001All right. Good afternoon everyone. This public meeting of the board of education's teaching, learning, and enrollment committee for September 18th, 2025 is called to order. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you all for being here. Before we get started, I want to share a preview of what our agenda is for today. We will review the committee charter and then we'll have an enrollment update including information about the timeline for engagement regarding the plan to sunset dual assignment for Jefferson High School. So let's start with some introductions. I am Michelle Chase Miller. I am uh the chair of this committee and uh the director for zone 4. Uh, Virginia Leaf Fort um, director in zone 5 northeast Portland. >> Hi Christy Split and I am the director from zone one which I've decided to start calling the
002lower west side and the other district on the west side is the upper west side. I like it. I think it should take on. So let's start the trend here. Hello, I am Christina Howard. I'm the senior chief of academics. >> Yeah, I'm Sharon Ton Cray, chief legal officer for the district. >> And I should have let Dr. Armstrong go first. I apologize. Great. Thanks everyone. All right. Next we have public comment. Rosanne, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> Yes, we do. Uh we'll start with Jessica Colby and Jenny Stab. Stab. Right. Uh please make sure when you begin your comments that you clearly state your name and spell your last name. And you will have two minutes to speak. And we ask that once you hear the sound of the alarm,
003please wrap up your comments. >> Uh, Rosanne, can we not sound the alarm? >> Is that an auto thing? >> We should be good. >> Yeah, we good on time. >> Okay, >> we practiced. >> Hi. Uh, thank you to this committee for hearing us. My name is Jessica Colby CB as a boy Y and I am co-chair of the talented and gifted advisory council TAG act. I have been advocating for students in PPS for over 10 years focusing particularly on TAG special education equity and funding. This is my co-chair Jenny Stab SAB. We are here to discuss the petition to close Access Academy and give an overview of the state of TAG services in PPS. The access for all petition misportrays what access is, who it serves, and the challenges it faces. Access is
004an alternative program offering acceleration and social emotional support to the subset of TAG students least likely to be served in the general classroom. Oh, thank you. Uh, I was somewhere. The petitioners assert on demographic data alone that access does not deserve a role in PPS. Access families have worked to increase and support diversity by ensuring low-income students receive priority in the lottery, securing busing to ensure accessibility, and continuing to continuing to conduct active outreach to underrepresented families. As a result of these efforts, the proportion of low-income students has been steadily increasing over the last several years. PBS must support this community effort by allowing true gender balancing, participating in outreach, and actively ensuring families, teachers, and staff have clarity on the access program and who it serves. Closing access would not alleviate funding issues, would
005not increase any tag services, and would not have any impact on equity. Responses to the petition clearly demonstrate a frustration with tag services in PPS. The district has been out of compliance with Oregon tag law for nearly 30 years and is currently under an OD corrective action plan. Despite this, PPS has continued to defund continued to defund TAG and reduce dedicated FTE. The remaining staff are hardworking but stretch too thin to make the changes necessary for district-wide service improvement. Okay. One ongoing problem has been the continued unidentification of historically underserved tax students which has deprived these overlooked students of services and further the narrative that tax students are just privileged children that will somehow be fine without supports. That narrative also erases the existence of those marginalized students who do get identified and should be
006receiving services. TAG supports barrierfree and well-informed target identification including multiple pathways to identification, holistic identification strategies and a decision process in which no single measurement, subjective observation or individual's opinion justifies the denial of services. Most importantly, however, even when students are identified, they do not reliably receive services. PPS has failed to provide teachers adequate curricular resources and concrete training on how to adapt curriculum to the needs of tax students. And while acceleration is the most research supported intervention for gifted students, PPS insists on grade level work for all. To the extent that students do receive differentiated services in the classroom, it is due to those teachers who perceive the needs of tax students and put in extra work and their own initiative to find resources. That's neither sustainable nor equitable. As you know, after physical
007safety, the main criterion for school choice is the academic program. Serving all students by supporting their individual learning needs is critical in keeping students within the district. Currently, we hear from too many parents that tax services simply do not happen in PPS. And as a consequences, many of these families have chosen not to enroll or to leave PPS. To be the district of choice, PPS must support and serve all students, including TAG students. We hope you will utilize TAG's long and deep institutional knowledge of TAG needs and PPS history in that regard for any issue affecting highly capable and accelerated learners. We invite you to join us at our monthly meetings or meet with us individually to learn more. Our next meeting is next Thursday at 6:30 virtually. Thank you for your time. Next, we
008have Sarah Dylan and Jason Owens. Um, sorry. I didn't know about the uh time cap, so I'm going to try to a bridge this as I go. Um, it was originally three and a half minutes, so I'll try to cut it down. Um, my name is Sarah Dylan. My last name is um spelled D I L L O N. Um, my daughter is Marlo and she's in teacher Sha's class at teacher Shaya's fourth grade class at Fabian. When our community heard about the proposed collapse of the fourth grade classrooms, we rallied for our kids. PPS um heard our concerns and found a way to keep our teachers in the three classrooms in place. And for that, I am grateful. This change would have impacted my daughter, Marlo, who struggles with profound dyslexia and has been
009on an IEP since first grade. Last year, her third grade class was 33 students, 33 plus. Um, and according to Marlo, she spent most of her day not understanding the work and pretending to read. At home, there were tears before school every morning. Um, Marlo this year is in a smaller classroom and she's excited to go to school. She loves her teacher. She loves the smaller class size and she says the classroom is quieter and less stressful. Um, which means a lot for her with her reading and attention issues. Uh we were looking forward to this being a breakthrough year for her and we heard that when we heard that her teacher would be leaving for a kinder classroom and she'd be headed to a different teacher with a huge class, she was devastated and
010saw this as a betrayal. She was angry. Um at our parent driven emergency meeting with PPS administrators, hi. Um they explained to us that even when you factor in Fabian's title one status and comprehensive support in um improvement school status that only changes the classroom cap by one. Honestly, despite my effort to understand, I still don't understand this calculation. It doesn't make sense to me and it feels clinically detached from real kids humanity. When you look at test scores, rates of attendance, and rates of disciplinary action, this is clearly not enough. Um and uh having these low standards for these kids perpetuates inequity. Um Marlo is lucky and she has us and we hire private tutors um that help her outside of school. I grew up with a special ed teacher for a mom and
011I myself sorry um was on an IEP so I know how to advocate for her. Um I know other kids uh don't have this outside of school help. Um, I'll try to skip to the last paragraph. Um, uh, finally, I'm disappointed that many families in our neighborhood are not choosing to send their kids to our neighborhood school. I know that Fabian continues to underperform academically and this trend will continue. I was optimistic and I hoped to watch this trend slow over time. In truth, I see it picking up steam. Um, when our community heard about the collapse of the classrooms, um, we rallied. And if I've learned one thing, it's that community action um, can drive change. Unfortunately, if these families keep to um, disengage from local schools, I think that there's less personal initiative
012for communities to rally for the funding that serves everyone. Um, thanks for listening. I appreciate you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, first of all, thank you. My name is Jason Owens. Last name uh, Ownens. I'm the band director at Franklin High School in Portland public schools. This is my 26th year teaching in Portland Public. At Franklin, I teach six music classes: wind ensemble, symphonic band, concert band, percussion ensemble, jazz ensemble, and I also teach advanced placement music theory. I have a comprehensive band program with 185 students this year. I'm here today specifically on behalf of the high school band directors like myself in Portland public schools. We all run programs of similar size and scope and are extremely busy making sure our programs are thriving by putting in many many hours above
013and beyond the school day like all successful teachers do in our district. What I am here to highlight today and bring to your attention is another major part of our job that is not currently being recognized and compensated as it should be. All of our performing ensembles perform outside of the regular school day often. This is the first time I've ever spoke to the board in 26 years. I've been here many times with ensembles, performing four board events down here at at the Profit Center. Um, and the first time I've ever talked about anything. This includes combining my ensembles for pep band throughout the fall and winter for both football and basketball. A lot of times we comb or combine all of the um large ensembles for concerts, which I am compensated for. um an
014ER for three or more uh performances throughout the year. The or more part is the part that I'm here for today. So um large combined concerts with all ensembles, weekend performances for festivals including OSAA sanctioned events and Oregon Music Association events. In addition, I march in a parade every year and uh represent Portland public schools here in in our city and other places around um including um up in Canada just a couple years ago at the Vancouver um island. It was a wonderful time. In addition, I march in parades like I just said, perform at musical events every year with a pit orchestra. I perform at graduations and many other events at school uh for the good of our community and the program. Currently, I get I get extend pay for three or more events
015outside of the normal contract day. Last year, in order to accomplish and provide a comprehensive and robust band program that our students deserve, I conservatively put in about 25 to 30 14-hour days. That is real. Not to mention at least five or more weekend events throughout the year. I think or more would probably be more appropriate there. As written in an agreement with the district and the teachers union last March to address our demanding workloads and my fellow brand band directors, we there was an 11% extended responsibility pay per concert group with a cap of 19%. It's been on the table but not honored or completed. In many districts around the state, there is no cap and band directors and other teachers with extensive workloads beyond the school day are are being compensated for this
016kind of work. This means they have specific allocations for this er like pep band, musicals and so forth. And so um PPS still has not made good on this language in our current contract agreement and work with our teachers union. My fellow band directors and I have been working in good faith with the hopes that we would be fairly compensated for our massive front-facing workloads with students and that's why I'm here today. Thank you. I appreciate all of you for letting me speak. Thank you. >> Can I just ask a follow-up question? Yeah, >> thank you for your testimony. I appreciate it. I know that we have reached tenative agreement with PAT on extended responsibility and I was curious if if your testimony um is about that or saying that that's still not adequate. >>
017Well, to be honest with you, I I keep my head down and I work. >> Okay. >> And I'm and I'm just constantly working. That's why in a situation like this, it's rare that I that I speak up. I'm not sure and I know at this point um we're still not being compensated at those percentage rates for all of the extra work that we're doing. And I think um you know there was this idea that maybe it would just get pushed on to the next um bargaining agreement for the next contract. >> Right now I don't believe we're being um it's not on the table for us to be compensated retropay for this contract and the wording there. So, I just want to make sure that it's known all the work that band directors at
018the high school level do. >> Absolutely. >> And um yeah, and that you know when we this whole pep band thing, I think the community was really surprised to find out how much work um our band directors do at the high school level without really tr truly being compensated for those for all that time. >> Great. So we um so yes, we do have a tenative agreement with PAT and um our schedule we're scheduled to vote on it on um September 30th, I believe. Um which amends the previous agreement on extended uh responsibility pay. Um we also are going to be here this evening at 6:00 voting on a grant issue. And so when Chair Wong joins us, I will ask if we're able to bring that vote forward tonight um so that if it
019is um in agreement with our our legal counsel um and the rest of the board to vote on that so that we at least have resolution on that extended responsibility. And my understanding is that um for the future years it will be in our conversation with bargaining with an open contract um looking forward. But, uh, when Sher Wong joins us at the 6 PM portion, um, I'll I'll ask if we can consider that item and if it fits within our our required notice part to bring that forward that would expedite the vote, but there is a plan to to vote um, already a plan that was in place for September 30th. So, just to give you a heads up so you're informed on that. >> Yeah. I just last thing I'd like to say, it's
020a privilege to serve students and be a part of this this school district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jason, thank you so much for your work with our students. And Dr. Armstrong, thank you for that also. >> I can't wait till six o'clock. Okay, we have two more people virtually. I'm bringing one of them in right now. Lauren Overman I think I spoke for both of us. >> Oh, Lauren, if you are here and want to speak, uh, you have the floor. >> Hi. Sorry, I couldn't tell if it was ready. Uh, my name is Lauren Overman, spelled O V E R M- an. My pronouns are she, her, and I am here as a parent within PPS for the past eight years. I also have a fourth grader at Fabian, our neighborhood school. Recently,
021you you just heard there was the threat of collapse of three fourth grade classrooms down to two. When our community came together, we met with Dr. Isaac Cardona and Christina Howard. And I first just want to thank both of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us in person and hear more about what Fabian what makes Fabian special. They listened to us, heard the problems, and somehow made it all work to keep these three classrooms in place, and we appreciate this very much. The discussions brought up concerns that I wanted to bring to this committee. Fabian is a title one and CSI school which serves many students on IEPs, 504s, and is one of the most diverse student populations in PPS. The school represents many students with a history of
022being underrepresented and underserved. Only 17% of this school is meeting math proficiency standards and just 21% meeting reading standards. Beyond that, 74% of students identify as students of color. 16% have a disability and 84% qualify for free lunch. When the decision process was brought to our group of concerned parents, it focused solely on a number system and I totally understand that. But what seemed to be lacking was the humanity of these numbers. It did not seem that the needs of this school's population were considered when making a decision that would have disrupted four different classrooms of students and increased class sizes dramatically. I was left wondering what is the weight of these things when making class- size decisions? What equity lens is applied to the decision-making process when determining staffing? If we only look at
023enrollment numbers, we lose sight of the community context and level of student needs at Fabian and other title one schools in Northeast Portland and continue to reinforce historical disinvestment in this community. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving in one more person. Next we have Kran Cruz. All right. I just needed to share my screen if I could. >> Is that okay? >> Yeah, I think that's fine. Um, just remember we have to stick within the two limits or the two-minute limit. Just so you know, we're we're able to see your request to share, but we're having trouble accessing. Okay, I think you're good. Kanja, is it working on your end? >> No, I'm trying to share a present uh a PowerPoint, but Can you try uh the request to share again? Um, Karanja,
024you could also email it to us. Uh, and then we could have it on our we have a computer in front of us. >> All right. Give me one second. Okay. All right. Let me know if you got it. Not yet. Oh, it came to the public comment. Okay, hang on one second. Okay, we've got it. Awesome. As soon as I see the first screen, I will go ahead and start. >> Oh, you want us to share it? >> Yeah. I don't think we can share it, but we're watching it and we'll enter it into public record so that it is part of the meeting and your slides go along with that. Yeah, I don't know if that's going to work. So, we might have to reschedu. >> Okay, hang on a sec. >> Yeah.
025Okay. Um, why don't we have you back to present this next time and we'll make sure we've got everything squared away for slides and stuff then. >> And when is the next meeting? >> Next meeting? >> October 14th. [Music] >> Um, next meeting is October 14th, which is after your conference. Yeah, that's not Well, um if you're able I was hoping the public um could see what I'm about to present, what you guys see. Um so that was the purpose of this testimony. But uh since we're here um I want to encourage you all to attend the teaching on purpose conference. this particular workshop I wanted to present we have the director of assessment the state director of assessment who's going to do a presentation during the um the teaching with purpose conference this is
026a very extremely important workshop um just for assessment literacy um we're going to talk about the difference between a multi-tier and a norm reference assessment um as you know our state had just passed a state law that it's going to require us to do interim assessments which I was an advocate for. Um and I wanted to present to you all that our practices of using MAPS testing is not best practice because our state test is a multi-riteria tier assessment where the MAPS assessment is a norm reference. So I wanted to show and present to you all the difference between it's like comparing apples and oranges. Imagine if we had an interim assessment. If we're using the same type of multi-ter assessment for our interim assessment cycle, we would have a better snapshot in a picture
027of how our students are going to perform on the state standardized test. However, the narrative for the MAPS assessment is stating that if we are assessing the maps, giving it to students, we can be able to have a a good idea of how students are going to perform on a state test. And that hasn't been my experience um as a parent for over 10 years in this district. My kids um has been um unfortunately having to use the math assessment since elementary school and now they're in high school and it has not done anything um um for us. So I wanted to um really encourage you all to make sure you register for the teacher on purpose conference and um sign up for this particular workshop and learn more about assessment literacy. um extended a
028special invitation to Dr. Armstrong's uh team assessment team, Dr. Adams. Hopefully his whole team can attend this workshop so they can learn more about how to utilize this interim assessment tool that the state provides. And it's a free tool. So instead of using multiple dollars, thousands of dollars, maybe even close to a million dollars using a MAP assessment, we have a free tool that our state provides which is a interim assessment. It's a multi-ter assessment and it's better aligned with our state test so we can have a better snapshot. However, I am not a a full advocate of looking at standardized tests as a measure of of success. Um but if we're going to look at those particular data points, you know, let's have a better idea snapshot of how our students are going to
029be performing on these standardized tests. Um and I want to encourage you all to to have a idea of looking more of classroom assessments um and what's actually happening in the classroom um to have a better idea of how students are achieving. Um I know right now a lot of teachers are putting teacher um learning targets on the board. So you know as you guys are parents you know ask your child you know what what was the learning target for the day. Um those are the better snapshots and assessment formative assessment ideas and and um pedigogy that we can utilize and have a better snapshot and better idea of how our students are performing. So I just wanted to lay that out there to the public. I want to encourage you guys all to um
030uh attend the teaching on purpose conference and highly encourage you to attend this assessment literacy workshop. Um it's also going to be a follow-up workshop um in April as well. So just wanted to advance the assessment literacy and uh encourage you guys all to attend the conference and uh Dr. Armstrong is going to be our keynote um and super excited about that and yeah that was pretty much it. So, thank you for your time. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. And uh we were able to share the slides. So, that was great. Thank you. >> I just since we couldn't share the kind of first slide right when you started, I'll just put on the record for those listening in the audience. Um if you want to learn more about the conference and sign up,
031it's teaching purposeconference.com. The website teachingwithpurposeconference.com. Thanks. >> Thanks, Christie. Okay. Um, is that it for public comment, Rosanne? Okay. Uh, thank you to everyone who took the time to provide public comment. All right. Um, at our last meeting, we had an opportunity to review a draft committee charter and to provide feedback and suggestions for that draft. Excuse me. Um, let's see. I am still a noob at this. And I just went ahead and inputed the um the edits, so I don't have a redlinined version for us to compare up against. But um hopefully we can uh did folks have a chance to look at the draft that's in the board book. Good. Christina Christie. Uh if uh we are all good with the draft, we can recommend this going to the board for approval at
032our next regular board meeting. Um but if there are things to discuss, we can do that, too. Thoughts? >> Awesome. It looks It looks like yours. >> All right. Anything anyone wants to add? No. Okay. Um, do we have to do anything else to recommend it? >> No, we can put it on the October 14th agenda. >> Okay. Okay. Uh, let's move on to enrollment updates. Uh, one key responsibility of this committee is to review enrollment strategies, trends, and proposals, receive updates, and provide advisory on boundary and enrollment related initiatives prior to consideration by the full board. Dr. Christina Howard, senior chief of teaching and learning, will begin tonight's update. Thank you. I'm not a doctor yet, but hoping to be someday. Um, good evening and thank you for having us. It's an honor to
033be here tonight. Um we are currently talking about the E within the teaching learning and enrollment committee tonight. Um and so we are going to be if you can go into the next slide I could just start with the agenda. Um we are going to be talking about and sharing uh the current state of enrollment as of September 12th. Uh we're going to outline our broader communications and marketing strategy and we're going to highlight shifts underway in schools and provide an update on Jefferson dual assignment. So lots of facets of enrollment tonight. Um we are grounding this work in our theory of action and connecting it directly to the district continuous improvement plan academic goals. We'll share a bit more about that. Um, and I'm joined here tonight by a crossf functional team of leaders
034who have been working collaboratively together across various aspects within our agenda. Um, and before each leader shares, they will introduce themselves and their role. Um, so on that note, I will turn it over to Dr. Renard Adams. >> Good afternoon slasheing uh board members and committee members. My name is Renard Adams. I'm the chief accountability and equity officer for the district. And we wanted to start, if I could have the next slide, Miss Calvert, with uh an enrollment snapshot. We pulled data as of this Monday, which meant that our last snapshot was um as of last Friday afternoon. There we go. And here's a look at our enrollment counts as of Friday, September 12th. As you can see, we are under our enrollment as recognized by red shading in grades 1, 3, four, five, and
035grade 12. In all other grades, we are at or over our projected enrollment. The total for PPS schools that we staff, that's the school total line on the slide, shows that we are 322 students over our projected enrollment. When we examine our total district enrollment, this includes uh students that are enrolled in charter schools within PPS and within our community- based organizations. We are also over our enrollment projection by over 300 students. The trend of lower enrollment in elementary grades continues at the grade level at those grade levels as compared to high school. For example, as of Friday, we had a little over 2,700 kindergarten students compared to 3 a little over 3,300 12th grade students. It's also important to note that these data don't include students who may be dropped based on the 10-day
036absence rule. Therefore, uh staff considers we consider these enrollment numbers to likely represent a high point for this year's enrollment. In the fall, once our official enrollment has been collected and reported, the board will receive a report annual report of actual enrollment overall by grade level and by school. So, be on the lookout for that. If I could have the next slide, please. We also wanted to show our over and under enrollment by grade band. As you can see, we have more schools at or over their projected enroll their enrollment projection than we do have schools that are under their enrollment projection. This varies by grade band with the largest difference of five schools occurring at the K5 grade band. I'll give members a moment to review the data on this slide as well. >>
037Can I ask a question? Is it okay or do you want to wait till the end? Well, there are a lot of topics on the agenda, so maybe we should ask questions uh after each sort of topic. So, this is my last enrollment slide for the snapshot. >> Great. Um, thanks. Is that is that okay? Sorry. Guess you're the boss. >> Anyone who wants to wait till >> No, I think this is okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, so my question is, so I guess I was looking at this a couple days ago when it got posted and I'm thinking about it again. Like I get that it's helpful to see where we are with the numbers, but this seems like a how we're doing compared to our projection. And so
038I'm just curious like why does it matter how we are doing toward the projection? I guess that's my question versus just knowing what the numbers are and the trends are like to me that number of like kindergarten versus 12th grade super helpful. But can you help me understand why it's important to you to um share with us the difference between projection and reality? >> Sure. Um we staff based on our projections that we receive from the population resource center. So um we like to know by grade band, even by school, by grade level, by classroom at the elementary level or by grade level, excuse me, not classroom. Um how close or far we are from that projection. And we um because we're always, you know, the goal is 100% although that's not possible. Um if
039I could 100% project anything, I'd do the power ball in a in a heartbeat. Um but we have over 99% um and I can give you that exact data point, 99 something% accuracy with our enrollment projection. The other thing to be mindful of when you think about enrollment is the smaller the number of students, the more error there likely is in the enrollment projection, right? So when we project at the entire system level, we are more accurate than we are trying to project at a particular classroom level. And so because this drives our staffing, it's important for us to really think about and have our um PSU population resource center partners think about how we go back and model each and every year. And so we um take into consideration things like a new modernization
040at a school because you typically see an enrollment bump at and jump at those schools once they at our high schools once they've been modernized. and we take into consideration new housing coming online whether that housing is single family or multif family and things like that. So that's why we find it to be important. Can you just connect that to the budget, the projection and budget and the the bigger why? >> Yes. Chief Morrison um uses our enrollment projections as a part of budget factoring and budget projections because we know that we're budgeted on the bienium and that um our enrollment projections sort of lag by I believe at least a year in terms of how that trans or two and how that translates into funding. So all this becomes because staffing is a part
041of our budget. All this becomes really gerine when we think about our budget projections. How much revenue we believe we'll receive based on the number of students we believe we'll have compared to the expenses that we project. >> Thank you. Very minor followup. Um were there examples of schools where you were really surprised? And I don't need to go into the weeds, but were there any schools where you were just way up or way down in a way that stood out to the four of you that are >> I I can give an example. The the the example that comes right to mind is Harriet Tubman Middle School. They are well over their projection um to the point where we've done some fall balancing and added some staff to that school. Um and I believe
042that's a sign of a couple things. I believe we've had the right leader in the right seat for a number of years now. And Principal Greer has been just working, he and his staff are working really hard to build relationships with families and students and increase instructional and academic programming. And when that happens, you know, I've said for years sitting here, the way to improve enrollment is to have great schools. And when you see that happening, it's really that people see that the school has turned around if if there's a such thing um to classify as that and they're excited and excited and interested in being there and attending. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> I'm now turning it over, I believe, to uh Chief Gross, our chief communications officer. >> Thank you.
043Good evening, uh board of directors. uh Candace Gross, chief of communications. So I will talk a little bit about the enrollment and communications the enrollment communications uh and marketing strategy. Next slide please. >> So um we know that marketing and communications drive enrollment decisions um as well and families perception of PPS influence whether they stay, return or um enroll. And so um what I've done is built our comms and marketing strategy around two-phased campaigns. One is a global campaign which is um set on building uh trust and pride and then the other is the second campaign is a localized campaign which strengthens neighborhood connections. Um and so the goal is ultimately to create momentum and rebuild confidence and reinforce belonging across PPS. So we can go to the next slide please. So what you're looking
044at is just the branding for the two campaigns. And the first one which is the global campaign is called uh legacies are made um at PPS and it's born out of feedback from parents, students, staff and actually one of our former board members who emphasized pride in PPS history and alumni. There were stories told regarding why people stay and the amazing people who attend or once attended our schools. Um it celebrates a long-standing of impact of PPS education on future leaders, innovative innovators and first generation graduates. Um it also positions PPS as more than just a place to attend school, but where futures are truly shaped and lifelong success begins. Um and it also inspires our current um and future families by connecting them to legacy, nostalgia, and trust. Um, and so the second campaign,
045and the reason we did this, I I know someone came up earlier and did testimony and talked about just uh the importance of neighborhood schools. And so this one is to help localize the campaign even more um with the different schools within the communities. And so it emerges from feedback um calling for stronger ties between schools and neighborhood, which is why it's called your opportunity, your community. Um it highlights the real value of uh education, quality education close to home, personal relationships, strong community ties and convenience. Um it addresses decline enrollment by encouraging families to look inward and reconnect with their local schools and it reframes opportunity as something already present within the community showing the greatness doesn't um require them to necessarily leave their neighborhoods. We can go to the next slide. So, I
046do want to start with this, and I know we do have a marketing expert on um our our board, but she I'm sure she would agree that, you know, um marketing happens when you have data um to back it up. And so, um what I want to start with is that while the research that we have been doing is um sometimes brutally honest, is really what's making the campaign credible. Um, and it gives us the truth about ha how families see PPS, what excites them, what frustrates them, and what keeps them um, enrolling and staying. And so those top two images you see, we've been doing some um, focus groups with folks. We've been doing some on camera interviews, some actual focus groups, and those are two just examples of two uh, candidates um, who
047are giving very candid feedback. We are in preliminary um stages of this research which is why I haven't shared that but once that survey becomes available um I will share it. We're going into phase two um of that survey. Um and so this insight allows us to craft messaging that resonates to target audiences more effectively to address real pain points rather than just simply trying to sell PPS. Um we will compare the quantitative data that these folks are giving us with the qualitative data that Dr. Adams and his team um collects and then we'll cross reference that to just make sure it's aligned with our messaging. Um and then from there we'll start to build more uh visibility and trust through um some things. And so one of the phase approach you see on there
048is a district profile book. That's just one of the things that's going to be a result of this um where it will be a book a a marketing tool to highlight PPS um which we will be eventually able to share with um well beyond families in the hands of real estate agents. You know, I know we talked about housing and so real estate agents uh businesses, service providers, neighborhood associations, and even faith-based um uh organizations and also at community events. Um and we just want to ensure that wherever families turn they see accurate and inspiring representation of PPS. Um we'll then scale this and this is the the the phase approach. We'll scale this campaign digitally using social media, SEO, geo fencing and target to specific audiences with precision. Um and then finally in phase
049four we'll bring the global campaign together through paid media and brand activation events. Um the paid ad keeps our messaging consistent and visible while the brand activation makes it tangible. So meeting families where they are and creating memorable experiences and showcasing PPS um as present and engage and invested in the community. Um and this fire this final layer also allows us to move from awareness to trust and from trust to enrollment. The phase approach for the localized campaign um is built on data. So instead of um spreading our efforts thin, we're starting where the need um is the greatest. And so what we've done was come out and said we're going to target the top five lowest enrolled zip codes and try try to truly um support the schools who or those principles and those
050schools and those building leaders who need it the most. Um and so phase one prioritizes schools in five of the lowest enrollment zip codes. From there, we're equipping the schools with customized toolkits. I know a hyperl and you don't have to open the hyperlink now, but what you see to the right is is an example of what comes in Jefferson's toolkit that we put together for them. So, we really want to support principles from a marketing standpoint and the communication standpoint on really truly branding um their schools. Um and just as important, we're prioritizing the launch of each school's website first. So, right now, as we're going into rebranding and rebuilding our website and relaunching our website, most schools will not come online with their new website until January 2026. But the schools that have
051the lowest enrollment, we have prioritize them to launch their website this fall because again, their website is their marketing tool and they need that support. Um and then so after that we go into the phase three which is the paid targeted outreach alumni f um alumni focused um marketing campaigns um tied to each school. Um we'll do some targeted outdoor ads and neighborhoods surrounding those schools. Again just based on the data that we're getting with the enrollment and what zip codes needed the most. Um and then again um brand activation events partnering with our face department, our family and community engagement team to feature alumni. And then from there, we will scale this campaign to expand to midlevel decline schools. And so we've been just breaking it down zip code by zip code. Um who
052who will be next. Um of course none of this will happen overnight. It will take some time to do that, but just wanted to kind of go through um those phased approaches um to how we're looking at this. And I believe that may be my last slide. >> All right, I'll take over from there. My name is Isaac Cardona. I'm the chief of school Now the time if we're supposed to ask for questions. >> Sorry. >> It's okay. Sorry. Just a few minutes. >> Um I do have a couple questions. First of all, um I think it's great work like having a global message and a localized message and tying it all together. Uh I really think it sends a message that we know who we are and if we don't we need to know
053who we are in order to sell ourselves to families. So, um, and I also wanted to call out that the research we're doing, um, including the pain points is really important because if we're going to gain families, we need to be making these emotional connections with them. It's critical. Um, I had a question about the zip code strategy. Um, are we targeting um, the lowest enrolled zip codes by percentage or like hard data like the the air the zip codes that have the most students to pick up? Kind of like fishing where the fish are, if you will. >> For for it was hard data. >> Okay. Great. Great. And um I just wanted to comment that um you know with state funding tied to each student I feel like you know these investments like
054the ROI is there this is like an easy spend for me. So just think it's great work. >> Thank you. >> Um I have just a question also on the zip codes. Um and also just kind of a note on it. Um, so, um, when you say you looked at hard data, is it like just catchment rate or how did you guys decide on those? >> I can speak to that. Thank you so much for the question. We looked at our zip codes and the number of students that we've lost in enrollment over time. >> Okay. >> So, it's not necessarily catchment, it's just where enrollment is down the most. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, I just will throw it out there that I think it'd be interesting to look at catchment. And I also,
055um, notice that these are all on the east side, which it's kind of my job to think about the west side, the lower west side specifically. Um, and so I just kind of want to put it out there that I know I've talked to Dr. Armstrong about the catchment rates being very low in Southwest Portland. um including my own school which has had an amazing turnaround and would be an excellent place to send your kids but we still and we've done a lot of work to try to spread that message but we're still pretty low on the catchment rate. So, I just want to give the example of like it might be good to consider in the next round, not just the zip code approach and not just the where enrollment is down is because
056my guess is that maybe we just have maybe more kids compared to maybe other parts of the city potentially and so the catchment rate there's like also there's the catchment rate is lower and there might be more kids. So, if we're just looking at the enrollment over time, we might be reaching out to areas where maybe there's fewer kids that we can grab. Am I making sense? So I just think looking at catchment rate might be a good idea. And then even if you continue with the same mechanism or look at catchment and have the same results, I still think it might be nice to consider um having some geographic balance so that we're not just focusing all this localized work on the east side of town. >> It's almost like I'm hearing more money
057for marketing. I'm like it's like an alternate reality. But I do hear that's kind of similar kind of what I was trying to get at Christie is that if we work off a percentage um if it's a an area that's really small and you know it could be like 30% but there's only 100 kids but 30% of like a thousand kids is more. So I see what you're doing but I think you raised a really good point in terms of like you know what opportunities we might have on the lower west side. Am I getting that right? The lower west side. >> Yeah that's thank you. All right, I'll take it over from there. So, I'm here to briefly share what schools have been and are currently doing to drive enrollment. The biggest draw we
058know is that students and parents want to receive a high quality education and we are committed to providing that in every classroom every day. You can go to the next slide. Instruction that helps our students achieve our graduate portrait and closes persistent gaps in outcomes. Next slide. This year, we are continuing our focus on literacy, math, and nth grade success. This is part of our district's continuous improvement plan. This drives the work that we do here in central office, the work that leaders do within schools and within classrooms. We also know that attendance is a key driver in how students perform in school. So, we're being very intentional about the work we do to support attendance in all of our classrooms. Next slide. We have three big pushes for enrollment in transition periods. Um we
059call so kindergarten, sixth grade, and nth grade. We call these connect to kindergarten, moving to middle school, and heading to high school. You probably saw those reflected in the darker green on a previous slide that Dr. Adams shared. So key points for enrollment for kindergarten. We begin enrollment in the spring the year prior. This includes connected kindergarten events that start in the spring and flow into summer like kindergarten meetups, popsicles in the park, getting a chance to meet teachers and administrators, tour classrooms, visit schools. In the fall, we have a ramp up that facilitates some small group meetings between teachers and parents, guardians and students. Just ways to really build strong relationships. For middle and high school, we keep similar cadence of getting to visit schools, hearing about options, course offerings, athletics, and having strong
060connection points to foster and build community. This heads into the fall where we have back to school nights, things like heritage nights and community events that open to current and future students and families. That way we can build a strong connection between the hub as a school for the community. We want to make these places welcoming where everyone feels like they have a a seat at the table. The next few slide slides show examples of what that outreach looks like, but I won't go into all of them. Just want to give you all some examples of what this looks like at an individual school basis. That's it. >> Yeah. Sorry, they're just she she's scrolling through the slides. I'm watching them. >> So, I have a question. Absolutely. Um, we received an email recently about
061a family who uh visited Jefferson. They have a a child who will be going into nth grade and their experience um in terms of like how the school presented and kind of sold itself and uh created an experience for visiting potential nth graders. um was probably not surprisingly um very different from the other high schools that they visited and um you know I we're we're all familiar with the underenrollment and uh what that means for budget at Jefferson but my curiosity is around uh what the plan is to to present a vision for Jefferson so that when those eighth graders are deciding which high school they're going to go to. They're excited and see vision and possibility. Um, even though the school isn't done yet and even though it's still underenrolled and has fewer offerings
062than the other high schools. >> I don't know. I want to take Margaret's thunder if she's going to talk about that in a second. >> Oh, sorry. >> Margaret, do you want to >> Yes, I appreciate the question. U Margaret Celver, assistant superintendent for school planning and modernization. Um we are uh part in the spring in June, we shared um some enrollment information about Jefferson and some specific um uh supports that we were planning. Um and if you're okay with it, I'll skip forward to that slide briefly. Um and then we'll kind of come back. But what we shared in, if I don't want to make people woozy as we go, so close your eyes for a sec. There we go. So, what we shared in June was a plan. There was a two-tiered approach.
063Um, really one is to say we're going to look at uh dual assignment, which is part of what we're the conversation tonight, but then we're going to make a very specific support and marketing to to help Jefferson as well. So, I'm gonna um also tag in uh Chief Gross here, but part of what you can see are the efforts that we have increased support for Jefferson in particular with the marketing toolkit, the information sessions, and then media um and advertisement campaign is being done in concert with some of the other efforts. So, um, I'll pause here for Chief Gross to see if there's anything else you want to add, but the the marketing toolkit I think was linked. >> Yes, the marketing toolkit, which is for Jefferson. Um, and then, uh, we are we've prioritized
064launching Jefferson's website like now. So, that was to support in tandem. And part of what will what will surface as we come into the fall, um, there are rhythms to where the transition conversations happen. So, um, high school, uh, sort of information sessions for incoming students happen in October going into November. The high school lottery actually opens in November and then con and continues through December. So, some of what you're seeing like if it's eighth grade uh, information nights and shadow days and all those pieces are we're coming into that season um, shortly. We'll get through back to school nights and sort of welcoming current students and then also extend the doors. So, this is part of the ongoing efforts. Um, this two-tiered approach of what we're doing currently to help support enrollment growth and
065then also looking at dual assignment. >> Can I piggyback on what you were saying? I was wondering um so if you go to slide 14, it's the principal outreach efforts. It has kindergarten connect uh with the flyers on there. I'm wondering um if there's not a plan, could we consider adding it to the plan some um basically kind of a kindergarten recruitment toolkit and a back to school night toolkit for our principles? So there's some I think it's okay when we're competing against, you know, private schools, you know, to recapture our students um to make our materials, you know, A+ materials and you've got all this creative work that you just showed. Um it would be great if we could pull that through and um and you know, not every principal is like a great
066marketer. There might be a great principle, but um having the materials and sort of a best practices or a playbook of um might be something to consider. >> Absolutely. I think I know the community and family engagement group or team is already creating those playbooks so that we can get those to all schools and have a similar experience of recruitment. >> So exciting. >> And then from the marketing standpoint, I know Dr. She's >> I've seen some she and I have been in meetings together and we're we're linked on that that as far as the marketing toolkit. Did you want to Yeah, I'm >> I think you have to come up. >> Hi, I'm Emily Glasco. I'm the senior director for PreK5 academics. Um, and we do have a toolkit um for schools that includes
067video templates, website templates, um, slide deck templates, flyer templates, examples of what all their different events could look like. What's really exciting to me is um our new our new comm's approach and having this sort of district-wide marketing approach. So I think what we'll now be able to do is refresh all of that under this new campaign um and then you know train our principles and our school teams up um with with tighter tools than we've had in the past. But they are used to having sort of something to already anchor that and so this will fit really nicely in >> it looks great. Yeah. Um I have similar comments again. Um so I think at least some of you definitely you know um a couple years ago I really leaned in on um doing
068some work related to kindergarten recruitment. And if you even go one slide back you'll see like a thing that you can stay. You're fine. You can stay. But so see where it says summer enrollment drive. So, like my theory was that we're like waiting too late to do those community events that are so fun where people get to connect with other neighbors and hear about why we love going to our neighborhood schools so much. And so, um, community and parents for public schools for the last 2 years has offered some grants to help PTAs throw events like that that happen sooner. Um, we hear a lot about like warm welcome, but like the warm welcome's great, that happens after enrollment, and we love those events, but what if we did more of those sooner? Um,
069and so we also created um I reached out to every PTA in the district and asked for stories about what they do um that's worked really well and created like a little toolkit. So, I'm happy. It's nothing amazing, but I'm happy to share it. Um, but it's just work that that I did as a volunteer well before being on the school board that I think could be applicable. Um, just to see some of those ideas. Um, I think a lot of what's happening around like those kindergarten events is parent driven, parent volunteer driven through our PTAs. And so I think it'd be a lovely opportunity to partner with those people who already do this work um, and help them sort of up their game too. Um, our principles are busy and sometimes even just turning
070and finding somebody to help with something is just really hard. Um, if you're overwhelmed and I mean we have a great principal at my school and I'm only talking about my school because that's my personal experience. We're really lucky who can like make cool things and make flyers and all that. Um, but having had someone in the past who didn't have that skill set, even just asking for that help was challenging. So, I think um figuring out how to access that volunteer base at each school that are really really dedicated to seeing enrollment improve um would be great. And I'm sure that the PTA folks would love to work with the district. I'm sure they'd love to have warmer connections. So, I just wanted to put all of that out there because this is something
071that I I did dedicate, you know, a solid chunk of of my time to a while back. Um and those grants from Community and Parents for Public Schools, hopefully they'll have resources to continue them this spring. Um so that um when we give uh more money to I think we used we didn't use title one we used like percentage of students that qualify for free and reduced lunch um just because those schools like Markham that are so close to title one and aren't could also use more resources or um Hayhurst for that matter too I guess um is also close too but um but um yeah just really great that you're doing all of this um and uh thank you for considering how parents can be um partners. >> Can I ask one more question?
072You made me think of one more question for timing for um like recruitment materials. Will these go out in like January, February? Is that what you're envisioning? >> I'm trying to get some of them out now. So, it's on a rolling basis. Of course, we know funding is a thing, but it's on a rolling basis as far as the the the timing goes. So, Jefferson will launch first and then we'll go on to our next school and our next school and our next school. >> Um I was just thinking of the private schools. they go hard in January and February. Try to wrap everything up by March. So, just something to think about in terms of the timelines. >> Okay. I'm back. Good evening. I'm Margaret Calbert again, uh, assistant superintendent for school planning and
073modernization, and I'm here to give an update on where we started a conversation with, um, some previous board members and some current u board members in June around Jefferson dual assignment. So, we're here today to provide an update. This will be the second of five engagements that we have formally um that we've plotted out with the um with the board over the next few months. Essentially, we're going to come back and talk to you guys about once a month through January. Um, we are here uh as part of a um as a resolution that was passed by the a previous school board in December of 2022 that asked the student the superintendent um by the start of the 2627 school year to initiate a process to develop a plan to increase student enrollment at Jefferson
074High School. So the materials that are linked in this slide deck include the presentation that we did in June along with the me background memo around um the enrollment at Jefferson. For over a decade, Portland Public Schools has implemented a dual assignment policy for Jefferson High School, allowing students in designated zones to choose between Jefferson and a neighboring comprehensive high school. While this policy aimed to provide flexibility, it has inadvertently led to underenrollment at Jefferson and overcrowding at schools like Grant and Roosevelt. With Jefferson's enrollment hovering around um between five and 600 students, um modernization um projects underway, PPS recognizes the need to realign the enrollment strategy. I don't know what just happened, but I stopped presenting. Um, see if I can get that back. See, there we go. Um, the district's proposing to phase
075out the dual assignment um, policy positioning Jefferson as a comprehensive neighborhood school in the fall of uh, 2027. This change seeks to ensure students equitable access access to quality education within the community, especially our historically underserved students, stabilize enrollment, and make Jefferson the future ready hub of innovation, college access, and career opportunity in a modernized building. See if this is lagging slightly. I think my internet connection is going in and out. Rosanne, I don't know if it's possible for you to present, but I am my I am not online any longer here in here in the boardroom. So this next slide is uh is also one that we shared in um June and what it shows >> when we get there. See if I I'll try one more time to see if I can get
076to move here. Apologies. Okay, I will stop. Absolutely. Okay, we're on slide 22. So we see here uh this slide shows um the current dual assignment and and populations of the four high schools that are impacted. So Jefferson shares a boundary where it can choose can choose to go between Jefferson and Grant, Jefferson or McDaniel or Jefferson and Roosevelt. In this particular graph, Grant is the top blue line. McDaniel is the red line, Roosevelt is the black line. If we were to look at the current enrollment, the most recent enrollment data that is um not in transition yet, like if we go back to 2425, what you'll see is a difference right now um between Grant at 21 uh 20 2,149 and Jefferson at just shy of 500. So we're at about a difference between
077the high schools of about 1,600 students within the northnortheast corridor. When we look out and we if we do nothing, this pattern will continue through all the way out to 2032. What you see is that there is declining enrollment overall, but the gap between the schools if we do nothing at Jefferson remains at well over a thousand students. What that means for students at Jefferson is that there are the variety and uh richness of programming um is reflective of the size of the school. So there are great things happening at Jefferson, no question. The middle college, the Jefferson dancers, athletics, and it also there's a difference in the diversity of uh course offerings based on school size. So this difference if we were to think about the average just within this part of town would
078be closer to about 14 or 1500 now and about um you know would be fairly similar even by 2032. So we're looking not only at the um spread of the differences in in class in uh school size but also um you know the variety as we go out that spread stays even as enrollment overall decreases. So the time is now to really think about what are the actions that we can take to support Jefferson um as we align with modernization. Right. So this is in concert with seeing a forward-looking um proposal to help students and and families realize as uh uh Chief Gross said um really robust programming close to home. Rosanne, if we can go to the next slide. Again, in June, we came out with a general timeline saying, "Hey, here's what we'd
079like to do." Moving towards um some engagement, some uh scenario development, and then bringing a recommendation to the board to increase Jefferson's enrollment um in the winter uh in you know, we left it as at at in the winter of 25 26. So what we've done since then, I'm going to go to the next slide, is share here's where we are about the things that we've done up to this point. So over the summer, we uh formed an internal advisory committee. We interviewed principles. We developed we're in the process of developing scenarios. We're here today to as our second touch point with the board. But I wanted to highlight here in blue. you see the spaces where we're looking for public engagement around um in a variety of ways. We are in the midst of
0803-W weekek tour of open houses. I've been to I think four already. There are five tonight that we're going to um we have folks out um sharing information. Um and we'll finish tomorrow uh next week with I think four more next week. We also are planning for four public engagement nights in October at the end of October where we'll look um at scenarios and talk about um uh looking at this with the community. We'll come back after we have that public engagement. We'll look at the scenarios. We'll hear the feedback. We'll work through we'll be back here hopefully in November to share here's what we heard from the community and then we will put together a um a proposal in December but then we'll come back to a board work session in December and potentially
081a vote in January. So this is the public engagement portion of it. Same sort of information on the next slide. Roseanne is I've highlighted where we are having um engagement with the board and trying to keep you a breast of the actions that we're taking. So, as I said, this is the second of five planned formal touch points with the board um that will culminate um hopefully if we can keep the um the the the timing of this all lined up for a vote in early 2026, so in January. Next slide, please. So, as I said, we're in the midst of a whirlwind tour of back- to-school nights. I want to uh thank uh Chief Gross for her support and and helping us get um materials ready. I also want to uh thank our face
082team, our family uh engagement and community family and community engagement team who has been helping staff tables and our enrollment transfer team. So, we've been out uh literally tableabling at um at back to school nights, having conversations with families, saying, "Hey, this is coming up. We're going to be in formal engagements in um uh October." And also trying to align with some information about um the uh modernization. So, I know some of you were in the modernization and saw renderings of the new Jefferson. Uh they have been a bigger draw. the pictures and me standing at a table with handouts. It's a shocker, I know, but uh the the seeing the future of what Jefferson is is going to look like has been is has generated quite a lot of of energy and interest. So,
083this evening, as you can see, there are five um different back to school nights. I'm headed to Fabian after this to go and engage with some of our families. I've had the pre uh privilege of being at Vernon, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Peninsula already. I had planned to go to Harry Tubman and um at least one of uh two more schools either Boise, you know, on the last night of the 25th. So, we're we're out and about trying to um make sure that we're connecting with families, sharing what is coming so that people are aware. Um all right, Rosanne, next slide. I keep thinking I keep clicking mine thinking it's going to go. It's not. And then we're going to take out the formal scenarios for four nights in the October. Um, I'm going
084to apologize that uh these are somewhat tentative. We're trying to finalize details, but um Thursday, October 29th at Fabian, I think is going to be Wednesday, October 28th, but we'll make sure that we have a finalized schedule. Um the goal for the for take going out and working with the community is to look at the scenarios, make sure that we're um getting feedback. We'll bring that feedback back into um our central office team, do some analysis of it in November, and then come back to you with a final recommendation in December. We'll have a formal work session and then prepare for a vote in January. Next slide, please. As I said earlier, this is one of two prongs of an approach. We're also working to look at how we're um increasing awareness and enrollment as
085we go through this process um and strengthening Jefferson enrollment in two different ways. Um so that is the general today's really the effort was to share sort of what the timelines were make sure that you were aware of what was coming where we are out in in the public and to talk about some of the um engagement efforts we have done already. I know there was a question about which principles have we spoken to. So we have been out we we uh over August and September interviewed 16 of the principles. So there are four high school principles that are part of this at Roosevelt um McDaniel Grant and Jefferson. We've been to two middle schools, two K8s and eight elementaryaries. So that is the um the schools that are most directly impacted in this particular
086time. So with that, I think that this if we go to the um the next slide, um this is part of a three-prong approach that we are working through. So you heard about the enrollment campaign as phase one. You're hearing about Jefferson's dual assignment as phase two. And the third phase is school right sizing, which you know there's there's a lot of interest in that as well. So, um, what we're doing is trying to lay out a sequencing of, um, meeting processes that will take us through phase one and phase two that we've talked about today. Come back at another time and lay out sort of the the framework for the timing of phase three. All of this work is being sponsored by um I I keep wanting to say super chief, but it's senior
087chief, but I think he's a super chief. Um, Dr. John Franco. Um and then uh uh he is he's the executive sponsor for these three and we're trying to again show cohesion and coherence as we go through to try to tie these pieces together. Um I think the other piece I would just say that's unique um is that in the process especially around U Jefferson and the modernizations and I know that the facilities um you know we're looking at large investments um I'm very excited about the opportunity in my role to be able to bridge between looking at enrollment and the modernizations and so it provides opportunities for me to be really on the ground looking at the three high schools. What does that look like? What does that mean for enrollment? not only at
088Jefferson, but then also across the high school. So, unique opportunities. >> I think uh that last piece makes Virginia and I want to uh live in your pocket. I have a mouse in my pocket, but you know, we can see what else can fit. So, and with that, that's I think that it's questions at this point. And I don't know, Dr. Franco, if there's anything you would care to add. I think my only question was was related to the because there are so many schools that could potentially be impacted. If you're able at some point, you know, it's not like a huge rush, but maybe sometime in the next week or two to share um which K through eights and middle schools were engaged. just making I'm not saying that I know you know what
089you're doing but would love to see like the geography >> of um where that engagement was so that as we move farther down the line we make sure that we've >> you know >> captured equitably I know there's some schools that are farther away that are probably the most uh engaged >> so yes so we we did go out as I said and talk to 16 principles which included Oley Green and Harriet Tubman Middle School principles as the as the middle school team and Fabian and and Vernon as the K8 that are lie within uh the Jefferson dual enrollment zone. Um so that we have done that and we will continue to to do that and we've planned for the um engagement sessions to be at the middle grades at schools um so that we
090can be closest to the families that were are making these decisions and kind of looking at what this how this will impact them in the future. >> This is like a tiny just clarification question. Um those are the schools that lay within the dual enrollment. Yes. Are there homes where kids are zoned to go to like Beverly Clearary for example that are in the dual enrollment zone but the school is out of it or just the none of the kids that would be zoned to go to Beverly Clearary let's say. >> That's correct. Okay. Just making sure that it's not just what's in there but where the people go. So what what what you see in the in the um and the board materials from June were pretty rich. And so I'm happy to like
091there were maps that we had and kind of show where where students are um by race and ethnicity, but also where they are in terms of what schools they have chosen historically. Right? So this was a snapshot point in time. Yeah. >> Um maps are really helpful when you do this and um they're very hard to project on screen. So I think that um we need to happy to share maps and I think walk like the notion of sort of walking spaces and kind of visualizing some of the pieces too is really helpful. So um that's why we're very excited to go into spaces where we know the families are um and and to look at what that means within Vernon, you know, Oley Green, Harriet Tubman and uh Bobby for example. >> Great. Thanks.
092Um, and then I have um I guess based on the emails that we've gotten here and there where people are asking and I guess like I see what the goal is and kind of where we're headed, but is it generally speaking like open-minded on what all of this process leads to or is it like there's going to be a thing that happens we already know what it is next fall and this is just going to determine how we get there or is it like more open-ended and really the end date is when the new Jefferson opens? Do we know that yet or because I keep getting asked like is this going to be for like next year? Um and I just don't know the answer. >> I can see Dr. Armstrong leaning in. Um and
093I will I will yield to Dr. Armstrong. >> I know I've had so many words about this and the team has been really patient. I think really what we want to do is be able to bring you all a list of options. Um, I think at this point we're approaching it in an open-ended way. We know the energy from community and specifically Jefferson. I think I uh gave that call to action in June about the enrollment and and where we're headed or maybe that was July. No, it was June. June. So, I think we're we're thinking of it in an open-ended way so that you all can have the opportunity to see the information, have um looked over community feedback, and then be able to weigh in on uh the resolution, either ending it completely
094or ending it with a couple of uh different options in mind or um u let's say uh provisions, >> timelines, and timelines, right? So when the decision will take place and we're hoping to get lots of information from community and the feeders to be able to help drive that. >> Okay. >> So I think that's going to be a relief to folks who might think it's like a foregone conclusion or the district already knows what it wants to do and this is just process for process's sake. So I think the more as you're presenting on this um that can be clear that we're figuring out how to approach this um not with an end in mind might be really helpful because I've been getting the vibes that people feel like there is a decision kind
095of like made if that makes sense. >> So I think it you know part of what um there are two things I think I heard you say something about the fall of 26. So I want to reassure that we're not looking for um some adjustments for this current fall at least initially, right? So I'm like if that if everybody comes back and say nope, let's go. It's a different story, right? So what we have um laid out as an as initial timeline is for um suns setting of dual assignment in the fall of 2027. So it would be current seventh graders. So it's part of where we're in we're entering into this conversation with with uh schools. So again, you know, it's open like we have to have a starting point. So we're trying to
096make sure that we have a starting point for conversations. Um and we are building out some scenarios to share what that looks like. Um we're working through those um so that they will be ready when we go out to uh talk with people in uh October. We just actually had a meeting today about what some of those engagements would look like and some of the strategies around making sure that we invite as many voices into the conversation as possible. >> Thank you so much for the commitment to hearing from community. It means a lot to I'm sure all of us. >> Well, thank you all so much. That was u really rich content and I think answered a lot of questions that we had. So with that, our next meeting of the teaching and learning
097committee is scheduled for October 9th and this meeting is adjourned. >> We're not even over. >> Yes. Well done. >> Even with the technical difficult