001Okay. Uh, good evening everyone. As you can tell, I am not Brian Latur. Uh, I am Moren Milberger, the uh, vice chair. He will hopefully be here in a while. Um, so I'm just going to open our, um, our special work session meeting um, work session and we have Mr. Vince Adams here who's going to um, help us through this. So, welcome Mr. Adams. >> All right. Thank Thank you so much, Vice Chair Milton Berger, uh, Superintendent Skoak and Sus Law Board. It is lovely to be with you virtually. Hey, it looks like there's an audience in the room. That's exciting. Um, that's great. So, we are meeting uh today to uh to u finish up the uh our discussion around board self- assessment. Um, and so I just want to do a quick check-in.
002Meen, uh, how much time do I have with the board tonight? >> You have a half hour. >> Okay. >> 29 minutes at this point. So, I'm not going to waste any time. Um, and I'm just going to get share my screen and move very swiftly with you. Um, so let's go ahead and share screen one. And moving on, um, we discussed why and why the board should self-evaluate. Hopefully board members recall that, but we'll just very quickly, you know, it's to, you know, to measure your own effectiveness just like um the school board is expected to evaluate the superintendent. Uh, you should be holding yourselves accountable as well. It's also fulfills that uh commitment to accountability to your community. you're demonstrating uh that you're holding yourselves accountable uh for your performance. Uh and it
003just builds trust, respect. Uh everybody in your organization is being evaluated and and reflecting on their performance and then allows uh for planning uh for future professional development. Um so I'm going to move pretty quickly because I really would like to do some goal setting with the board. So, I'm I'm hoping that board members had an opportunity to uh to review the the report. Um, and I realize that it's a little odd this year because this is data from the previous iteration of the board. That said, I urge board members not to discount that uh that information from your previous board is kind of like message in a bottle uh to you. So, it's still very useful and important and I urge you to go ahead and reflect on that um and use it in
004your goal setting. Um so, if the board has seen this slide before, but this is really just to remind you that um there's a growing body of of education science connecting school boards to student performance and student outcomes. um and that if boards exhibit um you know a certain behaviors that that has positive impacts on your organization and on students and um those those behaviors are listed on the lefth hand side. You held yourself accountable to an even more detailed array of standards. Uh those are the balance governance standards and here they're listed. Um I think there's 84 questions in the questionnaire and so uh the board uh reflected on those uh and rated those uh across all these different dimensions of board work. So this is a very detailed uh survey tool. It gets
005a lot of information out of board members. Um so I'm not going to go through these because I I have a very short amount of time. um would love to discuss these in more detail here a little bit later, but I really want to talk want to focus on a few of them with you and really think about goal setting. So, uh this is what your data your aggregate data look like. Um this should look familiar to you. So, I just want to check in with the board. What does the board what are board members seeing here? This is really nerve-wracking for me. Right over Josh's shoulder is the stopwatch and I'm watching the seconds tick off. >> The uh I want the >> the standard one, the vision directed planning. Okay. I want to
006make sure I'm reading this right. So there's three bars, right? >> Yeah. And those correspond to different years. So this board has been doing self assessment for for three years now. So we have three years of data. >> Okay. So the vision directing planning improved. Um the culture and climate that is just kind of all over the place down there. um where it looks like it got worse and then got substantially better if I'm reading that right. >> Uh-huh. >> Okay. >> We're going to talk about that some more. So, I'm glad you pulled that out. >> Great. Um 50% on cultural responsiveness in 2025. Accomplished. 50% say accomplished in cultural responsiveness. And then budgeting and financial accountability. We have a dip in 23 and then up in 25 like pretty substantially up in 25.
007>> Am I Am I doing this right? Am I >> Yeah, you are. >> Data correctly. Okay. >> I'll I'll let you off the hook, Tom, because I've already done that. So, I mean, I put trends on there. And so you'll you might recall when I met with you in July, I was like, "Hey, good job school board. You guys have have improved your performance across all dimensions of the balanced governance standards." Now, when when I'm looking at this, I'm I'm wanting to see the green and blue zone, which is the um the always and most of the time zones. Um I'd like to see those adding up to about 70%. And so, um, as you're looking at this, it doesn't look like you guys are meeting your expectations. Uh, when I see data like
008this, this tells signals to me that the board, uh, has high expectations for itself and and that you have things that you want, you want your performance to be better. Any any other insights from board members? from from those of you that have been on the board longer than me, do you do you have any context for things that like correlating these trends to things that you remember happening um in the in the board? Can't tell if anybody's talking. You keep turning your mics off. So I >> Andy's talking and he's away from his mic. >> I think I think I can be heard in Tom's mic. But again, in 2022, we're just coming out of the pandemic. Um there's still some health regulations that people are jostling around with in the community. And in
0092023, we're still dealing with uh ESRE funds which were contentious in the community about how those were to be spent. >> Okay. I think that's a really good assessment. I think although I would say that the these data are more dramatic than what I see in other this is just a really clear signal that the the board has been pretty diligent in working and improving itself. Um this board has been a a regular regularly consuming um you know training and so I think that's also a reflection of this. Um so I want to keep moving. So when when for us as we if we have to pick these um these are the the power standards are the ones where they form the foundation for schoolboard work and the first one you know Tom you pulled
010that out vision directed planning crucially important that is your one of your central jobs is to set a vision for what's possible for your kids in your district uh standard four and five really go together um accountability is a central role of the board Um, and when I say accountability, I'm not thinking about pressing your thumb on the district, but rather making a commitment with your superintendent and your district staff saying, "Hey, we're going to walk together and doing this work. We're going to hold each other accountable." Um, data is how we track that. And so four and five really go together. And then 11 and 12 are kind of when we think about board work at its very core, standards 11 and 12 really reflect that. the fiscal and fiscal stewardship piece and relationship
011with uh with the uh uh chief executive and board member conduct and that sort of thing. So those form the the power standards. So you know just glancing at this um and looking at power standards we're seeing pretty rapid growth on standard one makes me happy. Um, standard five while it's trending upward is still really low. Both four and five are still below that 50% mark. Um, which makes me a little nervous and somewhere I want to look for for for some growth. But over here on standards 11 and 12, you guys are rating yourselves high. That tells me that you're able to function with each other. You're able to function with your chief executive and you're able to manage uh district resources. If I if we have problems on either of those, then we
012have really deep structural problems with the board and and I'm not seeing that here. So overall, um you know, this is a really good assessment. It's starting to tell us a story. So I want to dig into the data a little bit more and share you a little bit about my analysis and what I looked at. So when I I look at relative strengths and looking looking across standards and how you responded, you know, certainly standards 11 and 12 really stand out. You have a solid foundation to work from. Some areas where you want might want to be thinking about where you're developing where you rated yourself as developing is around cultural responsiveness and and system thinking across the district. you know, within the the district, see seeing the district as a system and how
013your district fits into the overall system. Key growth areas, and this is going back to, you know, that that discussion around accountability, using data for continuous improvement, accountability, it's what you rated yourself the lowest on. Um, and so I would I, you know, thinking about what the board needs to work on going forward. Standard five is definitely where where I would recommend, you know, applying some attention. Uh culture and climate, um you know, is another one. Standard 7, uh Tom said we're kind of all over the place. Um and that was definitely true in the data. So, uh while the board on a on a technical level is able to function and do well, on a relational level, there's some work that the board needs to do or at least the previous iteration of the
014board. Now, um, board culture lasts across iterations of the board and so it's just I think that's an area that the board needs to apply some attention. Next one that you rated yourself low on an area of growth that you identified was innovation and creativity in the board and district supports. So just being creative in the work that you do. Um, so another thing that we look at is agreement. So I look how much you guys agree and disagree. Um and so the areas where we see high agreement. Now that doesn't because just because there's agreement doesn't mean you rated yourself high. You could be rate yourself high or low. So budgeting and accountability you rated yourselves high on that and and there was high agreement. Um using data for for improvement. it was your
015lowest rating and the board agrees on that at least in this in this um um uh uh survey in effective leadership you know rated yourself lower but then uh high agreement where we saw disagreement so there are differences across the board was culture and climate so going back to that comment from from director Pawgate you know we're all over the place you we're all over the place in the data and there was lots of disag agreement there. Learn a learning organization. You know, you are leading a learning organization and it's a part component that that you need to work on, but there isn't clarity across board members on what that means. And then again, innovation and creativity again where you rated yourself low and there's some disagreement around that. So, starting to get get a
016picture showing up here now. I think I have I wanted to focus our attention on a few standards. Um, clearly standard five. Now, if I had more time, I would love to walk you through these, but I'm just going to ask you a few questions on each of these. So, if you have the port report and form in front of you and you've taken notes, uh, this is a good time to get that out. And what I'd like to do is just ask a few questions. So, uh, what was standing out in standard five that board members saw Debbie's got some paperwork for us. Vince, one second. Great. I think uh Q36 is um a lot of yellow and some red on on that one which is programs approved by the board have effective data
017collection requirements and measurable results. Yeah. And in fact I think there was I mean I can get out of this presentation and actually look at the standard and bring them up on screen here. standard five. So, let's see. So, there's plenty of disagreement and you wrote rated yourselves lower. And maybe the the better question here is, has anything changed with the way the board is consuming data from last year to this year? >> I don't know that I can answer that because I wasn't here last year, >> right? >> Not that I can say. >> Okay. that we're getting the same reports from administrators and from our super. So I can't say that it's been any different. >> So then I mean the board rated itself low here. Um there's plenty of red here. There's
018plenty of yellow and it's pretty consistent across years. So what might be getting in the way of using data more effectively at the governance level? I think there's, you know, possibly a um not necessarily a misunderstanding, but a variation in understanding what it means to use data. Um, you know, I really think that's what it what >> question >> what's what's presented here. I mean, we receive data. we we have good data and it's reflective of of um you know outcomes but are you know how how do we as the board use that data and are we taking that data and implementing any change? I think I think there's just truly variation in how each of us interpret that. >> How do how do you think we could improve or because because this is this
019is by the board, right? So like these these results that we're looking at are are by this board. Yeah. >> So what what do we what do we think we could do to improve that? Should we like reference the data more frequently in our discussions or um should we be asking for more data? What are your thoughts? >> You know, maybe it's just maybe it's when we're reviewing the data um being more clear in what we're reviewing, right? What we're what our goal and Andy you do a great job of presenting it. Not to say that that isn't the case, but we we're not doing a great job of understanding what you're presenting. Um but but really what is our goal? This is what we've done. This is where we're at. Are we at the
020point? Um you know, is our data reflective of the of the work we're doing. And at that point is representing is there anything else we need to do or can do? I wonder if there's some way that we can when we when we make a decision I think I think you either either Diana or you were talking about this is like showing how we link the data we receive to that decision each time we make one or if there's a process by which we could we could do that. I don't know how what that process maybe Vince you have an idea what that process might look like. Um, >> yeah, I I definitely do, but I don't want to interrupt board members. I'm just getting input on where the board needs to go. So, this
021is a great discussion. Keep going. >> Um, I just have a question. Is there a reason 2024 isn't on this? We skipped a year. >> I think you skipped a year. >> Okay. That's I was just wondering. >> Yeah. >> What are your ideas, Vince? Oh, no. I'm not going to share ideas. Not right now. Uh because I only have I have a whopping 11 minutes with the board. So, um the next one I want to So, that was a really great discussion. Thank you so much. That that kind of u solidified some thoughts that I had already. Um so, I'm just going to u foreshadow here. I've already come up with some some uh goal ideas uh coming out of this and that I'd like to share with the board. So, I just want
022to I just want to uh hear your discussion just to make sure that I'm not totally off the mark. And so, I have some ideas for for data and how to improve your practice with data and get you more comfortable. I want to move on to standard 7. And I'm going to cruise down here. Where does standard 7 starts on? Standard 7 starts on page. It's page Oh, no. >> 19. 20 >> I think standard 7 Q49 or right around there is standard six. Yeah. So again uh what are you seeing there and when you think about board culture and climate uh what images or experiences are coming up for you? So I I'm just trying to get a better understanding of why you think the board might have rated itself down here. I think
023the two Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Well, you know, Vincent, looking at the data between 22, 23, and 25, I think the board suggests that we're improving in that area. Well, I I was just going to say something similar to that is I think the two questions that that stick out to me is not not improving as much is 54 and uh 50 uh oh no sorry 54 and 51 don't no sorry 50 and 54 do not show as much improvement which is time taking time to reflect and improve internal and external relationships is 50 and then 54 is board models and holds the district responsible for improving a culture of service. But overall, the rest of them do, I think, show a good amount of improvement. Yeah, you you showed improvement across all 12
024standards. So, I'm I'm not I'm not um uh can you know asserting that the board isn't improving. You are improving. Um, >> and actually, >> but we're seeing a lot of disagreement and across years we're seeing some people rating, you know, all the time where some of these are are never and so there's certainly disagreement and pretty d broad disagreement on the board. Um, and so I'm trying to get a sense of that. >> And actually question number 50 is one that um that we have addressed over the years. We've we've continually this is like a continual improvement effort. You know, I don't think we can ever get enough done or do enough to really um to work on those relationships. >> Any other comments on >> Andy's got a Andy. One of the one
025of the past practices that I think's kind of slipp by the wayside is using this organizational time as again a kind of a more work work tank think tank time. Um, again, we used to, again, people were coming from work, so there was like kind of like a light snack. And a lot of the conversation was just catching up and finding out what's going on and what people have seen in the district and what people have talked with people in the community about and having just a broad kind of roundrobin conversation. That's something that's easy to go back to. But again, we've had there's been like a series of like true business meetings with presentations during this time that have kind of eaten that up for the board. Um and and so again, it's like
026some agendas can be adjusted and there may be some months where you want to have just a work session after the RA. Again, I don't want to schedule any more meetings for anybody, but again, maybe every other month, uh, a work session of just here's here's the five things that I saw when I was walking around the elementary school. Right? Again, whatever your set set a goal at the first meeting of the month and say in two weeks, we're going to come back and we're going to say everybody's going to attend one elementary event, one middle school event, one high school event. what are the positives and what are the things you think could be improved, right? And if you have that time to discuss it because again getting everybody together and having the time
027to sit and discuss is what you're missing. I think I may have al accidentally created a goal in there too, but that's a different story. But again, that's a way to approach it and say, "Hey, we had an elementary focus coming up this month. I went to these events. this is what I saw and I have questions about these items. >> Well, and I mean I think that goal that you're talking about addresses question 54 as well. The board models and holds the district responsible for improving a culture of service. And I think just, you know, being in the schools and talking about what we're seeing in the schools, it really relates to that as well. That is really helpful. Any other thoughts on this on this board culture piece? That's really helpful, Andy, that
028the board used to have work sessions and then has moved away from that. I see nodding heads. Okay, one last topic and then I I'll let you let you off the hook. The the last one is standard 8. uh learning organization. So the board actually I'm I'm a little surprised that that there was some disagreement here. Uh go back up to eight. No, that system's thinking. Hold on. Yeah, that the board, you know, in particular this one, you know, question 56 in particular, uh, the board creates and pursues opportunities to learn about researchbased strategies to ensure continuous improvement for the next generation of learners. Um, you certainly have been doing that around your own governance. U, I've been working with the board for a few few years now. Um, so I'm just curious, um, thoughts
029and reactions, uh, to this, um, and maybe this is related to that the the topic of work sessions, um, of having time to learn about your own practice and learn about what's happening in the district. So, I'd love to hear reactions uh, to this data or the questions here. you know again Vince on this one um standard 8 we've seen improvement overall in all related questions so you know it's hard to really understand um where some where maybe the disparity is without hearing from board members who one you know one standout who has a very negative response. So I it's hard to understand looking at this data the way it's presented um what the issues are. I think in like question 56 one of the like again we spent a lot of time looking at
030data and I tell you what we are doing with the data at the building level but it may be again like again we looked at elementary literacy last year we looked at uh baseline midyear and then we came back in July and looked at end of year growth the question that's never been asked by the board because you've never had the opportunity is what are the strategies being implemented in the classroom that caused that swing in literacy rates and then inviting again people that know the the the reading program to come in and present to you that would help clear up some of the things that you're you're missing because again I can give you all the data points but again what are the practical implementation pieces and what is the science of learning behind
031that data piece that's going on in the classroom if you had that that would clear up I quite a bit in learning organization for >> well well Andy I don't want you to you know I want to give you credit because you do provide a lot of that in your conversation >> I do appreciate though it would be great to have some more concrete examples would love to see that but don't you know you do provide us with great examples in your narrative >> can we just ask people to come and talk to us like that sounds great to me I'd love to hear from the people >> and that's why again having a work session every other month and again like I was a chemistry math teacher like kids came to me knowing how
032to read the the science behind learning to read is an elementary function it is something that the elementary people know far better than I do and having those people come in and go hey here's what we're doing with high dosage tutoring here's how we're doing small group instruction here's the theory behind walk to read right when explain and I understand learning theory so it makes sense But again, I've never had to practice it because again, mine was again, it was science and application of math. So that's what >> and just to clarify Andy you're suggesting that you're talking about work session the 30 minutes that we've got >> schedu again if it's something that's a bigger topic again again if we're meeting on the second Wednesday of the of the month for a regular business
033meeting and again and then maybe you again have said hey we would like to know at a work session and it could be the next meeting or it could be again hey we need 45 minute primer on what our reading strategies How is math taught at the elementary? How does math transition from elementary to middle? >> How do we ask that? Do we ask you to ask them if they would come in or we don't probably don't we don't contact them directly? >> No. No. It would come again. This is what the board's looking for. >> Can you give them 10 minutes to explain this? And then we bring in two or three groups of teacher specialists that do that. Great. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Just in interest of time, we're like one minute over.
034So, any other really quick comments before we leave this session and go into the regular meeting? I have everything that I need at this point. I've taken taken notes on comments. This has been a really valuable discussion. Uh what will come from me is a set of goals and actions u that I'm going to suggest from the board based on this data and this discussion. Uh foreshadow work work sessions are probably going to be a part of that. So, uh, but yeah, so, um, I would recommend that the board, uh, do this self assessment again this coming spring, so it's we're not looking at at data from previous board members, so it'll be a little more rewarding. And then uh the bo I would strongly recommend the board budget a little more time to drill
035into this data a little more you know significantly more deeply um and really take a hard look at it because there's a lot more information here that's available. Um I yield back to the chair. Thank you so much uh for the time. Very much appreciate it >> and thank you very much for joining us all these times. Appreciate it a lot. >> Thanks. >> No problem. Take care folks. Okay, with that we're going straight from work session into the regular session and I get to do this. Usually I just jump when when director Lentur does it. So I declare that the public session is now called to order. Our mission statement is motivating and preparing all students to reach their greatest potential. So I'd like to welcome everybody. There's quite a few people in the
036audience tonight and everybody that is out in the other land out there. Um, before we get too much further, in case anyone's questioning, I am not Director Lacatur. I am Vice Chair Miltonberger. Um, I'm taking over for a while. Hopefully, he's on his way here. Uh, I had a pre-engagement, but he's, I'm sure, working very, very quickly. >> Well, thank you, Dr. Boski. I appreciate that in case anyone was, you know, confused or anything. Okay. So, um we do have a quorum if we can go to um attendance. >> Chair Lacatur, Vice Chair Miltonberger, >> present. >> Director Plet, >> present. >> Director Cole, >> present. >> Director Habberly, >> present. >> Director Posegate, >> present. >> Director Pimlot, >> present. >> Student Representative Emanuel Pon Samura, >> present. Student Representative Lily Clemens, >> present.
037>> Student Representative Grace Frank. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, okay. The next thing on our agenda is pledge of allegiance. And we understand that we have a high school student with us, Robert Garo. Am I pronouncing that correctly? >> Roberto Guerrero. Thank you, Roberto. >> I am very excited for you all to meet Roberto and I apologize for fumbling. These are regrettable but necessary now and I'm getting used to the glasses. Most of our SHS students have been part of SIUS law schools uh since elementary school. Uh the social dies can be cast early and it can be difficult for new students to feel welcomed in to kind of find their footing in the structures and dynamics. That's not the case for Roberto. Roberto came to us about a month and
038a half into nth grade. not ideal circumstances for starting high school, but he quickly established a group of friends and it's a group of friends that kind of pulls from all the different crowds in school. One of the things we really hope for for kids, he's liked by just about everyone, which is evidenced by this year having been elected selected as the junior homecoming prince last October. He's carrying nearly a 3.5 GPA and he's taking some challenging classes. He's hardworking, diligent, and likes to stay busy. And above all, he's nice. And and that's that's the one thing that kept coming up when I asked your teachers. Mr. G reports, Roberto is a very outgoing student with a real passion for natural resources. He spends his summers in the woods with his tribe and OSU. He
039loves to share his excitement for the class and about about what he has learned over the summers. Roberto has a great sense of humor and has been such a joy to classmates and teachers teachers. Mr. Martins echoes much the same, saying, "Roberto is very enthusiastic as an office aid." He often says, and we love this question, "Do you have anything for me to do?" He loves to take on big projects, and we can give him general directions like, "Hey, let's go clean up this classroom or this common space." And he'll take the initiative, you know, filling in his own blanks. He's hugely competent, good humored, and affable. If you don't know what affable means, that's a compliment. Mrs. Holden writes, "I have Roberto for Pride. He cares deeply about his academic performance, even to the
040point of frustration if something come doesn't come out just the way he wants it. He strives to maintain a straight A average, and when it has a challenge to maintain the A, he puts in the extra time and the effort to work toward full understanding. He's also a good friend to his peers. His interactions are light-hearted, funny, kind, and nice. This year, he's working as an office aid in seventh period, and we're asking a lot of our office aids this year. They run notes and errands just like they always have, but this year they're also working the counter and they're answering phones. And Roberto performs these tasks very well. Most people who call in, if he doesn't announce himself as a student, would have no idea they're talking to a student. And that's great. For
041a lot of visitors conducting business in the office, he's the only one they have contact with. And I'm I'm thrilled that we get to showcase one of our students in this prominent position as an office aid. And I'm thrilled for you all to know Berto. He's you're better off for having met him tonight. And he's joined tonight by his uncle Bob who's in the audience with us. So Berto, if you would lead us in the flag salute, >> course. >> Please place your Okay. I pledge of 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. >> Thank you. Now you're going to head up this way and they got some photos. All right, thank you.
042That was a great way to start the meeting. Okay, next do we have Austin Nunes, student leison is All right, you're on. >> Hi everyone. Um, so I want to start off by talking about um our junior president, Charlie Johnson. um at the start of the month she had a food drive at the middle school which turned out very well and I'm very happy for her. She'd been working on this since right before we got out of school and she's just been planning since then. Um next up our varsity boys and girls basketball teams along with cheer is going to be heading to the MAC court at the University of Oregon this Friday for a tournament and we're very excited to um cheer them on. Um we also today had our advanced art class go
043on a field trip to UFO to look at their art gallery. Um, next up, our environmental club is hosting a street cleanup this Saturday at 10 a.m. and everyone's invited to come. And lastly, um, on campus, our senior Christmas tree is officially up. Um, and we're getting ready for our last week of school before winter break. Um, some of the things that we're planning are spirit week, a fun assembly on Monday. Tuesday we're having um, during Pride, we're announcing roadie court and after we're done announcing ROI court, we're planning a fun basketball tournament. Um they also had uh Roie Court had their interviews today which I heard turned out very well. And then on Friday we're having our annual pancake breakfast in the morning to end off our week. And that's all I have. Thank
044you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The next item on the agenda is approving the agenda. And if you've noticed on your um uh here we have uh an addition to make. we've had a a complaint that we need to deal with or uh talk about. So, when we make the motion, if we could include uh whoever doesn't uh read what's on here to include executive session at the end of this evening. So, agenda approval of the agenda item 1210252.6. Again, superintendent, board chair, vice chair meet to prepare the agenda one week prior to the board meeting. Uh items of business may be suggested by any board member, staff member, student, or citizen of the district by notifying the superintendent at least eight working days prior to the meeting. Any changes to the agenda must be
045approved by majority vote. Motion to approve the agenda with the addition of 7.7 executive se uh executive session. Uh how much do you need of it, Morin? >> The whole thing. >> Okay. OS1 192.6602. 6602B dismissal, discipline, complaint charges for the board to convene to executive session pursuant to 192.6602B to consider dismissal or discipline of or to hear charges of complaints against an officer, employee, staff member, or agent if the individual does not request an open meeting. >> Second. >> Okay. A motion has been made by Director Polllet and seconded by Director Habberly uh to go into exe executive session um to include item 7.7. Uh all those in favor >> I Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. All right. Do we have any public comments? We have one public comment. Mr. for Mike Allen. Well,
046good evening, chair, city board members, superintendent, and particularly new representatives. I'm I'm glad to see you here. I'm Mike Allen. Well, I I heard you earlier say that you were talking about the standards and that there one of the areas that I picked up on really quickly was how are we improving on climate? And I I didn't get an answer from the board, but I did want to get up here and tell you that from my standpoint at the actual school level, they are working hard on on climate. And as you know, and I came here a couple of oh, probably six months ago and talked to you about a climate education bill that was actually passed this year and and several of you uh supported that. I did, our group did as well. So,
047one of the things we wanted to do as a group was to meet with the principles of each of our schools. And I have to say thank you, Mike, Andy, and Amy. They all were very receptive. We spent an hour with them with up to 10 people and we found out that they're really doing a great job already. I mean, this this climate uh bill will be taking over several several years to fully implement, but you've already started and and and that we hopefully that we can be part of that process. One thing I'm gonna just a little sidebar here. Amy brought in one of her teachers who does a earth stewardship class and she brought in something that really captured my attention. She said that her little guys and I guess it's what first
048through third grades. Get a baby Lorax award. You'll know what the Lorax is. That's that was Dr. Seuss's book about how we destroyed the trees. So that is my new mascot. You'll see me more about that. So hopefully you realize that you're you're you're at the actual working levels. They're really doing a good job on that and we'll we'll continue with that. Now I I'm on the uh I I'm just finishing off our last session of the facilities uh meeting and this is the this is the second time I've been on that wonderful process. two years in the making and I look forward to a good decision tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Allen. Anyone else that has turned in at the last minute a public comment request? I'm a little nervous. All right.
049Well, hello everyone. Thank you. It's nice to see high schoolers here. That's really cool. Okay. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my excitement at the opening of Whitmore Classical Academy. Like many of my community members, I am a transplant. I moved here with my two young boys over 12 years ago and have had experience with both the benefits and drawbacks of the school district in Florence. All these years later, when considering where to send my 5-year-old daughter to school, we had some complicated decisions to make. Do we try again with public school or homeschool? Can we give up an entire income to do homeschool? Those are very hard questions, very hard choices, and many families are in the same position. But I'm not here to criticize the SAS law schools, but to
050a point, okay, I'm not here to criticize the schools, but to but to point out that the curriculum delivered by the Oregon Department of Education is not working. Generally speaking, the Common Core curriculum experiment that began in 2010 has proven ineffective and has already been removed in several states. I can't even tell you how many parents I know, like myself, have struggled helping our kids with these new methods. Math specifically, had me wondering if it was meant to confuse and not teach. We were happy to be able to teach our middle schooler old school math during CO. Now he has a wonderful understanding of the math he is learning in eighth grade, even propelling himself into the advanced class. My oldest son is getting ready to graduate from Saiisa High School next spring and we
051and he will be moving on to welding school. We are very grateful the high school has had such a dedicated welding teacher and Mr. Smith aka Josh and such a wellunded program. It's likely my son will owe his life success to the education he received at Suslaw. I don't mean to not show appreciation by supporting the opening of another school. Susla has been really good to my boys, especially in the areas of sports and electives. However, Suslaw has not delivered academically. That's why it seems so disheartening when nearly every mention of Whitmore on Facebook is followed by a slew of hateful comments by anonymous people. We don't even know what relationship these anonymous people have to the school district. I see the divide within the community and the feeling of mutual betrayal is toxic. We
052have a lot of parents in town who feel the schools betrayed their pledge to educate while taxpayers feel Whitmore is a betrayal of their hard-earned tax dollars. We need the truth to settle this. The truth is Whitmore is well supported in the community. After all, hund hundreds of people have donated millions to this effort. That doesn't sound like something the people here don't want. It just takes a minute to find the proficiency rates for SEUS law online. None of the schools exceed 40% proficiency in math or reading. The high school boasts 14% in math proficiency. It's pretty disappointing. Our kids deserve a better education and the teachers deserve better material. But unfortunately, our districts are under the heavy hand of the failing Oregon Department of Education and lobbyists at the state level who lead the
053teachers unions. Frankly, after COVID, the teachers union showed us all how little they really care about education. When they did when the idea of a charter school in Florence was introduced a couple of years ago, it certainly got my attention. When I heard it would be classical education curriculum, I got excited. And to directly address some of the recent gossip on Facebook, Whitmore is absolutely not a Christian school. Christian schools primarily still use modern learning models. Am I done? Okay. Okay, >> that's fine if you want to. >> Uh, not much longer. We still use moing learning learning models which mirror common core. And while I believe in Christianity, I would be just as angry if an atheist if as an atheist if an educator were discussing religion with my child. A classical education is
054different from both religious and public schools. So, we can put that argument to rest. At Whitmore, we have a chance to go back to oldfashioned consistency, structure, less technology, high expectations, and character education. An educational system designed to keep the politics and religion of the day out of the classroom and prepare kids for success, not just keeping the status quo. A system that produces well-rounded kids who will one day be the f fellow members of society we really need to rely on. It truly prepares people for the world of teaching them how to think, not what to think. In this quickly changing and complex world, we need that now more than ever. I'm so excited to watch my daughter flourish in this environment. I truly hope we can come together as a community and look
055at the opportunities in front of us. The opening of a charter school is an excellent way to infor entice prospective families to Florence. Both schools will likely look to each other to find the right fit for students. There will always be students that thrive better in one environment over another. And now we will have the options to meet the needs of more students. Much like Mapleton and Seusaw have relied on each other for decades to help find the best space for different learners, Whitmore will be a valuable resource for many families in the community. Thank you. And could you tell us your name again? I missed it. >> Sha Hendris. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. >> The next thing on the agenda is a sources of strength program from
056the Susla Middle School. >> Good afternoon. I'm just up here to give a quick introduction and let these guys take it away. So, uh, we started Sources of Strength about four years ago. Um, and, uh, Miss Reynolds and Riley Stanger, uh, is our student representative from sources this evening. Um, we'll tell you a little bit more about it, but it's it's been quite the evolving, uh, program over the last few years. Um I'm proud to say that um Miss Reynolds took it over last year and she's really just done a fantastic job with the kids. Um it's now an elective class and um kids are not only nominated but they also choose to take that class over other some of the other electives and um so it really has been a very powerful program and
057important part of our school culture. So um who's starting? >> Mr. All right. Riley is gonna >> Well, it can be. You're right. >> Well, that was We're missing Miss Bailey. Yes. >> So, she was do the intros. >> You got to get someone. >> Sorry. No, you're good. >> I wrote I wore my tall shoes. Um, so I'm Miss Reynolds. Audrey Reynolds. Um, so Miss Bailey, uh, she's a Sio Middle School counselor. We work closely together, um, collaborating with the elementary school as well. um she's absent tonight, so I'm gonna read her slide and um I'll let Mr. Stinger take it away. >> Uh hello, my name is Riley Stinger. I've been in Sources of Strength for three years now. Um I have two sisters who have both taken a part in this program.
058Uh my older sister, Zoe Stinganger, she has done it for the only year she was with uh Suslaw Middle School when we moved here. And my younger sister was just started now from sixth grade. Uh I'd like to talk about how uh it started off as a program. It started off as a club. So we would meet like twice a month and talk about this uh program and then it we turned it into an advisory which we met every day in advisory uh for the second half of the year and then we got it convinced to be an elective and from an elective we've had many people join out of curiosity of what it is and we've started showing the schools uh including the elementary and the middle school. What our program is, we focus
059on suicide prevention and uh mental health like uh helping uh so like to get this clear, we're not student counselors. We're we're trying to get people help with who they need and like good relationships with teachers and people around the school. Uh so like we We will share about our experiences and past during class and uh work forward with that and keep it in that room. Nothing leaves there. So we tell our stories and the stories stay at our lessons leave. Uh we like to do lessons to help people know who we are. So last year we did this dodgeball tournament. Uh in this tournament we asked students questions to get back in and it kind of showed everyone who we are, what we are. And since then, we've had many new members, including my
060sister who joined. Uh, I've had lots of fun and experience with this class. We've gone to the elementary and done teachings there to help the fifth graders who are going into sixth grade know who we are. Uh, they've there's been lots of sixth graders joining this year thanks to that. But now we want to we want to move this up to the high school, too. make this an elective or class or advisory or club up there. Get something up there so that we can spread it throughout all three schools and maybe also possibly like uh share our ideas with other middle schools like near us like ma Mapleton, Marshfield, like those close nearby schools that uh would probably also benefit from this uh class. Um, so like I said, I'm Audrey Reynolds. Um, at SAW
061Middle School, we run these campaigns um that the students who we call peer leaders are completely in charge of. They do the planning um they do the execution, they do all of it. Um, a campaign, and it's a little different than a normal campaign. A campaign and sources of strength terms is a schoolwide peer-led uh initiative using creative activities such as posters, lessons, and events throughout the school. Um this is to promote hope, help, and strength by focusing on eight factors, eight protective factors. Um to prevent suicide and promote well-being. The eight factors include family, friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, and physical and mental health. Um, for example, at the start of the school year, it's September, which is suicide prevention and awareness month. Um, we usually focus, we make that our main focus.
062This year, as you can see in the PowerPoint slide, the kids voted on Spider-Man to be the theme. So, um, last year we did the poster or sorry, the postcard uh idea as well to go with the bulletin board. Um, and the postcard is mainly to uplift your friend or a random person you see in the hallway. Um, and on this postcard had uh suicide um risk factors and also had some resources that you can reach out to if you ever needed the help or run into a friend that might need the help. Um, so that's something that I know the kids really enjoy and they continued the postcard idea, which I think is a great idea because also the postcard is located in my classroom and this is a year- round thing that if
063uh say Riley sees a friend having a tough day, he can fill out a postcard and hopefully make that friend's day. Um, and so that's just one campaign. Um there are also um campaigns that just include the monthly bulletin board. Uh our bulletin board is located right at the bottom of the stairs where all the students pass in the commons. Um and this bulletin board, like I said, the peer leaders, they do all the work. I'm just kind of a adult in the room. Um, and they focus on one specific wheel on or sorry, one specific uh >> slice strength on the wheel. Um, so if you can see on that little organ pie, um, each one of those colors represents one of those eight factors that I hadn't mentioned before. Um, and so we
064try to focus on one every month, um, at least on the bulletin board. Um, and then the kids, they get into groups. They do the brainstorming, they plan it out, they come up with the theme, they come up with the words, they do the um they actually post it on the bulletin board. Um so I'm really excited about that. Um another thing that we've done, and this was just for sources of strength peer leaders, was a lock in. Um that was really fun. Really tested how much I can stay awake at night. Um when I said lock in, it was all nighter. And um that was something that it was meant to build trust and strengthen connections between sources of strength students um while also providing that fun and relaxing environment for the kids. Um
065we also went up to the high school and included um the past sources of strength uh students um which I think was really great for the current and past students to kind of get together and have that fun. Um, one activity, just a little side note that we did during that lockin was um, it was around Easter. So with spirituality, we did a Easter egg hunt and so they got into groups and they did a Easter hunt around the middle school. Um, and all these kids are leadership kids. Um, they're kids that they're doing well in school. Um, you can trust them. If I leave the classroom with 24 kids, I'm not worried. Um, and like to run a print or something, right? Um, so all trustworthy kids. Um, so when I said they were
066doing the egg hunt, wasn't anything crazy. Um, but that's just one thing that the kids really look excited for and, um, I think they're excited for next year, too. Shout out to Greyville. He helped me plan the Easter egg hunt. Um, we also include some lunch activities. So sometimes uh peer leaders plan activities during lunch um to kind of reach every student um because sometimes as you guys know time is everything in a classroom and so taking away that time in a to give a lesson is really tough. So we do lunch activities um and they promote it with either announcements with the daily announcements or doing posters throughout the school. Um these usually only run a couple days. Um some examples that we've done in the past was a um positive friend or a
067mentor bingo card. And so during lunch the kids kind of they grabbed a bingo card and they had to go find a positive friend or mentor that matched whichever bingo and then once they had a bingo they came and turned it in. Um, we also did shout outs during that week for a positive friend or mentor. And then at the end of the week, we announced those shout outs and I there was teachers getting shout outs, admin getting shout outs, um, all staff, there was kids, it was really cool to see. So, what we decided as a class was to continue those shout outs. And so after that Friday lunch, we just every Friday during announcements, I would give um Miss Wiggins a couple shout outs and she would read them during the announcements. So
068it's really cool to see all the students kind of come together like that. Um and lastly, as Mr. Riley had mentioned, we did what's called a sources of strength week. Um and that was kind of to wrap up the school year and to review um what sources of strength was before summer break hits because as everybody know when break hits it's kind of tough on students. Um and so to remind the students of that tool box that they built right with all the risk factors and or all the factors that they can lean on the protective factors and maybe some ideas that they can use during summer um with this week-long activity. This was during lunch and during advisory. So during lunch we focused on um mental health awareness because that was also mental health
069awareness month. So we gave away um some free goodies um that is like keychains and little things like that kids were excited about. Um and then during advisory was the dodgeball tournament um which all the kids love. And then at the end and then at the end of the week we were um we did a whoever won out the student because it was grade level first grade level whoever won the grade level tournament um were able to play against the staff members and so that was really fun. And then the staff members, you know, a lot of broken bones and stuff. So we had to pull we had to pull some people from uh the high school. So that was exciting to get the high school kids on the staff members team. >> I made
070that all the >> but eighth grade still won. So saved. >> Yeah, we still lost. So we're looking forward to this year. Um we're hoping to continue that. Yeah, we're coming at you. No. Um and lastly with community service. Ah, sorry. Going the wrong way. Okay. Lastly, with community service, um peer leaders um are also learning about helping others without knowing who that person is. Um so, for example, every Thursday a group of peer leaders led by an eighth grader named Emma Larson. Um they walk over to the elementary school, they sign out, they walk over to the elementary school, grab the food bags, um and then come back to the middle school with the food bags for the middle school kids. Um, and you every kid when we every Thursday they know what's coming
071and every kid right away, Emma, come on, please. They're so eager to help. They might be wanting to get out of class, but they're so eager to help. And when they get back, they always get a treat. So, they're excited about that. Um, but with one thing with community service, that is something that I am trying to build with sources of strength. Um, so I'm always looking forward to any new ways or ideas, um, or any different opportunities that may come up. Um, so I'm always here if anybody wants to listen or give me any tips. Um, so I'm going to read Miss Bailey's notes. Um, if I say I, I mean Miss Bailey. Um, so having worked in different districts, uh, Brandy recognized that the school size school district had this really awesome small
072community that allowed for collaboration with our schools and families that are just right up right down the street, literally same street. Having worked at Saiasawa High School West, Saiasawa Middle School, and the elementary, Miss Bailey was amazed at the amount of families that we all have the honor and privilege to work with because there are generations here, which I found out as well. Um, sources of strength is not just a slogan or a canned program, but it is mindset that helps and keeps our students safe, creates a positive culture, and students understand the important the importance of the message to reach out for help. With that being said, the evolution of the program has allowed us to build in leadership roles for students that are ready to be and become better leaders in our community
073and world. While at the elementary school and as a counselor that helps with the transition to sixth grade from the elementary, uh, Miss Bailey wanted fifth graders to feel more prepared, welcomed, and excited about moving to the middle school. There was a lot of anxiety in speaking with students about crossing the parking lot, changing classes, and entering in as new students. Then there were the sources of strength students ready for the crazy ideas. And even better, the fifth grade team that was open and willing to and ready to listen to our pilot idea to bring student le or to bring student leaders in to facilitate lessons from the sources of strength curriculum, lead activities, and do recess mentoring. Without the help of the fifth grade team and administration, we would not have been able to
074bring our peer leaders into the hallways they used to walk and help future SMS fights prepare for middle school and deal with everyday stressors. That is sources of strength at the middle school. You >> great. Thank you so much for taking time to make that presentation for such an incredible program. Okay. Okay. Next on the agenda is our delightful um mandatory reporting training video that we started last month unless there's a way we can is it too late to >> if you want to push it off to January. You can push it off to January. That's fine. But um we again we also have a kind of gave people attentive timeline for some other agenda items about 7:30. So, uh, keep that in mind. Yeah, cuz I I looked at what was on the agenda.
075I said I would estimate a certain item would start around 7:30. I mean, you can push it. I just, um, I can tell you it's not going to take me 27 minutes to cover the consent agenda. >> Okay. What are Should we go on with the agenda the way it is with the mandatory training or Okay. >> Yeah. My my concern was all the people in the planning on 7:30 then, sure. >> Okay. I just didn't never mind. Okay, so we're very ready for this wonderful video. >> You all get to watch this video with us. So much fun. >> Interesting. Purposes of Oregon sexual conduct definition. A student is defined as any person who is in any grade from pre kindergarten through grade 12 or 21 years of age or younger and receiving educational
076or related services from an education provider that's not a post-secary institution or who was previously known as a student by the person engaging in sexual conduct and who left school or graduated from high school within one year prior to the sexual conduct. Um, and I want to take a moment just to focus on this last bullet point because that one year is in bold because that used to be 90 days. Uh, the definition of student was revised in 2024 to go from 90 days to one year. And this was done to provide broader protection to students by extending the length of time that a person is considered a student in relation to prohibited sexual conduct involving school employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers. Okay. So, what are the reporting obligations under Oregon's sexual conduct law? And
077these reporting obligations um are specific to school employees. But as board members, I think it's important for you to be aware of them as well. So, under Oregon law, any employee who has a reasonable cause to believe that sexual conduct has occurred is required to report that information to a designated licensed administrator. And that designated licensed administrator should be identified in your school's suspected sexual conduct policy. it. Once that designated licensed administrator uh receives that information, they're then required to place the alleged perpetrator on paid administrative leave, take any necessary steps to secure the students safety, and may uh may conduct an internal investigation if it's appropriate, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about whether a school investigation is appropriate in a couple slides. Uh the designated licensed administrator is also required
078to notify TSPC if the alleged perpetrator is licensed and OD if the alleged perpetrator is nonlicicensed. And a question that we get sometimes from administrators is they know they need to make a report but they're not quite sure where to make that report. So I've included as a resource u just links to both TSBC and OD sexual misconduct uh reporting forms um which are at the bottom of the slide here. While you are all uh mandatory reporters, so which means you're required to report any suspected child abuse to DHS or law enforcement, you are not legally obligated uh like school employees are to report sexual conduct as long as that conduct does not also meet the definition of child abuse. But should put an asterisk there. With that said, I like to think of the
079phrase see something, say something. So, if you observe a concerning suspicious behavior, even if you don't think it triggers your mandatory duty to report, you should still report that information to your superintendent for any further handling that uh that that that is appropriate. Um, also sometimes we get questions about whether um that whether certain behavior is abuse or not. Um, so in those situations, um, we always recommend airing on the side of caution and contacting DHS and or law enforcement and they can help you make the determination whether you need to make a report. And I'll say there's no downside to making that call to DHS or law enforcement. The worst thing they're going to tell you is that no, you don't need to make the report. Um, I think it was uh included, actually
080I know it was included in a previous slide, uh, but we included uh the DHS abuse hotline on this slide as well. Um, they are open available 24/7, 365 days a year. >> Okay. And I think I'm going to turn it over to Spencer to talk about this policy. >> Yep. Here's another policy. It's going to It looks very similar to the one that we that I talked about a few minutes ago. The one I talked about a few minutes ago was around child abuse. This one is around sexual conduct. And so Haley and Ken have um shown the different definitions. Um, yes, they may overlap in some situations, but they are two distinct definitions and as board members, very distinct obligations for you, um, as far as legal reporting and things go. Um, but
081if you were to compare these two policies side by side, you would notice a lot of similarities. Um, and again, just like um, with the last policy, encourage you to look at your current policy. This one was actually just updated at the end of last year um, around the definition of a student. And so we encourage you to look at that and make sure that it gets updated. Um if it hasn't been done already, make sure that that happens um soon. There's also an AR that walks through a lot of the the details um that some of that we're talking about today, some of which are really specific to employees and how they process um process um reports and things like that. I like diagrams. Uh so this is just an overlapping diagram just to
082illustrate that I mean as Spencer was saying depending on the type of conduct it may only constitute child abuse. Other types of misconduct may only be considered sexual conduct but there are instances where there's going to be overlap where the behavior is going to be both child abuse and sexual conduct. So, it's just really important to be familiar with your mandatory reporting obligations and your school sexual conduct and child abuse policies so that if you see behavior uh you know whether it triggers your mandatory duty to report or whether you need to notify your superintendent or potentially both or again if you don't know whether it constitutes child abuse again you can always call law enforcement and or DHS and they can help you make that determination. Okay. So, district uh there are some specific
083district obligations when uh they receive reported uh reports of suspected child abuse and or uh sexual conduct. Um designated licensed administrators uh have certain legal obligations that they are required to comply with anytime they receive a report of suspected abuse or sexual conduct. And one of those obligations is to place the alleged perpetrator on paid administrative leave. And as Haley said, this is not an option. And again, it has to be paid administrative leave. They can't require the employee to use their own accured paytime during that period. They need to pay the employee um as if they were uh reporting to work during that time period. Common question we receive is once the employee is out on paid administrative leave, how long they are required to keep the employee out on paid administrative leave? So,
084if an employee is placed on paid administrative leave based on a report of suspected sexual conduct, that employee must remain under Oregon law on paid administrative leave until TSPC or OD has determined that the report is either substantiated or that the report cannot be substantiated or that it is not a report of sexual conduct. After the school receives that determination from TSPC or OD, they can take that information and then determine when whether any school policy has been violated and then they can take an employment action if appropriate. Uh there's a nearly identical requirement for employees placed on paid admin leave based on report of suspected abuse. So, if an employee is placed on paid administrative leave based on a report of suspected abuse, that employee must remain on paid administrative leave until law enforcement
085or DHS has determined that the report is substantiated. It cannot be substantiated or that it is not a report of abuse. And again, similar to uh the prior slide, after the school receives that determination from DHS and/or law enforcement, they can then take that information, determine whether a school policy has been violated, and then they can take the appropriate employment action. Another question we get sometimes is what if the report of suspected abuse or sexual conduct involves a contractor, agent, or volunteer? So, when a licensed administrator receives a report of suspected abuse or suspected sexual conduct by a contractor, an agent or volunteer, the school must prohibit the contractor, agent, or volunteer from providing services to the school if the school determines that there is reasonable cause to support a report of abuse or sexual
086conduct. So just as a best practice, what we recommend is if a designated licensed administrator receives a report of suspected abuse or suspected sexual conduct by a contractor, agent or volunteer, we are advising that they immediately prohibit that individual from continuing to provide services to the school. Investigations. So, anytime a designated licensed administrator receives a report of suspected abuse or suspected sexual conduct, they're going to be required to report to a third party agency that may be DHS or law enforcement or TSBC or OD or all of those agencies depending on whether the conduct is child abuse, sexual conduct, or both. That designated licensed administrator is also required to take steps to secure the student safety. And as I mentioned before, they may conduct an investigation if it's appropriate. However, schools are not permitted to
087investigate any allegations of child abuse without first getting permission from DHS and or law enforcement. And they're not permitted to investigate any allegations of sexual conduct without first getting permission from OD or TSBC. While schools can choose to conduct their own investigation after they receive permission from DHS or law enforcement, TSBC and or OD, we do advise that um schools remind schools that they can rely on an investigation conducted by these agencies um to to to take an employment action. So in other words, there's not always a need for schools to conduct their own investigation. There are some abuse and sexual conduct training requirements um that all employees um are required to complete um as well as students um as well as information that volunteers, agents and contractors must be provided. Um so in addition
088to the required annual sexual conduct training that employees must complete, all employees must also be trained each year on appropriate electronic communications with students. And then volunteers, agents, and contractors must be provided with information on prevention and identification of abuse in sexual conduct, reporting obligations and appropriate electronic communications with students. And this information should be provided before those individuals start providing services to the school. And then finally, students must be provided with training that is designed to prevent abuse and sexual conduct. Uh McKenzie uh was mentioning requirements to have posters in schools. You are required to have schools are required to have an updated abuse and sexual conduct poster. It must be posted in every single building. Um there example of a mandatory reporter poster. Um I've included a link at the bottom where you
089can access it. Um if you need copies um we are happy to provide them to you and I'm sure we can get them to you somehow. And now I think I'm passing it back over to Spencer for background check requirements. >> Yeah, thanks Ken. Um, most of what's been talked about thus far has been reactionary. Um, after there has been some type of child abuse or sexual conduct, what are the obligations of districts, um, employees, everybody involved there. Now, we're going to talk a little bit about background check requirements, which is one of the things that you can do to hopefully um limit the amount of sexual conduct or child abuse that's happening in your schools. And I think it makes sense to look at this as two different types of background checks. The first
090is a background check that is, you know, your typical fingerprint or other criminal background check. Um, and those are often done with through OD. Sometimes they're um through other entities. Um, but they're looking at, you know, criminal history. they're looking at that individual's legal background um to see if there's anything in there. The other part, and this is a newer part, is when you're hiring an employee um or a contractor, you would reach out to either TSBC or OD to ask essentially ask or not, you're reaching out to the pre previous employers, sorry. Um reaching out to those to see whether or not there has been an investigation into sexual conduct. And so we're going to talk about those two requirements, those two different types of background checks, um, and how they apply to different
091individuals. Um, but the first thing, these really apply to individuals who are going to have direct unsupervised contact with students. And this is volunteers, contractors, employees of contractors, um, anybody who's going to be in your schools doing something that may have direct unsupervised contact with students. And the definition of direct unsupervised contact with students uh means contact with students that provides an opportunity and probability. So there's the opportunity and a and a good chance that these individuals could have personal communication or touch um when not under direct supervision. And I think it's really important to recognize this includes communication as well as physical touch. So, that's important to think about. And as you uh think about all the individuals that might be in your schools, um contractors, volunteers, is there a chance is are they
092going to be walking through the halls? Are they going to be in a situation where they might be alone with a student or have the ability to communicate privately with a student? Um so that's what we mean when we talk about direct and supervised contact with students. Um, and then the third bullet here, um, and this goes along with what everything that, um, McKenzie and Haley and Ken have said, when in doubt, you want, we want to be cautious. Um, this is a situation that if we can prevent child abuse from happening, we certainly want to do so. So, um, we take a cautious approach and if we have a doubt, then we're going to go ahead with at least a criminal background check and potentially a fingerprint background check of those individuals. The first
093group that um I want to talk about in a little bit more detail is volunteers. So again, these are volunteers that might have direct unsupervised contact with students. And we often get the question around board members. As a board member, do I have to be background checked? And the answer is strictly in your board member role. The answer is no. Um because you're attending meetings, you may even be attending those virtually. Um, being a board board member doesn't give you access to students, but you're on the board because you care about kids. Um, you probably have students in the district or you have at some point. Um, you've probably volunteered in some capacity in the district. So, if you're going to serve as a volunteer in some capacity, you would go through the same background
094check requirements as any other individual. Um, and that includes if you happen to be licensed, that includes through TSPC. um for non-licensed that includes through OD. Um and you're required to have a policy on background checks for volunteers. Um and this is included within for most districts within their um background check policy. It's policy GCDA, GDDA, and it goes through um some of the requirements and some of the process for background checks um for your volunteers. Um, in most instances, um, districts recognize, hey, if you have direct, if you're going to have direct unsupervised contact with students, we're going to do a criminal records check on you. Um, not necessarily fingerprints for every volunteer because that can get expensive. Um, most districts just go with the, um, criminal records check, and you're required to have
095that check complete. There there's not a list of prohibited crimes um, for volunteering. That's something that the district is going to have to make the decision on. Um, many districts, however, also um require fingerprint background checks for certain types of volunteers. Um, suppose you have a a coach that is a volunteer and they're going to be going on overnight trips or maybe they're the head coach, so they are the district's representative. They're in charge of a group of kids that might be traveling. Um, and you want to make sure you might say, "Oh, that type of a volunteer. We're going to make sure we want to be extra safe here. We're going to do a fingerprint background check um for those types of volunteers and that those options are listed um in policy GCDA, GDDA
096um and I would encourage you to look at that and see what that process might look like for volunteers. You may be very familiar with it like I said because you may have signed up, you may be a volunteer in your district and hopefully you've gone through that same process as any other volunteer would. The next um background check and these are going to look very similar. Um the process is very similar, but it's worth identifying and recognizing um that they that they apply um in multiple situations for contractors. So if you have licensed contractors um that are going to have direct unsupervised contact with students that are coming into your district, they're going to the district's going to reach out to TSBC. For non-licensed contractors, they're going to go through OD. Um and then
097there's also the and those those checks are really for the sexual um conduct. And then you also have the criminal record um background check that's going to be done through OD as well. So multiple steps, multiple things, they're going to be done around those contractors. And probably the most comprehensive is around employees. Um and when we're talking about employees, if they're licensed employees, the background checks are typically done through TSPC in order to obtain their lensure. U but for non-licensed employees, you're going to go through OD to get the criminal background check completed. Um and also to look for um any type of a report or an investigation around sexual conduct. Um you are not allowed to hire any employee um that has a crime that has has been convicted of a crime that's listed
098in OS 342143. And we commonly refer to that as the forever crimes list. Um if you've been convicted of one of those crimes, you are not allowed um to be employed in the district. Um, another piece just because this is um along that line and part of that anytime you're hiring someone, the district should confirm um their license with TSPC um just to make sure that um they have the license that not only they need for the position, but also the lines the license that they claim to have um in their application materials. We have um like I said, we've got policy GCDA, GDDA. It was last updated in April of 2024. Um so it's a good good one for you to look at and and start to to understand, oh, what does that process
099look like? You as board members, again, you're not going to be involved in all the details, you know, collecting applications, running um checks and things like that. Um but it's worth looking at and then asking the administration, hey, is this working? Um is there anything else that you need? Um, do you have additional questions that we as a board can support you and help you on? And I think that brings us to the end. I'll turn it back over to Haley. Um, you can see my contact information is there under policy. Pace Legal is there as well. Um, and we can get you um, the information for McKenzie as well. So, back to Haley. >> Thank you, Spencer. Um, we have a few minutes, so if anyone has any questions they want to put in
100the Q Q&A, we're happy to try to answer those. I did want to mention a couple of you asked um questions about employees asking their administrator about reporting and the administrator telling them not to report and that sort of thing. That is something that we have heard of as well. Again, for child abuse, it's uh mandatory that employees report to DHS or police regardless of what their supervisor says. And yes, they will be protected from retaliation if they are um fulfilling their legal obligation to report child abuse. Um sexual conduct is a little bit different because school staff are not obligated to report sexual conduct uh directly to TSPC or OD. They are required to report it to their licensed administrator. OSBA has actually introduced a bill this session that would require school staff to
101make that report directly on their own to TSPC or OD because we have heard of situations where administrators are not reporting information that may be sexual conduct. Um, and again, I think most of the time administrators are doing what they're supposed to be doing and reporting these things, but you get situations every once in a while where that's not happening. Um, and so we're doing what we can legislatively to try to fix that particular problem. And I do not see any addition. >> There was another question came in, Haley, and I am not positive on the answer for it. So, I'm going to read it to you and let you answer. Um, is employment fingerprinting a oneanddone deal, or do school employees periodically get rechecked? Say you have a 25-y year employee. Do they only
102get checked at the beginning? Um, and I believe the the requirement is that it only be done at the beginning. Um, I know with volunteers, it's not uncommon for districts to recheck or have um volunteers resubmit every I think three years is the most common, but as far as employment goes, um, it's usually once at the beginning and then if there's any issue um, then those are generally reported to the district um, from law enforcement or someone else. But Haley, if you know more on that or if I'm incorrect and please correct me. >> No, you're correct. Um, it's at beginning of employment, but we highly recommend that the school adopt some sort of regular process for that. Um, oftentimes they will learn of a conviction via rumor or just learn that one of their
103staff members is in jail for some reason. Um, and having some sort of system in place to kind of check on that every once in a while would definitely be uh recommended. Any other questions? All right. Uh, well, thank you for joining us this evening and thank you McKenzie. >> Okay, >> vice chair. >> Yeah, >> may we take a two minutes to stand and stretch? Um, sure. I just we've got a lot to cover. I just want to Okay, one and a half minutes stretch. Okay. Okay, if we could call the meeting back to order. And see that worked. I don't have to be as violent as some people who sit in the seat. Okay, thank you for that suggested break. I think we all kind of needed it after that. It was kind
104of a long and dry presentation, but very, very needed. So, okay. The next very important thing on our agenda is the consent agenda. >> Okay. Uh consent agenda, consent business item, uh 121025-5.0. Uh this month's consent agenda contains the following items. Uh November 19th, uh board meeting minutes, November 2025 financial statement enrollment update for the month. And then policies, JFCA, GFCAR, student dress and hygiene policy DBEA, District Budget Committee policy if District Curriculum policy uh GCBD, GDBD sick leave and policy GCBD BDE military leave of absences. Administration recommends approval of the consent agenda as presented. >> Okay. Is there any discussion on any of them or are we ready to make a motion on the entire a consent agenda? Board chair or board vice chair rather. Be it resolved that the Susla School District Board
105approves the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Resolution number 121025-5.0 consent agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion's been made by Director Heberly and seconded by Director Plet. Uh all those in favor I I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that passes now. Now the moment that we have been waiting for uh the next thing on the agenda is uh facility advisory committee recommendation to the school board. Mr. >> Okay. Uh item 121025-6.1 facility advisory committee facility recommendation to the board for school improvements. For the last several years, board of directors have charged the facility advisory committee to examine all district properties and prepare potential improvement plans for district facilities. A resolution would be put by the force for general obligation bond on an election is required no longer no later than 61 days prior to an
106election date. Um and then you have links in there for any of the legal pieces. uh administration recommends that the board of directors evaluate the various scenarios to improve district facilities and designate an overall comprehensive facilities packages be put before the voters as a general obligation bond at a future election date. Um and so the primary presentation will be by um Mr. or Mr. Harker, our co-chairs of the facility advisory committee. And so I will turn it over. >> Now that video was a tough act to follow. But we will try. Where is Yes. Let's see. Nearly two years ago in early 2024, the members of this school board authorized the establishment of a facilities advisory committee to explore facility needs in the district. In response, we formed that committee with an exceptional group of
107individuals, some of whom are here this evening. We are fortunate to have had the expert guidance of architect Kurt Wilson. Would all committee members who are here this evening please raise your hands. >> Thank you. We sincerely thank all of you for your hard work, your wisdom, and your thoughtful guidance. I also see here uh a few people who have been coming to our meetings and thank you for being here this evening. See there. Whoops. Hold on. These are the committee members. Give you just a second to look those over. I think many of you know who's been on this committee. And we also had some exeicio members listed here. It's a great group. Every effective and successful community is built on a few basic pillars. Here we are looking at four such pillars. We
108have wonderful people here. We have great businesses and services. We have beautiful surroundings and a solid infrastructure. and we have excellent schools, but we don't have all the buildings and other facilities we need to complement and support teaching and learning. It is not yet a complete package. We began meeting in April of 2024. We have met regularly since then, exploring the condition and utility of various district facilities. Here you see a brief outline of the process we followed. We're now in the final step of that process. In a moment, committee vice chair Mike Harkler will present our findings and our recommendations to the board. In the meantime, in order to be fully prepared if you decide in the near future in favor of a bond measure to be placed on the May 2026 ballot, we
109have scheduled two meetings for next week. At these meetings, we will begin discussions of the work that would be needed by a political action committee to educate our community members about the importance and value of supporting a school bond measure. The two meetings will be duplicates in structure and content. They are scheduled for Monday, December 15th at 6 pm at the high school library and Wednesday, December 17th at 3 p.m. here in the district office. Please join us if you are available. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as the chair of the FAC. It has been a pleasure to work with such an on such an important project with such a terrific group of people. I have some handouts that I'm going to um get in just a moment while Mr. H starts his
110part of the presentation. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Uh, while Bob's handing these out, I I'm gonna ask for a little bit of grace because after 20 months of this work and given this preper, this presentation or a similar presentation countless times, uh, this final one had exactly one run through this afternoon at about 4:30. The last couple days have not gone as planned at school. So, the the prep time we thought we'd get for this is a little wonky. and it is going to require me to be working from up there. But what Bob is handing out now are two forms. One is uh the project costs for different elements from each of each of the projects we're going to point out to you. The other one is a much fuller PowerPoint presentation than
111the one I'm going to be presenting tonight. So you will see all the slides I'll be presenting you will see in the in your packet. But you also notice some of the slides are labeled as not shown. That means they are not in the presentation tonight, but they're there for your reference because there's just that much information. And wanting to keep brevity as a a virtue, we didn't want to put everything in there. All right. Some of this is going to look familiar because it's part of the what we discussed last month and we we gave an update on what we're doing and I already overshot the slide. Okay. Hey, we had a team of architects, engineers, and trades people come in and analyze all of our schools, and they identified eight features, eight eight
112different systems needing to be addressed at the high school. Uh the aging building, aging building means old parts. Old parts means scarce, and scarce means costly. Inadequate and failing systems. It was one year ago this week we had to close the high school for 4 days because the boiler went out and we it was we couldn't occupy the building comfortably enough for instruction. Safety and security, those have been concerns from the start. The difference between safety and security. Safety we're talking um largely the the the structure of the building and ties into the structural upgrades that we need as well. Security is talking more about the 17 entrances that we have and how difficult it is to make sure we know who's in the building at all times. The high cost of maintenance utilities was
113noted about 40% of the district budget for maintenance utilities for all of our properties is devoted just to the high school. Since we opened in 1970 and 1973 was the first year any seismic building codes hit the books in the state of Oregon. We're definitely out of date with current building needs. Capacity issues, mostly referring to our small classrooms, the no kitchen and cafeteria. The kitchen not a major source of concern, but the cafeteria is a problem. The fact that we can't seat all of our students or can't even really seat half of our students at a time means that we have to have the open campus. Now, the open campus has become very much a part of the culture. I'm not sure we're ever going to bring that back, but I think we could
114entice more kids to stay on campus if we had an inviting place for them and a comfortable place for them to stay. and the lack of amenities, things like ADA considerations and features for those with disabilities. Those are all afterthoughts in our building, new wiring, instructional technology, and very large for us is big, airy, bright windows to let in some natural light. Also, Tom, >> do you want would you like questions as you go or at the end? >> We can take them as we go. >> Okay. I don't have one. That was my question. Okay. Sorry. And to our committee members, if there's something I've glaringly forgotten, please don't jump up because you haven't seen this yet. There might I might might be talking about it later, but if we get to the end
115and I haven't mentioned something, please tell me. The same team uh took a good look at the elementary school. They looked at the middle school, too. The middle school is actually doing pretty well, and this should be for 25 years. But the big knees at the elementary school are the kindergarten building. Kindergarten building is out going to outlive its life. We think it's was slated to last for 10 to 12 years and this is year 11. So we're definitely motivated to move the kinders inside. The classroom functionality on the south end is pretty weak. A lot of those the features the instructional technology in there has been aftermarket afterthought and built in with as new technology comes in. Obsolete systems not as bad as the high school but definitely some that are obsolete or going
116obsolete. Safety and structural upgrades. The 1965 portion of the elementary school definitely needs some seismic updates and it needs a buff just visually as well. But the bus and traffic flow along with the kindergarten buildings were the biggest concerns at the elementary school. Now we talked earlier, we heard some people talking about how we feel like one unified campus. That kind of led right into our recommendations. Too fast. Our final recommendation is for a district campus improvement project as opposed to separate projects addressing the needs of the high school and the needs of the elementary. And I think you'll see in a moment how they do tie together. A replacement high school would be the first element with improved instructional spaces that will really address the traffic concerns, improved athletic facilities, and increased public access.
117Public access was a big element for us. We got that feedback all over the place that people wanted to have better access to the schools. Renovations at the elementary school that first and foremost will bring that kindergarten classroom inside but also enclose the corridors, the two open breezeways currently will improve circulation in the building and better access for after school events. We know it's going to be expensive. So, the district campus improvement project, the entire project is a little over $145 million, which is a cost of $2.93 per 1,000 of assessed value on a 30-year bond. Our goal, our target was to stay under $3. And we really got a break because we had recently got new property value assessments that made it cheaper for us to borrow money. So, what had been at exactly
118$3 came down to below 280 something and we were able to make some changes, some adjustments. Am I missing anything so far? Any questions from anybody? >> This is This is not This is something new. This is not what we saw last month. >> It's different than the preliminary. >> Yeah, cuz Yes. >> Okay, great. Well, then I think about it. >> We're going to get right to it. Yes, this this next part is the fun part. We are looking at a new high school, large two-story school going to be built instead of on the JV baseball field like we've always been talking. We're going to center it on the vacant lot south of the stadium and west of the middle school. We're getting lonely up here. We're the only ones on this side of
11927th Street. So, we thought we could get everybody in the student population on the other side, we could really gain some some wonderful things for education and for our teachers and staff. >> Isn't this where the soccer field was going to go? >> Yes. >> But then things will get facilities get flipped over the other side for sports. I got you. >> We'll get there, Tom. >> So, like that on the other side of 20, that's just sports block. That's just all the sports facilities on all >> we'd have an academic block and we'd have an athletic block. Another advantage to this right up 27th Street, we have high voltage power lines. If we ever have a cataclysmic event, the big one, whatever would befall us, this always had the risk of having half of
120our student body on one side and half on the other. So, this gets all of our students on one side. This also makes transitions between the schools a whole lot easier. So, our high school students who are working as TAs at the middle school or elementary school is now a very easy walk. It allows us to utilize the plenty spacious middle school parking lot. We don't need to have a staff parking lot for this. We'll be able to double up. They call it campus parking and we definitely some advantages there. Couple of big changes though on how it's going to address that traffic pattern. It's off the page, but on 21st Street right out here, right outside the district office, instead of running a bus lollipop for the buses to turn around, the buses will
121have an enclosed road that comes behind the elementary school track down here to is 22nd Street. >> Come into the middle school parking lot. >> Yeah. >> Oh, that's right. Middle school. and then run a loop and drop off at that side of the high school >> potentially here or here. We'd have an interior traffic route that's just us for most of that. And we'll have not guard rails, a swing bars up to make sure it's just our buses on there. Our students will be safer for transport. We will be off of Oak Street. And you'll see in a moment we get to the elementary school how else that will affect Oak Street. This also has the benefit of our student parking lot feeding off of Kingwood, not off of Oak. Kingwood Street is lefthand
122turning lane for that entire expanse. Allows for a lot more room for our students to pull into that lot and to pull out. We've looked at a number of different configurations and please know we are far from a floor plan quite yet. We are conceptual still. So there's some things in here that could change. It wouldn't change the dollar figure. That's going to stay. But it there's some adjustments we could make. But we think that having that interior road has benefits for emergency, benefits for maintenance, benefits for transportation, and a lot of the infrastructure that we already need for power and wastewater and storm water is already built into the infrastructure of Kingwood Street. So, we wouldn't have to reproduce that. We'd have some cost savings there. big changes. These two parking lots, the current
123student and staff parking lot at the elementary school would stay and we would at sorry at the high school. They would stay and we would take the softball fields and rotate them now right on top of the footprint of the current high school. So the high school gets raised that becomes softball which allows us to reuse the auxiliary gym as a fieldhouse. the much needed much the long awaited for fieldhouse for softball. People love this. It's not that old. It does need some work. It needs some some maintenance, but we would be factoring that in. Everything in here in purple is new construction. Uh building construction, not in counting the roads. We had some road costs that we wouldn't have had with the school with the building over here, but it's more than made up
124for inconvenience. And frankly, the city gave us a signal that we were going to have problems passing the traffic study. The traffic study is a part of every new construction project. We would be inviting more and more congestion and pra and traffic if we built the school on the JV lot. Adrien, >> so you're saying um the city has all the infrastructure that we need up on Kingwood. So by >> maybe not all. I don't want to be caught saying all, but more. >> So do we >> all? I can say all. We have it all. >> Oh, awesome. So like we're adding roads, but do we also see cost savings too by moving it over there from from access to? Remember when we were over here with that previous assessment, we were at exactly
125$3 and now we're coming in at 293. So with the road, with the transfer, and with the new tax assessment, the costs have come down. >> Where where would the the student parking? Where would that come out on Kingwood? >> It comes out south of the alternative school. We own four tax lots. We have maintenance bus parking lot also upper >> the old school is right here and that would be the driveway and we believe in our early penciling it out this stretch of road would not include the buses it would just be student traffic coming in >> so it would preserved. >> That would probably really help with getting kids to and from the old school. It'd be so much closer. >> Yes, we we we have some kids who lose their way. >>
126I' I've done that a lot. I saw that like Yeah. Okay. >> They don't always make it. Uh, one thing that we have struggled with from the start and it just it keeps coming up every time I look at it. The original designers of this district hated square angles. The high school sits cockeyed on the lot. The track is cockeyed the other way. And because that in the stadium the track is cockeyed. That kind of forces us to make the new building cockeyed as well. This would be a two-story building which is better for flow. It's better for emergency situations. Fewer doors to to have to guard with security cameras. It's faster to evacuate a two-story building than it is a large spread out building. It's certainly easier to account or faster to account for
127everybody. It adds a square footage and flexibility to the classrooms because all of the classrooms, all 23 classrooms in this building. All of those would be larger than our average size classroom at the high school. Now, there's improvements to the athletic field. Again, the two soccer fields would go right where soccer, sorry, where softball is now. And we'd be able to keep we save some money not demoing, but actually reusing the current parking lots. We feel we found a very coste effective 145 million is a lot of money but we think it's very cost-effective way of building a new school. Just one moment. We've also included an auditorium. An auditorium would fit right here. This gives us an opportunity to do academic assemblies which we currently cannot do. Our gymnasium is just no good for
128an academic assembly. We can do you rah stuff but we can't do anything that has an educational point. It would also be a performance space for us and we means that we wouldn't have to be competing with other entities in the community for use of the FEC. We use the FC a lot and it's not a terrible cost to us. It it certainly is a cost involved, but the biggest problem, the biggest drawback to it is it's not ours. We can't use it on our schedule. We have to use it around others. It also means we're never going to go to the FEC in the middle of the day or rarely because now we got to load up buses and it becomes a big transition. The gymnasium would be here, the auditorium would be here.
129We'd have parking right out front, main entrance here, and a potential secondary entrance there, both going into the courtyard. But we'd be able to utilize the same parking that feeds the stadium for football games, could also feed the auditorium. We think this is a pretty good p plan and we definitely think it's going to change the traffic pattern. If we can get 200 student cars a day off of Oak Street by putting them on the Kingwood, we're saving a lot of traffic and a lot of congestion and there's still another change coming at the elementary school. Any questions on the high school before I move or committee? Did I miss anything? 23. >> Oh, did we ever arrive at a number? I don't recall that we did. >> Somebody's got to get the mic. >>
130Oh, do I just have a second here? >> Okay. Thank you. So um it would give us more capacity for students. It would also give us u the the larger size of each classroom would be more suitable to what teachers need to do in their classes. But I don't think I know that we that we planned it for the size that we have now and some some room to grow. We unless we have a gold rush here in town and the population really booms, we we don't anticipate radiating a new capacity in certainly not in my career. >> So there's room for expansion and the when you expand a high school or even an elementary school, when a school expands, you're really because population growth, you're not adding gym space, you're not adding locker rooms,
131you're not adding those things. You're really just adding classrooms. It would not be out of the question to relocate or do something with our current transportation department and build that way with another wing or an extension if we have to. By the way, all the property for this we already own. So, we don't have to do a property purchase in order to make any of this happen. >> So, that's it's somewhere in the range of 350 to 400 students capacity. Maybe >> that'd be more than that. >> Maybe more than that. >> Probably closer to 450. >> 450. >> Yeah. 23 classrooms with roughly 25 on average. >> At least 400. looking at 450 >> 450 >> and again we've always even our largest days in the 90s we were sitting 460 470 but we
132had enrollment over 500 but we had students on short schedules >> right and we had you know seniors could take a five period day and all that so again we weren't si and we had a 60k uh study hall at any point so we weren't sitting >> we weren't sitting everybody in the classroom this gives us a chance if we occupy every room at about 25, we're right about 450. So again, we've been floating the last few years between 380 and 410. And so again, we it would take quite a bit of growth to push us to 450 plus >> to make that a stressor on the new building. >> Um I have a question. Um the price that is listed is that with all of the um say the light fixtures and >> it's
133all furniture. Okay. It's everything that's also projected cost >> for time of completion. So it's the stages are built in with roughly a five to six% over overage again because we know we're going to have growth. We know we're going to have inflation in construction every year. So >> again the complete process taking three years. The first phase is increased by 5% from time of bond. The second phase another 5% and then another 5%. Because the one thing you do not want to do >> is bond for cost at time of ballot >> because then you break ground and you've already lost 5% and need to start making cuts. Thank you. >> However, the costs are structured based on winning in a recent election or an upcoming election. The cost would have to be recalculated
134the longer we put this off. So, the the cost would not be permanent. >> Tom, >> um, >> oh no, I it slipped my mind. Shoot, I have a lot of questions, but >> we can come back to it. >> Thanks. So again, total of 174,500 ft. It replaces the current 110. We're a little over 110 now because we've offered add added the modular buildings, but we'll we're pretty much in the ballpark. >> Um, so there was a bond for the middle school and that is fully paid off. Is that right? >> Correct. Okay. >> We are construction debtree. >> Great. Okay. Here's the portion that I'm going to invite the directors to read about later for sake of time and brevity. We think that this new high school building is going to have an
135educational impact, a long-term impact, a non-monetary impact, and a public benefit. And I'm going to be speaking to some of those, but I don't need to do uh the intricacies of all the slides. So, I invite you to read that on your own time. Those are in the slides that are are hidden in this presentation, and they're marked not shown in your presentation. Let's talk about the elementary school. We have a model here that will move the kindergarten building inside. It's going to remedy the access issues and the internal circulation issues. Again, here purple represents new construction. The orange is a renovation. I'll get to the orange in a moment. New construction would be a front breezeway on the east side of the school and the back breezeway on the west side of school will
136become formal hallways. They'll be enclosed, which means students can move from one side to the other without traveling outside and leaving the the safety confines of the school. We'd be bringing in four new classrooms, which allows us to decommission the kindergarten building just in time for it to decommission itself. We'd also have an interior hallway here. One of the hassles, trust me, I know this and I'm sure Amy knows it as well. This gym is used quite a bit after school and in the evenings by Boys and Girls Club and there isn't a good way to get there for parents. So, next to these four classrooms, we'd have an internal hallway with a door here that would allow families to transition at night to the gym without having access to the rest of the school.
137>> Yes, that's the courtyard. I've been jokingly calling that the waist most wasted piece of real estate in the city of Florence. Amy, do you guys use that for anything? No. Yeah, there's no fence. Okay. The orange section would be part of 11 classrooms that would be renovated. They'd be brought up to seismic code. Again, that portion of the school was built in 1965, even further before the 1970 seismic coding era. We have no idea for either the high school or this older portion of the elementary school what size earthquake it would take to make the building uninhabitable. we do know would be something significantly shorter, smaller than the big one that we're all worried about. So, we take the opportunity to do some seismic upgrades for which we believe we will be eligible for
138some grants. We can't factor that into the cost. We can't we can't tell the community we're going to get grants, but we know we would be eligible for them doing a renovation. No grant availability for new construction at the high school, but for renovations at the elementary school, we'd have an opportunity. Here's the other traffic part. It's hard to see it on here. This would be the start of the bus loop that goes up and around the track and comes around well further up comes around back by the middle school and ties into the parking lot. That means this entire expanse with some modifications can be used for student drop off and student pickup. Instead of using just the north side and all of the overflow onto Oak Street, if we can remove all of
139the student traffic from Oak Street, simultaneously expand the footprint for parent pickup and drop off, we think we can really cut down on the nightmare of Oak Street at dismissal time. We've always liked the fact that we have a campus feel. We've always liked that our schools are all you just going up the road. This doesn't really lose that. In fact, it tightens it up a little bit. And one thing I forgot to mention, this lot currently is not usable for much else. At one point, it was even condemned. We made some improvements to it. It's condemned because when the middle school was built, they buried a lot of the construction debris and tree debris there and it's not it's not settling at an even rate. So, it takes a lot of work to get
140it going to make it workable. don't have to worry about that. If we're driving 25 feet through it, maybe 50 feet to get the bedrock, we're going to be going right through that substrate. So, it being a little soft on top, it's got to come out anyway. So, it's not really a space we're going to do anything else with in the near future. And fact that it fits the school is a good plan. >> Back to you. Oh, sorry. >> No, you're good. Can you go back over the student drop offs? Are they still going to be using the same drop off area or are they going to be going through this? >> Yes, >> sorry. The the bus drop off. >> Oh, >> it's kind of contingent on this back corridor being built because
141this now becomes the bus staging area. >> The buses pick up on the side. So, essentially right outside the district office here and then they move deep into the district property on the bus loop. So the buses, since the buses aren't dropping off here in this plan, all of this or at least a good deal more of it can be used for a drop off >> and not right out. Like right now it's like >> it's like this. But we're talking about all of it where parent will get their kid. This is I would maybe make a couple different >> if one kid doesn't come out. It holds the whole line up. >> Yeah. Somebody just keep >> Oh, sorry. It wasn't important stuff. Oh no. >> So this remedies the access issue. It remedies
142the circulation issue. It moves kindergarten inside. It improves the internal circulation and it brings the oldest structures up to code. At least a huge improvement. There's not much we can do about these spaces. These internal rooms, they're landlocked. They're not going to get windows and be made to look beautiful, but we can certainly spruce them up and make them look better and frankly make them much safer than they are. Just like with the high school, we've identified what we believe will be educational impacts, long-term impacts, non-monetary, and public benefits. Those are further outlined in your PowerPoint presentation. So again, four new classrooms, 11 renovated classrooms, and 40,000 ft of fa of space. I forgot to mention the new play shed, which would actually be covering playground equipment instead of an asphalt slab, which is good
143for wall ball, four square, and bird poop. So, we'd be able to actually keep kids dry doing what they like to do at recess. >> Yes. >> Um, sort of. It's not highlighted on the map. It would be a shuffle. I believe I believe kindergarten goes to where first grade is, second grade is, second grade is third. Yeah. So, the new classrooms wouldn't be for the kinders. There'd be some reshuffleling and rearranging, but it makes room for them. Big benefits for students and for staff with these improvements. Wider range of educational opportunities, improved morale of students and teachers. In fact, we are in a climate now where we are competing with other districts and other schools for teaching talent. The schools, the college prep schools are sorry, teacher prep colleges are not putting as many
144students into the workforce for education. The reasons are myriad, but it means more and more districts fighting for a smaller smaller supply of teachers. This would help us to attract and retain new teaching talent because we are losing people to districts that have more amenities, nicer conditions, nicer place for people to work. It's also a better learning environment for students. The addition of fresh air and natural light alone, study after study has shown that those are significant factors and how well students learn. The improved safety and security, I think that's pretty intuitive that our high school is wide open. The elementary school is pretty wide open. This would really go a long way. This district-wide project would really go a long way to shore those up. Schools should last more than should last longer than
145people. Our high school didn't. It's only 50 years old, 55 years old, and it needs to be replaced. We are convinced that with new building materials, new construction techniques, new engineering, and new building codes, the school will last longer than our current school. Also, not cutting the corners that are that were originally cut when our school was built. We should get much longer out of this out of this new building. The auditorium for instruction and performance space. Again, not trying to compete with the FEC. So, we're not competing with other entities for the FEC. There definitely going to be some operating cost savings because anything's going to be more efficient than the windows, insulation, pipes, and furnace that we have in the school. Now, however, we absolutely learned that selling and touting the student and
146staff benefits is not going to get this past voters. We believe there's also some significant benefits for the community at large. We'll attract more businesses. New schools do new schools, new new features. They signal an investment that something is happening in Florence. I know I've got that on the bottom. The signal that Florence is investing in the future is it says that we are getting closer to the city motto of a city in motion. We're going to attract more professional families along with those businesses and healthcare providers. We've lost a lot of healthcare providers in the recent years and one of the reasons they give us, the primary reasons they give us is they don't like the state of the schools. Now, we've made significant investments of time and energy and effort into improving what's
147going on inside the schools. We've raised the graduation standards, 25 credits this year to graduate. We're the only district in the state that has added back essential skills. We're doing everything we can to make our diploma to keep our diploma worth something. One of the reasons our graduation rate isn't so stellar is because we're holding a standard and we're forcing students to meet that standard and they are we're going to be addressing the essential skills right after Christmas. We talked to our seniors about it today. It's a lot of work for them to do. They're not happy about it, but they'll be happy when they get that diploma. But we think that new building outsides, new structures to match the good things that are going on inside in time will reverse that trend, reverse that
148opinion of our schools. It will be a projected increase in the tax base. New people, new properties. We saw that with the middle school over the span of the middle school. And Super G is going to give you the numbers here in just a minute. What did it start off at? >> Started out$135.$135. >> And after 24 years, the what was the rate people were paying? >> 84 cents. So cut significantly. >> Again, 293 looks like in 30 years. But I tell you again, as the tax base grows, that number will reduce each consecutive year. >> In other words, everybody's individual liability for that rate goes down. What we the 293 represents the max anybody will pay and it can only come down after that. We think this is going to be it will be
149the best engineered and built and designed structure in the city of Florence. It will be right there with the middle school as being a place that is designated as a shelter in case of an emergency. And I think that's a selling point with the community. There will be new renewed pride in Susawa schools again simultaneously trying to raise what's happening inside the building and raising the structures outside the school and again signaling that it is investment in the future when people are considering a place to live place to move they're looking for those reasons to think that where they're going to live might be their forever home or might have the things that they want there's a lot going on here in Florence and I think we have better schools people will take a second
150look at us and see about maybe making their life here. Why now? I know I showed this one last time as well. The bottom one is the consumer price index, which shows basically what we've all been feeling all this time in the last 10 years or so. Costs have been going up. The top two lines are different construction indices for municipal and public construction. And you can see or sorry, municipal and commercial construction. Those are going up at an even higher rate. We know if we don't take care of this need now, the needs that we spent the 20 months identifying, if we don't take care of it now, the need's not going to go away. It's not going to fix itself. And it's something that is way beyond the scope of our district budget.
151The only way to remedy problems of this scale is with through the sale of construction bonds to local taxpayers. and it's going to cost more and more even as the need is going to only increase over time. So the why now is pretty apparent. It's why now because it's not going to get anything but more expensive. The right time to do it would have been a decade ago. Any questions or clarifications from me or the committee? >> Committee, did we miss anything? You know, I and we've talked about this, but I just want to ask once more if the estimated capacity right now is 4 to 450 and we think that we may see opportunity for growth in the community um by offering better school environment, are we do we have a plan for expansion
152of the ex of the proposed uh building site? So in the in the architect design, is there a plan for expansion? >> We had to leave room for expansion. There's not a plan in terms of drawings or anything like that. But this space here where the bus barn is, >> but we're facilitating expansion. So we're not putting something up where we can't expand doesn't allow it. >> Frankly, we were much more landlocked here because we didn't have the adjacent property. Since we own all of this gives us room for expansion and relocating the bus barn would be >> in comparison to all this would be drop in a bucket. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Also, one of the other things I should talk about, we would love to see this parking lot rotated about 90° and
153run long and skinny along the new driveway as opposed to being that's a long way back in the woods when I'm supervising from here. Who knows what's happening back there. But I said, I think it just makes a lot more sense for student walking patterns. Um, so I think when I'm thinking about this versus what was originally presented, um, I I love the I mean, I guess I should ask first, what would be the disruption to students during this construction process? Because obviously in that corner, it was going to be huge disruption to the high school. Now it's nearer to the middle school and elementary, but it's it's kind of far. Like, are you guys worried about that? It's going to be disruptive. >> It's going to be disruptive. >> Yeah. >> Well, yeah. Yeah.
154I know. Yeah. I know. It's >> Have you ever heard pilots being pounded? >> Right. >> Yeah. I'm just wondering if it'll be it will be faster on >> What it will be is it'll be easier to stage. >> Yeah. >> Because we won't have to house the big equipment in and around Oak Street and around the current high school. We would have this space to be housing. much cleaner transition at the exit of one building to the entry of another >> from start to finish. One one building will be completed. There'll be a migration. It happens there. Um and again like it is it is overall less of a disruption. There will be and I will say annoyances to uh general every day because again uh I remember when we were driving pilings for
155the stadium here in the early 2000s sitting at the high school in the chemistry lab and uh wonder if my fillings were going to fall out. I mean so again we will have the noise and general destru you know disruption of of construction but we are no longer displacing again we would be creating more of an impact and creating more of a traffic jam and headache building on the corner of 27th and Oak and the the question came up and this is again it's the same building in a new location and somebody as soon as somebody pointed out can we put it here the lights went off and said, "Here's all the problems that we were having with location. Now we can solve those traffic flow problems." And again, this isn't just about the buses
156and the students. Having this interior loop and backside fire lane access opens everything up for fire, EMS, police, >> right? They do not have backside access to every single building facility. This and that's part of modern code anyway. So, this would give us that all the way around. >> I kind of love the idea of the sports lot as far as community access. Um, it just I don't know why it makes it feel more accessible not having >> the the school right there as well from the school. You can get the in there after hours. >> We don't want people coming in hitting balls off TE's in the softball field the middle of. But this track in particular would be great. And um even if it's just a block with an internal sidewalk or chips
157or something that people can walk as a distance and it certainly it gives the impression that hey we're welcome we're open for business which is something we did hear that all the time >> people hate the fact that our schools are fenced in because that that means they're not accessible and it means keep out and that's exactly what it does for security. >> We do. Yes. >> But since we're not occupying the slot between the bells we can be a little more lax. >> That's cool. Did you say this was a three-year build >> or did I hear that wrong? Sorry. >> We're looking at two and a half to three years in all likelihood. Yeah. >> But, you know, >> between permitting and and getting drawings and and all of the pre-work that has
158to be done, >> it's the coast though. So, like >> and and finding a contractor. >> Yes. Because >> Yeah. trigger from time of election to time of breaking ground is six months because that is planning permitting and primary implementation of plan and then you're looking at 18 to 24 months of construction 18 if it's fast 24 again if you have if there is a problem and there is always a problem in construction there's always again something that needs to be addressed there's again a contingency need all the way Can I ask kind of a conceptual question? Like um because after if something goes on the ballot and is passed, the FAC is solved at that point, right? Um who's kind of who's in charge of this project? Is it Andy? Is Andy in charge
159of >> We would hire a construction manager or at least we'd contract with a construction manager. >> Would we do that or would Andy do that? >> It be Andy and our facilities director, David, would be working very closely. Again there's again depending upon how the board wants to approach the construction phase either you are going through a design build phase um and again you're working towards a specific goal but you have a liaison that is construction grant general manager that again delivers your instructions to the contractors on site to make sure that plans are followed. If there's a need for a change order it comes through one person. It's not just anybody on site site goes, "Hey, let's just do this." Again, there's a strict plan. Again, if there's going to be a deviation
160from what you have put on blueprint >> or you have a quorum, you could just name Brian >> and he can be in charge of the whole project. >> I was just thinking I I wish he was here. He's more versed in this. So, if we um if this does pass and you guys are able to get grants um what happens to the extra money? Does that go into the general fund or >> extra money? Okay. Let's say again, >> but if you get grants to pay for some of it, >> if you get grants to pay for stuff, you sell fewer bonds. >> Okay. >> Right. So, again, we're not you don't sell the whole slate. You sell bonds in series as they're needed. So, the whole amount is not sold at the beginning.
161You will sell roughly 10 to 20% in the first six months as you're going through design, implementation, and groundbreaking. Then you will sell the bulk of them six months out. And then as you're getting close to completion, whatever is remaining is necessary is then sold to capacity. But again, if you get if we were to get again a state matching grant for $4 million, that's $4 million less of bonds we do not sell. So less money the taxpayers are are correct. >> Well then you just see that number go down. >> Yeah. The per the tax assess value. >> And again what we what but what we can't say now going into the ballot is we anticipate that this will come down by $6 million. >> Yeah. We want to under under >> we bail
162it for what we know that the bond will cost and then you do not sell bonds for every additional grant you get to drive the price down and depending upon how the bonds are sold there's also a bond premium which increases your available cash without additional sale. >> Right? So we've seen some districts again there was a recent sale on bonds and again to get the money now and upfront investors were able to pay were willing to pay a premium and it generated an extra $4.5 million for one district without changing the rate at all. So we have a very savvy group of bond salesmen again working for um the company that we work with and again they look at when is the right time to sell and we sell to we sell to need
163at the time and as you get to the end of the project and there's bonds unsold they stay unsold. >> Question the audience here. >> Hi Bill Greybel CPA. You know, I'm wondering, um, you already own the land and it's it's almost $900 a square foot. I'm going to knock out the raising cost, maybe a hundred a foot. I get what, 700 left. Why does, how does that compare to the medium cost of a school? $700 a square foot compared to, you know, another school, another school district somewhere else. >> That is that is about average of what we're seeing being built these days. Yeah, >> it is likely to be slightly higher here at the coast because we have to go deeper and we have to build for stronger wind shear and we're constru
164labor costs are going to be more expensive because we don't have a local workforce. So, and that's factored in where there's always going to be a bump for everything at the coast. >> No, we we are we uh by state law we must pay prevailing wage. Yeah. >> Right. And that's a federal. >> Yes. Yeah. >> How much less do you think it would be? >> I can't estimate. That's a >> less. >> No, I can't I can't I can't tell you what non labor will cost. >> Sir, he he he said he doesn't want to. >> I can't do it. I'm not I'm not a I'm not a non-union labor expert. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. Bob. Oh, hold on. I'm just gonna stay over here. As a committee member, I wanted
165to uh voice my appreciation for um Andy and Mike's thoughtfulness and this latest design because I was had to step away for a couple months and when I came back and saw this, I was thrilled because, you know, we stayed under that dollar amount and we got more bang for our buck out of this. So, I wanted, you know, we we were going to eliminate the fieldhouse concept of batting cages to build on that on that uh JV baseball field. By doing this, we've addressed so many issues and we kept the cost down. We didn't the cost didn't change. So, I want to say I really appreciate that thoughtfulness. Somebody who lives just around the corner here also to see that traffic pattern uh fixed is huge. >> U because there's been times I'm sometimes
166late to work because things are backed up. Um, so I I just want to say I I appreciate the thoughtfulness and in giving us again more bang for our buck um in this latest design. And also oh the other thing too that was kind of a surprise uh benefit to this is we actually and Mike didn't point this out but um we increased ADA access ability to these field uh the sporting events um which is a huge benefit in this community. If there's nothing else, I'll stop talking. >> Okay. Wow. A lot of work has gone into that. I know. So, >> thank you to Bob our as well his leadership on this from the start. Thank you, Bob. I just want to point out before we uh go go any further that this is
167first reading and we did that on purpose so that um if the directors have any questions, we have time to pursue um what's on here. If we have questions, we can call and ask Andy and have them uh have him put the questions on uh further. Are there any other discussions, questions, whatever before we move on? And I think before we go to the next agenda item, we're going to take another two-minute break because we've got some people that may want to um go home. Um any other questions or discussion on on this item before we move on? >> Just wanted to say thank you to all of the committee members for the long hours of work that you put into this. Thank you. Um, I just learned that we can ask Andy to invite
168people to come talk to us uh earlier this meeting. So, I was wondering if we could hear from the transportation department because this is going to change their bus pathing um about what and we also talked about moving their bus barn. So, I'd love to hear their thoughts on that. Um, I'd love to hear from our athletic director if he's interested in speaking about how changing these fields, changing the setup with the fields, putting the school, the school be in a different place. It's, yeah, I'd love to hear his thoughts if he'd like to speak. Um, uh, and then from the alternative school, too, if they're interested in speaking. Um, Mike had school pride up on there and I I mean we we talked about that with our um student reps that that's something that
169Lily, I think it was you, right? Do you want to talk about that? >> Um yeah, I talked a little bit about it last time. Um I also took a few notes. Um, a lot like 100% actually 100% of students I talked about this in all groups said that they were really excited about this idea and they felt like it would just benefit like everything they did, athletics or just like everyday class activities. So yeah, I was already excited with the new plan and everyone I talked to was as well. seeing or the old plan, but seeing the new plan makes me even more excited because that makes it sound like an even better idea. So, >> yeah. >> Thank you. Um, Emanuel or Grace, do you guys have any additional thoughts? >> Okay. So
170again, if board members have any questions that you need answered, please send them to me and we'll track down what we need because again, there's 20 months worth of work. And so again, if um again, we have got the high school plan there. And again, we've got different variations that we're again as we're trying to skinny up the one parking lot, uh change a couple of, you know, field sizes to kind of streamline things. Uh again, but the it's the same high school that you saw last month. It's in a new location just south with a whole bunch of extra benefits because we are now accessing Kingwood and internal routings. >> Yeah, I think it's it's a much better look. >> So again, I >> and we'll be sorry to interrupt. >> No, no. Shantel
171came to me and said Aaron Reynolds had mentioned her again. Why not that field? And I said there's no reason not that field. And when we do that, like Shantel and I listed like here's 15 things that we fix >> from the problems >> right off the bat because we again for the la for the last two efforts of this we've been going the high school stays north of 27th and all of a sudden we said >> we don't have to be right. >> It doesn't have as soon as we got past that we were like >> here's everything that we can do and again create a a true unified district campus. Yeah. >> So this is a campus improvement project. This is not a high school and an elementary school. It's a district campus
172improvement project. >> And we'd be needing to vote by the January or February meeting to get it on the ballot next next month for sure. Or would >> if you if you vote yes you February >> February be pushing it. >> February February would be kind of the latest because then you're cutting down your community engagement time with No. Yeah. >> With other elements. >> January would be ideal. get it get it voted on by Jan next month's men meeting. >> Okay. >> I would think >> yeah that's what I was going to say that if we do have questions make sure that we give them now so that there's time questions and also so that we can hopefully make a decision in January just just to make things easier. So just so I understand
173this process, um we the school board will present this with a number and that number is the maximum thing that we think it could cost to get this done and then it can be reduced in voter-based expansion um or grants or things like that, >> of bonds that need to be sold, >> right? Um and uh and then the well but we don't just decide to do it. We put it on the ballot and then the district votes on it and the people are going to >> have to vote. We have to approve the plan for it to go to bot. >> Yeah. Yeah. So we we make we take their advice and and then we take a plan and we put on the ballot and then end of the day though it's the the
174voters that are going to decide. >> The district has to vote for it. Yeah. Exactly. >> Okay. Any other quick? Okay, so we're going to take a two-minute break in case people do want to leave and, you know, go home and whatever and then we'll be right back to finish up our agenda. Thank you. Yeah. >> Okay, we're going to get started in about 30 seconds and you will notice a change as we get started. In about 30 seconds, you will notice something different. Let's see. How much did I miss you there? >> Oh, none. None. Thank you very very much. >> And and thank you to everybody. Um uh I was I was entertaining um athletes on the wrestling team. Most importantly, my daughter. Um I wasn't entertaining them. They were probably oblivious to
175my my presence there. Um so, um I was just informed that we're on to 6.2. Um, uh, Director Hly, Josh, thank you for texting me and letting me know that meeting was still happening. Um, because I got out of cleanup. Um, so, um, we'll go right into the OSBA election legislative policy item 62. Uh, superintendent. >> All right. Um, item, uh, 1210 2.5, uh, 25-6.2, two OSB election uh legislative policy committee position six. Again, Oregon School Boards Association organized as one general state association with up to 24 regionally elected representatives across the geographic regions of the state. Again, uh this is your second reading and administration uh recommends that you officially vote for a vote on the OSBA legislative policy committee ballot. >> Okay. Uh thank you. And directors, I have a um a little
176I don't know if I would call it a point of order or or what, but um I think I got out of this item last month a little soon. Um because when it was a when it was a tie three vote because we only had six present. Uh I did not I was not aware that we had other options. Um we had another candidate that could have been nominated. Um, we also have we also have I don't know if you all every time you get your ballot if you vote for every single thing because we also have that uh a a potential non nonvote as well. So So for getting out of this item last month prematurely, my apologies for that, but here we are um on this item. So any any discussion on the
177item? Uh yeah, I've since looked into the last last month I I really didn't know very much about Judy and I've looked into her a bit more and she has quite the career and um to be frank, Director Plet, I think she's probably got it on lock. But that being said, um I think both candidates have um a lot of potential and I'd be happy to vote yes for either. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or motions? Uh Moren, >> I just have the comment that I made last time, which is which is yes, we know Judy is very qualified. I just I think as a unified board, it would be very good to uh vote for our own candidate. >> Thank you. Any other thoughts or questions or comments? >> Well, then a
178motion would be in order. or if no motion then it's tabled and we submit a non vote to my understanding. >> Andy, >> again, if there's if there's no motion, uh, we submit the the ballot as again abstained. >> Yeah, >> I'm good with that. Adrian, you all right? >> Director Cole, were you you were gone last month, right? Do you have any do you have any comments? Oh, wow. >> Hulk smash, man. >> No, I did watch Oh, sorry. I did watch um the meeting, but I'm good with the non vote >> with an abstension. Yeah. >> Okay. Well, the silence speaks to abstension. So, I have a note here that Debbie, you'll you will cast that vote. Thank you. Okay. Turning to uh 63, our our budget calendar. Um and this is this
179is first read. So, uh superintendent, please. Okay. Uh item 121025-6.3 budget calendar for the fiscal year 2627. As per uh policy DB budget calendar, the board will adopt annually the budget calendar that identifies the dates, activities, deadlines required for the legal presentation and adoption of the budget. Superintendent will prepare and recommend a proposed calendar for board approval. again. So you have your draft and uh again this should this needs to be adopted as of the January meeting. So again this is currently a first read. Um we looked at two potential structures for the budget calendar last year. Um and what the board decided on that time was to have the primary um meeting be April 8th. Again, you'd have the first draft of the proposed budget delivered here and any orientation for new members is
180at this time. So, I would suggest that that meeting start at like 5:30 or 5:45 because you can't get it done in a half hour, right? This this stops having a meeting the week before where some committee members can make it and some can't. gives everybody all the information at once and then it gives a fiveday window for people to submit questions that need some research and then you get full budget discussion the 22nd. Any any questions are answered there and then from there if the board needs a second budget meeting those are prescheduled for April 29th or May 6th. So we've taken the orientation meeting which is kind of a duplicate in many ways of the uh initial presentation of the budget just made those one meeting and made it a little bit longer
181for some of the community members that are serving as your kind of guest liaison to the budget committee and then if there's again questions and discussions that need to happen that would all be triggered for Wednesday April 22nd at the primary public input meeting and Then you've got two dates already kind of penciled in for the second or third meeting if they're necessary. >> Thank you. I'd imagine that was a lot of cross referencing calendars amongst all the different organizations and and uh school uh school buildings. So, thank you for all of that. Uh directors, any comments or questions on this budget calendar? Could this be something that we can put to a consent agenda next week or I mean next month? >> You could put to the consent agenda. My only question would be
182do you want to start >> the first meeting at 5:30 or 5:45? >> So we'd have to decide that part. >> That's the one thing that needs to be decided. And again that's as long as the date set again like the exact starting time of the meeting is something that we can hash out later. >> Yeah. Um, but we we need more than we need more than a half hour. 45 minutes would be tough. >> I think 5:30 >> if we started that meeting at 5:30. It'd be the one meeting that starts at 5:30. And again, it is the budget and orientation, you know, some light discussion and then we go into our regular business meeting, but the public input and full discussion of the elements happens at the next meeting. So in because we
183had this we had this kind of looping problem with some committee members being able to make the orientation some not. Um and then trying to get everybody who's attended two different meetings in different capacities on track for the third meeting. So we combined the first two meetings to push it all into one meeting for all the effective discussion then. >> Yeah. >> I think Go ahead. >> I'm sorry to interrupt. Um I think that that that is a good thing because when we have the orientation I can't be specific to the actual budget because the budget hasn't been presented yet. So really that's just a vagueformational based on last year's estimates and it it it doesn't get to have a little bit more detail to get you a better understanding of your actual budget book.
184So, you'll be presented the budget book, but you'll also have an orientation summary of um of of how that um the funds and everything are processed. So, I think I think it's a better idea that we can actually discuss um some of the figures and some of the estimates as part of the orientation. >> And Josh, I think you you you said um that 5:30 would be your preference. >> I think 5:30. Yeah. Yeah. And Cece, would you would you agree that Well, would 5:30 be your preference also? >> Yeah. >> To have that. >> Yeah. I would definitely agree just because um that short window of 30 minutes was never giving it enough and 45 would be tight, but giving that time for you to have both meetings. Yeah. >> So, I think if
185we if we went ahead and pushed this uh with head nods with with agreement here to the consent agenda with that first meeting being at 5:30, we we all like that. Okay. I I think I'm seeing uni universal head nons. >> Yeah, we'll make the correction and get in the >> Sorry. What day? Which is that? The April 8th. >> April 8. Okay. >> Yeah, >> I think that's enough months I can block it off. Yeah, >> it'll be tight. >> It'll it'll be tight. Yeah, >> you you got five months. Start planning now. Start planning today. >> Cool. >> Yeah. Okay. Um so that's being uh pushed. Uh so we are on to uh six 6 uh which 64 >> 64 >> um the reading of the grant agreement for the 25 through 27
186bianium >> for student investment account item 1210256.4 uh the updated student investment account SIA grant agreement for the 2527 bianium has been issued. Presentation of the grant agreement to the board for approval at an open meeting with opportunity for public comment is required by the Oregon Department of Education. Uh the final amount of grant reductions uh from the time of the application is $245,58469 across all grants. Activity budgets have been adjusted. Uh during the action discussion of this item, um we will call for public comment specific to this account. So, uh, directors, prior to calling for that public comment, um, do we have any questions or comments on this item amongst ourselves? So, again, beginning on page 31 of your board packet, you have uh, OD grant number 39305, SSIA, which is our student success,
187student advancement account. Uh page 32 um again shows that there's been uh an an initial reduction uh in there of 316,000. Actually again my uh my spot number was was wrong on on the uh holder page, but again uh they pulled that out again. So the current allocation changed from about 1.1 million to 848,000. um uh right along those lines. And um uh the details again of what could be approved down the road are on page 33 and then the rest of this is the legal grant issuance language for the state. >> There's a lot of >> there is a lot of it. Um, but yes, this was officially issued November 4th and returned to the state on November 13th. So, this is our first opportunity to have this read into the budget or read
188into the uh board agenda. >> Okay. And sorry, I I asked for our comments prematurely waiting for for those. Are are you are you still flipping for a page to us to flip to? I'm just again this is again I forget how many pages are in this because I look at it all the time. >> Yeah. >> Um the other the other additional piece in your packet again is um I also included it's not required but you also have the high school success which is part of integrated planning. I think that's what I was looking for when I was slipping through again on page 59 of your packet. Um again uh integrated planning in involves the student investment account, high school success, early literacy, um again early warning systems. There's six different uh factors within
189there. Uh the two primary ones are the student investment account and high school success. Um this was originally uh targeted at about 386,000 for the year and the second year was originally budgeted at about 400,000. Uh page 60 in your uh budget book you can see that uh grant year one has been reduced to $345,000 and uh no allocation is currently listed for grant two. So >> why what can you explain that? Well, right now the state is looking at, again, we've been talking about potential economic downturn, and there's been a change in the tax structure from the federal level, which impacts the taxable level of income in Oregon, and it's going to change everybody's tax returns. And uh because the federal level has changed and our system is tied, our state system is tied
190to the federal system, uh in essence, everybody's has more federal deductions now. which will lower the overall income threshold that you can be taxed on in Oregon. So >> I think I think yeah OSBA was talking about >> Yes. And so um we again we don't know where we don't know where the bottom is on this and that's where again we're overall for budget potential reductions for in the year we're waiting for February. Um but again just between like these two grants there's 350ish thousand that we planned on. We built the budget on these numbers in April and then these were revised in August. The board was the board approved the budget in June. The financial year rolled over and so we had already been in operations for two months um when the allocations changed.
191Yeah. >> I'm just wondering if we can move this to next month so we can really look through this. >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. There's no need to again I just need to make sure that it's on the agenda and it's been read in um per rules and then um yeah, we >> So would we do consent or we actually have it action? >> This cannot be a consent agenda. >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. >> And Okay. So any other >> because it has to have public >> Yes. public comment. Yes. And we need to have public comment tonight even if we push it to next month. >> Yes. >> Um so any other questions or comments from from our board? Okay. Well then I will open uh public comment specific to the 202527 bianium
192bianium student investment account. Do we have any public comment >> from from the Netherlands of of YouTube? >> We don't have any public. No, we we all in public, >> dude. I see a I see a public member back there. Yes. >> Ouch, man. That was that was quite the barb. >> Okay. Um well, then at this time, I will close the public comment section specific to the 202527 bianium student investment account. Okay. and that will be put through to the agenda and we'll have another another public comment uh section um well public comment session during this item next month. Um so that concludes our action items. U moving on to 7.0 the uh board reports or the reports to the board and information. We'll start with the superintendent. >> Okay. Um personnel report for
193December 10, 2025. Um, again, uh, summer's usually a light hiring month. We do have one new, um, certified educator. This is listed in the wrong spot. Uh, Nick Reamer, CTE, construction and industrial arts teacher. Uh, he's coming in to take over, um, construction and woods. Again, he's got 11 years of industry experience. Um, as well as being a a golf professional, um, with, uh, some undergra undergraduate studies at Portland State. Um, and we have an additional uh one certified and one classified substitute. Uh, I know we just finished with item 6.4. Um, uh, there's links in my board report beginning on page two again where you've got the grant agreements digitally. Um, and then you've got the eligibility review uh for high school success. Um, and uh all of the additional data pieces that were
194required to post um including the final allocations and rebalance of activity budgets um and the original integrated programs application for 2527. So, um again, so you have this in your email, but again, all of these are digital and they're all on the website under the um OD um uh reports page. Um again, December's short. Uh we're coming into the holiday breaks. Um January 5th will be a no school curriculum day on that Monday and we will begin classes on January 6th. Um, you've got your elementary students of the month for uh, November and your middle school students of the month with high school still in process at the time of uh, sending out. Uh, and every once in a while uh, things happen quickly and I can't get things into the board report that are
195important. So, a couple of positive notes coming along the way. Uh first being um uh every year our congressional districts hold a series of different um student contest and student awards. Last year we had a student make it to the national competition for art. Uh this year um we have another winner. Uh again uh Ryland Pierce from the high school uh computer science classes is going to be representing our congressional district. Um uh again he's the winner. Again he has created a uh in essence a an app uh that again really what it is it's about um student service and connecting with senior citizens. In essence it's kind of like a task rabbit. It would allow senior citizens to look at an employment pool of high school kids and go hey I need somebody to
196fix my TV or I need somebody to mow my lawn. Um, and so we'll talk to Ryland about coming in in January or February and he can demo his app for you >> on Facebook, >> right? And so, um, so he'll be traveling to Washington DC in April. Um, >> yes. Yeah. >> No, again, >> he did great work. >> Uh, it'll be very easy to get Ryland here for that because he can just come hang out with his girlfriend. Oh, so he's got extra motivation to make this ad meeting. >> Sorry, Lily. >> All right. Uh, also in the positives, um, uh, we were doing some research and work and came across a, um, a group called National Teleah Health Solutions. Um, again, if you've ever heard of, uh, call a doctor plus, they're
197a series of medical professionals. um that provide uh in essence tellahalth, tele medicine. Um and one of the things that a lot of our federal grants come in as are um there's restrictions about infrastructure and what you have to have in place. We don't as a district employ a bank of mental health counselors that are accessible, but call a doctor plus does. And so they wind up being our partner for a three-year uh period um to actually provide ser services to all students and staff for virtual uh mental health counseling. I think the entire grant amount that they were able to secure on our behalf is a little over $800,000. >> Wow. >> Um so this is kind of the marketing deck of what it is. And then um let me pass to everybody here
198uh the agreement that we returned today because this actually just came in yesterday. Um and so in uh what is called student 365 teleahalth services uh beginning on page two of the agreement and uh Chris has assured me that my possessed computer oh will be replaced. You notice that some pages seem randomly upside down. Uh again uh they have secured a public funding source uh for covered services. In the event that those services dry out, the entities separate with uh no harm, no foul. Um but on page three, you can see that the current agreement that they've been able to secure for funding is a little over it's $83,000. And so this provides again uh telephonebased, video-based or app-based uh communications for students and staff with mental health providers as well as um referrals within
199the community for people that may need more uh extensive mental health help. Yes. >> Um can we make sure that the sources of strength people know about this because I feel like Okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. That seemed >> this is exactly this is exactly one of the things they would refer to and once we get the technology and whitelisted it would be in the sources of strength application back. >> So yeah. Uh so again this is kind of hot off the press. >> Um and that would be all I have. >> Okay. Thank you >> for this month. Yes. >> That's great. That's great. Uh, directors, any questions for uh Andy on his on his report or let's let's lump in um all the other um admin reports to that to that as well. >>
200I did I did wonder if we had looked at any other um companies doing the same work. >> No, we had that but they went out and they secured grants on our behalf. That was one of the things. There are other groups that do it. Um but you are required to get the grant and then partner with them. they go out and secure the grant and then they set up the entire provider list for you. >> I just wonder if we've evaluated any of those others. They might offer the same service >> on a one to one. >> I just don't know if we've vetted this this particular company in any way other than >> No, they're they're national. We've been through presentation with administrators. Uh they're used in other districts around the state. >>
201I I think I would like to see some of that information. >> Okay. Yeah. Tom, you have your hand up. >> I don't >> You did. It was the left one. >> I might No worries. Okay. Um, directors, any other questions or comments for for Annie's report or the other admin reports that we uh that we were able to review? No. Okay. Um and and sounds like, you know, the broken record, but thank you for compiling them. Um admin who are are here in the room and those who are still listening somewhere. Um we appreciate those. Um gives us that that insight and that information. Um and one of those one of those things that that still is always just kind of disheartening to me, I'm sure as many others um specifically those trying to
202track down those chronic absentes. Um that's that is a that I clearly that's a challenge because it's it's there perpetually. Um and so thank you for all your work to try to make those chronic absentes not. So um Tom, I I love the I love the pictures. I love to see it. I love the the Viking watches and the videos and stuff. It's so great. Thank you guys for putting the time in on that. Really awesome. >> Okay. Um go. Oh, was that CC just stepped out? Okay. Well, um, so we are on to Well, that's admin reports. Um, let's go right to uh student representative communications. Manuel, you have anything for us? >> Okay. Manuel says no, not today, even though he did not have the mic, but we believe him. Um, Liliana, >>
203um, I don't think I have anything else to add with the school, new school otherwise. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Um, so, uh, into 75, um, our future meeting dates, uh, the January meeting is 14th, February 11th, March 11th, April 8th, um, starting at 5:30. Um, and so that will most likely also be over at the middle school in April to have room for the entirety of the budget committee. Am I misspeaking on that, Chris? That's where >> will that be settled with an arm wrestling match? >> No. Okay. Dang. All right. I would like to watch that. Um the May meeting is May 13th. Uh June 10th is our June meeting. Um so keep all of those in mind, please. Uh our board member acknowledgements. We'll start to my right. Tom, >>
204usually I'm last. All right. Um, I wanted to again thank you to the volunteers of our district. Uh, in particular today, of course, we're they all left, but all the facility committee people, they were here and they showed up and they've been putting in hours and hours. Really appreciate it. But, um, uh, yeah. Um, something that really stuck with me about the OSBA conference was, uh, the keynote speaker talked about how democracy works on dialogue and this idea that, um, we can solve or even prevent problems through our words, through talking. Um, and I just and then another thing that he brought up was um, in our oath it says that we will faithfully serve. And um you know when I think about that you know there are so many things that we have faith
205in that we believe in and and I I think that when we take our oath we need to believe in the system we are joining in and I I really appreciate that about this board. Um I know we're so different in so many different ways. Um, but I love it that we can come together and care about these students and these schools and and that that unites us and I've really appreciated working with this board and um, you know, I've never done anything like this before. So, but you've been very patient with me and thank you for that. That's all. >> Thank you, Dr. Howley. >> Not really much. Just thank you again to all the people involved with the FAC and putting that putting the work in to do that. It looks like a
206good plan. Hopefully we can get it going. >> Anna, >> no. No additional nothing to add. >> Okay, Tamara. >> Um I I don't know if this is the time to to talk about it, but um in our superintendent search, there is a company um it's called Leading National Search Firm. Uh well, they're it's a leading national search firm called McFersonson and Jacobson. Um and they will get they have really good reviews. There's other schools in Oregon and all over the country that um have used them. Um they will give a free quote. So I was wondering if that's something you guys would like me to reach out and get a free quote from them and it'd be somebody you know we can >> it's McFerson and Jacobson. >> Debbie Debbie has a comment. >>
207The business manager has already spoken with them and I have a proposal. >> Okay. Thank you. Here you go. >> Boom. >> There you go. >> Okay. You just you're on top of it all, Tammer. Well done. Anything else? >> Okay. >> Yeah, that was it. >> Uh Adrian. >> Uh yeah, I will throw my hat in on the uh I really like the fact I like what they've been working on. Um I especially would like to thank Mike because I know what is this like presentation 739 for the past like couple years now. P especially in the past couple months. So, I just wanted to I wanted to say specifically Mike has been out there busting hump for for this district and I appreciate it, man. >> And I've been I've been a part
208of that committee and I've just been very very impressed with the professionalism and how the hours that have been put in and just making sure that we've covered as much as we can possibly covered during doing it. So, thank you. It's been it's been a great experience. And the only thing I wanted to say is just that um I have still been volunteering at the elementary school and it is an extreme privilege and I'm ex very very excited that you're allowing me to do that because it's just it's it's a wonderful experience and I tell you what, your kids and your teachers are amazing. So I would like to encourage anybody that wants to volunteer. There's volunteers needed for sure and it is just a very valuable experience. I can't recommend it highly enough. So
209I appreciate the opportunity to be able to do it. >> Thank you. Okay. At this time, uh we will go to 77 which is that executive session which was the um amendment to the agenda. Um so uh this is the OS in in coordinate or in adhering to um OS 192.6602B 6602B dismissal discipline uh complaint charges for the board to convene to ex executive session pursuant to that that ordinance um uh or that statute rather to consider dismissal or discipline of or to hear charges or complaints against an officer, employee, staff member or agent if the individual does not request an open meeting. Uh the school board will now meet in executive session to to consider the dismissal or disciplining of or to hear complaints or charges brought against a public officer, employee, staff member,
210or individual agent who does not request an open hearing. In regard to OS192.6602B, which allows the board to meet in executive session, no decision may be made in an executive session. At the end of executive session, we will return to open session. Representatives of the news, media, and designated staff shall be allowed to attend. representative of the news media allowed to observe the executive session are specifically directed not to report on any of the deliberations of the executive session. No recording of the executive session is allowed without express permission from the board. At the end of the at the end of executive session, the board will return to open session. Meeting postponed for executive session. Okay. Um, >> consider a complaint. >> I'd say the >> the complaint. Okay. >> Um, >> December. >> Okay.
211We are now uh the SASA school district 97J uh we are um adjourning our executive session and returning to our regular session. So now that we are in regular session um we do uh we will have a motion uh to to vote on um in regards to this complaint um seeing as law does not permit us to vote in executive session. So, um, Director Milton Berger, >> yes. Be it resolved that the board of the Susla School District uphold the trespass order pending a hearing to consider the complaint of December 8th, 2025, resolution number 121025-7.6. >> Uh, just real brief, is that 76 or is that 77? >> it says 76, but that doesn't particularly mean that I got it right. Um 77. >> Yes. >> So just just restate that number. So we're >>
212Okay. Resolution number 121025-7.7. >> Perfect. Okay. Motion made by Director Milenberger. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> A second by Director Habberly. Um uh I I I don't think that we need a voice vote here. Um those Well, any discussion on the motion? Those in favor >> I real quick. We did determine a date. Do we need to state the date or do we just send the date to the complaintant? >> I don't think the date has to be part of the motion. Right. >> Okay. Perfect. Okay. >> Directors. >> Yeah. >> Any other thing regarding that or are we done? I I will just say that uh you know I'll I'll obviously it'll go out through Andy, but I'll throw together, you know, I I've been doing a lot of research about
213this. If if I find anything that's interesting, I'll throw together something and have it out to you guys if if I can. Yeah. >> Thank you. And and directors, in regards to that, um uh make sure we we are current and and aware of those policies in in question. and we will have that hearing on the 14th on January 14th. So with that, merry Christmas, happy