001Thank you. Um, I'm going to go back uh to start the land acknowledgement again. Um, we've got Portland Public Schools recognizes the original inhabitants of the land on which our city and schools stand. the Wulis Tiguay or Maliset, Mcmmack, Ponobscot, and Pasimquati tribes known collectively as the Wabanaki Confederacy or people of the Dawnland. We are honored to have Wabanaki children among our students today. And as a district, we are committed to making the past, present, and future of Wabanaki peoples visible in our schools and classrooms. And as a reminder of our mission, the Portland Public Schools is responsible for ensuring a challenging, relevant, and joyful education that empowers every learner to make a difference in the world. We build relationships among families, educators, and the community to promote the healthy development and academic achievement of
002every learner. and our definition of equity. Equity is all people being held to high expectations and having access to opportunities that are reflective of their individual needs, identities, and experiences. Equity is achieved in Portland public schools when there are no identifiable differences in outcomes and experiences for any population subgroup. Um we are now going to um uh do public comment. Um so if anyone would like to give public comment here um or if you would like to give public comment um on Zoom, you you can raise your Zoom hand and we'll call you. Okay, perfect. Um let me just go over the guidelines. So if you I know they're long, so if you can stand. If not, feel free to sit back down. Um uh let's see. Public comment. Members of the public may speak
003on any subject directly related to the operations of the schools except for personnel matters or complaints concerning specific employees or students which shall be addressed through established policies and procedures. If an item is on the agenda, please use the public comment time associated with that item. Comments are limited to a maximum of 3 minutes or 6 minutes for individuals using an interpreter to make their comment. Individuals may not relinquish a portion of their allotted time or uh to another speaker. The board may not respond to comments and please refrain from responding in the audience. Speakers must refrain from engaging in disruptive conduct, including but not limited to using vulgar and/or obscene language, threatening others using words or by other actions, using pjorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or group on the basis
004of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender, or other identity factor. making defamatory comments, exceeding the allotted time limits, talking over or interrupting others, offering repetitive comments, and offering uh comment on matters unrelated to the school district's programs, policies, or operations. I will stop any public comment that is contrary to these rules. To give public comment, you can come forward to the podium or raise your hand in Zoom. Please begin by introducing yourself with a name and address. Uh we will alternate batches from Zoom and in person. I will keep the time and raise a yellow folder indicating that you have 30 seconds remaining. I will raise a red folder signifying the end of your time. If you get to the end of your allotted time and would like to request more time, you
005may do so. Um and I just wanted to give um a quick disclaimer that we are going to have the superintendent from the Minneapolis public schools joining tonight during public comment and he's coming from another meeting. So, when I see him come up on Zoom, I'm going to move him to the front of the line. Just letting everybody know. Um, but please go ahead and proceed. >> Good evening. This is about the boundaries committee. So, let me know if you want me to sit and wait. >> No, you can give a comment now. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, Angela Tillson, Plymouth Street. I want to thank Dr. Scallan first and the board. You all you are doing right now to keep our students safe. Just want to mention that first. I'm here tonight to speak
006about the boundary committee updates. My fifth grader is currently at Telbot. We live on Plymouth Street, which is literally right there next to Casco Bay High off of Allen Avenue. Of note, my son has no siblings. When we went to enroll him into kindergarten, we learned that Plymouth Street was right on the border of Talbot school line, essentially the last street in that direction where the neighborhood school is Talbot and not Lys. We enrolled him at Talbot. He has thrived and made many friends. When the boundaries committee was formed, I was surprised to learn that Plymouth Street's neighborhood middle school is currently Lyman Moore. It appears Lyman is assigned to all of the streets from Morals's Corner to Our Street, Plymouth Street. I could see from the boundary committee's updates that one of their proposals
007was to change Plymouth and the streets from Plymouth to Morals Corner to Lincoln in order to keep the students within the same neighborhood of where their elementary school classmates will be attending. I believe I saw a stat statistic of 80% of Talbot students are districted to attend Lincoln. Our neighborhood looks to be in a small portion of streets that are proposed to change to Lincoln. This change sounded positive to me as my child's friends and classmates, all of whom who live off of 302 and Forest Avenue, will be attending Lincoln next year. But I know when Dr. Scallan attended our last PTO meeting, he informed us that the boundaries committee was now unlikely to recommend any changes to middle school neighborhoods. I was a little disappointed to hear this. I'm puzzled why our street would
008have our children currently attending Talbot and not Lincoln next year. For continuity, it seems that our street should be licensed then Lyman or keep as Talbot and make us zone for Lincoln. So, I'm asking, could the board consider our neighborhood and looking at the boundaries committee recommendations? If the neighborhood map stay as is, would there be an exception or options for students in our neighborhood to be able to stay with their classmates and attend Lincoln instead of Lyman? Would the school board be willing to address a plan or exception for these students so they're not separated from their classmates and the friends that they've already formed strong bonds with for six years? I'm here to advocate for the best interest and mental health of my child. Thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you.
009And um we do have the superintendent. Um so we're going to move um to um Colin Helen Beichy. Greg, if you could let Colin speak. Hi everyone. Can you hear me? All right. >> Yeah, we can. Thank you. >> All right. All right. Uh, first of all, just to clear up here for you, um, I am the chair of the board. I am not the superintendent. >> Apologies. >> That's That's all right. That's all right. Um, listen, I know that you have a time limit here and so I'm going to try and respect that, but I do have some things I'd like to share with you. Uh, first of all, my name is Colin Beichi and I am the chair of the board here in Minneapolis. And um, the city is frozen still right now,
010but it is vibrant and it is resilient. And, uh, I want to send a clear message to you all here right now that we are with you with everything that you are about to go through. Uh, you know, I spoke here I'm here tonight because I spoke with your board chair a couple days ago. And it's clear to me that some of the things that you are about to be going through are things that we've been living through here uh for the past month. And um I thought it might be helpful to maybe hear from someone who's actually been going through this uh on the ground. And so I I want to be honest with you and uh not to frighten you but to just kind of ground you in in the reality here. Uh
011the surge started here in December and it was just almost immediate chaos in the city. Um uh it really didn't affect our schools until uh January 7th. That was the day that I think you've all seen on national news. Renee Nicole Good was killed by Jonathan Ross. And on that same day, there was a um targeted operation, and you need to get used to that phrase. They use it a lot. Uh they were chasing a car through the city. It ended up right in front of Roosevelt High School just as the students were being let out of school. Um the officers mistook them for protesters, rioters, and ended up uh tackling two teachers, arresting them. They have they have been released uh and pepper- sprrayed a dozen or so of our students, one of them
012directly in the face with a projectile. And the thing is is that, you know, we were we were we were lucky that day. And it's it's it's very odd to um talk about students being pepper-sprayed and talking about being lucky. But uh none of our students were detained and none of our students were removed. But uh over the next several weeks, not just in our city and some of the neighboring cities and the neighboring suburbs, we have been increasingly seeing numbers of students uh disappearing. Um, you've all seen um the young boy, the 5-year-old that for some reason um officials believe is uh better off in a detention center in Texas than with his uh caregivers here. Uh you all have seen what happened this past weekend over and over again from several different angles.
013Just yesterday, um, we had, uh, teachers that were walking their students to the buses and to their parents' cars, and ICE agents decided to get in their cars, circle the block with their horns blaring, with their sirens on, and that's their targeted operation. Grown men taking pleasure in terrorizing children. So the thing is is that that's not the whole story of what's going on here. And um this city has certainly determined that is certainly not the ending of this story. This past Friday, I think some of you hopefully some of you saw that on TV as well. Uh was one of the coldest days of the year in the past two decades actually here. Listen and I'm a lifelong motan. And I'm telling you it was cold. I'm telling you it was cold. Okay, it
014was cold. Um, but by some estimates as many as 50,000 people showed up determined to stand with their community and their neighbors and their state. And you know what? No one no one told us to come. No one paid us to come. We came because we knew we we we knew and we understood something pretty important here that no one was coming to save us. >> So we made the commitment and took out that social contract and decided that we were going to save ourselves. We've been through so many moments here now where many of us have truly understood what community means at this point. And it's more than about just knowing who's living on your block. It's more than just saying hi to someone. It's about time to start getting to know them. It's
015about time to start getting to know the your your neighbors who have children. It's time to start caring about your neighbors. It's time to start uplifting them. And it's time to start knowing that they will be there for you when you need those moments to be uplifted. We have this thing up here that we like to call Minnesota nice. I shared that with your board chair. And last Friday we showed it in the most real way possible. I told you it was cold, but it's like I think every motan they interviewed a a a a teacher that was talking with there with her father and she said the most motan thing, well it's not that cold, you know, and it's like we we we we have all said that at some point here even when
016it's 20 30 below. Um but we showed that Minnesota nice in the most real way possible that day. And I'm here to tell you all um now it's your turn and show us your strength. Show us your determination. Show us your community. Show us Portland. Before I log off, there's something I want you to know to be true. Here in Minneapolis, no matter what you have seen, we have been through a lot. But we are still standing. Our schools are still places of learning and care. And our communities, while they're imperfect, we have grown stronger and wiser and more connected because we chose to get through this together. Unfortunately, over the next several weeks and months, I I don't know what's going to happen in Portland, but in the end, your community is going to
017write your own story. But you're not going to write it alone because you're not alone. We are here to stand beside you for as long as it takes. We are here to share what we've learned. And we're here to offer partnership if not prescriptions. And I'll tell you, I don't know anyone in Portland. The only one I've spoken to has been your board chair. But I just have a belief that the biggest prescription that you guys need, you already have it and you always have and that is going to be each other. It's time to show the entire country you are Portland power. Be safe. Be smart. Be there for one another. be in community and be Portland. >> And always remember Minneapolis is with you. >> I wish you all the best. >> Thank
018you. Thank you. Thank you so much for those words. Um really appreciate it and just know that we are standing with you as well. >> You >> take good care of yourself and stay safe. Um, who would like to um uh did you want to come to the microphone? I thought maybe I saw you um start to get up. Anyone else in for public comment in the audience? No. Okay. Then I guess we are going to go ahead and um close public comment. Yes. Okay. Um I'm going to go ahead um and move into uh my remarks now. Um uh and I must say that when I was writing these remarks, I found myself pulled between anger and sadness over what we have witnessed here in Portland in this past week and at times having
019no words at all for the horror of it. Last Tuesday, our federal government began an immigration enforcement operation here in Portland. Members of our community were taken from their cars, their homes, and their workplaces by masked law enforcement and transported to unknown destinations. Some of these incidents occurred near our schools during drop off and dismissal. People taken and made to disappear without explanation. The impact was immediate and overwhelming. By Wednesday, student and staff attendance had dropped. Fear had entered our classrooms and our systems were flooded by families needing support and community members trying to help. And help they did. I want to take a moment to name the many ways that our community has shown up to protect one another. I want to thank the organizers who built a school watch infrastructure last fall after
020a parent was detained outside of their outside of our school grounds. I want to thank you to the hundreds of parents and community members who have volunteered for this school watch showing up early mornings and late evenings to ensure students can get to and from school safely. I want to thank the immigrant-led organizations working around the clock across the city to help collect families to legal services, transportation, and financial support. I want to thank the food pantries and the organizations packing and delivering thousands of boxes of food and delivering it into our community. I want to thank the lawyers who are now making house calls. I want to thank the thousands who have taken deescalation and verifier trainings and who are now putting their bodies in the line of harm. I want to thank the
021PTOs across the district who are raising funds and coordinating closely with our schools. And I um I want to thank the chair of the Minneapolis school board um who I wrongly introduced um by uh sharing hard-earned lessons um from their own prolonged surge. I'm deeply grateful to everyone who has given time, money, and love to complement the work of our district. Superintendent Scallan will speak more to this, but I want to say clearly, our staff, from custodians to educators to district leaders, have shown extraordinary care. Their commitment to our students and families is unmistakable and unwavering. Schools cannot function at their best when this kind of fear is present. Learning breaks down when children are worried about whether their parents will be home at the end of the day or whether showing up to school
022puts their family at risk. What we are seeing here in Portland is not a side effect. It is the direct result of immigration enforcement practices that destabilize families and harm children. Portland public schools is not going to look away from that reality. Our responsib responsibility is to our students full stop. We will continue to investigate and respond to enforcement activity, support families navigating fear and disruption, and work with our community to keep schools as safe as possible. But beyond systems and protocols, we will speak clearly when harm is being done to our students. We will stand with our families when fear is used as a tool. and we will continue to show up together as a district and as a community because the safety and humanity of our children demand nothing less. I'm proud of
023us, Portland. Please keep it up. And in less pressing topics, these pivots are very hard. Um the prek lottery is open right now. So, if you have a little one who is a prek age, um you should be registering for um uh that lottery. Um and I also uh I know um we had some public comment tonight around boundaries committee. Um with everything that has happened in the last uh week or so, the the report is not ready for the board yet. So, I am going to be moving that to February 10th and I promise it will be here then. Um just a reminder to all board members that we have a retreat this Friday. Please take time in advance to review the materials um and to be there at 9 um on on Friday.
024And with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the superintendent. Uh good evening everybody. Just scrolling up to my comments. Um I'm going to talk about three topics tonight. one of them previewing a topic for the board this evening. Um but first I want to just start by sharing um an update that I had sent to the community la uh on Saturday. Um and it read you may have seen that a PPS parent Michelene Numba was detained. Micheline is not only the parent in this situation but I share her name and story with her family's permission because it has already been widely reported in the news. What wasn't reported is that not only is she a mother of four, but she's also a valued member of the PPS facilities team. She's
025legally approved to work in the United States and had a background check approving her to work in schools. Her detention has hurt our community and left her children with no head of household. Within that context, our schools are doing everything possible to support her family as well as other students, families, and staff who need it. In addition to the direct assistance provided by our own staff, we're also working closely with community service providers. This includes coordinating with partners to ensure that families get the food they need and when possible that they have transportation to and from school. Uh, as board chair Lent mentioned, I just want to mention that when we think about the work of educators and what is going on in our classroom, that is a full-time job just educating. And yet what
026we're asking our educators to do now is so much more than that. And in that uh challenge, they have stepped up time and time again to do whatever is necessary. Um and there's a debt of gratitude that I think we owe them and just sincere appreciation for everything that they're doing and will continue to do. One of those pieces that we're exploring is around the question of when, if and how we need to consider any possibility of remote learning. That's a topic that we will have tonight and we're going to look at it within two very different lenses. One is recognizing that if we move to a fourth snow day uh where inclement weather prevents regular school, our plan is to have a remote learning day. And so we want to share with the board
027and receive your approval for what that remote learning would look like uh if that's necessary based on weather. The other scenario is about what we would need to do to support learning for students who don't feel safe attending school. And if that were to go on for a prolonged amount of time in the current uh enforcement environment in which we're living, I share that to say that we live in a world right now where we're wrestling with two bad solutions, right? We're looking at a solution where a student is out of school or where remote learning um is a solution. We know based on research that whenever possible, it is in the best interest for students to be in school. Whether you think about it from social emotional aspects and being with peers to physical
028health and having access to food to the academic learning that we know is stronger when it happens to in person. it is simply better for students to be in school uh learning there. We also know that the longer remote learning happens uh if it does happen that um there are declines in academic outcomes, achievement gaps widen and students experience difficulty in social emotional challenges. We know that research shows that from um all the time that virtual learning happened within COVID. And so tonight as we go into the conversation, I'm hoping that we can go in with truly a collaborative problemolving mindset where we don't have good environment and good solutions, but we know that we need to wrestle with this. How do we provide students the best academic experience possible within this context? And how
029do we get them back to school as fast as possible? And so tonight we will have that conversation uh near the end of the agenda. The third topic that I just want to share about is the uh an update that um happened several months ago. Uh but now we're in a space where we can share more information. And so in the first weeks of February of 25, the district did experience a cyber incident where we've now been able to identify that we were hacked. As soon as we identified that in February, we immediately began working with experts in cyber security to ensure that our systems were as strong as possible. That's work that went on for several months um and continues now with additional layers of security that we have within our IT system. Our
030systems are now stronger and we feel secure. We also worked with outside experts to see what information was potentially accessed when that hacking took place. We're now prepared to share with individuals whose information was access. We've worked with outside experts to do that analysis and to set up both uh potential credit monitoring for individuals who may need it as well as a call center to answer any questions. For anybody whose information may have been accessed, uh they will see that a letter is going out on Friday. There's both a general letter that is going out to everybody just informing them of the situation and then if their information is accessed and there you will see guidance on next steps including um where appropriate uh either access to the call center line to get assist additional
031assistance or um to other recommendations around how to secure their uh financial information. And so that will be going out on Friday. So, just wanted to share that here tonight and answer any questions you may have about it. Thank you. >> Uh, Superintendent Scan, is that letter by email or paper? I couldn't quite tell from your remarks. >> So, the general letter that's going to everybody is electronic. The letter that is specific about information will be mailed to your house. >> Thank you. Um and up next we're going to do our committee reports. Um so the first committee um will be finance personnel and operations. Thank you chair. Um can you hear me? Yes. Super. Wonderful. Okay. Um so the finance personnel and operations committee um uh moved forward the capital improvement plan um also
032called SIP CIP um proposal uh through to the full board. So um we've had we had two different presentations from the facilities uh team going over the basically mountain of uh work that needs to be done uh across the district. um with their recommendation about what specifically to include in the capital improvement plan that needs to then move out of committee to the full board and then on to the city um for the purpose of um being included in bonding um to be able to borrow money to pay for this work. Um, so the committee voted to move that proposal forward. Um, and I believe it's on the agenda for this meeting to have the full board review, discuss, and vote on that tonight. Um, we also, um, continued the preliminary work of uh, discussing
033the fiscal year 27, the FY27 budget. So, uh, specifically what, uh, what we got a presentation on from staff was the roll forward budget from last year with staff requests and what that would look like purely for discussion purposes. Um, not to say that all requests would be moving forward, but to have a discussion about what that would look like. Um, and we also got a presentation from staff about um, organizational structure, how that has evolved over time. Um and uh a little bit about you know how resources have been reallocated as as you know they need to do um relatively frequently in any large organization. Um and in terms of needed board action like I said uh we'll be voting on the um capital improvements plan proposal today. And as a heads up preview
034for um our next meeting and um ongoing meetings, we're of course going to uh continue to discuss the FY27 budget. Um our next meeting will include cabinet recommendations for um areas of investment. So moving forward from the roll forward budget with staff requests to starting to refine the conversation in terms of uh where we can really invest to improve outcomes. Thank you. >> Thank you Chair Brighten. Um is there any questions or committee chair Brighten? Okay, let me just double check online. Okay, I don't see any um questions there. Beautiful. Uh so we're going to move uh on to policy. Go ahead board member Lena. >> Thank you chair. Um so the policy committee this past month we had um presentations on two policies. The first one is a new policy to the district which
035is policy ECC temperature standards. This is in regard to um extreme temperatures too hot or too cold in within the learning facilities um and potentially within vehicles. So we had the first presentation from staff. U the policy would indicate a minimum and a maximum temperature at which investigation into fixing an issue or modifying the learning space or closing the facilities would be. Um the these issues come up uh in the beginning and the end of the school year in some buildings when it becomes too hot as well as in the summer with vehicles for summer programming. Um, and with regard to modifying the learning space, what I meant by that was if a classroom is too hot, maybe there's an air conditioned space within the building that students could be moved to. So again, the
036policy would indicate a minimum and maximum temperature. Um, so we are just starting to discuss that. Uh, another policy that we are in discussion about is policy IHBB, which is a policy that we have. It's the policy for gifted students. We're looking at a revision of this policy. We um had excuse me two presentations from Jesse Applegate and Kathy Ball at central office um to discuss how chapter 104 programming is run. Chapter 104 refers to the state's chapter on programming for gifted students. The district is hoping to move towards a universal screening process and uh we're currently piloting or the district is currently piloting a universal screening in one grade level at East End Community School. Um the committee overall seems to be in favor of the practice of universal screening but budget and staffing
037would need to be overhauled for this type of change. Um which is why the p the pilot is happening right now. Um staff is working on revising the revisions or the second revisions to the policy to make it more expansive to allow more students to have access to this type of extension work rather than focusing on the language of the policy on the practice of screening. So, it's still evolving. Um, so that's where we are with those two policies. Uh, in terms of Oh, and just to clarify, we have not voted on either of these. Um, but we will be hopefully soon. Um, with regard to needed board action, we um are looking at some policies tonight. So, those will come up on the agenda. And then at the next meeting, we will be looking
038at the proposed 2026 2027 district calendar. Any questions uh for Chair Lena? >> Yes. Go ahead. Student Representative Grant. >> Um by >> I don't know if this I think >> by like testing for 104 like a general would that mean every child would be tested to get into this program? Okay. >> Yeah. Currently the way that it's done is that students are referred by teachers um and also through their the state testing. um that's the process that's used. So it's just a limited number of students that are recommended. So the the move would be to test every student or yeah have every student be screened or considered. >> Thank you. >> Good question. Any other questions from the board? Let me just check. Okay, we're going to go to um curriculum and student success.
039Go ahead uh board member Aberman. >> Thank you, chair. We uh curriculum and student success heard from the special ed uh Jesse Applegate um and his team in reference to how things are going because last year the Portland public schools employed a DMG group to lead an expansive review of all special ed programming and it was found that the need for professional development for all members of staff who worked in special ed and with special ed students was a key finding. ing. Um the team has created and provided opportunities for the teachers, edte service providers and mental health professionals to uh achieve more depth into their knowledge, including learning about the universal design for learning, a teaching approach that provides multiple means of access to content, providing access to all learners. Based on the survey
040so far, 79% of the staff who took the uh the PD found it mostly or totally relevant to their work. While the presentation focused on specialized programs, there was information that support for students with mild to moderate disabilities, including implementing schedule software to study staffing needs, planning pilots of new programming, and updating guidance around IEPs. The bulk of the program discussion was on the specialized programs which include beach uh which helps students on the autistic spectrum. Breathe which who helps emotional and behaviorally challenged individuals. Foundation foundational life skills students who need help and instruction in very basic personal needs. and foundational academics students who need instruction in very basic numeracy and literacy skills among other content. The team uh from the networks completed their first walkthrough. We'll have another one and they observed certain um
041aspects that all students they were looking to see if all students had all staff had access to behavior plans and IEPs. if students had access to learning visuals, prefer boards, other kinds of key learning experiences, looking at pair how the pairing of students with appropriate assistance was going and the number of student absences. Overall the percent of alignment for each program was averaged and this the results were that beach achieved 90.5% breathe 87% uh foundational academics 88% and foundational uh life skills 100%. What was really known was that all staff consistently had access to key information. Um so observations in the spring will include uh specialized curriculum delivery, differential instructions and student data. IEPs was a particular concern of the findings from the review and now there will be a monthly IEP compliance report data
042uh reporting data on looking at legal timelines for IEPs and written notice accuracy of dates for future IEP meetings and evaluations and matching key state reporting data with between acuity and infinite campus. We expect to hear detailed district level data uh from the group u at the next committee presentation. Family engagement of course is critical and to student success in all areas but it's most so even more so with special ed. Um they have district has hosted two parent universities so far and one more to come on various basic aspects of uh the special ed programming and also has be the district has begun process to establish a parent advisory committee. There's nothing that the board needs to act on tonight and next time we'll be discussing uh school climate and a middle school initiative.
043>> Wonderful. Um any questions for uh Chair Oper on this? Just double checking Zoom. Okay, I see no one there. Okay. Um and then up next we have uh public and legislative affairs um which I chair. Um the last meeting uh in this month was just focused on bill tracking and understanding what bills were coming into the state house and any action that we wanted to uh take on those bills. Uh we also uh got finalized dates for um community engagement this spring. Believe there's five different dates, a mixture of during the day, in the evening and online uh to hopefully get as many community members uh involved as possible. Uh so those will be communicated out uh soon and also the action that we uh need from the board on that is to just
044watch your calendars um and to be able to join those as much as possible. And then one other note about the committee is we have added additional Monday night meetings on the off weeks of committees uh just to go through the bill tracker to make sure we aren't missing an important bill. So you'll see those uh start to be on the the calendar uh next week, right? Yes. Any questions about public and legislative affairs? Okay. Um and then uh last committee is our ad hoc committee uh that has been formed to work on the RFP for uh the equity audit/investigation um that is upcoming and um chair or vice chair Bondo chairs that committee but in uh in her absence uh uh board member Brighten is going to uh give us the update. Thank you,
045chair. Uh yes, we had our first meeting uh at the beginning of which we elected Mickey Bondo as chair of the committee. Uh we uh had a discussion about uh committee member and staff collaboration um specifically around committee members really um determining the scope of the work that's needed um by an external firm and um making sure that we're tracking along with the content of the December res resolution um and and uh talking about how staff can then assist us with the mechanics and process of putting that into the format of an RFP. um and publishing that and and sort of uh helping to um helping to support us as we move through that process. Um had some preliminary discussion about the selection process itself. Um factors to include things like that. Um and at
046our next meeting, what we're going to be doing is the members of the committee will be taking um we'll be bringing to the conversation uh specific items that we each as individual committee members would like to see in the scope of work um that ends up in the RFP. We're going to be bringing those basically three lists of um essentially wish list items that we would like to see accomplished by the external firm. um compare and contrast those lists and um and have a discussion about which ones should make their way into the RFP scope of work um so that it can move along through the process um and uh be incorporated. I'd be happy to take any questions. >> Great. Any questions uh on this? Um I am just curious if you um maybe
047early I know you've only had one meeting but if you have a timeline that you're working on yet. >> Not at this time. >> Okay. Any other questions and just one other question. If a board member wanted to give uh if have if they have follow-up questions or wanted to give uh input uh how would they do that? Should they come to the meeting or reach out to you directly? Um I mean I think that you know uh attending a meeting is always uh I don't want to speak for uh Vice Chair Vonda who's chairing the committee but I um would say attending the meeting is always uh uh a welcome thing to do um or reaching out uh by email um you know uh one-on-one to avoid um uh the meeting notice rule uh
048issues. But yeah, I I think generally um the modes of uh communication that we already use um would be great. >> Perfect. Thank you. Uh board member Brighten. Uh up next we have the report of the secretary. Uh so we're going to have the consideration action to approve the meeting minutes of January 13th, 2026. Are there any corrections to those meeting minutes? Okay, I see none. Um so uh there are no corrections. So the minutes are approved as distributed and then we have uh personnel tonight. Good evening. I'm going to do personnel real quick. We have one individual up on personnel tonight. Um Jeff Bernap who is transitioning from being an assistant principal at Dearing to being a science teacher at Moore. Uh Jeff has been unbelievably gracious in his leadership at dearing over uh
049their transition as they've gone through leadership um and was ready to step back into a classroom. And so tonight you will vote on and um approve that position. >> Thank you, Superintendent Scallan. Uh is there a motion for the consideration and action to approve the personnel items election of teacher candidate uh probationary? Thank you board member Brighten. Is there a second? Board member Operman. Uh, are there any questions from the board toggling back and forth on my Chromebook and it's just a little bit of a different skill. So, apologies for my delay here. Um, any uh any general discussion by the board? We don't take public comment on personnel items. Um, so then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve the personnel items election
050of a teacher candidate probationary. Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Member Ali Ali, >> yes. >> Member Ali, >> yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo. Member Brighten, >> yes. >> Member Lena, >> yes. >> Member No, >> yes. >> Member Upper, >> yes. >> Member Sautell, >> yes. Student Representative Grant, >> yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. >> Student Representative Muhammad, >> yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien, >> yes. >> Chair Lent, >> yes. So, that motion is approved. Uh, and then up next, we have uh old business. Uh, so up first, we're going to have the consideration and action to approve changes to policy AAA, which is harassment, discrimination, and sexual harassment of students. I'm not sure, Dr. Warren, if you want to speak to this uh motion. >> Uh no, I don't
051have any comments unless people have questions. >> And as a reminder, this is a uh policy that was worked on in the policy committee, came to the board, was referred back to the committee, and is now um back with lots of um u amendments. So, is there a motion for the consideration and action to approve changes to policy ACA, harassment, discrimination, and sexual harassment of students? Thank you, board member Ali. Is there a second? Thank you, board member Operman. Are there any questions from the board on this motion? Do you have a question? Yeah, go ahead. Um, I would just like to ask if somebody could summarize the policy. >> Yeah. Um, Dr. Warren, would um are you able to pull it up at all or if you wanted to just >> see it or
052do you want to um just have me and give you a summary of what we >> A quick explanation is fine. >> Yeah. Um so ACA is the policy specific to students and we're about to do ACAB which is related to employees and it deals with uh harassment, discrimination and sexual harassment and uh the primary changes that were made to this one were related to the um required changes. So as each administration has come and gone, they slightly shift the definition of um uh harassment and sexual harassment within the law. And so uh we have to kind of tweak some of the language to address that. Um and then the reason it went back to the policy committee from the board last time was because uh there was a recommendation uh through public comment to
053change um some language in the policy u essentially the and it was adopted um and came forward to the board here and went to so this this is the second read. It was first read last meeting. Um, and it has uh updated language that essentially um insists that the the staff will put the link for the harassment and reporting form, harassment and and discrimination reporting form will be online available. Um, it is already, but this now states that officially through policy. Um and that reinforces uh an option for people to informally report not just formally report these types of incidents. Thank you. Um so at this point I would be looking for any public comment on this policy and if you are on Zoom and would like to give public comment you can raise your
054hand. Okay. So I don't see any public comment. Going to close public comment. Um is there any general discussion uh from the board on this motion? Okay. Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve changes to policy ACA, harassment, discrimination, and sexual harassment of students. Uh Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Member Ali Ali. >> Yes. >> Member Yuster Ali. Yes, >> Vice Chair Bondo. >> Member Bryen. >> Yes. >> Member Lena. >> Yes. >> Member No. >> Yes. >> Member Upperman. >> Yes. >> Member Sautell. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Grant. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. >> Student Representative Muhammad. >> Yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Lent. >> Yes. Uh, so that motion, um, actually
055before I say that, um, could you repeat board member No's vote? I did not hear it. Uh, member No, I did not think she was on. Is she there? >> She's here. Okay. >> Board member No, how did you vote? >> Yes. Okay. >> I apologize. >> Perfect. I just saw her picture flash up, but not the sound. So, uh, that passes unanimously. Um, and then we have uh uh, as Dr. Warren referenced, we now have the version of this policy uh that is for school employees. So, it is the consideration and action to approve changes to policy ACAB, harassment, discrimination, and sexual harassment of school employees. Um, is there anything that you wanted to say before I asked for a motion, Dr. Warren? >> Uh, it's essentially the exact same language. It's just, uh,
056all about employees instead of students. >> Great. Uh, so is there a motion for the consideration and action to approve the changes to policy AAB? Thank you. board member Yusur Ali. Is there second board member Lena? Um, are there any questions from the board? Board member Brighten. Go ahead. >> Thank you, chair. I just have a quick question. Um, I'm in the public side of board docs and the red lines document doesn't have any red lines, so I'm wondering if the the file name is Hold on. Let us all look. And Dr. Warren, I feel like you might be best suited to answer this. Yeah. Hold on. Let me take a look at what's what got uploaded. Yeah, it looks like the uh the version that got uploaded is a not redline redline version. Um
057so if you would like I can um quickly find the redline version and upload that. Um I think as long as it gets uploaded um that would I don't think that we necessarily need to um have it like in um like linkable at this moment. Um is it possible maybe to share a screen just so we can visually quickly see um what the changes are? >> Yeah, >> super second. And I guess that my follow-up question would be are the changes material like functionally very similar to the red lines in the previous >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Exactly. >> Super. >> Um >> that's very helpful. >> Hold on a second. Okay, I have it in front of me. I'm just going to um log on to the meeting so that I can project. Okay.
058Um, so again this is I just want to be clear this is the same as it was in the first read. So nothing has changed um between first and second read. Um and the primary changes are um under this definition uh title nine sexual harassment and again this is exactly the same as um under the ACA which you just approved. Um and then scrolling down further uh this is where the amendment was made by the committee. Um that was recommended through public comment. >> Thank you Dr. Warren. Thank you chair. And I I'll go ahead and upload it as well to uh diligent now. I apologize for that. >> And that's okay. Um thank you for that. Um so is there any public comment on this um uh motion? Okay, I'm not seeing any hands
059in Zoom or here in the room. So I'm going to go ahead and close public comment. Any general discussion from the board? Okay. Uh then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve changes to policy ACAB, harassment, discrimination, and sexual harassment of school employees. Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? Member Ali Ali, >> yes. >> Member Ysra Ali, >> yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo. Member Briden, >> yes. >> Member Lena, >> yes. >> Member No, >> yes. Member Opperman, >> yes. >> Member Sautell, >> yes. >> Student Representative Grant, >> yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. >> Student Representative Muhammad, >> yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien, >> yes. >> Chair Lent, yes. So, that motion passes uh unanimously. Um, up next, we have
060the consideration and action to approve changes to policy GB, uh, staff conduct with students. Uh um Dr. Warren, would you like to speak to this? >> Uh well, this is a a new policy that um we are really needing to create as a district because we don't have it yet and it's already cross-referenced in policy ACA. Um it is a gap. Um, most districts do have a policy like this that governs uh staff conduct. And uh the committee, the policy committee uh took what was a um a sort of basic draft from the legal team um what they call a model policy and then spent several meetings um adapting it and editing it to make it more Portland sort of oriented. Um there was uh a fair amount of feedback from um school and district
061leaders. Uh a little bit of feedback from uh one family at least who had reached out um with an interest in this particular policy. Um so those things sort of went in and helped shape the current version. >> Thank you, Dr. Warren. Um I uh um because we have gotten a lot of feedback about this, but we also have not um I haven't seen any board members circulate any feedback or um amendments at this point. A lot and that we did have a lot of feedback that has come in in the last 24 hours. I would like to make a motion to table this to the February 10th uh meeting. Um uh so that is is my motion that is on the floor. Um, is there um a second? Thank you, board member Operman. Um,
062are there any questions from the board on um that motion? >> When we come back, will it be a second read or a first read? >> It would be a second read still. Um, it would just be um I would hope that uh someone on the board will make amendments based on the feedback that we have been receiving. Yeah, thank you for that clarifying question. Um, any other questions from the board? Um, any public comment on the motion? Okay, I don't see any public comment. Um, so I'm going to close that. Any general discussion from the board on that? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> I think it's a good idea. >> Thank you, board member Aberman. I think um one of the things that are two of the things that I have been hearing in
063the comment that are commonalities that I think we just need to look at uh language because I think people are interpreting uh kind of like the intention differently than we had in committee. So I think some language changes around um what it means to refer students to social workers or counselors and kind of like the issues that they should be talking about with um other staff versus uh social workers and counselors. And then I also think that there was a lot of question about the one-on-one pieces um with uh staff and how that would work or not work. And um just really want to acknowledge that um you know there and Superintendent Scallan said this earlier, there is so much on everyone's plates right now um that I think any kind of uh you know
064change or big change like this, we really have to think about um uh the words and getting getting them right. So, um I don't know if anybody is interested in working on an amendment. Um board member Lena is and maybe Okay. Um board member Sautell. Um so we'll be looking out um for some amendments from you on what we've been hearing. Um uh then by roll call vote, we're going to um take a vote on the consideration action to table this second read of policy GB to February 10th. Uh Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? Member Ali Ali. >> Yes. >> Member User Ali. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo. Member Brighten. >> Yes. Member Lena. >> Yes. >> Member Noir. >> Yes. >> Member Operman. >> Yes. >> Member Sautell. >> Yes.
065>> Student Representative Grant. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. Student Representative Muhammad, >> yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien, >> yes. >> Chair Lent, >> uh, yes. So, that motion passes and we'll take this up again, uh, on February 10th. Um, and then the final piece of old business we have tonight is around, uh, the consideration action to approve the capital improvement plan. Um, so I'm not sure if there's anybody that wants to speak to that. >> Um, we have no additional uh, information. um except that the board should have seen in its board update a brief blurb um answering the ADA question and projects there. So if that is something that the board wants to have an open discussion, we can certainly invite our director of facilities Tamara Sweeney to come up. Uh but
066otherwise um it's the same information that was presented last time. >> Thank you. I I have a question. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to ask now or wait until after the motion is on the >> um I think you can ask now and then I can >> super it's a it's a staff question. So, um the materials that are here um seem to be the same presentation that um moved through committee. And I believe I remember um in the committee conversation some discussion about making some of the items a little bit more generic and less tied to location and more like HVAC across the district versus HVAC in a particular building. Um, so I'd like some clarity around are we voting on what the materials reflect um in the here or are we voting
067on the more highle generic version of that? >> I think the one spot where there was the real generalization was around HVAC. >> Um, if you wanted to propose a change, we could certainly look at it. Um what the city wants and they do the CIP with us is they want to be able to have a general and then in backup documentation more specifics so that the the bulk of the projects would be in this uh the details. So happy to do that if you're interested in making that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um so then I'll go ahead and ask for a motion and then we can always make amendments if needed. So would there be a motion for the consideration and action to approve the capital improvement plan? Board member Brighten.
068Is there a second? Board member Upperman. Um, are there any questions from the board on the motion um on the floor? Um, my only question and my brain has been intaking a lot of information in the last week, so I apologize if I'm misremembering, but was there an additional expense that was named in the board update that may need to be brought up as an amendment in this or am I making that up? >> Yeah. Director Sweeney, do you want to speak to that? >> No, that's okay. >> Repeat the question. >> Yes. I I thought that in the last board update I saw that there was um a new expense around a roofing something that we needed to potentially think about in this CIP. I I could have I've been having lots of vivid
069dreams lately. I could have made it up. $200,000. >> Is that already in >> It's in it. Okay. Can we double check? If I need to be more specific about which roof I mean um hold on one second I can also pull it up >> link >> damination it it was $200,000. I remember that. I just want to make sure that it's included and not um that we needed to make an amendment. Board member Upperman. It's >> It is It's the replacement of the gym roof which delaminated. Is that the one the only roof in there? >> No, this was different. This was different. >> Portland High School. >> Um, >> yes. It's recommended. Um, sorry, we should have caught this before. It's recommended that the district-wide HVAC system requests move from 2 million to
070$2.2 million. >> Oh, yeah. That was Yes, that that is not included in this original presentation. That was just an additional ask if you wanted to include that in Yes. >> Okay. So, could we could we read out again what that is is for that extra money because I think it would be up to us to add that as an amendment. >> I don't have that in front of me. >> So, I'll do it real quick. Um Portland High School has um an issue with their boiler system smoke stack. Uh it's in a vert it's a vertical exhaust system that safely vents boiler combustion gases above the roof line ensuring proper system operation indoor air quality and code compliance. Uh it's significantly corroded and deteriorating. Um and so there is a potential $200,000 addition to
071include that in the HVAC project. >> Question board member Brighton. >> Yeah, I do have a question. So, I am curious about staff's recommendation in terms of whether to deal with that as part of the generalization of the HVAC line item versus changing it from a 5.7 million to a 5.9 million to add it in specifically. And I'd be curious about what your recommendation would be on that. I know the general fund kind of takes into account some of the other needs that we already had. So adding that in would then take away from some of those other needs. >> Okay. Other questions from board members questions? >> Yes. Board member Sautell. >> I'm just looking at the sort of the timeline of what says milestone. Um what happens what happens next? It goes to
072the city council. >> Oh, it would go to the city finance um committee and um that's when they discuss all the projects from all the different city departments including ours. Then it will go to city council. >> Is there any chance they're going to >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I should finish. Why don't you finish your sentence? >> No. How is there any chance they're going to amend it? Deny it. So they they have the opportunity to I believe it's the same way as the budget that they um can just say yes or no um and then if they say no then we have to um try again uh basically which we would like to avoid. But I I also think that we need to ask for these like building envelope things um that are
073you know keeping our students safe, dry and warm as uh much as we can. >> Yes. Board member Brighton. >> Thank you so much. So two two things I just want to like make sure that everybody is uh aligned in terms of the convers it's not asking for funding it's asking for the ability to borrow money right and um the other thing that I and I think this is a staff question but I would uh appreciate both for like board general awareness and community awareness for anybody who's watching this recorded meeting um at a later date um just a a quick um couple sentences on if we were to add to change it from 5.7 million to 5.9 million. What that does financially? What what is the financial and fiscal implication to that? the um
074when you think about it from a increase every $100,000 addition is around uh 078%. >> So it is not adding onetenth of a percent, it's adding about threequarters of a tenth of a percent on the tax increase. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, just to give this like in context terms, if the ask was for 5.9 million, uh that's $463,000. Uh yeah, on the on the Sorry, I messed up my numbers here. Um I got to think back. The original debt service on this was >> 451410. >> Yeah. So, it'll go up um to a little under six $100,000 a year. It'd be between five and $6 $100,000. We can do the quick math to tell you exactly what it was. >> Okay. Um, and if the $200,000 investment is not made at Portland High School,
075like what what sort of implications would there be to allowing that HVAC to fail? >> Those can't be good answers, right? Like I think we're talking smoke stacks in the HVAC system, right? >> Yeah. >> Uh, it's a need. It's a It's a need. >> It needs to They really want us to do it now. >> Okay. >> That's how big of a need it is. >> Thank you. >> That's helpful. Thank you. >> Any other questions right now from board members about smoke stacks student representatives? No. Um is there any um public comment on this? Okay, I'm seeing none. Um >> can I correct math for the record? >> Yes, please. had my decimal point off in my head when I was doing this. Um, it makes it about $467,000. I had my decimal
076point off one when I did the math there. Um, and so it is about a $16 ask when you amateurize it over the 20 years >> per year. >> So, do we need to do a motion to amend the Okay. >> Yes. And that would happen in this next session next section which is any general discussion by the board. I would like to put forward a motion to increase the capital improvement plan by $200,000. Uh which would be a total of $5.9 million. Uh ask and that extra $200,000 would be in the HVAC line. Uh is there a second on that motion? Thank you, board member Briden. Um any questions on that motion? Any public comment on that motion? Any discussion from the board on that motion? Then by roll call vote, can we please
077uh take a vote on the amendment um for this is just amending the motion and then we will vote on the total uh motion um overall. But Dr. Warren, can you please call the role uh for the uh consideration action to increase the capital improvement plan by $200,000 on the Hback uh line item? Uh, sorry, chair. Before we move to the vote, can you tell me who the uh >> I motioned >> you were the Okay. >> Right. And seconded. >> I apologize. I was having to create a new column. >> No, I know that's okay. >> Um, all right. So, the consideration and action uh to approve a $200,000 increase in the HVAC line item uh for a total of $5.9 million in the capital improvement plan. Dr. Warren, will you call the role?
078Member Ali Ali. >> Yes. >> Member Yusur Ali. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo. >> Member Brighten. >> Yes. >> Member Lena. >> Yes. >> Member no. >> Yes. >> Member Opperman. >> Yes. >> Member Sautell. >> Yes. >> Member Grant. Uh, sorry. Student Representative Grant. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. >> Student Representative Muhammad. >> Yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Chair Lentz. Yes. So the motion on the floor is amended. So now we um we would be uh doing the same thing again on the amended motion which So now the uh consideration and action to approve the capital improvement plan which is at now $5.9 million. Um is there a motion for that? Thank you board member Brighten. Is there a second? Thank you board member Yusur Ali. Um, any
079questions from the board on this amended motion? Okay. Any public comment? Any general discussion from the board? Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration action to improve the capital improvement plan as amended to $5.9 million. Uh, Dr. W, will you please call the role? Member Ali. Ali. >> Yes. >> Member Yura Ali. >> Yes. Vice Chair Bondo. Member Brighten. >> Yes. >> Member Lena. >> Yes. >> Member No, >> yes. >> Member Operman. >> Yes. >> Member Sautell. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Grant. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. >> Student Representative Muhammad. >> Yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Chair Lent. >> Yes. So, the capital improvement plan as amended uh passes. Thank you very much. Um, up next we have uh new
080business which um as I mentioned in my remarks um we're going to postpone the boundary committee uh to the next meeting. Um and then we have um uh the remote learning uh presentation. >> Thank you for that. I'm going to invite up Dr. Cheryl Proctor, Dr. Angela Atinson Dwina, and Dr. Abdullah Ahmed uh to present. >> Good evening everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with you um to share some information. Um so thank you to the board of education for hearing our presentation this evening. uh as an overview, we want to share about uh the planning of instruction and support um in a couple of different modalities. So, we're going to do an overview. I'll do the overview and then you'll hear from Dr. Atkinson Aduina uh the elementary emergency remote learning plan and
081then you'll hear from Dr. Amed uh who will present the secondary school's virtual learning plan. Next slide. All right. So, there are two conditions that we're going to be speaking about this evening. And so, um it's two condition conditions for which we will consider either virtual uh or remote learning. The first is regarding future snow days. As uh Dr. Scallan shared earlier, we have uh reached our third uh snow day as of yesterday for the year and at the point where we need to embark on a fourth snow day day. Um you know, we will be looking at moving to remote learning. Uh this is in an effort to continue student learning in the in the event of future snow days as we've had um a a full and robust winter so far. Uh the
082other condition is also individual student um non-attendance. Uh so in the light of recent uh local immigration enforcement activities in the area, we've seen student absences increase significantly and that's across um a number of our elementary schools and also our secondary schools. So we are looking at the need for an alternative option uh for learning for these students once we understand clearly um and who the students are what their needs are and develop a contingency plan for them. Next slide. So the plan for uh the snow days is pretty clear. Um we know what we need to do uh in the elementary uh sector. We will have uh snow day packets that will be um that have already gone out uh to our schools to our families. And uh in the event that we have
083a snow day, we will give um you know schools and leaders and teachers will give uh information and direction to families on how they can engage with their students uh with the learning that is designed in the packet for each snow day. In the secondary, we're going to go look at going straight to uh virtual learning through uh Google classrooms where uh schools all Google classrooms would be up to date schoolwide. Students will experience live instruction with materials available um in Google classroom. So they will have the option of having the teacher uh presenting live instruction and also engaging remotely in a full uh virtual learning setting. Next slide. And so in general uh the thresholds have been set uh for looking at the increase. Then when we talk about our students who have increased
084absences and so the threshold and factors are as follows. Um, you know, we will look at and monitor student attendance uh to try to understand which students have uh kind of slowed down on their attending of school, especially since uh January 20th. We will uh do a cross reference of the data for their attendance uh to make sure we understand exactly who the students are, understand their needs. We'll have social workers, uh, school leaders, uh, the multilingual team engaging and reaching out to the families. And then we'll decide define uh, clearly what the family need is. If it's something that we could resolve um, within our capacity as school to support our families, we will. If it's something like transportation or uh they're not feeling safe sending their child to walk or or bus stops
085or something like that, we will try to do the best that we can. But in the event that it's something uh that goes a little bit beyond that, we will pivot pivot to offer um the family and the student an alternative modality for learning. Next slide. And you know really we are it's about us being a community that wants to respond uh to our families during a critical time. And so we are collaborating, we are working with uh other agencies, our PTOs um and we all at the same time we also want to uh establish some routines uh where we're maintaining the learning uh in the school environments but also demonstrating that we're willing to pivot and to do what we can to support our families. Next slide. And so um our remote learning plan
086is just a demonstration of that responsiveness. Um while we are there are some limitations, we do know and Dr. Scallan spoke about it earlier that there is some research that definitely says that remote learning is not the best option. Uh but in the light of of doing uh nothing or not having another option at all, it is better um than that. Right? So we want to at least extend an opportunity uh continue to support our families. It really is going to be uh focused on you know ensuring that we could get the students in school for inschool learning as best as possible. Uh but in the emergency um mode you know provide that remote learning um and also um you know where we can you know demonstrate that we are working again with our families.
087We know what the evidence indicates in terms of learning loss that will happen. um and any social emotional um you know uh stress that our students may face. Uh but we know that the best place for our students to be is in our schools and where we will work diligently to ensure that they are there in our schools as best as possible with support uh we are willing to pivot as well. Next slide. So, uh, for this meeting, uh, you'll you'll we're really going to ask the consideration, uh, we recommend that the board, uh, approve the learning, uh, remote learning, um, as a course of action for our future snow days. Uh but then offer us some feedback to the contingency learning plan that will that we are looking at um for students who individual
088students who have increased absenteeism due to heightened uh local activities as we monitor student attendance um and look at their trends over the next couple of weeks. So the following slides, you know, will present the elementary plan and the secondary plan for such a case. And so at this time I'm going to uh turn it over to Dr. Akisanduina and then uh after that you will hear from Dr. Amed. >> Good evening chair and members of the board. Um you can go to the next slide Dr. Scallan and the next one. Thanks for having me here. Um, first I just want to talk to folks about uh what we're seeing as the impacts right now um on our student absenteeism. So uh you can see that 6.49% uh was the average daily absenteeism rate across
089the district up through January 16th. Um then um 14.02% 14.82% 18.42% 42% and 17.55% was the average were the average daily absenteeism rates for each of our school days last week, January 20th through the 23rd. Um, at the elementary level, different elementary schools saw absenteeism rates ranging from from 5.24% to 32%. Um the talking to elementary school leaders about what they were seeing on the ground with those absences, what they were seeing is that many of the absences for students were intermittent absences. So students might be there for a day or two and then not and then come back. So we are seeing that. Uh and then we do have some students that have been out continuously. uh in some places uh we have been able to find fi like finding rides to school or
090walking school bus arrangements have helped to get students back in school. So, I was at Lysath earlier today and um the principal Lorie Cludier was telling me about her and um the assistant principal and some teachers have already created a walking school bus in that neighborhood to help um get students um to school and that does seem to be helping some families. uh still most of our schools are seeing increased absenteeism rates requiring us to consider our options. So our next slide, our contingency plans have attempted to address the current reality uh and identify options if required. Um we as a team, elementary team like the network team but also with school leaders wanted to identify certain principles um knowing what we know about um emergency remote learning. Uh we had that experience in the
091early days of the pandemic and so given what we what if you know what you know you should do better like the next time. So, um, we do think it's important to maintain a highquality in-person learning environments for as many students as possible. And so, we are concentrating our efforts on that. We also want to avoid impacting all teachers in the system if if possible. So, if there were a need to go to remote learning, we would instead design to meet the need and have a a separate cohort. Uh we do want to be responsive to community needs at this moment while also keeping in mind the relevant evidence um that we know about um emergency remote learning and the developmental needs of young children u um at the elementary level. So we can go
092to the next um slide. Enrollment in elementary emergency remote learning cohorts would be based on attendance and need. So currently uh this week administrators are reviewing recent attendance records and focusing on students who have missed three or more days of school recently. At this stage our goals are to identify and remove barriers as well as to collect information about possible needs uh for safe transportation and technology access at home. So that's we're in information um collecting um stage right now. We also have our student support teams work with families to address the possible barriers and where possible connect families to res to resources. If barriers to attendance cannot be resolved and absences continue. Um we are suggesting three consecutive the student is added to a list in the event that emergency an emergency remote learning
093cohort is established and also if a student has an IEP an IEP meeting would be called before we went into remote learning. Um we are talking u for the next slide um having schools we want them to be able to deliver consistent coordination documentation and instructional support where we to move into our contingency plans. Uh we have a would have a planning team that would support the work of cohorts um which would include instructional and instructional coach culture and climate coordinator, social worker, special education teacher, uh network support, a prek lead, tech support, and ESOL educator. Um all um people in all of those roles have contributed to some of our um plans. We also would need schools to maintain school specific enrollment and staffing information, implementation plans and communication with educators and families. We
094do have some, you know, available supports within our system including uh Google Meets um or recorded teacher videos that could be used. Uh we have would have the ability to engage in family uh check-ins or v virtual drop-in sessions. many um of our school student support teams are already engaged in checking in with families regularly. We also have um approved tools such as boost which is a reading intervention uh program um and then also other standard curriculum material CLA elev. Um so I just want to notice we've talked about um many of you know the do we have the capacity to move into that? I would say we do have the capacity if that's the direction I um given the research on particularly how um the challenges at elementary level. I think it's something to
095be taken um very seriously and with some uh reservations. Um, and then I just want to recognize we haven't really talked a little bit very much about the challenges. I think this would require kind of reassignment of some staff to the dedicated cohorts um and um just an additional layer of trying to run two different school systems um um during that time period. So, thank you for Good evening everyone. Tonight I'm here to uh share with you uh the secondary uh school virtual learning plan and with me tonight are some uh school leaders as well as the directors at the network level. So Miss Json is here and others are online or virtual and they will uh join us if there is there are needs or there are questions that they need to answer. Next.
096So I wanted to spend a moment grounding us in what we see at the secondary level with the attendance right now because uh it really helps us explain a lot of the things uh that the schools are experiencing. At the middle school level, the average daily attendance uh was about uh before u January 16th, it was 4.7%. And the first week of uh first two weeks of January, it became 6.9 about 7%. But last Thursday and Friday, this number jumped to 19.4%. which means one in five students uh at the middle school level was absent. At the uh high school level uh the average daily attendance uh was about uh 10.8 8 or 11% uh before the first uh until January 16th uh and uh the first two weeks of uh January it jumped to
09712% and the last Thursday and Friday this number became 21.7% which again is more than uh one in five students uh in every class uh you know in in every school. Uh this data is just for all second for all high schools and or middle schools but there are differences in different schools and this data can be segregated. A principal actually shared with me that the student uh called and said uh if I come to school on my way I'm scared that I will be abducted and if I make to school I'm also uh uh I I'm sure that I will not be able to learn because I'll be worried about my parents and my other family members. So uh that's very troubling and and that student who said if I make to school I'm
098not be I will not be able to learn and if I stay if and on my way something may happen to me. Next. So, uh we use a virtual option learning plan uh when students experience absences due to the current context. And uh a virtual option learning plan will be made available to specific students with increased absences since January 20th. And it's and also it will be checked with uh the schools so that we will make sure that this is impacted by the uh current context or increased uh enforcement activities. The goal is to uh to make sure that there is a seamless transition uh to a virtual learning that maintains uninterrupted access to uh the curriculum and uh due to the absences of the current context and the students will learn virtually while also
099they will remain part of their classes. So it's not creation of another class but there will be accommodations so that they can still access their classes. The district will maintain the ability to provide both in person as well as the virtual learning options for students due to the uh circumstances. Next Dr. Scott. So every virtual option learning plan will include a clear and shared features. So some of these uh shared features will uh uh making priority uh learning accessible to all students. Learning expectations will continue while responding to the needs of the students. All Google classrooms will be up to date uh so that the students will have access to uh the materials and each student has or will have a designated point person a shared virtual uh plan that accessible to all the relevant
100staff and uh also a regular check-ins with uh social workers or and uh school counselors. Next, the schools will deliver consistent uh coordination, documentation, and instructional support. So each school maintains a tracking record, a spreadsheet link to the student plans, a director of the Google classrooms for all the school uh courses and a school specific implementation plans and communication will also follow. specific education uh uh special education teams will uh make sure that we are following and students are receiving their IEP plans and uh with the required surfaces and available support will include a real time uh which will be in a Google uh meets or recorded teacher uh videos uh office hours and virtual dropins uh for uh to uh access your teachers. or the teachers and uh also some other resources including Lakia
101Khan Academy and other uh created videos and materials and the collaboration and support for the schools will be available paired with weekly reflections uh to monitor uh and adjust plans. Next is time for questions and discussions. Great. Um, board member Lena, go ahead. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation. Um, this is a question for all three of you. I think anyone can take it. I'm just wondering for clarification. So, the plan for elementary school would be to create a cohort of virtual learners and essentially a virtual school, but for the secondary it would be each individual student is continuing to access their own schedule and their own classes. So it's all based on individual student need. Um this contingency again is is really to mitigate our students who are demonstrating high
102levels of absences at this time. And then so where we see like for example and I'll have uh Dr. Atson uh Duina helped me with this but where we see at a particular school site a number of students it could be five 10 we'll have a designated teacher to to ensure that they're able to work with kind of like that point of contact would you like to elaborate um so I think there are kind of two levels of plans at the elementary level the technology access is not as extensive as you have at the secondary level just to you know they are uh taking home computers daily. So if we were we can we do not have right away the capacity to have like a fullon um remote learning like you saw in CO at
103the elementary level just um right now they are focusing at the secondary level to make sure that they have enough hotspots um and things like that for families. So they have focused that on the secondary level. It would take time if we wanted to implement that kind of synchronous learning like folks saw during the pandemic for a cohort. What we could what we feel like we would be able to do is host like morning check-ins for families, afternoon check-ins either remotely on like a meets or by phone depending on the access that the family has right now. and then using our current resources to have packets or things that they would be able to work on with support at home. So if um so anyway, so it would not be like a full-on classroom setting
104like you said unless it were we we would need more time to prepare for something like that and to get our families ready for that. Our families also don't know like they're they don't have to manage the technology in the classroom like a teacher does. An elementary student often needs support. So it would also require you know that requires some kind of assistance at home which we're not it's not clear that you know that would take a lot longer to get ready for. >> Other questions from the board within um board member Satel. Go ahead. >> Okay. I feel like I need to preface this by saying I'm mostly talking about snow days and things like that. I get really excited about virtual school and online learning. I have a master's degree in that. I
105loved teaching remotely during um the pandemic. My daughter would correct me because the pandemic is still going on. But anyway, um so I'm going to ask a whole bunch of questions. I I worry that people think I'm being critical. I'm really just curious and excited. Um I've been recommending since 2007 in this district that we maintain a constant cohort of teachers and um students who might be accessing online learning through other organizations. Um and then to make those teachers and students sort of the point people should we need to expand for a snow day or you know some other emergencies. So um I'm just curious these are questions about the elementary program. Um how would you how would we now I'm talking about snow days. How would we measure whether or not elementary students participated?
106like what if they came back and didn't do any of the packet. Um, so I'm I'm going to just tell you I I did spend a good at least some point in my professional career career as a educator in an online learning setting and I think we should you know recognize that that setting that many of us have become comfortable with and a you know as professionals and adult learners um is a planned intentionally designed curriculum for online learning. that that is a really different setting than emergency remote learning which is what um we what we would have to be doing right now. So I think it's it's just important to distinguish between those two because they really are not the same and um I think you know the discussion about should we have an
107online you know option for students is great for another time like to dig into that deeply. Um but right now what we're talking about is the remote learning. So if you're talking what we do for snow days, I can talk I can address that. We do send packets home. We ask students to bring those packets back. We ask teachers to make a you know good effort to collect the packets and that that is how we connect. We we um you know have mark our attendance. If families do not if those don't come back um then it's marked as an excused absence. Uh I think in this setting we'd again do our best efforts. I think attendance would be different in a contingency emergency remote learning situation where we would be trying to have check-ins like
108the virtual check-ins or a phone check-in. And in that case, I think we would move to having those be the attendance um markers to see if students are part is are participating, how things are going. But it is I mean I mean the challenge of just you know counting attendance and you know are they able to engage in the work? Do they h you know there's a lot of questions which is I think one of the big challenges with remote learning in general especially at the elementary level it's just um you know hard to assess how it is going. So, >> um, and I know that's a topic for another discussion, but I I >> it bothers me that we got a lot of experience >> at that time and then we just abandoned it.
109I mean, I I think we did learn a lot. Um, what would teachers be doing on a remote snow day? Are they expected to be available? Um >> so we do have some guidance around that that um we right now it's in draft stages. I've shared it with school leaders around this is what the communication that would go out to um elementary educators. Um there is uh uh like opportunities for planning for being available um online to answer questions to engage in their regular meetings if they have a a planning meeting. So that's that's what we have developed. Um I I mean I could share it at a later time. It's right now still being it's just being finalized to go out. We haven't this is the for the last two years we have not
110had to do um go into the remote learning plans. So um but we you know we recog it is a work day and it's actually I think an opportunity to engage in some professional work and be available online in a way that most elementary educators are not able to do in a regular day. Um you know their planning time is pretty limited at the elementary level. Great. And then I had some questions about um the secondary. Okay. Um if and again I'm I'm mostly thinking about snow days. Um would a student schedule stay the same? So if if on a snow day, assuming we're using Google Classroom and Google Meets, the is the vision that the schedule would stay the same. So it's 9:00 and you click into you know algebra class etc or would
111the schedule be changed like it was? >> Uh the schedule will remain the same. >> Great. And um has there been any guidance um or discussion with students about keeping their cameras on? when I was teaching remotely, students had better results if they kept their cameras on. Um, but I know that's also a security risk because anybody talked about, you know, uh, I had a lot of students um, who worried about immigration stuff who would not turn their cameras on or would put a post-it note over the camera or whatever. Has that something that's been discussed? We did not discuss that but uh definitely we're not asking students to put their cameras on uh because of what you mentioned about uh relation to the safety. Uh one thing that u now teachers monitor or can
112monitor is that the work to be done. So the students are engaged they can monitor from the Google classroom as well >> and uh and how actively they are engaged but the cameras uh is not discussed yet but uh I could uh just knowing this context uh I wouldn't ask students to just be on the camera if they are not feeling comfortable with >> I think that guidance needs to be really clear with teachers especially if the remote option is is true for students who are not coming to school for security reasons that teachers not ask them to put their cameras on as well. I think um >> Thanks. >> Some people some people might try to insist on that and it really shouldn't be something that's done. Um >> okay. I think I've had
113I just I get really excited. So sorry. >> Thank you board member Satell. Other questions? Board member Ali Ali. >> Hey guys, thank you for uh the presentation. My question is on um confidentiality uh with with the attendance um whether it's teachers, staff or uh anybody who has the list of individuals that are not currently attending school. Um how's the confidentiality and how are you guys know how are you guys going to going to be able to contain that from uh building to building and families to families? >> So I appreciate the the question and the concern around security. So, Furpa is the federal law that restricts what information can be shared about students um and their academic records. And so, things like their attendance records would be protected under FURPA. >> Other questions from
114the board? Board member Brighton. Go ahead. Thank you, chair. Um as always, so appreciate uh all the information. Um my first question has to do with the um snow day protocols. Um it as the parent of an of elementary school uh students I I mean packets are great and um you know they're not the same as school obviously. Um I I'm hoping to better understand how much specifically at the elementary school level, how much is this like continuing the learning and how much of it is trying to get stability for the end of the year calendar? If we have, you know, three more blizzards, is it like is it 6040? How much of it is trying to be able to land the plane at the end of the year and say this is our last
115day of school? Um so I I think if we want a more robust you know elementary plan that is still doesn't rely on technology like I don't know if it's a different set of packets or updated whatever. Um I think there are definitely some improvements that we could make there. I think we've got to recognize that for the most part at the elementary level, this is a convenience factor probably for families for having some predictability in our calendar and knowing when the school year is going to end and when summer plans can start, when they can schedule camps, when they can't. So I think it is a tradeoff in terms of um learning that's not um so you know I think bringing these back up again has made us um kind of reflect on those
116plans look for ways that we might be able to improvement improve them. I don't at the elementary level given like some of the challenges with technology I don't see us doing um much in terms of synchronous activities on snow days ever just because of the technology access but you know I think there are some improvements we can make but I don't know that um I mean it hasn't been an area of focus for us because I don't think it's a high leverage um area for where we can make a lot of gains in terms of learning um so That's that's my >> No, I appreciate that. Um, and then I had uh my other question which is really just a jumble of thoughts um is more to do with the emergency uh planning which I
117so appreciate and also want to acknowledge that there is no good answer. I mean that just it's a horrible situation and there's no like oh it's this thing. No, like that's not it doesn't exist. I completely understand that. um and recognizing that we cannot get to where board member Sautell wants to be um anytime soon. I there's pros and cons for that as well. Um and recogn um I really appreciated um Dr. Atkins and Duina what you said about how many of us are accustomed to um remote learning and remote participation as adults. Um I it's definitely different from being in a a emergency setting or a school setting. Also wanting to acknowledge that even as an adult professional, it's one of the worst parts of my week is if I'm a the only remote
118participant and other people are in the room. So just acknowledging that that's really challenging as well. Um, but I wanted to get a little bit and these might be questions that haven't really, you know, been uh fully talked through, but wanted to raise them just in case or to bring them up for future conversations. Um I'm curious about so if if we move forward with emergency remote learning particularly for um secondary education for the entire district but I I I think a lot of this has to do with secondary education um specifically I'm curious if there's been thought about how long it would be offered for what the criteria would be for um both you know individual participation also is there um can we be thoughtful about we are going to continue to offer this
119until X you know those sorts of datadriven uh variables. >> Yeah. Uh thank you very much. Actually we spent some time uh in this weekend as well as on Friday talking about what this means and there are uh other aspects of teaching and learning that we did not talk about. We did not talk about assessment. We did not talk about grading. We did not talk about that long plan. Mhm. >> We're just talking about what how we respond and adapt to this immediate uh uh things that circumstances that are going on. So we will be monitoring dayto day and seeing if there are the attendance uh or the context that created the attendance is lifted and uh but this is like uh function of or contingent of what is going on and we cannot put
120a time limit but uh there are other aspects as we go if we go longer that we will be talking about like what the grading will look like what the assessments will look like how we So there are other other aspects of teaching and learning that we will be looking into but that's a >> refine it. >> Yeah we monitor and refine and evolve as needed. >> Have there been conversations also about um if for example if um other marginalized groups uh heaven forbid find um themselves needing sim. So for example, if LGBTQ students are being targeted um in the future, is that something that has been discussed in terms of potentially like continuing to monitor who is feeling unsafe? >> Yeah, the goal is like to accommodate all our students and their needs and
121make sure that they can access education. Mhm. >> So, uh yes, definitely if there are some other communities which are targeted, we will uh adopt and and we will meet the stu the needs of the students. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you, board member Ali Elli. >> Last thing, um how are you guys doing on the I mean, I don't know if you guys going to be able to answer this, but how are y'all doing on the um lunches delivery if if that's um what's Yeah, if that's what's happening um for all the students. Oh, go ahead. >> Um, I can't speak to numbers. Um, but I can say that there are combination of things going on. Uh, with support from the foundation, our we've expanded basically our opportunities
122for our social workers um, and family engagement specialists to support by getting um, Hannerford gift cards out to families. And then we're also working closely with the Cumberland County Food Security Council which has many members. Um so a lot of the organizations that you're familiar with um are are all part of that group and coordinating with each other. Um so those organizations are also available for us to call on to actually take food to families. So, it's a it's a kind of a combined effort with regular meetings, including another one today where folks are trying to make sure that there's um you know that things are streamlined and and not um chaotic, easy for families to access. >> Okay. So um I know those numbers are like staggering and um going to whether they deflate
123or inflate but um from 6% I believe into to 21% how how are they you know communicating with the the families are the families actually um contacting the schools and saying hey we're not going to be uh probably going to school for the next week and then that's how the uh the lunch um and deliveries whatever or the handover gift cards gets accommodated. Um it's a I think it's a combination um any that that can be triggered by anyone really if they see a concern but yes um I mean I think Dr. Atkinson Dwina was just talking about tracking attendance as a way to make sure that we're catching um places where there are students who are out significantly. Um but we have our our um social workers taking the lead at the school level
124on making sure that those connections get made in terms of connecting to services and our um family engagement specialists and Dr. Valenuela's team are playing an important role at the central level. They have very strong relationships with families and so they're in constant contact and identifying those needs for support and and helping ensure that that people get what they need. >> Thank you. Okay. Um yeah, just uh yeah, was just thinking about that and making sure that um it's kind of like you know that families are not being like forgotten, but thank you guys for all the work. >> Add something here. I just want to I mean I was just in many different schools today and they all have lists where right now they're starting to check to make sure that every student who
125has been absent is being checked in. Um I mean in addition to the central health a um efforts that um Sarah's speaking to I know many schools have been collecting like I know Lysath I know Talbot have been h like for food drives or even like diaper drop offs in case those are things that families need. So, um, I, you know, we don't they aren't receiving the school lunch. So, we're aware of that and trying to meet those needs through our community partners and through um, you know, the through drives at schools. Yeah. >> I mean, and I mean, it's going to be that's a lot. That's a lot. You know, if you really think about it, of 6,000 students, even if we said 10% of that would be about 600 roughly. um and um
126600 families to to drop off or 600 students to drop off foods and things like that. Are you guys do you guys have are you finding any trouble? Um or is there like a lot of uh volunteers that's supporting as well or is it >> we I think like the main effort really is coming through our community partners and then if schools find that there's a need within their community they're working individually with those families to see what the best way is to meet. Um, and just, you know, making sure to be mindful about, you know, how if staff want to help that there's a way for them to do it in a way that is manageable. So maybe somebody does picks up some groceries, maybe another person helps to organize it and another person
127takes it, you know. So we're trying to be mindful of like people can help in ways that they can. Um, that that is what some of the just examples that I saw in schools today. So, >> and I would uh just add, you know, several community organizations are pumping out thousands of boxes of food um over days and and working with tons of volunteers to get those out. So, I do think I do think your question about like are we missing anybody or is anybody not getting it is really important to hold and I I do think that there is a lot moving moving out in the community for sure. >> Um questions, board member. Yes, I'm I'm coming from an optimistic viewpoint that this will end um and knowing that things no matter what
128we do as far as an emergency setup, there will be gaps. There will be so many things that students will not get whether it's a kindergartener or a 12th grader. And I'm one, it's not something that can be solved tonight, but I really do want to keep in mind of potentials for continuing the school year for some or all just to make sure this can I know the look I'm getting from the the high school students is, you know, pointed. Um but it it or at least some kind of intense post crisis situation that we have some some backup for these people because you know they're working hard they'll their their brains will work better. So it's just something to I would like to keep in mind as we move forward. >> Can I speak
129to that real quick? Um, I think that makes a lot of sense and one of the things that we should just consider is that our summer programming is actually budgeted for in the next budget. And so it's a really good thing just as a placeholder as we go into budget season thinking about that summer school programming and any sort of response to our current environment whether it's social emotional, academic, um, both, uh, that we consider that in the budget process. Um, I had um just a a a couple of questions. Um, and I think the places that I'm still getting the sense that you're kind of figuring out is around like the thresholds of like what triggers a kid from being absent multiple days to participating in remote. Is is is that true? like that
130there isn't like a we don't have a line at the elementary at the secondary or is it clear in your mind what that threshold would be right now? >> So there are students who are already reaching out to their uh teachers or staff members and uh teachers and the staff are already starting to accommodate them. So uh and also regularly monitoring and uh school leaders are engaging and SST student support teams are engaging to look into the data and reach out to the students. So uh it could be like one student at the time and group of students at the time and looking into this as well as it could be like uh we are in that uh critical time that we can send communication and and but we are not there yet. We are
131just identifying individual students and reaching out to them and you know whether the social worker is dropping work at this at home or whether the teacher is accommodating but there are things that already are happening. >> Yes. Um I'll also add here that you know when we think about chronic absenteeism by definition in general is when you have a student that reaches you know upwards of 10 uh absences from school and now we are into the second week of this. So it really is uh an emergency mindset that we have uh to really put these contingencies in place as soon as we're able to identify the student and or family in need. So that that is that is helpful. And I think you know I'm also just like curious the fear is very real in
132our community right now and also the drive to want to fix all of these problems. And I just am curious if there are like steps that we could put in place that would have to happen before a student moved into a remote. Like we know how hard it is to get students back once they're in remote learning and like my worry I just I I want the best learning outcomes for our students. Right. So, you know, we're hearing from so many teachers and families that the getting to school and the coming home from school are really the parts that is like the most fearful and like I know that we are working with PTO's and but like are we taking those lists that you mentioned and like lining that up with what the PTO's are
133to make sure again like board member Ali Ali said that we're not missing those kids and could we you know is there a way to move money in the budget to get a specialized transportation that would like literally go and pick up kids with a PPS employee to get them safely to school or I I guess I just want to think about like you know you've talked a lot about the barriers like let's also focus on bringing those barriers down as much as we can in ways that are safe and feel right for families to get them to school. >> Absolutely. And it's kind of like a yes and yes. We want to get to that yes and yes in this entire situation and we've not really encountered this before. Uh so like someone else
134had said we're going to have uh some learning each day as we are trying to execute support and uh continue learning for children. Um but definitely we know uh that you know there are benefits of thinking forward in terms of the budget, in terms of uh recovery of learning, in terms of additional supports and um uh interventions that we could put in place uh later on to kind of uh wrap our continue to wrap our arms around our students post this scenario. >> That's that's super helpful. Um and then Dr. Dr. Amed, are you able to speak to are the secondary schools like do they have their lists ready that are starting to like monitor the consistent absences? Yes, this the team is working and and you know uh at this time it's just as
135going back to that question is just meeting the the students where they are and uh also identifying the resources which are available and this is this option will be part of the resources that or the accommodations that are available but as you said like identifying these community resources >> and the supports that are available is one of the things uh that to offer the communities to meet their needs. >> Yeah, thank you. That um is all um very helpful. Um and then I I just think you know our next board meeting is February 10th. It like I I would really like to get you know as quick as we can even daily updates that have been disagregated by student population um to the board because it does feel like if if you know if we
136do need to trigger this across the district, I do believe that there needs to be a board vote on that. So, um I just I think I see the plan coming, but I want to know what the plan is if we need to enact it. I guess >> I don't know if anybody can speak to that or board member. >> Go ahead. >> I can't speak to that, but I got a >> You can speak on something else if you follow up. But yeah, um yeah, I think for my I was going to also like make that request, but um on a weekly basis at least, you know, every Friday um trying to see the percent of absences um that that would be helpful so we can you know, also be supportive in determining how
137we move forward. Um, another question that I I just really had for um uh the people that were supporting the individuals that were supporting with um rent and housing for the um houseless or um uh uh families. Um I know a lot of families and parents are probably not going to be able to go to work cuz that's a risk, right? either you do take the chance to go to work and you know you might get get picked up and lose your kids or you don't go to work and um if you don't pay your bills you get evicted and this is you know so it's like a lose-lose situation um and I just kind of I know it's you is not really have to do with um academics specifically but uh for the other
138teams that you know um are working with that I just want to kind of get an update from how that's going if if that's a issue or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. No, and I I maybe wonder if we could get like a an in between of data twice a week on maybe Wednesdays and Fridays, that would be great. Um, and I saw Dr. Valenuela, did you want to add something? I just saw you come over. I wasn't sure if you were trying to um and then we have Pamela online as well. I just want to Good evening, everybody. I just want to say that some families are afraid to be separated from their children. It's not necessarily that they don't it's not the ride from from and to school. It's about being separated. And so we
139have to take the lead on what families want and not make assumptions about what it is that they need. They know what they what they believe they need that their to make decisions for their children. So, I just want to say that that it's not always about the ride to and from school. >> Yes. Thank you. And I apologize if I implied that that was the only reason. Um but that was not um my intention. I'm glad that we are um listening to families. Um >> just want to say that we are listening to families. You're right. And we are providing those rides. There are PTO's working hard on on on providing those rides as families approach them. But there are still families who do not want to be separated from their kids. Thank you.
140>> Thank you. Um and Pamela, I see you online. Otunu if you want to come off mute. >> Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Um just wanted to add at the secondary level um to your question about when when is this going to be triggered or when will we start offering support for students and really our leaders and our educators are seeing the need and we and they don't want any gaps or students to fall behind at all. And so that's why whether it's just one student in a classroom or a group of students being impacted in the classroom, um there's that desire to move forward and make sure that students are following along um through Google Meets, whether virtually or offering other uh flexible alternatives, but really wanting to start that right away and really concerned
141too about our seniors, right, who need to graduate. So their credits are crucial for them finishing this year. So if we do move forward with this, there's that desire ask is to um first move forward at the high school level with really providing that support to make sure seniors finish strong. Um but it's not like waiting for a cohort of kids before we move forward with this, right? It's really starting right away and as Dr. Amed mentioned some of our teachers already doing that even now, right? So just want to make sure that there's that support for us to move forward as a group and to make sure there's a system in which that happens so that all students are caught um and not waiting any longer. >> Thank you board member Upper. Um thank
142you for all of those comments because I understand that issue with with high school students. Um, I guess my question is because I think what you're asking, chair, is how do we know that we're headed in the right direction with whatever we do? And I just what I guess what the question is how set are you to start this as soon as possible? I mean, that's that's my real big concern. Um I think I think there's two things that I could say. One is you know we're really we've been in discussion as um our assistant superintendents have shared uh year over year there's been conversations about what to do in in with uh emergency snow day plans right and so we're here with that with the snow days and this is really building off of
143some of that uh as foundational. Um, I think the schools are ready. Uh, they are they have what they need. We've been talking to leaders um pretty much daily over the past week with getting updates and uh getting a sense of what they're seeing in their buildings and in their communities. And so we've been having the the grounding conversations for this. Uh a set uh schools were asked to build a contingency plan to start thinking about what this would look like uh over a week ago. And so uh as we came up with two things happening at the same time, which is us reaching the 3-day mark with our snow days and unfortunately this scenario, uh they have been thinking really deeply about it. So it kind of converges at a point where in a
144very small uh instance again we're not talking about all students. We're talking about class by class um student by student making a determination. The determination is made because we are monitoring attendance. Schools are able to go into power schools and do a a flush of students who have missed the past five days. They're also then able to drill down that data to see who are multilingual or ESOL without making assumptions. Then contacting families and having a conversation about what it is the family needs. So the schools are uh primed and ready. Uh again, we're not going full on this, but if it's case by case, student by student, I'm confident our schools are ready. and and the teachers. >> Oh yes. >> Yes. I'll let >> and and the uh uh one uh I want
145to mention also this was the effort of all second all the uh leaders including the network leaders as well as the assistant principles principles and Miss Japson is here with me. You can say something about the readiness. >> Thank you. Yeah. Yes, we're we're ready and uh we've been preparing uh we've been communicating with students and families. They've been communicating with us and I think that's a piece I want to add is that our students are asking what what can be done? How can I be part of a class, my class? Um and so we're ready um to do this and we'll continue. I think we have built into our plans um weekly check-ins um personal contacts. We've got a group of probably 18 to 20 people who will each have a group of students
146that they'll be responsible for checking in with. Um so we're we're more than we're ready. >> Thank you. Thank you to all the teachers that are willing to do this. >> Yeah. >> Remember Ali Ali? >> Yeah. Just quickly, um and this isn't I know you guys are ready. I mean, I mean, I I would only expect like we're they're talking about, you know, abducting children. I would only um understand that everybody's going to be reactive and trying to protect. So, I I I don't question that at all. Um my my my point is really based on like the the rhetoric and the um statements that are coming from um negative news. Um and uh just around a lot of the ignorant I would say um yeah ignorant things that that are coming out you
147know about specific groups you know and and particularly um to be honest Somali groups um where uh you know something about where are they putting their bodies or something like that. that it was just ridiculous and it's very dangerous actually um and being a Muslim and and an East African um understanding that just they put it in the grave. Uh but anyways like it these things that are really really dangerous. How are we um you know making sure that like the teachers and everybody um are just doing the best they can to to make sure that these messaging all this stuff that's happening is Yeah. Anyways, but yeah. Yeah, thank you. Um, board member Ali Ali, other questions from the board. >> Yes, student representative Grant. Go ahead. >> Um, I just wanted to say
148that like today at school I was speaking, Miss Jeepson basically said it. I was but just that a teacher was asking me as a board member like I know that this is going to be spoken about and me as a teacher and also other teachers who have more of a need have like talked about it and they want to do it and students have asked them like I think this isn't like the all these people who work at central office and us saying like oh this is going to be what we're doing now I think students have been this is what we want to do Like obviously I can't speak for everyone or close to everyone, but I think from what I've heard that students want this to happen. It isn't just something that's going
149to be obviously it's case by case, but it isn't just going to be something that's told to them that they have to do. >> Thank you. Um, student representative Grant. Um, I just I have one other question. I mean, I guess I guess that what I'm hearing now is that and tell me if this is wrong, but you know, a snow day seems like we have a good plan. It's ready to be voted on by the board. And then for elementary and secondary for emergency remote, it sounds like that we would like to put forward a casebyase plan that address needs based on famil family's needs. Right. That's what I'm hearing. So, what I what I would recommend to the board is like I think we just need to make sure that that is legally
150okay as a plan that we that we vote on. I'm sure we could get Drummond and Woodsome within the next 24 hours and then we could have an emergency board meeting to approve that. Um I I um I think that that's what we move forward with. you listen to your families, you create plans, and we monitor it on a bi-weekly or twice weekly basis through metrics. Um, so that's that would be what I suggest to the board. Um, uh, I I don't think we need a formal vote because I'm not sure it's a motion yet, but um, that's what I would suggest that we move forward to. If anybody has, uh, suggestions or discussion around that, I would entertain that. But otherwise, I'll be moving forward with the superintendent to to talk to legal about
151that. >> Do you need a motion to talk to legal? >> I don't think so. I don't think so. Okay. >> Okay. We're all Oh, let me just double check with Fatuma online. And did I see another hand online that I missed? >> Betsy had her hand up. >> Okay. Um uh uh yes, Betsy, go ahead. Good evening. Sorry, I struggled to unmute there for a minute. Thank you. >> That's okay. >> Um, I just kind of wanted to give a little um, feedback and just give like what I'm getting from parents. Um, a lot of my families could not, you know, a lot of the parents I work with could not come tonight in person, but the online, you know, learning is a very big ask. It's been an ask since this started. Um,
152so, and this is from parents as well. Um, because they're nervous again with what Grace said. It's not just so much getting to the building, it's the not wanting to be separated. Um, So th this is something that as soon as possible like I can show you messages on my WhatsApp. I this is a daily thing. Parents are very worried not just about the learning but you know like elementary school they just want the kids to keep busy so they're not constantly worried about what's going on. So like I just urge as as fast as we can move on this. We did it pretty quickly when we did it co it actually I know it's a different completely different situation. >> Um but this is one that parents they really really want this and not
153just parents but students high school students are worried about attendance worried that they're falling behind. Um and the high school parents are in the same boat. you know, they're they're wondering like what's take the question right now that I'm getting is why is this taking so long? Because we've done this in the past. So my my families are kind of questioning that it's taking a while and meanwhile their kids are falling more and more behind, you know, for something that's really out of their hands. Like they really can't take certain risks. So I I just want to urge that please like as soon as we can get this going so that those parents that are really wanting this can access it as soon as possible. >> Beautiful. Um thank you so much for that um
154additional perspective and information. I think it's super helpful with the board. Um and you know we can reach out to the law firm tonight. Um so that means board members um uh just be looking for communication from me tomorrow about an emergency meeting um to vote. Um but right now we can go ahead and vote on the um snow uh plan um that was that is proposed tonight. So um I would be looking for a motion to pass the snow fourth snow day remote policy as presented tonight. Board member Ali Ali is a motion. Is there a second? Thank you, board member Brighton. Um, uh, is there any >> Can I just clarify? Do we need a, um, a vote to bypass the first read before we vote? >> Yes, we do. Thank you. >>
155We've got two things set up for that. So, >> this is why we work as a group. Um, yes. So, we're going to, um, I would be making a motion to bypass uh, the second read for this because I think we might have another snowstorm very soon. Uh, is there a second? Board member Ali, we're going to do a raise of hands on this vote. So, if you're in favor of um bypassing um so that is unanimous in the room. Um and then let's just double check. Um Fatuma also was a a yes on that. So, we're going to bypass the first read. Um and then put the motion back on the floor to pass the snow day plan for remote learning. Second, Ali Ali, we are in Groundhog's Day. Great. Um and now, uh
156any questions from the board on the snow day plan? Any uh public comment? Okay. Any um discussion from the board? All right. Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of passing the snow day plan as presented uh tonight. That will kick in on the fourth snow day of the year. >> Dr. Warren. >> Member Ali. Ali. >> Yes. >> Member Yusur Ali. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo. Member Brighten, >> yes. >> Member Lena, >> yes. >> Member Noir, >> yes. >> Member Oberman, >> yes. >> Member Satell, >> yes. >> Student Representative Grant, >> yes. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones. Student Representative Muhammad, >> yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien, >> yes. >> Chair Lent. >> Yes. So, that motion passes. Um, and then I'll be following up with the
157lawyers um tonight. And I think maybe one ask that we'll just need before the vote would be to have some written documentation, which I'm sure you can work on about um the the what it means to work with families one-on-one. Um thank you all for your input um in that plan and hopefully we can get uh get it resolved soon. >> Chair, can I um just raise one procedural issue before you move on? >> Yes. Uh because I missed um member No earlier on, I just wanted to double back to the personnel vote. Um I didn't have I didn't record her vote there. I'm not sure if I missed her voice. I I think you called on her. >> Board member Nor, did you vote on the personnel item? >> Yes, I did. It was
158a yes. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful. Um and so now we have uh two executive sessions coming up. Uh first we have the consideration and action to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA 4056E to meet with legal counsel followed by uh the consideration action to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA 4056D to discuss student enrichment coordinators uh for contract negotiations. Um so do I have a motion to move into executive session? Thank you, board member Brighten. Second, board member Opperman. Um, all those in favor, and I would just ask that we take a 10-minute recess uh before that. So, I will see you in the uh executive session room at 8:40. doing it. A roll call. >> Okay. Superintendent or Dr. Warren who is recording the
159votes, please. >> Okay. We're just going to get a >> Thank you. >> computer set up here um >> for the vote. We're also recording so you could just watch the end if you want to. Um, but uh first thing I just wanted to uh make a motion to amend the record uh the notes for the next uh meeting the um first executive session 10.1 on the agenda. Uh we did not actually end up having um due to some scheduling conflicts. Um so just want to note that uh for the public and then the the minutes for next time. Um, and then, uh, we're almost there. Um, we're going to have a vote on the student enrichment coordinators contract. Um, so I will make a motion for the consideration action to approve the student enrichment
160coordinators contract. Is there a second? Board member Ali Ali. Dr. Warren, are you just about ready? I'm going to um, just go through the process though really quickly. Are there any questions on the motion? Any public comment on the motion? Uh any board discussion on the motion? Um uh actually we shouldn't have taken public comment because it's a personnel issue. So strike that from the record. Um uh but uh then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration action to approve the student enrichment coordinators uh contract. So Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? Uh, chair lint, sorry, just to clarify, do student reps vote on the contract? >> Um, yes, they can vote. Okay. Um, member Ali Ali, >> yes. >> Member Ali, >> yes. >> Vice
161Chair Bondo. >> Member Briden? >> Yes. >> Member Lena? >> Yes. >> Member No, >> yes. >> She's still here. Member Nor, >> she's here. >> Can you hear me? >> There you are. >> Oh. Can anyone hear what board member No said? >> Not really. >> Yes. >> Said yes. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Member Operman. >> Yes. >> Member Sautell. >> Yes. >> Uh I think Student Representative O'Brien is the only one left. >> Yes. >> Chair Lent. >> Yes. So that uh motion passes. Thank you all very much. And then I'd be looking for um uh make a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Thank you, board member Brighten. Um and all those in favor. Okay. We are adjourned at 8:59 p.m. Board members, I will see you on Friday. Bring
162snacks to share. >> Thank you.