001All right, I'm going to call the meeting of the policy committee to order. Uh we'll start with introductions. Uh but before we do that, I'm just going to note two um changes in documents that were uh posted with the materials. One, the solicitation and registration reporting. Um there is a redline version that we're going to just supply um paper copy to everyone. um you'll have that by by the time we get to that that portion of it and we'll walk through it. And then secondly, on the student representative and district student council policy, the version that was um posted had one uh a fragment of a sentence that was um deleted which um was unintentional. And so we're having that fixed and so but by the time we get to that point in the meeting,
002it will be the correct version. and I think is what what was intended. So with that um we'll start with introductions and we'll just do the dis to start with and then anybody in the audience who's presenting during the meeting just introduce yourself when you get to the meeting. Um Cara, do you want to start? Sure. Cara Bradshaw, executive assistant. Hi. Liz Large, contracted single legal adviser. Julia Brim Edwards, uh policy committee chair and board member. Michelle the pass board member, sorry. Uh Ian Rotor, um student repelect JJ Coni, student representative. Uh Patty Sullivan, board member. Great. Thank you. Thanks. Do you have any public comment? We do not. Perfect. Um so we are going to start um I'm just changing the order um as a courtesy to some staff who have to leave earlier
003which is the uh compulsory enrollment age and grade level at entrance discussion and it actually is it is just a next steps and which um is my intent to signal that I'm not going to be um moving a change in the policy. I don't think there I heard support from uh members of the board to change it, but I did want to talk about next steps because I still think the reason for the proposed changed is a um a legit legitimate change. And the concern I raised at the beginning was that um in a time in which our enrollment was dropping um we have students who right are on the cusp of the um enrollment age on September 1st and that um my concern is that they were being told by the enrollment office and
004our policy actually says that if you go to kindergarten somewhere else even for a short period of time and then apply to come back to PPS, the rule that rule doesn't apply to you. Um, and I'm I was concerned about that for a number of reasons. Um, one, if we're suggesting that somebody be homeschooled or go or enroll in a private school, um, in a couple months they may not come back to PBS. Um, so we've lost that student. Um the other concern was that um in a in a time of um you know it's it's it's arbitrary. We we talked about the arbitrariness. No, no matter what the date is, it's always going to be arbitrary is that um PPS is has um declining enrollment. And so I still think there even if we
005don't change the policy some different approach and I've have some things I wanted to suggest just for discussion to see if uh the committee was interested. Um the I'd also talked to the superintendent who was um indicated like initially like her flexibility um in in the initial date. And while that may not be the approach we want to take, uh I do think that we should look closely at the information that we got this last week on our capture rate, which is I've never seen it so low at PPS. So we're capturing so our declined enrollment is declining faster than the rate of um the rest of the state. I think the rest of the state was like 6% and we're at a 10% enrollment drop since 2019 and our capture rate is down to
006it's different at all the different grade levels but in the 70s which again I've never seen it that low. One things Portland has always prided itself in is having a very high capture rate. Um and of course we know if we don't have students um public schools should be open and welcoming to everyone but also um it impacts the resources we get from the state. So I had a couple couple thoughts. So that is the leadin. Um but a couple thoughts on next steps. Um and I Emily, if you want to if share your thoughts on this as well, I'd welcome them. But that we um consider a couple things. One, if we don't want to change the date and we have families who contact us about early entry, having a much more robust engagement
007plan around getting them into um one of our preschool programs. The theory is if somebody is in one of our preschool programs that they're much more likely to continue into PPS. Second, um the second thing would be like how that connects to the enrollment campaign that we're um that we're that we're um going to be engaging in this next year. And then third um you know is there is there a change in the policy language which would be more inviting in in the sense of if we have a hard if we have a hard date you know how we continue to invite families in versus them like I'm just going somewhere else because um because it doesn't feel very welcoming and the the solutions that you're offering which is wait till next year or that
008to go to preschool and actually there is no preschool or um to homeschool or go to private school aren't options. Um so those are just like some of the things that I thought as alternatives and so I just open open it up and again I Emily I would welcome your comments as well. Um, I think, you know, it's good ideas to connect and be welcoming, but I don't feel we need to solve our enrollment problem by putting kids in school too early. I think we have to be really careful about that. So, so today's discussion was not to be a continuation of changing the policy. So, I've already said that that's not going to happen. So, I'm interested I'm interested in like how we continue to welcome families because I feel like our current policy
009is unwelcoming. I feel like the the answers we've given to families are not real answers. And so, I'm trying to figure out a way of like if we if we we're not going to change the date, which sounds like we're not going to, how how do we want Yeah. And I totally agree with that. Yeah. Thank you because that sounds like an easier problem to solve than you know making an arbitrary kind of date. Um so yeah, I would love to hear what you have to say. Yeah, and this is what your thoughts are. For sure. No, and I would say this is by no means um just uh impacts my team um because my team is actually not where a lot of these inquiries come. like this is a larger conversation and I think
010you're right director Bram Edwards that it does I think connect to this larger convers in conversation about the enrollment campaign um which I'm just learning about I'm just I have my first meeting about that tomorrow so more to come and it's good that I have this framing in my head as I enter into that conversation um I appreciate the move away from changing the policy and toward ensuring that our practices align with the spirit of who we want to be which is welcoming families into our schools, right? And that does feel like it aligns really well with the work we've been trying to do around kindergarten um for the last many years of sort of like you don't have to be ready for kindergarten, we have to be ready for you, right? Like that's that
011feels in alignment with where we've been trying to go. Um, and I think you know the enrollment and transfer center, um, the early learning team, principals, secretaries, like there are lots of different people that have these conversations with families when families show up and say, "Can I register my child?" Right? Um, and so we need to work on shared system practices and language around how we make sure that all those people who might get that inquiry know our policies, but also know our our practices in our programs, know our prek programs, know what we offer, where we might have seats, what the enrollment process is, um, can sort of speak with families about their options communitywide, right? Like I think that's that's just on us to build up capacity that all the folks who might
012receive these inquiries um know how to answer them in a welcoming way that feels less like what I'm hearing you describe as sort of a door in your face and more like an opening door to like maybe not now, maybe not this way, but we absolutely want you in our system and we're going to find a way to help you, right? Is that what I'm I'm hearing the want is and I also think it it needs to be more than just words. Like if we say we like you should go to preschool and you go pay for that or you got to go find your own to me that so like I would want to see how actually like could we actually every student who shows up like yeah there is a preschool slot for
013for you. Um and if there's not I think we I think I don't think we should be saying that then. [laughter] Um, again, if we if we're saying our solution for if you're you want early entry is that there's a preschool slot. If we're and but we have to make sure that's actually accurate because if it's like, oh, it's a preschool slot for these kids, then we should say we have preschool slots for these kids and you're going to have to find another place and we're going to welcome you next year. It's just we can't I don't think give parents say things inaccurately and I'm not saying we have but it's just like it has to be real. Yeah, for sure. And um as we've shared with you guys, preschool now is a pretty it's
014a pretty nuance space in PPS. So there there is eligibility for any family potentially and there's priority populations and there's sites that get more full than other sites and at any given point in the year a slot might be here but a slot might not be here because kids move things happen right so I think what we can commit to is making sure that our school secretaries our principles our counselors right people who might be the folks who get these inquiries at least know who in our system knows the answers to those questions and could say let me link you right up to my colleague who works on the early learners team and manages pre-K enrollment in our system. They'll be able to let you know if there's a slot available and if you qualify,
015which is a more transparent and honest answer than than because that the folks at at our K5 schools are never going to necessarily have that information, but they should know who does. Yeah. I I really I mean, you know, one of the things I care the most about is early childhood experiences and, you know, of course, I want us to, you know, demonstrate our values by being welcoming, you know, for all for all comers. Um, I didn't like the the the moving the date around at all. I did agree that it was an equity issue. um and that who has access to making special requests um and so and it also seems like this coordination piece is easier to solve and so um yeah are you and and I myself don't understand where the kind
016of preschool for all priority populations fit in with everybody else and where these openings are. But that seems I mean if if that could be worked on that coordination piece between someone maybe from Mult County Preschool for all or who's we do our own enrollment and so we have an enrollment team on our early learners team. Director Sullivan knows this. She had a she came out and visited us and learned a little bit more. Um so we have folks that are PPS employees that have this information. They run the enrollment. They have all the most recent numbers. They understand it. So it it really is just a coordination piece and making sure that you know all 58 of our school secretaries who are in K5 buildings like have that number on their desk and know
017how to connect people if this question comes up and we can absolutely commit to doing better with that connecting of dots within our system. Excellent. And is there um are there spots open for students that come from all schools or is that still is is there still a need there in terms of the demand for kindergarten spots for what's is the demand for kindergarten spots are we able to fulfill the demand for kindergarten or pre-K? Well, for both, I guess. PreK and we have no cap on kindergarten, right? We can always fulfill the demand for kindergarten. Um, we have 910 PPS preK seats right now across the district. Um, they are not neighborhood bound. So, you just have to live in Portland and or actually even in Multma County for preschool for all slots. Okay.
018Um and so you don't you know and you get to prefer as a family the location where there's availability that's best for you and then there's sort of some formulas that are run through to say you know if your priority population that said like later in the school year if there's an open seat and you know like our our preschool for all slots don't have a hard income eligibility cap. Okay. So if we have filled our priority seats with priority populations and there's not a waiting list, there is a reality in which someone who's not indicated in a priority population could qualify for a preschool for all slot. Okay. Um and that's why this is nuanced and why we would want our enrollment team answering these questions because they're the folks that have all that
019nuanced information and at any given point in the year would be able to answer the question about where there's availability and not and for whom. Um, and they also know where else there's prek available in our community because we're not the only preschool for all provider in Multma County or even in Portland boundaries. So we may the answer may be right now in PBS buildings or in the part of the city that you want to be in there's not a space available but our partner you know who X Y and Z preschool for all provider may have spaces. So let me connect you with those folks. They also are in our community. Excellent. And are those is there a system like web- based or is it paper system still that we so everybody can has
020access to real-time enrollment information? Uh it's not public within our system like that. Preschool for all in most cases the county manages enrollment for preschool for all seats. They don't for us because of our size and scale and braided model. we do that ourselves, but so in most cases it would mean going back to the county and applying through them for sort of those more atlarge preschool for all seats and they do have more of a database that um I have to look and see. I'm not sure how public it is in terms of like whether you can actually see real time where their slides like a dashboard. Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure. Okay, thank you. Yeah, and I'm strongly in agreement with strengthening our engagement and communication plan with when it comes to
021prek. Just for clarity, would kind of that communication plan on how we communicate to our families, would that be in the policy or in the AD? It wouldn't be in policy. I mean, we have it. So, again, these all these things kind of intersect, right? We do have prek/adstart policy around our enrollment procedures that you as the board of our Head Start program do approve and see. So there is that there is policy. Um and we do have a whole outreach coordinated plan that we'd be happy to to tell you more about. Um most of this I think is just procedure andor you know AD level work. We don't have an AD specifically around this yet to my knowledge. Yeah. And how many preK sites do we currently have here in PPS? Right now we
022have PPS preK slots at 14 different sites and that's those 910 seats across 14 different sites. Some of them are um like K5 schools with embedded prek classrooms there. Some of them are kind of standalone prek centers. And then we have prek providers within our boundaries that also offer prek that are not PPSR run sometimes even within our buildings. So for example at Vestal which I know is your alma moater JJ um um we have to um we have two communityrun preschool for all classrooms at Vestal that are not run by PPS. We've given that community organization space to run their program in our building. And so that is beyond our 910 seats, but it is within our parameters. And that's the kind of thing where our team could say, "We don't have space, but
023you're interested in this neighborhood." And there's another provider that we partner with in that space and could help make those those links. And are families allowed to apply at any time of the year? Is there like some certain date or Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I look forward to hearing more about the enrollment campaign. Yeah. Yeah. Me, too. Um, so yeah, so I think we can we can work on these things very much, director Bram Edwards, on on making sure that if a family comes to us and say, "My child is going to miss the September one cut off. I really wanted them to start kindergarten this year." We can work on across all our offices, the talking points that anyone should be able to use to say like, "We want you in our
024system. Let us help you find a bridge." Yeah. I guess one thing I'm we'd be concerned about is like that we be defaulting again to like an informal system. Um because all the So I have a request. I'd like to see the 14 sites and which ones are preschool for all and which ones are Head Start. Um they're all braided. Okay. So I'd just like to then the map for them all. Um because I'll just say my my understanding from the county is like um thousands of people who apply for seats don't get them. So I'm concerned if it's like we're going to give information to the school secretary and then they're going to like it's it's going to sound good and then ultimately for a lot of people like there won't be a site.
025They're not eligible. And I mean it's interesting because like the for example the county took off the there's waiting criteria like not way more people apply than get actually seats and there's waiting criteria but they took like the waiting criteria off the website and then there's like I don't think there's there's maybe like a handful on the west side and we know there's kids that um qualify even for head start or preschool for all. Um, so I think being like very again very transparent for like hey if it's not going to happen then you here's a list of private preschools. Um I mean having some certainty is better than believing that you might be eligible and being told you might be eligible and that that's an [clears throat] option and then never having that as
026an option. So it seems like we just part of it is like giving people information so they can make decisions because we can still be like the likelihood of you qualifying is quite low. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I don't think we want to give folks false hope. I that's why I think what I'm imagining is sort of like a script or talking points. Um and again we get very few of the of these inquiries every year. We're talking about this very small slice of families whose child turns five right after September 1st and they want their child to start kindergarten at that time. And I think we maybe had like like literally a handful five inquiries this year of families that fell into that bucket. But the we don't know where they're we
027don't know where the where the family's going to inquire. Are they going to come to me? Are they going to go to a principal? Are they going to go to a secretary? Are they going to go to Judy Brennan's office? Right? So I think if we had a set of talking points for this very small subset of families that all those folks could have on their desks that kind of could walk them through we're sorry this is our policy here are options let me kind of talk you through let me put you in touch with the right people that's a more um authentic response then don't worry about it we can get you into prek [laughter] right because we know that's not always going to be the case well I also think for more than
028just the the September students because um there's a lot of private schools also now have pre-k programs. Um so like it's very it's very con convenient and easy for a family like I'm in the prek program they just keep going or the older sibling got in, they just keep going. And so like I you know this is more of like a general like we should be looking at ways in which we're showing the path from preschool. Like I say, I was really shocked last week that about our capture rate numbers because that shows that a lot of like we're just losing a lots of fam a third families. If I may, do we have someone at the district level who this can be routed through centrally. So because talking points are good, but I definitely
029agree with you that relying on an informal system um is unreliable. This is would be Emily. We have a very robust and established system for prek enrollment. That's not it. We have a whole team of many we've presented to you guys. We have a whole large enrollment team that handles all of our pre-K enrollment. It's there's a whole system. It's web- based. There's a formula. They do tons of outreach. They do community outreach all over. So, I think this I just want to separate those conversations because I don't want anyone to walk away from this conversation with the impression that there's not a formal system around prek outreach and enrollment. There is. This conversation has been about this very small slice of families who just meet me meet uh just missed the kindergarten cutoff and
030are looking for alternatives and so they either want to come to kindergarten early or they want to know what else they can do. So that's that's the space and and we only know about them if they come to us, right? That we only know about them if they inquire and say, "H, I missed the deadline." Right? So that's that's there that's that's where this kind of informal thing comes in because we don't know whose door they're going to knock on. We don't know who they're going to ask that question to because they're not already enrolled in our system. If if they come to us, would it not just be best to have, you know, again, we can have some talking points, but just be like, uh, if you know, if they come to the principal,
031be like, hey, you know, I mean, here's the basics, but you know, who you should talk to is, you know, yeah, that is I think that is what often has happened. I think what I think is actually more welcoming is if somebody at because hopefully the our hope would be that right a year from now the family's going to come back to that school and enroll in that school. And so if they can build a relationship with the people in that school versus me who works here, I actually think that's probably more welcoming. And and so if they were like, "Oh, this secretary, this principal, this counselor like really helped me. I I didn't get the answer I wanted, but they really helped me and I want to come back and be a part of
032this community next year. I actually think that's probably a better system for us to develop. Um, and I think it exists informally now. I think I'm hearing you ask for us to like formalize this and codify this a little bit for this this outlier space. Well, outlier, but also it's interesting better take seriously that we're losing a third of our students. Yeah. No, we do. I do. I mean, I want to say something about this, too. It's it is a communitywide problem that we have, you know, we underresourced preschools for years and years. Um, but what's really interesting is that we're having this um, you know, high demand for preschools and not really a way to serve everyone that needs a preschool spot and yet a lot of um, community input around, you know, no,
033the the declining birth rate. So, the both things are happening at the same time. Um it sounds like we need to figure out, you know, this five people or the five inquiries, a way to keep them connected to their neighborhood school in concert with the um you know, the activities that we'll be undertaking to get some of those families back. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we are we do take this very serious and again it is it is communitywide. It is districtwide too. like we are all taking involvement very seriously and I think that's why we're entering this campaign and why that's many departments coming together to say how are we going to solve this problem. Um we are actually not really having a a major problem with pre-K enrollment at this point like we
034are getting families into prek and filling those slots. Um we are needing to boost up kindergarten enrollment and beyond, right? We see drop points all through K12. Um I unfortunately have to go to an appointment with my child. I [laughter] have to get out of here in the next couple of minutes. Speaking of that, do you have one more? You look just um so I'd appreciate if you could come back with a nothing. it can be be high level, but I really think we shouldn't be telling people you can just go to preschool like there's plenty of preschool options when it's like not a thing or or we don't actually have a system because then we get into um again just a verbal like well somebody told me this and that wasn't actually accurate and
035I also think it's more than just those again those September students because frankly there's just how many how many kindergarteners are there in PBS I I think right now I just looked this up recently. I think we have 2900 right now. So that's a lot more than 9 900 Yes. prek slots. So that tells me then like we have like a third of them. Um yeah. Does it does that sound doable to come back or just share back with us like what you think is something at least that's in writing versus like informally because our policy basically says yeah I think I want to understand are we talking about for the kids who miss the cuto off and the families that inquire are we talking about the larger enrollment campaign to try to boost kindergarten
036enrollment? I I know they're connected, but they are also like different bodies of work, right? And different scales in terms of like my answer of what I can get back to you. I was trying to broaden it because people had like it's not just about these kids. And then when I saw the other piece, it's like we have a way bigger problem than just the kids in September that we say don't come here. Okay. So, I can commit to something around the inquiries that come in around people wanting early entrance to kindergarten. I can commit to participating in the enrollment campaign work. Um I'm not leading that. I don't know the timeline on that yet. I do assume there will be regular updates coming back to you through Dr. Armstrong because that is who is
037leading that a priority right now. Um, good question. I believe Dr. Franco. Okay. Again, I'm I'm on the learning edge of that. I'll take whatever you have, but I guess I want to just be clear that I I'm not So, thank you. And I know you need to go. Great. I'll take the um just this narrow piece, but I think there's a larger conversation. And I think um people can say all they want, we don't want an arbitrary date, but we better get after that. The district better get after that larger piece of work because Yeah. Yep. So, and I will take this conversation I am literally going to my first meeting on that tomorrow. So, I can take this into that and share share what we spoke about. Thank you. That was helpful. Okay.
038Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, Julia, I have a question about when you talked about the capture rate, that's the capture of the number of kindergarten age students in Portland that are coming to PPS schools. And if you look at the answers we got to the B board budget questions, I asked a question on the capture rate and it's in the 70s and usually it was over 80 and that means the 70% of that age student that live here are attending PPS. Yeah. Yeah. They're attending their neighborhood or the or some other school, right? They're going to Portland public schools. Okay. And um if you look at most of the urban districts around the country, most of them have very low capture rates. I mean, Seattle's has always been way way lower than Portland's. And it's
039always been a kind of point of pride. We're a district that is able that is a public school system that serves the vast majority of kids in our in our district because it districts do change when they have different capture rates because I mean I'll just say like when you have something on the for example something on the ballot like people who are like invested in like I've got my kids in public schools like this is like my grandkids are in public schools or my neighbor kids are in public schools but it's like huh they all go somewhere else. We we don't know whether they're going somewhere else or they're just not going. We don't really know where they're all going. I think they're going other I think they're going other places. I think what
040we don't hear a lot about are the demographic shifts that have happened in the city though broader um you know Portland used to be more of a working class especially in its inner city neighborhoods. Income levels have risen in every inner city neighborhood over the last 20 years. And there are also more programs available. So people, what I'm saying is people that have traditionally in our, you know, Brooklyn, Irvington, Laurelhurst, our inner city or closein neighborhoods, the incomes have risen. The choices are greater. Families have more choice and and we've also doubled in population since, you know, we we were children. So we've got people coming in from all over. Um, and I think it's an important number to follow. 70% is really low. So I I don't think it's less about income but less
041about like our schools were closed for almost two years during COVID and a lot and a lot of priv and a lot of private schools weren't. Um, and then we had, you know, a month without school during the work stoppage. Um, that a lot of parents I talked to with young kids were like, I can't do that. Either because they had to work or because like their student just couldn't afford to miss um, school. Um, I think to me it's like in a sound the alarm moment um because those that's the first time I've seen us below 80% And I say it impacts I think just like general community support for our schools and um also the amount of resources we have. Um so anyway uh if anybody has anything else they um are interested
042in on Emily's narrowest slice, they can send me an email. Um I'll also ask Dr. Armstrong for just a larger well I already asked for it during the budget process so we can look at the larger budget piece but I I don't view it as just that one segment. I look at and I guess this is for next year on the for anybody in the policy committee is like we have a policy that basically suggests like you go to a you can be homeschooled or go to a private school and then come back in at four and it's like without other language around that um which is concerning. Yeah, I think it's a good idea and we'll work to make um the language more inclusive and welcoming um for all people that are interested in
043attending PPS. Okay. Uh, our next item is the um, solicitation, registration, and reporting. And I ask Liz to walk through this. And we also have Emily Courtage here who is the sort of expert on all things contracting. And I must have passed down the whole packet because I don't have my red line anymore. Is there an extra one? So, we've had this before us several times and based on feedback, we have another draft and I say we also have um our contract expert here. So, so I'll walk through the redline uh version dated April 18, 25. Caris also posted it. Um, it doesn't make ter too many substantive changes, cleanup and reordering of the February 26 version that was in the materials and before the committee earlier, but also fleshes out some additional details. So
044um the first section, the purpose section is really just to talk about the commitment to uh integrity and transparency in public contracting acknowledging that there's a lot of uh contracting work that happens at the district. Uh that involves decision-m depending on the contract by high level staff or board members. Um and uh it defines the contracts that are subject to this policy in a bracketed amount. this kind of $100,000 placeholder has been there since the beginning and we've just left it in brackets. Um, and describes expenses, contracts, or other economic interests that are expected to exceed $100,000 with a particular vendor or source in a fiscal year. It does not include contracts that are already subject to a competitive bidding process. Um the thinking being that those are already in a public process where people
045have visibility and transparency. Um those include uh traditional RFPs, invitations to bid, competitive quotes and potential informal RFPs. Also those are competitive processes. The informal RFPs FPS are not as public which is why those are in brackets for discussion. And then also collective bargaining agreements. Um there's a definition of engagement with so this in this covers um the engagement of staff or board members with vendors for these eligible contracts. It's a pretty straightforward common sense definition of engagement whether it's by email, inerson meetings or other outreach. Um, so the the the guts of the the policy are a triggers a registration requirement when someone who has uh an eligible contract or expenditure engages with uh district staff or board members. Um then they must register with the district um with that when that engagement totals
046more than five hours bracketed uh per calendar quarter. So it's trying to make sure that that there are a dimminimous encounter or conversation doesn't trigger an administrative requirement but that there's some but if if there's enough volume that that's where the transparency is needed. The mechanism for transparency is a public registration process on the website. It requires the name of the individual, the general nature of the contract or expenditure and that that registration is to be maintained on the website by the vendor for at least 90 days after um the final engagement on the eligible contract or expenditure. Another ex there are exceptions to what's an eligible contract and then there's an exception a broader exception category under this policy which is making sure people understand this doesn't apply to general advocacy for things that
047may have monetary value but that don't aren't an in an individual economic interest. So when parents and school communities come to advocate that would not be implicated and also just general marketing communications as well again trying to get to the the meat. Um certainly this sits in addition to and not in lie of any other district policies and state statutes and ethics rules apply. I probably should have started with sort just to remind anyone who's watching at home the this started with a request for something that looks kind of like the metro policy. So staff built on that framework. Um, and that's sort of the the origins of some of the component parts to it. And director, since you're the one who asked for it, maybe you you may have some other context for it
048as well, but no, I I think uh thank you for walking us through the general provisions. Um, I had a couple questions for Emily, but I want to let other Members ask questions first. I guess my my question is just this is just just so people don't come and kind of try to get things through without public knowledge is it is the main reason for it. It's to have trans it's to have transparency in who's attempting to influence is in in the shortest um it's not it's not illegal to lobby um at all or to try and get a contract um as a $2 billion enterprise. Um we have a lot of potential resources that people would want to attempt to influence. Um, and I um I know Emily when you said I get lots
049of solicitations and I just delete them. Um, I think that's your practice. It's it's not always a practice and sometimes um you don't even know somebody that's like that's a pretty direct way of tell trying to influence it versus like hey I'm going to take you out to lunch and talk to you about my new curriculum or this app that I think the district should really use or you know there's a whole host of ways in which um people would attempt to influence obviously it's not to send something to you right [laughter] you want to introduce yourself and maybe explain what you do Sure. I'm Emily Courtnage, director of uh purchasing and contracting department here. So, we facilitate all of the uh district's purchases uh contracts and competitive solicitations for goods and services. And you've
050been here 11 and a half years. And you have a helper with you today? Yes. Well, uh my middle daughter is my ride home today. So, [laughter] exciting. Did Did you have a question, Patty? No. I I I mean, we get emails all the time saying, "Do you want have this great program that's going to make your children all brilliant?" [laughter] And I usually just um delete them. Sometimes I'll show them to the superintendent, say, "Have you heard of this?" And I figure most of the departments have heard of them. They're not going to hear about it from us. So, um I don't know. I just uh wonder how it would work. somebody would have a uh something they thought was a good thing for Portland public schools and they would just come to you
051and say, "I would like to share this with So, usually they do not come well, they may come straight to me um or one of my staff because they see that we're the purchasing department, but what they don't realize is we don't make any of the purchasing decisions for the district. Those are all decentralized with each department and school making its own decision about uh the purchases within their budgets and ex and areas of expertise. So when people come to me trying to sell me something for the school district, that's why I delete and ignore. I have, you know, I'm not the one making decisions about what kind of cups we buy or any of that. Um, so I I don't have a lot of visibility into uh vendors approaching other departments and schools directly.
052Um, but but if they're trying to make a case for us for for a contract, um, then that's where I think this would come into play. Um, and the vendor would, as I understand it, have an obligation, um, if they meet all these requirements, uh, to register on a website that would need to be created. So, for instance, if I got an email from a program that was going to help uh our math scores, I could send that email to staff uh who curriculum staff and if they thought that was good, they could tell that vendor to register. They could or could they just talk for a short period of time and say, "No, I don't think that's good." or yes, I think that's good. Or I I just don't like want to make it
053so complicated for a simple ask. Except for I'll just say like these people are paid that their job is to often influence a decision. I mean, I'll give you the examples if you're trying like just take the the law yonder lobbyist who was like contacting it's like um you know attempting to like here's here's the solution I want the district to adopt. Um that was one. Um this happened early in like 2017 or 18. I forget if it was like OSBA or NSBA, but um a bus driver, a bus company like hosted a dinner for schoolboard members to share like their services they offer to schoolboard members. Um which is, you know, like we'd like your contract. I'm not going to name the the company. Um tech companies often contact board members directly. I know
054they also contact staff. um curric you know if you go to any of the national conferences all the curriculum providers are all over the place like selling to deci selling to decision makers I mean you just look at all the vendor booths and so if you thought something sounded really fantastic you could say oh you can register with whatever we decided you register with and then you can um uh share share your information. Is that the way it would work? Yeah, it's a transparency thing. Again, there's nothing illegal about it. Um, you have to follow the ethics rules um of that are in play for the state obviously. So, like if a company was going to take board members out to dinner and tell them like why their bus service is the bus service you
055the districts should you contract with, they it has to be under $50, you know, follow a bunch of rules. have to be um so most most of the people on the other side are very used to if they deal with large public entities of this is like this is a thing anyway. So we would just send them to the uh wherever you would register. Yeah. I mean you can have a conversation. And it's like also if you're you know if you call me the second time like you you probably should know that we have a um registration system and there's probably something that could be put on the I mean this is more of an implementation that you could put on the contracting website like we have this we have this rule and again yeah
056I've wondered I've wondered about when we because we do get a lot of marketing and selling material and I've wondered if they realize that board members don't make purchasing decisions and how we would because you can't respond to all of them. Um how we would direct them to a vendor is it a it's a vendor registration but it's a lobbying requirement. The city of Portland before they issue a check to anybody that does business with the city of Portland you have to register as a vendor. There's a separate um process for registering as a lobbyist. Right. So, we do um approve our vendors when we're before we can ever pay a vendor. Um we do have vendors who come to us and ask, "Hey, can I get on your approved vendor list?" We don't have
057an approved vendor list. Um so, we don't want to just set up all of our vendors in our ERP system. I mean, we don't want to set up all interested potential vendors. We want to set up those vendors who we're actually going to do business with and are needing to pay pursuant to a contract or otherwise. So, this would be very different. Um, and my concern would be we wouldn't want to give vendors the impression that because they registered on this list that somebody's going to reach out to them or that they're going to get any business or that it's that kind of thing at all. So, we would just tell them that [laughter] this is a um a potential policy ad, but more just provide clarity for people who don't live in the contracting
058world. Sure. Um would it be easy to do like a two sentence a one one to three sentence description of like the RF RFP? I know the contracting manual is like 190 something pages or the policy, but I'm wondering each of these ones because they all mean something slightly different. Yeah. Could we cross cross reference? Sorry, I can't speak today. Cross reference them to like hyperlink to the contracting rule itself. Yes. Question. Some was a big fan of having also them in in the policy. Is that Are you asking me right here to give a brief description of each of these? Actually, it's a two-part question. Okay. I'm going to have a question about the the actual description. But sometimes in our policies we have like a definition section and I think people could be
059like I don't know if I fall into this exemption of what these four categories are. I I mean I think that people who are used to doing business with public agencies will probably understand these four categories. Um, but I suppose we could reference the public contracting rules or actually underlying Oregon statute which might um be easier for people to reference. That totally works as long as it's in lay person language. Um, actually though I think the two that probably have the fuzziest area and I'm not sure that um I'm okay with them being exceptions is um competitive quotes. It's in or it's in a lowercase which is that a PBS thing or a it's thing? It's OS. So your uh requests for proposals and then invitations to bid which are more for goods and construction
060which is a low bid based uh award. Uh those are formal procurements that are publicly advertised per Oregon law. Um and different kinds of purchases or services require a formal solicitation at different dollar thresholds. Below that you have this intermediate category. So for an invitation to bid it's a quote process. It's an informal quote process. For an RFP it's an informal RFP process. And um what makes it informal is that it's not publicly advertised. We just have to reach out to three or in some cases five minimal minimally five three to five interested parties or parties who provide the service that we're looking to solicit or the goods that we're looking to purchase. So it's not publicly advertised but we reach out to three to five uh they send us their proposals their bids go
061through the same process of determining the you know the lowest and uh the lowest bid uh lowest quote or best quality um proposal and award on that basis. And then below the dollar thresholds for those informal are the direct award. And again those thresholds vary according to every different kind of purchase. So professional services, goods and services, construction, architecture, engineering related services. So they're competitive processes, but they're not publicly advertised. The competitive quotes and the informal RFPs. Exactly. What about the We want a service and it's $50,000 and we um we we know a vendor that we've worked with that we're just going to work with again. Um that's where my team comes in and says no. Um unless there's an applicable exception in in our rules. But um say the service is lawnmowing. uh
062that falls under, you know, division 47 goods and services. The competitor the um direct award threshold for those services is $25,000 above which between 25 and $250,000 you need to do a three quote process. So, we would tell that department you need to reach out to three potential lawnmowers at minimum and get uh bids and then we'll look at those. they'll they submit their bid tabs uh to us with the contracts and we review that at that time for compliance. So, okay, take the lawnmower situation. So, suppose there's somebody who really wants to get in to Portland public schools uh lawnmower plan and they're not in and so is that kind of they would register as um if if they were interested in doing business with us, they would probably reach out to our maintenance
063department, okay? And um make the case um for why they should provide services and then perhaps next time our maintenance department is looking for a lawn mower, they would include this firm in their, you know, three to five that they reach out to for bids. And since and then would that be considered in this they should go through this process to reach out? Well, it depends which of this amended language you include, but right now we have some language um sort of excluding those folks if their five hours or more engagement is primarily because we reached out to them. So just because they reached out to us initially, as I understand it reading this, as long as it's not more than five hours, they wouldn't need to register. And then the once we've reached out
064to them as part of a competitive process, then they're kind of exempt to the extent they're they're back and forth with us as part of that competitive process that we initiated. Okay? So, it doesn't stop people from saying, you know, I'm interested in working with you. Right. Okay. And and I should mention that we have a lot of um uh minority contractors, uh small, minority, and womenowned businesses who we actively seek to engage with and encourage them to come to us and kind of um solicit work with us. I wouldn't say that I'm aware of any that are, you know, engaged for five hours, but I know that um for example, our minority uh um business manager in office of school modernization brings in some small business vendors to present to our facilities and modernization
065folks to make their case. So I wouldn't want them necessarily to get caught up in this uh because we are inviting them to sort of you know make their case of why they should be part of this pool of the next people we quote to for example. Yeah. And I know you shared that board members can simply just direct them to someone in staff and I was just wondering does that mean board members or student representatives aren't allowed to have a conversation with the vendor? Yes you are allowed. The one the one caution I would say is if we are uh embarking on a competitive process that's when I ask staff to not you know if we've started an RFP process it's not appropriate for staff at that time to then be talking uh to
066a potential proposer outside of that process. At that point, all communication should funnel through um my department and then we work with the you know issuing department or school to answer questions and um make sure everybody has the same information. Um so we want to really prevent any kind of appearance of bias at that point um because we have the strict process of evaluation with evaluators um who are chosen. Um, so that's when I would say that it we should cut off communication if we're if they're going to be part of a competitive process. And can you share a little bit more of what that competitive process would look like? Uh, sure. So for requests for proposals, we put out a publicly advertised uh solicitation. It's a very long document that describes in detail what
067we're looking for. um it can go on for pages uh in terms of the scope depending on what kind of uh service we're looking for. Um we describe the length of the intended contract. Um and we describe the evaluation criteria and the points that will be awarded uh for each evaluation category. Um and we describe in detail how the solicitation is run and all the deadlines. Interested proposers uh have a deadline by which they must propose, submit a proposal. They do this all electronically through an electronic bidding platform. Um once those proposals are come in, there's an evaluation committee selected. My team is we are not evaluators, but we run the evaluation process to make sure it's strictly in compliance with law. We um add up all the points, convert them to ranks and we
068come up with an awarded vendor and make a recommendation to the department. This is the you know highest scoring um proposer. In some categories like just basic goods and construction, it's a it's a pure low bid uh situation. So we issue an invitation to bid. The scope spells out all the details of what we're trying to construct or what we need um including architectural drawings etc. And then all that is submitted back to us uh is a bid. So an actual dollar amount and the lowest bid wins as long as they're otherwise uh qualified. So those are the those are the formal processes and the inform informal processes are are similar but they're not publicly advertised. So there's a little more flexibility there. I have three categories that I'm interested where they'd fall. Curriculum like
069what in your categories whether they fall in any of these exemptions. curriculum, bus contracts and um like marketing firms or communication firms. So easiest first bus contracts for the purchase of buses that would be um not like the actual buses but like drivers like drivers sorry like for students. Sure. That was via a very complex request for proposals. So that'd be an RFP. What about formal? Formal. Absolutely. What about curriculum? Curriculum is usually exempted under the uh board adopted rules which include some exemptions. So there's an exemption for copyrighted materials and creative works available from only one source. Um and most curriculum falls under that. um exemption. Um, and I'll just note on the side that a lot of our curriculum goes through a very complex adoption process that's almost like an RFP but maybe
070more complex. And what about like professional services like communications or marketing? So those are subject to the professional personal services contracting rules. So direct uh select is up to $75,000. 75 to 250 is informal RFP and [clears throat] above that is formal. There are um some direct negotiation uh rules um for things like legal services for uh services identified um in a student's IEP. Um there's a bunch of exemptions also for um kinds of services that really uh rely on um long-term relationships um and are not really easily subject to a competitive process and getting a you know a new one every three years. um that can include auditing services, legal services if we as we've said and um some others. So I'm not sure I would agree to I mean so I'm speaking to
071myself not to you're just out there but like I'm not sure I think that we should exempt all these groups. Again it's not a you can't you can't do it. you just making it transparent because when I go to any large educational conference or a lot of the outreach definitely people are trying to influence like those three categories I shared and again this isn't this isn't about like lobbying or templating to influence is bad because a lot of times it's like I'm just sharing why my product is great and why you should check it like you may not be familiar with it. I mean I I've heard every pitch there is [laughter] right like exactly and so again it's not like you you can't engage in the process or there's something wrong with it. just
072should be transparent, but like the curriculum people, even though it's a complicated, it's like what we buy, I mean, we spent $70 million on curriculum from the last bond or more than that. And it's like, why did we spend so much? Because other districts didn't. It's like, well, we bought all we built out this whole thing. It's like, do we buy do we need all that? Um, so I'm not I'm interested in what others think. To to me is like just being transparent about who's attempting to do business with the district and engaging in conversations that may not be public. Obviously, when we vote on a contract, it's very public. Um, but that's maybe after all the influencing has happened. So, I'm just curious what other Yeah. Um I I think this is a a
073good start. I'm really interested in also, you know, increasing transparency where we can, but my understanding is that RS 244, whatever already includes all of the rules and regs, what's formal, what's informal, what's a personal services versus a professional. And so like the conversation's already happened at the state level and um publicly funded um you know organizations, cities, school districts are bound to those statutes. Yes. This are you talking about the e ethics statute? No, I'm talking about the purchasing uh procurement, but this is talking about registering people if they have an interest over a certain dollar amount that we don't have. And that's to create more transparency. Yeah, I think I think more transparency is great if that if it's not built into our procurement code. I mean, this is just registering saying, right?
074That's all it is. It's daylighting the fact that someone wants to do business with us. That would be over the threshold, whatever the dollar figure is. Is that correct? Yeah. But it doesn't mean the person who wants the contract for the lawnmowing has to do this. They just come right to you. This is this is more lobbying, not necessarily vendor. So it's a little bit different. Yeah. It's called the lobbying registration. I mean, I think the goal is what we're trying to solve for is large contracts being let the lobbying that happens midsize or midsize um is is what we're trying to solve this opacity issue. We want to know who who's reg who's who's coming coming at us for contracts. Who's inquiring? We have a lot of resources that sorry that a lot of
075resources that um get contracted out or we have make a lot of expenditures that there's not necess obviously our biggest ones which are with our employees are public. So it's the category of things that are non non-people services, right? And director to pass, I sorry, go ahead. I I would note we've we've tinkered with the title because it at one point said solicitation, but that's actually a procurement term. Yes. And so it was confusing that way. Mhm. It's now back to lobbying which I think is what the metro don't quote me on that but I believe that's what the metro policy says. It is it is a vendor facing. It doesn't it's not limited to vendor interest. If there were other economic interests they would be implicated but it's largely going to be vendors. I
076mean this this is so um baked into a lot a lot of entities who sell services to the to public entities like if you go down to the state and you are looking for an expenditure like and you're not doing it because you're a volunteer. You register and you actually do a fair amount of reporting. So this this is actually a pretty light um transparency. Yeah. And I'm just trying to think of give me an example. I would just say what do you mean evidence? I mean you've given me the example of the yonder pouches. Can you think of anything else? Curriculum a bus contract. Um if you go to any of the national conferences there are everybody's selling a service. um turf fields like there's different turf companies that do the installations. Um I
077mean but don't don't you have people you go out to for that already? Yes, those are would be subject to a competitive process. Yeah. I guess my question is do we need to beyond what we already do which we meet the a threshold and we meet accountability standard do we need do we need this I mean we if we've already got so we already um we already see the expenditure contracts and amendments obviously all of those all of the people that we're doing business with have already they're all they're transparent because they're in our material materials. So, does this I get I'm trying to figure out how that how this would operate. Okay. I'm just curious. But that's like after all the influencing is done if there was I mean in in theory this is
078is this to get ahead of the influencing? Well, I think no, this is to like per because we're a public entity. Obviously, private entities can do whatever they whatever they want. Um, but if you're working with a public entity and you're attempting to influence, it gives the public I think information about like who is competing for I mean I think who's competing or who is attempting to influence um the process and I say I this is like I would say meets like the minimum standards of transparency versus um I mean that there's a lot more robust regimes you could have even in like I mean the state has the state has contracting policies and yet everybody go there's hundreds of people who are registered lobbyists because even though there's a state contracting process there's a
079lot of money that goes out the door in other ways So, the people that we already work with, should they be considered lobbyists, too, because they're well, if they spend five more than five hours and a quarter attempting to, but they're already in business. Who knows what they did before? I I don't I I'm finding it difficult to see. I'll just say this is the world. This is world I've lived in for 35 years. And I'll just say if anybody thinks this is needed, they should go to a council of great city school conference. They should go to OSBA. They should go to KOSA. those vendors aren't there just because um they don't have anything else to do on that week and we don't we don't already have a way to I've also been on
080the other also been on the other side so I'll just yeah there's so many people that already work with us right do they need to register because well if they're if they're interested in having ongoing contracts with the Let's look at the language because I think it's a really good question. We touched on it last time. Yeah, it's engaging for the purpose of obtaining an eligible contract. And so if someone is um performing services um that in the course of fulfilling an existing contract I think it should say obtaining or extending just because they may be I'm not trying to parse words. I'm gonna we're going to get these questions from people. We're going to get these questions from law firms. um is in the is the act of performing those services before any extension
081is on the table um for the purpose of obtaining and it's not I don't want to pick on the lawyers because I I am one with a law firm so let's be let's put that all out there but the um but other personal services providers that are exempt from direct competition I think the board needs to be clear about whether that is I'm there's a direct conversation the purp is the purpose is doing good work under an existing contract for the purpose of attaining another one or is that just fulfilling the existing contract and I think that's a decision for you all to make. So I So here a question I have I'm going to answer your question in just a moment but the question of like obtaining would that be obtaining an amendment would
082that would that be obtaining? That would be obtaining. Okay. Um so servicing a contract I do not I wouldn't view as that versus reaching out like hey um our contract is expiring and we'd like to come in and talk to you about like our new rates or um Gotcha. That's a helpful distinction. We might be able to add a clarifying sentence there. What do you all think? To me, it's like that's very different from like I'm providing the services under the contract that I currently have versus, hey, our our contract is up and we want to come, you know, we we've loved our relationship with PPS and feel like we really like provided services to students or staff and we'd like to talk to you about extending it. Um but we've actually changed our rates
083because the tariffs and um we don't have any competitors anymore and we can raise our rates. Um that seems like to me that would be the other category. And so that would mean they would then register if they're engaging in a sufficient volume of conversation about the new contract and pitch pitching their work as opposed to performing I think is the distinction. It it's really interesting. I'm curious if this you know unintended consequences is having a chilling effect on business and also I just attended a policy institute where they said you know all of your policy you should ask how does this help students just or does it help students well here's what I would say and and also so business always happens like on the golf course and you know at the dinner table
084um you know it's a little bit different for business than it is for a publicly funded agency but I'm just curious of an unintended consequences consequence would be that it there would be a chilling effect on business or what do you think the outcome of this policy if people say I want to do business I want to sell a large amount of curriculum 70 million to the school district and I want to take the superintendent out to dinner I have pictures I mean it it happens and I just think it should be out on the table and I was I say this I spent 17 years in a private entity that did lots of work with public entities and the public deserves the right to know what's happening. Um, so there's an ethics set of
085guidelines, but also I think transparency about what who is trying to you know like our all of our technology who that's a very competitive space. I I think our so to and to answer your question of like what's the benefits to students I think a a school district or any public entity that has the public feels they can trust what's happening and that the work is transparent and how public dollars are spent is transparent I think ultimately benefits students because when when there's a lack of trust it hurts it it hurts students like you just like less effective. I just have like a a quick question because I feel like this entire conversation also revolves around how difficult is this process to register, you know, like is Yeah, there's um because most other large public
086agencies already have it. I think there's plenty of models. Um so it shouldn't be ownorous. I mean, frankly, the state one, it's all online. It's just you just go in and fill out the template and it's pretty easy. Yeah. Because this I mean, this is just like this policy is just pertaining to like when when people would have to register, but doesn't really go into, you know, that that process, which I think is also it ties very directly into a lot of the conversations we're having about will this have a chilling effect on business. Like if this is a very if this is a very hard process, then it could. you know. Yeah. Say because I'm pretty familiar with all over the United all over the United States. I did compliance with things lobbing registrations
087in municipalities and this is um a very very light touch and frankly I think it's that's fine to start with because it may be like that's all we need or the district actually needs something more robust. the time you don't want to be actually Metro has theirs because they had an audit that basically um said um they they had lots of um public contracts and public expenditures with no visibility and that they that was like an auditor's recommendation which is what brought it was about. Um I want to be cognizant that is I want to move out the student policy. Um, so I have a couple things that I um, in addition to definitions, uh, maybe some clarity around the, um, what obtaining means and what it doesn't mean and what obtaining means. Like if
088you're servicing your existing contract, that's not lobbying. you're servicing the existing contract also um the in the compliance with other state requirements or 244 that's ethics I think we should just say that because I think for um it's 279 so I just think we should just be clear because It's like saying like, hey, this isn't the only the only thing is like there's these other rules that we everybody's expected to comply. I mean, we actually have another policy that deals with it. So maybe also just referencing the other policy, too. So like this. Um, so those would be my things. Anything just for myself. I just need to learn a little more and I will do that. I'm gonna I'm gonna show you I'm gonna go online and show you like how easy it is
089to like fill out the the this the state form, but they have a lot of additional ongoing reporting requirements that are way more ownorous and I don't think it will have a chilling effect if it's at the right level, but I think it will have a benefit. Do you have would we would we be modeling our system around that or in in some I guess relation relation to that to the state process just without like the ongoing reporting requirements. This doesn't have ongoing reporting requirements again. Um it's a one time registry. Well, and you can un unregister. I mean, if you're not doing business, so for example, if I were going into New York City and doing work with the say the parks department um on behalf of my business, I'd go in and register
090and then like my project's over or the event's over like you unregister because because that's the thing. Um and also most places have ongoing reporting requirements. So you if your work's done, you dregister. So you're not you don't have this ongoing reporting requirement that you might be out of compliance with. Again, this is like a very light touch, but for a bit for an organization that a public organization that has over a billion dollars in expenditures. Um to me, this is like the least I'm just going to flag. I think maybe the informal processes. I don't know that I'd want to exempt them because I do think there's having been involved with some of them. It's again I think just builds credibility like hey they got that contract because they're friends with somebody on the
091board or they know somebody in you know X department. We can give people assurance I think that like we have a good process if we're just like we're transparent about it and like the best based on our the criteria that person got the contract or that company. So you don't think you don't think we already have that in our process are I would say there's a lot of transparency in our solicitation processes. Um, I don't know what's going on in, as I said before, in departments and schools. If, you know, if there's a vendor who's coming to departments and making their case, um, maybe they get on the short list for the people we go out to see quotes from. Um, but I don't really have visibility into that. Okay. Thank you. Is there So,
092I would I mean, I think it'd be helpful to see a list of people that are attempting to do business with us. Is there any thought that you know as a board member you would be looking through and say, "Oh, I know that company. I'm going to call this department and tell them they're my neighbor. I'd like them to be considered it." I mean, kind of opposite of what we're trying to get at. I guess that would be an an unintended consequence. We're all so well connected. I just wonder if I mean, I know for me personally, it would be helpful to see who's attempting to do business with the district. Well, I think what's more likely to happen is somebody right now somebody to call and like, hey, I'm interested in doing the, you
093know, do you have anything to do with it or whose department is this in? I mean, the informal pieces. I guess my question is board members could also meddle in a way that might not be helpful. I I haven't seen that happen. Okay. um in in my role. Okay. Um because you're not the person making the decision though. True. But I think if Right. I think if I heard of a situation where a board member was trying to influence the outcome of a competitive process, I would caution that that is um sort of not appropriate um and not in line with you know the goals of public procurement law um and all the processes we do so that we don't um inject sort of bias and pressure into our decision making. I I understand that.
094I think it's really important to follow the rules there. I know that I've been contacted, it's been a very long time, um, by somebody that was trying to influence, you know, a vendor selection and I I just know about that for me. I don't know how often that happens. So, curious about that. Well, I think I actually think it happens more often than not. Um and board members sometimes just in a meetings just say like I think we should be doing X or maybe you're not naming the vendor but you're saying like the service that you want. Um which is why having it be public just puts it all out there and then but I really want to make sure that we um get to the student rep. So I think we have some other
095pieces. Yep. Do you have any questions before we move on? No. Okay. Um, I'm gonna now turn the meeting over to JJ, um, who asks that we consider some changes to the student rep policy. And, um, unless there is a major question, I would like to move it out of committee today to get it moving through the process. Just to clarify, is it okay if we kind of just go over the changes or do you just want us to completely Well, there's just two changes um right after we've eliminated that one. So, why don't you just explain what the two changes are and um why um you and the um district student council would like to change them. Yeah. Well, I'll just provide some clarity, then I'll introduce my staff leazison, Yans Sha. So the
096district student council for the past couple years we've been having a lots of discussion around some of these changes and I think especially as we're working to develop our bylaws. We've noticed um there's some collusion with some of these um board policies. So I'll now introduce my staff lean on Yen to provide some clarity. Hi everyone, my name is Yen Secha. She her heard her student engagement specialist. I hope that you all can hear me. Yes, thank you. Awesome. Thank you. So um ultimately we wanted to make at least a couple of short um term changes. One of which is that we had previously had student reps at each school. One would be the main representative and then there would be an alternate. We had decided that we'd like to move it to two reps
097at each school as it feels a little bit better being able to also share the leadership opportunity. Um we are also wanting to take out the language around the alternative alternate representative being the student body president. Um so that would mean then in each school's um their process of electing their DSSE reps um they would then elect two. Um and then the last one is actually just changing it the requirement of 90% of meetings in order for students to uh receive the one elective credit. Um, we are changing it to 80% of meetings. Those are all the changes. Yeah. Is there any changing from 80 to n I'm sorry. I I just 90 to 80. From 90 to 80. Okay. So, yeah, that makes sense. I also ask um whether in advance of putting this
098on the agenda whether the high school um uh senior staff had any issues with it and the answer was they did not have issue with changing it just everybody's Does anybody have any questions for No, but I really like that there's this continuous improvement process. I think that's really great. Yeah, I just think it's really nice to have two. Um be I'm sure you would have liked somebody else to um and 80% seems fine. I can see lots of times when maybe you couldn't make it. And just quickly to to clarify here with this like um going from from two representatives um and then from like an alternate and and a main that's pretty much how we've been operating you know in the DSC for a while um and when we were looking over our
099bylaws and we're like why is it like this like like these titles mean pretty much nothing already you know except for some weird stuff around voting which we don't really do. So this is pretty much Yeah. I mean, this is pretty much just aligning the policy with what already um occurs in district student council. Great. I think it's great. So, I'm good with whatever changes like this is a exercise in self-governance. Um so, um can we move to this to the full board for a first reading with a recommendation from the Yes. Okay. Great. Um, thank you for bringing that forward. And I'm wondering um Director Depass uh whether just um knowing that JJ's time is wrapping up whether we could get a first reading on next Tuesday's work session as part of the consent
100agenda or after the consent agenda just so we can get the 21 days um going so that maybe JJ can see this through. Sure. Anything for students? And I'll confirm with uh Chair Wong. And just for anyone's wa who's watching, it's actually Monday next week because of the election. Sorry. Yeah. That's right. It's the 19th. Thank you. Okay. It's more just a courtesy is I can get through. All right. Uh we're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.