know, as this team as we bring forth items

146or as you hear things like I it's it's a it's a little overwhelming to think of all of the things that we're going to hear over the next five months which won't I mean obviously there are going to be folks advocating and we want to hear them and you know many times we'll go back to the drawing board and uh make other decisions but I think it'll be helpful to know like from you all even through this process with the memos and the presentation and a work session like what is that um what's going to work best right so that we can start planning now for January and February is it maybe more work sessions or is it an opportunity like um coach Haskins has said about you know pulling together teams to just learn

147from certain departments to hear what the budget outtake is so I'm not looking for answers now but I'm just saying that like I really want us to be um all on the same page about or actually I think I just need to know what you all want to know from us so that when we bring forth an item um it is comprehensive and meets all of your needs to do the business of the board which is a pretty big one when it comes to adopting the budget in June. So, just just know that that's a question that I'm going to ask you. I'll ask publicly in this board meeting and then I'll ask you in our one-on- ones and maybe even some small group meetings so that we can hit the mark and you know

148maybe deliver the information that you all asked for the first time that's comprehensive enough so that we can then move to the next thing. So, you thank you. >> Thank you. Really appreciate the all the work. All right. Um, next up we have uh the Jefferson High School review of the academic programming. Uh, today we have a chance to review the plan for our academic programming at Jefferson High School. I believe that um some of this was also talked about and well most the brunt of it was discussed during our teaching learning enrollment committee. Was it last week? Correct. And um uh we also the board held listening session at Jefferson High School to hear the feedback on the superintendent's recommendation to bring forward option C. Uh we provided uh o opportunities for anyone who

149wanted to provide comments either in person or virtually to do so. Uh one comment that keeps coming up is that there's a very strong desire to make sure that Jefferson students have a robust academic program available to them. Uh, and tonight we'll have a chance to hear that plan and ask some questions. So, I'll hand that over to Dr. >> Perfect. Yeah, I'm gonna love to bring the team up. I think as you know you've received the documentation on the recommendation which still stands at scenario C and and here's an opportunity to hear about the academic program and maybe other things will surface that has come up and we just want you to be informed and use this time to ask any questions uh that you may have because we know that we have a

150decision to make in less than three weeks and we we want you to be informed. So with that I I'm calling up the team. Uh thank you team. So, good evening, uh, board of directors, student representative, uh, Reto, and Superintendent Armstrong. Um, my name is Margaret Calbertt. I'm the assistant superintendent of school planning and modernization. Tonight is the sixth time we are sharing information with you regarding the sun setting of Jefferson dual assignment zone prior to the board vote in January. The recommendation provides a path uh to grow and stabilize enrollment at Jefferson High School, restoring it to a vibrant, high demand school rooted in community culture and excellence while also sustaining robust programming at the neighboring high schools. Sunsetting uh the Jefferson Da dual assignment zone will ensure comparable access, enrollment clarity, and long-term

151stability for students in schools across northnortheast Portland. This recommendation demonstrates our commitment to providing students, particularly students who have been historically underserved, well-resourced learning environments close to where they live. We will focus our comments this evening on the timeline, process, and framework for expanding the academic and athletic offerings at Jefferson, providing a path to transform it from a focus option to a comprehensive high school. I'd like to point out two supports that are included in the superintendent's recommendation. an investment of at least two FTE during the phase in years starting in the fall of 2026 to to expand uh academic programming. Um and that would end in the spring of 2030. Uh along with a budget for training and staff development for additional programs. Please hold your questions until the presentation when we look forward

152to a robust discussion. I also want to uh acknowledge that I'm here um and joined by senior director Philipe Tristitch and Marshall Haskins as well as principal Drake Shelton. At this time I'll turn this over to um Dr. Hitch and uh we'll go through the presentation. It is an encore performance as you heard from the teaching learning and enrollment committee meeting last week. >> Good evening board directors, superintendent Armstrong. Uh my name is Phyich. I'm proud to serve as the senior director for secondary uh academics and I'm pleased to be here today to share our initial ideas for expanding academic programming at Jefferson High School. What we'll be presenting today uh reflects early concepts. Uh we will continue our deep engagement with uh students, families, staff, alumni, and community partners to shape a shared vision

153for Jefferson's academic future. Jefferson has a long and proud history of academic success and community partnership. Last year, 85% of Jefferson's graduates earned three or more advanced credits, well above the district average, and the school's graduation rate exceeds both the district and the state. This strong foundation gives us the opportunity to build on what's already working and expand access to rigorous, engaging learning experiences for all our students. Beginning in 2026, Jefferson will undergo a major modernization. At the same time, PPS is considering the sun setting of the dual ensignment, which will stabilize enrollment and allow Jefferson to operate as a comprehensive neighborhood high school. These two forces, modernization and the suns setting of dual enrollment create the conditions for Jefferson not only to match what other high school comprehensive high schools offer but to expand

154beyond it. I can go to the next slide. So this slide highlights the four core pillars supporting this emerging academic vision for Jefferson High School. Each pillar is rooted in Jefferson's identity, its arts legacy, history of partnership, and success with dual credit while preparing students for future opportunities. First, our aim is to offer a coherent sequenced college preparatory experience beginning in nth grade. Instead of simply adding AP courses or advanced placement courses, we want to build a pathway that prepares and ensures that all students are ready for college level work. This may include a universal pre-AP experience in ninth grade. Uh potentially AP seminar, AP human geography, or AP African-American studies as the core 10th grade option. and a robust menu of AP and dual credit courses in 11th and 12th grade. We're also exploring

155senior capstone experiences on the PCC campus to support a smooth transition into post-secary learning. The modernization also presents an opportunity to design CT pathways that are aligned to Oregon's high wage, high growth, and high innovation sectors. pathways will be co-designed with educators, students, industry partners, and uh higher education institutions to ensure coursework reflects real skill and real opportunities. Our goal here is to prepare to prepare Jefferson students not only for jobs, but to be innovators, problem solvers, and contributors to Oregon's future workforce. As we all know, Jefferson's arts legacy is one of the strongest in PPS, and we have opportunity to build a visual and performing arts program that honors this history while expanding into contemporary creative fields alongside dance, music, theater, and visual arts. We're also exploring technical theater, audio engineering, media arts and

156film, costume and apparel design, or digital media or digital design. These areas align with Portland's creative economy and with post-secary programs at PCC, PSU, and uh PNCA. And last but not least, I want to mention that we're also focused on developing a partnerup supported learning ecosystem. Jefferson has long-standing partnerships with PCC, PSU, OHSU, SEI, and other community-based organizations. The opportunity now is to move from multiple individual partnerships to a coordinated learning ecosystem. This approach positions Jefferson not only as a school with strong partnerships, but as a regional hub where students move seamlessly between school, college, community organizations, and industry. We can go to the next slide. Um, we've already heard a great deal from students, families, and staff leading up to this point. The slide outlines some uh the next phase of engagement and planning

157running through December of 20 uh running from December of 25 to summer of 26. Our engagement in this next phase uh will focus on uh student focus groups and feedback sessions, staff engagement through the instructional leadership team and departments and all staff meetings. Um family engagement through PTSA and site council as well as collaboration with our partners. And then in the following phase next year, our engagement priorities will include ensuring that families understand new offerings and supports. We're providing clear communication to students about pathway options, and that we're clarifying partner roles for mentorships, internships, and dual credit opportunities. In January of 27, we will begin forecasting for the 2728 school year. By that point, students and families will have a clear understanding of available APCTE, visual and performing art and elective options. So, uh I'll

158close by saying that Jefferson has always been a place where excellence and possibility uh live side by side. As we move into this next chapter, we have the chance to honor that history while designing new opportunities worthy of the students who will walk and who are walking through Jefferson's doors uh in the years ahead. Thank you for being part of this journey and uh we're happy to answer questions. >> And I just want to pepper in a couple of things as I wasn't uh at the first presentation. I appreciate partnership and I just want to let the board know that uh Deborah Kapori and I had an opportunity or actually no I'm sorry I think it was Christina Howard and I had the opportunity to go to OHSU and meet with the directors of a

159program that's dedicated to diversifying the field of medicine and we were hearing about their students and their relationship with Jefferson and hearing about the folks who have graduated from medical school and those who are applying ing for um premed and it was an amazing opportunity to hear and I think when we talk about partnerships I get sometimes it comes up as like maybe letters or words or maybe something that we have loose connection but like meeting the uh students who you know are steps away from being medical doctors coming through a Jefferson pathway through the partnership with OHSU was pretty significant. And the other thing that I want to say is that I appreciate the engagement and for the board I just want you to know that um we are a district that believes firmly

160in schedules that are driven by students and student interests. Most master schedules should be. And so I know that there has been lots of talk about like what is this academic program? Tell us the classes. And if we were to do that then we're a district driven student schedule and not a student built one. And you always want to be in a high school where the student schedule is driven by student interest. And that's why that engagement is so important over the next year and a half because we want to build courses that our students actually want to take. And so I just needed to lift those two things up. It was a wonderful reflection of um what's happening at Jeff. So thank you. So, I would uh also like to invite uh senior director

161uh Marshall Haskins to talk a little bit about uh the uh high school athletics vision for Jefferson as we're looking forward and then to close with some recent work that Principal Shelton has been doing with staff and students at Jefferson. >> Well, I don't know if you guys know, but Jefferson has a nickname. It's called a school of champions because athletic program was phenomenal. Uh somebody on the DS someone up here coached a Jefferson uh and added to that school of champions and I believe that when we go back to a neighbor a normal neighborhood we will be back as a school of champions for sure. Um, as I spoke, >> I'm sorry. I just got to jump in because you're speaking in the past tense, but I remember a team that went to the

162girls basketball stage last year >> just a few short months ago. So, I mean, I'm just saying >> and we have some wrestlers and we have Yeah. I'm just saying >> we want to acknowledge those who who've come through and >> and despite us only being a poultry 400, >> it's like the movie the the 300s that was called we the 400 Jefferson and we're still having success. But obviously when we go back to a comprehensive, we're really excited to do two things. one to curb the inequity that has happened there for the past 15 years where we didn't have enough kids to have full programming and then it's kind of like the the tail wagging the dog. Do you not have enough programs? Well, we don't because we don't have enough kids. So, you

163know, you can't do that. So, I'm I'm a I'm excited to know that that will change. As relates to the high school programming, as I said before, we offer programmings based on student interests. We will offer all OSA sports there. To be honest, uh our athletic the number of kids who participate in athletics will go up because I'll use Grant as example because some of the kids are coming from there. We cut 60 to 70 girls soccer players every year. So just the fact that when you transition this, some of those kids will be the kids that will be saving kids. They'll come and then they'll have a full cadgery of girls soccer teams. and that I think of our nine schools, six of them actually have four soccer teams, not just three. So I

164anticipate in Jefferson being the same way on both the girls and the boy side as a result of that. So we'll offer a full program. The other thing that we're going to do is uh part of somebody I think somebody mentioned assessments. So, we're going to do an assessment of the current Jefferson athletic programming. And as we look at the seventh graders going from sixth, seventh, moving up, we're going to do some things to stand up those programs. So, right now, let's say uh baseball, you know, we have one team, barely enough for one team. So, we're going to go down and meet with the Riverside uh baseball program and start figure out how do we help them get excited about coming to Jefferson, understand what that'll mean, and then do whatever we can to

165help enough kids be able to play through those programs so they'll have a a normal transition high school freshman, then JV, and then varsity. And we're going to do that. We're going to look at all their sports and stand up as many as we need to to make sure the kids when they get there have a full opportunity. Thank you. Oh, and by the way, if you didn't know, I am a product of Jefferson, just to say that. >> Okay. >> So, whatever they say about it, I'm right here. So, there it is. >> All right. Um, so I guess I'm on here. Um, uh, good evening board members, uh, student representative, and, uh, Superintendent Armstrong. My name is Drake Shelton and I'm proud to serve as the principal of the Jefferson High School. I

166want to briefly ground this work and what is already happening on our campus as we prepare for increased enrollment and the return of students to their neighborhood school. For the past three years, we have been in ongoing conversations about our course catalog, specifically about expanding rigor and access, including advanced placement coursework. Throughout Jefferson is rising in sustained community listening, we have now moving from conversation to action. This year, AP expansion is being actively discussed and shaped through site council, PTSA, ILT, and full staff meetings like today. Our teachers have engaged in detailed comparison of Jefferson's offerings with Lincoln, Grant, McDaniel, and Roosevelt. That work quickly quickly identified CTE elective and core courses we can add to better match and strengthen comprehensive high school options across the district. As part of this preparation, we are finalizing

167an AP hybrid model that allows us to responsibly expand access while building staff capacity. That model will launch next year, ensuring our students are supported to achieve at high levels. Most importantly, this work is about readiness for students, families, and staff. As we prepare for this year's seventh graders to return to Jefferson as their neighborhood high school, we are intentionally building a program that reflects both community voice and student aspiration. As I close, Jefferson is not starting from scratch. We are aligning our system, strengthening our offerings, and moving deliberately toward a comprehensive, competitive academic program that honors our legacy and prepares us for growth. Thank you for your continued support for Jefferson High School. Thank you. >> Just before Thank you. And before we turn it over for discussion and questions, I just wanted to

168go back to the comment about the girls basketball team playing in the state championship game last year. How many of those athletes went off to D1 schools? >> Uh, two, three, >> three are playing >> three three are playing D1 and two of them are playing right now in community college starting. They actually all are just coming coming home and we we saw them today. They going to be at the game on Friday if you want to see them. >> But not just athletes academically prepared to compete at that school as well. Thank you. >> So of the six seniors, all six of them are in college. Uh, just five are playing basketball. The other one I think was a 4.0 student and she's just going to school. >> She's at UFO as the team

169manager for the girls basketball program. >> Okay. All right. So, Mighty and in and small numbers, but mighty. >> All right. Board questions. >> You have go ahead. Um, I don't have questions though. Is that okay? Or maybe there will be questions in my usual free whailing form here. Um, so thank you all so much. uh as a former middle school basketball player who didn't make the high school team and became a stat keeper. I love that she's having her her own way of continuing basketball. I can still keep stats really really well at girls basketball. Let me know if you ever need me. Um so I um just want to put out there um for all of us that were at the listening session um we were hearing a pretty strong refrain about having

170um an amendment to the resolution around C scenario C um that uh we have an amendment to ensure that kind of the dream that we're articulating here around athletics around academics but also around extracurricular activities um and just course offerings core and not core I guess um that we make sure that we not just plan for but actually implement to make sure that there's equitable offerings across the affected high schools in the situation. Um I'm seeing nodding heads. I think everyone's familiar with this argument at the listening session. I just wanted to let the board know that I worked with staff to have some an amendment like that potentially on on deck um for when we actually consider the resolution. It sounds to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that that might just be in

171the resolution to begin with um with a plan for making sure that we don't just plan for but also um evaluate and have regular reporting to the board. I've requested to that it have clear direction that we um I'm trying to think of how to put this that we communicate in a way that families will see about these chances to see how things are going. So for example right now we might just have something on a board agenda. I think we all know that the percentage of families who look at our board agendas is not what we might want it to be, but um so having sort of direct communication. So I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that I'm trying to make sure that we have what we need to sort of check

172that box um as we consider scenario C when the time comes. Um and I just want to put it out there that I think it's so important that we um continue that conversation. And I think I I don't know that this is what will be said, but maybe we could have like a, you know, handshake agreement as we talk about this next month. Um that we're looking at this through like 2035 or so. So we're not just looking at it through this initial transition, but also just giving a couple years on the other end to just um make sure that we're um hitting the targets, hitting our goals, and just regularly reporting on to and then there was another one too. In my mind, and I'm not sure that this is what will be in

173whatever we put forward, but in my mind, I'd like to see that it's academics, it's it's like course offerings, extracurriculars, athletics, but I also think having a plan for building the staff and then I know that you're going to be so excited to have all these new staff join you, but like how are you going to work to have those new staff integrated into the culture? And you know that was written up here um honoring the legacy while expanding opportunities like actually like living that. So we have new teachers coming on. How are they going to like be part of the culture of Jefferson? And I heard that a lot of the families that have been historically connected to Jefferson certainly have that concern of like how do we keep Jefferson Jefferson while also like

174or keep Jeff Jeff probably is what they would say while expanding um expanding the student body and really dramatically changing it. So, um I just want to make sure that we heard that and that we have the tools at our fingertips when we consider it to make sure that we um honor that request from those families. That's all. I I um I want to appreciate the presentation. I did not understand those statistics at first and I appreciate you talking about how great Jefferson is because we've heard a lot about what it isn't. Um I also went there, by the way. I just didn't I didn't graduate from there, but I went there as a co-op student um a long time ago. Um I want to um I I agree that we should do some monitoring.

175I I don't know for 10 years like it's we have to trust that it'll you know I I hope that it'll be good and you know by the time we open fully. Um I think the regular progress updates would be great. I think to monitor it and hold it to a different standard than some of our schools is um saying something about uh what our expectations are. Um I'm really excited to learn more. I've never, of course, as a non-educator been involved in the development of the programming. So, it's really interesting. I did have an opportunity to uh walk through the basement of the building and see the costume room and talk about what it might look like to have Well, we better have a costume room in the in the new school and the

176potential for partnering with some of our outdoor. We have we have a clothing and fashion industry here, believe it or not. We've got Nike headquartered, Adidas, Columbia Sportsear, Keen. um the the potential for our students that are not just theater students but to possibly um have a textiles program which is a very technical program. It's also design oriented. Um but to work and have industry partners that can come into our school and teach those kids about textiles which is a fabulous area of study. Um anyway, I'm excited about the potential. I think I have a lot of hope for Jefferson. I live in the Jeff Jefferson catchment and um I I have every intention of it being the most amazing uh school now and into the future and I hope to be at that basketball

177game on on Friday if anybody would like to join me. >> Yes. Let me know when you're coming. >> I'll let you know. I'll confirm tomorrow. >> Okay. I have many thoughts, some of which are questions. Um, number one, I love the stuff that's going on with the academic stuff. I mean, most kids are um are not going to have the same opportunity to, you know, define what Jefferson is going to be, you know. Um, so I think that's a really cool opportunity. Um, now that being said, um, the DS the DSC has not had our full discussion yet about Jefferson Rising. Um, we're our final vote is going to happen on the 13th. Um, so we're getting that done. We're doing um pretty robust community outreach um multip we've already inter um engaged with

178multiple student councils and our plan is to engage with all of them um by by the 13th um so and and get the the opinions of of you know the uh the people who are currently members of these high schools cuz because they have unique insights as well. Um now that being said um there's there's a few things that I'm looking at here that are interesting. Number one, um I've spent a lot of time looking at recently um Chief Joseph Elementary specifically um because um in the travel analysis um it's a it's a pretty small difference in terms of the travel time between Roosevelt High School and Jefferson High School. Um now again, I'm just going to preface this. I'm very very biased in this conversation. I am a member of the Roosevelt community um

179and I'm a student at Roosevelt, so I'm going to be biased in their direction, but this is something that I've been looking at. Um, now the the thing that came up when when I started looking at this because I asked some questions to Miss um, Calbertt about this um, and if you if you guys look at the documents provided, you can see in the Chief Joseph enrollment area that it's almost a square and there's a little bit that juts out um, right at Jefferson High School. And so my thought in regards to this conversation is, you know, where is the place because we're because later in this in the year we're going to start a broader conversation about right sizing. So where does where does right sizing have a place to play in this? Because

180we can say, you know, that this school goes to Jefferson and this elementary school goes to Jefferson and then we might change those elementary schools. I know there's been a lot lots of talks, you know, also in the grant area around like around Irvington and um and Sabin and you know combining those and those could have really massive impacts, you know, on all these projections. Um, and so I guess that's my thought is where is where is the the space for that com for that broader right sizing and boundary conversation in this conversation about Jefferson rising. >> So I appreciate the question um which I think came out it came out as a question as opposed to a statement. So couple of things. One is we are gonna embark on a right siz conversation. We

181are actually it starts with it goes back to uh uh director split's statement and process that chair Wong was involved with with Southeast Guiding Coalition. So we have done boundary adjustments recently. What we what we don't always do um uh consistently is share what those results look like, what does that look like from a students, families, educators perspective. So we will embark on that and start that process. Um as far as when when we set the frame initially for this conversation, we were clear um that this is around setting um dual the dual assignment which is a high school level decision and that we were going to um continue to look at and keep the uh elementary catchments and boundaries intact. As we look forward, we will we will end up in some conversations about

182what does that look like ultimately. Um but that is uh this is a first conversation that needs to happen around and it's specifically around dual assignment and um we will we will embark on the conversations. The goal will be um always to to be thoughtful about um are we how we are impacting uh specific school communities and to not do it multiple times successively as much as possible as we go through the process. So that is um that has been the frame. There's been a question about the DLI uh pathways as well. Same uh same thinking. We can't adjust everything in this just from this area. So we need to look at dual language immersion for example across the district and so that will be a next conversation. So this clarifies develops an attendance pattern

183and and flow of students that then will help us in those next conversations >> which which are scheduled to begin as early as February of this year as soon as we finish this and and that is also a community engagement process. So we do have a lot of work to do on our uh for our elementaryaries and medals. >> Okay. So I have I have a few more questions. So, well, and some some also some general thoughts. Again, number one, again, as a Roosevelt student, the the number that jumps out to me most on these uh on like the 2030 2031 um line here in terms of enrollment um is Roosevelt at 1153. Um you know, it's it's a low number um and it does put put us dangerously close um to going below, 1100.

184Um could you talk a little about about your confidence in these projections? you know, like like do you would you be surprised if these if these numbers differ by more than 50 students? >> So, anytime we do projections, the further out you go, the more variability you're going to see in the projection. So, what we did in the modeling was to provide as stable of a student population to model from as possible. So, we started with first graders and we modeled out through the full implementation. to go further than that as we're introducing error that I I'm not going to, you know, really uh uh we're just going to be cautious about that as you go out. What we are saying is that we're going to look at how are um what are the impacts

185over time. So, this goes again back to are we going to monitor annually and what does that look like? So, this is one this is one decision that we're going to make um or that we're asking the board to to take into consideration as we as we uh look into a series of decisions. What we know about um enrollment across the district is that um the high schools are have not seen the uh a declining enrollment as to yet as to uh in in the process. We also know that when we open modernized high schools, we uh welcome students back into the district. So, we've seen that at every school that we've modernized, uh that we've seen the school enrollment of those schools increase. So, as we go out, am I confident that we're going

186to be above 1100? We we know that we are going to have to watch uh both Roosevelt and Jefferson very closely because uh that is those are the two of the four schools that have um in this uh process and in the scenario that are going to be closest to 1100. So I think that um we're that as we look at that that we'll that that will be an ongoing process but our projections at this point you know give us a a sense of what that reality is across the four schools. And I think just to the earlier point about the next step in boundaries and uh consolidations and some of those things, we'll be able to begin discussing and presenting on that, looking at numbers and you know what happens in fall of 26,

187what happens in the fall of 27 um for the next groups going through. So it'll be a continued com. We're going to continue to talk about schools and boundaries probably for the next 12 to 18 months. >> Yes. Thank you. Um I think that's it for now, but I may have more questions later. Excellent. >> Can I ask a really quick question just related to to Ian or student representative Rorto? Um, how will we get the full download from your from the DSD after your meeting on the 12th 13th? >> Um, >> I don't know how that works. Do you know how that works? >> Yeah. So, I'm so uh it will be a regular board meeting. So, I'll have a student representatives report. Um, of course, it'll if you know since we're having that

188vote on the 13th, I won't have time to prepare a full statement. You know, I'll I'll write something up and then input whatever the result of the vote is. Um, so that so that's what we're going to do. We're gonna we're gonna get into our meeting. I think I don't know if we have other I think we're going to discuss other things in that meeting, but one of the things we're going to do is we're going to vote on Jefferson Rising. Um, we're we're either going to vote to um in favor of this of the superintendent's recommendation, in favor of another recommendation, or any number of ways. Um uh and then I'll come I'll come here and I'll say you know we engaged you know hundreds of students current students at these high schools and

189this is how the DSC voted. Um so that's that's what that's going to look like. I'll I'll share I keep getting the urge to share comments because we've been having this conversation actively and being like oh I heard a member say this and a member say this but I'm waiting until that final conversation so we can get the full picture so that everyone can present their most refined thoughts on on the matter. Um so yeah that's what that's going to look like. Thank you. >> Um before I call you Director Englesman, I I just want to ask like how long your questions are just only because we have public comment here and I don't want to keep them too long. So if you have long questions, I'll have them go first. Nope. You Thank you.

190Not just you, but for the rest of the board who haven't asked questions yet. >> Do you have a mouthful of candy cane? Thank you. >> So ask your questions. >> Um thank you for this presentation. As everyone is gathering, I like to ask a lot of questions. I like to get as much information about everything as possible. And so I've been calling in and listening to all of the committee meetings on which I'm not the on the committee. And so I got to call in while doing a thousand other things and listen to TLE last week. And I was really really impressed with this presentation because I think it hit on a lot of questions that I was hearing from community members um who are going to be Jeffersonbound regardless of what scenario was

191voted on. Um and specifically uh I mean I loved the I loved the um statistics at the beginning. It was really exciting. Um some of the community members had raised um good thoughts like if we're going to do this, we are doing this. Let's invest more into Jefferson to make sure it really works. And so I love hearing that at least two FTEEs are going to be put there as a way to say, "Yeah, we we believe in this. We're going to make this work. We're going to give you extra FTEEs than we would allocate elsewhere." So I loved hearing that in that presentation. again tonight. Um, as Director Split said, there were a lot of community members who were saying, "Look, please give us a timeline because they're they want their kids to have

192all of the academic options and all of the um extracurricular options and all of the sporting options that they would get at every other school. And so, I think that's the driving force behind this potential timeline of like putting it into a resolution because they just want to know that their kids are going to get it." And so I loved hearing this timeline that everybody is like very openly and viciferously talking about. Um I loved hearing that we're going to offer all OSAA sports because you know it's a way to engage kids and get kids. We heard these volleyball boys talking in October I think it was about how they were not finding community at school until they started playing volleyball and then they found community in volleyball. So then they found community in school.

193So it you know is this beautiful circle that we can do to lift up our students. Um, so I just, um, I asked to have this on here. I'm sure other people asked to have it on this agenda tonight instead of going through what we've gone through a few times because the points that you hit in this specific presentation answered a lot of questions that I was hearing and I wanted the community who may not watch TLE as much as they watch these meetings to hear these answers because I think they're great. I have one question. Oh, I have one question and then one comment. Um, I don't understand. I I know it's great for our students, the AP for all. Um, does that mean that only AP classes are are offered or I'm thinking

194about I took an AP math class and I bombed it. Um, and so I would hopefully have a regular math class that's not like it's not only AP, right? >> No. Okay. We would in the hybrid model there's there's the AP for all which is let's just say 10th grade English which would be like AP seminar. So instead of uh 10th grade English, all 10th graders would take AP seminar. That's the AP for all. But then it wouldn't next year they wouldn't have to take AP litter or lang. >> We can have dual credit, right? And so there's dual credit option and AP option. So you get both of that in the hybrid model. And I think one way to imagine it when you think of AP um which is college prep and then we

195also have dual enrollment. It's that at Jefferson High School we would be able to say and stand behind that every single one of our kiddos are graduating with a college transcript. >> Yeah. Yes. Yes. >> So I think there's two pieces and we we spent a little bit of time talking about this at TLE. So for those that heard it, we'll say it again. We'll replay. Um, part of what you're hearing is where are the chances for students to pursue interest in advanced placement classes and when is it the expectation that all students at a grade level are taking a class. So, I think when we say AP for all or dual credit for all or IB for all, what we're speaking to is that that is a grade level course that is being offered

196to all students. So currently at um at uh Jefferson junior language arts is reading and writing 115 with PCC. Senior uh language arts and government and econ is through is in partnership with PSU at Grant. Um junior level biology is uh dual credit with PCC and sophomore um is AP sophomore social studies is AP human geography. So there's that. So you build a program that gives students a trajectory of when we're asking and we're saying that we want it for all that we're providing access and support so students can successfully complete a class. And so you're going to be very thoughtful about how many of the classes are at a grade level that you're going to offer for all and then which are classes that students are going to pursue because of interest. >> Thank

197you. That's helpful. So the last two things I I know I said one but as a carry on to that one of the community member things that I heard was as part of the investment in Jefferson the extra FTS but the idea that we should and we could offer classes at a smaller number that if there were only 10 kids interested in AP Biology at Grant we wouldn't offer it at Grant because 10 is not enough. But the idea that at Jefferson in building this programming that if there are only 10 kids who are interested in AP biology, we offer it because next year there will be 15 and then next year will be 18. And so this idea of investment in the school is also extra FTEEs, but it's recognizing that to build a

198program we can offer things at a lower interest rate than we would at other schools to build interest. And then the last thing I will say um after that educator for a day and the debriefing with PAT there was a um there was a person a staff member in the room who was flagging and I just am flagging it in the event that I don't I don't have the information but just flagging that they had heard or they were looking at some of the building schematics andor design stuff about special ed and that the options and what's being offered for classroom sizes and room options at Jefferson is subpar that to other high schools. And maybe it's wrong, but this is something they were saying like there's a windowless room that's going to be used.

199>> And so I'm just flagging this to like let's make sure before we start building that our special ed options are going to be and maybe it's not right, but I just >> Yeah, I mean I I I meet with our sped team. Our sped team has been part of the modernization. Um uh they they've met with them. We had a new team that shifted in. So, all new sped team as of last year. Um, and so they've been working with Allison Adams, our our VP of modernization. Um, we've also had emails back and forth about because one of them came from Franklin and talked about some of the things that happened at Franklin's build to make sure it didn't happen with our build. Um, so, um, you you've met Mindy. Um, and so, so

200yeah, they they've they've been part of this. So I don't I don't I I've never heard that. So I don't know where that came from. >> Yeah. I don't doubt they weren't part of it. It was just something that I heard and because I wasn't part of it. I just wanted to bring it up and like let's make sure that it's that we're getting it right when we're starting to build it. Yeah, I know the same thing. It was it was a window windowless classroom was what was the the issue that was sli. We did um I asked this question at facilities when we got our introductory uh download on all three rebuilds um as to sped team's input and whether they were engaged and involved in the process because when I was looking at

201um I think it was Cleveland's there was something like to my untrained eye that it I had questions about looked wonky. Um, so did ask the question and the the answer was the same that Principal Shelton just gave was that the teams have been involved all along. So um I'm glad that we're asking these questions and paying attention to this and I'm very glad that our special educators are involved in the process. >> And I will um just share that part of my responsibilities are with the modernization team. So I get to cross over a couple spaces. So I get to see um and work with Jefferson, IDW Wells and Cleveland. And part of that is to see uh that where their learnings from each of the sites and then also to as if there

202are issues that are surface that we address it not only at one site but all three. And the one thing I just want to reemphasize because we know that, you know, there are families that will select Jeff uh this fall. And so we're I just want to make sure that the board knows that we already make a an investment to make sure that classes can function that are not at the thresholds that are at some of our comprehensive high school sites um because of the programming and we want students to uh be able to access particular courses or build pathways. So that isn't waiting until fall 27. That's now. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why I chose Jefferson for my niece, even though it's two bus rides away, is because of

203the small comprehensive environment, knowing that the classrooms are small and she can still have access to programming um that she needs as she works her way through high school. >> I remembered my questions. I promised they're quick. Um so number one, um so this is just for clarification. Uh this is for you, Superintendent Armstrong. What is uh is going to be the choice before the board on the 13th? Is it just to uh accept or deny the superintendent's proposal? Um or, you know, or if we choose to uh to to deny, can we say, can we do that in favor of another option? Or specifically, what courses of action are going to be in in front of us on the 13th? >> Yeah, that's a great question. um all of the um scenarios or scenarios

204depending on where you're from um are available for the board. I wanted to put the recommendation out to say like where are we at this point based on data um what we're hearing from families, what we're hearing from staff um and to make sure that we backed it with all the information that you all need to make a decision. And so um while the recommendation is a strong uh recommendation C it is the board's um purview to either accept the recommendation make you know different uh suggestions or to go with something completely different. think at the end of it what we know that what we really need to happen is the sun setting of um dual assignment so that we can have a comprehensive high school begin to emerge and if we're going to have

205a comprehensive high school we need to talk about the the boundaries and so yeah does that answer the question? >> Yes. >> Okay. Sorry that was a little wordy there. Okay. >> And my second question and this is I guess to anyone um is again back to the Chief Joe thing. You're going to hear me say this a lot. Um, but back to the Chief Joe thing, are there are there any options in front of us that would allow us to make that specifically that boundary a little bit more porous, especially in regards to some other scenarios like scenario B which put uh Jefferson at significantly more students? Like is there an option for us to make that specifically that Chief Joe uh boundary a little bit more poor to try and balance between the

206between both Jefferson and Roosevelt since they're both in concerning places? And I'm and I'm open to to any thoughts on that. I think that um the challenge with all of this is once once we make a decision at one site that it's going to impact all the other decisions, right? And so I think um when we're looking at uh every year we look at pieces around enrollment and what does that mean um at school sites and how are we go how do we go through an enrollment transfer cycle? Um I think the piece around um I don't entirely know what you mean by a porous about uh Chief Joe but I think that um what we have brought forward are that um are the uh proposals and scenarios that we've we've analyzed and once we

207go through and look at um anything that we adjust at one spot it's going to impact it all. So there's we did not look at any uh scenario that would have uh Chief Joe for example going to Roosevelt. >> Yeah. So my I guess an extension of my question there is like I guess are there you know like are there any any ways that that the district could um help you know uh balance between you know balance specifically the chief Joe enrollment between the two schools you know cuz I know that that currently we have like exceptions for like for example the band program you know but that requires both principles signing off you know and so I guess that's that's my question you can say no we don't have anything like that in the

208district. So there there there are petitions that happen every year then that is there's that's part of our regular process that can that can happen. Um so that is the families petition at times to uh attend a different school. So that option is still there. Um we have the the questions been asked a few times about like what does that mean? Um we have provided it it's in our FAQs and I'm happy to pull up the precise language for you. Um but that is it's part of our regular annual enrollment transfer process. It's what we're in the midst of right now. Actually the high school um lottery just closed I believe. Um so this is you know there are opportunities for some pieces. I would say um when we look at the enrollment across the

209northnortheast what is challenging is the further west you go we it is an is geographically isolated. So it's hard if you're saying are we balancing between Jefferson and Roosevelt in all the scenarios that is difficult because the the the it's you know the further west we go it's geographically isolated. So when we did the proximity maps and we looked at sort of where some of the where the schools are relative to each other other things like you know the fact that Peninsula um stood out as a school that was in between um Jefferson and Roosevelt and not close to either. Fabian is another example. So we're balancing a number of things. Um so I think that in overall that's um you know again once you start pulling on one string in the scenario it impacts

210all the other decisions >> and we know there's people out there that want us to look at those who live across the St. John's Bridge for example and uh what that can do to Roosevelt. So I think it's just like a snowball of um conversation that that needs to happen. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you. Um yeah, I think that that answers it. >> Dr. >> Um couple things. Um one is um it was a question and now it's more of a comment based on what I heard which is fantastic. Um I just was plan on re reiterating as you heard me say at TLE the importance of um equitable AP offerings um because without it there would be significant academic par across the high schools which we would um you know would become an

211issue immediately just having been in the high school system now for six years um you know dual credit works great for our instate colleges um some out of state colleges but AP if you're going to private out of state like it's the it's the gold standard. So, I'm really excited to hear that there's a meeting today and this is uh it sounds like everything that you're describing is what I've seen as a parent at Grant for six years. So, I find that very exciting. Um and uh student director RTO to follow up on what you're asking about boundaries. I've been pulling pulling on every string I can pull on too. Um and I was looking at, you know, sort of like, you know, where are the bodies looking at Roosevelt. I have to say I

212did a a fantastic tour with our student director at Roosevelt a couple weeks ago. I highly recommend it. he led the tour. It was fabulous seeing it through his eyes. Um but looking at the boundaries for um each for Roosevelt and for Jefferson um we have 260 students in the Jefferson boundary that are going to Benson and we have 216 Roosevelt students that are going to Benson. How was that factored into the numbers that we're seeing in scenarios B and C? Any changes? Do you expect it to be steady? you know, I see that I'm like, okay, the students are there. Um, how do we account for that? So, what we model and and we go through the process of um the progressions for students, what we look at is um the rates that students

213um make the transition from 8th to 9th grade, the Benson um so there are students that are in PPS that are in the catchments, but then end up at Benson. So we look historically at what those rates are and then when we look at eth and nth grade projections those are incorporated into those into that those rates for example um and I would say that you know when we look at Benson the the number the size and the number of students at Benson that is you know we we again we go that's a lottery process we do that annually and we look at the number of students that are going to Benson. So that has that again has stayed stable and and has been um constant as throughout through this process. Has there been any

214conversation, you know, I've uh read about this in other districts across the country where, you know, now that we have, you know, CTE spaces in all of our high schools and will in these three new high schools in any sort of I'm trying say like kind of 12 moves ahead, you know, sometimes in in potentially um you know, restructuring Benson in a way that the students would start at their neighborhood schools so that a school like Roosevelt would have you know, would be much closer to 1400. you know, Jefferson wouldn't be um uh teetering on, you know, 1,200 um but students would have the opportunity to um continue their pathway at Benson for say their junior or senior year like that those models exist. Have there been any conversations like that? >> So, we have

215had convers this was that was part of the high school redesign conversation in 2011 and 10. Um at that time, we made the decision as a district to uh have Benson be a focus option school. as we go through right sizing process and various other pieces um that the conversations around uh you know what does the high school system look like I think that is that is a systemwide conversation that is not unique to this particular question but certainly there going to be a number of things that we look at um but we have not explicitly recently um had a conversation around Benson being uh an intensive like a it's a skill center for examp I I just want say that when we think of the race that we're running, specifically me and my leadership

216team, that wouldn't be one of the races we're running, seeing as the school is just in the space of building and increasing enrollment. So, they're they're building up as they go. And I I know not just Roosevelt and Jefferson, but you know, there's a tremendous uh amount of students from all of the comprehensives that uh seek a program like Benson, but you know, enrollment was capped. If enrollment wasn't capped, I'm sure that there would be probably a significant amount of um more students there. I guess it's built for 1700, but what 900 now? I think last somewhere around there. Anyway, beside the point, but I would say that that definitely could be a conversation uh for another team at another time. Our our focus is on the three high schools. I I don't know any

217other polite way to say that. >> Message received. >> You don't have it right now. I don't understand. >> Well, also there's an industry, you know, the trades are suffering right now, plumbing, electrical that are good, you know, union jobs. >> Um, and they they they need they need trades people. So, Benson does a great job of turning out um trades people, premed, dental, >> and we just finished it like a year ago, I think, two years ago now. >> So, yeah, it's a great I love I love Benson, by the way. So anyway, thank you. Maybe maybe we'll run that race another time. >> We just have a lot of we have 50 elementary schools that we need. We have dual DLI conversations that we have to have. We have middle schools that we

218have K8s, we have 68s, and I mean there's a lot of conversation about our future outlook with elementaryaries and middles and where we can optimize programs for our students and families. And so that that conversation is going to be a lengthy and long one. Once all that's done and if there's a conversation on getting back to high school redesign and re-imagining those programs, I'm sure that there will be some enthusiastic interest from a team >> to take up. >> I'm also hope you know director split mentioned the funding you know challenges coming up probably through did you say 2031. So um >> stabilize at a lower number. So that's I hopefully a conversation that we can sort of marry the resources with what we have on the ground here >> um at some point. >>

219And I would I the one piece that I just would add is that you know part of this is going to be a series of conversations and I appreciate Dr. Armstrong saying that this is going to be potentially the next 12 to 18 months that this is this is one of right this is one of many and I think that um that the there are two commitments I think one is that we're going to engage on on a regular basis and we're going to try to get into a rhythm of what that looks like over the next 18 months and two we're going to take a look back at sort of how we've made decisions and what have we what are some of the lessons learned we will fold that into the the decision um

220you know that you will be embarking upon around sunsetting dual assignment and with that commitment that we'll be back giving monitoring updates um you know how how are things working what does that look like on a regular basis um and that we'll have some pretty rich conversations for the next 18 months for sure >> and as as as a starting point yes >> thank you for um being here this late to answer our questions Um, next up, I did ask for having allowing public comment today on the Jefferson boundary to extend our feedback timeline. I know there and also in case there were people who weren't able to make the the date on the Jefferson night. So, uh, we do have public comment for the Jefferson boundary discussion. Uh, Miss Bradshot, could you call them

221up? >> Yes, we have two people in person and one virtual. So, I'll start with the people who are in person. Um, we have Alex Tinker and Christina Lively. Thank you for being here this late and hope it's not past your bedtime. Uh, in case I'll just repeat the rules. Um, 3 minutes. When it hits the orange light, you have 30 seconds to finish up. And uh, yeah. State your name. >> Oh, yeah. State your name so your last name. Um, and thank you for being here. >> You may begin when you're ready. >> Okay. Um, I'm Christina Lively. Can you hear me? L I V L Y. First and foremost, I want to thank you for your time and energy that you've dedicated to this process. Um, I am a Sabin neighborhood parent of

222four children with my oldest currently in seventh grade at Da Vinci. I'm a Portland native and a PPS graduate. I am here in support of Jefferson's modernization and the district stated goal of expanding opportunity and ensuring educational stability for all students. As PPS plans to uh for growth and the opening of modernized schools, I urge the district to carefully consider the unique needs of the 2020 kindergarten and first grade cohorts. These students in entered school during an unprecedented period and have endured more major educational disruptions than any class in recent memory. They deserve stability. Sabin is the only school in scenario C not recommended to return to its original neighborhood high school prior to dual assignment. Families are concerned that short-term enrollment projections overlook Sabin's community input and overall balance across the city. I asked

223the district to add sabin to scenario C with Irvington or delay dual enrollment for the proposed new neighborhood elementary schools while Jefferson is rebuilt as a community in progress approach. Some families in the proposed new neighborhood are ready to send their children immediately while families in the long-standing Jefferson catchment will start to connect with their neighbors and by attending their neighborhood school. Reassigning neighborhoods during major construction is an avoidable disruption. The current recommend the current recommendation is identical to the very early version with no visible adjustments based on community feedback despite more than 220 save and supporting families signing a petition outlining why there was no current scenario that was workable for our kids. Our communities are re if communities are redrawn in 2027. Many Saven students will feel pressured into highly competitive alternatives simply

224to maintain continuity and safe routes to school. This puts families in challenging positions that risk creating unnecessary stress, inequity, and division within a community that has worked so hard to support one another. As Jefferson insers a promising new chapter, we should be finding ways to ensure all children are supported. I support the goal of strengthening Jefferson and I believe it can be done while also honoring our kids' needs. I respectfully ask that Saven be added to the scenario, see with Irvington and return to our neighborhood school. I know you have many voices to represent and many p perspectives to understand. Your leadership on this and your help advocating for a middle ground is a financial found foundational part. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you, Chair Wong, directors, Superintendent Armstrong. My name is Alex

225Tinker, T I N Ker. I have two students at Irvington and I'm here to address enrollment rebalancing. Some of the advocacy on this topic has become toxic and personal. I hope we can focus on attacking our common problems instead of attacking each other, especially when no one can know where another is truly coming from. The monolithic characterization of Irvington at last Monday's public session was hard to hear. Our community is quite diverse racially, culturally, and socioeconomically. For what it's worth, I grew up in Northeast Portland on 19th and Homeman in the Woodlon neighborhood in the late 80s and 90s in a family headed by two white civil rights activist mothers along with me and my two black older siblings. Our survival depended on food stamps, the real paper food stamps, and occasional trips to pick

226up food boxes at the Sunshine Division. Before leaving for college, I had NEP tattooed on my back, lest I ever forget where I came from. Today, my family of origin includes my two black siblings, two black nieces, two black grand nieces, and a black grand nephew. Two of them will likely attend Jefferson and the other Grant. As the only white male in the family, I am acutely aware of my privilege and its contribution to my path out of poverty. I have not forgotten where I come from, and I bring that perspective with me today. Now, to the matter at hand. Among the three considered, scenario C is the clear choice. Only C maintains contact boundaries as required and it best balances enrollment across the four comprehensive high schools in 2030 and beyond. Contrast that with

227B, which for example would leave Grant barely above the 1100 student threshold by 2032, a projection which assumes an unprecedented 94% capture rate. That's unrealistic. Scenario B is a recipe for leaving all four of the affected schools struggling to maintain the student bodies adequate to support the comprehensive programming that all students deserve. While C is the clear choice over A and B, I reject the premise that the of the limited options presented that revitalizing one community depends on tearing another apart. We can reinvigorate Jefferson without carving Sabin out of its grant community. After Dr. Armstrong formally recommended C. Some said that Irvington as the squeaky wheel got the proverbial grease of scenario C. If there's a squeaky wheel, it's the fact that there are scarcely enough students to fill the schools we're building. And in

228all three of the scenarios that this board has considered, PPS has offered Sabin as the Greece. As stakeholders from other schools have argued over whether Irvington and Sabin belong with Jeffer Grant, I can't help but think of imperial powers, carving up conquered lands, drawing borders without regard for the communities that they divided. Jefferson's monetization is long overdue. I urge the district to take a closer look at the scenario F model prepared by Sabin parents, which is essentially Sabin staying at Grant. >> Great. Thank you. >> Isn't that my 30 second mark? The 30 seconds was the orange. Just finish up your sentence, please. >> Looking forward, I urge the district to engage the communities most likely to be impacted by consolidation and right sizing before it evaluates the plans and develops options rather than launching

229another purported engagement effort, which primarily serves to promote plans that have already been laid. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have our online our virtual comp person uh virtually. >> Uh my name is Aaron Brazzle. E R I N B R A S E L L. Um I'm the parent of a Sabin fourth grader and a grant 10th grader and I'm here to share my support for a thriving Jefferson as well as to express concerns about the preferred scenario. As Christina mentioned, Sabin is the only school not being assigned to its original boundaries before dual assignment. This fact was confirmed at the scenario open house on December 6th by a director level PPS staff member. Sabin is a school like Irvington that's always been a grant feeder. Sabin

230is a school that's had no principal all year and therefore no leader to advocate for our community during this process. We're now on our four fifth principal in five years. Sabin's school PPS is not intentionally engaged and whose feedback is reflected neither in the community engagement analysis nor the scenario C itself. We asked the board to request refinements to PPS's recommendations to reflect the lived realities of our students. Scenario C is a boundary change for Sabin. Dual assignment is an overlay. When overlay sunsets, schools should return to their original boundaries. That means Sabin should return to Grant. Sabin families have repeatedly asked for data transparency and have been met with math that simply doesn't add up. Scenario Creates a glaring imbalance. Jefferson would have eight feeder schools while Grant would have four. If you look

231at current total enrollment for each of the feeders for scenario C, Grant has a total of 1400 students and Jefferson has over 2,300. That means 1.6 students flowing to Jefferson for everyone going to Grant, a 60% larger feeder pattern. Sabin families have raised transportation and safety concerns again and again. Sabin student students have multiple safe walking and biking routes to grant that they use frequently. Safe routes don't exist from Sabin to Jefferson. Our children's lived experiences are more than concentric circles on a map. As a Sabin parent for 10 years now, I value I know the value of a neighborhood school supported by a strong stable community. The Jefferson community deserves these this as well. and and to have an anchor of what like I have found at Sabin. The process for these changes, however,

232is sowing mistrust and dividing communities. The media and families from other schools have painted Sabin as an elitist community that's resisting change. In reality, Sabin is a racially and economically diverse school that has experienced a great deal of instability over 10 years of enrollment pattern disruption and high turnover rate in leadership. SA moved from Bumont from a K5 to a K8 and then it was converted back to a K5 and reassigned to Tubman and since then has been chronically underenrolled and underresourced scenario C will absolutely be a disruption to our community in a series of disruptions to come during the upcoming elementary right sizing for decades. Sabin has been interconnected with Irvington and Grant. Over 200 families have signed a letter cont outlining how this change will deeply disrupt our community. We're simply asking for

233our feedback to inform the final outcome and for a plan that strengthens Jefferson without demand dismantling ours. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Great. Thank you. All right, that concludes our segment on Jefferson. Ready to move on. Right. Thank you everyone who was here to provide public comment. uh your feedback always helps improve our work and helps us uh just helps. Thank you. >> May I ask a question just before you move on? So for the item in January when you all take your vote, will are are you is the expectation another presentation or any other data request or will you all work with that team? I was just thinking of um uh student representative Rurto's comment about what decision rests with the board and I know that you all are are clear

234on that but I also want to make sure that you are all clear on that and that you feel that you have everything you need or if there's going to be another request coming forward just so that we can plan um adequately. I guess I was assuming that your res your your recommendation would be in like resolution form for us to vote up or down on and we wouldn't necessarily need to have a presentation a new presentation because we've had so many but I open to other ideas but I will just share that was my expectation I suppose. So, I'm just wondering if there's two. I mean, I see the team nodding that there will be um a resolution, but I I know that all this came to be because of the resolution that's connected

235to um dual assignment. And so, I wonder if it's going to be a series of actions. At first, it's that and then whether you choose C, make modifications, or whatever. Um, I just want to make sure that we're we have everything for you that you may need. But you want to speak to that? >> Sure. And I really appreciate this conversation, Deborah Kori, chief of staff, because it is obviously up to you of what you would like to see at that um, presentation. I think tonight's presentation was tailored around suggestions from some of the board members that they really appreciated the TLE uh, conversation and that everybody on the board wanted to hear that same information. Um we would we are prepared and the one thing we have is that we would walk through the

236resolution which will include your recommendation Dr. Armstrong. That will be the the resolution that we walk through and then people um are of course welcome to bring forward um amendments if they have them. I would just ask that if folks are thinking about writing some amendments to let us know so that we can be prepared. Um Director Split has already reached out with some of the ideas that she brought up tonight. >> So I push that. I appreciate that. I'm have a little open open push back with the team. I I think I would prefer that um what's brought forth is the original dual assignment agreement and um a vote to end that. And then the next thing is, you know, moving forward with my recommendation. And then at that point, if there's any um

237modifications or other things that you all want to do, amendments you want to make to that, you can do that in that process. But the very first thing I want to do is make sure we're ending the dual assignment um resolution that created um Jeff as an a focus option and not a comprehensive. So >> I was going to say it might also be helpful to have the resolution where we directed the superintendent to end the dual assignment. Um that was in 2022. Yeah, we had we had discussed walking through not obviously the whole presentation all over again, but walking through the history because I do think that is important and that can be a part of the um ending the dual assignment. >> So I just want to make sure just let me recap

238what I think we're saying. So the very first step is to end the dual assignment which reestablishes Jefferson as a comprehensive high school and then the next resolution would be the resolution in which you all would consider, decide, discuss and then ultimately uh choose to vote on. >> Yes. And obviously that would be a separate item >> have the discussion >> uh about it. I I I'm very familiar with the history having attended it in historical times. Yeah. >> Uh I I wonder if it would be helpful. And actually a community member sent a really um great historical record. I don't know if it's been shared widely. I did. I sent it to Roseanne this evening. I haven't read it yet. I haven't had time today. I'm really looking forward to reading it. And it's

239got a really nice history about who is here and the impacts of the discussions that we've or the decisions we've made over the last 40 years actually. So, I I don't know if that would be helpful for others to see just to provide some background. Um, I'm looking forward to reading it. I'll read it tomorrow, but um I think I think everybody got it. >> I read it. >> So, it was very helpful. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, I'm just wondering, you know, we're going to be making a big decision for our community and >> monumental. Um, and I think it might be helpful to understand the context because, you know, I've been here a long time. Some people maybe have only been here five years, 10 years. you know, I think it'd be helpful

240to share >> so we can do the history piece with the original resolution that brought forth um where we're at now. And then after that, then we'll um put out the scenarios and the the resolution that lists or outlines the recommendation and then >> you all can make your moves. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Does that make sense? Sorry for adjust in real time, but I I just want to make sure that >> democracy and transparency and accountability >> in action. I love it. I would be a huge fan of if anyone wants to bring an amendment like I did. I knew this was our chance to discuss before making a vote. So, I brought up the amendment that I'd bring. Although, I think the amendment I'd bring might be in the resolution.

241I'm not sure. So, um, but, um, but I think it'd be great to, um, be communicating with staff and with each other, like no surprises. Um, for those of you who don't know, they changed serial meetings law. If you don't know what that is, it's like how we're allowed to communicate with each other. Um, and so we have to have all of our conversations like live in real time. So, it's nice if we can like be prepared um, for those conversations. So, I would just ask respectfully that if we're going to bring something other than C plus the thing that we just talked about earlier tonight, um that we all communicate. I also think like just maybe being transparent for the public and for each other since we can't all talk to each other. I'm

242like getting the general vibe that people on this kind of given, especially the amount that we're hearing about B right now. Like C does seem like a compromise to me. Um, I just being transparent. That's how it feels to me. Um, so I just kind of want to throw that out there as also a no surprise kind of thing that I feel like we're sort of like nodding our heads up here. Um, so if that's going to change, I think it'd be great if we could communicate and have maybe elevate the public conversation in some way if we think there's going to be a pivot. Um, and I know the student the district student council not discussing it until the day of makes it's tricky then to like take your opinion into account since we're

243doing it that night and I want to. So, I'm trying to think that through too. So, anyway, I'm just going to stop talking now because I got off a plane at 1. >> No, I I appreciate Sorry. I appreciate what you're saying and I know that like there's some things like for instance I think it was alluded to by um Calvert but that you know we continue to have a process where uh families can choose to um opt into other high schools. We know that we have sibling preference and I don't know if those numbers were counted into our projected okay so we have the sibling counts and things like that. So yeah >> yay. So anyway, I'm just saying that like I get that there's going to be we I'm anticipating that there's some

244language that goes along with scenario C. I appreciate the call to try and get those to us as early as possible so that we can present on that and if there's anything that requires like any mitigation planning or anything like that, I think especially knowing that we have this like winter break happening and then we come back two weeks later. um that you know help us help you um in whatever it is that if there's something that you're ideulating on or want to take a look at that we can get ahead of and and have ready for you at the meeting um on the 11th or when >> 13th 13th. >> I'd also like to offer for our student representative um if you're hearing from your colleagues that they have questions over the break before

245you need more information prior to your meeting, please reach out to Margaret. Please, sorry, that was a joke. Please reach out to us and we can get those questions because I I I know it's been a while since you guys last discussed it and we we're here to help. >> So, we did have a chance to um I did meet with the district student council um and and fielded some questions. I'm happy always to uh field questions and uh to provide information as needed. >> Yeah, I think that at this point I haven't gotten very many more questions. like we've again I've really been surprised by the um the ability of our district student council members um to to very quickly understand this and then understand it to the degree that they're now teaching it

246out to their student councils um which has been something that I am extremely proud of. Um now that being said, uh you raised a very good point in terms of amendments in the district student council. Is it would it be possible abiding by public meetings laws for any board member to for example say here's the amendment that I kind of maybe want to propose and send that to Rosanne who could could they then send that to me and then where I could send that to the district student council and get their thoughts beforehand. >> How is that does that seem >> talking about anything going to you? It doesn't imp all due respect. It doesn't implicate the public meetings law because you're not technically >> I didn't even think of that. >> You may do

247Yes. If it's going to you if it's from a board member then it should go to Rosanne and should be go through the normal process that way. >> And then I I also want to add because I it's sometimes often I know we kind of get through the business of things and don't really get a chance to respond and I just want to say how much I appreciate the words of is it Mr. Lively? No. What's your last name? Tinker. >> Tinker. Okay. Tinker. Sorry, I was trying to hold all the names in my head. I appreciate the words and I will say that it is disheartening. You know, we're trying to do the best we can with the knowledge we have. And it is unfortunate and sad and disappointing when conversations begin to take

248a tone um that pits one community against another. We're all of Portland, all 81 schools, all areas. We work in service of all of them. And so I appreciate that. And I think no matter what is decided, what amendments come forth, whatever scenario, um, how the scenario moves forward or not, I think, you know, really focusing on something that speaks to healing and that's humanizing for the communities that are some real examples of things that folks have been going through and uh, students and families. And so I just I I know that my team is thinking about ways in which we're going to address that and and wrap around in support and I think that will be a wonderful opportunity for all of us I think too. So >> yeah, >> I appreciate that Dr.

249Armstrong. And I think um one of the one piece that uh I'm very hopeful about is that when we get into the conversations around implementation of a decision that we have time and and and opportunity to engage fully in those conversations and the timing of this decision allows us to really be thoughtful about that implementation um those pieces and uh in the planning uh for 2027. So, it gives us time and runway to have some of those conversations and to really bring uh community together. >> Director Oh, >> go ahead. >> Director Split, I uh appreciate the call for kind of transparency about what we're thinking um as we move towards the meeting in January. Um, I see it similar to how you see it. Um, in terms of C feeling like a compromise. Um,

250I think I am a B person and I understand the rationale behind C. Um, and I've done a lot of thinking about if there is an amendment that I would propose. Um, and ultimately I don't think that I plan to do anything like that. Um I have a lot of confidence in uh MC and the work that the team has done. Um and and I have questions around numbers but I think um at a certain point um you know it just it it is what it is and we can look at like different ways of slicing it and siphoning off different groups of students. Um but what I think when I think about what is in the best interest of students um that is consistency, stability, keeping cohorts of students together as much as we

251can. Um and I really struggle with like slicing up subgroups of kids and sending them off in different directions anymore than what we're already doing. So that's the way that I'm looking at it right now in case anyone was wondering. >> I'd like to um >> Thank you. Sorry. I just want to interject really quick. I want to kind of go through order because um make sure everyone has a chance to talk. Um I I just want to bring some caution and also just reiterate, you know, in our want to reiterate kind of what director Split said. It's also in our board protocols. We follow the no surprises clause. Um one thing I want to suggest two things. Number one is that um if you have ideas for amendments that you please send that to

252staff ahead of time early enough because one of the as someone who has gone through redistricting there's a lot of unintended consequences that could happen that we may not have time to foresee if it hasn't been vetted thoroughly. So that that is one big danger if you are thinking about amendments um to make sure that gets really vetted and really discussed with that full answer. The other request I have is because for the sake of optimizing our discussion on the January 13th meeting, I am I would like to request if if this is okay with everyone that to the best of your ability, of course, you know, things can come up last minute, but to the best of your ability, please I am asking everyone to please submit their questions uh about these both resolutions

253um to Rosanne by January 6th. That would give enough time for staff to kind of be prepared to answer the questions. so that we can, you know, obviously to the best of your ability. You know, if you come up with something on January 9th, no big deal. Um, but but having our questions submitted early enough so that we get proper answers will help inform our decision. And so that that's my request two. So those two things, amendments vetted January 6. Is that okay? And director Wong, I would just if I were you, I would be asking, well, how will we know if we have amendments if we haven't seen the resolution yet? So, you might ask us if we could get it to you um earlier than the typical period so that you have a

254chance to look at it um so you can see whether you have amendments or not. >> Thank you. >> So, I want to go to director for then I'll come back to you. Um, so I just had a couple comments about um, B versus C since it looks like we're having a little bit of a conversation about that. Um, for me, one just a couple things I wanted to call out for my colleagues and student director RTOR. Um, for uh, scenario C, actually for both scenarios, scenario C, Grant is right now in all of these numbers heavily reliant on a very high capture rate. It's actually higher than our current capture rate. It's calculated at 93.6. that is everything going right to be at these numbers. And in addition, we've got a little bit of

255a unique situation in play with the JDLI program, which feeds into Grant and is um I think it's like currently my computer died. Okay. >> Like 260 280 students right now. >> It's about we we modeled it out. It's roughly 50 to uh 55 to 60 students at grade level, right? >> So when we model it out, it's about 220. It's in the 220s. So what happens is for for this particular uh dual language immersion program, the bulk of the students are from outside of the the boundary. Um unlike Beachch where the bulk are actually in the Roosevelt boundary. So we've got a little bit of unique situation with Grant in that we have students from you know uh well outside of the area, many from southeast um making that number is what what it

256is. And once Cleveland is done, I do have real concerns that we're going to lose a lot of those students to a brand new high school. So, I'm feeling um much more comfortable with scenario C because it it it I'm not sure there's any other way in the long term for Grant to make sure that it's not underenrolled. And I see Jefferson with the opportunity to potentially pick up students from Benson once it opens. Grant does not have that. They only have 35 students that go to Benson. So, there's there's more students in both of those areas. So, for me, I'm looking at that in terms of longterm long-term stability and really serving um the neighborhood students. So, I just wanted to call that out. There's there's some some things in the numbers that are

257making them what they are. So, that's kind of where where I'm headed and why. If I could offer just one um point of clarification, we we have um heard the term capture rate quite a bit. The modeling is not based on capture rate. It's internal students progressing. These are students that are current enrolled in PPS. So, capture rate typically, I'm going to look at um senior director um Richard Smith here and see if I get this right. He'll correct me if I'm not right, but um capture rate is compares neighborhood to students that are enrolled. The our modeling is based on students enrolled in PPS all the way through. So, when you see it's a number of eighth grade students that are in PPS that then roll up into grant. So it is not a

258capture rate. It's not a it's that's an apples to oranges comparison. Then it is a percentage of students that are uh that are in the uh Grant neighborhood that then um end up enrolling in nth grade. So it's slightly different but there's there's been quite a bit of confusion about that and we're working to really clean up the language and we're so that's on our end. We're going to try to really define that. So I'm going to look and see if I I got it. Okay. Thank you. And then in the current calc like said my computer died but in the current calculations we've got Roosevelt at 80% and then 8 86. Okay. And then >> Jefferson at 70 and then kind of ticking up across >> Jefferson's uh rates increase uh starts at 70

259and increases up to 82%. Um and and that is reflective of modernizations that we've seen when schools have been modernized that the uh students staying in that school increases. Um, and McDaniel is at about 75%. >> I'm glad that you spoke before me, uh, Director Lefor, um, because what I'm about to say is going to tie in. Um, I wanted to follow up on something that director Chase Miller um said um in that I think that that we have to acknowledge when we go forward in this conversation that this is um a hard situation for all the school for for every school um that's not Jefferson because everyone because all these schools have to give some students in order for Jefferson to get some students. It's inevitable. You know, the the enrollment numbers are particularly

260um large for for both uh Grant and Roosevelt. I mean, Grant is set to lose like a third, you know, or even close to half, you know, of their of their population in uh well, 12,200. Yeah. Not not quite half. Um but um but again, a very large what is a very large amount of students cuz they're going from 2100, you know, down to in option option B 12. Um uh which is which is a pretty large drop. Um and so I think that that it's important to to to acknowledge that. Um, and that I think that that we that again, as Director Chase Miller said, there is no perfect solution to this. It's it's an unfortunate situation, you know, and again, the the quality of education that we're able to provide to each of

261these students also again ties back into the funding thing. Have I mentioned this meeting how I don't like the state legislature and think they should fund us more? Um, I don't think I have, but >> measure five and 50 is the new 67. >> That's No, that is that's for me. That's that's my 67. Uh, I love talking about five and 50, but yeah, I think that it that that it is. >> What about 49? Don't forget 49. >> Everybody forget. >> Yeah. Um, it's it's a very complex complex issue. There's a lot of solutions to the broader funding problem, but again, with the Jefferson Rising stuff, um, it's important that we recognize that it that that it's a that it's a complex situation for all the high schools. There's there's a lot of push

262and pull. again, when we pull when we pull one string, it affects the rest of the the rest of the web very deeply. Um uh and so to to kind of sum up what I'm saying, I'm kind of rambling now. um reaching for what I was originally going to say, but I think that it's it's a rough situation for all for all the schools and we should definitely look at um about at what we can do at um at these other schools at both Grant and specifically Roosevelt and see what we can do to try and ease that transition, you know, as they transition into being smaller schools um and to and to make sure that that something that again we don't see um a broader uh downward shift as you know as both me

263and director Leffort are worried of in both schools. >> Um, I have a question uh for Margaret. Um, we've gotten a lot of emails saying that Jefferson doesn't need Sabin or Irvington. Can you just like lay it out there as to why based on the recommendation before us Jefferson does need at least Sabin? So part of what um when we look through again like as we buil were building out scenarios, we started with all and sort of the largest number of students going to Jefferson and potentially the smallest number of students going to Jefferson and we kind of looked at modeling widely and then we looked at what are some of the other options. Um the key with this is that um in order to have really robust academic programming at Jefferson, we're looking at

264getting the pop student population above 1100. So as we're doing that and to do to make that into a comprehensive high school, um it is not I'm not saying 1100 is ideal. That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying in order to have stable programming and to offer comprehensive programming, you need to be above 1100. And so when we're hearing we want to hear Jefferson be successful, it means that we need to ensure that we have um the students population that get that gets Jefferson above uh 1100. when we looked at other scenarios, Jefferson does not even through um full implementation um in one scenario doesn't get to a thousand students and in um you know other scenarios. It's it's just we need to get it above,00 the uh Irvington and so there are three

265uh historic feeders to grant that are part of this. There's a historic feeder to Roosevelt and that we're looking at all these pieces. I don't want to lose fact that Boise Elliott was part of uh has been part of the grant um um uh catchment as well over time and so it is not just Sabin that is that we are looking at in scenario C. So I think it is in at some level it is a um it's a population uh estimate and and and and forecast that we're looking at. But it's really critical that when we're talking about when we've heard over and over again quite loudly and that's part of the reason why we did the academic programming presentation tonight is it for it to be comparable to other high schools that are

266comprehensive high schools. We have to have the student population along with the programming and it's a chicken and an egg question which comes first. Um so we're going to invest to build out the programming but then we need to have the students as well and that is where um the conversation with Irvington and Sabin has come in. >> Thank you. I have one more no I'm not going to say one more question. I have another question. >> Um okay my understanding is that ideal high school utilization is 85%. Is that correct? That's what we plan for for modernized schools. >> Okay. Um and Jeff, no grant was built for 1700. >> A little over 1700. >> Over 1700 and they're well over that right now. Um so 85% of about 1700 would be I think

267uh 1445 students. Um and scenario C gets grant to 1416 by 203031. So that seems pretty close to ideal utilization. Am I mathing correctly? >> I am not doing it by hand up front here. But I think Yep. It's Yes. Yep. So I think that I think when we looked at the scenarios and it was a question was asked I think and it's um and one of the pieces that we looked at um when we uh that we wrote the memo for the superintendent's recommendation was utilization and we looked at C all four high schools end up in a range between 70 and 90% utilization. Um right now the range is much greater than that. So um that is that was part of what the it's one of the considerations for the factors. So it

268gets this in this scenario scenario C we get grant below it's at over 100% utilization now and is using Holly Rude as an a satellite uh classrooms into the um uh the uh modernized building while also um you know getting Jefferson to and and McDaniel and Roosevelt. Roosevelt is the only school that has a slightly different size than it's the smallest modernized high school. So, I just want to acknowledge that as well. >> And Roosevelt, just um I I believe I when I did my tour, it was it's correct me if I'm wrong, it's 1450, but it was actually built for 1350, but the common spaces were enlarged as they built the school. And so, in terms of classroom space, >> we actually added classroom. We removed common spaces to add classrooms at Roosevelt, I

269think, is what you're saying. We that we ended up we ended up there were there were common study spaces that were at Roosevelt that we over time have added walls and made into classrooms andor office spaces to utilize the the common areas differently. >> You can definitely tell it's it's smaller when you're there. Mhm. >> I appreciate this time and I know you guys are probably thinking Kimberly just became a meeting extender, but I felt like there were still some things that we needed to talk about because ultimately the goal is to be prepared for January. Um so I I do appreciate it and as you can see there were still some questions. >> I'm sure happy to answer questions. >> That's why it's on the work session. >> Yes. Mhm. >> Um this you

270don't have to answer this now or maybe later or whatever, but my one question I had >> another question I have. >> Um is we Franklin is also over the comfort limit of enrollment. >> Do you is this something that's answerable? Well, I know this is a little gang ahead, but answerable now in terms of like we look at the other high schools and how they may affect, for example, Grant, especially Grant, um, due to proximity, you know, Cleveland to some extent in terms of the the balance between scenario or option C, you know, versus option B or or whatnot. >> We did not look at um impacts outside of the four high schools. So I think what it what I will say is right sizing um will address what that looks like across uh

271the high school system and part of SEGC as you are well aware. Um one of the there are two lingering pieces that came out of SEGC. One was please look at dual language immersion across the district and the second was please address the feeder patterns for the southeast middle schools because they're complicated. And so I think that there is an opportunity to do that along with we knew that every time we were building a modernized high school that it was going to shift the populations. So we were aware of that as we were doing it and we started to address some of it. And now we are uh well on our way to to looking at them all. And I just again want to say the commitment in Portland to say that every student was

272going to graduate or be an experience in a modernized high school by the 2029 is been a decade over a decade of a commitment and that is something that is pretty remarkable and I think that we have seen students come back into the system into modernized high schools and I'm confident that we'll see that with Jefferson Wells and uh Cleveland as well. definitely remarkable and still with some of the oldest facilities right >> in the state of Oregon and across the country but we do have modernized high schools on the rise. >> So I just have one comment on this on the building sizes. I have seen some people asking questions about like why are we building you know Jefferson for700 when you know when we're not even going to get close to that in

273any of the scenarios. But what I'll say is that I definitely support building our high schools, especially when we're going through these modernizations, building them a lot larger than we think we're going to need because in the short term, the population trends for Portland show, you know, our student population decreasing. But if we think super long term, you know, the Pacific Northwest is projected to get a large influx um of of people, particularly over the next 40 or 50 years because of climate impacts, you know, and so the the current buildings that we the old buildings that we had lasted for 100 years. I'm sure that we would hope that our current buildings would last for another hundred. So, I just wanted to put that one out there as well. >> I want to say

274that that is what I've been saying to people too is the people in 1900 in 1909 when Jefferson was built when the population was 16th of what it is today thought ahead 100 years and here we are >> and Jefferson. So it is it is doesn't match up with like demographic planning which is like the five a fivey year >> 8y year it it's 100 years >> and I I agree about the climate impacts we are already seeing climate refugees >> from Arizona and hotter places >> so that that trend will continue we just need them to all have babies >> and and just as a frame of reference when Jefferson opened I was reading through the Oregon historical quarterly article about uh the history of desegregation in Portland public schools and multiculturalism which is

275an article that I recommend often to people and um happy to send the link uh >> yes would you please >> 100% and um the when Jefferson opened it was the largest high school um in the country so it's and it's 19 you know it opened in 1908 so yes modernizations and what does it look like and It's forwardlooking I think is um I wholeheartedly agree. I mean this is you make you're making decisions both short-term and long term and holding that complexity is hard. So I appreciate >> we do we do so we'll be having a lot of complex nuance conversations over the next 18 months as as and as well as uh over a number of years. >> I have just one um request. So, a lot of the I've submitted so many

276questions as you know, but um a lot of the questions were answered with it's in our FAQs and I am notoriously bad for finding things online. Um it's sort of a joke at my house, but I guess I would request that the FAQs um because I was just my computer was blowing up at me because I was hitting the wrong keys, but I was trying to run a search function on the FAQs and because there each answer is a drop down. Okay. >> Um, even though I knew that the answer had a specific number that should pop up, it wasn't popping up. >> And so, I guess I would ask that we figure out a way, not I like the drop down menu because then all the questions are right there, >> but maybe we

277can include a PDF so someone can open that and then search for their answer. So, you don't have to tell me it's in the FAQs. >> Yeah, it's all good. Um, we actually have PDFs on the website of the FAQs so that you that are searchable and and I think part of what happened as we did we did them chronologically. So we're reorganizing them as we speak so they're grouped by topic. So that is some of the work that we're doing and should have hopefully done in the next week or so so that it's there's multiple ways to get at it. The drop-own menus allow for there to be for to be in multiple languages which is helpful for accessibility. Um once you make PDFs they're static which is causes a different issue. So but

278we'll we'll be happy to rearrange them so they're group by topic. >> Thank you. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Feeling good at 9:55 p.m. All right. Uh, next up we have a discussion about board leadership. At the last meeting, Director Split asked that we have an opportunity to discuss this. So, I'll turn it over to Director Split to introduce us. Well, I've just spent a week in Florida and got in at 1:00 a.m. last night. So, we're all going to see me at my worst trying to talk. So, sorry everybody. I'm really kind of falling apart over here. Um, so I, um, just to give a little context, uh, I went to the OSBA fall conference this year and was sitting at the table. There's a, uh, uh, board members of

279color caucus as part of the OSBA. And we were all just I was at that table um, hearing from them about their work and and somebody mentioned um, board succession and how they're doing it in their district. And I can't remember if it was Redmond or Sisters still >> or Corllis. >> I well >> Corllis does this too. >> They do this too. Okay. So, but Redmond or Sisters also does it I guess. Um and they suggested the way that they were just talking about their model which is that they have sort of a um I guess I'm going to use the word gentleman's agreement out of a lack of critical thinking skills right now. Um, and so they have a chair and then the past chair is usually a vice chair and then there's

280somebody else that is also a vice chair that has not had a leadership experience before. And I thought that seemed like a good idea because on our board we have two our two most senior people are our leadership team. This is not an age thing. It gave me this look. Oh, no. Um, but the two people that have the most seniority are are indeed our our chair and vice chair, which makes great sense, right? This model would still preserve that because seniority matters when you're in the leadership position. Um, but it would open up so that there's an opportunity for somebody else to kind of check out what it's like to be on leadership. Um, and that person could then decide for leadership in the future or not. Um, they could say, "This isn't for

281me." but it just gives an opportunity for somebody else to have that experience. And so I wanted to have a conversation about if others on the board thinks that that think that's an interesting idea. Um I don't want to speak for other people, but I will for a second. But when I I did check in with both of these two about it and they also have another idea of just like having those of us that aren't on leadership sort of like rotate through attending leadership meetings. So I wanted to have the conversation rather than just saying, "Oh, that's fine. We'll just do that." of like do we think it's important that we have more of an official situation where we have two vice chairs or try that model for a year and see how that

282feels or something um in order to have a more thoughtful sort of in my opinion more thoughtful approach on succession planning um or do we want to consider the rotating idea and I wanted to hear from I thought it'd be better that all of us discussed it Um, we for high or large audience at this point, we have I believe four of us who put our hats in the ring for vice chair. Um, I put my hat in the ring only if in this case if this if this came to fruition in case nobody else put their hat in, but so many of us did. So, I really don't need to be the person. I just wanted there to be a conversation and not have it be because nobody put their hat in that we

283couldn't make that change and give somebody that experience. now um if we decided to go that route. So hopefully that articulates if you saw my name as somebody who had filed to run for vice chair was entirely to have this conversation and if we did go with that that there'd be somebody. However, I'd be very happy if anybody else wanted to do it. Doesn't need to be me. I just want to pursue the idea for um the sake of well one having more people in leadership I feel like is just more collaborative too. but to the succession planning piece. So there you go. >> I was going to add one of the idea about the rotation. So I just kind of want to clarify that and where it came from. It actually came from when

284we talked to uh another district that had board members that had been on for 12 18 years had a lot of experience. So the idea they proposed to us was also just having other board members cycle through not you know where they would attend leadership meetings too cuz and you know be there long enough to see kind of how things kind of progress and seeing the cycle of how things work. Uh, one of the challenges that we have with leadership in this new meeting laws is that um, you know, honestly 90% of the time is just looking at our board work plan trying to figure out where things fit, >> right? And and 10% time is checking with the superintendent and things like that. But the problem is like you know one of the things

285that we have this year that didn't have as much last year and the year before is that with Michelle and I as chair and vice chair if both of us talked to one other person about what we talked about we just violated serial meeting laws right like if Michelle talked to Stephanie and sorry director director Englesman and I talked to director split that's you know four people as a quorum so it makes it very difficult again with with three people you would have even even >> more so you can't even talk to one person so Um, I just want to added that part of that. But like having I think the the idea of having someone rotate through um was something that I think in leadership we were all kind of actually excited about because

286I think yeah would just help kind of build more partnership and more collaboration. But I I just want to offer that up. That's where that idea came from. Uh but we're here to discuss all the ideas on the table. So and then starting talking about something at 10. >> Um, I'll just weigh in. I like the idea of cycling through first of all because we're seeing everyone and I think when we when we first talked about it, you were talking about, you know, being providing a kind of a bridge role between two sides of our board. I'd really like us to start thinking as one team. Um, and so having someone that's bridge between kind of two teams defeats that. Um, and I think I think with an equity lens, I'm like this would be

287great for everybody. Like Patty's not here, but Patty Ste, you know, director Englesman, Director Sullivan, Director Lefort. Um, it it seems to be equal to equitable distribution. Um, I did talk to the Corvalis school board recently and I was like, hey, what's the deal with the the two vice um chairs? And the reason that they did that is their chair was running for Congress and their vice chair was battling cancer. And so they really needed to the reason they decided to go to that model was because they were solving for a management issue and a su a succession issue which I don't know that we have. And finally um there's really like just even being a board member and this will play into my um my policy committee update but there's really no I mean

288it's experiential learning. we either we're not really taught how to be a board member. It's we're learning kind of as we go along, especially as we're newer. Um I think it helps to be kind of brought under someone's wing if you're so lucky. I wasn't. Um but but I think there's lots of way to lean into leadership and I if we're going to have a co- vice chair, I'd really like to see everybody kind of come through those meetings just to see there there is just another boring meeting. We're talking about when we can put place things on the agenda and when some of the things that have like hard deadlines like Head Start, charter, and some of the things that we see across the desk have to be on the agenda by a certain

289date. We're mapping that work out. >> I really like the idea of taking turns cycling through. I think um some of what I think we've struggled with um in so many of us being new and just learning how to do this work is um that some of it happens and we don't have like a peak behind that curtain. Um and in the absence of information then you know people make assumptions and start like just you know coming to their own conclusions. So, I think it'd be really helpful for everyone to have a practical sense of what happens in agenda setting and what that's like. And I think that would also really inform um our own um understanding of whether or not we really want to take on a leadership role. We might go to those

290meetings and be like, "Ew, no." >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I guess one thing I failed to say, and then I'll go to other people. I don't really have like a strong feeling either way. I just wanted like everybody to talk about it. >> Um I guess like if we were if like there was a ballot in front of me, I might choose the co-vice chair model for largely circumstantial reasons. But um I don't have a strong feeling. So I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that I'm not like going to be hugely upset if everybody's like, "Let's do the other thing." I just I shared that idea, they shared their idea, and I said, "Let's all talk about it instead of just the three of us talking about it and that being the end

291of the conversation. I like that you're bringing um fresh ideas. I'll just say that. I love the fresh ideas. >> I guess I will just point out that your concern um Chair Wong about three people in the room. It does it it's the same either way. So it's not really I mean if we do either option it's a concern. So there it isn't a concern if we're going to do one of the two options because either way there will be three people in the room and so the quorum issue is raised if anyone in that room talks to a single person. >> Yes. >> And so if we're going to do either of those options then that concern is sort of a wash because it's the same in either >> right but we can't do

292both because if we do a vice chair we can't rotate through >> we'll just all come to >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. No, I agree. I just want to point Yeah. Yeah, I agree. >> We could all be in the same room together. All of us. >> If you guys ever need someone to confide in, legally speaking, I'm not included in that quorum. So, feel free to come to me. I'll I'll bear it all. >> You're welcome to come whenever. >> As long as you don't talk to anyone because then you become a mediator. >> Very true. Also, when so when do I get to be vice chair? enough for you. So, um I flinched a little when I heard the two sides thing a moment ago and um because I know that

293we're all really focused on working collaboratively and knowing that I am inclined to lean towards the idea of us rotating through. I think it's really important that we're building our relationships and that feels like a really um interesting way to do that that I'm open to. >> And you've done it once actually. >> I did do it once. Means I'm last now. >> Yeah. And you had to and you left early and we're we're all bummed you left early because we're about to get into the meat of the discussion. I I just want everyone to know too that if people want to do the rotate through, that's a yes with me because I've always thought that was a great idea the moment I heard it. So >> I think it was your idea, wasn't it?

294>> No, it was not my idea. >> Oh, okay. It was uh from when we talked to um uh board members from Washington State. >> Okay. Yes, that's right. Thank you. >> Well, my desire for a conversation has been satiated. So, thank you everyone for having it. Um I just wanted us all to have it together and this is how we get to do that. Um we still have technically four of us running for vice chair so we all need to figure that out before we next meet I think. Yeah. without talking to one another, >> which seems impossible, but >> great. Uh, do you feel comfortable moving on? >> Yes, please. All right. Is that what I heard? Um, >> unfortunately, I will have to leave for this last bit of the discussion since

295I have to get home and off to bed. >> Um, but thank you all. >> So, Unfortunately, you guys don't get the privilege of being a half kind of sort of board member. So, it's a really fun position. >> I did not call you that. I did not call you that. >> All right. Committee reports. >> Who wants to go first? >> I'm a proxy, so I can go first just for funsies. >> Great. Um I am um here on behalf of director Sullivan to talk about the audit committee. Um and I love it. I got hand like I got a script like the whole thing. It's so nice. Um so as you all know the chair of the audit committee is unable to attend tonight's meeting by the way. She feels terrible about it

296and really wishes she was here. And so, um, the audit committee last met on November 6th and had the opportunity to engage in a detailed discussion about outstanding contracts audit recommendations. While we did not resolve the outstanding recommendations in our meeting, we made progress, clarified some questions, and we'll have an opportunity to talk about it again in our February or March audit committee meeting. And also, I believe that our independent auditor will continue to have conversations with staff on that as well. Also, in the November 6th meeting, we were able to welcome a new member of the audit committee. We all voted him in last time. This is Evan Cole who's a junior at Grant. Um and uh he only had two days notice, jumped right in, attended that audit committee meeting on the 6th.

297Since then, he's had onboarding with our internal auditor. And we're looking forward to Eban Cole continuing to be a contributor to the audit committee this year. And we also want to thank student representative RTOR for um helping us get a student representative on the committee. Uh, finally, as mentioned in previous audit committee reports to the board, we are we were anticipating delays in the presentation of the annual comprehensive financial report. You might remember Michelle talking about that. It's often called the ACFR and the single audit reports because the federal office of management and budget had not released an update for compliance guidelines for 2025. That's what auditors have to follow when reviewing federal expenditures. So, that compliance supplement has been issued. The external audit team is working to wrap up on their audit. We anticipate

298the presentation of those audit results in our next audit committee meeting. That next meeting is scheduled for January 15th at 5:00 p.m. Director Sullivan will provide the board with a preview of that meeting's agenda in our regular board meeting on January 13th. And that concludes the audit committee's report for tonight. Thank you. >> Policy committee. We met I was going to say last week but it was yesterday. Um it was the shortest meeting ever and we talked about the work of the board which will be uh combing through and uh look reviewing the all of our board policies which are required to be reviewed every four years. We have some committees I'm sorry some policies that are as old as or haven't been reviewed since the 2000s. Um we're going to start with 1.00.0000 0000

299board of education and as we start to gel as a team and uh work on how our our our own you know reflection on how we work together. I think the board of education policies are a great place to start. They take on the role of the board of education board member duties student representative and district student council policy um performance auditing board meetings and protocol etc. And I think it that it's uh timely. And our next meeting is January 26th. >> Thank you, FIO. >> I just frantically texted you. I um I do not have a have a report prepared. I had a um family emergency this weekend as I know some of you are aware. Um so I was going to ask for some grace and see if I could do that at

300the next meeting. >> Absolutely. >> Um I really appreciate it. >> No worries. There's always grace on um committee reports because I know this is extra work and it's >> I will say that the light the grant lights are going in. I I can tell you that. >> Yes. And I was there too. I I watched it and I Yeah, it it can wait. Um I forgot what I was going to say. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Um let's see. >> What committee do I even teach and learning enrollment? I'm so tired and I'm feel like listening to these reports I'm here all the time. I've been here like every night this week. Um let's see. Teaching, learning, and enrollment met on December 11th. We heard public comment regarding uh Leand, which is our French

301immersion school. Um and their request to determine a high school pathway for uh those students who have been taking French for their whole education. um to a high school that has uh an advanced French pathway. Um we also heard testimony around access academy and equity concerns um regarding that program and we heard from uh Rose City Park uh DLVI and the ongoing challenges with staffing and uh kind of some some overall communication things. Um we heard a presentation on charter schools. Um TLDDR we have seven charter schools. Five are PPS charter schools. Two are state sponsored. Um about 1,300 students um are enrolled in charters. Um we heard about our role as the authorizer of the charter schools. um the annual calendar of deliverables and about their funding model. Um we also had a presentation

302on tag and access. Um so we talked about division 22 requirements um including uh tag identification as well as uh the corrective action that is happening. Um and then after kind of the the highle stuff about TAG and how referrals happen and um the way TAG plans are developed which is more like an IEP or a 504 than it is like going to a special class as was the case when I was a kid. Um so that that was new learning for me. I was not aware that that was how we were doing that. Um makes a lot of sense. Um but from there we went into a conversation about access academy. Um I think the the focus of that conversation particularly given the public testimony that we had heard earlier um was around uh

303gender and racial disparities at access um and kind of how how we've arrived at the population of students that uh currently go there. um how how students qualify to attend um and kind of what what the weighin is for the students who go there. Um then we talked about Jefferson, which is a lot of um what we heard tonight. Um it was kind of the preview of the conversation around um the academic plan uh for Jefferson Rising. And um our next meeting I don't have that date in front of me. It's in January. >> Can I just say something really quickly? Um, so as you know, I called into that meeting and I was particularly interested in the French stuff and I didn't know that because it seems um that the other uh PBSDLI programs

304have a high school that they go to where they have a language focus for their high school years. And so, um, I was surprised to learn, and I guess I would want to know more, if the kids who are working their butts off K through eight to do the same in French are not then having a pathway to high school to continue there. Um, and it sounds like these this from what I was listening to, it sounds like these parents are just saying we want to have AP access. It's not even a and I don't know what the DLI programs have at their high schools if it is just AP or if it is an entire program separate, but I would like to know and try to make sure that the kids who are going

305all the way through 8th grade are then having the same opportunities for French somewhere. Yeah, I think um I mean the difference primarily is that because Lamond is a charter um there's not that automatic feeder that the other language immersion schools have. Um which I hadn't ever thought about before. >> There could right there could be they're saying that they would like one. So I think that's our their request to us is to consider um policy that would create a pathway >> or which which high school >> where they want to enroll in our school. >> They probably do already. >> Yes. >> Oh, >> I think I think they want >> because that's a funding thing, right? So if they're a charter school, I think if they want to move together as a cohort

306and access programming at Portland, >> that is different than their funding, right? So I guess the question is do they want to, you know, stay with their charter and then when they get to high school move into our our high school? >> They want a pathway to high school together at a high school. >> Mostly at Lincoln because they they want to be the 910 French. >> Yeah. It's um Hi, good to see you all again. Uh glad I stayed. Um, I think it's uh has to do with them traveling together um from the charter school to a designated high school. So, we can we can provide some more information and context. Um, I know um >> Oh, they already attend our high school. >> Yeah, they attend their neighborhood school, right? So, because they're

307charter, they are they are in different neighborhoods and they attend their neighborhood high school. The request I heard was that they want to stay together and I think this has come up in the past. we can work on getting some responses or some information around that. >> I I have a friend that's part of that parent group and she wants the ask is for them to continue to Lincoln because I guess that's the only high school well there's five high schools that offer French but only one that offers French 910. >> All right, I kind of want to end this and go home. Does that sound good? >> No. No, it doesn't. It did half an hour ago. I'm gonna use the gavvel. And just so director for knows, it's all in the hip. >>

308I did not do a good job. >> No, it's all in the hip. You gota use your hips like that. This meeting's a journ.