001all right let's get started uh the special meeting of the board of education for January 13 2025 is called to order the meeting is being streamed live on ppsv services website and on Channel 28 uh and will be replayed throughout the next two weeks please check the district website for replay times uh good evening and welcome uh the purpose of tonight's special meeting is to interview and select a new board member to fill the vacancy in zone one due to director Scott's resignation effective today I want to take a moment to thank Andrew Scott for his service on the board and I I know that he'll always remain a strong supporter of Portland Public Schools uh we do have one unexpected action item before we move on to the the reason we are here today
002Dr armstron would you like to introduce this item yes thank you chair Wong members of the board good evening like many of you we have been watching the horrific fires that have been ravaging the Los Angeles area and seeing the impact on that Community Los Angeles Unified School District has put out a call to request assistance with locating enough portable air purifier systems to help with the air quality um in their schools at this time so the re the resolution before you tonight is to donate Surplus air purifiers to Los Angeles Unified School District as soon as possible thank you superintendent do I have a motion and second to adopt resolution 7044 resolution donate air purifies to Los Angeles Unified School District we have uh director green motions and director Holland seconds any board discussion
003uh perhaps you can just say how how many are going and what do we have in the reserve I'm I'm supportive of the but just want to make sure since this is a big issue for the community about um air filters yeah great question uh director brim Edwards we have 2,600 approximately and so we're looking at donating about 2,000 and all of our schools have all of our classrooms have air purifiers at the moment and they're paying for they're paying for the transport there so it's that strictly a donation did we get them free of charge from OA yeah great question we did get them free of charge and La unified will um cover all shipping cost to receive the air purifiers and I understand we got those during covid right so they're sort of
004EX yes so all of our classrooms are covered we have about 2600 in storage we'll hold on to 600 and um look to donate the rest great I'm really glad we can do something concrete um for that Community that's devastated right now so I'd be very supportive yes thank you for putting this forward anything to help all right any other further board discussion uh Miss Bradshaw is there any public comment no no all right the board will now vote on um resolution 7044 uh resolution donate air purifiers to the Los Angeles Unified School District all in favor please indicate by saying yes yes yes yes all in favor please indicate by saying no all right uh resolution 7044 is approved by a vote of six to zero with student St represent is not here um
005oh thank you uh I didn't see you there sorry student representing conavi can you please indicate your vote Yes great 6 to Zer with student representative canavi unofficially voting yes all right now we are we will now move on to the interviews of our potential um new board members uh we're very fortunate I think I speak for hopefully everyone here um we have three very strong candidates to to to fill um director Scott's old seat um the these candidates will have applied to serve on the board through June 30th at which time the winner of the May 2025 special election will serve the remaining two years of the term the three candidates that we have uh to be concerning tonight are Jackie wors Christy split and Jasmine Reese um and each candidate here is eligible
006for this position as they have resided uh more than a year within the boundaries of Zone one all three have submitted their application a and answer several questions about their interest in being the board um and their commitment to education and Equity just a name a few you C so um before we begin I know there's it it's awesome to see people um come in and be interested in going on the board we have people um you know this is open to the public of course and um I am going to ask though that during this interview process so that the board can remain as unbiased as possible and also it is a job interview so to kind of maintain professional um I am asking the audience to if we can stay silent you know
007no cheering booing um you know when they're done and they're leaving it'd be nice everyone you know Applause because it it takes a tremendous amount of courage to to apply for a public position and I think all three candidates um I can say confidently have shown tremendous amount of courage to apply this position and be interviewed in a public format so thank you very much for for being interested in public schools um yes so one the the to decide the order the the names are put in a random name generator and so the order we have today is we have uh Jackie Wars going first Chrissy split going second and Jasmine Reese going third the rules are for tonight each candidate will be given the opportunity to give a two-minute opening statement then each board
008member and student representative will ask a question of the candidate who will have two minutes answer uh Miss brel will have the or Miss Powell will have the light on over there to to remind the candidates uh when their time is close um at the con conclusion of the board asking question each board member will be allowed to ask are you listening you listen yes uh one follow a follow-up question which can Will have one minute answer so you get one follow-up question um at the conclusion of the interviews we will then each cast a Voice vote at the dis the candidate who has four votes will be our next board director for Zone one I will administer a ceremonial oath this evening and there will be an official oath sworn in with a notary
009in the morning at which time the the Canon will become the official member uh before we get started I want to remind oh I already said that um all right number one welcome thank you Miss wor for being here tonight uh each of us will just kind of quick reminder each one of us will ask one question you'll have two minutes to answer uh when you have one minute remaining the yellow light will on the timer will uh go on and when your time is up the the red light will go on and the buzzer will sound um and we just respectfully ask that you wrap up your answer at that time uh you asked to prepare to prepare an open excitement statement you have two minutes you may begin when you're ready thank you
010so much my name is Jackie and I am a biochemist by training a nonprofit executive director by profession and a lifelong believer in the transformative power of Education I like education so much that I graduated from the 23rd grade after I completed my PhD I ended up becoming a faculty member academic administrator and student AFF fairs Dean at Oregon Health and Science University subsequently I transitioned to becoming a nonprofit leader where my organization focused on K12 stem education as well as Community Education for complex healthare issues I currently work as executive director of an organization promoting Pathways to Primary Care Excellence specifically focusing on educational support in family medicine now I stand here today or sit as it were not because I have achieved Success Through academic achievement but rather because I have struggled within
011the education system but through those struggles I have learned the power of support and resources I've shared my story with countless other people and hundreds of students had told me about their lived experiences when they have experienced racial racial uh uh discrimination sexual harassment insufficient accommodations for Disabilities or just pure lack of access to the resources they need to succeed in Academia I have dedicated my career to creating more Equitable access and I have have done so through programs and even whole departments but I want to do more I can think of No Greater Act of service than to serve on the Portland Public School District Board of Directors the ability of the board to shape policy budgetary decisions and to really craft a vision for 44,000 students in this district is one that's going
012to have immediate ramifications not only now but decades in the future for the economic prosperity and a bright future for all argonians I would love nothing more to contribute my very geeky talents to the board of directors and there's one thing I believe it is that regardless of who you choose today whether that's Christie myself or Jasmine the collective Talent leadership and vision in this room has the power and the transformative ability to take Dr Kimberly Armstrong's Vision into reality Together We rise I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you all right um I believe we yeah I wonder clap um I believe we we go in the order of the questions on this list correct that's correct all right so it looks like I start all right the first question is um what
013is your understanding of the primary functions and responsibilities of a public school board Public School Board School Board is charged with a multitude of Duties but the number one of which is making sure that the goals of the the district are going to be achieved this is practiced through rigorous policy development and implementation through support of the superintendent and assessment of the superintendent's performance and also through fiscal oversight now many people believe that budgeting is a bore but I believe that how we use our money is a testament to what we put faith and believe in so combined together this means that we're using our fiscal Acumen our policy insights and the trust that Community has given to the board members to weave these together to create a sustainable and actionable vision for Portland Public
014School District all right um what do you see as the relationship between the board and the superintendent I believe that the board of directors is charged with appointing and overseeing the superintendent and that this is a responsibility that that really puts trust in the superintendent I do not believe the board should be micromanaging in the oversight of the superintendent this individual has been chosen and vetted for their absolute ability to accomplish the job not only well but also with uh stirring vision and I believe that the board is in service of the superintendent to make sure that that happens now the board is the mechanism of accountability and as such will take the temperature of the community Through list listening sessions through engagement directly with the community via email or other mechanisms of action but
015that this Collective data and information is used to create an assessment that is overall supportive of the superintendent and not necessarily micromanaging or punative thank you all right all right I'm next I'm Gary Holland how you doing today I will be doing better in about 15 minutes I hear you all right um my question is how would you prioritize issues such as academic achievement Equity student mental health and teacher support and can you give an example of a time when you took action or provided leadership to prioritize an issue of importance now unfortunately we live in an era where there are multiple issues that are Urgent and pressing on today's youth these include Mental Health Health as well as safety and all of our curricular goals in order to accommodate all of these it's important
016that we not think in terms of prioritization but we think in terms of systems thinking everything has an action and an equal and opposite reaction so says physics I'm a Believer in physics and what I believe is that when we're looking at making decisions we need to look at how they resonate across an entire system now the example I gave in my application was the confidential advocacy program we had insufficient resources to provide sexual harassment and gender discrimination support through the legally protected class of a confidential Advocate now it would seem easy to say like let's just invest more in this particular space but every dollar comes from somewhere else so we need to do an analysis of where the funding and the FTE would come from we developed a coalition of support across all
017different populations at Oregon Health and Science University to identify where we could bring together the appropriate resources without hamstringing any current programs that also provide learner and employee support uh we were ultimately able to scrape enough resources together to apply for a grant that subsequently funded the program but we did so strategically making sure that we were able to leverage all of the resources after that environmental scan and use them and deploy them in a way that was going to be sustainable through the granting process so when it comes to prioritization I believe that everything is connected we need to look at how every decision will affect other categories we don't need to necessarily think of it as winners and losers we need to think about it as emphasizing growth in specific areas and uh
018we're going to uh trade that off by making sure that we are thinking holistically of the impacts and are aware of them at all times thank you so much again thank you so much for being here um Herman green and my question is can you provide an example of a time um when you had to make a difficult decision in a group or collaborative environment a time that I had to make a difficult decision in a group or collaborative environment I think that would have to be when I was working in organ eye and tissue donation now this is an environment where every minute counts when a donor becomes available literally every minute is essential as we try to identify another available individual who is in need of a life-saving organ eye or tissue transplant
019and a decision that I had to make that was very difficult regarded the database that we were using to match all of the appropriate entities um the database was insufficiently Secure and I felt that it was really important that we move forward with something that could be more flexible sustainable and meet the highest and most rigorous standards for accountability uh in doing so I had to invest dollars that were not necessarily set aside for this activity as well as time and energy to make this switch so the difficult decision was one that was although altruistic in the long run was one that in the short term created pain for different parties that were involved however by balancing out the long-term wins and also identifying short-term pain but also short-term immediate steps that could be taken
020to alleviate that discomfort we were able to create a sustainable solution and change databases thank you all right thank you so much for being here my question is how would you balance the needs of students teach teachers and the broader Community when making decisions hi I didn't realize that you were talking at first so hello it's nice to virtually meet you um okay how would I balance the needs of all of those different populations in the PPS School Board role uh the answer is is that we are here to serve the students it is a school district the Student Success is the number one priority and we serve in service to the student population now to balance those needs again we need to go back to that systems approach and make sure that we are
021accounting for for example teacher exhaustion and overwhelm we need to make sure that they're resourced enough to be able to provide topof thee line educational experiences we need to provide sufficient resources and make sure that our staff are equipped to evolve with the changing needs of the student population so everything serves in relationship to everything else in the student ecosystem but the student priority prity is the number one because we are in service of the students and our goal is that you will do so fabulously that you will create a great retirement fund for me good evening hello Julia Rim Edwards zone six um thank you for being here how my question is how do you plan to engage with students parents and community members to gather input and feedback I have a Burge ing
022Portland Public School District hoodie collection and I plan on expanding that hoodie collection until I hit every single School in the district and I will be ruthless in making sure that it has the cutest mascots on all of them I believe that the way to engage the population is to go out and be in the population I greatly look forward to school visits to being able to attend PTA conferences to be able to attend graduation and shake the hands of those students walking across that stage and welcoming kindergarteners on the very first day to school the only way that I can serve this community is by being in the community and that is my plan um hi Michelle de pass I represent Zone 2 um nice to see you um how would you work to
023address disparities and educational opportunities and outcomes for marginalized groups including students of color lgbtq plus students and students with disabilities that is a fabulous question I I believe that the phrase goes that diversity is a fact Equity is an action and inclusion is a feeling I actually disagree with that phrase because each one of those becomes discreet Bend items in isolation from each other I think that in order to address diversity equity and inclusion we need to address all three of them at the same time they are integrated you will never have a sense of inclusion until we're actually able to understand all the data about the history and the current status of what our students are going through we're never going to be able to make Equitable decisions until we're able to make and
024feel an impact that the students are going to resonate with so when it comes to how I'm going to prioritize diversity equity and inclusion making sure that students from marginalized and underserved populations are going to be served is to always always prioritize marginalize and underserved students all boats rise when we do this important and essential action and the way that we're going to do this is just by asking every single day is this in service to our black community is this in service to our trans Community is this in service to our Hispanic Community or an Asian-American Community or our Native American Community these are simple questions that can be predicated before every action and this simple action can resonate across all levels of the Dei SP there's a lot of Silence after I finish
025I'm like nice yeah we instructed we can't cheer and all that stuff so um thank you Miss words um board members this is the time uh to ask follow-up questions for uh Jackie words if you want and you will have um one minute to answer the follow questions concise check I think the board may need a couple minutes to think so um there were a couple of things you said that I just want you to expand on how it would work in the district you said you don't think of winners and losers um short-term pain for long-term health and and how do you see those two things working to support the school district I think a lot of it has to do with transparency um nine Smokey Smith was actually sitting in this chair uh
026just last week and she talked about the seven generation thinking and seven generation thinking is that super long-term view about how our actions today are going to impact Seven Generations down the road now that's something that we need to teach people about we people feel everything right now immediately because it's on our phones and we have to react and dopamine hit um and so I think there's a lot of Education about how we can or how we can develop the discipline to be seven generation thinkers so I think we need to be transparent about when we're making a decision about the long-term wins and not just say oh seven years down the road this is going to be helpful but to say as this program continues to develop here's what we can expect to see
027in q1 in year three Etc creating clear visionable road maps for how the long-term success can be gained while at the same time acknowledging the short-term deficits and again this takes a little bit of training in how we're going to be thinking and approaching problems but it is very doable and um something that is an exercise in communication that I look forward to okay thank you do you want us to go in order or can we just jump in okay I'll jump in um can you share what experience you have advocating for a Cause issue campaign legislation or some sort of policy change yeah um I was the co-chair of the 2016 March for science uh this was after the election and it was a shocking result for some people and we were really feeling
028that there was a concern about the intellectual rigor of Science and how it was going to be supported legislatively as part of the March for science movement I decided that I wanted to make a stand and do something here in Portland I wanted to make it a familyfriendly event something that was inclusive that was going to be enjoyable and that was going to raise interest in science we were able to do this by working closely with a variety of populations to ensure a safe March at a time when marches weren't always safe we did this through extensive Outreach coordinating with multiple groups with different political backgrounds and approaches and a Clear Vision for what the March was going to be and I'm really excited to say that we had 15,000 people there in downtown Portland
029and we marched we sang we did science experiments it was lovely but there's still more work to do that's one reason why I'm here today thank you um you mentioned in one of your resp or several of your responses about systems thinking and I'm curious um if you can expand on what the system of um student mental health and teacher support how does that look like within a system well there are multiple uh uh ramifications for any single decision- making process uh one thing I was involved with was the iPad initiative at OSU for students with disability it was uh largely believed that iPads had buil in accessible uh features and so we wanted to incorporate that uh by introducing the iPads we discovered that the technology infrastructure didn't exist to support five wireless devices
030per student in the learning Halls so we had to upgrade that but then we discovered that the faculty didn't have the faculty training to make sure that the curricula was going to be accessible on the iPad so we had to fix that and then we had to worry about the information and data security for this many devices on the network so we had to fix that so as the process goes for helping one student with their disability accommodations there was a multitude of systems that ended up being integrated into the overall solution now some could say that this was spiraling out of control but in my opinion this shown an invaluable light on the complexities of every decision that we make and it afforded us the opport opportunity to improve multiple systems with that one
031act I was actually going to ask the same question as to pass yeah we're starting to think alike does Dr Armstrong get a g yeah I think unfortunately I think it it it kind of has to remain with in the board but I believe that student director conavi has the opportunity to ask a followup question I just want to check in to make sure see if you have a question or not yeah chair W I just have a quick question does it have to be a question that was like specifically listed or can it just be like any followup question yeah it's an open question time they have then my question is how do you plan on centering student voice and collaborating with students during decisions I'm going to sit at your feet and listen
032um there is the students Council that exists for a very important reason and that is to gather information and make sure that it is being voiced and represented at meetings like this so I believe that centering student voice happens by listening to the students additionally being in the community is being in the community with students um there going to be a lot of of parents too but uh the students are the people that are receiving the services that are the central point the focal point of this entire system so being in community with the students directly but then also using the built-in mechanism that currently exists to allow your voice to be brought to this table is one that I will deeply respect and engage with thank you I did have one one question was
033kind of a little bit expanding on on director dep pass's question so um you know I think looking your background is very impressive you have you have a background in both uh working as a director of of nonprofit and and OSU um I guess I'll shut up now yeah um and also been on Boards of of a few organizations so um you know one of the things about a strong board is when we have a diversity of experiences and backgrounds and and I think that is a um I guess my question is is there any insight you can share from having seen kind of management and governance from both sides yeah absolutely um one thing that I am very sensitive to is being able to find the right level of scope for the problem at
034hand now as a director we will at times have to have that 10,000 foot view making sure that the bigger picture is always always being captured but at the same time when appropriate dive into the details for example during the budget preparation period and during the audit um so I feel that having served on both the operational side of an educational Enterprise as well as on the board side of an Enterprise that the ability to identify when I'm going to be using which of those skill sets is one that I could bring to bear at the school board awesome thank you last call thank you Jackie um this concludes your interview and um Miss po will walk back to waiting area thank you so much for being here and um have a great evening taking
035the step thank you does everyone need like a two minute stretch break right let's give everyone a two minute stretch break break do whatever you need water pee e e e uh next up we have uh chrisy split thank you so much for being here today um uh each of us just G reminder the rules uh each of us will ask you one question and you will have two minutes to answer um when you have one minute REM remaining the yellow light on the timer will go on and then when its time is up the red light will go on and a buzzer or sound so just respectfully finish up your your answer then um may find out later yeah okay okay um yeah again thank you so much for coming and and um it
036big thank you for applying to this this spot so uh let's get started so you asked to prepare an opening statement you have two minutes to share your remarks and go ahead when you ever you're ready great thank you so much um I just wanted to say first of all I think we all know that recruitment for a Schoolboard is really challenging right and I just want to say that I'm really grateful that we had two other people step up when I first put my name um into the universe for this position way back in November and sent you all emails and whatnot um I was a little worried it might just be me and I guess there's some comfort when it's just you sure um I'm not going to lie but I also think
037that it's not what's best for our school district um and I really hope there's always competitive races so I'm really really glad we had three just super high quality candidates um apply so I want to thank them even though they're not here to hear it um and um and really all to each of you too for stepping up for the role um for the rest of my two minutes I want to focus on something that underpins the answers to the each of the interview questions or the application questions so here we have a little bit of different questions which I'm excited about um to me public the thing that I wanted to share is really sort of my vision for public schools um to me public schools are the foundation of our communities the foundation
038of our democracy and it's not where you just learn math or you learn science but you learn critical thinking you learn how to make friends you learn about how caring adults can be there for you um and so to me anytime we are falling short because of a lack of resources or a lack of effective policy or implementation it's not just our kids we're letting down it's really our entire community and really the future of our communities and I just also want to flag that um I've said in my application and I say it all the time I feel like bringing fully funded schools back to Oregon is my life's work and it's something that I think isn't just about kids my kids are here I'm really excited they're they're awesome look at that big
039smile she's ready to be a politician herself um and and they're awesome and they they deserve the absolute best but to me it's it's not about my kids it's about all kids but it's not just about kids right like we want to have adults that had a good education we want adults who get to work with people who had a solid education and so I wanted to make sure you all knew that and with that I'm excited to take your questions thank you I'll go first just like before um first question is uh what is your understanding of the primary functions and responsibilities of a public school board yeah so um simply put oh by the way it's really handy that you have it on your website what a school board does but um so
040I may have cheated um but the school board evaluates and approves the budget evaluates and passes new or updated District policy ceas hires and evaluates the superintendent nice work last year by the way um approves contracts including those with our union workers and they serve as ambassadors between the district and the people that they U represent I want to add that I think that Ambassador role is a place that I would really want to sink my teeth into um I consider it a board uh members responsibility to reach out to school and other communities and support of say a bond that might be on a ballot here soon I expect to hear from and respond to Residents in my district about their concerns and hopes for our schools and I'd also consider it a board
041member's responsibility to engage in the legislature or with the legislature and not just with legislators but think about that nice big excited city council and shouldn't they also be advocating for an excellent Public School System here in the city of Portland I think so I also want to share a bit about what I think it takes to become a school board member um with May so soon when I first heard of this um opportunity in November I got right to work within 24 hours I was talking to my family I was talking to my employer getting the green light so I could email all of you and ask what you thought about running for school board and then I also immediately hired a a Treasurer opened a pack I built a website mostly by myself
042it shows but I think it's okay and um I secured endorsements from other from elected officials and from just people in my community that I admired and I've gathered donations from 108 people and Counting so my next step will be knocking doors I promise that every door I go to I will have information on the bond with me and I have a goal of visiting Neighbors in every Middle School catchment area I only wish I could do every Elementary catchment area but I have a full-time job and I don't think I can do it by May I'll leave it there thank you thanks okay next is from me um what do you see as the relationship between the board and the superintendent yeah so this is a new question and I'm excited we have some
043new questions but um I just you know I won't be as prepared but um I think it's really exciting that we have a new superintendent and I guess my time is up that was very quick um no um I really think I think like I'm sure I'll talk about it at some point but you know I've worked in politics in for my most of my career and I think that balance between an elected official and staff it's something I know really well I currently work um in the executive branch where I'm in a way staff and so I kind of get to see that interaction between elected officials and executive branch staff per se pretty frequently and I think you have you have the role as sort of the hiring and evaluation but also to
044be a sounding board I think is really important to provide excellent advice and that's a two-way street like I would expect to get excellent advice from the superintendent um and I would expect to be asked for advice and to give that advice and have it be a two-way street um I could I'm a little nervous about time but I think um I think that bottom line is that um while there's that evaluation role I think the partnership role is really critical and I feel like when those partnership feelings or Vibes get frayed that can be really problematic so I'd want to help be glue to really make sure that the board is working closely with the superintendent and also really value the staff that you hire or retain um and make sure that they feel
045respected and heard by the school board as well all right my turns next how are you I'm good I'm a little nervous all right just a little bit okay um my question is how would you prioritize issues such as academic achievement Equity student mental health and teacher support and can you give an example of a time you took action or provided leadership to prioritize is an issue of importance thank you so really all of those issues matter deeply and I'm directly quoting from my application because I think this is right on we should not have to choose right we are in the position of having to choose because we don't have adequate resources so I just want to make sure that we start there then I want to say anyone who has spent time in
046a school knows you cannot expect a kid who has unmet needs to excel academically Equity cannot be achieved without providing support to kids who need support to be ready to learn so for me Equity comes first on this list it comes first on any list if we have kids at school who are not ready to learn we cannot expect them to be ready to learn right we have to get that right first and foremost from there I think student mental health and teacher support come next kids need to feel safe again so that they can be ready to learn they have to feel a sense of belonging at school and it's really hard to foster a school environment in which kids foundational needs are met without reasonable workloads and time to learn and prepare for
047our Educators and really for our support staff too I believe that as equity and mental health and teacher support are addressed academic achievement improves research shows that that's the case for the last three years I have driven advocacy for essential positions at our school that actually directly relate to these four topics um those positions are our assistant principal and our art teacher and we're one of those schools that's been cut every year for the last four years so we've had to fight for these positions every time I've done things like contacting District staff creating tools to help other people in our community take Easy Action to support these positions I've testified to the school board you all really love to snap when I testify so that always feels pretty good and while last year for
048the first time our school relied on Foundation funding for staff we got one year and we managed to save our art teacher um I'm also pretty proud that the assistant principal has um position has been funded by the district every year um even though we've had to fight for it every time thank you so much again Herman greine thank you for being here thank you um can you provide an example of a time when you had to make a difficult decision in a group or collaborative environment yeah this is a this is a new question too and I actually think the thing that sprung to mind is actually something that didn't come up in my application um I spent a couple of years on the board for food front are any of you familiar with
049food front Okay so it's a Cooperative grocery store we had a store in Hillsdale which is my neighborhood and that store was like the heart of my my life when I had little kids Delan my older daughter she used to play while I would shop and I could holler over the wall to her while I was shopping to see if she was okay and the cashiers knew her and would keep an eye on her I mean that was the type of environment we had and I remember thinking like this grocery store store is like magical to me and I knew that it was in trouble and so I joined the board and as soon as I got on the board it was like we were in all sorts of trouble and I didn't know before
050I got on the board we actually had to make a decision to let the general manager go that was really really hard so it was like walking into a situation where I was like I want to help save the store and realizing like what is happening and I actually um hung in there for two years on that board um during that time we found out that we were months late on paying our lease and our Lord was going to go ahead and start looking for another tenant we had to make a lot of really hard decisions um regarding staff and layoffs and we had a churn of general managers because we had let go our general manager and couldn't get one to stick because once you'd get somebody in they'd be like what is this
051you know so I feel like I really had an experience that put me through a lot of tough a lot of tough times the one thing is the store is closed now um we had to close the one store and then I was on the board we had the other store and when I left though we had a great general manager and things were going really well and I just remember that sense of accomplishment I felt of making it through that experience of I it was really hard but we made it through that experience and in the end we had like a going concern we were in the we were making money it was going really well and that that changed over time after but um but it was still like impactful experience for me
052um where a lot of tough decisions were made in a leadership position all right thank you so much for being here my question is how would you balance the of students teachers and the broader Community than making decisions thanks hi I was a little bit taken surprised JJ I didn't know that you were remote I was like what's happening but um I'm really glad that glad to hear you here tonight um yeah so the needs this is an interesting question to me um I want to start with something that when I reviewed my application I wish I had started with I don't think can balance those needs without listening first and we need to figure out what our students teachers and broader Community want to see before you make decisions um I actually didn't get
053to all of my um opening statement and I actually talked a little bit about engagement it's actually sort of my passion um I I was a a Civics teacher I don't know if we'll still get to the question where I was going to talk about the fact that I was a high school Civics teacher to start my career and I joke that I'm a Civics teacher every day even though I haven't been in haven't been a paid Civics teacher 20 years probably at this point um and so to me I think that engagement comes kind of naturally to me because I want to like teach people and connect with people about government and and want them to be be part of our our world here um you know because my day job is already in
054that World um so beyond that though I just want to say that for me students will always come first but I also think that what's best for teachers and support staff who don't really appear in this question but I think are critically important to our work um I think what's best for the staff is good for the kids for the most part I just don't necessarily see that tension because I think when you treat professionals well they tend to excel at their work more often and we want to see our teachers and staff excelling because then they will connect with kids better and connecting with kids better will help them to teach better and so I also just want to flag that um I know that with the bond bloming you've all been thinking a
055lot about that Community as a as a whole not just about the people that we interact with in our schools every day and I've been thinking too a lot about the bond um having tracked the school board especially over the past couple of months and you know I think that Portland really does value our Public School System we have a track record of voting to you know pay a little more in taxes sometimes a lot more in taxes so I think that'll be um a really important audience for the next several months hi Christie okay good to see Julia RM Edwards zone six good to have you here tonight and your family thanks civics lesson um my question how do you plan to engage with students parents and community members to gather input and feedback
056oh I didn't even know this question was coming I love it um well now I can talk a little bit about um Constitution team for a second so um I coached Constitution team um I won't say which school because I don't want anyone to get mad at me um but in in Portland Public Schools and I did that for 12 years it was a really big deal for me and um you know this is something I did from when I was like 25 until I found myself in DC with a four-month-old baby still been my younger child and realized okay this is probably probably gone too far um but I I just loved um working with um young people that much I'd been a high school teacher and then I was still getting to have
057that experience of interacting with high school kids and I just want to say the last week or yeah last week you all were talking about the possibility of 16 and 1y olds voting in School Board elections I'm all for it like I think when I the youth that I have worked with whether they're kids on Constitution team that are academic Excel academically excelling or the kids that I worked with doing credit makeup when I was a teacher in a different school school district um those kids have great ideas they have their finger on the pulse and so I think that really um getting a chance to uh talk to students I know you all have a student counsil sort of organization that provides you advice will be a real kind of strong suit for me
058and it will really be something I'll love to do um I also already work closely with parents all over the district on school funding um I have found ways to connect with those families to hear about their needs and really bring them to the table to talk to legislators and others so um I think that the ways that you can connect you know are varied um and it is it has been somewhat harder to connect post pandemic but I think just kind of meeting people where they are showing up at pickup or drop off at a school for example and introducing yourself I also think we need to remember that we have families and kids that don't connect with their schools don't feel safe talking to a school board member so I think also working
059with the staff um at the district to help get their ideas for how we can better connect with those families that are more disconnected will be on my agenda as well great thank you for being here Michelle dep pass um how would you work to address dispari in educational opportunities and outcomes for marginalized groups including students of color lgbtq plus students and students with disabilities thank you this was the last question on the application and I thought it was such a good one um I want to thank you for that it also gets to one of the reasons I actually want to be on this school board I feel like this district is deeply committed to addressing disparities and I really admire and respect that there's near constant acknowledgement of historic and current race ISM
060here at the school board whenever you listen in um I was hearing you all talk last week and it's clear that everyone was on the same page even if there was disagreement about maybe approach or timing or process um how lucky are we I mean you go to a school district 40 miles away it's a different universe so I just wanted to say how much I appreciate that I appreciate that we have diverse people in leadership positions including my own principal at my school and I appreciate that there's goals in place to improve outcomes and opportunities for all I also think that we're all seeing that these values are here and these policies and plans are here but the needle is not moving enough right so I'd really want to know like you know I
061see the news coverage which focuses on test scores and we know that's only so much of a barometer for how things are going so I'd really want to work with the other board members staff get into the field and figure out like where does it feel like it's working even if the needle's not quite moving and how can we try to see if we can make little tweaks to where things feel good and see if we can start to move that needle in some classrooms and then start to translate those lessons to other places I've also reviewed and I'd gladly adopt the district's Equity framework for my own decision-making I think that's a really good document I was pretty impressed I also want to say getting results takes time requires investment if you haven't heard
062I think we need more school funding in our state and in our district and then I also just want to point out that I think um again to that being so grateful to be here um when the federal government does things like say we're going to withhold money unless you have a policy that discriminates against lgbtq plus students I feel like we will be all in support of saying heck no and we will protect our kids be a safe place for all kids standing against bullying and discrimination regardless of what the federal government wants us to do thank you thanks thank you so much um all right uh now it's time to excuse me ask followup questions uh for Miss split if you would like and then you will have one minute to answer the
063followup question okay all right my question is how do you plan on advancing literacy within the district would you mind I didn't quite catch that would you mind repeating it yeah how do you plan on advancing see within the district that's a really good question it's funny because the first thing I want to do is turn around and talk to my kids um so I have a daughter who's back here who learned to read in kindergarten um silven and um I know like what worked in her classroom and what worked for her I think we in the district have done a good job of recently adopting a new curriculum within the past few years and I think sort of leaning in on what we've already invested in and seeing how things play out over time
064as teachers become more Adept at using those materials is probably where I would start I hate to say patience but I know we just went to a new system and a new way of teaching reading and so that might just take some time to catch on um so I just really want to pay attention to test scor sure but also hearing from the field from the teachers in kindergarten first grade second grade to hear about what's working with that new curriculum before we try to reverse course or do anything dramatic thanks for the question um in in your written materials yeah um you said I know I'd continue to focus on positions at schools as a first priority until kids basic needs are met and they feel safe and welcome at school which I think
065is in jeopardy with further Cuts in schools nice to haves have to wait I was thinking what do you see as the nice to Hales I think that's a really interesting question and when I wrote it I actually like wrote more and then had to cut you could imagine with the word count um that was a little tricky um I think that for me I would really want to have more conversations well I think I answered on another question that I feel like I really need to get into the Weeds on the budget more than I have I've gotten into the Weeds on the budget for our own school um but not as much for other schools and other programs I just can't even understand where you would find anything to cut at our school
066at this point like I just can't even begin to imagine um what we just close the library completely none of us want that of course but if we don't have more resources we know those are the choices we're going to have so I think I'd really want to I'd really feel like a more educated answer would need to come from me after I've taken a closer look at the budget um the things like at a like a high level that come to mind are like programs that aren't obviously benefiting all kids in a school like anything that's like um serving um like a special interest of some sort but I feel like I'd really have to see it be able to name it I know that's not the best answer I could give but it's
067my honest answer that's the problem with budgets hard very hard yeah yeah yeah are the nice toavs already gone everyone follow-up question um what experience do you have you've alluded to this already a little bit um but what experiences do you have advocating for a cause issue campaign legislation or policy yeah I'm glad to see that question come back because I didn't even really talk about my day job and I actually think it's one of my biggest assets that I have um in this conversation so um uh I mentioned I was a teacher in 2004 I took a summer internship in Oregon politics and I never went back that's been my career ever since and so I have experience as a legislative staffer I actually worked for two teachers which I think is pretty cool
068um I'm a Grassroots Advocate who relished bringing people to Oregon's capital for the first time I've been a coordinator for the state's largest environmental Coalition for four years I've been a nonprofit fundraiser I've been a state agency government relations coordinator so my experience in passing legislation is you know I could write many long lists of the bills that I've worked on over time I focused on climate policy because that's been something that I've really worked on so consistently for really my entire career um and so in that example you know it's really that's a you know much like school funding or schools in general that's one of those issues that's just constant um and so I give that as an example you just have to keep going y so um this question is kind of
069an extension of that and maybe it's just giving you an extra minute to talk about it um you have a very impressive background and a strong board you know you know Prides yourself on on having people with different backgrounds and different point of view and with your strong background so I maybe my ass is if you could expand a little bit more of how you see how your background translates to how it it helps the Board yeah so I think to me one of the biggest issues we have as a school board um in addition to I know a focus you have about engaging with our community to me is engaging with our elected officials um they were pretty fired up about a year ago um and I know that those are relationships you've all
070been working um working on since then and so I and I'm sure doing a wonderful job of that but I think having somebody on the board with that experience is really important and I know you're probably like well we have director brim Edwards but we all know that unfortunately she's only going to be here for a few more months um so I think having someone else who's also spent their career um in that space because that space is so critically important when it comes to school funding and I think we can all agree that that is a huge issue facing our school district so to me when I decided to run to it's not because I want to be here it's because I want to serve like I think I can do good things for
071the school board and for this district with my experience as a school board member um I have a question I appreciate all your response I'm trying to take notes as quickly as possible um I'm curious how your lived experience would inform your uh like policy development yeah thank you um this was another thing that I didn't really talk about in my because I didn't really know where to put it but um I think that one of the things that I didn't come up is that I moved a ton as a kid my mom doesn't like it when I talk about it sorry M I love you um but I went to nine schools between kindergarten and graduating high school and I feel like that really framed my experience and maybe why education became like a
072safe place for me because like academics was a place that was safe for me at school being a new kid the social stuffs really hard and so I think all the time about how that's why I went into teaching and even now like my kids know it there's a new kid in the class I'm like have you met the new kid are they doing okay can you introduce them to people that you think will be a good social fit um it's always on my mind and so um I think that experience is something that we know we have kids that share that have that kind of instability or move around a lot and so that's one area that I think I'd really focus on I know with lived experience too it's usually a question you
073know about race I'm in in my case I just want to clarify it was about your lived experience in general and you examp I was I just also wanted to say that I um just yeah I'll just leave it at that if that's what you were aiming for thank you that one minute is really tricky friends I was going to try to answer the question from the interview appli or the application [Laughter] too right any other questions last call great all right thank you Chris chy split um this concludes the interview Miss pal will walk you back and again I just want to also personally thank you for taking the Bold step in being here and uh applying for this job yeah I appreciate it thanks everyone thank [Applause] you okay let's do another two-minute
074break and then next up we'll have uh Miss Jasmine Reese who will be joining us in a moment e e e here e e need need so we're just we're just waiting for um Mysteries to get a copy of the questions all right so when Rosanne shows up we can we can start thank you for being here today excited so to make sure it's all fair for everyone just going to wait for the copy to to show up all right are you ready all right um let's get started I just kind of run a review thank you Jasmine ree for being here today again this is um really happy that you're you're applying to this position um each of us will just kind of go over the rules really quick each of us will ask
075you one question and you'll have two minutes to answer when you have one minute remaining the the yellow light will go on in front of you and then when the time's up the red light will go on and at that point just kind of wrap up respectfully ask you to wrap up your answer um um you were asked to prepare an opening statement and you have up to two minutes to share those statements so whenever you're ready you may you may begin thank you so the three can you hear me okay the three most important things that I want you to take away are the following um and this this is through the lens of my alma moer of wamit University um not until ourselves alone are we born um first I'm an urban leager
076and and I am empowered by the oldest most historic civil rights organization um to stand forward for equity and racial Justice and equality under the law um and then second I am um sorry my statement I tried to memorize it and that's not good um second I'm an entrepreneur and small business owner and I'm well-versed in business operations in making connections in building relationships and delivering services that achieve the goals of my clients and my community third I am her what does that mean I am an nc2a academic All-American Collegian athlete and a coach and I know well the female experience and adversity of Title 9 and the character and grit that's built within that Paradigm and that's what fuels me to ass set to set exceed to set achieve and exceed my goals for
077myself my family my clients in my community do you have any questions yeah great thank you yes we have um a set list of questions that we asked all the candid so we'll just kind of go in the same order all right so the first question um is uh what is your understanding of the primary functions and responsibilities of a public school board from a high level I understand that the school board is responsible for recruiting retaining and working um in partnership with the superintendent in updating the policies that govern the school board whether that be from budgeting or curriculum thank you what do you see is the relationship between the board and the superintendent so I see it as it could be a push poll but oftentimes I think uh it would work best
078in an ecosystem of a partnership and that the school board employs the superintendent here at Portland Public Schools and the superintendent can seek school board members to help them roll out their strategic plan and what they want to achieve in their vision for the district thank you good evening um how you doing today good all right all right all right uh my question is how would you prioritize issues such as academic achievement Equity student mental health and teacher support and can you give an example of a time you took action or provided leadership to prioritize an issue of importance yes so I think first and foremost Equity is important and um second I would say academic achievement after Equity after you're making sure you're reaching out to all of the voices of the community and
079the most disadvantaged ones um and then student mental health because if you don't have mental health you don't have academic achievement um and then teacher supports I think all of those things will help lead to supporting a teacher if the child is the whole child is supported mentally and physically and um if everything is looked at through a lens of equity and one example of that which is really important for our district this year right now is my work on the CPC for the wells Bond um as a participant of the CPC the comprehensive planning committee for idb Wells um we really felt that um the design plan took issue or worked against um part the issue with the pool and so we went am amongst ourselves and did a public records request to find
080out you know how do we research this question of the pool to best utilize the taxpayers dollars for this Bond project and um our findings we conducted a survey um of the community and I presented those survey results during the facilities in bond um special board or the board committee meeting do you have any questions about that thank you next question yes um thank you so much again hery green uh my question for you this evening is um can you provide an example of a Time um when you had to make a difficult decision in a group or collaborative environment as the treasurer of the brile PTA we set our budget and we set our work plan in the spring and we do that with or without knowing who our executive board is going to
081be and then we so we we approve a pending draft budget for the summer so we can keep the lights on Koo pay contractors Etc when the fall comes we are tasked with re-evaluating the budget based on the work plan and based on the forecasting of the revenue this fall we had to make a hard decision with our budget as we were spending down our deficits and cut the items from our budget that did not have active work plans it was a hard conversation because we were really trying to bring back after school programs to Bridal mile our school is one of the largest um K through five schools in southwest Portland we have a special education Community we have a black Excellence Community um we have Spanish speakers and we thought it would embolden
082our community and bring more people together if we brought after school programming back so we set aside money to stien our teachers to have Lego robotics and to bring in another program unfortunately we didn't have a work plan to stand up those numbers and our revenue for fundraising is down so we had to make the hard decision to cut specific items out of our budget in the fall and that was a difficult decision do you have any questions all right thank you so much for being here my question is how would you balance the needs of students teachers and the broader Community when making decisions thank you for your question JJ I think decision making as a board it obviously takes consensus and my experience in Staffing the mayor for the city of Portland there's
083a lot of work that is undertaken behind the scenes between staff constituents um and experts right and so I think that taking the position of not being the smartest person in the room and making sure you're Consulting with your experts on the subject matter making sure you're Consulting with your constituents and really understanding the Delta and the gaps to know and and have an assumption about how your decision making is going to impact um the target audience right or the consumer or how those services will be rolled out and then also having humility to be able to Pivot and to say looks like we got that wrong right JJ do you have any questions oh he's on you yeah just um just quick remind I think at the end of these questions we'll have um
084followup followup questions yeah where we can ask more openly so this my turn hi Jasmine hi welcome this evening Julia brim Edwards um zone six um how do you my question relates is how do you plan to engage with students parents and community members to gather input and feedback So currently right now um being on the board of my PTA we host a lot of events um there's a lot of text messaging a lot of emails I'm a room parent I'm making phone calls to people making sure that everyone's reading the principal's Friday flyer do you know about the event that's happening this week did you RSVP it's a lot of touch points it's a lot of talking it's a lot of sneaker net as well and like let's stop by this person's house while
085we're out on a walk um it's boots on the ground direct engagement because in our community people are inundated with email and so that's not a very effective way to get the word out you need to have a face-to-face conversation or be belly to belly at the business table um so I like direct engagement but I know that that may not be accessible for all and so I'm open to all forms of communication whether it's translated or in person so hi chasmine and welcome um I have a question so how would you work to address disparities and educational opportunities and outcomes for marginalized groups including students of color LGT lgbtq plus students and then students with disabilities I think that's a great question thank you I think first we have to know where the Baseline
086is we have to seek to understand before we're understood um I learned that in the Urban League when I was going through the leadership program um because being in coming out of college you know you're in your little bubble you're around people who are doing the same things as you you're in this world of like Excellence or sheltered Excellence of what you so what you think but to really be able to help someone you need to understand first how they want to be helped and and then consult with other people around and how to best get it done right because we don't really know what we don't know um and so being humbled and asking the questions and um and really trying to have that empathy to get someone to open up to explain because
087the data will show one thing but there's always another story that is outside of the data right thank you so much for your um and in answering these questions we'll um is now time for the board members to ask a follow questions and just kind of quick reminder um board ask the follow questions you have you have one minute to answer thank you it usually it takes a couple minutes for the board members to kind of think of their question um so there's a followup and kind of relates to the question I asked before about engaging um with students and parents um what this is engaging with different different types of people what experience do you have advocating for a cause issue campaign legislation policy anything in that sphere so two years ago I got
088my kids suited and booted and we drove down to Salem to testify um at the legislature to the Joint Ways and Means Committee on education and I know the party line ticket was to just ask for ask for the negotiated amount however I took the time to download and read through all of the reports from OD and all of the Departments that rolled up to OD um I spent hours hours and I was I didn't get any sleep but what I understood from Reading those reports from those staff members and reading between the lines is that we needed to fund the qm and so when I testified I opposed the budget that was drafted and I opposed on the reason that the qem needed to be funded because we had this in real estate We
089Tour a house with our clients it's that's a question mark and that's a dollar sign there's an unknown and we don't really know the real cost of that and I think the canary and the coal mine was the strikes that took place I'm Sor I'm sorry I didn't hear what what was that last sentence the strikes there just wasn't enough money to be able to fund colas so thank you go next um you know I'm I'm a True Believer that the diversity board strengthens the board with with unique backgrounds and stuff to kind of approach problem solving in different ways um you also have a very impressive background have done um so much great stuff so I I was wondering if you could speak I guess for a minute um really quick of how you
090envision um your background and your knowledge and how that helps the Board so I think my background my strength as a small business owner is that water moves in the path of lease resistance and you have to be able to connect to people to get a job done and to fill a need um and everyone on the board brings great experience to the table right working in governance working for corporate America working you know in The Community of Faith but I think for me like being a college athlete being an academic allamerican and having that grit and that tenacity of like being able to set a goal and get her done and then also not being afraid to call down and cold call people to bridge gaps and to bring people to the table to
091shake the tree and get the resources we need you are still writing and flipping through PES so I think they're still working on the question um check in with um student representative kavi yeah my question is how do you plan on building trust in relationships with our community especially our students I I think what I understand in hearing what has been our reading and and listening to people's voices is um being known and being front and center and really taking the opportunity to meet with people and be present and to hear their voice um in seeking to understand first instead of being understood and I've been in in my little bubble in southwest Portland doing my thing raising my family and so as a board member I think it's really important to make sure you're
092touching all the points of the district and getting to know the communities in the district I noticed something in your written statement um Talk talk about the budget you said one must approach public budgets from a philosophical lens to do no harm or harm reduction so how how do you can you give an example of that what you do with the budget yeah that's that's the philosophy of the least harm because there's always going to be tradeoffs that we're in a fiscally constrained um budget situation because of the size more tax measures that's just the reality even if we were to get the Q funded there would still be unmet needs with the facilities that need to be rebuilt um whether it's um a building an HVAC system there's just not enough money to go
093around and so you have to be able to strategically prioritize your budget and you need to be able to tell the story why things are more urgent versus important thanks right thank you Jasmine ree um really excited that you're applying for the board um this kind of this this is uh wait sorry this concludes your interview um while we wait for the other two candidates to return turn um again I just wanted before the other two read candidates return um just again thank you for for applying the board takes tremendous amount of courage to kind of apply and and and be in a public forum and and I can't imagine how intimidating this is with with seven people eight people sitting uh in this weird format here um all right so while we wait for
094the other candidates to return uh I want to again share the process for oh yeah yeah sorry thank [Applause] you thank you where was I let's just start all over um so the the the process for voting so the candidate who has four votes which is the Quorum uh would be our next board director for Zone one four votes or more I will call on each of you in the order of Zone number to please State your vote vot for who you'll fill in zone one vacancy um through June 30th 2025 should I I should probably wait for the other two to return yeah okay so so okay oh yeah thank you yeah you may sit wherever you like oh no I'm I'm happy welcome back um before we start in the voting process I
095just want to personally share uh I think we're extremely Lucky in that I think we have just three extremely strong candidates and I mean honestly I don't think we could go wrong with any of you I think all three of you just our incredible people have obviously care a lot about education our kids and public education and um you know like I said I honestly don't think we can go wrong but um all all of you yeah just play I I'm sure if if we could there's enough expand the board to nine members we would um and we would be all the stronger for it however there's 10 they're all different three it's okay but yeah so short of uh moving a resolution to expand the board to nine members um we only have one
096seat and all of you really just bring such unique experiences and and um like I really mean it deep from the heart I think we would uh just be better with any of any of you three here so thank you again for going through this extremely um I'm sure scary process to to put yourself out there um and be in front of us today all right so um let's start the voting so I will call on each of you um in your order of Zone number that was interesting and please uh State your vote for who you would would like to fill Zone one vacancy through June 30th 2025 so roll call let's start with Vice chair to pass um thank you and thank to all thank you to all of the candidates who um
097put yourself out there I understand from at a visceral level how difficult it is and I appreciate your courage Your courage in stepping forward my vote is for Jackie worse thank you director I was just hoping somebody'd really mess [Laughter] up this was just too hard I can't believe how lucky we are that three people of your caliber would want to do this job well maybe you're not so smart after all I but and this is really really hard for me it's hard for all of us I know to to choose but um my vote is for Christy split all right director green um again thank you all so much um for coming um and for being here um normally I would have a much longer speech and I would plan but I've been told
098that this is not my podium so therefore I need to keep it short but no I appreciate all of you for for coming out this isn't um this isn't something that any of you seem to take lightly you understand the the depth and the the gravity of all the work and we would be fortunate to have to have any of you um my vote is for Miss Jasmine Reese all right director Holland I'm going just Echo uh my colleagues here as well um you I don't think we go wrong with any one of you guys um stepping up um having and I agree with uh chrisy as far as there being people who want to run right um and not people who is afraid to run to where you don't have options um I I
099love that I love the fact that you guys are here for our kids um that is just it makes my heart smiles when I see that and so since I have to pick someone um yeah it's it's harder L harder than I thought it was going to be um I'm GNA go with uh Jasmine all right director brim Edwards okay I want to thank all of all three of you um as everybody said we'd be lucky to have any one of you um I don't like speaking in public even after 12 years so I really applaud you for coming coming and um no I don't um so I really applaud you not my introvert um for coming tonight and sharing sort of your hopes and dreams for our district um and how you would contribute
100um I also just want to Echo Gary's comments that um I do think I I always had contested elections um and it made me a better board member I hated it but it made me a better board member um so I really appreciate um all of you sort of engaging uh my uh vote is for Christie splint this um thank you I think I said my piece I you know honestly I think like I I said before I think we would all be great with any one of you and and in my personal belief I think all three of you were very close for me um I I see a lot of positives um because I have to pick one um and this is going to create some problems but I am going to vote
101for Worse we do need yes Jackie works all right so um dra yeah now we start a round of rock paper scissor uh so I say something about that yes no rock paper scissors okay X plan number one um plan number two so um we have a 222 split and so what that means is that um or Tai sorry I use someone's last name here um three-way tie so for this next round so to kind of explain how the rounds work normally how it work is if we had um two that came out on top those two would move on to the next round and between those two we would select but right now we don't have two leading candidates so we need to um do this vote again now uh to kind of keep
102everything civil and PR from getting into fist fights um I would what I propose is that we move forward we'll go down the role again where um maybe each board member can vouch say one nice thing about one candidate that they would like to hopefully convince someone else to move on um and hopefully someone may be able to move their vote again what we really need right now what we're trying to do is to get two candidates uh the top two uh with the top two number of votes and between those candidates we'll do the final round we'll vote uh which one of those but right now we're going to do a round where we just quickly talk about the candidate we want and hopefully that convinces someone else to move their vote and if
103they don't we'll be here all night or I'm bre okay uh after a two-minute break as from request so we'll see you in two minutes e e e yes please I also forgot um um JJ if you're still there I forgot to call on your vote um so when when the break is over um I'll have you go first and call out your vote yeah it's unofficial but um I think that's mandated by law e e e so I think they should yeah all right we're officially back so I was saying that uh was a made a suggest was a suggestion made to me on my way to the restroom that one way to um move forward was ask the candidates uh each each the same question and see how they answer the question and
104maybe that can sway any members of the board to move on their vote doing just a suggestion that someone told me on my way to the restroom so I thought I share it is it like dogs or cats well the example they gave was if you walk outside the door you met with a constituent what would you say to them about PPS the gist I think will just ask them a question have them answer the same question and then hopefully that might sway some votes one way or the other yeah just also share this discussion my thought was that I think that was a that's a great idea and I would I wish we got that idea beforehand but the the issue is also we didn't inform the candidates that that was a possibility that
105might happen and so it may create trouble to kind of shift this you know change the script along the way so but then my response to that would be we didn't s um suggest anybody that there was going to be a tie and in the event of a tie that I was going to have to um come back to the board and barter for um barter for votes either so there's a we're in a space where this is the unknown and in the space of unknowns then we as leadership can create order by stating this is what we're going to do and this which is what you just did essentially by simply saying that we're going to go around we're going to barter for votes and see if somebody changes their mind or we're going
106to be here all night which I won't be here all night but I mean that's essentially it so I'm just saying we're in a space where legally I think we had a lawyer she went to school a lot longer than I did but yeah go ahead you have the ability if you would choose if the majority of the board agrees to have a question asked and answered you are in a space where there's no mandate one or the other the concern is simply agreement uh of the majority of the board about the next step and the way you want to proceed all right so I'll ask if there's a majority of the board that would like to proceed with that plan that's fine with me but why don't we maybe a a mush between the
107two why don't we do your suggestion and see if that changes something and then use um director um Holland's suggestion if we still have a tie I just want to say with with a question I like the idea but with the question then we're asking a candidate that doesn't know what success looks like you know how are we evaluating on the question one way or the other does that make sense no say that again same way we're asking somebody you know what do you prefer salt or pepper and they say pepper and they say well you know we say well that wasn't the answer we were looking for we were actually looking for salt for these reasons so I don't think we ask him like a yes or no question I think you know we
108ask him something that's more substantial I guess it's hard for me so how do we evate it's hard for me to try to advocate for someone that I just seen you know appear for the few minutes that we did I guess that's hard for me to really advocate for that um on this brief being to really Advocate but however we go let's go in May I I know I'm a silent partner in this process but I was wondering that if there was a question a single question to be asked thinking of this six-month process that a candidate will be in could there be a question that's specific to their work over the next six months is we have some pretty significant Hills to climb hypothetically speaking what would a possible question look like how do
109you envision spending the next six months as a uh newly appointed School Board member hypothetically of course hypothetically of course well I mean then the next question is are the candidates okay with answering this one question I'm pretty sure they're gonna do what we ask them to do so I'm I'm okay with so let me let me just formalize the ask the question is how do you envision yourself spending the next six months we'll give each candidate one minute um to answer that question and then um my next question is do we still want to proceed with the original idea of that each member says something about the candidate of their choice and then we go to vote or do you want to just go straight to vote I would love to do the question
110question and vote Yes okay and then barter rather I guess I look at it as that I mean we all saw something different in the candidates and I always value hearing what others have to say the board table and most of the other appointment processes I go through part of it is like people actually say something before their vote not just who they voted for um so it seems like we kind of skipped skip that um okay so I think we should do both and then do hopefully the final round of voting so then if that be the case then um what I would recommend then we do the we do the suggestion we we hear then we ask the question and then we vote okay so you want to go we Advocate first do
111the say what we heard because I also would have but that wasn't the that wasn't the um instruction so I would have um explained why I was Voting the way I voted or what it was that um that stood out to me that made me say that was that was it because I'm sure that we all they all said something um cuz we were furiously writing down um pens were smoking up here so we were all writing stuff down as quickly as we possibly could um so I'm sure that within our notes we might be able to this is the thing that stood out for me which I would have done but that's not what we were instructed to do so if we were to do it based on that this is what stood out
112to me and then do the question um to each one of the candidates and then do a final vote then that seems like it could make sense for me okay I like that okay are you okay with that so again just really quick reiterate Advocate first uh if if if possible keep it under keep it about a minute or under and then we'll have the questions for the candidates to maybe expand upon and then that way we have a full picture of why each board member thinks the way they do and what what stood out to them and then we also get a chance for the candidates to give one last pitch wait we have another candidate oh yeah I I moved now I live in a different Zone um sorry Eddie is my school
113board member which I'm very proud of uh Deborah CFI uh chief of staff may offer a an additional solution because what I foresee happening is that there might be two additional votes because at the next vote unless someone gets four which is the majority that you need it's not just a simple major here you need four so why don't you choose one start with one see how many votes you get and then move to the second the question if needed because otherwise you're just going to be back here trying to figure out yet another question okay I don't think you can do we're gonna beat the city council though I I we're gonna beat the city council yeah because we're competitive like it will not be 10 don't worry it'll be 11 I just wonder
114if well we should just go ahead and try it and see if it works I'm I'm doubtful though I me all right let's go let's go th this is the success of this is dependent on someone or some two people moving their vote so we just if we're flexible that would work for any system yes so okay but before we start I I promised um student representative canavi that uh he would get to voices unofficial vote yeah we didn't hear him so if you would like to start and then if you also want to take your minute to Advocate you're also welcome to do that right away all right I just want to thank all the candidates for their willingness to serve their dedication to our students here at Portland Public Schools I'm supporting Jackie
115because I really admired how she shared her importance of visibility in school communities and really strengthening the relationships with our students who did he say can you repeat that one more time that was great yeah Jackie the whole thing sure yeah all right I just want to thank all of our candidates for their willingness to serve and their dedication to students I'm supporting Jackie because I really valued how she shared her importance and community and visibil I mean her visibility in school communities and really strengthen the relationships with students everyone got that that second yeah all good okay thank you student representative canavi all right um again I'll call your name we'll do the same order again by Zone and when your name is called uh one minute or less advocate for one person and
116after this is done we'll move to votes again thank you let's start with Vice chair to pass okay thank you um I um I kind of ran um your responses the candidate responses through my own set of values which are um top importance of understanding the importance of governance knowing the um difference between management and governments supporting the direction of the district and also a clear understanding of the relationship between the board and the superintendent um something really stood out um from Miss W's uh application it says the board's role is strategic and highlevel ensuring schools operate effectively through strong governance and oversight I also appreciated the systems approach um things that come to us are are all systems issues there's not a black and white um necessarily or a clear answer but you understand
117that putting pressure in one area will absolutely cause a ripple in another area and that systems thinking is really important and finally you have experiened in a large messy organization that's in the newspaper a lot and um I think that would bode well in terms of experience thank you director Sullivan oh boy um I was particularly impressed with the vision and the support just for public schools as the pillar of the community and I'm sure the other candidates felt the same thing but you stated that very clearly I was really impressed with how you've already sounded like you've got a system going for the election coming up in May which is showing real um you know lot of lot of effort early and that's I know that's going to be hard um I like the
118way you talked about the relationship between the board and the superintendent not that others didn't to but it it came through um the two-way street the partnership by the sounding board really really made sense to me um the way that in your school you've been able to make sure you have an art teacher and an assistant principal really standing up for your own school um and about the needs of students always listen first and just your ability to talk with students um being on the Constitution team and maybe because I was a teacher too I there's you're all so great that it's it's hard because you all did that too but but that just stood out to me with Christie and you mentioned the needle's not moving enough with all the plans in place and
119that's exactly how the board feels so I thought fit right in being frustrated so [Laughter] thank you director green shair Wong I don't believe director Sullivan actually said who she was voting for oh I'm sorry so I'm voting for Christy split so we V again it's in hopes that once they hear the advocation that someone will say you know what you're right let me me let me move um and that might be why Miss CFI said she don't see it um so because we're all going to be advocating for for what we voted for is what is what we're essentially doing and so or and explaining why we voted so with that being said let me get to explaining the thing that stood out for me um was the the Grassroots that that that fight
120that I'm going to I'm not going to let up when I when I'm hearing Jasmine speak I'm I'm not he I'm hearing that I'm not going to let up until it's done it's the the Bulldog mentality that once I get a hold of this and once I got it we're not I'm not just going to let go of this because you don't like it um the fact that she um she looked and she stay she looked into everything that OED was offering she let read all the reports she went back over it over and over again then as she said took herself and her um her family down to say so she could advocate for the Q understanding that what we were accepting at the time was not nearly what we needed but wanting to
121be the voice of opposition even though we were we were um saying that you know this is what we were going to go for that stood out the the other part that stood out was um listening to understand or seeking to understand versus seeking to be understood she said that on multiple different times um and which is hard um which is always hard because as as people we want to be able to respond we want to be able so when we're listening to what somebody is saying then we're often time we're not listen actively listening because we're try we're listening to respond and it takes a it takes a trained understanding a trained heart trained mind to listen to Simply understand before responding not always trying to respond the being able to Pivot when and
122say that we got it wrong is something that we as a district highly need we need the ability to say screw the pooch on that one um we're done we're aborting abort Mission so to be able to actively say that out loud um that stood out to me and the the ability to um to get boots on the ground belly to belly at the table I I hear a lot of phrases all the time that was one that I had not heard so I literally had to write it down because it makes so much sense to me that you know I may not be able to uh go to everyone and be in every place but there's something about being belly to belly at a table where you're actually talking about stuff because things happen
123over over food like when you breaking bread with people stuff stuff happens life happens I tell people all the time if you ain't ate with me you don't know me because all you saw is the Persona that I put on all you saw is where I was at all you saw is this you don't know me until you broke bread with me and when you don't broke bread with me now we know each other and it's at those conversations that life really begins to happen and to be able to do that with our families and our communities about things that are important to them you're sitting belly to belly at a table and you're talking about um special education and the the needs that we have within our district and how are we going to
124move the needle on that you're sitting belly to belly at the table and you're talking about literacy I can see that stuff happening and when she was saying it I don't know it that Lit a spark for me um every one of them are just perfect I do wish that we could we could could have them all because every one of them would bring a a different piece to the table I mean I could sit here right now and advocate for all of them because I I got enough notes on my paper from all of them from from chrisy to Jackie I I we're not going to go wrong we're not going to go wrong I could I I want to but I can't because I'm supposed to talk about I'm not supposed to sway
125somebody I'm trying to sway him and now I'm fa to advocate for I could advocate for Chrissy because it's like the stuff she we need we need somebody to go down to Salem and we need somebody that already knows lobbyist and so we're not going to miss I do believe that in this season in this in this stretch what we need right now I believe that um Jasmine can do it and it's the it's the knocking on the door it's the bond stuff but then at the same time she's gonna have to be friends with chrisy and Jackie because okay I'm see this is why you don't give a preacher a microphone um I petition to have a timer set on your microphone that all make it turns off thank you I'm G eat that
126I'm G eat that I'm Mo I second that motion right now we gotta find the budget for it all right UMD director Hollands oh gosh I don't I don't like this at all um and that's just because we have such we have three women who absolutely can do the job and this whole advocating for one person the other you know just just not my not my jve but here I go um I'm of course I'm voting with Jasmine Reese for Jasmine Reese you know one things that not only in the presentation she gave here but also looking in her self I mean the thing that they wrote as well you know you've seen that she leads with Equity right um I love the governance piece when she talk about push and pull right we want
127to have a relationship with the superintendent where we can go back and forth on issues to really understand how the needs of our children's going to be met um and I think that's a valuable piece is know we're not here like the rubber stamp superintendent we're not here just to always be adversaries of the superintendent either and so being willing to have that push and pool with the superintendent in the um advancement of our students I absolutely love that um when we talk about some of the things that she talked about in her uh questions that she wrote out she talked about not being a top- down organization you know and that's that's important because as um I don't know if it was chrisy or if it's Jackie but one of them said our students
128is our priority and so so they both see they both said it so so all three of them right and so when we talk about that we talk about not being topped down so she's coming from a level of ground up or kids then everybody else right our kids then our teachers right and and so forth and so forth um I I absolutely love that when she talked about the work that she's done at her kids schools right that showed a lot of commitment her experience on what she's done in the community going by you know her question number eight she has a breath of experiences that she can pull from when making decisions you know and that's that's something that I looked at it's like okay she has this over here she has that
129over here she has this over here so I'm looking at her being able to use all those experiences um to make the great decisions for our kids um when we when she talked about using technology and reaching the community that is awesome it takes foresight to know what community needs what in order to communicate with them right we I know here at PPS sometimes we just look at a certain thing but being able to identify okay this community don't email too much this community needs people to go look at when we talk about Community engagement that is so important because we fail at Community engagement we do a community engagement event 14 people show up and two people are the loudest and it seem like that's the way we want to go but actually knowing
130hey you know what we need to go lock on some doors we need to go over here and pull this person out especially communities of color we know they working all day we know that they not home till after 6:00 having that foresight I think is going to lead to helping our okay I'm gone um helping make sure that we are doing the practices that we need to do to serve our kids all right I'm done Ty okay director so I'm often asked about like what makes a strong school board and for me it's um I would say also like you get who the voters sent and I think the voters are usually wiser they find like complimentary U set of skills and when I look at um the work ahead and I think it's
131important that we look at just the next six months because that is the the term that um we're appointing for um I think that chrisy would be a huge asset to this board right now um and I'm going to say it's not based necessarily I think Chris did a great job tonight and her answers were good but I also am gonna speak from what I know from experience because um I've been an active parent in this district for um 25 years or either a parent or a school board member um and Chrissy's somebody who I have run across um on on many occasions um and I I will say we haven't always agreed and you know I feel pretty passionate about when I when I feel for something so um so you know when I
132don't agree with somebody you know it's um um but I'll say that like that has never been an issue when we haven't agreed because what I find is Christie is like um super student focused um and a strong set of values um I think one of the things we need to continue to do after last year is build our relationships with our teachers in the building and I think um that's something that Christie can because of her background can help us with um I also think in the next six months we have a huge lift um we're asking for qem we're demanding qem um and we also have to pass a bond and you know the passing the bond now that it's been referred is the board's work and Chrissy has a lot of experience
133um running and winning um campaigns and I think that would be an set um she also knows her ways around Salem she knows legislators um and it's going to be a Sprint and it's going to be like I say a huge lift to do both of those things um but I'm gonna say most importantly what I've appreciated about just my experience with Christie is um while she has shown up for hayhurst um which is one of the most diverse schools in that zone she has consistently advocated for kids in southeast and kids in Northeast and kids in North Portland um so never approach of like hey I'm a hayers parent and I'm advoc advocating just for hayers parents it's usually with a whole bunch of other parents especially parents from other schools who may not
134have um the same political muscle or voice and showing up um to Advocate together as a district which I've really appreciated since I represent a district in which we don't always have the most that connected politically connected parents uh with the most political muscle so I've appreciated uh Little Help from Southwest um and that it hasn't just been this is about my school and my kids because that's it's super easy to do as a parent because you get focused on your kids um so I really have appreciated that about Cousy as well thank you to make up for all you Ramblers I'm G keep mine short um I'm just following Herman so great Herman is hard to follow so you did a great job hey you're taking my time um so uh the what really
135stood out to me about again I can't say this enough we have three amazing candidates and I would be happy to support any any one of you um what stood out to me about Jackie worse um in her application uh when talking when the question about you know how do you think about tradeoffs and the the really short little snippet in in the middle for long answer was um by weighing short-term needs against long-term goals and I feel like just right there you just nailed the hardest part you the the hardest work we do as a board um just encapsulating that short little sentence um what also impressed me is just the approach towards analyzing the system you know I I always think about where are the holes that we have in our board and
136and where where if we fill would really help us move forward and or even become more creative or or or or reach our goals sooner than later and um someone who is that you know when she talks about looking you know systemwide and and approaching the system when anybody who has to approach the system is someone who's already going to have to be open-minded has to be able to take a new information and be able to shift where maybe where they stood before their where their opinions or beliefs they had before and be able to shift that in order to to meet the new information new data that comes in um uh Jackie does that for a living and I think that that's something that um is an immense would be an immense um value
137to any organization that um Jackie Works in and then what I really excited would be excited to see is how you know we talking about the experience that that Jackie WS has in in talking about strategic planning and turning that into actionable insights and I think that's another area where we as a board could use some help right how to look at the system as a whole turning using all this complex data and turning into something that we can actually do right um and so that is what stood out for me with Jackie with that said we will now be moving on to round two round two of 28 um just kidding um uh rounds of voting and um so uh again I'll I'll roll call really quick um by Zone uh because I accidentally
138left off student representative conavi in the first round I will start with student representative conavi for the second round so student representative canavi please indicate your vote um I'm voting for Jackie thank you director toat uh sorry Vice chair to pass thank you wor director Solomon um chrisy Smith director green Jasmine Reese director Holland re director brim medwards uh part of my responsibility as a as a chair is to move us forward so I'm gonna move us forward I'm gonna change my vote to Chrissy split um thank you um so much again this is very difficult um so we still do not have a candidate with four votes so now what we will do is have a run off between the two candidates that garnered the most votes um in the second round it's between
139we have um Christy split which has three votes and Jasmine ree which has two who has two votes so these are the two candidates that have the most votes and I'll give you a couple moments to consider your votes and then we'll do this whole thing hopefully the final round how about a minute do need a minute 30 seconds no now it's going to be between now's the question Chrissy split or Jasmine ree did we want to do the question piece or we had talked about that and I thought heard agreement on that I thought oh my assumption was that was because if it was in stal but now that we have moved moved on to round two okay or sorry round three now that we have now narrowed it and gone to the second
140stage of voting um I didn't think it was necessary I think it's necessary no we just vote yeah because the way the way the this voting system works is by when we have a runoff right um this takes an account when people have a first or second preference right and so that second preference if for example your first preference didn't make it you could vote for your second preference and that may create a majority and once that creates a majority we're done and if we if we come with a I think if we happen upon another stalemate uh a tie then we can do the questioning part that that next second all right anybody not ready because I I know we've been here long enough all right so now I'll I'll call on each of
141you again uh by Zone number and please St State your vote uh who you would like to fill for Zone one and again this vote is between um Christy split and Jasmine ree let's start with JJ conavi sorry student representative kavi chrisy Vice chair to pass Christy split director suvan um chrisy split director green director Holland GRE director brim Edwards Christy split and I vote for Christy [Applause] split thank you fellow directors I would like to announce our new board member which is Christy split yeah if you would like to no uh so we yes please I believe in this school board and the choice that you made today was very hard but I also believe that chrisy split is going to be a fabulous representative you do have an incredibly difficult six months ahead
142of you and I look forward to Christie's leadership guiding this board to making strong advocacy for a stronger future for Portland thank you for letting me be part of this process and best of luck thank [Applause] you sure let's do it I so yeah here I think the process is were we were going to take a break and reconvene about 10 minutes to um but like we don't have to we can move move forward right okay yeah yeah do you want to give your to the your happy speech yeah sure you want that swearing and then the speech uh what's I don't know what the norm is let's do the swearing in and then the speech all right can I have my daughters you can actually have your whole family and anybody that came here
143actually be up there with you and they can stand behind you at the Pod Podium showing that support yeah that's a great that's a great photo op never been so nervous in my life and I'm still nervous I just I guess I care a little bit I I Christy split Christy split do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States that I will uphold the contitution and the laws of the United States and the state of Oregon and Faithfully discharge the duties and the state of Oregon and Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of director of School District number one J let's do that again the duties of the the office of director of school district to the D to the duties of the
144office of the school district number one J number one J Moma County Oregon monoma County Oregon to the best of my ability to the very best of my ability thank you so much I'm not shivering anymore you're right um thank you so much to Jackie and Jasmine first of all I took some notes Jasmine and I know each other I met Jackie tonight you guys are great like could we hang out and like fight for public schools together for all time um and if we're running against each other in may like let's figure out how to do it in like the coolest most collaborative interesting way possible um I want to thank the school board members for their careful consideration I also want to thank my family um my husband drafted the paperwork for me
145to run for school board about two years ago and I always hold it up as my idea of romance my kids who are willing to give up time with me so that I can take on this role that's a big deal for elementary school aged kids and they understand how community service really matters deeply to me and how it really matters deeply to all of us when we take time from our lives to give to others my mom who does so much to support us thank you Mom and I want to thank my dad who inspired me to a path of public service with his own commitment to community I think he's listening live from Florida he's up very late and my stepparents who are so supportive from afar and my in-laws who are so
146supportive right here thank you so much I want to thank my friends um and colleagues who are here um these are friends that I have from like real life friends that I have from working in politics friends that I have for fighting for school funding which I did didn't even talk about in my interview how did that happen um that's been a huge part of my life lately um I'm so lucky to have this strong nwork of caring and loving folks who inspire me every day and I want to thank the hayers community also didn't come up in the interview on the last five years I've spent hours hanging out at heurst elementary school filling gaps and Staffing after the pandemic and now I still spend two hours with K through five lunch every single
147Friday so I see the kids in our school once a week and I know them all and I know the teachers and I know the support staff and they mean so much to me May every kid feel about school how my kids feel that's the goal my job as a board member will be to listen and reflect what I hear from the people who spend the days in our schools students teachers administrators support staff and my job will be to ensure that we have the funding and policies in place to make sure every kid is ready to learn so that we can actually build toward those goals we have for academic excellence and my job will be to deepen connections between our schools and families in the district so that they are all truly in
148this work of raising and educating kids together as they say it takes a village and I'm glad that you are my Village thank you [Applause] thank you that was beautiful and we are Jed