2025-10-28 Board of Education Work Session with Vote on Consent Agenda

001All right, let's get started. >> By the time I finish reading, it'll be ready to go. >> All right, let's get started. Today, >> uh, this public work session of the board of education for October 28, 2025 is called to order. All items being considered this evening are are posted on the PPS website under the board and meetings tab. This meeting is being streamed live on PPS TV services website and channel 28 will be replayed through the next two weeks. Please check district website times for replay times. Um good evening and welcome. Thank you all for taking your time out of your day to be part of this. Um before we get started, some housekeeping reminders. Um we just want to make sure that we stay safe, keep the clear. Um, if you have signs,

002just hold them below your chin level so the people behind you enjoy the view. Um, and otherwise just, you know, respect all around. All right. Uh before we move on to tonight's agenda, I want to highlight that tomorrow night, Superintendent Armstrong and Brian Butchard, math math teacher at Bowmont Middle School in the 2024 25 Oregon Teacher of the Year, will be guest panelists at the City Club event, education in Oregon, what works and why it matters. Uh this evening takes place at 6 PM at the University of Oregon Portland Library. I encourage folks to attend this conversation, hear about what's helping Oregon schools make classrooms uh places where students want to show up and learn and how they're addressing issues like chronic absenteeism by taking small targeted steps that add up to a big change.

003I don't know if Dr. Armstrong if you wanted to add more to that. >> Just look looking forward to it. It's tomorrow and uh look look forward to the conversation. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. tomorrow 6 pm. Got it. Yeah. Good. All right. Next up, first up, we have the uh consent agenda. Board members, if there's any items you would like to uh pull for a separate vote, please say that now. All right, Miss Brad, are there any changes to the consent agenda? >> No. >> Do I have a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Director Sullivan moves. >> Second. Director Split seconds the adoption of the consent agenda. Uh one thing I before we vote on this consent agenda, I really want to highlight amazing privilege

004that I got to have. Uh on the consent agenda, we have a grant from Metro for uh Llewellyn and I have Luwellyn uh principal Diana Collins here to actually speak a little bit about it. Uh, a few months ago, Principal Diana Collins reached out to me and asked me if I would help write a letter in support of this grant for a climate resilient schoolyard project. I don't know what in the 50s to 80s or whatever somehow was cool to think that black top worked for everybody >> and as we know it just makes it really hot and kind of boring. So, um, this is a really cool project. I want to I want to really highlight this and I'm just really honored to be part of hopefully had some effect in helping getting this

005through. So, Principal Collins, if you could um share a little bit. >> Thank you. Do I have to say my name and spell it out? >> Oh, I think I said it plenty of times, but yeah. >> Okay, [laughter] perfect. Okay. Thank you so much. Well, I just wanted to take a moment to just thinking about the state of our world and the brightness of Portland. I am so grateful. I want to thank the voters of Portland, Portland, and to our local government systems like Portland Public Schools and the Metro Council for continuing to invest in our community, in our parks, our natural areas, and our people. Because of these shared investments, Luwellyn Elementary will soon create another magical place in Portland, a climate resilient, inclusive schoolyard that connects students, families, and nature. In June,

006the Metro Council voted to award Llewellyn $579,000 to bring our community's life to reality. I'm sorry, our community's vision to life. This schoolyard redesign will have a lasting impact, providing hands-on learning opportunities for students with all abilities in improving our local environment and strengthening our city's commitment to sustainability for generations to come. As a school that sits just above Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, we have a unique opportunity to build a space that benefits both our students and the surrounding wildlife and wershed. To all our partners, our families, and community members who continue to support this work, thank you. And finally, to our school board, tonight's vote represents how government systems can work together for something greater, an investment in our students, our community, and our shared commitment to climate justice. Thank you. >> Thank [applause]

007you. >> Thank you. I just want to say really quickly that it's National Principles Month and so as you cross paths with principles, make sure you give them that like two claps. So yes, >> thank you. I especially want to um thank Principal Diana Collins for pushing for this. I think it it's super important for our kids to not just have a place to play, but a place to play that fosters kind of creativity and just kind of um the diversity of ways that kids can play. Um and it's just it it's something that I think will be hopefully a model for the rest of the city to kind of follow suit and and really update into what we know today as best practices for our kids. So, I want just thank you so much

008for taking the lead on that and that that grant is amazing. I know you did so much work. I got to see your your vision board and all the ideas that were put in place and how much how much that Yeah. the community's vision. I mean that that there's a lot to unpack there. So, thank you. I like the focus on uh like climate resilience, you know. Um I don't know if you're adding shade canopy, but lots of shade canopy uh native plants, climate adaptive u material. Um yeah, it sounds I'm really excited. I hope you invite us to the opening. Man, one of the benefits I got to find out too is it helps prevent the oaks bottom wildlife refuge because it helps um divert or reduce the down um uh flow >> the

009storm water >> storm water flow into that area from from the streets up above. So it it serves like multiple purposes. >> I I might have to ask you about some of this technical like the storm water management piece. Would love to know more. >> I have one quick comment. Um, I I just I had no idea a month ago. I just wanted to highlight this at this point. Um, I'm really excited about this. 100% excited about this. Um, about a month ago, I heard from a parent at Wrigler, I think, where they did something similar. >> Uh, and it's beautiful there and it's wonderful there and things are going great. Um, but to anyone who's doing the planning process for this, the Wriggler parent let me know that the playground was shut down for

010the first at least six weeks or two months of school and so the kids didn't get to play there. So, I suppose just, you know, because we all know it's so important. Yeah. Just make sure that the kids get their playgrounds because we know how important it is. And when that parent reached out to me, I had no idea that this was going to be coming. Um, and so I said, "Oh, I'll I'll raise that." And I think I'd sent someone an email about it thinking that was where it would end. So, I'll just say that now tonight. But I think this is amazing. I can't wait to also come and check it out when it's done. >> Yeah. I heard it open soon, like next week. >> So, >> regular? Yeah. Yeah. >> Is

011there any other um >> chair? I just want to add Yes. Next week on [clears throat] the 4th of November at 1 p.m. you're all invited to Regular Elementary School unveiling of their new uh green schoolyards. Very exciting. And congratulations, Luwellyn. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> I have one more quick comment because I think you were about to say to someone else. I just want to say, I know we're talking about this later in the field trip conversation, but I I just love seeing where our mostly high schoolers are are going. They our high schools do so much cool stuff and they go to so many cool places and um just another postseason championship event. You're like, go. It's just it's really cool. >> Thank you. No, I love that. >> It is really cool.

012Um, one thing that I've also suggested in the past too to kind of follow up on that is that um, it wouldn't be hard to just have the district just kind of do like a quarterly or by annual report about all field trips to kind of see the amazing things that our kids have done and and are doing. >> I on that topic of field trips. Um, yeah, and we I think we did start looking at them more critically when we were looking at who was going where and who wasn't going where. So to put an equity lens on it. So yeah, I think it'd be valuable to see where people are going. Yeah. >> Yeah. But back on the consent agenda, is there any discussion on the consent agenda? >> No. All right. Easy

013day. Um, knock on wood. Uh, the board will now vote on resolution 7203 through 7205. All in favor, please indicate by saying yes. >> Yes. Opposed. >> Student director RTOR. >> Yes. >> Absentions. Thank you. Res uh the consent agenda as amended is approved by a vote of seven to zero with student representative to voting yes. Thank you. Uh next on our item to review is the draft for the budget planning calendar for 202627 school year uh which is scheduled for us to approve in the at the November 4th meeting. Uh Superintendent Armstrong, could you take this away? >> Absolutely. Thank you. We are excited to keep the information coming in and we have our uh chief financial officer Michelle Morrison to present to you all this evening. Michelle. >> Yeah. Thank you Dr. Armstrong.

014Thank you board uh for the time tonight. I know that in your packet you received an original budget development calendar and then a redline version with some changes on it. As uh we were trying to make space for more community review in the spring. we in inadvertently squeezed the period of time that the TSCC needs to do their review. So, in order to accommodate all of it, we had to uh reschedu our adoption date back to June 23rd and I can answer any questions you might have about that. Did we I guess I'll just ask this. Um I'm glad that we made the decision to make time for them because I know they were frustrated that their report came in like when it was really too late to have an impact last time. Is that

015what we're basically adjusting for? And did you talk to them and they feel comfortable with that? >> Yeah, we haven't appointed the members yet. That's that will be your work. But we have yeah that was part of the feedback we re received actually the last couple years that for CBRC there was not enough time for them to do a thorough review and compile the report. It was very stressful for them. So >> stretching that out a little bit put a squeeze on the other end of our process and we just want to make sure to you know give everyone lots of time to >> and then >> ask questions. Do you think it'll give us t more time to have their insights in front of us for changes to be made? Does that make sense?

016>> Yes. >> Okay. >> That's that would be my only comment as well is just to have a little bit more time um a little bit more wiggle room in the process so we have time to act on their suggestions. >> Yes, that was the goal and and my team appreciates that as well. >> Excellent. >> Okay. Look forward to your approval next month. >> Thank you. >> By next month, do you mean next week? It's very quick. >> And very quick. >> And [laughter] next week. Yes. >> No other questions. >> All right. Thank you, Chief Morrison. >> Going twice. All right. >> Yeah. Oh, sorry. All right. Um, thank you again for uh this calendar. Um, I think we're good with it. Uh, all right. Uh, the next topic this evening is a

017report on the results of the 202425 Oregon statewide assessment system data, also known as OSAS. >> Oh, just sorry D. She was also going to do a budget update, so we were just going to go right into it. Maybe that's why you were looking at me. I'm sorry. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. My my bad. I I um totally skipped. Thank you. >> Next, we're on the budget brief update. Um just take it away. >> Thank you. You know how much I love to sit in this chair and I am truly grateful that it is before 10 o'clock. So, thank you so much for that. I think maybe we can have a little bit more dialogue about the budget. Um and that is really appreciated. Oh, there was a clicker. >> [laughter] >> Oh, okay. It's

018on. It's not working. Cara, can we advance? All right. So, you will recognize this slide. We like to just continue to bring up the statistics. I think it's easy for um all of our community members to really be focused on their local and immediate um situation, but this is what you as a board are um supporting our superintendent and her staff in uh administering for the community of Portland and it's just it's pretty overwhelming. I had a staff member a staff meeting today where I shared this and there were lots of my own team members that didn't know some of these facts. So just want to make sure that those are coming up every time. We advance Cara. Ah success. Okay. This is another familiar slide. This one's just a sheer feel-good. This is a

019mantra that we uh like to share across our teams and across our departments as well. Thank you, Dr. Armstrong. Oh, too fast. All right, these are the things we're going to touch on tonight. We have uh talking about closing 2425 and uh a current year update. Also a sneak peek of what we're expecting for and then the touching on the budget development process to make sure that it it meets all of your needs and what you see for the community and then looking ahead just kind of what's on the horizon as far as the information that we'll be bringing to you. So, as we are closing our fiscal year, you all know it goes from July 1st to June 30th, so it doesn't align with the calendar year. We have our independent auditing team has

020completed three weeks of fieldwork and testing, and they've been here on site, which is a real treat because most auditors are almost fully remote for other districts in Oregon. So, this is it's amazing to have them here and be able to dialogue and and share the information that they like to see. We do have our general fund budget balance target of 5% has been met and you will see that on our website. We have uh published our fourth quarter report. So again that's an unodudited number but it's pretty solid. Um and it's what we're basing our current year budget beginning at. And as we shared with you earlier there may be a delay or shift in the presentation of the annual financial report. We can share a draft and it fundamentally won't change, but we

021may not be able to include our auditor's opinion without guidance from the federal government. All right. So, our current year, uh, we're currently analyzing September data. That's really the first, um, full month of expenditures, and it's also the month where we close out federal grants for the year. So, it's a very, very busy time. uh the team has been working very hard on it and we narrowly missed a monthly budget or uh financial report to you for this meeting. So you can expect that next month. Although enrollment is slightly higher than projected, especially in kindergarten, we're celebrating that. Um it's still an overall decline and so that impacts our financial picture of course this year and as we look to the future. Our spending controls are still in place. So, we have restricted hiring for

022vacant positions. Each position is being thoroughly reviewed before we um recruit and hire and fill that. And our spending restrictions on goods and services are still in place requiring an extra layer of approval as even up to the chief level um for certain things. That's helping. All right. This is a slide that we shared um last April originally and I know that it um has some recent attention brought to it. When we were focused on adopting our 2526 budget, we tried to forecast out what it would look like if we didn't make any changes uh to our spending internally. And we show here that there would be over $70 million shortfall for 2627. So I I've included this slide because I know it's top of mind for people as we're looking ahead. So our preliminary

023outlook for 2627, we have some early estimates that indicate there's a $50 million projected budget shortfall for 2627. Um it's smaller than what we shared last spring, but is still very very significant. And so we've started some early internal work um to see how we can address address that with still remaining focused on students. All right. So assumptions and variables that we're making. I just want to remind everyone in the community that assumptions are made and most assumptions are wrong as our actual information comes in. So it's important to recognize that as we see some fluctuations in both our revenue and our expenditures as we report that to you every month and every month we will include a projection for the current year. Um but then we'll continue in our budget development and sharing what

024we are projecting for next year as different milestones come up. We're assuming that our we will have no remaining reserves available. We've budgeted to spend them all this year in order to balance the budget. We're assuming that our students will attend a full school year. And I know that may sound like a given, but there have been times in the past when our budgets, whether it's an an in-ear change or um just a forecasted deficit that we can't offer a full year of school. We have uh state and federal funds will remain stable, and that's to be determined. We have a state forecast coming up on November 19th. The last one was not very positive. Um, and with our new uh federal rules uh in place that may impact our federal grants and even our

025overall state budget, I know that's something that all of you are aware of and monitoring. We're also assuming in this budget scenario that we'll have no consolidations or school closures for 2627. Again, this should look familiar to you. Roles and budget development. So, we I I just want to keep bringing this up so that we are clear and I can answer questions and support you in uh the information you're receiving, responding to the questions that are coming up for you from your community. Um and then as we move through um the superintendent to activate cabinet and staff to um generate information as you would like to see it. So looking ahead, we have our 2425 fourth quarter report. As I mentioned, it is complete and on our financial reports uh page of the PPS website,

026we have our 2025 Multma County tax rules, that information will become available and we'll actually start to see that uh cash come in. We will have uh updated projections for the current year, our state revenue forecast as I mentioned and then in December we'll get our district uh individual PERS employer rates for the 2729 bianium and I'm bringing that up because uh the last PERS uh board report they shared that the average increase was significant but it would vary greatly by district. And so I want to bring that forward and and we'll be sharing information about PERS at that time. All right. Behind this question slide are again those kind of uh kind of historical trends um graphics. I know I continue to include them. Uh soon you're going to ste see more forward projecting

027graphs and less historic unless you just want to continue to see those. So questions. >> I have a question. Great. Um >> uh you mentioned um restricted hiring for vacant positions. Does that mean there is still some hiring going on or is it over? There is still some hiring. So for studentf facing directly student impacted positions those are being filled regularly for the school based on our original staffing formula. It's more of those uh indirect positions that we are we are holding on. So if someone leaves midyear, we're not automatically refilling that. We're trying to um redistribute the workload or do things differently that um might be more efficient. >> Okay. also that if there were positions that were in the pipeline, I think the date that we talked about was October uh 31st if

028someone resigned or um vacancies that weren't already in the process of being filled. So um there could be some hires that are announced that it's just taken a while to get through the the process. I guess I just have a comment not not not to not not to you but a few weeks ago we heard at the facilities meeting how the maintenance crew has become so skeleal over the years and that the result is an incredible incredible log of work that will frankly never get to because we just don't have the people. Uh, and I know Director Chase Miller is really great at doing this. And so I just at this point want to take an opportunity to just call out and say we can't keep cutting. Not not we, not you, not you, legislators,

029governor. We can't keep cutting from public schools and making it skeletal and skeletal and skeletal and then be surprised when you can't just get someone to just cover the work. Um, and so all of us need to just, as you like to say, and are so great at saying it, just keep bothering like bugging, emailing, calling. These are elected officials. You put them in office. Remind them that public schools are the heart of our community. They're the future of our of our community and that it's important to properly fund them and we can't just keep seeing cut after cut after cut year after year and be surprised that people are leaving and that you know our schools are doing great work. PBS is amazing. Um, so reach out to your legislators and remind them that

030>> check. There we go. There. Maybe I just need to talk louder. >> Okay, we're going to share. [laughter] Um, I appreciate you calling that out from the facilities meeting and at the next meeting, um, which is coming up in a couple of weeks, we actually are going to model what it would cost to staff the facilities department at 100% so that we can use that number and share it, uh, with our legislators as we head into um, the next session. So, yeah, and maybe have the legislators look at different ways of raising money. I think they're just afraid to try anything different. Maybe a property tax, not a property tax. Nobody wants that. We just got [laughter] that. A sales tax, sorry. And uh but they're just afraid to try anything new. And can't

031we look at other states and see different ways of doing it? It just gets so frustrating that every year it's the same thing over and over and over. So be brave legislators. Do something. >> I would absolutely like to second that. Um last year um uh along with multiple members of the DSC um we went to the Salem C the capital in Salem and uh lobbyed for more school funding and my group also tried to advocate for raising state funding as well because that's kind of the root of the issue. Um, and it is very frustrating the amount of times that, you know, you'll be like, "Well, what if you tried this?" And they just throw their hands up and they go, "We don't have the money, you know, and you're like, "Well, can you

032get more money?" And they're like, "No, no, we can't get any more money." I'm like, "Well, I I can think of a few ways." And they go, "It can't happen. It's never going to happen." So, definitely keep putting pressure on your legislators, your legislators. >> Yeah. I will add that the response from legislators has been disheartening. Uh that was not an exaggeration. Like it's it's it's literally like there's no money. There's nothing that can be done. >> Um and I just don't think we can accept that there's nothing that we will ever be able to do to make this better for our kids. >> I I want to I have a comment on a question. Um, and we also want to raise what something that director split has raised many many times before is that

033it'd be nice to have the PERS number to kind of budget separately or see it separately so we can kind of see how much total of the actual budget that really impacts. Um, I think that would be very helpful to see because I think PERS is one of those hidden costs, right? I mean, in terms of from the outside when people look at it, um, they don't see how much that actually costs the district. Um, the other thing I also want to ask too is would it be too difficult to also get a maybe an estimate. It could be just an estimate about like um the various unfunded mandates and how much could be saved. I know that's sounds like a monumental task, >> right? But like it could just be, you know, top of

034your head or backhanded napkin math whatever guess about like if certain unfunded mandates were like let go or waved or you know like best case scenario um how much that would save. >> Yeah, thank you. I can look into that. I think one of the challenges about that is that we've just made it work and so typically an unfunded mandate to a district will push something else out. Um, and so it's it's difficult to say what we gave up to to fund this thing, but I'll see if we can't put our heads together and create a list. >> So, one thing I just wanted to add as it seems as if this item is closing down is I appreciate Michelle lifting up the assumptions for you all to hold in mind while listening to the

035presentation. And then just to flag that we know that state agencies um across Oregon has been asked to look at a potential 5% reduction. We don't know how that may or may not impact this academic year. And so as we know information, we're still committed to early and getting information out to you often, but we're not at a place to say that we are confident that there won't be some ask this year. And I just want you all to hold that 50 million is a big number um that we'll be reducing this year. And that's assuming that there's no changes um at the state level or to any grants that we were expecting this year to be able to uh fund the things that we had planned to fund. So I just I just want

036to just put that out there so it's not a surprise if we engage in this conversation again after the forecast later this um in November. Thank you for saying that. Um I obviously we're talking about legislative policy and politics, which is like what I do for a day job. And um one thing I'll flag, it's like I'm almost like a clump talking about it. But I think we know that like our state budget is going to have major issues going forward too. And with the outdoor school conversation, I remember hear a legislator writing back and saying, "Well, we all have like a shared responsibility to help meet this need for state budget cuts." And to me, that type of rationale is not good for school funding in the state. If we're expected, as we're having

037a $50 million shortfall already, to then have the state decide, well, schools also need to like be part of this cuts package. We're not hearing that talk for February and that's great, but I think that it will be a lot of defense just to hold on to what we have. So even though I love the conversation about wanting to do better and be creative and I'm very open to that conversation, I also just want to say on the other side, legislators are making decisions like how do we continue to fund health care for low-income Oregonians? we are very generous in how we provide healthcare in this state for all sorts of populations. So these are the conversations they're having. How do we hold on to that? What are we going to have to cut to

038hold on to some of that? And so it's going to be a really difficult time to be advocating for schools and we'll still have to do it, right? Because if we don't if we don't play that defense and play that offense at the same time, we our kids will suffer. So I think we all just need to buckle up for small wins. because I think that's going to be the name of the game for the next few years um as we um deal with a federal government that's choosing to um go directly at some of the work of Oregon. So that's my that's my like sad reality check I guess but also like commitment to to do the work and be in it with all of you. We'll have to be in it with our

039families and um it's going to be interesting tough. >> Yeah. Just a note too that we we have leadership doing some really amazing lifts to make systemic change. And so they're going to bring options to you that are a little bit more local and and I hope that you we can just remain focused on the student experience at that time. >> Um I'd just like to thank you for your videos online. [laughter] Your education videos. >> Those are great. >> Are very nice. Thank you. >> You're welcome. You're making the budget fun >> and then making it really unfun. >> Also, I love the little uh little uh pictures on the slides. Really um invigorating. So, >> thank you. >> Right. Thank you, Chief Morrison. All right. Well, now thank you for uh correcting my

040mistake earlier. Uh we have the OSAS presentation data or sorry data presentation. Uh tonight's presentation is also part of our oversight role in monitoring our adopting board goals. Um I also wanted to thank director Englesman in previous meeting has pointed out that our work of the board needs to be really focused on academic excellence. And I think it's also defined in multiple board retreats and professional developments that we've done that boards that focus more of their most of their time on academic excellence tend to do better. So um thank you for elevating that. Uh Dr. Armstrong, uh could you introduce us? >> Absolutely. I just want to pause and acknowledge our educators and our leaders who are working hard in classrooms with students or in the hallways supporting. Um I think they are doing incredible

041work and so um any wins that you see in the data I would say uh thank the local teams in the different sites because I think they um absolutely deserve it. The only thing I want to point out about the data, and I think you heard me talk a little bit about this earlier this evening, but just recognizing that there will be reference to the board goals, and some may wonder like why are those percentages uh so high for some of our groups who um have had perhaps the lowest um scores reported. And that's because that we're trying to close gaps. And so just hold that in mind as you as you look at data. and and we want to continue to make sure we equip our schools, our educators, and our leaders with everything

042that they need to be able to get to um the level of uh closure that we need to say that all of our students are having a quality experience in Portland. But with that, I'd like to introduce my fabulous team and uh I'll turn it over to Dr. Renard Adams and he'll introduce the other speakers as they go. Uh good evening, Chair Wong, Vice Chair Depass, student uh Representative RTRTO, and members of the board. Really, I'm excited to uh present to you this evening on our student achievement data that we've um received from OD. Tonight's presentation, I want you to um or envision the fact that this presentation and then our work later on the district continuous improvement plan are like one large presentation that we've chunked into two pieces. And so, as um we've

043previously shared, we'll be going through what what do the data say? So, what what's the implication for the board goals for our students? And then now what? And while we have a slide around some of our reactions and adjustments, we then have an entire presentation where we'll take you through the district continuous improvement plan and the different strategies that we incorporate and implement in each of those uh four core areas in order to help students and schools meet with greater levels of of success. So, just wanted to sort of put that out there. Um, that doesn't mean you can't ask questions, but just that I'm going to go through the data relatively quickly because you got a pretty extensive memo from uh my team and I and um we want to get to really getting

044you hands-on into the work of the district continuous improvement plan. All right. So, I wanted to start with the why because we often get questions about uh oh, I went too far. We often get questions about why do we give OSAS and first I want to begin by saying it's federally mandated by the what the law is now called the every student succeeds act. Many years ago we called it the no child left behind act. Um, and so what that requires is that annually each state in the school districts within that state assess student performance in English, language arts, and mathematics. And that we do that in grades 3 through eight and once in high school. In Oregon, they've chosen that high school grade to be grade 11. And the question that this assessment answers

045is, did students reach the standard for grade level per performance during this school year? In PPS, when we share student performance data, we sometimes talk about growth and we sometimes talk about academic achievement or proficiency. Unlike the MAP assessment, which can show us that students are growing even when some of those students are below grade level, OSAS is a proficiency measure which means uh and requires that students demonstrate grade level performance. In its essence, it's a yes or no proposition in terms of student achievement. Either students met that uh standard or they did not. Let's dive into the data. When we look at our overall trends in ELA in uh the orangish and yellow shades and mathematics in the blue shades, we see that we continue to see increased performance over time in both subjects.

046The same pattern of increased student performance holds true when we separate our data out by the elementary grades 3 to five and the middle grades. And in fact, we're seeing larger increases in grades 6 through 8. Uh we always include these slides to show that um PPS student achievement continues to outpace the statewide average by double digits in all grade levels and in both subjects. That's pretty unheard of in terms of an urban school district outperforming the state as a whole. Additionally, and this is a big deal to me, um PPS students are showing a level of academic recovery that is not being seen around the state or the country. Since statewide assessment restarted after the pandemic, school systems have been working to regain the lost ground and restore student achievement to at least where

047they were pre- pandemic. In PPS, we've achieved this in math where we're exceeding prepandemic levels and ELA is basically just there with just a difference of a tenth of a percentage point. Again, when we look at performance by grade and across ELA and mathematics, we see that the majority of grade levels for both content areas saw an increase with some decreases noted in ELA in grades three and five and math in grade three. We know it's important to racialize our data, so we disagregate it by level, school, and by race and ethnicity. We note that we can still see we have our persistent gaps that we're trying to close as Superintendent Armstrong mentioned. Um, and even with those gaps, we saw that all students except elementary latex students were seeing increases in achievement in ELA,

048excuse me. Similarly, in math, elementary Latinx students saw a decrease in performance while everyone else saw improvement. So, that's something that we're currently unpacking is sort of the why behind that because that's striking us as odd. I just want to acknowledge that. Here are our OSAs trends for our students with disabilities. While improvements are occurring, performance of students with disabilities lags behind those the performance of their able-bodied peers. And lastly, when we examine the performance of our English language learners, or as we call them, our multilingual learners, we can see that we have much work to do to bring these students closer to academic excellence. Next, we'll spend some time examining the student achievement in terms of progress towards uh board goals for our students, which is the entire title of the board goals, which

049is why director of the fourth, they're all academically focused. So, I I get when you and I have had that conversation about we could talk about operational excellence and human capital management. Absolutely. Um but these goals were specific to students. Um, what does this mean for our board goals? As a reminder, our board goals are researchedbacked and nationally consensusdriven temperature checks of student performance along the metriculation route to graduation and post-secary readiness. Board goals that are measured and connected to OSAS performance are listed on the slide. Those are third grade reading, fifth grade mathematics, and eighth grade readiness. Literacy is a is the gateway skill to all other academic disciplines. We know and research has shown that students who transition from learning to read to reading to learn by the end of third grade are

050better positioned for future academic success. Here are OSAS trends for third grade reading by race with the change in proficiency between 2024 and 2025 noted for each group. As you can see, some students, some student groups saw an increase in performance and others saw a decline. The board goals for our students call for a certain amount of growth or or difference in proficiency, increased proficiency each year to close those persistent gaps among students. The amount of expected growth is shown in the board target column. Now compare that amount of growth to the actual amount of proficiency change in the previous column and you can see whether or not the board goal for a group of students was met. Where students were already meeting expected proficiency changes or did not have targets. NA for not applicable

051is noted. Fifth grade mathematical proficiency is a critical checkpoint because those students who are on grade level by the end of their elementary years typically experience and are successful in algebra during the middle grades. Here, black and multi-racial students experienced achievement declines while all other student groups saw increases in student achievement. And here are the outcomes for the board goals for our students for fifth grade mathematics. As you can see, we did meet the goals for students who are uh Asian and Pacific Islander. And lastly, uh eighth grade readiness. When students are on grade level as they enter high school, they are more likely to experience nth grade success and graduate within four years. The eighth grade readiness board goal identifies students who are proficient in both ELA and mathematics. As you can see, the

052student achievement for this benchmark improved for all student groups except for our Pacific Islander student group. And here is our met not met board goals achievement chart for eighth grade readiness for our students. As you can see in this particular uh growth target, we met and exceeded that ambitious goal for our black students and our native students. And now we'll start to transition into the sort of now what of the presentation to be continued when we talk about the district continuous improvement plan. And as such, I'd like to invite Dr. Isaac Cardona, our chief of schools, to discuss our planned and ongoing academic shifts to respond to the data and our ongoing need to improve outcomes for all PPS students. >> Thank you, Dr. Adams. So, you'll hear a little bit about this or a

053lot about these strategies in a bit um when we get a chance to go back there, but I wanted to share some high level things that we're currently doing. So, in this current year, we are doing what we call stitching. So, bringing together things that we know are best practices. In the fall, we launched RISE, which was looking at the foundational pieces that are needed to make sure that students are successful. OSAS, as Dr. Adams often says, is lagging, so we get to see at the very end, but we wanted to make sure that we were setting up students this year to have a strong start to the school year. We focused on things like classroom routines and shared agreements, learning targets, and success criteria, which we know is a a top factor in teacher

054clarity. We looked at curriculum in use, as we have in previous years, and then student engagement. So those four areas made up RISE. In the first six weeks, we had 7,000 classrooms visited by principles, instructional coaches, um other leaders, and then we had school teams get to use that data to help plan and prioritize for the fall to make sure that they are going to be on track or on target. We've also launched professional learning communities for principles. That's a time for principles to see each other's practice, look at data, learn, and grow together. They also get a chance to do instructional walks each other's buildings. We have two of those each quarter and so everyone gets a chance to see other buildings and then have their building observed learning from each other. Um and

055then last we are looking our district continuous improvement plan. So have a plan at the district level for performance and now our school plans are tied to that plan as well. So just a lot of alignment and clarity from central office to schools and then back up. One thing that we do is that we are also supporting schools that have higher tiered supports. And so on Fridays, every other week, we get a chance to pull in leaders that we know need additional supports and wraparound services and still get a chance to work here with central office teams to say, you know, what's lacking. We look at our data and then set um continuous goals for them and offer support along the way. So, we'll get a chance to hear more, but this is just like

056an overview of things that we're currently doing within the school district. >> Uh before we open up for questions, I'd like to turn things back over to Dr. Armstrong in case she had any concluding remarks. >> Yeah, sure. I know that I I said this in executive session and I just want to say publicly how very proud I am of the district team uh both the executive leaders expanded cabinet members who are here uh many of the drivers of the work that you see sitting back in the tables with their laptops ready to guide you through experience many have been with us for a very long time um some new but they all have so much to offer and I look forward to you uh I look forward to your learning um that will be

057guided by them. So just thank you and uh yeah what questions do you have for me or the team? >> All right, let's get started with questions. Who would like to >> I'll start to so when I saw this data the thing that jumped out at me immediately was that we don't have any data for for juniors. you know, as someone who had who has taken the OSAS test for juniors recently, I was like I was like, "Huh, that's weird." And then I was like, "Oh, wait, no, that's not." Um, and this is something we're working on also at like a local level at Roosevelt. But I think that that like in one or two years um that that we could make a significant improvement um in in uh uh 11th grade results in OSAS.

058Um, and this also goes for eighth graders as well by just finding some way to get kids to care because that's that's the part that always stuck out to me was that like kids don't care. I didn't care when I was taking that test. I could have done, you know, 10 times better than I did. Um, but I was, you know, at at that point, you know, in many cases I was being pulled out of class, you know, where I had work that I needed to do that was graded. Um, to be given this this test that didn't really matter. And so the the largest incentive for me was to get the test over with so I can get back to my graded work. Um and so if we can figure out some way some

059way around that and and especially in like the the convincing kids to care department that I think that we could make hum like humongous uh leaps because you know and I I've said with with many people I don't feel like this this data you know even though this data is good I don't feel like it represents our students you know and getting this data to match our students could um could could be a big deal. So that's that's all I have to say. >> I I appreciate that. Student Director Rorto, we um know that our participation rate or opt- out rate at the high school level is very high. Um and and it brings the percentage the participation percentage down to a point where OD says don't even analyze these data because they won't um

060give you meaningful information because not enough students took the test. So, it'll be interesting to see um if the OD comes out and reinforces the requirement that this test matters again for high school students, but we'll have to wait and see for that. But I agree that we have a um an interest and a motivation problem, especially at high school. >> Thank you. >> Can I just jump on that? I actually had that on my list. Um so, for those who don't know, OSAS is only administered during the junior year of high school, correct? >> Yes. And um one of my questions was is there as a district is there something we do we want to initiate there the opt- out rate's really high and I think that there was some messaging probably you know

06110 eight years ago where families were um organizing to opt out at the high school level. How as a board do we want to have a conversation about maybe reversing that trend because I think we're all finding this very I agree with you 100%. Um to um re you know as a as a board and as a district connecting with our high schools you know for this spring and trying to increase that participation rate because the data is so valuable. Um we don't know where we're at um in terms of like you know quantifiable data. Sure. Um, so that's something I know that as a board member I would be very supportive of if there was some sort of strategy around engaging those families and getting them to opt in. Um, and explaining like why

062it's why it's so valuable. >> Well, it's actually hopefully I can add to that a little bit. Um, I spent decades administering tests like the OSAs and stuff like that and not one single testing session comes by where not multiple students ask why do I have to take this? >> And it's not any session ever passed by where I know that some of my highest achieving students are the ones that opt out are the first to opt out. >> Um, not only that, but I also know that like you said a lot of kids just like they do it because they have to. I don't have a good answer for them besides like the state needs this data or the it helps it may help the district improve its practices and you know I'm I'm

063honest with them. So I I think one of the things I kind of want to respond to that is that if we do something maybe one of the values of things like standardized tests is not what it says on its own but how it compares to others because everybody has the same problem, right? And so you know looking at from a data point of view, its value is not in its in its isolation but in its comparison to how other people are administering. And if we're the only ones that require everyone to take the test, then that changes our data different to how it compares. So then the comparative value may diminish. I also I I so I mean that those are some issues I want to point out. And also, you know, there's also

064things like for example like the cultures that the students come from and and how that affects like how the outcomes also happen too. Um you I don't want to spend too much time uh uh talking about that because I have some real questions. I I do have one really question two. I have two really qu two really quick questions um since I already have the mic. Um number one is there the one of the issues I've always had with the OSS test or the presentation is that it's a it just shows us pass or fail, right? How many students pass? How many fail? And what I I've pointed out I think I pointed out before, but one of the let's say you have 50% that are not meeting that target, right? there's a big difference

065between like if you're looking at the 50% 50% that don't meet that maybe 5% are close to meeting versus 90% are close to meeting and that's a huge difference right so I was like wondering from the OSAS data is there any way that we can tease out that kind of information >> uh that is possible yes um the reason we always give the percentage of students who are proficient is because that's what the law requires and that's also how schools then fall fall into improvement status. Um but schools do receive and we likely in our huge data file have um OSAS provides performance on four different levels one two three four with levels three and four being you know you demonstrated or exceeded um grade level expectations and so schools do receive information around their

066students that are like for example in level two so they're just below the mark for meeting those grade level requirements and many of our schools do create sort sort of wraparound plans for those students in terms of how can they improve their experiences so that they can do better the next time. >> Thank you. That that's actually very helpful. Um I guess my next question is the other information I would wondering if it also could be teased out is actually looking at growth over time and I think that was mentioned before but like for example uh tracking students year you know like so longitudinal data so you're tracking the same student year by year >> third to fourth to fifth. >> Exactly. Because I think what one thing that is also valuable data is seeing

067how many percentage of students grow and like in terms like grow faster than their peers >> versus the ones that are falling you know growing slower than their peers that helps like problem solve right um so I'm just curious is that is that something that also can be >> utilizing this data >> I would say yes I the only um additional point I would make is it would also be important when we look at data like that to understand the amount of student churn we might be experiencing as a school district. Like how many students actually return from third grade for fourth grade versus how many of those fourth grade students are new to PPS, but I think it's something we could definitely investigate. >> I thought we already tracked um I I thought we

068already tracked the um a data point in every grade per individual student. Do we not do that >> for growth? We do with the MAP assessment for map. I get the two tests confused obviously. >> That's right. >> That's why I always have a slide that talks about growth and proficiency so we can talk about both and then which one are we sort of focusing on this particular evening. >> Okay. Excellent. >> Great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Other questions? >> I have I have one. Is it um possible? What I would love to see um are trends by race with chronic absenteeism overlaid to see how much chronic absenteeism is impacting each category that we have here. Is that data accessible? >> Well, it is. We'd have to do some work to compile

069it in that way, but it's certainly something we could do >> only because, you know, the the gaps between our are so wide that it feels like is it curriculum or is it absenteeism? Like could could we kind of drill down like what what more of the root causes are and quantify them so that we could target our spending? >> Sure. We've done some preliminary examinations of chronic absenteeism and OSAs. Um particularly um I recall looking at some information and data on our African-American or black students that showed um obviously we know seat time matters right and instructional time matters and materials matter for teachers and we see that there is some improvement um for students who are not who are good and excellent attenders versus those that are chronically absent. Um it's not a

070big huge gap though, right? So that's we can continue to look at that and we can provide that um to you. I know I don't know if Rosanne is here, but I'll take down that question and we can get it to you in the in the question tracker if that's helpful. >> I have a couple I have a couple things. [clears throat] >> Um first of all, I I love this data. I love that we have it. I I think I've heard you, Dr. Armstrong talk about um and I would love you to say it again because it was really um impactful on me like why we care about 1% or 2%. So before I continue on with my other questions, can you just say that because it is really important even though it feels

071small, it's it's not. >> Yeah, thank you for that. I'm trying to recall from just a couple hours ago. But but yes, I think it's just that, you know, one two 3 percentage uh points of growth is growth and we're excited about about growth and we know in order to close the significant gaps that we have and to like move up the tier and the scoring, we need to actually close we need to achieve or show show progress by like four, five, six, seven, 8%. And I think statistically that's what's considered substantial growth. I think now what we claim is that there is growth um and we have consistent growth over time. We're not yet at the place where we can say we have substantial growth. And it's substantial growth is is what's going to

072close the gaps that we have. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. That consistent growth I think is really important to to highlight because it's it's really important. And I look at this and I am so proud of PPS for outperforming the state for showing not that I want to outperform everyone should be, but that we're doing so well and that the level of achievement gains by PPS students. For anyone out there who's wondering, should I send my kids to PPS, go for it. You can see from these slides that your kids are going to get not only a great education, but a community-based education with leadership that really sees your students and sees your families and cares about them. And I'm really proud of this data. Um, thank you for providing it to all of us

073this evening. >> Um, the one question that I thought I had and now I can't find my little sticky note. Um, no, I'm just leaving myself little notes. I don't have any other questions. I'm really grateful for this information. Um, thank you. >> I I appreciate that. I I do want to add I um had a conversation with a local member of the media and we were talking about our results and they said to me um well I hope you know you you and Dr. Armstrong's team are smiling because none of your friends um in the larger districts are having as good a day, right? And so I think again there are great things happening here in Portland public schools and this is just some of the evidence of the great things that are happening.

074So, I appreciate you pointing that out, Director Englesman. >> I remember what else I was going to say. Um, one, I don't know if this is OSAS or MAPS or I Ready. We do so much testing at PPS, but I've heard um that apparently there are games at the end of some of the testing and that kids might race through them to get to play video games. I don't know if that's true. I've never taken these tests, but I've heard from some of my sixth grade kids friends that if they race through them and of course then not score as well that they get to play video games. So, I would just flag that if [clears throat] that's out there that we should not be having that happen. >> That's the first I've heard of

075that. >> If they end the test, they should just get to do more math homework while they're waiting for their friends to to finish up. So, anyway, that's just something that and of course maybe they're not very reliable in sixth grade. Um, the other thing I I remember what I wanted to say. I appreciate at the very beginning that you said it used to be No Child Left Behind and now it's each student succeeds, every student succeeds act. And I I want to point out the hypocrisy in anyone, federal government, anyone looking at the way that PPS is focusing to raise achievement gaps and saying that it's improper. Because if we really want this test to matter and we're seeing that there are achievement gaps, then we should we collectively, the federal government should not

076be surprised if a district is focusing on raising achievement gaps by putting money in schools that need it. And so why would we bother doing the tests if we don't take the data and use it to make sure that all of our students rise? Um, and so I'm proud of PPS for for looking at the data and acting on the data and maybe putting more funding than is needed in some schools elsewhere so that all students get what they need. But we can't have both. You can't have a federal government saying you must do this, but then ignore the data and make sure that everyone is just that's all. Um, I have a couple of questions and just things to say, I guess. Um, first of all, thank you. It's good to see what we're

077doing in response to continue the trend that's moving in the positive direction. Um, I'm curious if we know the percentage of kids by race that are multi- multilingual learners. >> I specific islander. >> I don't have that memorized, >> but you have it. But we could we could get you that >> because I think like I mean I don't need you to get it to me, but I think like looking at that like some of the places where there were kids of color falling behind and then we saw those multilingual numbers like is that linked up? Cuz I'm wondering if it does directly correlate and then we know that multilingual learners is the place to look because it really seems like that's a possibility based on kind of my maybe stereotypical understanding of our student

078population. Um, but I I [clears throat] just I thought I'd point that out and I kind of felt like I saw some there there and helping multilingual learners be successful on a test that depends so heavily on understanding language in order to take the test is pretty rough on those kids. Um, and so I [clears throat] just wanted to flag I know that we have an ELLL audit that we're working um, our auditors talking to to leadership about that audit so that we can release it. I think that's happening in December. So hopefully that will help guide some of those conversations. And I just kind of want to anytime I can talk about an audit that I think will help us do our work better, I feel like I should. Um I did have a

079and then I guess I don't really have a question. That was kind of a question, but um Dr. Adams and I sat in recently on a training um with OD and some Salem Kaiser teachers talking about OS um interim assessments, which is something the state is offering now. And um one of the things that you and I talked about in the past is just to me how much sense it makes for kids to have access to that testing platform um multiple times a year. And we would need to ditch some other testing mechanism because I don't want to add more testing to our kids. But I love that if the OSAs test is really what we're going to like build our goals around as a board, etc. that we're using any tool we can to

080help those kids be more familiar with the style of questions and the platform and and all of that. So, I just really hope that the interim assessments um become a way that we can meet both the new accountability law that passed last year and help our students be more prepared for these tests as we evolve our testing. And I know probably teachers are like, "Oh, no, different testing." But, um it does seem like the state might ask us to make a shift to how we do our interim testing. And I think aligning it with state standards will help set us up for success because um one our teachers have to teach to standards. All of our curriculum is built toward it. And then also now the test that like is used for like the report

081cards and the stuff that I kind of hate because I really want it to be more like community feel of why you go to a school. But still we know that a lot of people do look at test scores when they're making decisions about where to send their kids to school. So I just think anything we can do to um help prepare those kids. So, I'm just doing a little plug for the OD OSAS interim assessments as something to consider going forward. Um, that'll be up to you all as staff, but I'll just give my little plug because it sounds so logical to me. Um, and I'll leave it at that. Thank you. >> I appreciate that, director Split, if I may respond. Um, I asked uh Dr. Farley at OD if let me back

082up. The accountability law says that beginning next year, we have to give an interim assessment three times a year. the state has put out an RFP um and is um going to be required to provide districts in Oregon four options. What I asked Dr. Farley was, "Will your current interim assessments be one of those options?" And his response to me was, "I don't know." Um because he doesn't know what's going to make it through the RFP and the screening and the selection process. So, um please know that that won't be a decision that like I'll make in isolation. I I will be talking to my team and with this team about the engagement we can make with um educators and building leaders around the choices that we have and then we'll make a choice once

083we know what's available. But right now, it's sort of um all up in the air from what I um Dr. Farley shared with me. Yeah, I was there for that question when you asked it too. And I hope that the I hope I wonder if there's a way that we can lean in on like do they have committees for assessing these different interim tests? Um maybe it's a space where we can take part in taking a look at you know the options that are out there. And I'm sure they have some sort of I don't know most state agencies will have like external parties come in to review certain large contracts. So, it might be worth seeing if we can like get in the door as a um district that is on some sort of

084committee and selecting or whatever. So, anyway, just a thought on maybe how we could make sure that um we end up with one of those four options being something that we can live with. Here I am a state agency employee plugging state agency processes and public participation. What can I say? I I think I must have been in the same >> um meeting you went to the second time around and because they mentioned that you had been at that one. I think it was Barley and uh one of the people from Salem, one of the teachers who was testing was from New York >> and she just was saying she was so astonished when she moved here that they didn't have to take tests because kids in New York are just so used to it.

085They're not worried about it because every year you have to take this test period. And uh it was just interesting a different way of thinking about it. And it sounded like they were using their tests to decide, you know, where to go next with each child that they were use really using them for for helping. >> They they highlighted um Thank you, Director Sullivan. Though the teachers that were present from Salem Kaiser highlighted two benefits. One was instructional adjustments, which all about that. The other was um students having experience in the platform and the way it works and not going into an assessment environment and being completely unfamiliar with it. So I I really took note of those. It was a it was a rich presentation. >> Said, "Do you know Dr. Adams? [laughter] I

086want to tell him about this." And he said, "Yes." He was just here. So I said, "Okay." [laughter] >> Well, thank you. >> Oh, sorry. questions. Director Dwell, I don't mean to cut you up. >> No, no worries. My questions were uh kind of in the same spirit as uh Director Splitz. Um obviously the the racial disparities uh stood out to me and I appreciate uh Director Split's question about um if there is a language component uh for ELA kids that is contributing perhaps to the disparities we see with uh Latinx students. Um, but I wanted to uh lift up and celebrate the gains for African-American and Native American students and um ask first if you have a sense of um what strategies and practices are being effective and accounting for those gains. Um, and

087then my second question, the answer for this may this might not be the right meeting for it because we're talking about OSAs, but I'm curious about uh other forms of assessment we use that are not standardized tests that are more authentic uh forms of assessment and like what we can tell about students by by looking at both um and what we know about um student performance. performance um based on like what they are showing us in action >> um as opposed to just through the standardized tests. >> Sure. >> Yeah, I can answer the first question. So, schools have focal students or focal areas very similar to we mentioned in the data. One of the things that is not new, but we've been doing for the past couple years is a what I need block.

088So in elementary schools teachers have the opportunity to work with students with based upon their own skill or skill levels and so every student should be getting what they need. They can differentiate that time across the whole school like a tier one practice be grade level standards line instruction. So we've been adopting materials for the past few years and those are being implemented within our schools and classrooms. And then we also have instructional coaches within our buildings who help look at the data really closely with teachers and the administrators. And so they can sit down with other, you know, teachers at that same time, get to see best practices, share student work and then work together to see what they need to shift or change in their classrooms to make sure that their students are

089growing or learning. Um, and so these happen throughout um in the middle school as well. we have a a whole block of time where teachers get to collaborate and work together around their student work or planning. So, you know, we think all of those things together make sure that students get what they need so they're progressing. >> Kudos to those teams. Um that work is really paying off. >> Yeah. And then to the question around the assessments, um I think one of the things that we are working on this year is implementing uh curriculum- based assessments. And so thinking around, we have our OSAS that provides the end of uh grade level assessment within that grade within math and within literacy. And then we also have what we would call a unit assessment, right? And

090the ability to be able to look at that um at a district level, at a school level. So we've been working on implementing some of that. We have some things piloting right now. Um, and when we share our quarterly updates this year, we'll be able to share some more information around that. But rather than waiting until the end of year, how are we looking at it from a unit or a quarter basis [snorts] that's lifting up the grade level standards, right? >> Can I just make one more last comment? Um, I love that you um called out the high gains because I think it's really um for me at first when I looked at this I saw the not met not meant not met and I want anyone who's looking at that and thinking oh

091they didn't meet it to realize that if you start circling the um the deltas from 2024 to 2025 that have increased. It's like a super majority of numbers that are that are increased. And so the not met is the somewhat arbitrary board target because the board set a high target that no one's trying to change because no one's trying to shy shy away from not met but are staying on the course and are trying to get there and so if you ignore the not met which sounds more serious than it is and look at the everything is almost everything is going up in the right direction and so I want people who are looking at this and thinking oh wow they didn't meet it they didn't meet it to actually look at the column that

092matters which is the very first column and see how many I mean it's a super majority. Um, I just wanted to say that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And I want to highlight that and also add I think this is the first time I've ever seen so many Mets >> ever on the whole board goals, >> right? I mean, >> yeah, we never thought that. >> So, yes, that plus there's actually a couple minutes. I'm saying that's a big deal. Um, I just have a couple closing questions and then Oh, oh, closing last questions. Um I really want to highlight that hey we met a couple few um but I was at the presentation with uh Dr. Cardona, right? I don't know if doctor, right? >> That's fine. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. Uh did

093a presentation about the rise thing about you visited 7,500 >> um classrooms. I mean, I think we how many teachers we have is like 7,500, right? >> So, the goal is to see every teacher at least three times during this time frame. And so, principles have just been walking on a pretty consistent basis every single week. And they and their teams are trying to get to, you know, at least 15 of their own every single week. So, you know, every classroom get a chance to be observed and then every Friday teachers get a or principles get a report to see what that looks like schoolwide and with their instructional leadership teams they can plan professional development. They can look at what's going really well and you know learn from those teachers implementing at a high

094level and districtwide we can see the same thing. So folks get a chance to visit other schools and see where they're doing incredible work and then bring that back to their own building. So really just sharing best practices. And if I may just like really quickly, I want to lift up um something that was said in executive session, which I think is a huge win. And I know the team in the back would love to hear this. Um but a student uh when asked by uh their mom about learning targets on the board, yet sometimes there's a learning target and other times it's an agenda. And I said, "Well, that's a win that they know the difference." And so I thought the team would like really appreciate hearing that. So >> yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

095I wanted to highlight that because that's a huge lift. I mean that it's a lot of work. >> Um my last question for for me for the about this is about um are the teachers still I I remember when I was in PPS there was a couple of years where our teach all the teachers got the results from it was OSASS or maps or I think all the above. um and disagregated by race as well. >> And that would I don't know if that's still going on, but I remember that being very beneficial because as you know like teachers like to flock to other teachers who are having success and and learn from each other. So >> we we have a dashboard um where teachers see their students that they teach and all the data

096associated with their students where principles, assistant principles and vice principles can see all the data associated with students in their building and then as district leaders we can look across schools. We also have data protocols that they use and they go through that either in their um professional learning community or in professional learning as a school campus looking at school campus goals as well as it how it related back to their school continuous improvement plan and whether or not they met those. >> Great. Thank you. It's great to hear. >> Any last questions before we move on? >> Great all three of you for presenting in the wonderful data. Well, we're transitioning over kind of out of probably out of order. I just want to say I really appreciated that whenever we were talking about

097the results at the press conference I attended. It was always with that reminder that even though the results overall were good, we still have work to do particularly for certain groups. And I just really wanted to honor that because I think sometimes that got missed from the outside world the way that you were talking about it in the press conference very candidly about yes, good news, but lots of work to do and particular groups um being left behind. So, thank you for that. >> I think people really like hearing the truth. So, >> all right. Uh, next up, we have our first reading and revisions of two policies. Uh, number one, the field field trip foreign travel and other off-campus activities 6.50.010 P and also the liability of employees of the district policy 5.50-P. Uh,

098Vice Chair Depasu is also the chair of the policy committee. Would you like to introduce these two policies? >> Uh, sure. Um, I would. So, on the field trip policy, um, we made some changes to streamline the current policy, primarily removing board approval for out of state trips that are more than 150 miles from the profit center and international trips. We also reiterated an expectation of a substance-free environment on trips, noting particularly for adults, which is not contained in other PPS policies. This does not remove the oversight of these field trips as they are extensively reviewed and approved by the senior director of schools and risk manage management before a trip can happen. The additional layer of approval for board review adds time pressure on schools, especially for field trips that need to be planned

099months in advance or those that require quick approval like qualifying for an outofstate tournament uh when they're, you know, tournaments happen and you win and you have to go to a trip. Board approval also doesn't add a substantive layer of risk mitigation. Um it does provide visibility to what trips are being taken, the cost of the trips and whether the trips are being taken equitably across the district. And staff has offered to help develop other means of providing that visibility. And I think it would be helpful to have that visibility in terms of yes knowing to your point um director eng. I think we're talking about doing some streamlining and um I think that getting a report it would be valuable and yeah and anyway uh director Wong did you want to make some comments?

100>> Um yes I would like to make some comments since I think I was the one like most uh one that I first actually want to actually start with a quick apology. Um it was I I want to take ownership of this because not at the last policy meeting but the the policy meeting before that we had talked about the staff version of this policy and I had made the assumption that it was posted and I didn't follow through on getting it posted. So I really want to apologize to the policy committee meeting and thanks for your patience and also specifically to director Engles and who had to rush read through all this thing and and and and putting in people in awkward position. So that I take ownership that was my fault. I had

101assumed it was posted and and I didn't follow through. So um that was my fault. Um I I wanted to to bring this up because this is something that we've some of us in the board actually have been working on for a couple of years, >> two years. Um one of the things I I want to highlight, one of the biggest reasons for these changes, it does three things from and changes from the old policy. First is a complete rewrite. So there's no red line version. Um number one, I I'm going to give this analogy again. I know I gave it in policy committee, but I got a few chuckles, so I'm going to say it again. Uh uh one of the one of the things about the old policy is it doesn't really follow

102best practices for policies in terms of like policies are supposed to set the direction and goal um not not the how. Like one example I gave was like looking at hospitals and their policies. Hospitals have a lot of policies on ethics, ethical behavior. They have some legal stuff. They have some you know things about like how they um their goals you know goal setting and things like that. But what they don't have are policies on how to do hip replacement surgery because things like that constantly change, right? As best practices upgrade, you know, hip replacement surgery is way better now than it was 12 years ago. Um, not only that, but it's a uh we don't have a one-sizefitit all system. Not everyone has the same hip, right? Just look at me on the dance

103floor. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Uh, so one thing about the uh old policy and the improvement on the new policy. So one one of the three things is one it it remembers that is there's not a one-sizefitit all when trips are going to Vietnam they require different types of safety and oversight uh and knowledge part you know specifically than trips that are going like for example choir going to Seattle it's a very completely different system uh number two it it reaffirms that the the experts in the field are teachers and our principles uh they're the ones like for example one of the issues that the old policy was trying address was that there were teachers from other um disciplines going on these trips and was impacting uh the student uh learning. However,

104that was immediately resolved when the teach when the principles were notified of the issue and they quickly changed the way they they work these things and that problem was solved right there and that's the way it it should be solved, right? The principles and the the teachers who are closest and know best what's best for the students are the ones that uh are doing the oversight. Um and number three is again just just follows best practices in terms of um what we are looking at a time of like like was mentioned before skeleton crews all over education. We have not enough administrators. We have not enough teachers. We have not enough uh central office staff to do things. So, one of the best things we can help out is when we see things are inefficient

105that may not be improving or achieving their goal to whittle it back and and make it more efficient and more um generally just uh uh better for everybody, you right? Less less work, less administration where it's not needed is is going to help the district and free them for, you know, mental energy to actually deal with some real problems. Um, and so that's the other goal of of this policy, you know, because I've I've heard from feedback from principles that it is uh a lot of the value and or or sorry in terms of the the amount of administration that requires was lost on them. And so that was the other third improvement from this policy. So that's what I say. I before we move on to discussion, I just want to remind us that

106um this is just the first reading. So we are not making any decisions on this today. Um it it it's for us to give feedback to discuss. Uh the second reading is when we actually take a vote will be on December 2nd on our regular board meeting. All right, that's all I have to say about that. I have a question. Um, I've read through the policies and I think part of my issue is I probably needed to read the old policy and I I didn't. I just read the new one. But I got an email from somebody that I respect from like my work world that happens to be a PPS parent who I think thinks that this policy will make it harder for the travel that some of our immersion programs do, but I

107think it looks like it makes it easier or like removes barriers and process. Um, and so I just want to confirm my take that that concern was maybe not okay because you know when you read something and you're like I'm not seeing this right. I just want to confirm that. >> Yes. And policies can be confusing depending on how they're written. Um it it does remove a a burden. It removes a a a process burden. Um and our oversight us um the field trips coming before the board every single time does make a delay. We know that principles don't don't love it and so it is a streamlining and again if it's to provide visibility to where we're going and what we're spending and which schools are and whether they're equitable or not then that

108could come in a in a memo. Yeah, if I can add to that, the old policy, the 2019 policy, which is different from the 2012 policy when there was so there was original version which was in I think in 2011 or 2012 and then the 2019 one was written and passed as a response to some of the DLI trips and it has a very prescriptive section about uh what for the students that are not going on the trip and it's very prescriptive. It talks about, you know, things like having a specific curriculum and things like that. And so that that was used in terms of like when you write an administrative directive that comes from policy, the administrative directive has to follow the spirit of the policy. So when there's specific types of um let's

109say hardline in terms of uh treatment of you know and and and requirements and the AD will try to meet that by requiring certain things like limits on days was one attempt at it and things like that. Um what this policy changes is that um I think it was taken from I don't know if I'm allowed to quote Dr. I'm show but uh it said like you know field trip policy should just be about field trips and then um if you want to look at for example the academic outcomes and things like that that's that's another issue and I think by having this policy focus mostly on field trips but at the same time still acknowledging that we should still minimize the impact for students left behind being less prescriptive means that the ad following

110the spirit of it will um allow more kind of what I say localized oversight. >> Does that kind of make sense? Um, also there in our in our board packet is a I found this really um, helpful is there is a comparison chart, a table that compares the old policy with the current one that we'll be voting on in a few weeks. So, I found it really helpful just what's what the different there's basically two differences and yeah, it' be helpful just for you to review that. Um, so I just had a question actually about this comparison chart because it says um because the comparison chart appears to be between the current version in 2019 and the staff version. Um, oh, this is the staff one from J. I read that as as 2019, but

111that's just October 19th. Never mind. Um, but I but on on the other note, um, I do I do think it looks good and I actually uh I was a little bit confused at first after reading the comparison chart. Um I think I think yeah I think it it makes it makes a lot more sense especially um the part about about striking um the outofstate travel requiring board approval. Um I think that part will will be will make things actually a lot easier. So >> yeah, just to add some data points, there have been for example last year and the year before the board having had a special vote because like for example like a team recently just qualified with like regionals and had to go out of state and that was extra administrative work

112to kind of you know people had to work overtime to kind of get it through the admin through central office through risk management all the things and to get it in in front of the board. Um, there was also last year happened to the the the Japanese capstone trip. It raised their tickets prices by $600 because they couldn't buy the tickets in time, you know, because you know ticket prices are cheaper the earlier you buy them, right? And so by putting that delay on it, it raised $600 per student. Um, and so there was I mean that's that's I don't I don't can't do mental math, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. >> And again, this is not district money. It was actually paid by parents fundraising. So that um the scholarship they they

113they fund raise for a scholarship so all students who want to go can go and so it puts the burden on on that in that case the parents right so >> I guess I haven't oh go ahead Patty >> yeah well I I had heard from a principal that sometimes you know you plan ahead the teachers plan they get the okay from risk management but then you have to wait two weeks for board approval so it was just very time consuming and they I'm sure they will appreciate this I have I looked back at this email just because I really want to make sure I get this right. I probably should have written back this parent before now and looked at this like more closely before now. I did read the board packet, but looking

114back at her email that I'd kind of forgotten about since I saw it last week. Um, is it a change to have this language about like nonPPS paid for field trips? Is that a change? it it is an addition and it's not a change in actual practice. It's in a change in actually what's in the policy about clarity and in requiring a greater degree of clarity for the nonPPS trips. So the concern that they have is with a nonprofit that raises the money to make sure that all kids can go on this twoe trip. And so they raise the funds, they pay for the substitute teachers. Um PPS doesn't pay for any cost. So is it then a issue that we're writing in some things here about if it's a not PPS trip then? Um

115>> I I think it's a question. Oh, excuse me. >> Oh, I was going to say the that requires that there's no branding PPS branding or it's not advertised as a PPS trip, >> right? I think it's a question of whether it's a PPS trip or not. If I understood you correct correctly, Director Split, what you described is a PPS trip that was getting funding support from a nonprofit so that they could go on a PPS trip. That's different than perhaps a group of students wanting to go with another nonprofit. It isn't a PPS trip. There isn't PPS staff going than there. This would require a greater level of clarity in ensuring this is not a PPS trip. So I'm I'm not exactly sure of the of the scenario. >> And we're we're doing this

116is first reading right now. >> Yeah. >> So maybe we could do some work to check in since at least one very smart person is worried that what we're doing is going to mess with our immersion or language immersion field trips and make sure we're not doing that. >> Well, if I can answer that. the um the language immersion capstone trips are PPS trips. So when that that section about non-sponsor trips does not apply to our schools and and their programs because this is part of for part of the DI program that is actually integrated in part of their curriculum. So n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n nonsponsored trips are a specific kind of trip um >> you don't see very

117often, but say like for example um like a religious camp. >> Eddie, can I give an example? >> Can we just check in and make sure we're not accidentally messing with them? That's all I'm asking. Okay, thanks. >> When I was in eighth grade, like 100 years ago, there was a school sponsored eighth grade trip to Washington DC. Um I did not go on that trip. I went on like it was an educational tour with a company. It was different. Um but um we shared that information with other families. So if there were other kids who wanted to go on that trip, they could go on that trip. So some other kids from my school went on that trip. Wasn't a PPS authorized trip. It wasn't the official eighth grade trip. Um it was some

118PPS families organizing through their connection at PPS, but it wasn't a sanctioned trip. So I think it's that type of difference. But I see where the misunderstanding would come in because of the nonprofits that are organized to support some the immersion trips. But I I think that's what like the distinguishing factor would be. >> Yeah. If they're uncomfortable, then I think we should make sure they're comfortable. That's all I'm trying to get out. >> Just some clarity of what's >> Yeah. I mean I I mean I think one of the reasons we wanted to look at this was to make it easier for DLI trips to happen but we can we can check before the the second reading. >> We're sharing a mic over here. Um so uh I I I like this. Um thank

119you for the opportunity to read it. I like it. Um I I do sometimes play devil's advocate and so I just want to suggest that old policy or new policy we always have the opportunity to carve out an exception. So if there's an annual sports event that we are hopeful or we know that one of our high schools is going to go to then it would always be possible to just say you know girls volleyball uh gets to go to the championship without having to go through this process. That would always be a way to avoid that. Um, so I, you know, the idea that a sports team finds out on Saturday night that they make it and then they have to wait two weeks to get board approval could easily be just a carveout

120exception. Um, I'm not suggesting that we do it, but there are creative ways to get around some of the issues that have been raised. Um, annual events, sporting events, whatever. Um, I uh I guess I like this this staff report. Excuse me. I like this um this policy. I do. Um I guess I wonder how um where is it? Oops. Oh, I guess I I um I've looked at this knowing through my legal profession that words matter and that if you say something like staff should consider, staff could also ignore. Um, and I'm not saying staff would today or tomorrow, but it allows in the future for someone to just ignore because a should is a recommendation rather than an expectation and a requirement. And so I would like us to and maybe I have

121to do it through an amendment. I don't know. This is my first time doing this. However, I think we needs to tighten up some of the language because I think what we want is that when planning off-campus activities, staff and in the legal term illegal world, we use shall or must. um consider the following because we don't ever want to land ourselves in a situation where a staff is choosing to just ignore a potential barrier based on race, religion, culture, gender, sexual identity, or immigration status or someone's IEP or section 504. So, I would like to see some of that language and I can figure out how to do that, but I would like to see some of that tightened up a little bit. Um I also [clears throat] I in just reading this um

122I got confused. The non-school sponsored activities seem to be the same as the travel study program. Like um if you're doing subsections, I thought non-school sponsored activities was its own and that travel study programs was also its own. And so I had a lot of questions when I was reading the non-school sponsored activity section that got answered when I got through the travel study. So I wonder if we need an extra um heading in there to make it clear that we are now moving away from PPS sponsored activities and moving into completely non-school sponsored activities which include travel study programs. Um so that's one thought or one idea. Uh Mhm. I also um I also would and again I don't know how to do this, but I guess at some point maybe it's an amendment,

123but I would love to see a section added because I think it heightens transparency and community involvement and then frankly the ability to celebrate what our students are doing. And so I think in a policy we need to make clear that maybe we're getting just monthly reports to the board about trips taken, school days missed, staffing impacts, costs, those kinds of things. So, not only can we see the equity of it all, but also just celebrate what's happening in our community. And I don't I don't want that to get lost because our students are doing great things. And if all the other great leaders are just signing off on things, not just it's a lot of work, are signing off on things, but it's not coming into this public space, then we don't know what

124our students are doing. And I would love to make sure that we always do. And so, we write it into a policy. The last concern I have is, and I'm sort of bringing this from the August 2024 staff memo, which I know was looking at a different policy, however, highlighted some things that I think are still important to consider, which is specifically the kids who are I don't want to say left behind because they're getting a great education in PPS. So the kids who are not going on this trip um and they want to make sure that they don't receive quality curriculum based instruction that they receive continuity of instruction and that they don't stop learning that there isn't a substitute there that's handing kids um documents to just work on that they keep plotting

125along and so an eighth grader who isn't on the trip is continuing to learn exactly what an eighth grader at a different school that doesn't have a trip is learning instead of waiting, right? And then losing time because these kids are gone and they're having this amazing international experience. Frankly, the kids who are still engaged in PPS should just be moving along and then the the burden, the work should be on the kids who miss the time to come in and make up on it, make up for what they missed because they were not in school. So I am a little I just want to make sure that the language in that receive quality curriculum based instruction is clear that they will continue to learn and that they won't just wait to then start again

126when the students come back in. >> No, they get to watch videos the whole time. So that's the standard. >> Yeah, I would actually like to answer that question because I I think it it holds some assumptions that actually didn't pan out to be true. Um, but first off, I I want to I want to answer your first qu first thing about before about potentially adding something that um like for example oversight or report on on field trips. I think it it it always kind of is kind of weird just practically I don't know if that's the right term weird. I'm going I'm going to it's official term weird to put in a policy something that the board can do anyways. Like we can right now just ask Dr. Armstrong to uh >> give us

127a report on all field trips taken in this school year >> next, you know, quarterly >> like we we we can we have that power. We we can just say, "Yeah, we want a bannual report on all field trips >> and we'll get it because that that's something within our our oversight duty and our our ability." So, I think I think just just that question about like having to add something in a policy that we can already do is weird. uh I don't know what the legal term is. Um so that that's my answer to that. I mean that that's something we can always look at. Um the second I want to answer the question about you know for the impact the 2019 policy was written in response and it was like one of those

128things where um yet the the what caused the issue of the impact was that there was a teacher that was not in the DLI uh program went on the trip and yes those those kids like for example I'm just I don't remember what it was. I think it was a math teacher went on the trip and yeah now that impact a lot other students but the current practice right now and that was fixed the year after that was done is that only the DLI teachers actually go and if you know from middle school um you know it's seven periods a day so the only the only ones are left behind I don't know whether the term are the other DI kids who are totally okay with having their DI teacher go for sixth and seventh

129grade because they know that their turn is coming up in eighth grade and so the only kids that were impacted were in the DIP at the same time on these trips. There's strong requirements for all the students to stay uh uh to keep up with their school work. So when they come back, they don't have to do remedial work. I mean, I I I've seen the curriculum and the plan. It is very I mean, these kids when they go on the trip, they come back exhausted because they're not only keeping up with their regular school work, but then they're also doing their capstone work. So in terms of like what that impact is on the students who are not going I would say that it that has that story has been kind of what you

130say uh partial incomplete uh partial truth right it didn't show the whole picture so and again this is something where like I feel strongly that this is something that the principles can fix because they're the ones that know their school best and know like hey which schools are missing out but also making that call about like these trips. I mean, if you see these kids come back, I I actually invite you ahead of time when the Japanese trips come back and when the Mandarin trips and the Vietnamese trips come back to go see their presentations, >> it is life-changing and I really welcome you go. And to say that that like for example some sixth graders I know like for example in the Mandarin program just because I I I know that intimately um they

131spend a lot of time there's um actually another like part-time Mandarin teacher that takes over for those classes or they get a sub you know as much as they can not all the time. It's not 100% but they get a sub that's a Mandarin teacher as well that that covers those classes when they're gone. So the only classes that are impacted are the sixth and seventh graders. And so I think sorry sixth and seventh graders in their DLI classes which is only two periods a day by the way. >> So just >> I've been to the um a couple of the when the students return their presentations are amazing and I think it would um provide some more insight into like what they're actually doing. So yeah they're going to school in another country they're

132exchanging you know buying things and um interacting hearing the language and it's really fabulous. Yeah, but I understand what um Dr. Engles Dr. Director Engles is saying. Sorry. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Um because this doesn't say anything about making sure that the uh class left behind, not the class that's remaining, does it? I just was reading it. >> Where on safety first? >> Whoops. Uh sorry. It says that on the top where it says um let me read it. At the same time, students remain on campus must continue to receive quality curriculum based instruction. >> All right, good. >> And it does say must on there. So just >> so I I appreci Oh, >> because I know we talked about that a lot last year. Want to be sure it was there. Okay. >>

133And I I appreciate all those answers. I think for me even if it's it has nothing to do with the content of a policy and it is more that I strongly believe that our policy should be clear and strong and instead of leaving it up to someone in the future to interpret because they may interpret it differently and they may interpret it in a way that we don't like. So the areas that I've highlighted are just me trying to say shore it up, tighten it up so that there's no room for um interpretation in a way that we don't in a way that runs a foul of what the intentions are behind a good policy. And to that I say that I think we should write in that we get quarterly reports because while this

134board might ask for it, another board might forget or might not want it. And so then suddenly, and I I think that I've heard, and I I might be wrong, but I think that I've heard that part of why this all came was that there was some, and I don't know, but there was transparency issues with figuring things out. And so I don't want to go back to a place where we forget to ask for what is a very cool program and a very cool update. And so that's why I want to put it in there so that no future board 6 months from now because we're too busy and we forget or six years from now because they don't care anymore doesn't get these um reports. And so that's why I would like it

135in there because it is our policy. We are saying quarterly we will get a report and then it's just goes in our little board calendar and once every three or four months there is something that's just on a work session agenda. Um the one thing that I would really like to say um you brought up some good points around the kids who who stay behind and the education that they get and I absolutely agree with you that the kids who stay behind should still get a quality education. However, I think that that we should be careful and make sure that we're not tying our hands, you know, by putting too much in in the policy. um because uh because I think that we might end up building some unnecessary barriers to what are you know

136what we've all agreed are in incredible experiences you know and we want to make sure and that that these experiences can still happen you know but but if we make that standard too high for what a kid who stays behind needs to needs to receive I'm just concerned that that's going to become a barrier that means that these trips don't happen you know is my only concern by by adding more to this policy I think the policy as it is is fine. Um, but by if we were were to add more in that section about kids who stay behind is my only concern. I I guess I like to think of the policy as the the what and the how is in the administrative directive that can be a lot more specific and prescriptive and

137keeping this simple again to what we heard from principles um makes it easier for it to administer and yeah it relieves the burden even as we're going to be probably cutting staff again um it relieves the burden of having to go through multiple checkpoints and and and actually the board checkpoint doesn't add any an additional layer of of safety. So because it goes through risk management and and that's a pretty that's a pretty fine you know a fine tooth comb. I've heard a lot of people Oh, go ahead. >> Sorry, just real quick. Um would add that having the details in the administrative directive makes it more flexible and easier to change as circumstances change or you know uh dictate uh versus if something isn't a policy which is very difficult to change and doesn't

138allow for that flexibility. Um, I just want to reiterate or I guess echo I'm having a hard time coming up with the right word. Share support for the idea of having the report written in because I've heard multiple people say that we it would be much better served by a report, but then the report not being in there. It doesn't really if if we're like saying the report would be better, we should just put it in there as the new process that like whatever the director of schools or whoever it is, I think that's who it is. whatever they have to sign off on just gets like thrown together quarterly and shared with us or something. So, it's not creating like a whole new thing. It just seems like if we're all gonna multiple people

139up here supporting the policy are saying that the report is the solution for the transparency, then we should put the report in. That's all. Thanks. >> Actually, I actually don't like the idea of having a required report. And I'll tell you why is because >> no I rather for example um I see things as a problem solving perspective you know that's how I've always lived my life. So um if we're trying to solve for a problem then we should get that report and it should be a focused problem solving. But if we're just getting report because it's good to see or fun or yeah, then it it's extra burden on staff to do something that may not actually result in a positive outcome for students. And so if we want to look at equity in

140field trip distribution across the district, then let's do that and let's say, hey, we're we want quarterly reports this year. This is the problem we're going to solve. And actually have an actionable item at the end of the year. But if we're not going to do that, then what's the point of having a a report coming out quarterly that requires extra staff work? >> But you just said earlier that you did want the report. So are you just taking back that you wanted the report? >> I don't want the report in the policy because that's a power that we can we always we already have. >> We could ask for it tonight even. We could just say we want, you know, we want two reports a year on field trips. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay.

141Well, maybe whenever we're evaluating this policy, then let's at the same time decide on a cadence and agree and vote on a cadence for the request for the reports. And I would again request that instead of them I don't want them to be administratively burdensome either. And so it kind of frustrates me when it's like I don't know is it is it Dr. Cardona who's reviewing these? Are you reviewing these field trip forms? Okay. So whatever form you're getting and signing that's it. I just want that thing like not a new thing. So hopefully we can come up with what would make not an administrative burden, but just shine that light of transparency, which I think is an important value. And if we're all going to say we think a report's a good idea, let's

142just make sure that we make that report happen. I don't really care how it how it happens personally. Other people might really want it in the policy. >> I agree. >> Hi. [laughter] >> Um, so I have a few comments. Uh, I do want to uh like e echo I'm laughing because I I had circled a a couple shoulds and wrote shall next to them in my notes. So, in terms of tightening up language, I'm definitely sharing you're my spirit animal. Um, director Angelman, tightening up that language. So, should be carefully designed, shall be carefully designed. Uh, should consider the following. Shall consider the following. um not one that loves a lot of gray area in those places when we're writing a policy because we will lose institutional knowledge over time. Um so I think

143that's really important. I also um I do want to say that I actually I don't know if anyone else up here has actually traveled on one of these international trips with our students. I have had that privilege and it is an incredible experience. Um and I understand firsthand the value that it has, you know, for for our students. Um so I do believe strongly um I appreciate that we have students remaining on campus must continue to receive quality curriculum based instruction. I did add some clarification that I would like for to say continuity of instruction for both on and off-campus uh students. I don't feel like that's too prescriptive only because it was um my memory of what happened that precipitated the the current policy is a little bit different. I do remember it being

144more than one family that and I I know which school it was that it was it was a significant issue in terms of um building administration and um staff um uh traveling and impacting the students that were not part of the program. So I do remember it a little bit differently. Um and bec because of that the continuity piece is really important. It does matter. Um, and also we do have two staff reports here. We have the one from uh late last week and then one from 2024 and they're from different departments. One is from risk management and one is from our um academic team. And the one from our academic team does call out that they have um expressed and continue to have concerns about the academic impacts on traveling students and students remaining

145at school when students are gone for 10 consecutive days for international trips. And it goes on to say that they're not recoverable. I would love to for our next reading. I would I would love to have this team weigh in um on whether or not they feel like we should have you know the detail like the continuity of instruction piece as part of the policy. Um and then let's see a couple more notes before anyone else jumps in. Uh I do have a note about a monthly report to the board to cover transparency and um equity. You know, making sure everything ladders up to our board goals. Again, uh it doesn't have to be a report as much as like here's, you know, here's what we did this month. I mean, I'd love to see

146it. I think it's something we can celebrate. Um I think it ensures that, you know, we have our eye on equity across our programming as well. Um and as far as outofstate travel, I just I had a note um that I was looking I think it was LA Unified. just started like looking at like best practices in other districts or maybe not their best practices but like what are other other districts doing and I did notice that they did have um some carveouts for athletics so they didn't have to even go through the process. it was kind of like, you know, if you if you win, you go check. So, there might be a way to even expedite the process more for them. But in terms of um you know, board approval, I think if

147these things were included in the policy um and we were seeing, you know, a recap regularly of what sort of travel is happening, I don't have a problem eliminating board approval. >> Thanks. There's uh good feedback. I like it. Oh, I can note it. And I do want to add there there's always a little danger. I just want to put that out there to put at the high level policy. Of course, like the reason that we have ads is because it's flexible and can change to like unforeseen circumstances. Like for example, if you do do something like change a word from should to shall or must. Um there's a danger for example like I'm just I'm just making up a hypothetical situation. Let's say um and I'm gonna be very fast because people in back

148there are waiting and I I don't think it's right to hold them this long. So I'm gonna be very fast. um let's say like a a basketball team like just qualified for regionals and they're leaving on the tournament tomorrow and the teacher who's taking them has no time to prepare well prepared curriculum-based you know continuity of experience and so you could say that they are not allowed to go because this teacher does not have the time to prepare right a well and then so now you get in a position where now the board is mandating what is valuable you know weighing the scales of what's valuable instead of like the teachers and the principles knowing like hey this experience is more valuable and yeah there's going to be a little bit of sacrifice and I

149think that's that's where the danger comes in with putting language that's too strong. So I just want to point out there which is why like for example when we look at best practices policies a lot of people a lot of people a lot of a lot of things say like you should just define goals and direction and and that's why you know when when people write the ads for these they write it in the in the spirit of the policy and so that's where you can have the strong language. Um so anyways I that's just that's just uh something to think about. I'm not arguing for against but I'm just highlighting that that there are dangers you know pros and cons. Um, last call before we move on. >> I just have one quick question.

150When would I make an amendment? Could I do it now or is it only at the second reading where I would make an amendment to add? And I I appreciate somebody you you I mean all I would want to see is what we're getting in here, which is going to Dr. Cordona anyway, which is an approval to plan a field trip and then something else field trip request. Like that would be enough to just have a sense of what's going on. It doesn't have to be anything more additional, but it's already being given to someone else to look at and so it could just be stuck like sort of stuffed in board materials once a quarter. So I guess I'm asking because I want to um >> Yeah, let me >> ask for an >>

151Is there a policy committee meeting between now and December 2nd? >> Yes, there is. I don't have the date in front of me, but there is a policy committee. Yes, I can. What I would recommend in the course of action is that you write all the amendments that you want and then you submit it to the policy committee and staff. I think it's Sharon Tonrey, right? And so they they have time to kind of provide the staff feedback on the amendments and then in the policy committee you can decide you know like to separate which amendments you want to bring forth on the December 2nd. We can als I think we also have another work session meeting as well. If you want to discuss it earlier we can also discuss it then as well. It

152looks it looks like we have a our next meeting is November 17th at 4:30. >> Our policy committee. >> Does that make sense? Like for example, maybe one amendment is like uh these words shall be turned into should >> right and then a second amendment is I want to add this thing to this part and the third amendment would be like I would like uh by annual report, >> right? And so it I think it's best practice usually to separate in separate amendments because you if you do it all at once, we may have to separate in the meeting because you know some people might agree with some parts but not others that >> I would say we also so we used to get a packet right in our board materials and so in my

153mind I'm envisioning not the whole packet that comes with the coach's signature and hotel costs but more just you know this is where we're going this is the cost per student if that even matters um I don't know what else you would want include, but it would be more of like a memo that had the the list of trips. >> It is more work for somebody. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I'm trying to suggest that we don't make more work that we just have it be what is already being produced even if it's longer >> rather than creating a >> I guess and I'm I'm suggesting maybe that we just get that in our inboxes rather than having it or in board book. >> Okay. Can I um complicate this further? Um, so I don't have

154any objection to having some visibility through a report. Like it sounds fun and interesting and something to celebrate for sure, but I've also heard it proposed as an equity check and those are not the same thing. So I think we need to be clear about what our intent is and if it's just as a nice to know and something to celebrate because if it is as an equity check or some other kind of check then I think we need to have some actions associated with it to make sure that [clears throat] we're actually checking for equity and not just like getting this piece of paper being like wow this looks cool and fun um and then putting a check next to our equity due diligence. I completely agree and I do know that there because

155when this policy was implemented they did start to see disparities across schools and trips and because of that we have I think it's a $500,000 field trip equity fund I think built into our budget because of it and maybe we can make you know incorporate a check-in to where those funds are going and that they're being used as part of the process. [cough] >> I'm cool with whatever direction the board takes. I the only reason I want it is because of transparency because there was issues with transparency in the past and this provides transparency and I find that to be a value that I bring to the board and care deeply about which is not to say I don't care about equity but I do think that's a whole other can of worms I guess

156um to introduce into this policy which I think is just being designed to make it less cumbersome for these field trips to happen. It seems like a different purpose to me than >> it is >> than um but I don't if that's what the board wants to do, cool. I I'm fine. I just want to for transparency. >> I mean, I think calling it out for transparency's sake is enough. We just need to identify that that's why we're including that. Um but I think the equity piece doesn't hurt either. >> Okay. So, I I want to make sure I understand what I'm supposed to do. So, are we sending this back to policy committee and then deciding whether to re-refer it back with some amendments, which it sounds like at least three of us or

157are we just going to talk about it at the next time? I don't know what to do because I've never done it before, but I want to make sure I do it properly because it sounds like there's at least three if not more who are interested in adding for transparency, for equity, and just for the celebration for all of the reasons reports. They could be long. They could be everything that is in currently without any additional work to anyone. But I want to make sure I do it right because I it's important to me to do it right. >> Okay. So, you have three options I can think of. Uh number one, we we leave this policy as is and you write up the amendments that you want. Um and send that to staff and

158the chair of the policy committee. Um, and that will be brought up in in policy committee and you will vote which ones you want to recommend to the full board as an amendment to for when we take a vote on it. That's option number one. Option number two, you can move uh to send the policy back to policy committee. I do want to note that because of the reading times that would by doing that because policy committee meeting is when again >> nove November 17th. >> 17th. >> Well, I think we also wanted to we were trying to meet We are trying to meet a deadline. >> Yeah, it will it would significantly delay the passage of the policy for at least another month um until our January regular board meeting at the earliest. >>

159And so that that's another option. >> Um >> and by the way, that's why we have been talking about this for two years. So it's >> but also I didn't get a chance to talk about right like I appreciate the ownership that you took but like I did this is the first conversation and this should have been done in policy committee and so now I'm trying to figure out I don't want to I don't want to delay I don't want to be obstructionist I don't want to send it back I want to know what is option three uh you write up your amendments you can send it to staff for feedback and then I can set up the next work session for us to discuss this policy again where you can propose those amendments and

160we or even next week if you want on our regular board meeting and we can take a vote on then to do it or we can decide to vote on December 2nd. Thank you for that. I like option number three and here's there's a number of reasons why there's no delay. Frankly, the three of us and maybe more who have expressed an interest in having this are not all on the policy committee. And so I don't think going back there to have other people decide whether to put it on the board meeting is appropriate since we know that there's at least three of us who are interested in it. And so it should just be a full board conversation. It shouldn't go anywhere else to be maybe not brought back. Um and uh it gives

161us an opportunity to talk more. So I can write this up. What date are you saying you would put it on for? Not November 4th or November 4th. >> It could be November 4th or the one after. What? What day is the one after? November 11th. >> To clarify, it can't be November. You can't vote on it on November 4th. So, you could discuss it and then vote on December 2nd. >> Yes. >> That's what Okay. >> Exactly. Right. >> So, we can actually have on the agenda either on November 4th or when's our next one after that? >> The 18th. Thank you. Um either on November 4th or the 18th to actually have a time on the agenda to discuss a policy. November 18th is the meeting that I have to miss. So, I

162will get this done. I would like to talk about this more on the November 4th meeting. I think um I had something else I wanted to say. I'll get it done. Um if it's November 4th, I did have some interest in hearing from the staff on the academic side. Um I mentioned because we've got a staff report. You've got one for this policy from risk management, but the policy that was up for first reading for the last year, their staff report is from the academic uh leadership team. I would love to have the academic leadership team weigh in >> and that that's the one that's linked in board book the August August 24. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, I just don't know if they'll be >> just because it's only a week away and

163we want to respect staff. I would say that that I would say we could ask them for the report on the 4th, but we definitely can like >> like demand the report port report for December 2nd. >> So you're here with December 2nd. >> I just want to make sure that was okay. That's that was I was like I don't think they could do it by next week. So >> yeah, exactly. That's right. So it gives a month for them or five weeks for them to prepare that. Yeah. >> So can we vote then after that? Would that be a second reading or do we have to go again? No, I think if so, let's say the the scenario laid out in front of us right now is um that Director Englesman is going to

164write up uh amendments, have staff review it, and then we'll have time on November 4th to discuss it. And you know, we don't we're not voting on the amendments then. We're just discuss having time to kind of discuss it and air our issues and and and support or whatever. And then it will be on December 2nd that we will be voting on both the amendments and the policy. >> And yet you want somebody to come and speak on that day, right? >> Yes. In addition, uh, director Lefor has requested that we have the academic team also provide feedback on the field trip policy. >> And could they could they provide feedback uh written feedback or would you like a presentation? >> I think written feedback is great. They could be here maybe to answer questions,

165but I don't think we would necessarily need a presentation. >> Hi, Deborah [clears throat] for chief of staff. It is my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong, that you could hear your amendments on December 2nd and vote on that same day. You don't need to have an additional hearing on this. That would give staff time to prepare to bring the conversation forward that you want to have. >> Is that okay with you? >> So, this is this still counts as first reading. will bring a first reading with amendments. >> Yes, because you can have you can amend and vote at the same meeting. >> At the same meeting. Yes. >> You don't have to have a separate meeting to hear your amendments. >> Thank you. >> And that also gives you more director Englesman

166more leeway, but I still recommend writing the amendments as soon as possible to meeting staff so they have as much time to kind of give feedback on that before December 2nd. >> I like I like that version better, but if does it sound good okay for everyone? Yeah, you don't need to have a separate meeting just to hear amendments. You can this is your first reading. >> Then you can vote, have your amendments and vote at the December 2nd meeting because you can't vote before then anyway. >> Okay? And so we'll be voting on three separate amendments >> if that is the pleasure of the committee or the board. >> I don't know. [laughter] >> Just a reminder to the public that we don't get to talk about these things and get organized before a

167meeting. we have to have all these conversations in front of everyone and I know it's hard on staff having to stay late, but this is the only time we get to talk. So, I don't want you to I felt like there was like kind of a um like we're trying to harm you by having this conversation, but it's just the only time that we can talk about it. So, thanks. >> Thank you. >> I apolog Yeah, brains are foggy. Does that sound okay? >> Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. All right. Um, did we want to introduce this really quick? >> Yes. And we've got a second policy here and that's the liability of employees of the district policy. So, just a note that this revision, the revision to this policy codifies resolution 7184. It adds

168protections to board members and it modernizes the language and streamlines the policy. >> Thank you, Vice Chair. >> And we would take a vote on that. December 2nd. >> December 2nd. >> Great. Awesome. Uh the policies proposed to be revised or rescended would be posted on the board website and the public comment period is a minimum of 21 days. Uh contact information for public comment will be posted with the policy. The board expects to hold a second reading of uh these revised policies which is a vote to approve them on December 2nd. All right. Next up, um, and thank you for waiting this long. I know I can see you all antsy over there. Uh, our final topic this evening is a review of our, uh, district continuous improvement plan. I understand that tonight we

169have this wonderful opportunity to actively engage. And Dr. Armstrong, please take it away. >> Yeah. So, coming forward is our senior um, chief of academic, schools, and supports as well as our senior director of family and community engagement. As you heard me mention, we have a all stars waiting in the back and under um Christina Howard's leadership, the team uh proposed doing a different format to engage you. So, not a sit and get, but to have you like authentically browse, ask questions, and engage. So, I hope to hear your feedback at some point on how that process went so that maybe we can rethink how we present information and data to you. So, I'm eager to see how this goes. I know the team is excited. So, let me turn it over quickly so they

170can get going. >> Yes. Good evening, Chair Wong, Vice Chair Depass, Director, Student Representative, and Superintendent. Thank you for the opportunity to share our work this evening. I'm joined by many colleagues in the audience who contribute daily to advancing our district goals. And I want to begin by expressing deep appreciation for our school leaders across Portland public schools. October is National Principles Month, a time to recognize the dedication, resilience, and instructional leadership of our building leaders. The progress we'll discuss tonight. Our collective work around district and school improvement simply would not be possible without their unwavering commitment to student, staff, and communities every single day. So, I want to I want to recognize them in space. Oops. Hang on. Sorry. Okay. I'd like to begin by uh sharing tonight's presentation with our learning targets and

171success criteria. This is a practice you'll see in classrooms across our district. I heard many of you share about your cube experience um in Compton um and in professional learning spaces. We call this teacher clarity. So you'll hear that that that term um frequently tonight. And when we name what we're learning, why it matters, and how we'll know we've learned it. We set clear expectations and create shared purpose. For tonight, our learning targets and success criteria are, I am learning how each district continuous improvement plan goal connects to the board goals and translates into real actions, experiences, and outcomes in schools with a focus on literacy, math, attendance, and nth grade success. Our success criteria is I can explain how district continuous improvement plan goals align with the board goals and the district's vision for

172student success. I can describe what highquality instruction looks like in the classrooms across content areas using real life examples. So, photos, videos, and student work. Hopefully, you'll see that tonight. I can recognize how family and community engagement strengthens progress toward each goal. And I can identify how progress is monitored both at the school and district levels. This learning is important because it deepens our collective understanding of how the district continuous improvement plan, also known as our DIP, translates the board goals and district vision into real actions in schools and classrooms, bringing coherence, focus, and measurable impact for students. And so, as I just started tonight's presentation, I shared what you'll be learning, how you'll know you're successful, and why it matters. And that's the same way we would hope students would experience that in the

173classroom. So, our agenda for tonight is really I'll provide an overview with uh my colleague here to my left, Nicole Watson, um around our approach and dis district district continuous improvement plan. And then you'll have time to work in pairs to rotate through four different um immersive learning experiences to gain a deeper understanding of our district continuous improvement in hopes that that will provide more experiences for you and answering some of your questions and wonderings that you may have. And so we'll start with our journey and laying the foundation for where we're at now. Okay, this is going to be tricky because my notes are on one slide and okay, so in 2019, the district worked with many stakeholders to develop the PPS reimagined vision and graduate portrait. In 2021, the district worked with many

174stakeholders to develop and launch the forward together strategic plan. This plan had many goals and focus areas across operations, instructional, academic areas. In 2022, in the spring of 2022, the district worked again with many stakeholders including teachers and principles, central office leaders to develop and launch the PPS instructional framework. This was one of the prioritized strategic initiatives within the forward together strategic plan within the instructional initiatives. The instructional framework consists of four domains. Grade level standards aligned instruction, culturally affirming instruction, deeply engaging instruction, and datadriven instruction. The framework is a set of educator and student indicators. It was also a coaching tool. Still is a coaching tool. It's nonVal evaluative. Oops, sorry. In 2022 TW to 2025, we also launched the three-year plan for our instructional priorities. And so at this time, we were embarking

175on a change initiative around our highquality instructional materials. We were in corrective action at the time. Um we still are in the materials area. We were adopting many many curriculum that was high quality focused on grade level standards aligned. Um, we also focused on our instructional framework. So that what I just shared about the spring of 2022 launching that. And then our third instructional priority area was around professional learning. So how are we going to uplift materials as well as the framework? We're going to do that through professional learning both with leader and teacher. And then that takes us to this past year. So under the the new leadership of Dr. Kimberly Armstrong. Um we worked with stakeholders to uplift her 100 day plan. So last year she launched her superintendency with a 100-day plan

176which included advancing literacy and through that process around focusing on literacy we really uh embarked on a robust needs assessment that surfaced the need to launch a coherencebased model around district continuous improvement plan. So there was a lot of uh information and data that showed that we wanted to align both at the school level and the district level around a set of goals, our board goals at the end, but also how are we looking at that regular data on a regular basis beyond just our OSAS measures. And so folks work together in the spring to develop the district continuous improvement plan and aligned school continuous improvement plan um to be able to launch this school year. And so if we move to this school year, we're really implementing year one of a three-year plan. It's

177also important to note that the forward together strategic plan has an end time of 2025. And so during this new transition of a new superintendent and several board members who may be new and thinking about our longer term vision, we needed this bridge time to figure out how do we bring in continuous improvement? How do we focus on our board goals but then operationalize them to a yearly goals and thinking about those points in time at a quarterly measure versus looking at this lagging data. And so that's where we decided that our our district continuous improvement plan would be able to do that in alignment with the state model as well. And so in our next this next slide um shares what's continuing and what's new. And so if we look at um our PPS

178board goals, those are continuing in this new district continuous improvement plan model. Our PPS graduate portrait is continuing. Our instructional framework is continuing. It's also the anchor of what we're doing. Our strategic plan is really just shifting to the language of uh district continuous improvement being that bridge bridge time. And then our school continuous improvement plan is aligned to the district plan. On this next slide, you have a link that actually links out to the robust plan. It's several pages long and I think it's going to be a lot easier to go through the immersive experience that you'll be in in a few minutes and then look back at that and maybe understand that more deeply. If you have more questions, I'm happy to answer it too at you know, we're gonna we're gonna be

179talking about this a lot this year. So um it'll come up this will be more of your first exposure as like a whole group um but it will be definitely a focus area. And so then if we look at the OD framework which is is what it comes this is the OD framework. So our Oregon Department of Education has a continuous improvement process both at the school level as well as district level. Um we actually just color coded it a little differently is the only change. Um and so really thinking about we're in the implementation phase now. We spent last year setting that vision direction. We spent time assessing our needs through a comprehensive needs assessment. We created that plan in alignment with many stakeholders. That plan is not our true strategic plan. It's our

180district continuous improvement plan. That that's bridge time. And now we're in the implementation phase. And so tonight, you're going to learn more about what that means in terms of the implementation phase, what strategies and actions are taking place at both the district and the school level, and how we're operationalizing that. The other visual that I think I've shared a few times in different spaces is the alignment. It was really important as we're thinking about where we've been and where we're going. Um, we have a a really strong foundation and our mission, vision, and core values. We have our board of education goals that we've had for several years with incremental change. We have now our district continuous improvement plan that's grounded in a theory of change and theory of action that involves our our school

181leaders. Um, and all of this relates directly to our ideal student learning actions. And so I'm going to share in the next slide really around our ideal student learning actions and how we arrived at these three areas. And so last year, we engaged deeply with a range of stakeholders, the superintendent's cabinet, central office leaders, principles, and teachers to answer a key question. What are the non-negotiable learning experiences every student should have in Portland public schools? And using our instructional framework, you'll see that at the in the parenthesis that if those are our indicators from our instructional framework as a guide, we identified three ideal student learning actions. The experience we want all students to consistently engage in across the district. So the first ideal student learning action centers on teacher clarity. You heard me open

182tonight's presentation with the learning target success criteria also why this learning matters and that's teacher clarity um in alignment with whatever task is going in front of students and students knowing and understanding that learning target the success criteria and why this the learning matters is really important to how they're launching and understanding each class that they're in or each content area and so I wanted to pro provide a little bit more context on why that's important So according to Hadtie's John Hadtie's research, he identifies teacher clarity as one of the most impactful influences on student achievement. It has an effect size of.75. And so in simple terms, effect size tells us how much a strategy moves student learning, not just whether it works. A small effect around 02 means students improve slightly. A large effect

1837 or higher represents substantial visible growth. With an effect size of 75, teacher clarity nearly doubles the typical rate of student learning. For comparison, the average effect side for instructional strategies is point4. So clarity stands out as a powerful driver of student success. Ideal student learning action two is students successfully engage in grade level and standards aligned tasks with persistence and ask questions to clarify their understanding. Earlier tonight you heard about OSAS data that's lagging data that's at the end of a year of the year and we get the data the next school year after it's embargoed. This learning action number two lets us look at daily are students successfully engaging in grade level standards aligned tasks. And if we pair that with teacher clarity the alignment between what we want students to learn that

184target they're aiming for and how we know that they've learned that through that task and if that's at grade level eventually OSAs will come because we're doing that every day and students are successfully engaging. And so really this year we're focused on one and two. Our three-year goal uplift lifts the third action which we're working towards around self assessment which is really allowing students to own their own learning and understanding where they're at and where they want to go. And that is work what we're working on within the three-year plan. So, our four district continuous improvement plan goal areas are attendance, literacy, math, and 9th grade success. We've uplifted attendance this year. Previously, schools, the school continuous improvement plans had climate listed as a goal area. That was a uniform. However, the ways in which

185schools were writing their climate goal varied. A lot of folks uh really uplifted the sense of belonging piece. And when we drill down more to it, attendance was a key area. If students are not feeling a sense of belonging, their their attendance will likely dip, right? And so, how do we uplift the concept of attendance aligned with academic achievement and the connection points there? Um, so that students uh were focused on that as a district and also at the school level. And all four goal areas are directly aligned to our board goals. I mean, attendance matters when we're looking at student achievement in our board goals, literacy, math, and nth grade success. And so, at the district level, these are the four focus areas as well as at the school. So, the school continuous improvement

186plans have these four areas as well. This is a really um I I debated about putting the slide up in front of you all just because it has a lot of words and it's not typically something that we like to share, but I wanted to just highlight one thing that's really important with this slide. The ideal student learning actions that we had on uh two slides prior to this really focusing on that teacher clarity and students successfully engaging in grade level standards aligned task is directly written into the literacy and math goal. And so you can see them in both the literacy and the math goal. It's uplifting that key area teacher clarity and students successfully engaging in grade level and standards aligned tasks. So schools as well as district is focused on that concept

187of teacher clarity and grade level standards aligned tasks. And so um that is a goal we're measuring where we've got strategies and actions that are are directly aligned to that. Some of the things that Dr. Cardona spoke to earlier tonight around all of our rise walks. Bless you. um was around lifting up that teacher clarity and monitoring that and looking at that and figuring out how we're supporting that. Okay, I'm going to hand it over to Nicole Watson who is here to share more around the family and community engagement piece that spans across all of our goal areas and it's something that's really important in our work and something that we've really been focused on under her leadership and Dr. Armstrong's leadership of uplifting and she's going to share a bit more around this that

188you'll see some of that in each station tonight, but we wanted to make sure we call that out and pay close attention to our family and community engagement. >> Good evening everyone. I'm super excited um to share a little bit more. Um I want to kind of start um by naming that if our students don't feel a sense of belonging then oftentimes our families are not feeling that sense of belonging. So the work that we're really doing this year um is in alignment with our district's continuous improvement plan and set forth by our board goals. Um and our goal in year one of implementation is really ambitious. One of uh the distinct deliverables that we required across all schools were three deliverables. One deliverable was a uh is a functioning uh leadership pathway, a functioning

189leadership cycle uh in our site council which is statute language across the state. Um what we had noticed in our Anits assessment was we had about 30% of our building leaders um having a site council. Um and what we wanted to do is really double down and we wanted to braid that uh coherence across not just what we were seeing on the academic side of the house uh but also as we're engaging our families. The second deliverable is an engagement calendar. One of the assessments we made really early on was we don't oftentimes know where all of the engagement is happening districtwide and we need uh to have a pulse on that so that we can one show up and show out but also so that we can see that coherence across our district. And

190then the third is we want to know why you're doing it. So we also required an engagement plan. Uh in order to support building leaders with these three deliverables, we um created and designed a uh face planning guide that has templates and exemplars, some framework, some research-based practices and strategies for building leaders to really dive deep. Some of the temp exemplars are really simple kind of plugandplay and then some are a little bit more deeply involved for the leader uh who is uh robust at building family and community engagement. Uh, one of the things that we're also modeling uh, at the superintendent level is a site council of our own. Um, and if you have been here previously, then we know that we've had a site council space and it was formerly known as the

191family advisory council of of education, which also stood for the acronym FACE. But now that we have a family and community engagement office, which is acronym is also face, we've affectionately known named our site council the village table. And each year the name might shift and change as the families come to the table. But one thing that we uh requested from each of our building leaders is to select two representatives from their local site council to sit at the superintendent village table. Uh our first meeting was October 22nd. Uh we had about 20 to 30 parents and family members show up. We talked a lot about the the district's continuous improvement plan and we got a pulse on what they want to hear from the November uh and meetings on and on. So, we're really

192excited about that space. Um, we are also really uh working closely with our student representative Ian RTO uh and our district student council. One of the things that's deeply important we noticed in our needs assessment uh was a gap in student voice. Um being able to build that feedback loop robustly and and what we know about Representative RTOR is that we want to duplicate that advocacy across our system and across our district. Our babies are loud. They have lots of voice. Uh we had our first meeting on October 21st. Was a busy week that week. Uh the students came in and shared conversations that they wanted to have around special education, mental health and wellness, around advocacy of where the DSSE sits and how can we get more students involved. And I want to share

193one quote from a student from last week. This quote says, "I think DSC is such an important thing to have and I'm so glad to be a part of a space where I'm able to represent people like me. I can't wait to see what all this has in store." End quote. And that was not representative at RTortoro. Uh but definitely uh something that we're excited to build with our uh high school students. And similarly, our middle school students want some too. So we have started this year a student voice advisory council with our seventh and eighth grade representatives from nearly every single middle school in our system. They are going to meet with us every other month. So we had a virtual kickoff in October. will be with them here in person in the Windows

194conference room on November 20th where they will get their very first uh Jefferson is rising uh potentially the sunsetting of dual assignment conversation with our school modernization team. So second year, let's correct that. The superintendent did have one last year. Uh this is the year two. Um and we're excited to meet with middle school students to create the leadership program. um so that we have students at the high school level who've gotten a little bit of a teaser at that uh middle school space. Um we're excited about that piece. We are also supporting uh like I shared the school of uh modernization and all of our conversations around engagement, but essentially we wanted to help a word that we're'll be using at the at the district office is stitching. We really wanted to stitch the

195district's continuous improvement plan, not just on the academic side of the house, but also on the family and community engagement side of the house, so that as our district leaders are moving and systems are moving, that our families can dig deep dig deep, ask some questions, get involved, uh, and then help support the lift not only across their school sites, but also at home, which is where we know learning also takes place. Thank you. >> Thank you, Nicole. Um we are going to share a quick video before we launch into the stations. Um it's around a threeminute video and it's just going to talk more about the concept of teacher clarity. Uh we have a principal, a student, a community partner and a teacher who is going to share their experiences um with uh some

196of the things that have been happening this year around teacher clarity. >> Okay. 24.9. What else can you add? >> How'd you get 9 to the^ of 2.7? >> I divided 25. >> So a learning target is what is the outcome or the standard that you're learning for the day? Do you know what the learning target is? And do you know why you're learning it? Like the lesson might be this big and like the learning target is really like, hey, we're good going at this one learning target all these different ways. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, like let's go back to the learning target. Like this is what we're really focused on. And so it helps students not be so overwhelmed in like a 90minute period to be like, "Oh, this is actually what we're

197focusing on." >> I think this year I have been putting myself out there a little bit more. Um, whenever a teacher has a question, it's not being answered, I raise my hand. I attempt to answer the question even if it might be wrong because I feel like mistakes help you learn >> and you have to put yourself out there in order to try. Like I want them to ask each other for help before they even ask me because like the questions that I hear them asking like that shows that they've got a piece of it. It's not like I'm totally lost. It's like hey I have this question and then when students help other students that's enforcing their own knowledge. I think I'm a more confident learner and I'm not going to um approach any

198unexpected or surprising things in class, but I know exactly what is going to happen, which honestly I feel like it prepares me for [snorts] what I'm about to learn. >> And so that's that's really that simple. It is what you're learning, why you're learning it, did you meet the goal? And the learning targets all based on standards. Being that Aster is a community school, uh my principal, Blake Robinson, he he made it a point that staff and students treat me, the community partner, as if I'm full-time staff. That helped break down a lot of the compartmentalization barriers that are usually in place when community partners come in. You you feel like you're an outsider. And I think by him allowing me to feel like I was actually a part of the full-time staff in school,

199the students feel a lot more at ease. >> Through the school's learning targets and success criteria, I feel like I've been able to know exactly what the teachers are expecting of me. And if I'm not at that point by the end of class, I know what I need to work on. the district-wide um improvement plan and our school improvement plan really aligns to the goals that we have. Attendance improvement, learning targets, making sure every students understand learning targets and success criteria um and uh 9th grade on track. So those are all four goals that we have here at the school. So aligning the district's goals and our school goals was I I think what a great job by the district, but also just great for our students because now we're all aligned at the district

200level. We're all aligned at the school level and we know exactly where we're going with it. >> Yeah, thank you to everyone uh who shared on the video and then thanks to our comm's team for putting that together. Um we are going to move back to the slide deck if I can. Okay. So, what we're going to do next is we're going to have an opportunity to engage in that interactive learning experience. Um, and you'll rotate through stations, one for each goal to learn more about strategies, school and classroom practices, and progress monitoring that bring these goals to life. As you move through the stations, you'll make connections for our board goals, and the ideal student learning actions we discussed earlier. Ideally, you'll you'll move in pairs if you would like, spending around 10 minutes

201at each station to dive into this what the strategies look like in the real classrooms and how we're measuring progress. Um, we have Dr. Adams, Dr. Cardona, Chief Buuno, and myself will walk with each group and listen in. And um, we can answer questions as well as the folks um, at each station and I'll give a quick heads up when it's time to rotate through or we can just see how folks are feeling and figure that out. Um, I also want to give a lot of kudos and shout out to the folks that are going to be at each station. Thank you so much for being here. Um, we have a wide range of experience and expertise in the specific area. These folks are helping to create tools and resources that folks are using at

202the campus level or the school level as well as helping to push the work forward at the district level. And so, thank you for all of the folks that are here tonight. And um ideally we'll break off into twos and start rotating through. Okay. You can join us. team. I know you want to start the rotations. You have a couple people before we start the official time. We also have student representative uh Ruroto who is looking to join. >> Oh, so if you can wave at me when we know that we're ready to go at all stations. Two, two, and two. Okay, we have literacy. I see math overwing. We need to start at math. We got Okay, they're waving at you. Director to pass to move on to the mass start at that station.

203Okay, are we all spread out? We have at least a board member at every station. Christina's looking doing the check. Yes. Okay. Time starts now. ma'am. You must start. version of Exactly. granddaughter. My other granddaughter is now studying sports. The Yes. >> She's going to She originally started to be She also >> I don't understand I'll be meeting with you. >> Am I supposed to be doing something? I got over the guys shop. We're done. question peripherally. I'll put it in I think that particular way. folks want to make the next It's good to have Yes. Search Okay, thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. How are you? Father, All right. About one minute left. All right, let's start. One minute remaining. All right. Hallelujah. That was really great. Happy We will always I understand.

204I think it's obvious. Too many. Nobody. All right, wrap up. All right. Let's head back to the This was good. Dr. Well, >> fantastic, >> right? >> Way to learn. >> Yeah. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Exactly. >> Great. Thank you. Do you want um >> Are you closing us out? >> If if there was any full group questions that we needed to address, we have everyone up here if if you have anything that you want to >> or you could go home. >> Yeah. at 9:30. >> You got the gavl, sir. >> You've got the gables. [laughter] >> Yep. >> Any questions? >> Yeah, if you guys want to be done, that's fine. >> Yeah. I would just like to express my appreciation for that awesome experience by not having questions and letting you all

205go home because um that was so much and so informative and helpful and um really great job everybody. keep all the materials like don't destroy those and think this was a onetime thing because I feel like we could redo this for a lot of different audiences and really demonstrate um the forward progress of the district. It's really exciting. >> Chief Gross. >> Yeah, that was great to have it interactive. >> Just one for >> appreciate the staff that stayed late. Um, I actually during the summer several years ago visited a I think it was a kindergarten first grade classroom at uh King Elementary and they were doing batt and it was a summer program. It was really amazing to watch. Um, they were all like shiny and happy to be there. Um, and to see

206it here too. It was like wow this is great that the teachers are being trained in the method that was it heard >> heard >> anyway just it was really this was great I don't have any questions >> so I I I did want to note I'd be remiss if we didn't share that this is an instructional strategy called world cafe that we just experienced >> yes a world cafe >> thank you >> I just wanted to say I love um your videos the budget videos and it would be amazing if anyone was open to it >> to do short videos on each of these segments to just blast them out because that was really >> Chief Gross and Chief Capori were just mentioning that we are going to get it done. >> Amazing. That

207was great. >> That was really fun. That was really great. Thank you so much. >> I need a makeup fund like makeup. >> Oh yes, just your your staged makeup. Yes, absolutely. >> No one gives us any makeup to look nice and we're on camera like all the time. >> We have uh the village table in November. So I think we're going to do the same setup too during that time. So yeah, this is great. And I hope and I appreciate you mentioning the videos and I just want to lift up that you know some of the behind the scenes that isn't as in front is I hope that at least the thread that you all are seeing is like strong branding and messaging and graphics and visuals and the folks that uh under comms

208have come to you can see her smile. I don't even need to see you already know who I'm talking about. So yeah. >> Yeah. I feel like even though I've been on the board a long time, um it's it was helpful to see I mean you really get a sense of the depth and the how much work goes into getting everybody kind of pulling in the same direction. Um it wasn't like that 5 years ago. This you know the standards align the work the through line throughout the buildings and the district and you know it was really valuable. >> Yeah. And I really appreciated seeing the curriculum >> because we heard about it. we know we have it but to really see it and see how it would work really thank you >> and how

209much work it is I mean >> I think it was also very eye opening to see how much like work is involved in all this and all the coordination so thank you and I want to say ditto to everything everyone said and also thank you by saying you should go home now >> thank you [cheering] that was amazing [applause] you all >> was great Yeah. >> Oh. Um, Patty, did you go to the MLC thing? No, I didn't. You did. >> All right. >> I did. >> Last thing up for today. >> You need to adjourn us. You didn't >> I didn't adjourn us yet. We have future topics. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, at the end of every board meeting, we have a a moment for people to air their ideas or ask for

210future topics. So, first off, we have, um, Director Sullivan. Yeah, this isn't really a future topic, but um I don't know if everybody looked at the supplemental resources >> that were Well, I didn't either until it was pointed out to me. I didn't even know what it was. But if you click on it, it is um the SJ contracts report. And the reason I found out about it was I heard we had the report, but I never saw it. And so then uh and Janice didn't know where it was either. And then we click on supplemental reports and it's there >> and or supplemental resources >> and board books. >> Yeah. You just open it up and right before where you click on >> um >> what click on to get the board book. It

211says supplemental. You click on that >> and it comes up and there's a lot. >> I I read it doesn't show up when you actually even just print the your whole board packet. It's not in there. You have to like click on it separately if you see >> click on se. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Maybe because [clears throat] I didn't know that that existed until literally last meeting I discovered we had supplemental resources. So maybe it would be good to like tell us and tell the public when there are items in there. >> Right. I think so too because I've been on the board two years and it's the first time I've known about it. So you found out way earlier [laughter] than I did. And so there's a lot of material. I suggest you

212read a few reports just to get an idea of contract expectations and um Dr. Adams is going to be talking about that report at the audit committee meeting on Thursday, November 6th at 4:30. So, especially um audit committee people at least read some of it. I mean, there's no way you could read it all, but you get an idea of what the contracts are and how they're being reported on. >> Yeah, it's interesting. >> So, we'll talk about that then. >> I think it's a good read. halfway through. It's very interesting. >> Good. Okay, good. >> Um, I think I just No. Well, you know, relatively um I think just to add, I think that the supplemental resources doesn't even appear in the menu unless there are supplemental resources. So, I've always just whenever I

213see it, I just click on it just because >> I think I don't know. I may be incorrect, but I seem to only see it whenever there is stuff there. >> So, I think Cara is saying yes, that's how it works. If there's something there, it'll be there. >> Yeah. Great. Um, other topics. >> Um, I have, and this may not be for the next meeting, but just on our radar, um, board goals, revisiting board goals as a group sometime in the near future and, um, a new strategic plan only because by the time we get to, um, Dr. Armstrong's annual review, it would be really great if we had this ironed out. So that hope I mean I would assume that we will be you know like at that check-in like planning for the

214next year. What does that look like? So we're not behind. >> Um I was going to say about the board goals. Are you thinking about looking at things other than third grade reading, fifth grade math? >> No. I I wonder if we should have a conversation about maybe restructuring them. We would never get rid of those, but I think they could live under academic excellence one two three. And then we're working against a lot of things around I think our last meeting like operational excellence. Um what does that look like? Because a lot lot of our quarterly check-ins and the things that we talk about regularly there. It's like there's two arms. There's sort of like operations and academics. And um >> I think so. I just got off of a web webinar a couple

215days ago and they were like your board should focus exclusively on student achievement, which I know it's hard to it's hard to focus exclusively on student achievement, but I just say that because I would I want to focus on outcomes and and less on like the operational pieces. Um but I I've heard other people that want to revisit the board goals. I just don't know. I I guess if we did, I'd like to have not rush it in order to meet It's not. But I'm just saying like let's let's not be talking about it next summer. >> Well, so I was going to say maybe we should talk about it next summer because if we talk about it now, I I think I think the timing is not good if we talk about it now.

216And that's because we're already halfway into the school year. And if we talk about it in the summer, then we start a new academic year. In other words, if we're talking about evaluating in the middle of the year, if we're changing anything in the middle of the year, >> it would be so we're prepared. >> Yeah. So, I just want to comment that the board goals are set to um expire, I believe, in 2027. >> 2027. Yes. >> So, I think the putting forth a plan to begin to review unless there's motivation to want to do something before then, but um I think it does make sense to visit as we're coming up on the what is it seven year? I don't even know how long they've been in place. >> Well, it would be

217eight years. It would be eight years by the time they sunset in 2027. But what I'm trying to get at is if we're doing an evaluation, we we want to if we're going to talk about redoing board goals, those need to happen before the start of the academic year so we have a little bit of a runway. >> That's what I'm saying. Yes, >> that's exactly what I'm saying. >> So, I was I was saying we should talk about it like not right now, right? >> That we should move it. That's what I said. Okay. Towards the end of the year. I thought you said you wanted to have do it in the next few. No, I said not. >> I I mis I misread [laughter] that. >> That's okay. But the new strategic plan

218does um you know expire in 2025. So again, just getting that on everybody's radar so that we're starting to think about it and that we're talking about it, you know, sometime in the next quarter maybe. >> Last thing I want to be do is is sitting there next summer going, "Well, we don't have a strategic plan." So I'm just just drawing everybody's attention to it now. That's all. >> And I is that my understanding? So doesn't does the staff make the plan and then we >> are socialized on the plan? It's not the board's plan. It's the district plan, >> right? >> Um is that what you're asking? Yeah. >> Well, yeah, maybe it's a process question. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. I think it it is sort of confusing because our strategic plan is

219expiring. So, we want to have a new one so that we don't not have a strategic plan. I realize we have the bridge which is lovely and everything we've heard about is great but I think having an expired strategic plan is a little funny because the board goals inform the strategic plan which is drafted by the superintendent but if the board goals are still in place but the strategic plan is expired. It's just kind of a funky whoever set the expiration dates didn't quite set them right in my humble opinion. But I think it means we have to look at the board goals in order for you to be able to then get the strategic plan together in time to have that updated by whenever you'd like to make sure we have one that's not

220expired. >> And I I don't think we're going to get a strategic plan because usually that's a six-month process or something. It involves community input. Um and it it's not uncommon to be to go a few months without a strategic plan like organizationally. It's it this is going to expire December December 31st I believe. So J we don't have to have something in place January 1st necessarily. >> I hear the energy. >> Sorry. I hear the the energy and I um I welcome the opportunity to discuss the the runway. >> That's a great way to put put it. Let's let's plan our runway. >> Yes. I I like that. And can we so we want to put this on the agenda so we can talk about sequencing and what we need to look out 6

221months 9 months and kind of work back from there. Yeah. Excellent. >> Anything else? >> I did have one thing I forgot. Um, we are set up to do the board OSBA self-evaluation on February 24th at a board meeting time and about two weeks before that sometime in January, they're going to send out a form for us to fill in. They look at it. So, we have two weeks to send it in, then they look at it, come back. So, that's February 24th. That might go with board goals. Who knows? [laughter] >> Thank you for for taking the lead on that. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. >> Um the only thing I'll bring up, it's a little bit of a pet project of mine, which is always great to have them. Um for those of

222you who haven't heard, um Hayhurst used to be the home for the Odyssey Focus Option School. It's still considered one school, but they've been separated for eight years. So, we're trying to separate them. And it sounds like I just want to give some credit to the district because I suggested it. I haven't heard anything, but I just heard from Odyssey parents that they discussed it at a recent school community meeting and they are in support of also splitting because they also see no relationship with our school and we have a little chip of on our shoulder because they take 30ome students from our neighborhood school over there and we don't want to be housed with them anymore. So, we're um hopeful that the district will continue to see that through and um allow us to

223take two schools that are very distinct and make them separate officially. All right, last chance for anything else. [clears throat] >> Just a flag, I know there's lots of emails that we're receiving as of late. And just a note that in your inboxes today, you should have an update just to clarify on um on the athletic uh topic that has been um a hot topic. So, just want to draw your attention to that at some point. Thanks. >> Oh, one thing. This got passed down a lot of thank yous to us, I guess. >> Yes. >> And um I quit passing it. [laughter] Anyway, you might want to get yourself a >> a nice thank you and put on your refrigerator. >> Oh, very nice. >> I was just thinking the same thing. Yes. >>

224I'm taking >> You don't have any kid art anymore on the refrigerator. >> Twice. All right, let's meet a journ. Go home. [laughter]