001Okay, welcome to the work session for Thursday, March 16th for North Ben School District 13. We'll call to order. We've got 6 pm straight up. And let's see, we'll have the flag pledge. I see we have there. I'll start that off. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Thank you. Uh roll call for board members. I see Mary Schilling, Carol Yardley, Michelle Roberts, Steve Ryan, and Christina Simpson. Good. We are there. Uh item two, approval of the agenda. Um I would like to make a motion to um table item five until a future date. Okay, that is item five. There's a motion to table item five, transgender communication. Is there
002a second? Jim, I'll go ahead and second that. Okay, there's se there's a a motion and a second to table item five g trans transgender communication. All in favor of tableabling say I and I'll go first. I Christina I I'm going to abstain. Yes. Um I though I would like to discuss as a board what the um the plan is moving forward with that because I do think that that is a discussion that we need to have. I understand preferably not having it at the meeting tonight but I think that it's something that we need to address as a board and have further discussion over. Um so I would like to figure out what the plan is uh moving forward with that. I agree with that. Okay. So, was there was there a uh we
003had let's see one two I believe we had four four eyes. Christina, what were you were you and I? Yes. Yes. Okay. But but I would like there to be a agreement that we will um have that conversation uh really preferably in the next couple weeks. Okay. Um I agree with that. I just think since we have two new board members on tonight that it would be a good idea to let them get caught up with the correspondence and then um have it soon at a work session and then bring it um on a future agenda not too far in the distance. [Music] Okay. I mean that it sounds like a work it's a work session topic. So, so for for now the uh item five has been tabled and will be discussed at a
004future future work session. Uh with respect to that is there with given that is there an approval of the agenda now with that revision? I make a motion to approve the agenda with that tabled item. Okay, there's a motion. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. Okay. Is okay. We have a motion to uh table item five and we will come back to it at a work session and uh the motion is to approve the agenda with that tabled. All in favor say I. And I'll I'll go we'll do roll call uh voting because it's a little more difficult online. Mary, what are you? I I I'm an I. Carol. Carol's a Is that an I? You're muted. Hey, Carol, you'll need to unmute. Okay. Is that better? Yeah, that's better. Okay. I Okay.
005Three eyes. Michelle, hi. I You guys all went frozen for a minute. Okay. So, there's four eyes. Steve, Ryan, hi. Five, and then Christina. Hi. Okay. All right. It's excuse me, Mia. Uh Julie cannot get into the um session. Okay. Has she she should call me. Okay. Um, I will try resending her a link personally and perhaps she should call me too. Okay. Thank you, Mia. Okay. Uh, next on the agenda is item three, Evergreen Virtual Academy Renewal Public Hearing. No action. Kristen Miles. Hi everybody. Kristen Miles from OSBA here. Thanks for having me. Um, I actually worked with your school board quite a bit over the over the course of the years. Um, I work with the Oregon School Boards Association. Um, what part of what I do and what you've hired me to
006do is uh facilitate the renewal process for um, for Evergreen Virtual Academy. And so tonight, what we're doing is the required hearing under OS 3380655C. So, um, what's required under there is that there be an opportunity for for the public to weigh in on the renewal request. So, how it's going to be structured tonight is that Eva has come prepared with about a 10-minute presentation. I know that they've lined up a couple of speakers um to represent a a broader contingency of folks. So, I know they've got a staff member, a a family member, a student, um maybe an alumnist, I'm not sure, but they've got a few folks come to speak to you. And then of course you can ask them any questions that you want. Um that's the structure of the hearing tonight.
007Um there are no decisions to be made tonight at the hearing. This fulfills that statutory requirement. Um after the hearing then the um then later within 30 days or the or a date agreed to which will be April 6th. The board must then vote on statutory criteria um whether to renew or to not renew the charter. You'll receive a full report from me at that time. So that'll be a future step. But tonight we're just here to do the public hearing. And so I don't know, Kevin, did you want to say anything before I hand it off to Eva? I'll hand it off to you, Kevin. Well, that's I think that's a great uh a great introduction to this. And I will uh formally welcome Brian Gardner, who is uh sitting in as executive director
008on behalf of Jamie Styles. Um Jamie is on some uh some leave right now. And so I'll turn it over to Brian and his team. Well, this will be the world's shortest u u speech that I ever give. I've been filling in for Jamie and it's been an absolute pleasure getting to know the team. And uh with that, I'm going to turn it over to uh Caitlyn because she has been the conductor on this project. Thank you, Brian. Hi, directors of the board and um hello to the Northbend School District community. My name is Caitlyn Clemens and I am the middle school principal at Evergreen Virtual Academy and it's great to see you here tonight. Just got a little bit of nerves uh that came in all of a sudden. Um but it's um really
009a pleasure to be able to come before you and talk a little bit about our school. Um, I'd like to share my screen. Um, if that's possible, Mia, maybe you could en enable me to be able to share. And we have a short presentation we hope to thrill you with this evening. Let's see. I know she's being tasked as well to maybe help somebody get in. All right. Well, while we're waiting for that ability to share screens, um, let me talk a little bit about our school, I'll begin without the ability to show the screen. Is that sound okay? Okay, Kevin's back. I'm trying Yep, I'm trying to get that to work. So, hang on just a second. Okay, no worries. This is what we do. We roll with it every day. Tech challenges all
010day, every day. Try again. You should be good. Room. Okay. All right. Here we go. Aha. All right. Can you see that? Okay. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. Because the verbal communication very important. Um all right. Um so again, Caitlyn cleans middle school principal, Evergreen Virtual Academy enthusiast. Um excited to be here before you today. Um a little bit about our school. You probably know some about us being chartered together, being buddied up. Um, but we were founded in 2008 and we've been always chartered through the Northbend School District. We were formerly ORVA. Um, and we focus on a flexible, individualized learning community. We are a place that's safe for kids to go, um, an engaging learning environment. and um we're here to help every student everywhere uh achieve their greatness that we see in them.
011Um over the last few years we have had a significant um twist and turn in our story and um overall beside the co disruptions that all schools experienced we have departed from our for-profit management company that partnered with us in the beginning in 2021. So we now are a completely independent nonprofit charter school. And um then this year we also departed from their learning platform and curriculum in 2022 and changed our name to Evergreen Virtual Academy. Um but we still remain the same school with the same staff, the same leadership and the same focused and driven supportive learning environment for kids. Um our mission is that we will provide a safe, inclusive and collaborative environment that values individual growth and achievement. We really believe in creating this individualized um environment for every student that can
012reach them right where they are. Um we do we achieve our mission through our vision and also through our core values. Our core values are that our outreach by engaging students right where they are. Relationships by uh growing those relationships as much as we possibly can. Um because we know that relationships are the core to a learning partnership and validation. acknowledging all of students unique um capabilities and the reasons that they come to us and achievement um that we believe that all students can achieve at high levels. This is our uh artist rendering of our leadership team. Uh so some of them you might see here tonight. Um and overall uh you know we we use a lot of different creative mediums. Some teachers use a lot of bit emmojis and other animations that really
013engage students. Um, but we have a an experienced staff. We have 102 staff members. We have five licensed administrators. And we have an office and operations support staff in our lovely Northbend School District office. And um, overall, we're just really proud of our teaching staff and how they love to be at our school. Um, and our students love to have them, too. Our program model, you might be wondering, but what is it like on a daily basis? Um, our program model has daily live classes for all students. So, um, we have those classes where they log in and they're seeing their teacher, physically seeing their teacher and each other um for actual inperson, you know, in increen learning with their teacher for multiple times per day. Um, we are able to through our flexible schedule
014doubled dose math, doubled dose language arts and English, making sure that they are able to have exposure that they need to increase achievement in our targeted subjects. And we also focus deeply on engaging students and families and making sure that we're tracking that engagement, making sure that we're um reaching all of our students needs. We're assessing their social emotional learning. for um making sure that teachers are contacting students and that students are asking the questions they need and that we also have a comprehensive three-level model. So even though we're kindergarten through 12th grade as a school, we have an elementary school with its own principal, kindergarten through fifth grade, a middle school with its own principal, me, um 6th through 8th grade, and then we have a high school with its own principal as well,
015um which is 9th through 12th grade. a completely comprehensive high school with a counseling staff. We also have a lot of departments that um range kindergarten through 12th grade. So, a lot of the departments that I didn't mention also have um an impact on all students. So, students daily have the opportunity to have deep connections with their teachers in those live classes. and we can be really flexible and really responsive with what they tell us their learning needs are and their needs for connection. Uh we can adapt and personalized all of the lessons and the different connections that we have with students. And uh some live classes and work are uh live in class and some are independent. So if a student misses class, they can see the recording and they can communicate with their
016teacher offline. um and they also might have homework that's in our online learning platform. We are governed by a school board um similar to you all and um the biggest difference is that they are from across the state of Oregon. Um some of them have come to board service through um wanting an opportunity to engage in an education community. Some are lovers of technology and um and some are parents uh from our parent community. and they have many of the same responsibilities that you have as well. Um, I cannot stress enough how proud I am of our school for the transition that we've gone through in the last two, three years. Um, we uh have had um minimal student transition and minimal staff transition. And we just launched a survey asking our staff their intent
017to return. and um 99% of them intend to return next year despite the transitions that we've been through. So, we're really proud of the work that we've been doing. Um we did uh transition our curriculum, our live class systems, and our learning platform systems this year as well as our name. Um but we know that transition is the act of of moving from one thing to the other. And students are doing that constantly. They're going through maturation. They're maturing when they start with us. you know, they're have to sleep with the nightlight on and when they leave us, they're ready to move out of the house. So, it's just this massive time that we're we're working with them through transition. So, we know how to do that transition. I thought you might want to see
018a window into our learning platform. So, this is what students are seeing when they log in. This is from a middle school students view. And um on our learning platform, we use Canvas, which is pretty ubiquitous um among a lot of schools. Um students have access to within Canvas course materials, assignments, calendars, messaging abilities, embedded tools, and their live platform classes. and parents, which we also call learning coaches because they're alongside as partners with us. Um, they have access to observer accounts, uh, all student activities and communication with the teachers through that platform. This is what some of our live classes look like. Um, a couple of these are pulled from our um, recordings of classes. And this one you can see learning objectives happening over here. You can see some bit emojis being used
019in a first grade classroom, which was adorable to watch this recording. Um, and teachers are able to also embed a lot of engagement activities in all of the live classes to really get students talking and working together and responding to teachers and really doing that processing that we know makes learning come alive and cemented for students. Um, this is kind of what it might look like for a kid to be in a live class. That's not an actual class. It's a demo class right there. Um, a couple EVA program highlights before we um, let you hear from someone else besides me. Um, we have a full comprehensive high school with multiple CTE pathways for high school students. Um, high school success mentors for our nth grade students, high school dual credit course offerings, and a
020robust high school credit recovery program. Oops. We have um across our whole school, kindergarten through 12th grade, we have engaging elective options. Um we have high interest clubs and student activities. We have all sorts of clubs, everything from cooking to coding um to exercise clubs. Um we also have in-person activities throughout the year. Um, and these range from educational experiences like a field trip that is outdoor school at the Oregon coast for our middle schoolers. Um, to a um, we have a bowling excursion coming up where throughout the entire state we'll have local hubs where teachers that live locally there and students come together and parents and get to get to be together. Um, and we had an ice cream social and a pumpkin patch trip this fall. Um, additionally we have an open house
021yearly where all students can come. This year it was at Fonzi and we got to see the Marvel exhibit as well as meet one another and spend some time together. We also have uh live inerson prom and graduation for our high school students which our leadership classes are currently helping plan which is very exciting. And then pro one of the things that I think we're most proud of um that sets us apart as a virtual school is that we have engagement advisors assigned to each student and family. Um and and this enables us to ensure outreach happens and that student academic and organizational support happens. Um additionally this is an a check for us to check on all students and families and provide them with the resources that they might need. So we have everything
022from a McKenna Vento liaison to an MTSS coordinator that can help with interventions as needed. Um and this has really helped us engage with our families and make sure that they are okay. We are not losing anyone and we are um helping all of the students and families as they need. Um so our vision for our future going forward is um financial and program stability because we have endured a lot of those roller coaster movements that we all have in the last few years. And so our plan is to hold steady. We're in a really good place now. Um consistent enrollment, maintaining that as a school of choice, we maintain our consistent enrollment. Strategic planning just like we all do to make sure that learning is um growing and thriving here. We plan to continue
023to remove barriers to student access. If that's providing internet access for students or um other technology needs or communication needs, we're here for it. And then also just continue our personalized learning plan for all students. All right. So, that is most of what you're going to hear from me tonight. Um but I would like to take this opportunity. I know that um it was asked that testimony uh folks that wanted to testify would write into the chat. I have the folks names here. Would that be okay? Um Director Jordan, if they if they just unmuted and and spoke. Yeah, that that would be fine, Caitlyn. Uh quick question, I guess, on the this the career technical education. How do you do that? Is there is there a brickandmortar someplace that you use uh get that
024or how do you guys do that? That's a great question. Um we don't have a brickandmortar school that we use, but we utilize um shipping materials to students and we also utilize program strands that are more doable online. So there there are, you know, those elements of design and engineering that are happening online as well. Um, and so we've made sure that the strains that we're taking advantage of really drill down into that. And that's an area where we haven't had giant class sizes there. So one of our target goals for next year, right now we're starting to forecast with our high school students for next year and we're planning to increase enrollment in those programs. Okay. And another question, I don't know if it's going to you you would have covered this or it's
025somewhere else. What's the typical duration for a student to be in in Evergreen Academy is Oh, that's a good question. Um, I'm not sure. I know a typical one. Our ju, you know, I was making a slide about enrollment and um for a different presentation than I put a roller coaster on it. Um, because just like most schools, we've had quite a fluctuation in the last few years. And one of the things that was different for us is during the height of the pandemic, we doubled in size as a school. And so, um, we have fallen a lot in enrollment, but what we have seen is that our students that were with us before are still with us. So, um, we do have a lot of students that have been here since kindergarten and finish
026through high school. Um, we I I'm not sure the exact number. I know that our elementary school is typically on the smaller side and we gain a lot of students in middle school that do stick with us through high school. Um, you know, we we hear reports that school safety uh is is a challenge. We hear reports that bullying has been a challenge or anxiety um and that that's when in secondary school kids really want to come to us and and stick with us. Um and um we also have um groups of students who are homeschooling with their families and then when they hit secondary school choose um to look at an online option to be able to supplement what families are able to contribute at home. So um I don't have the exact number
027but I am now I'm you piqu my interest. Yeah. Sometime in the future you can provide it. Thank you very much. No problem. And I can take more questions after our speakers if that's helpful or I can take them now if that's helpful, if it's right on your mind. Yeah, I don't hear any questions. So, yeah, we can proceed to the the parent test. Yeah, Erin Hoover, are you there? I saw you log in a little bit ago. Hi. Um, and Erin, I'm going to stop sharing my screen so that everybody can see you and you can see everyone if that's okay. Okay. Okay, there you go. Thank you for being here, Erin. Would you go ahead and introduce yourself and and you can give whatever testimony your heart desires. Okay, thank you. Hi, my
028name is Aaron Hoover. I'm a parent with um Evergreen Virtual Academy students. I have two daughters, one in seventh grade and one in fourth grade. And um I'm not a great ortor. So um I've written some some notes here that I'll read. So um so our family has been with Eva, which was Orva, for eight years now. Um and the school has blessed us in many ways. From the beginning, we wanted to educate our children at home. Um, some of our motives included feeling a responsibility to have involvement in our girls education. Um, wanting to shelter them from unh wholesome peer influences at a young age. Um, and just wanting to keep them physically safe, especially with all of the violence in schools these days. You know, hard for families. Um, Evergreen Virtual Academy has
029offered our children an excellent education while allowing them to study within the shelter of our home and grow up with our family values. Um there are many aspects that we appreciate about EVA. I wanted to talk about the comprehensive design of the program. Um by using many different avenues, EVA provides a well-rounded and comprehensive education. Um the teacher-like class connect sessions are wonderful. Um, it's great for the kids to learn from someone other than just me. Um, so it allows them to develop independence and take ownership for their education, their learning. Um, we love the hands-on books and workbooks that are provided for K through fifth grade. Um, it's so important to balance the screen time for kids and promote actual handwriting um, with a pencil. Uh the books and workbooks allow for haptic learning
030and create a valuable organic experience. The books and workbooks are an especially attractive feature for Orva. A lot of the online schools don't offer that. Um so I'm sure um Eva will find that many parents um will find that a draw to their program. In addition to the online curriculum, we appreciate uh the access um to the extra online resources such as the XL program and the I Ready program um which um allow for extra practice um or an excelled pace if the kids are doing well, you know, need to go faster. I hope programs like this continue to be offered throughout all of the grades. Um I wanted to make special mention of the teachers. We really appreciate the EVA teachers. Um they genuinely care and provide excellent instruction daily. They come into our
031home with positive energy and they go out of their way to show personal interest in the students. This is motivating for the students. Also in educating at home, it is important for parents to be able to as much as possible avoid a dual relationship uh with especially their pre-teens and their teens. Um so um when the students are accountable to an outside teacher then the parent can be the person in the support role and be the coach which leads to a better parent child relationship. Um so it's a really great setup for home learning. Um we appreciate the teachers and advisor availability and support for all of our questions. It seems like they're always available and they respond um and they uh they listen to our concerns which is nice. Um, Eva has really made
032an effort to provide great support. Um, the new student computers that they've provided this year have been really nice and we love the new tech support that has been provided starting this year. Eva has made a lot of great changes and it's obvious that they're committed to providing a really um, excellent um, experience for the kids. Um, let's see. Uh, Eva's curriculum and support meets our children at their level of need. um and provides plenty of opportunities for academic challenge. Uh in education, like with most things, the return is equivalent to the effort that you put in. And our our apologies. Glad my grandkids aren't on here with me. Yeah. Okay. Um uh at this time I we had a uh a student as well that was going to testify, but I do believe that
033their parents have exited. So I hope it's okay. We're going to we're going to skip that testimony for tonight um for right now. Um and I'll connect with our parent to see if it's possible to to finish her testimony. We do have a teacher here tonight that I would love to ask if she'd be willing to to testify. We had prescheduled for that to happen and um Tina Lohen is here. Um are you feeling feeling okay to do that, Tina? I'm good. Great. Thank you. Hi everyone. Um I wrote down what I wanted to say um so that you wouldn't have to hear me ramble. My name is Tina Loan and this is my fifth year teaching at EVA. When asked why I value my experience at EVA, I decided it really came down to
034my daily classroom experience with the students. I teach middle school language arts, specifically intervention language arts. In my class, students work on mastering the language arts standards as well as work on improving their reading skills. We are providing students reading support while also working on the required standards. But students are not limited to getting that support by relinquishing an elective or spending more required time in class. This is one of the reasons I appreciate teaching at EVA. I've taught language arts in a traditional brickandmortar school as well as the additional reading intervention class. In my experience, that type of scheduling results in many students feeling different from their peers and unmotivated. I appreciate that EVA is making decisions that value student perspectives. and I have experienced how valuing their perspective helps build their confidence and
035interest in school. During my time with EVA, I have witnessed how an online educational option can make a difference in a student's life. I firmly believe that education is not a onesizefits-all experience. I have students who thrive because they aren't concerned on a daily basis about being judged by their peers, who appreciate the on the option of engaging in different ways, and who benefit from the flexibility of online schooling. They are all students for whom education in a brick-andmortar setting simply didn't provide what they needed for academic success. However, they are successful here at our school. Their success is part of the reason that I enjoy teaching at EVA. Thank you. Thank you, Tina. I really appreciate that. Thank you, Tina. At this time, um I do see we have our parent here. Um I'd
036like to ask if there are any um questions that um the board of directors would like to ask to Eva. Yeah. What uh just so I was clear, I saw a lot of uh data on your numbers. Currently, most recent count for Eva is I believe 1250 right in that range. Yeah. Okay. And and you guys have stabilized at that number. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Caitlyn. Absolutely. So, Caitlyn, uh, you were saying about the CTE and shipping materials and such. Is it the same for, uh, cooking classes and exercise and that type of thing? There are um, so for our clubs, there's probably limited um, shipping of materials for our clubs, but for various classes, there have been shipping of materials. um because we had a mid-year curriculum change, the curriculum materials
037that prior were used, our old curriculum weren't necessarily applicable. So, that change happened in November. So, we're still in the process of adopting all of our physical um curriculum that we're going to be sh and um different regalia and um exercise tools that we're going to be shipping to students over the next year. Um, but our elementary classes really have um had uh a a pretty wonderful shipping that happened for them uh to be able to use. We know that our youngest learners need the most ability to really interact with those materials outside the screen. All right. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's it on the questions. Okay. Well, thank you so much um to the Northbend School Board and to Superintendent Bogatan for having us tonight. Um I know that the EVA team
038feels very proud to be a part of um your school district as well and um we would, you know, love to further this relationship. So, thanks for having us tonight. Thank you, Kaitlyn. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, does that complete I'll assume that completes the uh EVA presentations and the hearing people speaking. We're ready to move on to agenda item four integrated guidance update and public hearing action item. And so I will uh just kind of go through that tonight. And so there has been just uh conversations that we've had with the board and just feedback on integrated guidance. And you can see that uh we've made a couple changes. Again, the the integrated guidance is really um the whole focus of this is around serving our students and families that have been historically
039underserved in districts. And so that's the legislation was really written around that and then you can really see it reflected in the integrated guidance and the questions that are asked. And so um we made a couple a couple changes. There was a bullet that we took out kind of on a goal around um some equity, diversity, inclusion specifically. And the only reason that was removed was it was a it was a holdover from our current our previous needs assessment and it it didn't necessarily come up as like a something that ended up being a a part of our investments. And so with that suggestion we removed that bullet. Um but there's been some other we we kind of explained some topics. There was some recent recommendations around just changing some some question conversations around that
040and some changes to our answers, but really they reflect our answers reflect what the Department of Education is asking us to submit. And so my recommendation is to um approve this integrated guidance with um kind of as presented tonight with just a couple minor changes that we've made and uh we'll submit that. And I think uh again I think we've put together a good plan that really allowed a lot of voices in and uh um I'll take some questions from that if there are some. I know we'll have a little bit of chance for some uh public testimony on this as well. Well, I had a few questions but I I think you answered those in our text messages. So, thank you for that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I um and Mary I did
041email just kind of a a comment and again I feel like um again I feel like I I definitely want to respect the the the questions and conversation and those things and again I feel like this uh you know again the department of ed is really asking us it's you know I don't know remember how long that is 25 pages of questions that we've we've submitted and again they're really uh you can kind of see through those questions really pressing on on us really serving a large a group of kids and staff. and families that necessarily always we haven't done a great job always. So, I'm hoping this plan does move us forward in that direction. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments from the board or suggested edits on this document? Okay. Silence is
042agreement. Was there uh we going to hear public testimony then then vote on this? I believe that would be right. Um there are three signed up for public testimony on um integrated guidance. The first one I have is Laura. Would Laura like to speak? and stay. Mia, you're on mute. Hey, Laura. Laura. Laura, does we don't have a good connection with you. and we can't hear you. Can you mute Can you mute her, please? Yes. I I'll mute you for now, Laura. We'll try to come back. We'll go to the next. Um my name's Laura. I put it I work with starting to get just started in this position and I diver I muted her but I think everything was delayed. Sorry, Laura. Everything you were saying was delayed. Maybe you can put your comments
043in the chat. We'll move on to Sammy's testimony for now. Would Sammy like to speak? Uh, yes. I just had a question about number on page four uh where it talks about student attendance and it says students are missing more school because of tightened health and safety measures. Um what is the data on that? Because as far as I can tell there aren't any tightened health and safety currently. I think when I I think when we reference that, I think we are seeing still kids um at really the first sign of kind of a cough and sniffles and um are are being sent home or not being sent to school. So we have parents um you look our attendance rate has really not returned to some normal levels and as we contact parents they're keeping
044their kids more as precautionary. Um again, some COVID still remaining, but more we don't really we're not necessarily keeping firm data, but we know um just kind of how even in the classroom kids are experiencing cough or some things and off to the office they go and they're much more readily going home than I'd say pre- pandemic and we had a lot of sniffling, coughing kids that really doesn't exist to the same level. So that's what we're referencing there. not necessarily any kind of hard and fast necessarily measures. Okay, that doesn't seem to reflect that in this sense. Are we ready for the next public speaker? That would be Jamar Ruff. Hello, my name is Jamar Ruff. My pronouns are he, they. Um, I am the director of the South Coast Equity Coalition, which is
045a regional health equity coalition um under Oregon Health Authority and the Office of Equity and Inclusion. I read and I'm also I live in Northband. Um and I read through the um through the initiative and I know that previously y'all opted out of having a line item that says diversity, equity, and inclusion. And um it's hard to write in or acknowledge the fact that you are trying to uphold and support historical historically marginalized communities without taking advances on diversity, equity, and inclusion to really meet their needs. Um and I know that it's up you are wanting to move forward tonight as far as approval but I think that um it is a misstep and some of the verbiage also when you are taking an equity lens to some of the document that you have created
046um you're using verbiage like all and equal and when you're taking an equity lens at at this document there are some um there's some negatives versus positives. So, um, and I also think that, um, if you give yourself time to kind of really look at it and digest the document and make some corrections and some also some spaces for accountability, you know, um, I think it would be a really great step in the right direction. And I also want to honor the fact of sometimes saying the word equity comes with some barriers for folks that sometimes make people uncomfortable. But you can't take an equity lens at a document and use verbiage like equal and all because we use equity because we know that there's not equal access. And the equity of it all is
047understanding that different people need different things. So, I just want to urge, you know, before agreeing to move forward with this or passing it, maybe let's kind of come together um in a collaboration. Um I work in the community. It's the South Coast Equity Coalition and see how we can kind of um work. And I was just I was in the Cous Bay um the Cous Bay school district strategic planning session and that was a lot of our conversation of like we know we can't meet we know we have to move from meeting access for all and prioritize the individual prioritizing each student because their needs are different. But when you have all and some of the verbiage in here, it negates um their needs, you know. So if you are truly wanting to meet
048the needs of historically marginalized communities, you really have to have that in the language. Thanks, Jamar. Great. We're going to come back around to Laura and see if her connection's a little better. Laura, would you like to try to speak again? My fingers are crossed and I'm just not going to turn on my video in case that exceeds the bandwidth. Um, but I really, long story short, I agree with everything that Jamar just said. I really want to be someone I read through that integrated plan and I want to raise my hand for that piece about community engagement and making sure that our students well-being is getting addressed because some of us who work with those marginalized communities, we know that it's not getting met and it's popping up for us in spaces where you
049guys might not see it as often. So, let us partner with you and figuring out how we can support specifically like admin and policies to really empower our communities um to be to be more successful. That equity language, like Jamar said, needs to be in there because it means a lot. It is a very coded thing for me coming in. If I'm a student or a parent and equity language isn't in there, like I'm worried for my queer kids. I'm worried for my youth of color. Thanks, Lori. there. Laura, I you know, I guess I'll just say we I know we've made some changes to this and there's a few a few different places and I would say this is again a work in progress and it's a working doc document and I appreciate Jamar.
050I appreciate these these feedback and um again we do definitely have some work to do and um and I again I hope you see that there there certainly is these plans and we're trying to move move this work forward and again I think an ongoing partnership we have included in our plan um this kind of ongoing community engagement. Um Tracy Lang, I think she's on this call, has helped help help with um putting this plan together and is also committed to really reaching out and making sure that we can make this work um you know, work for our kids and families. And so again, I think you can expect to have uh more outreach here in the coming uh coming months and years. Hey, Kevin. Uh I didn't realize this was going to be a
051public comment work session. Um, I thought we were going to try to make a motion tonight or get it approved and it is work on it. Well, the department of ed requires uh the public hearing also on integrated guidance. Well, well, right. But I didn't realize if they want us to pass it, the integrated guidance want us to pass it and then the community wants us edit it. I Well, I would say we're not going to be in we're not going to make any more edits. I don't we're not going to make any more edits at this time. I would say this is again a plan and this process is not going to go away. Um so this is a significant amount of money that the state is investing in this work and so this
052is plan number one in integrated guidance and so this is not going to go away for this community and for the school board. And so again I think we hear these comments and we'll certainly take that under um advisement as we move forward. And Kevin correct me if I'm wrong too. I believe that the application period for this to submit this plan um closes March 31st. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Yeah. So really I mean again it's just it opened on March 1st. It closes on March 31st. And so again there's just some there is some limitations to this and again I think in terms of even what exactly how we were going to write this in this plan. So again, I feel like I know we maybe didn't meet all the needs
053um across the community and I hope they understand our certainly a commitment to to trying to do that now and in the future. Okay, good good discussion with that. Is there a motion to uh North Bend integrated guidance initiative as uh as provided in the board packet? I make a motion to uh proceed with this item. Sorry, I'm trying to look for my motion language um so that we can uh get this to the state by the deadline of March 31. Okay. So, there is a motion to approve the current integrated guidance document that has been reviewed in our board packet uh such that we can achieve submission by 31 March. Is there a second? Okay, there's a second. Uh, and I'll restate the motion best I can that we're, you know, to submit the
054integrated guidance document or approve the the integrated guidance application package we have uh before us and reviewed such that we can submit it by 31 March. Uh, all in favor say I. And I'll do roll call voting starting with Mary Schilling. I. Okay. Michelle Roberts. Hi Steve Bryan. Hi. Three. Three. Uh Carol Yardley. Hi. Christina Simpson. I Julie Thieves. Uh I am Am I on? You're on. And Jim Jordan. I I So that's unanimous unanimously approved. Uh could I just confirm really quick who made the first motion? I missed it. Sorry. Mary made the motion and I Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Next up on the agenda is item six, superintendent search uh discussion. Uh just bringing bringing folks up to speed. And this is uh Kevin sent the board a uh email on
055Friday, 10 March. And I'm going to kind of summarize that that email. And Kevin Boach Bogatin, our current superintendent, was offered to be the next superintendent of the Tumbwater School District in Twater, Washington. He has tentative tentatively accepted the position and is waiting for a contract proposal. He will continue to serve the students, staff, and families of Northbend through June 30th, 2023. He will provide an official resignation letter in the coming days. And Kevin, uh, congratulations for for finding a job. It's, I know it's a bigger school district. It's 6,500 students and, uh, sounds like it's a great opportunity for for you and your family. And, uh, I' I'd like to thank you for your your leadership. Uh, you've demonstrated in the past four years. Being a superintendent is a challenging position and I want
056I want to thank you for your years of service here. I appreciate it. So uh so in in response to that uh Kevin had also offered uh very graciously to uh coordinate uh with the Oregon School Board Association OSBA to uh contact Steve Kelly who does superintendent placements for them uh to discuss uh a superintendent search process. uh there OSBA does this, other independent, you know, other contractors provide this service. There was no, you know, this is it was just a an offering by Oregon school board associations on how they did it. So on Wednesday the 14th, uh, board leadership met with Steve Kelly and there was a Zoom meeting and he went over essentially the at a high level the search process options for North Bend. And there's both a permanent and an interim
057superintendent process. the the permanent process uh starts in typically in November and that's for a three-year contract and then the interim superintendent position or process is for a one-year contract and uh so we we reviewed these processes and discussed uh typically the permanent search starts in November and due to our timeline we're we're in mid-March right now it's recommended we we pursue the interim uh superintendent position. So, uh that was Steve's Kelly's recommendation and that and that was the the recommendation I had after listening to it also. So, in the future, uh we the board has some work to do on this. Uh we'll have a decision to make on which search group to utilize. Uh we will also in terms of the process steps we'll declare a vacancy in the superintendent position then and
058approve an executive search uh process calendar and uh assign a screening committee uh to that and uh we mix we meet next on uh April 6 at a regular uh school board meeting and we hope to discuss many of those uh items at that time in a little more detail. So, uh, with that, is there any more questions on that or any questions? I I have a question. Is Is there like an actual pool of candidates that are interested in an interim position? Uh, great question, Michelle. Uh, you know, we have one one internal candidate. Uh talking with Steve, he did not reference he referenced um the pool of candidates this year has been small generally speaking. So I mean he does he does I can't remember the number 12 or 15 placements a year.
059So it's a smaller pool. Uh his search area would include uh they search a lot of the western uh western states in this. Um so how many we get we we don't know. That's that's a good question. Jim, can I just weigh in just there are there are uh superintendents typically retired. Um uh Evergreen I don't know if Brian's still on this call. Brian Gardner is one said uh superintendent who's stepping in to help Evergreen. And so there are examples like Brian Gardner um who was a longtime central L uh superintendent. And so there are folks out there that they do kind of ongoing recruiting for that specifically are looking for interim. And so there is again it's kind of one of those unknown things until you start this process. But there typically is some
060people out there. Um and again this isn't um there there's always the folks looking to golf at Bandon and a few other things that would draw draw some uh some folks to this area also potentially. Kevin, I might interject too that um KOSA has been attempting to uh put a pool of interims together for a year or so. They've had that posted. So, contacting Christa, she might uh might give you, you know, people that have already expressed interest in interims. Thank you, Brian. Okay. Uh, any more comments on superintendent search discussion? Thank you, Kevin, for those items. I would just like to thank Kevin service to the Northern School District and congratulate you on your uh, new adventure. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Michelle. Uh, that concludes item six. Item seven, board. Uh,
061again, I have comment. Okay, go ahead, Julie. So, there was some miscommunication in reference to one of the agenda items um for tonight's meeting for the policy BD and that policy was not followed by myself or superintendent Bogatin in regards to the communication and I sent an email asking for clarification to you and vice chair uh co- vice chair Christina and um superintendent Bogatin and Secretary Mia. And um I I misdirected that email um and I addressed Mia specifically when in fact I should have directed and addressed this communication to Kevin per the policy. And so Mia, I do apologize for that for the miscommunication and addressing you in the email. I really appreciate your apology, Julie. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Any more board comments? Um, I just would like to thank
062Kevin for um, just how great he's been working with the board. Uh, he's really dedicated to has been dedicated to our families and our students and um, I just really appreciate you, Kevin, and I wish nothing but the best for you and your family. So, it's been an honor to work alongside you the last several years. Thank you, Christina. Can I just make a comment on uh the and the inappropriate interruption uh because on behalf of the school district, I just want to apologize all of our guests that were here and um that we have been known that's been known to happen occasionally. It has never happened in our district. Um we've been advised um when we did Zoom calls to kind of do um create Zoom and I know Joe's on this call to
063really do them as webinars where this becomes that really is more difficult to have happen because we were doing public testimony in this um we did not put those sort of safeguards in place and of course on the day that we didn't do that that happens and of course we haven't used a lot of Zoom and so just blocking people and getting them kicked out of the room um just didn't happen in a timely manner. So, just sort of on behalf of the school district, I want to apologize to everyone. Um, we will definitely take some safeguards for any future virtual meetings to make sure that that kind of interruption doesn't happen again. Thank you, Kevin. Well said. Uh, with that, and with that, uh, I think, uh, next, uh, we have a board meeting.
064uh the 6th of April and prior to that we have uh spring break which is what is that the 27th through the 31st of March. Is that correct? Yeah. So that'll be uh happy days. So with that we will adjourn the meeting. I want to thank you all for for joining in and uh the participation. Okay guys have a good night. Thank you. Thank you.