11.19.25 School Board Meeting

001It is now 6 o'clock and we have a clock with the seconds on it. So now we're 15 seconds late. We'll call to order the uh work session for the SCAW school district 97J um this evening at 6:00 and 15 seconds on November 19th, 2025. Um we do have a quorum present uh one of which is with us virtually. Um and we have uh currently five of our seven directors with us for the for the work session. Um the majority of our our work session this evening is going to be with uh Vince Adams um an overview. He's he's from the OSBA and he's going to give us an overview about the uh um our superintendent hiring procedure. Um but he's going to join us. He's with the Veil School District now and he's going

002to join us 6:12 to 6:15ish. Um, but until then, uh, directors, in your review of the board packets, um, one of the things that you see that, uh, that Andy put in his board, um, in his admin report for us, um, is a copy of our, um, of the board goals, um, the superintendent/board district goals here. Um it's his uh looks like his second um excuse me third no se his second page um uh at the planning meeting uh we ask for this to be printed up so that um we can kind of have these fresh in our mind because we're going to have next month also with Vince we're going to have a tenative meeting to review these because it's been a little while since we've reviewed these um review and and you know

003either manipulate change uh perhaps you know, look at the whatever metric we're using to see how we're doing with each of these. So, just be aware, heads up, that's kind of what we're going to be seeing um in our December work session. Um also, just a point of order, I'll say it again once we're in the regular meeting. Um the uh mandatory reporter training that used to be a 22-minute video, it is now an hourong video. And so we will do uh 30 minutes this evening and 30 minutes next month for that for that mandatory reporter training. Um and because that's their that's their newest latest version. So um if unless there's anything else um I'm not seeing anybody on the screen. Um Adrian, are you I'm presuming you're with us already. Is that right?

004>> Yes, I'm here. >> Okay, great. Um and thank you for joining us. Uh so uh unless there's anything else uh uh board business-wise or work session wise, then we'll just cut the mics and uh and wait for Vince to show up on Zoom and when he shows up, we'll come back. You have anything? >> No, we can talk about the OBA conference after during director time. So I'm good with that. >> Or now your call. We have time now. We've got >> Oh, we do. Yeah. Yeah. And one of our attendees of that conference is not here yet. So, we'll wait. Um Adrian, anything for us in this work session as we're waiting for Vince? >> Uh, no, thank you. I'm good. >> Okay. Diana, anything? Josh, anything? Okay. Andy, your mic's on. Anything?

005Uh so besides your uh board district goals, I also listed the required state metrics and our internal estimates. A lot of the data doesn't come out until late December or January. Um but again, these are the criteria that in essence were kind of rated on by the state. I'm on page two of page three of my report. Uh, and then you've got your ELA standards, ELA tests by grade level, um, on page four, math standards on page five, and science standards on page six. And I only bring that up because as we do updated goals and metrics for the next two-year period, uh, there's going to be three additional items added. um K2 regular attendance, eighth grade math proficiency and then there is a hopeery of additional metrics that we will have to choose one

006additional one to get to a total of eight. Um so >> so I was understanding that correctly. We get to choose that metric. It's not something that's going to come down. >> The the state's going to say here's five that everybody gets to pick from. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. That's that's what I thought I was understanding. >> Yeah. And so fifth grade science, academic growth, on track to English language proficiency, secondary enrollment, CTE credit attainment. Probably the two most relevant metrics for us would be fifth grade science and CTE credit attainment. Um, some are postsecary survey questions that aren't really direct reflection on what we do. There's stuff that happen at the college or employment level after school. Um, so yeah, so again, that's just kind of the preview of what we'll probably be

007picking up in March that goes along with looking at how the goals get changed or updated for the next cycle. Well, and and I'll take this this opportunity to point out your last comment there that public comments are still open at the state board of education for those who want to share their opinion about the optional metric potentials, the rulemaking process for additional school performance target metrics will be, and then I don't know what the rest of that sentence was was supposed to be. >> Neither do I. >> Yeah. Good. >> So that's that's where it ended. It ended >> fill it in as you as you see. >> Yeah. Again, it'll be determined at the state level at by the Department of Ed. And so again, the rule making process. Um it's it's been

008mandated in law, but the the details haven't been worked out by the state board. So if people have interest, >> that's where they need to go. >> Yeah. Thank you for for going like pointing out the rest of those pages. I appreciate that. Okay. Um so or 6 to 8 minutes we will um go cold mic waiting for Vince. Good. >> Okay, we uh right there 612 just like he predicted. Vince, um welcome. Uh we appreciate your time this evening and uh uh and your dedication to all the districts that you are you uh consult with. And so we're going to turn it right to you to uh help us review and get uh get familiar with what our superintendent hiring process is going to look like. Floor is yours. >> All right. So, um

009my understanding is that the the board is is you know questioning whether to uh pres you know uh my understanding is that that um superintendent has indicated that he would like to uh uh depart the superintendency at the end of this school year but that there is a possibility uh that he may come back for an in an interim position next year. Is that is that information accurate? >> That is accurate. Yes. >> Okay. So, [sighs] I mean, so I'll be, you know, just brief about, you know, let's talk about labor market first because I know that that's the first and foremost question that the board has on on whether, you know, what direction you want to go. Um, you know, the the reality is is that, you know, after the pandemic, you know, traditionally,

010executive searches started really at the beginning of the year, right after the holidays or just before the holidays, really in January though, but after the the pandemic, we have noticed that um, you know, districts are entering the labor market earlier and earlier, and we have had in, you know, increasing success with taking uh, particularly smaller rural districts out early. Um, and so we already have some districts that are that are already in the labor in the labor market or in the process of of getting their position announcements out there. And there are other search firms that are already taking districts out. So, I mean, so that's kind of the the strategy component here. um you know the hour isn't too late but it's getting later is I guess the message that I'd like to share

011with the board tonight on whether to proceed or not. Um the other is is that uh you know the district has some considerable work. You have the benefit of having a uh you know deeply experienced and highly skilled superintendent um and so that is a huge benefit of to the board and the district. Um, and so I'm just, you know, thinking about the needs of of your district. You have some big work going on. Um, particularly around navigating, you know, you have a charter school that's that's starting to come online. Um, and so that's going to be some additional work. I know that, uh, the superintendent SCAK has been instrumental in navigating that. Um so that's part of the decision-making calculus that the board can consider you know on whether having a change in in

012executive leadership right now um is the right thing. So whenever a board is considering um you know a change in leadership like this you need to think about what are the needs of the district what what are we going to need over the next three to five years in executive leadership. Um, and you know, so th those are the hydraulics that I'm seeing from the outside looking in. Um, so we're slightly late, but it's certainly within the window where we could start a search. Um, if the board makes a decision tonight, I could move very swiftly if you wanted to contract with OSBA. Now, this is not a sales pitch. Um, I don't make any commission on sales on searches. So, you know, I'm if you wanted to go with another search firm, that's fine.

013So, if you wanted to take a week or two to look at other proposals, um I think that that would be a very prudent uh way to approach this for the board. Um it would limit the ability to get a position announcement out before uh the start of the winter break. Um, but if the board moves swiftly uh and in um entering the labor market uh you know in the next week or so, we could probably get you out there if you were going to go with OSBA. Um I I can't speak for other search firms. Okay, so that's my brain dump uh for the board. Um I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm happy to talk at length about OSBA's process and what you can what you should look for in a search firm,

014but I want to pause for any questions. directors. Any questions? Um Adrian as well. Any questions so far? >> I have a question. It may be obvious, but if we are deciding um which I think is probably the way we're going to go that that um we're going to keep um our current superintendent for another year, do we still go ahead and advertise the same as if we were do we advertise now or do we wait and and how does that affect a candidate if we if we wait to you know until the into the next year before we start advertising? >> So I >> again I think what Sorry Vince go ahead. No, go. No, go ahead, Andy. >> Well, again, I think what Vince is getting to is that again, like the the

015the timeline for the process has really changed again like to get for through the full breadth of candidates that you want to starting in the fall is what makes sense. So, if you started in September of next year, you would do your initial review and planning in September and then you would have a posting out in October cuz there's 20 some odd positions that are advertised out now. Um, and again knowing that our next meeting turns around in about two weeks, you would have to again look at other firms, see what they have to offer, make a decision, and then put together your criteria list to hopefully have it out in December by holiday break. Again, I would say if your announcement is out in January, it's too late because most people will have everything

016locked up with commitments by March. Most people are doing their second interviews in January. >> So, the ongoing process is that we make some kind of a motion or a declaration or something at our next meeting declaring that this is what's going to happen, that you're going to do interim, and then go from there. Is that how the process works or do we start getting involved in in searching now? I'm >> Oh, yeah. No, you begin you can begin some of your prelim search work in the spring >> so you're ready to go. You can do a spring and summer to be ready to go first crack of the bat in September. Um, but again, it's just a really a matter of making a decision. Do you want to rush and try to get something

017out by January or do you want to wait and really prepare and go out for September and then it's just a matter of because my my contract rolls through 27 anyways and so it's just a matter of working on I mean that there's not much to do on my end. Yeah. >> Do you just make a declaration that this is what you're going to do? >> No, you make a decision that I'm the interim and that you are going to begin the hiring process in fall of for sure. Make sure we were following a process. >> And Tom, hang on one second. And if I was understanding Vince correctly, so so that's if we go the route of of preemptively declaring Andy the interim, but if we now Vince, correct me if I'm wrong here

018with with what I just heard you say was if we if we do choose to go the OSBA route within the a week or so here that that you say we're we're we're getting later but not too late. Is that am I understanding that correctly? If we were to go if we were to use OSBA, >> I think I think an Andy, you know, really did a good job describing the situation. It's kind of like musical chairs. I mean, at the end of the season, um, as the pro these processes conclude, candidate candidates get get selected and sign contracts and and you know, you just you're pulling from the lower tier of candidates that that are available if you're the last in line. And so I I just I would really want the the board

019to be in the best possible position. The scenario that that you know super superintendent Chris Goyak uh described I think is the optimal position. Um you know starting you know starting in September having a position announcement in October and leaving it open and leave it open in in through the the winter break and getting a really broad and deep applicant pool is certainly going to give you the most options. um a once the processes start then you know you you'll be wrapping up you know right at the end of March you'll be making a selection you know in March maybe even February if you if you went that early >> Tom um so I think that something that we is on my mind is we need to acknowledge that you made your intent know that

020you did want to retire and um we want to respect your wishes um I won't beg but I will say pretty please. Will you stay one more year? [laughter] We I we like Vince said, we are we have a lot going on right now and your experience is very much appreciated by me. >> Well, again, it's not a matter of begging or plead or anything, but again, if the board wants me to stay on one more year, I'll stay on one more year as the interim. I just need to notify my program that I'm going to delay [snorts] entry. That's all. Again, it's it was real simple procedure. I already told them that, hey, I'd know probably about Thanksgiving time whether I'm going to start intern work in July of 26 or July of 27th.

021So >> now, uh, Vince, also I'm I'm going to preface a lot of my statements with correct me if I'm wrong because I don't want to be making assumptions here. Um but but uh and also directors tell me your thoughts on on my nent thought here of we can also post this openness but that doesn't mean we have to hire in our first goround. Is that am I am I presuming that correctly? So if we if if we if we did happen to find a a lower lower tiered candidate it's well then we just don't hire that candidate. Is that right? Am I thinking that properly? >> So, I would not I would not >> or but you're gonna go through a lot a lot of work >> because all the work that Vince is

022laying out that you would in essence do September through January of next year, you're going to do January, February, and then not hire someone. I mean, you're gonna you're gonna compress six months of work into two and then not hire someone >> that >> and spend a lot of money. >> That is an inefficient use of your time, Vince's time. Yeah, >> I couldn't recommend that. >> I think we just need to take advantage of the fact that he's offered and go from there and then do what Vince has said and start and get in September and do the real thing because I was I attended the OBA conference um thing on how to do a superintendent. Number one, the room was full of people that are looking for superintendents. And two, it's a lot

023of work. >> And I'm going to say, you're not waiting till September. You're drafting materials in May and June. >> Yeah. >> So, you're doing your prep work so that your job announcement goes out hot in September like that because again, there's a lot of stuff that you're going to want to decide on. Um there's a lot of the minutia and that needs to be done. It needs to be right. needs to be what the board wants for the district. Um, and again, you you cannot rush through the process. And that's you're kind of rushed now. You'd be really rushed if you took another week or two to see what other people have to offer. Um, and then you've really cut down what's a six months process into two. >> Okay. Diana, did you have

024anything? >> Okay. I guess to boil it all down, it's a can or should question. I mean, can you go out right now? Could you could you go out and and do it this year? Yeah, you could. Should you do it? Probably not. And you're in a really enviable position where you have a superintendent that's that's able to stay for another year. It's just a you're in a really optimal position to ma make this decision. >> Gotcha. >> And my only thought and Andy, you you stated that you're you're willing to postpone your plans and your internship program. I just hope that that postponement doesn't impact your ability to proceed the way you intend. >> No, it it won't. I mean, it's again, I've already been accepted. Um, and it's just a matter of just

025rolling it forward for a year. And I have that option. And again, OHSU already knows that that's what I was considering because it was going to be a timing piece. So, yeah. >> Okay. Um, Adrian, anything yet or anything from you? Um, I will just throw out that I I just think starting a search before we've had the chance as this newly formed board to be able to evaluate like our goals and uh and our you know looking forward a few year plan uh all together. I I think it it would probably be a pretty bad idea to do so. >> Good. Moren, anything else? Well, I just because we've had such our wonderful superintendent for quite a while now. It's going to be quite a bit of work to really update the um the

026job announcement and all that kind of stuff, too. It's not like we just had to hire a couple years ago. Thank heavens. So, so it's going to be a little more work getting things ready, too. So, I appreciate ourselves getting time to be able to do it properly. Okay. >> Any other thoughts or questions for Vince or do we uh do we let him get on with his evening? So, >> go ahead, Vince. >> I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. So, the one thing I can offer is that I know that we're planning some time together. I believe it's next month uh to pick up your uh board self assessment. If we wanted to reserve a little bit of time, I can uh share what uh Superintendent Search, you know, kind of the content that

027uh director Miltonberger was able to consume at the at the convention can go over that content and give you an idea of what the moving parts of a executive search looks like. So you have a just a little little more grounded in uh as you move through this and make you know this decision, start thinking about um new leadership. >> Okay. Okay. So does that does that uh is all this kind of sound I think the I think a proper vocabulary word here is this is all copathetic. We're all kind of saying hey this is where we're going. Okay. Well I think I think Vince I think we can uh let you back to your evening and we're going to have a two and a half minute break before the start of our regular session.

028>> Alrighty. It's always a pleasure to meet with you with you folks board. Greetings from Eastern Oregon. I'm over here in Vale. I'm gonna be driving to Boise tonight. So, uh, take care and I will see you guys next month. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Vince. >> Thank you. >> Take care. Have a good night. >> Okay. Um, directors, unless there's nothing else for this work session, we'll, uh, we'll take a two-minute recess and then start at 6:30. Anything? Nobody? Okay. Work session adjourned. Okay, it is now 6:30. Um, and we will begin we'll call to order the board of directors meeting for the November 19th 2025 uh regular board meeting. Uh, welcome to the the uh press public patrons and patrons of the district. Um, our mission statement as always is motivating and preparing all

029students to reach their greatest potential. Uh, we'll go ahead and get uh get rolling uh with the uh roll call attendance. Uh, Miss Free. >> Chair Lacatur >> present. >> Vice Chair Miltonberger >> present. >> Director Plet >> here. >> Director Cole. Director Habberly >> present. Director Posegate, >> present. >> Director Pimlot, >> present. >> Student Representative Emanuel Pon Samura. Student Representative Lily Clemens >> present. >> Student representative Grace Frank. >> Thank you. And uh we're missing one student rep and one director, but that is um we do have a quorum. Uh, we'll continue to the pledge of allegiance um by Allan and I think that's Arthril, but we will hear the correct pronunciation from Mr. Moral from the middle school. Come on up. You get to come join me, Alan. All right. So, uh,

030school board, thank you as always for having us. Um it's a pleasure and an honor to introduce Alan Arthrell as our flag salute for this month uh for the Suslaw Middle School. Alan is currently a seventh grade student at Suslaw Middle School and I chose somebody this month who exemplifies the power of personal transformation. So oftentimes we introduce students who have maintained exemplary academic honors and perfect records like attendance. Allen's pathway in public school has been slightly different. Um, however, I would argue that it's maybe a little bit more inspiring. He has historically faced significant difficulties in school, uh, both behaviorally, academically, um, and with attendance. Last year, these challenges led Allen to, um, leave Scotland Middle School in the springtime and enroll in a homeschool program, an online program, which didn't work out real

031great. Um, so he tried summer school also kind of bit of a struggle for Allan this year. Uh, however, Allan returned to us this year in the fall shortly after school began. And I feel like we really witnessed a powerful shift. I had a teacher come up to me and say, "Didn't I hear some stuff about him from last year?" Like, "Didn't I see him in the hallways having some um difficulties?" Model student was their word. Um, their phrase. Allen's made a deliberate choice to change his path. His attendance is approved. Um, he's found a sense of belonging and is actively engaged in the band. Uh, and from what I understand, he's a very good trombone player and looking forward to our winter concert. Um, he's actively working to improve his grades, uh, tackling academic

032gaps that resulted from a lot of attendance um, issues. It's still a work in progress, right, Ellen? >> Yep. But Ellen is continuing to work every day. Um, his dedic dedication is clear and I have every confidence that he will be successful. Allan possesses powerful life-changing characteristics. Perseverance, courage, and determination. Despite the profound difficulties that Allan faces, he's mastering the ability to overcome them. I do have a story that I'd like to share with you guys. Um, this has a lot to show about Allen's transformation. Um, there was a challenging situation in the hall that Mr. Franks was addressing um with another student. This student was having um an escalation, kind of a an internal meltdown, so to speak. Um, refusing to communicate, just kind of stuck. Couldn't communicate with Mr. Franks or any of

033the adults that were trying to help the child and intervene. Allan, who immediately understands um what it's like to deal with those emotional challenges, saw what was happening. Without prompting, he walked over to the student. He sat sat down next to her um and simply began to talk with her. Through this remarkable empathy and compassion, he consoled her and encouraged her to return to class and completely turned her day around. Mr. Franks told me about the story and I called Allan down to talk with him about it. Um, and we not only talked about the situation at hand, but about um, just his improvement that we've been seeing overall in school and just how proud I am of him. And he told me that he was deeply proud of himself and that his interaction with

034this student showed him for the first time that he is truly capable of controlling his own emotions and choosing kindness. This realization has changed his direction. He is now a TA in our life skills classroom. That meeting with me, he sat down and was like, I want to add time to my day because currently he comes late and leaves a little bit early. So, he added time to his day so that he can spend time in the life skills classroom with special needs students and he is a great help not to mention in that class. Um, in that meeting, he also told me he goes, "Mr. Merrell, now I know what I want to do with my life." He's like, "It felt so good to help that girl." He goes, and I said, 'Adall, what

035what is it? He's like, 'I want to either be a teacher or a counselor. >> And so, I truly believe that that's [clears throat] his pathway. Um, this is a powerful reminder for all of us. We're not only in this prof profession for the money, especially you guys sitting here at this um but for the way it helps us to understand our impact, the impact that we have, the impact that we have on others and our students. Um I feel like Allan's journey has been one from a struggle to one of calling. And it's pretty inspiring to have this happen right before our eyes in our school. I think this happens at other times, too. We just always don't get to see that moment. So Alan, thank you. Good job. I'm proud of you. And

036would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Right. So you're going to come up here. >> Yeah. get a picture. >> Bring your Bring your parents or or whomever else is with you and we'll take a picture by the flag. And I have a little certificate for you as well. >> I got a question. How many classes did you have to work on in August? >> Huh? >> Um, I had coding. Wait for my home. >> Sure. >> All of them. >> Good. Here's this. Let me shake your hand first, >> right? I'm going to have you guys move over

037this way a little bit. You get everybody tight so I can get everyone in there. >> Face her face. >> Perfect. >> There we go. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Good job. Keep it up. Well done. Shake your hand again. >> Good job. >> Man, you did the work. >> He did do the work. Yeah, you did. But if it wasn't for you. Thank you again. [clears throat] Pushing him. You got you got to go, man. You got to do just keep it up. Okay. Good job, Alan. Well done. Um uh do I see I don't see do I see Austin here yet? I don't see Austin. >> It is not. >> Okay. All right. So we will get a a uh more detailed report covering two months next month. Um so on to 2.6.

038Um it is American Education Week and I have the official proclamation here that I will read that I have the privilege and opportunity to read. American Education Week proclamation. Whereas public schools are the backbone of our democracy, providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of freedom, civility, and equality. And whereas by equipping young Americans with both practical skills and broader intellectual abilities, [clears throat] schools give them hope for and access to a productive future. And whereas education employee employees, be they custodians or teachers, bus drivers or librarians, work tirelessly to serve our children and communities with care and professionalism. And whereas schools are community lynchpins, bringing together adults and children, educators and volunteers, business leaders and elected officials in a common enterprise. Now therefore, I, Brian Lacur, serving

039as board chairman of Sisawa School Board, do hereby proclaim November 17th through the 21st, 2025 as the observance of American Education Week. So well done and thank you. Okay. um into uh 2.7 and this is approval of the agenda. Superintendent. >> Okay. Uh item uh 111925-2.7 approval of the agenda. Uh superintendent, board chair, vice chair meet to prepare the agenda one week prior to the board meeting. 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 must be approved by majority vote? Administration recommends approval of the agenda. >> Directors, any comments on the mo on the item? Nope. And who's on who's who's on deck here? >> Chair, be it resolved that

040the Suslaw School District Board of Directors approve the agenda as presented. Resolution number 111925-2.7. Approve agenda. >> Second. Resolution number 111925-2.7. Approve agenda. Motion made by Director Hly, seconded by Director Milenberger. Any discussion on the motion? Those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Agenda approved. So, let's continue on with it. Uh, we're into our 3.0 public comment. And Debbie, I think there's one or two. Just one. Okay, we have just one this evening. This is Kathleen Kendall. Um, Kathleen, you can make your way to the microphone, please. And welcome. Is that Can you hear me? Okay. Um, thank you. Um, good evening. Thanks for this opportunity to address the board. Um, I attended the joint board meeting on October 29th with the um, charter school leaders and I was a little bit confused about how

041the about the curriculum when um, Miss Wagner was explaining the Hillsdale curriculum. Um, I it just I was having a hard time understanding how that was still keeping them affiliated with Hillsdale. So, I went to the Hillsdale website and I learned that a charter school can receive um differing levels of support from Hillsdale. Whitmore is considered a college curriculum school, which is the third level and the least amount of support. Um and according to that website, a curriculum school receives three things. um one a license to Hillsdale K12 program guide two which I think she was ex trying to explain the second thing is formal affiliation mark which I wasn't sure what that means and the third is access to select resources um and then I did further research because I was confused around what

042a classical education actually means I thought I understood it but got myself confused Um and then I so I started googling, you know, um and then I found Whitmore Academy had um a posting for a head of school on a website called Society for Classical Learning. Um and Whitmore Classical Academy is also listed under the um you know, find a classical Christian school for your child. And when I put in our zip code, um, that's when there when Whitmore came up. Um, and the Society for Classical Learning says on their homepage, um, we are Christian, we are committed, we are hospitable. Um, this is concerning to me for a couple reasons, for two reasons. First, I'm concerned that public tax dollars are being used um to fund a seemingly religiousbased educational curriculum. Um if Whitmore

043is not a religious charter school, um I don't know if they can remove themselves from these affiliations. It seemed like they genuinely want to build credibility and trust within our community. Um, so I was just thinking perhaps that's they need to get their school off of some of those um, websites. Secondly, as an active supporter myself of the LGBTQ plus community, um, I worry that all children will not be welcomed at that school. They may be accepted into the enrollment um as required, but will they be welcomed? Is that my time? Okay. Thank you. >> If you if you have if you have just a few more seconds, you're you're welcome to. >> Well, and just to be transparent, I am a um a charter school supporter. That was what my career was before I

044retired. Um supporting charter schools in their special education curriculum. Um, so I I again I'm I'm hoping there's some um attempt to build that credibility with our community um and making sure our tax dollars are not paying for religious education. >> Great. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Kathleen >> and Debbie. That was just the one. I've already forgotten. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Directors, moving on to uh our 4.0. So, um, last year and the previous years, our mandatory reporting training video has been a 29m minute or excuse me, a 22minute thing, but this one is a 49minut thing now. So, we're going to do 30 minutes now and then we'll finish the uh we'll finish the remainder in our December meeting. So, I'm turning this over to the tech guys for for our mandatory reporting

045training video. Again, it is a good new video, but again, it's twice as long as it was previously. So, uh, >> and thank you for joining us this evening um, to talk about child abuse and sexual conduct obligations for schoolboard members. I'm Haley Purcell and I'm the chief legal officer and interim deputy executive director for the Oregon School Boards Association. And presenting with me tonight are Spencer Lewis, director of policy services, McKenzie Nicks, um who is our PACE dedicated sexual abuse prevention consultant, and Ken Sterling, our senior assistant legal counsel and the legal services team lead. Um, as we go through our material tonight, if you have any questions that come up, feel free to put those in the chat and we'll try to answer those as we go through the material. If you think

046of questions later or have follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to our attorneys at paceleal osba.org. Um, we'll have this email address on the last slide as well. This PowerPoint is available to you if you would like it. It has some links and connected documents in it that might be helpful. Um, you can also share it with your fellow board members that weren't able to attend. And then we we're also recording it. So, if there are other uh board members on your board that are not attending and you want to share that information with them, um, it will be recorded so people can watch it after the fact. Um, tonight we're gonna McKenzie will start us off with talking about some statistics and some resources that PACE has available to to schools to kind

047of get us in the mind frame of why we're talking about this problem that we're trying to tackle in schools. Um, then Kellen and I will talk about child abuse and sexual conduct reporting obligations. This um is designed for schoolboard members. So, we're not going to go into all of the details of all of the legal requirements for staff, but we do have uh another recorded webinar that we did for administrators earlier today. So, if you want more information on the details of what your administrators and your building staff are required to do, you're more than welcome to view that recording as well if you want to kind of get more in detail um into these things. But we've tried to talk to you, we're well trying to talk to you tonight about your own

048u mandatory reporting obligations and then give you a high level of what's going on in your school so you kind of get an idea of how these things are handled when um when your school staff is con uh presented with one of these issues to deal with at school. Um, we're going to talk about the training requirements and then background check requirements and kind of throughout we'll talk about the policies that your school has in place or should have in place if you don't have them in place. And Spencer will let you know when the last time those policies were updated so you can make sure that you check your district policies and make sure those are up to date with what is um required currently. These laws change frequently um and so we have

049to keep those policies up to date. um as the legislature makes due changes to those laws. Um and with that, I'm going to turn it over to McKenzie and then I will be back shortly. Perfect. Thank you, Haley. Good evening, everyone. I'm going to quickly go over some statistics to kind of kind of help paint the picture of why we're having this conversation here today. Um we have some new information from the CDC that says that one in four girls and one in 13 boys will experience some form of sex abuse by the age of 18. Previously this statistic has read one in four girls and one in six boys for the last 20 years or so. So there has been some progress made in that regard. Um we know that one in five children

050um ages 9 to 17 will experience online sexual solicitation. We also know that 30% of children are children are abused by family members. Um and where we kind of start seeing school employees trickle into the statistics. We see that um as many as 60% of kids are abused by people the family trusts. So of course schools fall in that category. coaches, boy scouts, youth groups, you name it. Really all youth serving organizations. Um, we also know that about 35% of victims are 11 years old or younger. And which makes sense when we look at our other statistic about family members who abuse children. Frankly, the younger the victim, the more likelihood their perpetrator is a family member. Then once somebody has been victimized once in their lifetime, the likelihood of being revictimized later in life

051is almost exponentially higher. And then finally, nearly 40% of kids are abused by older or larger children that they know. And again, schools, there's a huge difference between an 18-year-old and a 14-year-old [clears throat] and then a 14-year-old and 11year-old, right? Um, next slide, please. So, when I come to your districts, I talk to your um the staff, I really focus on grooming. Grooming is like the big bulk of my presentation. And so, um, kind of the working definition I've been working with is that grooming is a process where someone engages in a series or pattern of behaviors with the goal of engaging in sexual, uh, conduct. Grooming is a manipulative behavior the abuser uses to normalize the behavior, prolong the abuse, to make the the victim fear reporting, or to be less likely like

052likely to be believed if they do report. So, [snorts] next slide. So, when I really go into these trainings, um, this is kind of how they start when we talk about grooming. And I'm not going to get too far into this today, but when I come in person, it's a very interactive conversation to recognize each stage of the grooming process because early grooming looks like mentorship, which is what educator's jobs are is getting that early buy in from all your students. But when things start getting hairy is when we start developing emotional connections with kids and how to define what that red flag behavior is so we can recognize it and intervene early on versus students are just looking for extra resources. So, um, again, I'm not going to get too far into the weeds

053with this, but grooming is something that is a problem across the country, and we do need to take a deeper look into what, um, this looks like in practice. I think in theory, we understand it, but actually viewing it with boots on the ground is completely different. Um, next slide. So, this is kind of really what I also wanted to show you all. We have some really great resources available to you that are completely free. Um so first and foremost is the training that I provide and other risk consultants also provide. Um it can be done on online or in person. In person I think is just significantly more impactful because it opens that um dialogue and if we want to have culture change we need to be able to have those conversations. Something else

054that's new as of last year is we have sex abuse prevention um cards that go on your lanyards also free. One side is student resources and the other side is staff resources. So it's always easy to have that kind of thing. quick uh reference um to have for all your staff. We also have the we got this poster. You're probably more familiar with this. It should be in every building um across your districts. I also want to know at the bottom of the we got this poster, there's an orange block there that's blank. It's blank for you so you to fill out um who your designated license administrator is, the alternate as well as local law enforcement information. When I go into our trainings, nine times out of 10 staff have no idea who their

055designated license administrator is. they assume it's their building administrator and sometimes it is but oftentimes they don't know for sure who that individual is. Um the other thing I would really like to highlight are some of our quick reference guides specifically the protect yourself and the school trips QRGS. I would highly encourage all coaches get this um before every season just as a good reminder about best practices. And then of course we have PSAs. We are working on our third PSA right now. It should be out early summer time frame and it specifically focuses around grooming and athletics and it's something that I'm really excited to see kind of come um or finish I should say. So with that I'm going to pass it back off to Haley. >> Thank you McKenzie. Um, and one

056thing to note about uh grooming is that we OSBA is working on getting a definition of grooming into state law so that it can help guide school staff and administrators in addressing grooming behavior because it's not currently in state law. And so it makes it a little bit more difficult for administrators to work through. they often have to um call us and ask uh you know have to spend money on attorneys and so forth to figure that out. So we're hoping that maybe if there's a statutory definition that will help them uh handle those in the schools. Okay. So turning now to child abuse reporting. Um obviously anybody who sees or learns about child abuse should be reporting that. Um but there are some people who are legally obligated to report child abuse and those

057people are called mandatory reporters. Um you as schoolboard members are mandatory reporters. This is a relatively recent change in the law in the last few years. Um it includes school district board members, education service district board members, and public charter school governing body board members. Um, so now you are all mandatory reporters of uh child abuse. And if you uh learn of potential child abuse, your obligation is to immediately report that to DHS or law enforcement. And DHS does have an abuse hotline with a phone number there on this slide. Um, I wanted to mention that at in your role as a school board member, you are a mandatory reporter, but this does not just apply to your role as a school board member. It applies everywhere. So, if you're a mandatory reporter of child

058abuse, like attorneys are and doctors, and there's uh a lot of different professions that are required. All the school staff, every staff member in a school is a mandatory reporter. um when you leave the board room, when you leave the school, that obligation follows you everywhere into your personal life as well. So, just kind of keep that in mind um as you uh navigate uh being a mandatory reporter. And like I said, that's new for school board members. So, if you weren't previously aware of that, um don't feel bad about that. Um it's not it's not commonly known, I don't think, for some school board members. I don't think everyone knows that they are mandatory reporters. Um, one of the things the law does not require is it does not require schoolboard members to have

059any sort of training. Um, most if not all other mandatory reporters are required to have training. Um, and so this is why we're providing this training in part to schoolboard members so that you're aware of this obligation. Um, if you have a situation where you believe that there may be child abuse going on and you make that report to DHS or police, um, this is the information that DHS or police would like to have from you, but only if you have this information. So, you are not, um, being asked to go and investigate and find this information if you don't already have it. And in fact, you should not investigate child abuse without reporting it first. um you report it to DHS and police and if they need you to do anything else they will

060let you know that. Otherwise, you just your only obligation is to report what you know. Um so if you know the name and address of the child and the parents of the child or other persons responsible for the care of the child, you would report that information. The child's age, the nature and extent of abuse, including any evidence of previous abuse, and the explanation given for the abuse. Again, that's only if you know that information. Um, you shouldn't be asking uh for additional information. As soon as you suspect that there is child abuse, your obligation is to report that to DHS and police. Um, the people who investigate child abuse are trained to investigate child abuse and there are specific uh ways of questioning children about abuse that is uh less harmful than others. and

061most schoolboard members um will not have had that training. And so it can it can cause further damage to the child if you begin asking questions that you haven't been trained uh to ask. And it can also interfere with law enforcement and DHS's investigation. So again, if you have this information, if the child volunteers it to you and then you report it, that's fine, but you are under no obligation and probably should not be uh inquiring further as soon as you have a suspicion of child abuse. And then finally, any other information that you believe would be important to report to DHS or police can be included in that initial report. There is a definition of child abuse in Oregon state law. I'm going to uh go through some of these things, but I would

062what I'd encourage you to do as a schoolboard member is reach out to your superintendent and see if it's possible for you to um do whatever child abuse training the staff at the school do. Um it'll be more much more in depth about how to recognize child abuse. Um, it will talk to you about bruises and how to how to look for bruises that could potentially indicate child abuse like fingerprints and things of that nature. Um, it'll be much more in depth than what we're doing today. Uh, today we're kind of highlighting your mandatory obligations and then talking to you about generally what's required in the schools and making sure that you're aware of your district policies, making sure that you as a school board member are reviewing those policies and keeping those up to

063date. So, we're not going into as much depth as those um child abuse trainings are that your staff undergo annually. Usually, it's just an online type training. So, you should easily be able to get access to that. But, I do encourage schoolboard members to do that annual training that the staff do so that you are um you know, the same information they do in terms of what you're supposed to be reporting as a mandatory reporter, which follows you everywhere. like I said before. So, child abuse includes assault, u me, mental injury, observable and substantial impairment, rape, sexual abuse, sexual uh exploitation including contributing to sexual delinquency, photography encouraging prostitution, negligent treatment, threatened harm, buying or selling a child, presence where meth is produced, exposure to control substance, unlawful restraint and seclusion of a child, or

064infliction of corporal ederal punishment uh child abuse. So under the law, a child means an unmarried person who is under the age of 18. And I just wanted to note that in Oregon, a person is uh considered incapable of consenting to any sort of sexual act if the person is under the age of 18. And I'm going to have Spencer uh talk about this policy. Yeah, this policy is policy BBFC. It's not required. Um, we introduced it a few years ago and really what it does is it outlines the requirements that Haley just talked about. As board members, you are mandatory reporters and that's a new thing. U if you were a board member eight years ago, you were not a mandatory reporter at that time. So, what this does, it's really there as a

065resource in the footnote. It this was updated back in April of last year and footnote number two was added. Then it re it just includes the DHS contact, the the state hotline um that you can call and you can report child abuse. Um there are times that um some of us attorneys at OSBA, we get phone calls and they say, "Well, I'm not sure if it's child abuse." And anytime you call and you tell us that, we're going to say, "You called the wrong person. You need to call DHS or law enforcement and you need to report there." Um we're not going to go through like, "Well, you know what? what are the conditions or you know what makes you think that it is if you have enough cause to call us to report it

066then we're going to say let's go ahead and just make that um make that call to DHS. So if you're if your board doesn't have this policy that's perfectly fine. It's an optional policy. You're not required to have it. Um, but make sure that you and the other board members on your board all understand that, hey, we are mandatory reporters. If we have reasonable cause to um, suspect child abuse, we need to contact DHS or law enforce. It's not, you don't necessarily have to contact the superintendent. That does not fulfill your obligation. Um, it you need to contact DHS or law enforcement. So, make sure that everyone has that contact information. And just to reiterate what Haley's been saying all along that this applies beyond beyond your school role as a school board member. You

067could be, you know, driving on I 84, stop at a gas station and witness uh something that looks like child abuse to you. You have an obligation to report it even though it may be hundreds of miles from your district. >> Thank you, [clears throat] Spencer. So now I'm briefly going to mention what the employee requirements are. So these aren't um the requirements that apply to you as a board member but to the staff in the school. So they also like every other mandatory reporter have the obligation to contact DHS or law enforcement. And this is a personal uh requirement. So the person who has reasonable cause has to contact DHS or law enforcement. They can't just go to their principal or a supervisor and say, "Hey, I have reasonable cause and report it to

068their administrator and then the administrator reports it." That does not meet their obligation. They have to directly report it. Um, we do encourage administrators to make those reports with staff that they supervise to make sure that it happens. Um, but the staff member themselves who has the reasonable cause is the one that actually has to report it. They also have to notify the designated licensed administrator in the district. And like McKenzie was talking about with the poster, it's very important that staff know who that designated licensed administrator is. That should be located on the poster that's in every school in the district. That is a legal requirement. So, if there's something that you want to take away from this webinar and go back to your superintendent with, you can say, "Hey, we learned that we're

069supposed to have a poster in every school in our district and it's supposed to say who the designated licensed administrator is on there. Is that in place?" Um, and then I'll let when we get to the policy, I'll let Spencer talk about that as well. Um once the information is reported to the designated licensed administrator, they are required by law to place the accused employee on paid administrative leave and they are required to pay them. It is paid administrative leave and that is in the law. So I know that that is a source of frustration for many staff and board members about paying these people that have been accused of abuse, but it is required by the law. Um so the school staff have no choice but to do that. Um then the designated licensed

070administrator has to take steps to make sure that the student is safe and then they need to investigate if appropriate. Sometimes another agency will be doing the investigation. Most of the time um when it's child abuse uh another agency the DHS or police will be doing the investigation and the school will be waiting for that to happen. And sometimes that can take um quite some time. So again, a lot of frustration about the amount of time um that sometimes people can be sitting on paid administrative leave and I'll let Spencer talk about the policy. So this is um policy GBNAB um and it's double coded to JHF in the staff section and in the student section. And this is specifically around um reporting of suspected child abuse. and it walks through, it goes through the

071requirements, it talks about volunteers, contractors, um, employees, talks about what the obligations are. Um, within that, there is a spot for you to designate who that designated licensed administrator is. U, many districts just leave the term designated licensed administrator in there. And I really want to look at what is the purpose of this policy. Well, one of the purposes is to provide guidance to staff and to anybody else when they're faced with a situation where they might see child abuse and they they might go to this policy to find out, okay, who am I supposed to report this to? So, as much information as you can put into the policy about who to identify, that's going to be best. And we recommend that you include positions or even names depending on the situation. And I

072recognize that, you know, in a big district where you have 30 plus schools, that may be really difficult, but combining this with the posters that McKenzie's talked about, uh, to make sure that staff know who they need to contact. Um, there's also a couple of ARs here that go through some of the process, um, how do you work work along with DHS, um, and things like that. So, I would encourage you as board members to look at your policy GBNAB JHF um and look at your adoption date. If the adoption date is before April of 2024, then I would encourage you to take a look at that um and see um and I'm send me an email. I'm happy to send you out our current sample um so you can see what the changes are.

073This is an area that changes very often. Um the legislature, I mean, we're in the middle of a long session. I would be surprised if we made it through the entire session without some type of change um to this policy. So, you'll likely see an update, you know, in the coming months, but it's still worth taking a look at um and seeing what you might need to update in your district. >> Thank you, Spencer. Um, and just to emphasize the importance of making sure that your policies are up to date. If there is an issue in your district um, regarding child abuse or sexual conduct. Um, one of the things that people will look at is whether or not you had the most current version of the policy. Um, it may not have changed any

074of what happened, but it'll be one of the points raised about what the district was doing to try to solve this problem. And so really keeping on top of these policies is really important. So one last um slide for me before I turn it over to Kellen to talk to you about what sexual conduct is. Um what happens if you fail to report child abuse? And so the number one obvious concern is that a child is continued to be abused or if you see something early on before the child has actually been abused and are able to stop the abuse from actually happening that's even better. Um so reporting can uh do that to prevent abuse of a child and further abuse of a child. It can also be a class A violation um to

075fail to report child abuse. There may be other criminal charges filed kind of depending on the circumstances and we we saw that recently um in Oregon where somebody was charged with additional crimes besides the class A violation. Um there may be civil claims filed against you personally for failing to report and or the district that you represent. And just remember that making good faith if you make a good faith report um you are immune from liability civil and criminal. And I know that that's sometimes one of the concerns people have is that somebody will accuse them of defaming them or something along those na along those lines. If they report something that doesn't ultimately turn out to be child abuse. Um it's better to be safe than sorry and over reporting um really has no

076downside. You have protection under the law from that. Um so we would encourage you when in doubt to report. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Ken to talk about sexual conduct. >> Thanks, Haley. So, uh, similar to Oregon's child abuse law, there are very specific reporting obligations and other steps that schools and specifically school administrators need to take under Oregon sexual conduct law if they receive a report or information that a school employee or a contractor, agent, or volunteer is engaging in sexual conduct with a student. Um, but before I get to talking about the reporting obligations, I thought a good place to start is by defining what sexual conduct is. So, under Oregon law, sexual conduct is defined as any verbal or physical conduct or verbal written or electronic communications

077by a school employee, a contractor, an agent, or volunteer that involves a student and that are sexual advances or requests for sexual favors directed towards the student or are of a sexual nature that are directed towards the student or that have the effect of unreasonably interfering with a student's educational performance or create an intimidating or hostile educational environment. So, uh two two things um that I always point out um when I talk about this definition and that is first it's a very broad definition um which I think is good because it provides greater protection to students and also um just to point out it applies to not only school employees but it also applies to contractors, agents or volunteers that are providing uh services to the school as well. Uh, for the purposes of Oregon's

078sexual 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 or 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 [clears throat] 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

079that a person is considered a student in relation to prohibited sexual conduct involving school employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers. >> Okay. Thank you. Um we will uh finish the rest of that video um next month during the same probably the same special presentations perhaps the work session. Um that'll be decided in our next agenda planning meeting. So um moving forward I'm grateful well well real quick back to that grateful for that um so that we're aware of it but uh what a shame that we have to be. Um so um 5.0 uh moving on to consent agenda. Uh superintendent. Okay. Consent agenda. Consent business. Item uh 111925-5.0. This month's consent agenda contains the following items. Uh your October 8th regular boarding uh regular meeting minutes. Your October 29th work session minutes. October 25 financial statement.

080Enrollment update for the month. Policy Jigb education records and records of students with disabilities management. Uh again policy IGBA JO- AR crosscoded policy JO diretory JA director information and pro and policy JHCA immunization sports school sports participations concussions and other brain injuries. Administration recommends approval of the consent agenda as presented. There's an individual item that needs a separate vote. It can be pulled from the consent agenda. Directors, any discussion on this item? >> Nope. >> Board chair, be it resolved that the Susa School District Board approves the consent agenda as presented, resolution number 111 925-5.0, consent agenda. >> Second. >> Oh, Adrian, we'll give that to you because you had you had a delay. So resol resolution number 111925-5.0 consent agenda motion made by director pinlot seconded by director polllet. Um any discussion on the

081motion? Those in favor? I >> I >> Okay. Uh moving on to uh we have another presentation um that normally would be in our 4.0 but this one is in our 6.0 because we had that training. So, this uh we'll start with the facilities advisory committee update. Um but superintendent, I'll first hand it to you because that's what it says on my paper. Uh yes. So, um facility advisory committee has been working for two plus years looking at facility needs. Um getting close to kind of the terminal end of bringing uh a presentation uh to the board for a recommendation for facility services. Um and uh Mr. H is going to bring you up to speed on the actual uh committee work at this time. This is not a pitch at this time for anything

082for a board going to the bond. Yes. Correct. >> So this is update only. >> What I would really like to show you is what we've been showing the community for the last two and a half months. In fact, 27 different uh entities have seen this. either places we've gone to visit where we've landed on other people's agendas and our long form meetings where we've invited people to the high school for a much longer presentation including a tour of the school. Really we go through what were our preliminary recommendations and then we are we're seeking feedback for those and had feedback from you tonight would be advisable and and helpful as well. So essentially we've been a group of 18 people from across the community who came together to analyze at your charge at your

083direction the state of the facilities across the school district all the district properties and we take a look at the elementary school, the middle school, the high school, the district office and um alt school, all the athletics facilities as well as the um the alternative school and bus barn facilities, the whole ball of wax. So, here's all of who we are. Some of you were on this and I'm not going to belabor the point because you know you were here. We've had a lot of meetings in the last 20 months or so. These topics were just that topics. Many of these were over the course of several meetings. These were not individual meetings. And we're down now down in the number three in the second row, the preliminary recommendations and the community conversations. And we

084are gearing up toward the final recommendation to you all. Uh we start by showing the current high school and in this presentation we bounce back and forth to this school quite a bit. We talk about the 17 doorways. We talk about uh how it was open in 1970. We always open with the statement that schools should last longer or sorry buildings should last longer than people. 1970 is not that long ago. And I think the community has needed to hear that that this building was sort of a dud from from the start and that's why we're in this spot and that we do think that a new school with new technology and new building techniques, new resources, new building materials, new engineering would much last much longer than the 55 years we were able to

085get out of this school. We had a team of engineers, architects, and trades people come in and they identified eight primary areas of concerns. And I'm going to go through these quickly. One is the aging building. And with the aging building comes the scarcity in parts. And with scarcity comes expense. Inadequate and failing systems. I've talked to a lot of people about the heating system. People do remember well the fact that last year we had to close for 4 days in order to go to distance learning because we didn't have enough heat in the building. We talked quite a bit about the safety and security. That's one of the issues that resonated the most with people was the security, especially when they take the tour of the high school and they actually see the floor

086plan that our students walk each day and just how wide open it is. We talk a great deal about the high cost of maintenance and utilities. Uh specifically that almost 40% of the district maintenance and utility budget for all of the district properties comes right to the high school just to keep the doors open and keep us working. The structural upgrades was an interesting one. It's that doesn't gain a lot of traction in this community and not nearly as much as the security. I think there's a a fatalism streak involved when we start talking about the big one and the big earthquake. But when we do share that our 1970 building predates the first seismic building codes by 30 years. In other words, our school was designed and constructed before any seismic codes were on

087the books. That does ring a bell with most people. We talk about the capacity issues that our school was built for 350 students and currently has 380 and in recent years it's been over 400. Most of the time we talk about the limitations of no kitchen and cafeteria and the basic amenities that we're lacking specifically integrated technology um ADA facilities to allow for better access to all parts of the building bright windows airy classrooms. Those are some of the amenities we talk about and we spend more time with those in the longer form. I'm giving you the very truncated form for interest sake of time. Tonight we talk about the elementary school and how this came apart came up not apart came about Freudian slip came about in different stages 65 the oldest portion actually

088predates the high school then addition in 82 8592 and not listed on the bottom there but is the the 17 edition of the kindergarten building. People do [sighs] laugh at the same joke I make every time. And Tom, I'm gonna kill you because and I know I know you're tired of hearing this one. The very long walk that our kinders have to make from that bus drop off area all the way back to the kindergarten building which is about two and a half, three blocks long. I think is part of the reason we have so much success at high school track and cross country that we start. See Tom, it gets a laugh. That's why they tell that joke. But when people do, especially when those who have actually walked it see just how far

089that is for the kinders and not just once but multiple times a day, it helps to make the case for one of the primary concerns that the architects, engineers, and trace people had was bringing that kindergarten building inside. Partly for the sake of those kids and their long walks and their educational time, but also because that kindergarten building is a ticking clock. We are supposed to get 10 to 12 years out of it. This is year 11. We talk about the classroom functionality at the elementary school. How most of the building, most of everything in that 92 portion, even the 82 portion, that part's all working great. It's that 1965 portion that's not so good. We talk about the obsolete systems, the structural and safety upgrades. And then we talk about the big bus problems

090on Oak Street. Then we have our primary preliminary recommendations. most critical is a big replacement high school or the smaller high school and then some less critical renovations and improvements to the elementary school. So this is what we talk mostly about. Also the fact that we need to stay at three under $3 per thousand of assessed value. Any questions so far? We share this model which does come in at $2.95. It's a two-story building. It fits on the current high school property. It adds square footage and flexibility to classrooms and all new systems. And it does include an auditorium. The auditorium was one that got a lot of questions throughout, but one that we stuck with as our preliminary recommendation and much more natural light. Building two is essentially the same only lesser degree of

091benefit for each of those those big changes. Then the elementary school. Are you all looking at the map? You can see the purple sections. Okay. Purple sections are new construction. Four new classrooms in that courtyard which would allow us to bring the kindergarten building inside. That's not where kindergarten would go. Third grade would actually go there, but we'd be able to bring them inside. The orange section, that 1965 portion would be renovated, brought up to code. We would enclose the front hallway and the back hallway, make them actually formal hallways instead of breezeways, which adds a tremendous amount of security. And we think it's going to solve the big park big troubles on Oak Street. If you see the bus lollipop, by putting the buses on the side of the school and loading from the

092backyard, we can remove those buses from the front pickup area, which means all that traffic that backs up past the middle school each day will have more room in front of the school for pickup. Big gained improvements, wider range of ex of educational opportunities. Sorry, these are gains and improvements for the schools and students. Uh, improved morale and retention of students and teachers. We've talked a lot in these meetings that we are in a very competitive market for talent, for teaching talent. We talk about the better learning environment for students, improved safety and security. Again, that's a big one for most people. And then we'd have a new high school and even an improved elementary school that would be lasting for decades to come and big changes in the operating costs. Then we talked quite

093a bit, in fact, as the meetings progressed, we talked more and more about these community benefits. It's going to attract more businesses, more professional families, particularly in healthcare. We hear one of the questions I asked at many of these meetings was, "How many of you have a different doctor than you did four or five years ago?" Almost every hand goes up in the room and people can see that that has a connection to our schools. We've had that feedback from the hospital and from other care providers and we we don't hide that from people in these presentations. We do think this is going to increase the tax base. New schools attract new families. green space for community use is that's a piece of feedback that we are getting throughout the process that people want more

094green space in the city of Florence that just isn't available for us uh other than Miller Park and this could really help the auditorium I mentioned we talked about that at just about every meeting we do not want to compete with the FEC is an excellent facility a real gem in the community but it's not ours it's so we are competing against other entities who want to use the FC C, which is especially a challenge in the spring. It's also not free for us. It's not a terrible expense, but we don't have our stu our students don't have the opportunity to practice in the place where they perform. Every time our choir and band go to the FDC for their performances, they're amazed at how much different they sound. Having an auditorium at school would

095also serve as their classroom for practice and rehearsal. And we do think that a new school would be the model and shelter in an emergency situation. It would be like the middle school would be the place where people can gather in an emergency whether it be forest fire, tsunami or earthquake. We also took great pains to let people know that this is the only option for making improvements of this scale. Local construction bonds are the only mechanism for construction projects in the state. The map is up there just to show that everybody in that red line, everybody in the district, not just the city of Florence would be contributing to pay for it. Here's the consumer price index on the bottom line and the construction indices above that. Two different construction indices. They're both going

096up faster than the rate of inflation. That bottom line everybody can relate to. People can feel that when they go to the grocery store. But when you see those other two lines, if that trend continues, this project is only going to get more expensive as time goes by. The joke we've been saying all along is the right time to build a new high school was 10 years ago. And that will always be true. We're hoping 10 years from now we can look back and say we got the timing just right. We talk about the difference between assessed value and market value. In fact, the assessed value on average is considerably smaller than people's market value here in the school district. So, when people are trying to calculate, especially if they're doing just back of the

097napkin math, we want to make sure they're talking about their assessed value, not the full market value when they're trying to determine how much they're going to pay. The rates on the 30-year big high school option for that home, $52.35 a month. 4715 for option two and elementary remodel is $5.80. We know those costs are big. We know that that's a sticker shock, but we do we felt from the very beginning we can't hide that from people. Doesn't do us any good to be obiscating the fact that this is a significant investment. However, the large replacement high school plus the elementary remodel comes in at exactly $3 per assessed value per thousand of assessed value. Nobody told us that that's the right dollar amount. We just know we had to give ourselves a limit. Josh,

098>> that's on the 25 year. >> On that's on the third year. >> That's on the third year. >> Yep. >> Thank you for the clarification. We showed both the 25 and the 30 year because they will both be options for the district. We also at this point in the slide, we let people know they're not going to get a smorgus board on the ballot. They will have a single option if there were to be one. A single option from the board of directors. That would be a yes or no on a particular package. Like I said, the whole reason we were going out there was to get feedback from the community and we got quite a bit. We asked the same questions, not at all presentations, the ones that were very short where we

099were on somebody else's agenda. We didn't ask for feedback other than verbal, but those that we did ask for. Question number one, how important do you think it is for the community to address the facility needs of the district? overwhelmingly people are in favor of addressing these needs. Question number Oh, I'm sorry. We had a survey that in also had some sur uh some free response uh feedback from people and I have those. I forgot to bring them tonight, but I'll get them to you to the board. We also had some paper surveys where people had the same questions and they were able to just give us a quick jot on paper and 73 out of 77 people on question one gave us the five that thinking that that's very important that the district address

100these needs. The second question, how so of you are a replacement high school building? Big response for very important here and on paper it was 64 out of the 77. So, the new high school building is definitely the way to go. And how supportive of you are proposed renovations to the elementary school? 33 out of the 77, I'm sorry, 59 of out of the 77 on paper and 33 64% said that that's a big one. So, in other words, support for the renovations at the elementary school is definitely diminished or less than support for a replacement high school. That's the update of what we've been doing. There was another big update last week that I don't have artwork for because it is that fresh off the table. But we are one piece of feedback we

101got especially from city leadership was to take a look at the location for all the models we've been presenting so far. We've been looking at the location at the southeast corner of the high school lot, the GB baseball field. We are now taking a look at another location that would be just south of the stadium behind the middle school. That very large lot that at one point was condemned and we're taking a look at the feasibility for that one. What we don't have yet though are the costs involved in associated with that. So our architect Kurt is is working on those numbers as we speak. So we are hoping to come to you. We have two meetings in the next two weeks after the Thanksgiving break. We are planning to come to you with a

102recommendation, a final recommendation in December and asking for action as soon as January and from there we'll be able to begin our work as a comp campaign to try to get it on the ballot if the board decides that that's the way to go. Any questions on details or process thus far? Um, I was wondering if uh if our student reps had anything to say about this topic. You guys are there every day. Do you guys have any input? >> You don't have to have input. >> Um, I've had Sorry. Um, I've been talking to a lot of our students throughout the school, um, in a wide range of the groups in our school, um, and different grades, and they all seem really supportive of this idea, and they feel like, um, I'm trying to

103think of a few reasons that you popped up. They really agreed with the pride aspect of it and they felt like they would feel a lot happier with our school and like they would feel more of a connection to it if we had like a more renovated school. Some people don't feel like this is kind of theirs, you know, because it's like super super outdated. Um, and they're just like they go to school here, but it's not their place, you know? So, um, a newer renovated school could make it so it's more of theirs and they feel pride in it and every time that they will come to school, they'll feel happy about getting their education here. Um, yeah. Um, also one thing that was mentioned was with the heating. That is also a really

104big issue. I can especially feel it in the morning in the English halls. It's really hard to think when you're shivering and cold. >> Um, >> and when you're hot. >> Yeah, that too. But especially in the winter times. >> Thank you. Um, Mike, what what is kind of a proposed timeline? Let's just say that all goes well. this gets this gets put on a ballot, it gets approved by the the local voters. When would construction start? What's the duration of these? Or is that just is that too preemptive of a question? >> Um, no. Because we've been answering that, so I'm going to give you the same answer we've given to just about every group has asked the same. We look at probably 12 to 18 months of planning and permitting, hiring an architect.

105No, at no point in these presentations have we actually shown a floor plan. We're just showing concepts of like roughly how much square footage we would need for different departments. We don't know where the front doors would be. We don't know what color the bathroom locks are going to be. All of that stuff would have to be decided later. And that would be decided after >> if the board puts it on the ballot. Then we have to engage an architect to actually start putting together a plan. That process plus all the permitting and site prep, we figure is going to take up to a year and then another 12 to 18 months to build to construct the site. So >> next year's freshman would have a chance to be in the high school as seniors.

106>> Again, we've talked about this. If again, if this goes if the board approves this in February, it would go to the May ballot. And then realistically, the quickest you're going to turn around breaking is 6 to9 months. And then we're talking again year and a half to two years after that. So, it would open the fall of 29. Um, and that gives us because whatever you do for construction, just know it's going to take longer than you planned. And so, we we say everybody, well, you know, the experts say 18 to 24 months and we're just saying no, it's going to be 24 months, right? And that's from the time we break ground. >> 28 >> to 28 months. And yeah. Um, again, like when we opened the middle school in 2000, it was

107supposed to be we were going to move in September and we moved in during Christmas break, right? And so, again, there'll be there's always an unseen problem. Um, one of the things that will be updated prior to the formal presentation to the board is that we just got the new um, property tax rates um, and the tax base in the town has grown. So all of the rates you see are higher >> than what you will be addressing. >> So actually what we came in as for $3, which was the larger high school plus the elementary school renovations on a 30-year bond that came in exactly at $3. We estimate with the new tax assessments that'll come in at 281. So we don't expect a huge swing from that before we had to make a

108decision. And again, when we're talking about again that $3 kind of being mark, we were looking at where every other district in the county is with their permanent assessed rate, local option levies, and construction bonds. And this would still it would keep us we' be on the bottom of the top third, but we would not be surpassing anybody by any means. It's been an extremely busy fall getting out there with these presentations, but I think this has been a missing element and not not just in previous attempts, but I think just in marketing the needs of the school and even crowing about the good things when I've frequently gotten the question, is a new high school going to raise graduation rates? And in other words, people are asking is is is the [clears throat] building

109the problem? No, the building is not the problem, but that does give me an opportunity to talk about some of the things we've done inside with the increased the graduation requirements with adding back essential skills. We're able to talk a lot about those and and the 25th credit for this year's seniors. It's been a real good opportunity to get out in the public talking about the things going on in schools, not just the needs, but also crowing a little bit. Tom P. >> And I hate to disagree with you, but Grace just shared that like it's hard for her to focus when she's uncomfortable in class. It might be not the problem, but it is a I think our students are saying it is a problem. >> But it doesn't do it would be overpromising

110if I said get us a new high school and everybody graduates. >> Sure. >> So, we have to acknowledge that the reputation has not been stellar for the academics in the district. When I tell people we've really invested in that and we are making those changes beginning with this year's seniors and we're actually making it more difficult to graduate knowing that that's our gold standard. People are at least raising their eyebrows like hey that's that's a good idea. It's a good investment. We do think the time is right for this because with the momentum we've had with notification I don't think we run the risk of people not knowing about this. I think we between this and the press coverage and spots we've done on KXCR and KCST, I think people are aware that this

111work is out there being done and frankly most people have been impressed by the scope of the work and the thoroughess of it that we're not out there asking to uh to build a Taj Mahal. We've actually held some limits back and we think that we have an option or some options that would be a significant investment in this community and could signal that Florence is a great place to be. We know that the two I mentioned that the seismic argument is one that gets a lot of traction. Sadly, neither does do it for the kids. That doesn't get much traction either, but doing it for the community and what the community benefits are, that's where people start to engage a little bit more and start to to ask some questions and start to tell

112others. We've got a number of people who have attended multiple of these meetings, which is, I think, a good sign that people are starting to to spread the word and wanting to hear more and it's become a conversation piece. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, directors, anything else for Mike? Adrian, anything for Mike? >> Uh, no. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, all right. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. All right. Everybody good to move on? 62. >> Uh, chair, could we do like a short recess? There's been a lot of presentations. >> Five minutes. >> Thank you. >> And I'm with you. I just want to let everyone know that I don't have any sound here. >> Okay, Adrian, you have us now. >> There it is. >> Okay, thank you for letting us know.

113>> So, uh I'll start again. Item uh 111925-6.2 OSB election board of directors position 6. Uh the Oregon School Board Association is organized as one of a general geographic state with up to 24 regionally elected members across the uh the state to support member participation and representation. Uh again the OSBA school board associate is holding regular elections for state leadership. Cisco board of directors is required to submit a ballot by December 15, 2025. Is a recommend of administration that the board officially vote for director Miltonberger for the OSBA board of directors. >> Thank you. Uh directors, any any discussion on this item? Nope. Again, you also have candidates from other districts listed in your packet. Um, but again, my recommendation is we we go with home turf. I don't know that lady from Springfield. I

114do I think I did I do know you. I did meet this Maya um at the OSBA conference what last year, two years ago, whenever that was. So, >> uh, hit your mic, please. Diana, >> in terms of years of experience on the board, you know, I definitely think that Moren has a a lead based on some of the content of each descriptions of service and other um, >> Agreed. >> Yeah, I think Marine's a great candidate for this. My secondary recommendation would be that a board member push this to a vote tonight and so you can get it off your deck for December. >> Read my mind. I was just going to say that with 62 and 63 um seeing as we have a deadline of December 15th um 62 63 I think we

115we ought to vote tonight on a first read if everybody's in favor of that. >> Okay. Well then at this point I think a motion is in order. Director, be it res. >> Go for it, Adrian. >> You got it. Let him go. >> All right, go Tom. Be it resolved that the Suslaw School District Board supports Marine Miltonberger for the 2025 OSBA board of directors, position number six, resolution number 111925-6.2, OSBA election, board of director, position six. >> Second. You can't second yourself. I would have I would have given that to to Adrian even if you had Russ stepped in there. Resolution number 111925-6.2 OSBA election board of director position number six that the board supports and votes for Moren Miltonberger for that position. Um the motion made by director Posegate, seconded by director

116Paul. Um just how this also works just quick matter here um uh this is our board votes our board has one vote with all the other districts in the in the county. So so our vote does not does not solidify a victory um for that position number six but that's how that goes amongst OSBA districts. Any further discussion on the motion? Those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Excellent. All right, Moren. There you go. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, moving on to 6.3, the 2025 OSBA legislative policy committee position number six. >> Okay. Uh, item 111925-6.3. Again, nod numbers. U member boards vote to elect regional representatives for positions of the OSBA board of directors. Uh again, we're holding regular elections and we're required to hold uh a ballot by September uh December 15th.

117It is a recommendation administration that the board officially vote for director Plet for the OSBA legislative policy committee. Um you have one other candidate in your packet from uh Eugene 4J. >> Directors, any discussion on this item? Well, I do think that the other candidate, Judy Newman, has five years, I'm sorry, nine years of board experience and um and compared to Adrienne's one year. So, I I do think that she's a valid candidate. Agreed. Uh, if I if I may, I will also uh say that uh, you know, I don't want to don't want to cloud anyone's judgment or anything, but I uh, Judy Newman is a amazing resource for the community. Uh, she's worked at a county level. Uh, one of the co-founders of Easy Cares or EC Cares. Um, really really fantastic lady.

118Uh, so I I just want to throw that out there. I don't want to uh you know don't want to go through this without saying uh that I that I find the lady to be great. She's been a a great uh a great source of uh information for me throughout the years and has been a person that I've looked up to in my work throughout the county uh especially dealing with early childhood care um for for seven years now. Uh wonderful lady. >> Thank you for that info. Um, Adrien Moren, >> I'd just like to say that I have met her and I I um think she's a great lady, too, but I think that she has a lot of votes throughout throughout the region, but I also feel like um I think it's important

119that we support our own candidate. Um, so I'm just saying I would I would really appreciate supporting our own person for it just because he's belongs to our board. >> Thank you for that. Any other thoughts, >> Tom? Go. >> I I do not know Judy Newman. Um, thank you for sharing that, Director Plet. Um, I really appreciate that information. Um I do um some you know at at the OSBA conference something that came up a lot was uh giving voice to smaller districts and um yeah I I think that I'm either of these options look really great. Um part I do want to acknowledge that um I think 4J already has a very loud voice. Um, but if we're picking uh if we're picking a person it like nine years of experience that that

120is great. So I I think we have two great options here. or chair report >> be resolved that the sus law school district board supports Adrienne Plet for the 2025 OSBA legislative policy committee position 6 resolution number 111925-6.3 OSBA election board legislative policy committee position 6. >> I'll second it. Resolution number 111925-6.3 OSBA election board legislative policy committee position six that the SIS Law School Board supports Adrien Plet for said position six. Um motion made by director Milenberger seconded by director Posegate. Any discussion on the motion? I've got >> Adrien. Go ahead. Adrian, go ahead. Uh just wondering if I need to recuse myself from voting on this. >> No, I don't believe so. Directors, >> we good with no no recusal. Okay, Josh, thoughts? >> Just that I I'm going to vote no. I'd

121rather vote for the Judy Newman. >> I uh I I would vote no. Also, um this this Adrian, this conversation would be easier if I was able to just look right at you. And as I went through the pros and cons of both these candidates, um I've got too many too many cons. Um uh I would I would prefer Judy Newman as well. Also, I will be voting no. Diana, any thoughts? >> I will vote no as well. >> Okay. Well, motion is on the floor, so we are up for a vote. Those in favor? >> I. >> Adrian, >> I those opposed? >> Nay. >> Okay. So, that's 33. So, that pushes us to our December meeting to to put this back on the floor with uh with the seventh member with the seventh

122member in in attendance. So we have a small policy month next month um because we do not have a policy committee meeting um so we have at least one that we cannot push to the consent agenda. So we will have 6.1. Moving on 6.4. >> Okay. Item 1119256.4 uh policy JFCA and JFCAR student dress and hygiene. Uh first reading uh this policy was previously reviewed by the policy committee in May of 2024 but the draft was not forward to the general board agenda meeting. Uh the only clarification that has been reviewed was the differentiation between mask worn for the prevention of respiratory illness and costume or other masks that obscure the identity of a person and creates a safety concern. Uh, administration recommends that the board director adopt policy GFCA, GFCAR, student dress and hygiene.

123Any discussion on this one? This one was just kind of a clerical oversight that we are remedying. Is that a word? >> Sure. >> It is now. If everybody understood it, it's a word. >> We looked at this one. >> We did it in policy and we didn't put it on the May agenda. We had it in the packet. We reviewed it because we differentiate. This came up because again when we looked at handbooks, we had language that was wrong. And then I pulled the policy draft and I'm like, this isn't what we approved in policy, but we never put it on the agenda. >> But there was a we had a lot of conversation over a couple of board meetings about this particular policy, but I don't see >> No, that was the that

124was the that was the staff dress. >> How staff dress? Okay. Again, the only thing that we that we did is we designated that students may wear medical type masks that are worn to prevent the transmission of respiratory illnesses. And then in bullet point 6, we said hood scarves, bandanas, and costume face masks that describe person of identity. Um, and this puts us this all kind of retroactively fixes our handbooks. Um, I I don't know how we just approved it in policy and didn't put it on the agenda, but we didn't. >> Yeah. >> No, no, no worries. >> So, okay. Any any further discussion on on this item, Dan? Does that make sense? Okay. Are we just putting on the consent or are we voting on it? >> Um, which would you prefer? This

125is a first read, so we can push it. We can push it to consent. >> Consent. Adrian, I can't see you. I'm just going to chalk it up that you're nodding your head. >> Thumbs up. >> Okay, he's got a thumbs up. Where do you see a thumbs up? Oh. Oh, you're behind me. I keep looking on my computer screen. Okay. Um, so we'll uh we'll push that one to the consent agenda. and Lily Grace, I do recognize that y'all are here. And so if you ever want to chime in with something, just get you just do like Tom, just raise your hand. Okay. So, uh, moving on to 6.5, DBEA, District Budget Committee Superintendent. >> Okay. Uh, item 111925-6.5 policy DBA district budget committee first reading. Uh, the policy is being simplified to match

126the current practices of the district. OSBA is dropping what they call version one of the uh budget committee policy draft. Uh the updated draft that matches their current practice is labeled as version two and will aliviate uh meeting unnecessary timelines for appointing new budget committee members. Upon adoption of version two of of version two of the budget committee policy, the old policy will be deleted. Administration recommends the board adopt policy DBA district budget committee. And so I see that this one that the adoption and the deletion the adoption of one and the deletion of the other historically we've had those as two separate items but this one is is all in one. >> We can go yes clerically on that. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. That was my only question on this one. Directors.

127Any any questions on this? >> If we don't if if we don't have a full um budget committee. So if we don't have seven electors from the community, then what is what does that mean for the budget committee? >> Means the budget committee doesn't function, >> right? >> Uh again, we need to have at least eight for the budget committee. We've always had that. Doesn't matter which version of the policy we have. >> And eight is counting the seven >> seven elected officials. >> Oh, there for there. Oh, got it. It's right there. It's right there. I see it now. I didn't see that. Seven. And eight gets us the >> perfect. Okay, that's it. Um and and again we had a list of kind of like board of budget committee respons responsibilities and we're

128putting the list from the old policy in the budget committee handbook. Um but again like we our our old policy says we do something in July, we do it in August. Um and and and every other year we're off and we're wrong. Um, and so again, we can now as membership changes, you can make your updates on the fly. Um, and it really kind of it simplifies what we do and matches our current practice. >> Okay. Any other discussion? This one also is a first read. Are we >> head nods to the consent agenda? Okay, consent agenda it is. I didn't look at Adrian. I'll assume he gave me a thumbs up. Thank you, Adrian. Okay. uh 66 policy if district curriculum superintendent. Okay. Item [clears throat] 111925-6.6 uh policies being simplified to match current

129practice of the district. OSB is dropping version two of the district curriculum policy draft. It matches current practice of the district and is labeled version one. It matches the legal requirements that have been updated by the legislature. Administration recommends the board directors adopts policy if district curriculum. Um and again it goes the title changes from district curriculum from district from district curriculum development to just district curriculum. Uh because again we have other policy on materials adoptions that talks about curriculum development and purchases. Um, and then you have the new uh language at the very bottom of the policy that goes with what was updated in OS 337-260. >> Um, I have I I do have a little concern with this one. Um, in that that first paragraph before any of the the highlighted changes, um,

130it says, "While keeping with the requirements of state law, the board authorizes the superintendent in consultation with staff, parents, and the community to review the curriculum and to advise the board on needed curriculum changes." Um, but then down there it has struck surveys of the parents, parent perceptions. Um, so I guess my my concern here is is how will the parents be engaged? And and that word perception is is is interesting, right? Because the parents aren't in the classroom. The parents, you know, granted every when we have curriculum adoption, they have the opportunity to come and look at that curriculum. And often times, well, two things. Oftent times, perceptions aren't the actual reality. However, a person's perceptions is their reality. And so if they're if they have a a albeit a misconception of what the

131curriculum is, how will we know that if we're not surveying them or how are we going to engage with the parents, I guess is is my ultimate question here. >> Two ways. Uh first of all, u we have policy review committee. I mean we have a curriculum review committee that goes on and we have a 30-day public review. >> Sure. >> Right. And the second is in our materials adoption policy. Um, we have a ability for a parent to in essence challenge any curriculum material that we've adopted. >> Sure. >> And that comes before the board, Miss Laur. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, Amy, I'm going to repeat that. That was uh that was Amy Flora that said there are also parents within the community that are on those committees when they go to the

132the choosing process of the curriculum. Did I uh I Okay, I put it together. I use different words. >> Yeah. >> But put it all together. >> And again, we're not currently doing surveys now because again, we have parents on the committee and we have outlets within the um materials adoption policy and the 30-day public review for anybody to come in and look at the curriculum. >> Okay. All right. Part of that for me may have been very well a knee-jerk when I see parents scratched out because because that's that's epitome. Uh cl clarification um who's making the final decision on the curriculum? >> The board does during it's policy I aa that's your materials adoption. Yes. So you make the final decision on what is approved. Yes. >> Okay. That that was just >>

133not as clear in this particular rendition as it was in the previous. I just wanted to clarify that >> you just you clearly must not be your what's that ovaltene decoder ring? >> You clearly must not be wearing that >> to to to tie the two together just in your noggin. >> No. >> Okay, Tom. I I think that um yeah, as I read this this full sentence that you're looking at, I think that um it doesn't seem like it's to remove parents from the process, but surveys in small towns are very difficult to to do sometimes. >> There's low turnout just like just like on a curriculum review, there's there's low turnout there as well. >> Yeah. So I think I think that the parents are still very much in >> encouraged to be

134involved in the process from from my reading of >> this as you said anybody can challenge it or or bring it up for review. >> Yeah. And again they don't even have challenge they just have to ask question we have meetings about curriculum all the time. >> Yeah. >> So yeah >> that's always available. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any other discussion on this one? Well a motion will be in order. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Time out. This is a first read, so we don't have to have a motion. We can push to consent or we can push to next month. >> We're all consent. >> Adrian, I'm turned to looking at the screen. You good? Okay. Thank you. Thumbs up. Okay. Um, uh, moving on. 667. Nice. Can you see that I don't have

135a lot of mobility in my neck? I have to turn my whole body to turn around. Is that what you're seeing? >> Okay. The IT guy is making me computer savvy. So, thank you. Actually, he's not. He's just doing it for me. Appreciate that, Chris. Um 67 policy BHD, board member stipens and reimbursements. Superintendent. Uh item 111925-6.7. Uh previous changes to state law allow school districts to issue a stipen to board directors. There was no initial policy at the implementation of the law. This policy creates a framework if the board considers the issue of stipens to directors for any expenses related to their service uh on the school board in the future. Administration recommends the board of directors adopt policy BHC board member stipens and reimbursements. So, as I read through this, and I remember

136a couple years ago, we went through this and and the the the previous board all said, "No, we we're not looking for stipens." Um, but this also, and now I should have highlighted it, highlight it, highlighted it, used a highlighter on it. Um, any Where does it say that, y'all? that anytime anytime we discuss this, we are all to declare the conflict of the obvious conflict of interest, right? >> 58. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. And then so uh where on the page, >> Tom? >> Um it's just like the the first highlighted paragraph. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then and then down here at the bottom says after declaring actual conflict of interest during meetings in which the budget is being discussed, board members are allowed to discuss and vote on the district's budget that

137includes providing compensation and benefits to themselves or relatives in accordance with the Senate bill. So is this I'm I'm still a believer in the vote that I voted for before that that I didn't I didn't run for the school board to have a $500 a month stipend. So, do we have to have this policy because it is state law that says districts can >> you you do not you do not have to have the policy. You could let the policy die at the table or you could approve the policy and then when it comes to building the budget, direct CC and I to put in a Z line item for board member stipens. >> Is that what we did before? Is that how we managed that? >> No, we just voted said no stipens, but

138we didn't there was no policy framework at the time. Um, again, the only reason this is coming up is that other districts are adopting a similar policy and are issuing issuing stipens, not to the full amount, but they're looking at um, in certain areas, people have excessive travel or child care requirements that that they must meet to attend a meeting. And that's really the extent of the reimbursement. >> Moren, >> my understanding is just to have it on the on the books so that if we did have somebody that wanted to run for office and said, "Oh, no, I wait. I can't afford the money that goes back and forth or I can't afford daycare." That that would be on the books that that would be a possibility if they got onto the board. >>

139Okay. Diana, >> I'm of the same opinion, Brian, that we table this because I don't think that um that we should be offering stipens or or accepting stipens. >> Okay. Um any other thoughts on any other thoughts on on this item? Uh I I guess I'll just throw out that uh you know in the future there may be people who want to serve on this board who are not as uh well off as the people who are sitting at this table right now and who may need this as an option to be able to serve. And although I'm not I'm not particularly saying that we should uh that we should adopt this policy right now. I think it's something that we should think about and maybe talk about in a work session about uh planning

140for the future and a future where uh maybe some parents who do don't typically have access to the uh power of being in an elected position might have access to it. So, um just throwing that out there. >> So, so, so if I'm understanding you correctly, are you pitching to push this to a second read? You said that we can discuss that we can discuss further at a work session. Are you are you requesting that this be pushed to a second read then? >> No, I I I wouldn't say I wouldn't say that I'm saying that particularly. I just think that it's worth discussion and and something that maybe we could maybe this policy isn't the policy that fits for our district, but maybe there is one in the future with a little bit of

141discussion and a little bit of thinking thinking forward future-wise about people who may want to serve. Um, I think there's discussion to be had, but maybe not formal discussion. Maybe not taking it up as a uh as a uh maybe not taking it up as a second read, but just just a chat about it. >> Okay, Tom. Um, the the more I think the more I've thought about this and um the reality that we're living in right now with with the budget, I I want this to just go away. I don't I don't even want to be talking about this. like our budget is this is just the last thing I even want to think about. Um, acknowledging what Adrian's saying, like I have had to bring my kids to so many meetings because childcare

142is really difficult. But as you said, Brian, we didn't get into this for $500. That's that's not why we're here. We're here to help the school. >> Oh, I think you misunderstood. I was saying go >> um >> I mean definitely the money is better spent in the school. Yes, we we should be looking. >> I I don't see how this helps students and we need to focus on that right now so much. >> We can we can continue to discuss or a motion one way or another is is up or we all just stop talking. >> I'd like to just t just let it die and table >> stop talking. >> We don't want it. >> 68 stick it in your eye. 67, whatever that means. >> You know what? Time out. Time out.

143Time out. Before I said that, I was not recognizing >> the brain. I I stepped in that like that wasn't that was like hip deep. That wasn't even ankle deep. I stepped in that hip deep. My apologies. I will >> Somebody needs to explain that to me. >> I don't think there is an explanation. >> That's fine. >> Oh. Oh, thanks. >> It's Wait, wait. Are >> No, I You're going to fail. I'm sorry, Grace. You're going to fail with it. Turn, turn your mic on. >> Yeah. >> Um, it comes from a song and it literally means nothing. There is no meaning. It's just not >> stupid. >> It's like letting them. >> So, the the the latter part of my statement then, stick it in your eye fits. >> Okay. >> Yes. 68

144superintendent. >> Okay. Uh policy GCBD, GDBD sick leave, personal leave and injury leave item uh 111925-6.8. Uh the update to this policy align with the provisions uh of Oregon uh paid leave Oregon and other protected leaves. Sick sick leave may be used for illness or injury as well as to care for a family member that is ill or injured. Uh leave beyond uh paid sick leave may be taken as unpaid leave. administration recommends that the board of directors adopts policy GCBD, GDBD, sick leave, personal leave, and injury leave. Directors, any comments on this one or questions on this one for the superintendent? >> Nope. Then a a uh a well, this is first read. We can push it to consent. Seeing head nods for that. >> One just one clarification, >> Diana. So sick leave

145in excess of three consecutive work days. Is it shall or may? What are we changing it to? May >> require certificate from the employees physician. >> We went with may in the committee. >> I think that's appropriate. >> Yeah. >> So So scratch shall >> Yeah. >> And May is the May is the proper Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well done, Diana. Any other discussion on this one? Well, then uh this is also first read, so push this one to consent. Okay, I like it. Another first read. Um policy GCBDE and BD G the military leave of absence. Too many letters in there. Uh item 111925-6.9 military leave is a contractual item and this policy uniformly extends the same provisions to all employee groups for any staff member. Uh this policy will overlap administrative rules

146uh GCBDA and GDB AR 3C and 3D which covers uh military family leave as a function of family medical leave policy GC DBA and GDBDA. administration recommends the board of adop uh directors adopts policy GCBDE GDBDE military leave of absences. >> Directors, any discussion on this one? >> Typically, sure mil Yeah, military leave uh for staff members has been a function of in essence an application to me for approval like a leave of absence that we do normally. Uh this just puts it in straight policy. So again, if somebody is in the reserves and or called up to active duty, they're um they just give notes. They don't have to ask permission. They they just go. >> Okay. U Adrian, >> I I that kind of spoke directly to the question I was going to

147ask is does this just make it easier for Andy to get people out on on leave? >> Sounds like it it does. Again, if um we've had reser in the past and they've had to ask to be to be it's like you're going on deployment. You're your ask is yes, you can go. I mean, there's really it's not really an ask. They're asking for something that they have to go do that they signed up to do and we're not. This just streamlines the process. This is a matter of just saying, "Hey, I got a notice that we're being deployed >> and I got to go and that's it." Yep. >> Okay. Well, also directors, this is a first read. Uh we good with the consent agenda on this one as well. The consent agenda agenda

148is not lonely for next month. Okay. Um that concludes our discussion items or our action items rather. Um moving into our reports um our seven our seven series. So we'll start with the superintendent communications. Um after which we will go to CC for the business manager. >> Okay. Uh personnel report for November 19th, 2025. Uh no new administrators, no new certified educators. Uh our classified and paraprofessional staff, uh we have Ryan Lane, originally again food service worker, but we just got notice today that he is uh transferred to uh nutrition specialist 2. That will begin uh 121 of 2025. Uh Roa Stutler, independent aid, uh CYA Middle School, is transferring from health and counseling at the high school. Sarah Yagger will now be the health and counseling aid at the high school. She's transferring from

149the independent aid at the middle school. Uh John Smith, custodian 2 at the elementary, uh transferring from high school custodian 1. Jeremy Cervantes, life skills aid, Sisa Middle School. Maria Cruz, Amadore, multi- language learner aid for the middle school and the high school. And Sean Walker, custodian one, Sisa High School. Uh no new confidential employees. Uh one new coach, our assistant assistant wrestling coach of the middle school, Derek Van Duk. And then retirements, resignations, and other separations. Raphael Garcia, CT wood shop, and construction for Middle School High School. Uh Kachcha, uh driver, trainer, transportation coordinator. Doug Eli, nutrition specialist to food service. And not on your list, but again, recently announced, um Nazia Schwarz, early literacy coach, elementary school. She's accepted an administrative position closer to home in Eugene. >> And then, uh I have

150I have one one quick deal. Um yeah, a number of months ago there was there Mike, correct me if I'm It was Toledo Toledo's bus was in an accident. Is that right? That that just a kind of a a quick add a girl to K who stepped in as a late night bus driver because the there was a Toledo high school bus that was in an accident >> and she came and and according to your I never did mention that. You said give her give her a a high five and I did not. So, it may be a little late, but well done, Kay, when you when you showed up on a late night and made things happen. Mike, if you have cuz I totally rambled through that, please. >> She executed the most beautiful

151Y turn in a school bus on 101 with traffic on both sides that I've ever seen. It wasn't even a Y, it was like a cursive W. It was like three or four backups, but she got that bus turned around in a in a in a matchbox. and on a Friday night and it was uh lots of angry people but she was there on the scene. Took care of it real quick. She was great. >> Yeah. Thanks. So well done K. >> Uh again um uh Miss Hixon has also uh booked three more certified substitutes and four more classified substitute employees. >> Um again you have your district uh board goals and goal uh and then related metrics. um state testing assessment uh by grade uh group cohort. Um and uh again uh our last

152meetings are kind of back toback. Um we got a list of our upcoming uh uh meetings and activities. Again, we'll have family conferences the November 24th and 25th uh with people off for November 26th to 28th for Thanksgiving. >> [snorts] >> Um and that that gets us into a very short December. Um and then winter break and then we'll pick up classes January 6th uh after that. Um you've got your Vikings of the month for October uh for the elementary, middle, and high school. Uh and we'll have those up and posted tomorrow now that the board has had a chance to review. Thank you. Um, directors, any any uh questions for Andy on his uh on his report? Nope. Okay, moving on. Cece. >> Good evening, directors. Um, this month and next month and all

153of the remaining months will be very busy for all of us here at the district. Um, business office is um actually we've always told you we deal in three different years at one time. So that's where we're currently at. Closing up final reconciliations for 232 24, closing the audit for 2425. Um received the first draft, so we're on schedule, which is great. Um we are due to submit that on December 31st, so we're hoping that that all goes through. Um and those are printed and ready for you guys in January. Um assessments came out on um our property taxes. It's uh we're taking a look at our state school fund. um since it's an equalization formula, the more local taxes you take, the less that you should receive on this site um from the state

154school fund. So, it's important for us to make those adjustments as we discussed before when we were going through the shortfall situation. So, um um we were able to adjust that just in time for the um December recalcula November recalculation, which is perfect. Um the state school fund is calculated actually recalculated five different times. So whatever we decided in March or January as an estimate has already changed several times. This is one that we get to catch up. So if there is a reduction in our state school fund, we can um take it over the next six payments, which is a lot less than having it at the end of one year um which um would uh put us behind. So that that's what we're working on currently. Um so we're on time. We're working

155on the projection estimates for enrollment coming up here shortly for the new budget season. Um so that is going to be finalized coming up here in December and um submitted on time in January. And um that's pretty pretty much where we're at. So um very busy. You can see on our financials we're at our second or our first full month of um benefits and salaries and in full swing for school year. So that'll help us in our projections to see where we're going to end up at the end of the year. So that's kind of what we're going through currently in the next two months um to make sure um that the budget would fit and and to adjust for shortfall. So that's where we're at. So if you have any questions, >> thank you

156directors. Any questions for our business manager? >> No. Josh, >> only thing I would ask the the when the the county tax assessments coming, was that does that seem like it's going to be what you would had expected? >> You know, I was anticipated I I anticipated just a little bit lower and that's not always good. So, what I did is I reassessed it. I still took the same 96% which is what we normally average somewhere between um 96 to 97. Um but we had a 4% growth with the assessment. So that I cannot anticipate. So I just recalculated and adjusted it. It was about a 200 um about 250,000 difference between what we would receive and what I had estimated. Um it does make a significant difference um because the state school fund. So

157>> they'll give you le you get less >> I'll get less over six months instead of getting hit in May of the 27. So, I'm just trying to balance it a little bit more than it had been in the past. So, >> and again, I had sent the board notes earlier in the month on uh today's economic projection and it wasn't as dire as possible. Um they'll make a decision in February at the next update. Um it the shortfall isn't as big as they thought. And so we'll see where the adjustments come up as the Senate works through that in the next couple of weeks. >> Good. Directors, anything else? Okay, let's uh let's move through our our admin reports. Um if any of the admin that's here, if there's anything particular that you want

158to highlight, feel free with without wanting to really stretch our meeting out a lot. But directors, any questions for for admin that's in the room or comments on their reports? Um, all the all the activity photos and the I'm I'm glad some of these have captions. It's like, wait, what's going on here? And so that's fantastic to see that and all the spirit days within the elementary school. >> So good to go. Directors, anything for the >> I just said I I really enjoyed the video. >> Yes. I did a paper version so I did not see a video. I'll [clears throat] have to go to the digital version. Tom, anything? Adrian, anything. >> Um, >> maybe. No, no, this might be better on my on my later. >> You got to start with raising

159your hand. You don't have to if you don't start with your hand up. >> I'll I'll put it on my time. Okay. Grace, you good? Lily, you good? Okay. Good. >> All right. and then Grace. >> So, uh, something I didn't get in my board packet was or my admin report was a quick update on some donations that we've had. So, right now for outdoor school, as you guys know, that um, we were cut 20% for this year. Um, our goal is $7,500 and we are at $4,400 right now. >> Awesome. >> Um, in donations and that includes the uh, the bulb fundraiser. So, that's pretty good. So, we're um still working towards that. Um we had Le Schwab donated I think $1,500 towards um some new basketball coats and jerseys and that sort of

160thing. um for our athletic department and then um our wood shop. I got on Facebook Marketplace and I was looking for some uh some lumber for our wood shop program and I got on and asked a guy um for a unit to purchase a unit of um like fence boards that we could use and he told me that he would donate them. So I asked him like great I' I'd be happy to buy one if you want to donate one. He said, "Just come by and get them." I ended up with two units of 416 boards um of fence boards. Two units of 2 by twos and a unit of 2 by sixs. So, our facilities department came went over to Springfield and picked that up as Griffin Forest products over in Springfield. So, about

161a grand at least worth of wood materials at least. >> at least. >> That's on the low side for sure. That's probably his expense. So, um, he also gave the invite that when I run out to just give him a call. So, I'm pretty excited about that. >> So, if you, uh, are building a fence, I would strongly encourage you to go to Griffin Forest Products, Springfield. Not a shameful plug for his >> Yeah. >> Um, the late >> That's great. Yeah. >> Thought that was pretty fun. >> Thank you, Andy. >> Y >> any other questions or comments regarding the admin reports? >> No. Okay. >> Yes. Grace, we're into the student communications. You're up. >> Um, I'll try to make this super quick, but I just wanted to say that I'm super grateful

162for the community that we have here. This is my third meeting here and I can already see how much you guys care about the school and the community of Susot and I just really really appreciate that especially as a student and I also really appreciate having a principal like Mr. H and he's super funny and he comes in almost every day with a new joke and it always makes me laugh and brightens up my day. So >> awesome. I'm just super grateful for you guys. >> Good. Thank you, Lily. I agree. Mr. H's dad jokes are pretty cool, even though they're kind of lame. >> Awesome. Um, okay. Moving uh moving forward to uh the board chair communications. Here's our future um meeting dates. Of course, this week is the American Education Week, December 10th,

163so it's fairly quick turnaround. Um our January meeting is the 14th. February is the 11th. March is also the 11th, April is the 8th, and May is the 13th. Um, we'll go board member acknowledgements and hope to hear a little bit about the OSBA conference. So, um um Adrian, we're going to start with you since you're on uh you're on Zoom. We'll go with you first. >> Uh yeah, I I'll share a little bit about the OSBA conference. Um, I uh I was lucky enough to be in Vince's uh searching for a superintendent uh workshop there and uh I have to say I'm excited to work with the guy if we if we decide to go that direction with OSBA. Um a lot of great insights, uh a lot of great information and their uh

164their team looks like they're uh really well equipped to help out a small district like ours. So, uh, that was a really really great thing to to have and, uh, I I really appreciated, uh, I really appreciated, Vince, for doing that. So, I'll just leave it at that. >> Thank you, Moren. >> Um, yeah, I thought the conference was was great as usual. Uh, we had a really great um, keynote speaker that talked for the pre-conference day where a lot of us were in the room together all day and he presented for quite a bit. He's very, very good and then presented in the morning the next day. And as always, the kids, there was two different times that kids came to perform. And I tell you, that's worth going to the whole conference is

165just seeing the kids come to perform. It's it's absolutely incredible. Um, just overall, I thought it was really great. Great breakout sessions and uh definitely worth worth the time to to go over and kind of mostly the breakout sessions and the sessions are great. The best thing for me is getting to talk with the other districts, what's going on and and how they're dealing with situations that are coming up. The major issue that was throughout the conference and throughout all the breakout sessions and throughout everything was funding. I mean that was just a huge huge thing that was um affecting everyone. We had our breakout session for this region uh Lane County and that was a huge discussion. We had um uh Bethl school district lo uh had just lost the school. Then I got

166had to cut down shut down a school. I got home and listened to the news two days two days later they had to shut down another school. It's just it's really hitting across across the state, but especially and especially across our region because that's the one we heard the most about. So, it was an uplifting good conference except for that sort of >> wow >> cloud over everything was the how do we deal with all this kind of thing. So, yeah, it was it was worth going to just a little sad with some of the issues there. So, >> thank you Diana. Nothing. Josh, >> just um the the student that we had for uh saying the pledge was that was very uh very moving. And that's that's what this is all about is is

167is to making make sure every student and kid in this town has has an opportunity. So, >> yeah, >> I appreciated seeing that. Yeah, the the the vision the the the smack in the face vision for the future. That's that's a that's a cool thing. >> I just have to admit I had tears in my eyes. I'm just saying that. >> Well, thank you for sharing that with us. Uh you too. I really appreciate that acknowledgement. It's I that's what that's motivating preparing all students to reach their greatest potential. It is so awesome. It's just so cool. I have a whole page, so I'm gonna But we've had two presentations, so I'm going to try to go quick and just hit the important stuff. Um, I I we already talked about the conference a little

168bit. I also went to the superintendent search one. That was really nice. Um, are are we a part of the Oregon Small Schools Association? >> No, not that's a different one. There's another one. Yeah. >> No. >> Okay. Okay. I will cross all of that paragraph off. Uh well, um they had a really awesome presentation about tribal learning and shared history and um this is uh Native American Heritage Month, so that was really a cool thing to go to. Uh I appreciated that a lot. Um I uh I went to the the rural school schoolboard caucus and I wore a flannel which was enough for them to vote for me to be the Lane County Representative. So uh [laughter] uh that I am now we didn't have one. there was nobody representing Lane County. So,

169um I you know the competition was fierce and uh I'm still learning what that means. The next meeting is next month. But, um there was a paragraph that I thought was something that I really want to get behind is um one of the responsibilities is to give direction to the OSBA liaison on legislative action to come before the state legislature. And one of the things that was really neat to me about this meeting was the the time to meet with these other small schools and the the other small districts and talk about how the decisions that are being made by our leaders need to take into consideration what that looks like on these small scales when we have one school per grade level. Um, and it's something that I want to be involved in and

170support and I I ask you guys if you have issues to and that I might be able to direct, please let me know. I I I want to elevate our voices and make sure that they hear us. Um, like I mean they were talking about uh a potential to uh mandate electric buses and it's like try that here. [laughter] That is uh going to be pretty complicated. Um the another uh well at the small school which I guess we're not a part of but they had a really cool idea that I wanted to talk to you two particular about um the uh a family dance. So it's like after prom the next day they invite all the elementary kids and their families to come with the like the pre-ecorated room and everything. I don't know

171if that works here cuz I think we do the FEC, right? But very >> it would be really cool and maybe we could get PTA involved. Speaking of PTA, hey self transition. Um, I've been going to PTA meetings and they need more people to volunteer. Um, their next meeting next month, they're going to have some committees that are going to be starting up and um, so just any Hey chat, um, go volunteer for the PTA. Um, and there's an idea that we've talked about at every meeting so far since I've been going and that is the need for more support and guidance for for community members to volunteer in the school. Um I would love if possible um my idea now this is totally you this is not me and if I'm overstepping I'm sorry

172um would be to have a extra duty for a staff member that would be a a a volunteer liaison and whose duty would be to help guide and and and connect volunteers to the right right positions that they could be most helpful. Um the PTA has already surveyed um teachers at the elementary school and found out a lot of needs, but uh the PTA board is volunteer and they're overworked and they could use some more help. And having somebody that is a district staff member could really I think do a lot to bridge that. Um and then I think that's all. Yay. All right. Cool. >> So Tom, you went to the conference and came back a lobbyist, right? >> I guess so. Yeah, I didn't really get a lot of choices in that. Should

173have worn a different shirt. >> Okay.