001Welcome to Bandon School District 54's regular board meeting. I'm going to be Jake. Number one, any additions to lesions approvals so we get are we all Break in. Mine works. We'll use this one. Uh once again, welcome to Bandon School District 54 this meeting. Uh we're at for one agenda. Right. Um so we'll call I'm going to read read through my list. I need it. Uh 1.5 public input for items. Oh. We need a motion for uh to approve the additions to lesions if there are none. I move to approve the agenda. Can I get a second? Second. Call for a vote. All in favor. All opposed. So passes. Uh 1.5 public input on items on the agenda. I'll speak clearer and deeper into the microphone. Thank you. To a But yeah, we're a public
002input on items on the agenda. Yes, no I understand. Thank you. I'm going to talk about enrollment. Right on. Go ahead. >> 4.1 On reading the recent survey results from bsd.better.org, I was so saddened by how many families are considering not enrolling their students in Bandon School District next year. I'm not sure most people understand just how close we are to a total district meltdown. In question five of the survey, if you have children in the district, are you considering other schooling options for them now or in the future given the current issues at BSD? 29.6 % of participants said yeah. 3.8% of those surveyed responded with statements like I would not consider enrolling my children in BSD until a new superintendent was hired or I talked to a physical therapist recently who wanted to
003someday move to Bandon but has young children and was apprehensive of the situation of our schools. And yes, I moved away because of school district. Sadly, 8.2% of those surveyed have already unenrolled their students. When asked in question six, why they answered question five the way they did, respondents cited lack of experienced core subject teachers, lack of support for students with educational barriers including willful negligence regarding IDEA requirements, as well as a need for TAG program, and worries about their students being ready for college and other post-secondary programs, which was articulated by one respondent, quote, I feel my student is lacking consistency and it's negatively affecting his education and overall school experience. My child, an honor roll student who strives for excellence in her studies and has always been a top student in math, described
004using AI last year not to cheat but to teach herself the math she needed to learn. This year, many of her classes are taught by a revolving door of substitutes. Many of the responses on the survey have echoed what I have been feeling as well in both bsd.better.org survey and the 2026-2027 community budget survey by the Bandon School District, staffing levels, class size, and staff compensation were at the top of many respondents' list of priorities. Last week, my child shocked me by saying that if things didn't improve with teacher retention and hiring at Bandon School District, she may want to go somewhere else for her junior and senior year. I saw this sentiment echoed throughout the survey by students, quote, the toxic environment and loss of qualified employees in this school district has made it
005difficult to learn and grow as a student. And as and parents, which quote, left because education got worse in all the schools and my family was treated badly by the superintendent. Our family has been discussing our students part going part-time to SWAC to do some dual credit courses so that she can compete for scholarships and spots at colleges in a couple years. One fear I have is that she will struggle when she attends college because of the holes in her education caused by the current district-wide chaos. This is a real fear evidenced by another comment on the bsd.org survey. Quote, "When I graduated from Bend High School, I entered a demanding college program and struggled due to a lack of support and preparation." Will this board listen to the community before it is too late?
006Or will they continue to operate quote, "operate at their own will with their own objectives in mind, no checks and balances, seemingly interested in only protecting the individual." Usually the superintendent is less Can we as a community save our school district? Thank you. Any other public input on items on the agenda? I'm moving on. We'll go to the 2.0 consent agenda. Uh can I get a motion to approve regular board minutes from March 20th, please? >> [clears throat] >> I need to have my name corrected at the very end. It's not Grant, it's Gant. Thank you. To approve as amended. Can I get a motion to approve regular board minutes of March 26th? I move we approve as amended. Thank you. Can I get a second? All in favor? Opposed? Passed. Thank you. You got
007your informational there. We doing reports? Uh speech and debate. Speech and debate, are you guys ready? Come on down. Yes. Um so each of us had some things we wanted to say about like talking about kind of what we do with speech because a lot of what you guys hear about speech is in like posts or whatever. But wanted to give you a little bit of from us of what speech and debate means to us. Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm speech and debate co-captain Tyler Ickhoff. This is my last year of speech and debate at Bend High School and choosing to take on this class was the best decision I've ever made. Honestly, it feels like an understatement just even calling it a class. For me, speech and debate is my the speech and debate
008team is my family. It sounds corny, but it's true. In this class, I've met some of my closest friends, learned how to public speak, and have been pushed creatively and competitively to make me who I am today. There's such a unique environment created when you get multiple creatives working together to help each other improve. And for BHS speech and debate, that collaborative aura is very potent. Despite the changes this year, our team has been thriving and crushing our rival schools at many of our tournaments. One tournament I'd especially like to highlight is our national qualifier tournament we had in March. All of our members who competed did phenomenally in rounds, and we had three of our competitors qualify in main stage events to compete in Richmond, Virginia uh in this June. Brennan McFall, my other
009co-captain, and Olivia Bramhall placed second in duo interpretation with Brennan achieving achieving a very impressive feat, also placing first in dramatic interpretation. Uh I lost my place. I too placed first in humorous interpretation, and I'm glad to say I'll be competing with these two on the East Coast in Richmond. However, it doesn't just stop there. When a team qualifies to compete at the national tournament, they have the option to take two more students in supplemental events. Also competing with us in Virginia will be Aiden Rowe in original spoken word poetry and Jessica Berg in poetry interpretation. I am overjoyed that I get to compete with my team one last time, and I'm so proud of all involved. Speech and debate has changed my life for the better in many ways that that in ways that
010any other program couldn't. And I can't wait to see where the future of this family goes. I guess I'm going next. Um hello, I'm Jessica Berg. I am a junior at Bend High School, and I'm also a member of the speech and debate team. I am the tournament lead, so I'm a secondary leadership position. Um there's four of us in the sort of leadership council. Um and I have been in speech and debate since my freshman year. I joined on the very first day of high school, and I've stuck with it until then, um for the most part. And it has been honestly, again, a life-changing experience. It has not only taught me a lot of very valuable skills about writing, about gathering sources, researching, organizing your ideas, but also about the fundamental expression of
011human thoughts, emotions in ways that are easily perceived and understood by other people. Um the basic communication skills have been so, so valuable in my time throughout high school. And I've also had the privilege of being able to meet people from not only all across, you know, different schools in our local district, but all across Oregon and from other states. Um I've had the privilege of being able to attend the national tournament my freshman year, and I was able to make friends with people who were from, you know, all sorts of different states. I met someone from Texas, I met someone from like Illinois, from Indiana, like all over who were all sharing this unique passion. So, one thing I wanted to point out is that in speech and debate, a lot of times we
012have this sort of perception that it is mostly focused on debate. But we have a lot of variety in our actual events and the types of competition that we offer. Uh for example, we do have traditional debate, uh which many of us have partaken in, but there are also what are called public address events and interpretation events. So, if you ever see on the Bend Facebook page, you'll find that often times it will show an individual competitor's name, their place, and their event. So, it might seem a little bit confusing, but interpretation events are essentially the acting type version of s- go- the standard speech and debate competitions. So, it will often involve taking a drama script, sometimes a humorous script, sometimes poetry, and performing it dramatically. There's also um public address events, which are
013informative speaking, oratory, those kinds of things which really focus on conveying individual points a- about a variety of diverse topics that the speaker gets to select. And of course, debate can come in either individual or team type debates. So, moving forward, we're really hoping that we can not only gather more young students into the program, but also diversify our individual skill sets that so that each competitor not only finds the events that they particularly enjoy, but finds events that also engage them and stretch their abilities beyond their comfort zone. Um and that is honestly what is really powerful about speech and debate is it encourages you to look beyond simply yourself and your own strengths, and rather to broaden your horizon into areas that might seem scary, daunting, things that really stretch your capacity in
014both creative ways and intellectual ways, and in social ways. And so, again, moving forward, I really hope that we can continue to see a lot of success in this program. I am so proud of my team. I think we've all done an amazing job this year, and I hope to see that continue. Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Brennan McFall, and I am a co-captain of the Bend High School speech and debate team. This is my junior year and third year competing on the team. I, as everyone else here, had joined on my freshman year as I was told that it would be a way that I am able to speak for who I am. It is a way that I was able to express myself, and that's something I'm really proud of. And
015you know, they kind of stole the words I had to say from me, but I want to talk about something else that's coming up. Two weeks ago, we had our district qualifying tournament for the state tournament that is in a week. Ooh, scary. Um and I want to say that we have four people that are going to the state tournament. Me, I am going in dramatic interpretation and dual interpretation with Olivia Bramhall, who also qualified in prose, which is like reading from a book. And then, Jessica here, she qualified in dramatic interpretation as well, and in poetry speaking. And then, the last one, It's Sebastian Sebastian Newby qualified our um social chair. He qualified in humorous interpretation. Now, the state tournament is something that we have excelled good at. Like, last year, we placed first
016in the state for 1A through 4A, which is really competitive in speech and debate, and we were able to bring our students together, our teammates to be able to place first at this tournament, which is every about every single school in Oregon. Um but yeah, it's a lot. I will be going to the national tournament and I really hope to see that speech and debate continues next year so I'm able to, you know, use my senior year to the fullest and sign that I am so proud to do and enjoy so much. Thank you. Thank you, speech and debate. You guys are always always amazing. Thank you. Um on to reports and discussions. Enrollment, please. I work now. >> You work now. So, let's start with this. Let's start with enrollment. Um enrollment we're at
017595. Um if you look at our enrollment sheet, you will see that we have stayed the same with home school um home schoolers at 65 for the last 4 months. Um we started at 64 of this school year. Um students that are transferring and we started at the beginning of the school year at 60, we're at 58. Transfer out, which means students that go elsewhere in um out of our district that are still our resident kids. At the beginning of the year we had 50, we only have 44 now that are going elsewhere. So, that has decreased in number. It's Is it better? Is that better? All right. Sorry. You don't want me to repeat that, do you? Do I need to repeat that? Okay. All right. The next part of is district at a
018glance. I have a few reports that I need to read from some of our other um HR and our uh programs person. First is we'll talk about I know this is a concern in our community, so currently the Bandon School District is experiencing a critical level of staff absences coupled with a short shortage of available substitute teachers to adequately cover those absences. The situation has been developed as a result of a convergence of factors including the most staff we've ever had on paid medical leave. We have professional leave, athletic leave, and an increase of sick leave. It is important to note that the district did not experience a loss of substitute teachers as a result of transitioning away from the ESD. In fact, by managing our substitute pool in-house, we have increased the number of
019licensed substitutes compared to previous years. This approach has allowed us to ensure substitutes remain active and current while also realizing that we are cost saving by not having the ESD help us with that in the sense that the ESD does not call subs. The only thing they do is onboard them. So, we do all the onboarding and we do all the calling. The ESD doesn't and hasn't ever done any of the calling for us. >> [snorts] >> Our secretaries actually do that. Despite having a larger and more actively managed substitute pool in prior years, the volume of staff absences currently exceeds the number of substitutes available to fill them. Additionally, many of our substitutes are already committed to long-term assignments for those that are on medical leave or other leaves that are long-term. Which further
020limits daily active availability. The district has made every effort to secure highly qualified substitutes. However, these individuals are high demand and are often already engaged in neighboring districts. To provide a context, we wanted you to know that on a single day recently, like on 4/3, April 3rd, we had 14 certified staff out. On 4/6, we had 13 certified staff out. We're averaging about 10 uh licensed teacher absences per day. With that significant number that is so increased from prior months or even prior years, it's hard to meet all the needs that we individually have in our buildings. As you know, administrators have substituted in classrooms. I have substituted in a classroom. That gave me a whole new outlook of holy Moses. Um but there's um those types of things is we're filling the best we
021can and I know there's a lot of frustration that we don't have accredited substitutes, especially in the math and science area, because usually those people have jobs. And so, to try to find those substitutes, we have searched all over the coast. We have made announcements on our social media. Um we have had some member Berg has signed up to sub, which we totally thank you. For community members, we've had more people sign up and that really helps us out. So, we encourage people to do that. Um staff changes. I know that's another one that people would like to know. There's so many rumors out there that I've heard this last weekend. The only staff changes right now that we as a district know of and that we've talked about is that Mrs. Weston, our fourth
022grade teacher, will be going down to the or up down to the middle school um to teach our math, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math. Um that's what we're looking at. The each building builds their own schedule, so I don't know exactly how she's scheduled in. Um we have our fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Hamblin, has gone down to she will teach at kindergarten because our kindergarten teacher is taking Mrs. Weston's job. We have Courtney who wants to go back to the classroom. She will fill that fifth grade position. Those are only the only staff changes we have right now. We do have the ELA position open, but we don't have any other movement going on with secretaries or paraprofessionals or anything like that. So, if you hear that, it's not necessarily true. And I would
023love an email if you have questions about staff changes. As we know and the teachers know, then you will know. We do have another listening session May 26th. It's at the warehouse from 12:00 to 2:00. I know people had questions on that. We could not make it work in April. We just didn't have enough of people available to make a listening session happen in April. Now, here's some other things. Um the Freedom to Read Act, um Senate Bill 1098. Um under the Senate Bill 1098, school districts are required to adopt a formal procedure for the reconsideration of library materials. This means the school board must establish a clear, transparent process that allows parents, guardians, staff, or community members to request a review of specific materials. So, the board will need to work on the procedure
024of this process. Science instructional materials adoption. As you know, it's an action item later in the board meeting for items that the committee has selected to submit to the board as recommendations. The science instructional materials adoption committee respectfully submits its recommendation for new K-12 science curriculum materials aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. After a thorough review process that included evaluation of Oregon Department of Education approved materials, committee collaboration, vertical co-alignment discussions, and considerations of instructional shifts required by NGSS, the committee recommend the following: Collaborate Science, a comprehensive K-8 STEM curriculum designed around the instructional visions of NGSS. Inspire Science by McGraw Hill for grades 9 through 12. Summer Learning Grant. Again, our district has applied for the summer learning grant. As you know, last year we did not qualify because our ELA scores were
025too high. The Oregon Department of Ed 26 through 28 summer learning program is a competitive grant that allocates approximately 35 million statewide each summer to support districts in providing high-quality learning opportunities that address academic needs and promote student engagement. As part of the application process for the 26 state summer learning grant, ODE assigned priority points to all eligible applicants. This scoring system is designed to ensure that districts and schools with the greatest demonstrated need are prioritized before full application reviews are conducted. Factors influencing these scores include student demographics, students not ELA proficient, and students experiencing poverty. Bandon School District received a priority score of 26 out of a possible of 50 points. In comparison to other applicants statewide, 79 schools and districts received higher scores than us. While this places Bandon in a more competitive
026position for funding, the district remains eligible for consideration. Final award decisions will be based on the full application including the strength of the program design, alignment with state priorities, and the overall quality of the proposal. We should know around April 20th if we are one of the districts chosen. Um so I just wanted to touch on a few items that are in the board packet. Um Uh as of today we have collected 134 little over 134,000 in construction excise tax revenue. These funds are currently being prioritized for safety-related capital expenditures um such as the um Ocean Crest covered play area, um some electrical and plumbing updates, etc. Uh our district participated in a facilities assessment pilot program in 2024 through ODE that was amazing. Um we had some facilities assessments um professionals come on site
027and they were here for what a couple of days? >> Week. A week. They were here for a week. Uh and then ODE came back and they met with us and went over all of the reports, all the data, they put it in an amazing um Excel workbook for us. So that um that information has been posted to our website for anyone who wants to go take a look at it. And you can find that uh just on the homepage of the website. Uh you go to uh the just under the construction excise tax. There are two orange bars um and one's labeled 2024 final facilities assessment reports and the other one is labeled Bandon replacement reserves data. So I know somebody had um asked about this at a listening session. Um so we did
028get that up on the website and the reserves data. I highly encourage anyone who has some free time to go take a look at it because um there's some really great stuff in there about just kind of what the district is looking at from a facility standpoint over you know the course of the next 20 years or so. Um great data. Uh the cash flow projection sheet which is in your board packet uh as previously mentioned our our current projections are showing a net cash flow of approximately -1.1 million this year. So then that brings us to budget. Um we're actively working to balance the 26-27 proposed budget. Uh as [sighs] you all know we're currently in a state of declining enrollment and we're going to budget at 600 students this year funding-wise. Um so
029amidst these budget cuts our district has been planning on absorbing vacancies as much as possible and as such we're updating um job descriptions and job duties to suit those needs. Uh one thing I'll go over this in more detail at the first meeting of the budget committee um on May 13th, but in order to balance this 26-27 budget we're going to need to look at reducing the budgeted contingency amount which this year um we have in at 415,000 and that amount is just something that it it sits there kind of as a an emergency funds that can only be used with board approval. So that is nice to keep as much of that there as we can um for emergency situations, uh but we are going to have to look at reducing that this year
030to balance the budget. Um what else do we have here? Um probably depending on how expenditures and revenues come in next year there's a chance we may have to look at some furlough days next year towards the end of the year. Um higher likelihood would be in the 27-28 fiscal year furlough days depending on you know revenue and expenditures how they come in. And lastly uh hopefully most people had a chance to take the uh 26-27 community budget survey. Uh we did receive 231 responses which was excellent. Um I was pleased with that and thank you to everyone who took time to respond. Uh there are summary graphs uh of those responses in the board packet and more of that information will be presented at the at the first committee um the first budget committee
031meeting um on May 13th. That's all I've got. Uh probably. AJ I've got a question well actually a clarification to ask for. On the teacher sick paid leave they get 10 per year. Is that right? A teacher will get 10 paid Oop. 10 paid sick days a year. They get more. More than 10 and can those accumulate up to a certain number of days? Do we know if if that factors into why we're experiencing so many teachers not coming to work because of sick leave? It's alarming that we're having to find so many substitutes. Um I really think it's it's a it's several different things. Like we've never had so many teachers on family leave. >> Oh okay. And we have so many this year with people having babies and stuff like that, you know.
032So it just we've never experienced that high of number. We went back to look at this time last year. We looked at the last few months um springtime is the highest time that we have absences from the certified staff. Um we have a lot of coaches. It's included [snorts] in there in the absences, you know, um professional pieces like that with athletics and um other things that they might be attending whether it's CPI training or whatever. So I just think it's a lot a lot of the time we're looking at it too because that's one thing that we said with the union that we would look at is um Fridays. Fridays when they asked for Fridays to every Friday to be a half day we had concern about students' absences and staff absences and I
033would say that a lot of our half Fridays um a lot of our staff are taking those Fridays off. The numbers that we looked at we were kind of astonished with that. Um so we'll just have to keep having conversations and talking about it of maybe the PD isn't what they want and we need to you know listen to the factors of that of of why Fridays seem to be our our days of taking off. So um but we'll check into that. But it is that we have a lot on paid leave that we've never had before. Thank you. With looking at the district at a glance is anybody have any questions for our admin? I I have some a couple questions. The district at a glance just so I understand it is the goals.
034Yes, sir. Yeah, okay. District at a glance is our goals for the year. It's in response to to how we are >> Yep. Okay. Uh [snorts] in in the goal in goal number one um I think this is maybe for you Doc uh Mr. Doc Curry. Um is there any like American data that you guys have like to try and uh um support the effectiveness of the actions being taken? Comparing to like previous school years particularly I think uh goal 1.1 and two. Uh looking at the uh data dive? Yeah, like we like is there any numerical data that we use? >> Yes, so we disaggregated the data from the beginning of the year and middle of the year uh on the WIDA tests and we were looking for trends and patterns and the teachers
035broke that down with the generous help of Mrs. uh Watson from um Harbor Lights uh helping teachers establish those trends and patterns, look for the uh areas of struggle, the opportunities that kids could work on more. Um if a kid's showing proficiency in uh order of operations we're not going to drill down into that, but if we see a consistent pattern of a weakness in one area we're going to focus our attention that way. So they were using the Quantile data reported back from the WIDA and basing their uh instructional decisions based off that. Any other questions? I have one for Courtney. How was your fair? Fair? Yes. I cannot claim the health fair is mine. Liz Dieters is the one that spearheaded that and it This is our fourth year doing it. I just
036get to greet all the people at the door and then click how many people come in. So that's that's always fun for me. Um but Liz and Lena our district nurses put in a lot of time for that. It was established four years ago and every year um since Liz Dieters has taken that over it's gotten bigger and better. Um so I definitely can't take the credit, but it is my building and I'm happy to offer it every year. Um Um, but our community comes together. Every kid that walks in the door gets a string backpack, like a drawstring backpack, because they walk out with it stuffed full of stuff. So, and we have people reaching out to us afterwards saying, "Can we be a part of it next year?" So, it's really cool. I
037had old friends from 20 plus years hit me up whether I was going to be there or not. And so, it's I'm very impressed with how our school district's coming together for the kids. Yes. And we do try to advertise as district-wide for all families, community's invited, because even though it's here, you know, some of the families will bring bigger kids, and the kids are like, "Why am I here?" And I'm like, "Hey, this is for everyone. It's not just a kid thing." So, um, you know, we'll continue to to push that out. And even when I go back to the classroom next year, I did tell Liz, "I will help any way that I can." And I'll make the flyer again like I do, you know, whatever I can do to help. Thank you.
038Anybody else? All right. Lindy. What up, y'all? Okay. So, I wasn't here last time, but I'm about to make it up to you cuz I got stuff to say. So, I first like to start off, the health fair was actually me and a couple of friends from leadership class and other kids who just wanted to volunteer. We had so much fun. I personally helped out with like handing out food and things. The amount of kids, just classmates of mine and younger kids who I've gotten to work with like through theater or just getting to see through school and reading books to them. It was so The amount of smiles I saw was just fantastic. It was so much fun. If you were there, hopefully those who weren't there but are going to be there next
039year. It was so much fun, very well made. Um, I'd like to start off. Well, we kind of already heard about speech, but I just want to go there cuz we just recently heard about them. But, they got to go to districts, and again, we had It was a state qualifier, and four qualified, which is amazing. And then, not too long ago, they had a um another speech thing where it was at Medford, I believe, and they five competed to go to Virginia, which I believe is for like it's very hard to get into. You compete different other schools. And we have five that are actually going and three that qualified. So, for our small school, like they mentioned, that is very impressive. It good for them. And then, a really fun field trip we
040got to do is uh a lot of kids got to go to Beetlejuice at the Holt Center. I heard so I'm so bummed I missed it. But, it was so The people still be wearing their sweatshirts. They look great. And it was so cool to hear about that. And I would like to talk about leadership real quick. We've been doing a lot of cool things recently. Last month, we actually went to like Bandon, Coos Bay, and North Bend. And what we've been working on is Community 101. And so, we get grant money from Community 101, and we create a a mission proj- a mission statement about what we want to do to better our community. And so, we over the year, we've been going through, working on those, discovering what we want. And we found
041some places, nonprofits, that fit our statement. And so, this last month, we visited nine of our sites, went to site visits, and we got to see, learn about them. And now, we're actually getting ready for our awards ceremony, which is April 20th. We've been working on speeches, and we're going to get ready to hand out that money. So, it's been a lot of great work being done. And then, we had choir go to districts to get ready for see if they qualify for state, which not going to I'm in choir, I can say this, we did great. And then, band festival's getting ready for this week, same thing. They're going to do awesome, they always do. And then, we had the Oregon fiddlers. They came to BHS, and it was quite the experience, I must
042say. I've never seen so much fiddling in my life. It was quite enjoyable, I must say. And then, we had um NHS, National Honor Society. We had um like uh Oh my gosh, Donna Jackson is her name. Some of you know her from the community. But, the NHS and her got together, and we actually did a quilting project where we made tie blankets, and we actually she gave them to uh the Pacific Pacific View patients. So, we made 10 blankets total. It was 4 hours total in the span of 2 days. Fuzz was everywhere, but it was worth it. It was so much fun. And the last thing, last but certainly not least, is the jazz band went to the annual clam bake that they go to on March 13th, and that was just a
043blast. It was really fun. So, our school's been really living it up lately. So, yeah. Any other reports or discussion? Do it towards the end. It's fine. All right. Moving on. Action items, 5.0. Uh can I get 5.01 Sit someone to pay the bills? You want to do that with your mic on? >> [laughter] >> I move that we pay the bills. Excellent. Can I get a second, please? And Thank you. Can I get a vote? All in favor? All opposed? Passes. Thank you. Uh 5.02, approve science curriculum. Can I get a motion to for us to approve the science curriculum? Straight. I second. All right. Uh May I Call for a vote. All in favor? All opposed? Passes. 5.03. That's uh surplus equipment, John Deere. I have a thing where I'm supposed to read
044it, right? I got it. We don't have to. Uh there's a surplus John Deere tractor. If anybody's interested, please contact Connie at the district office. Uh so, can I get an approval so that we can sell some surplus John Deere tractor? I move we sell the surplus tractor. Can I get a second? I second. Call for vote. All in favor of getting rid of surplus equipment? All opposed? What passes. Uh 5.04, board acknowledgement and acceptance of the $5,000 donation for the Ocean Crest Crest staff. I move we accept that kind and generous gift. Can I get a second? Second. Can we get some more information about it? Yeah. Call for discussion. Courtney, is there any information we can extra information we can have on this donation? Yes. We are very blessed at Ocean Crest, and
045um year after year, people are just wanting to donate to our kids. And this year, we had a gentleman from Alaska who travels to Bandon every February. And he said he just I mean, it's a very heartfelt letter, um which I won't read all of it, but he said um "An elementary school is the cornerstone of every great community. And so, his hope is that we'll use every dollar to put smiles on the faces of your staff and teachers." And so, if you're an educator out there, you know that usually people don't aren't so willing to give money to the grown-ups that have to take care of the kids. So, this was really exciting. Um I conducted a survey. It was pretty um informal, but hey, what do you guys want to do with this
046money? And we just filled out a document, and then I compiled them, and got the the top choices, and then we voted on them. There are some restrictions. You can't spend more than $50 per employee from the same donation. So, we are all getting um jackets, like zip-up crewneck somethings with um embroidered Bandon B with our last names. Um we're going to have some chair massages on a couple of our in-service days. And then, we're going to pay for our staff end-of-the-year lunch. And then, the rest of the money, which will be about half of it, um will be saved for next year. And the team can decide what to do with it then. So, we feel very fortunate. That's huge. Yeah. Uh call for a vote then. All in favor of them accepting? Passes.
047Second. Excellent. Passes. Uh Did you all have a chance to look at your flyers? 5.05, approve Uh can we do these We can do these all in one fell swoop. Uh approve Bandon Dudes flyer, blast off and STEM, the Marlo dance, and the junior lifeguard flyers. We're in our packets. I assume everybody had a chance to look at them. Any discussion? All right. Then, I call Can I get a motion to approve our flyers? I move we approve the flyers. Can I get a second? I second. All in favor? All opposed? Excellent. Passes. If y'all want to skedaddle, you're more than welcome to. Thank you for attending and your input. It's always valuable. Thank you, all. Yeah, yes, please. Uh 3 minutes on the clock. And we are going to go into public input for
048items not on the agenda 6.0. We'll start with Miss Amber Berg. Come on down. Hello. Um, my name's Amber. I think you guys know me. Um, first of all, I'm kind of bummed they left cuz I wanted to thank them for allowing me in their schools considering I think you guys know secret that I have some pretty serious concerns about what's been going on at the school. So, I'm very grateful that I've been able to come in and that's given me a little more perspective and I just wanted to um I sub at Myrtle Point a lot and they are excited to see me >> [laughter] >> because they're like, "Oh great, we got a sub." And they think awesome, you know, they think it's going to get easy. It never is, but they think
049it is. But that's not what's happening here as we've all discussed. The kids are exhausted and they're apathetic and I've started taking notes whenever I sub anywhere just of things that I hear. So, these are my little notes from the trenches. This first part are things that kids did not say to me personally, they were saying to themselves, to each other. The first one was, "Oh great, another sub. We barely have any real teachers anymore." You guys know this, this isn't news, but I want you to understand that the kids know it, too. Um, bruh, I won't even be able to go to college. I haven't learned anything in 2 years. And I also just want you to know that I get that like kids are hyper dramatic and that some of this is a
050little over the top, but I just These are things that jumped out at me. Um I don't know what the point is of coming to school. We don't do anything and there are no teachers here anyway. Thank God Hatfield hasn't quit. That was good one. Um, nobody seems to care if we learn anything or not. This is pointless. Now, these are just things they said to each other or were not to me. Directly to me, I had a student come to me very upset because she says, "All we ever get are AI created worksheets for the subs to give to us." They don't even get graded. We've been told they won't affect our grade. Again, caveat, I get these are kids. I get they may not be 100%, but this is their perception and what
051they're sending out into the world. So, I do think it's valid to at least know what they're saying. Um Nobody has graded anything I've done for weeks. I have no idea if I'm on the right track or not. This was specifically about math. Um, this whole class is self-paced and online. We don't have a teacher, we just do what we want. And the last two, I'm I'm just going to give you guys what I typed up. I'm not going to really say it, but there is a In the middle school, of course, we know there's a lot going on um there as usual, but I had a one student come um in front of the whole class say, "Are you going to be our permanent sub? Mrs. Hall told a whole class that we were
052she could either quit or be fired. That's why she isn't here today. Will you please stay and be our permanent sub?" So my point in all of this is not to berate anybody or to make anybody feel bad, but to make you guys understand that what you probably do, but if you if you're not there in the classroom, I mean I Oh, I knew my kids weren't particularly happy, but I had no idea how systemic it was and how beat down and apathetic these kids are and I really, really, really hope that y'all don't need me next year and that you have people to do these jobs for these kids because they are getting lost. And that's really all I had to say. Thank you, Amber. Can you tell me what grades you were subbing
053in when you heard most of those comments? The vast majority of them were in the high school. It was um and then there were some in the middle school like obviously the stuff about Miss Hall and stuff. Um, but I've been in the I've only I've only been here four times. So, I've done the high school twice, the middle school once and I did um life skills in the elementary school last week. Um, tomorrow I'm at HLMS again and I'm going to be math. So, we'll see. But that's what I got. You bet. Jessica Markham Brink, please. Yes. I am deeply concerned about the approval of Ocean Park Workforce Housing Partnership. I have voiced my concerns about the long-term effects of letting go of land that could be used for new school buildings or sports
054facilities and the abilities of the district's ability to grow. It seems that at least two of the board members may also have concerns. During the last during the executive session at the last board meeting, a motion to terminate further discussion about the housing project was made by board member and seconded, but was ultimately dismissed by the board. With the upheaval of the school board and the addition of new members, it seems like it would be advisable to give the new board members time to study the issue before it was voted on. The partnership is between the Bandon School District, City of Bandon and Dorman House LLC, a company who touts themselves as building quality housing for golf resort employees. Bandon is more than a golf community. Our future growth will be and must be based
055on more than one industry. As a business person in this community, I find it disturbing that the housing needs of service industry employees seem to have so little emphasis. When I have spoken to other employers in the community, I've consistently heard that employee housing shortages have led many potential employees to leave our area. This has a direct impact on our businesses as well as our school district. So many families with school-age children would love to live in Bandon if they could afford to. The Ocean Park house workforce housing project will not address the current housing gap in our community. In the article I previously cited entitled Bandon Workforce Mapping the Housing Gap, they state quote, "The forecast confirms that Bandon's income profile is heavily weighted towards low and moderate weight in moderate wage levels. Median
056household income is approximately 36,875 and roughly 68% of households earn less than 80% of the median income placing the majority of residents in low, very low, or extremely low income categories under HUD definitions." I have emailed the article to all board members and I hope each one of you will take time to read it. But it's clear to me that the Ocean Park Workforce Housing project won't be affordable for 68% of Bandon residents. I urge the board to hold this project for more consideration and to communicate to the community. Thank you. Mira Stedman. Hello. Uh, my name is Mira Stedman. I am a former substitute teacher at the Bandon School District and a current preschool teacher down in Port Orford. Um, I have two children in the district currently and soon to have a third.
057I love the school district. It is a major reason we chose to live in Bandon. My kids have thrived here and loved it as well. Um, that is until recently. My youngest son is in elementary and is doing great. However, my middle schooler has been struggling to say the least. I know the middle school is a challenging time for all students, but the lack of consistency in teachers, instruction, and expectations has been a serious wrench in his adolescent years and I know he's not alone. I recently came across the results from a public survey that I'm sure many of you have seen regarding the hopes and concerns of the district at large. Uh, there was one result that really stood out to me and it was that 82% of folks in our district feel that
058there has been a loss of experienced, qualified teachers in the classroom and subsequent decline in quality of education and academic rigor at the Bandon schools. In the district's own survey regarding budgeting priorities, over 50% of folks agree that staffing levels are either somewhat or very inadequate and 82% say that funding for classroom teachers should be prioritized. I know it was not the intention of the district, but the teacher transfers at the start of the year clearly set off an internal dismantling of an already well-oiled machine. Teachers left and were hastily replaced with new teachers who perhaps didn't have the experience and certainly didn't have the time or support to successfully run their classes full of confused and often disgruntled students. Um, I'm not blaming the teachers. I'm simply seeing how the lack of consistency is
059affecting these students and now we are about to lose potentially two more teachers after only 1 year. Watching my son become slowly more discouraged throughout the year as he loses teachers he loves and is moved around to new classes as if it won't affect him is frankly breaking my heart. Lastly, I have been informed that in the high school students are falling behind in math and the entire junior class was recently all handed a opt-out form for state testing or discussed at length about it and if this is true, it is incredibly discouraging. I understand that there is a time and a place to opt out of tests if it's in the student's best best interest, but to open that option up to an entire class says something about the instruction they're receiving. My question
060is, how do we fix this? How do we retain the excellent teachers we have this that the students know and love and how do we appeal to skilled and experienced new hires and not just quick fix fill-ins who are burnt out in a year? School is such a special place and such a fundamental time in all children's lives. I want it to be the absolute best it can be and I know that you all do too. Thanks. Thank you. Uh Anna Cruz. Please. Hi, I'm Anna. I'm a band and parent of a 2022 graduate and high school sophomore. I'm speaking here because I'm really worried about student learning. I'm not here to attack, but I want to push for solutions and accountability in our district. For 2 years in a row, my son and his
061classmates um have had serious disruptions in math. Last year in Algebra 1, they spent an entire semester with someone who was not qualified to teach that subject that subject and they suffered. Now this year in geometry, they have once again gone long stretches without a licensed math teacher leading the class. Since the start of the semester, there has not been a licensed teacher leading the class, just an unlicensed educational assistant. From a quick Google search, that does not seem legal in the state of Oregon for an unlicensed teacher to be leading This has led to weeks with students without the students' work being graded. Some assignments sat for more than 6 weeks with no feedback. Obviously, when that's the case, students can't see what they did wrong or how to improve. To me, this is
062not what rigor looks like. Unfortunately, this isn't the only core class where this is happening. In physical science, since the start of the school year, students have endured a rotating cast of substitutes. I understand that short-term subs are necessary, especially for health or family leave reasons, but when this goes on for whole quarters or most of a school year, it's not acceptable for our kids. Um I'm also concerned about the district's decisions that might be making these problems worse, specifically the decision to cancel the contract with South Coast ESD. Thank you for speaking to that tonight. Um but I'm wondering if that decision has made it harder. I did speak with South Coast ESD. Um they said yeah, Coos Bay also canceled their contract with them this year and have already renewed it for '26
063and '27 because they are having a hard time getting subs in. Um South Coast ESD acts as a hub where these professionals can apply one time to be spread around all these schools. So if we want to have access, easy access to more qualified teachers, I think that's going to better serve our kids. Um I know that this is hard, but just because it's hard, it doesn't alleviate the responsibility the district has. Um So the recent survey, which I believe you guys saw, um the big standout concern of 82% saying that their biggest concern was the loss of qualified teachers, licensed teachers, and the retention there. Um and the loss of rigor. So my family This is just my family's experience, but it sounds like it's a lot of families' experience. So I'd like to
064find out some clarity here as if our current staffing is even legal with to have an unlicensed teacher in there for one thing. Um Anyway, I'm here because I care about the kids. I know that's why you guys are here, too. So I'm hoping we can find a way through this. Thank you. Alan I'm not going to try to pronounce your last name, buddy. No, we're [laughter] we're live on YouTube. No way. We'll We'll get it on camera and if there's any hits, we'll let you know. Thank you. >> Bolsweiler is my last name. It's actually very easy. It's a bull and a shweiler. It's shweiler. Like straight forward. Bolsweiler. Um I am a local taxpayer, as I'm sure all of you are, or I hope all of you are, cuz otherwise probably another things
065to talk about. I have no kids and I have no plans to bump up the number of kids in your school in the upcoming years. Just want to put that out front, okay? Um I do I I I want to start with um something that you guys already know. When it comes to these kids, you have one chance. That's it. There's today and there's your next opportunity. But when an opportunity is missed because of lack of instruction, lack of facilities, all of these things, you don't get a second chance. That kid's gone. That day's gone. And that brings a level of importance to this that I think really does need to be recognized and and said every now and then. I am concerned about the processes and the oversight of employees and facilities. Um I'm
066aware of the survey. And I think however flawed the process might have been, and they're all flawed always, um there's definitely a voice out there speaking to issues that um really I hope the board will be able to address. So that that's that part of it. Um Other people have exposed the um specific issues that I think showed up in there. Something a little bit different. I would like to challenge you collectively. And I'm going to follow along with what Brian was asking about earlier. Um you had a listening session a while back. You guys all said that you really liked the process and thought it was a good thing to get information and a good way of doing it. And I'm glad to hear that you have another one coming up. I would like
067to request, challenge, whatever, this group to take this group, this um list of goals, one through five, and make them less aspirational and more task-oriented. So one of your goals is community engagement and transparent communication. Great. How are you going to do that specifically? This week, how are you going to do that? How are you going to follow up with that? What are the actions that you're going to commit to as opposed to an aspirational we'll talk some more. Leadership, governance, and continuous improvement. Put some numbers to it. Put some people on it. Let's get a report when we have the next um listening session. We can listen to you tell us about these goals and how you are meeting them. That would be something that I think would just be marvelous. Fiscal responsibility and
068operational effectiveness. That's an easy one for topics to check off and walk through. Safe, supportive, and inclusive environments. And yes, student achievement and inclusive processes. Please, let's put some reality to it, some numbers, some specific actions that the board intends to take and has taken. Thank you very much. Feel free to um send us your list. We would appreciate it. Just list. Your the list of goals. I'm In his words is what I was requesting. Uh Next up, David Meade. Please. Okay. 3 minutes isn't very long. I got to talk fast. Dave Meade. Um to play off of Alan's, um a lot of the vision goals that are in your packet, if you go through the like a current like couple months, there's a lot of repetition there. Maybe only focus on things that are
069actually happening and not things that are just repeated or regurgitated in a different sentence. Kind of silly. Um for the construction excise tax, we had talked about a living document where you could actually uh combine the the tasks that are going to be done with the money that's being accrued, so that we know where the money's going. Um I think an assessment's kind of loose, you know, especially the facilities assessment. There's a lot in there. So um and then also um based on the general obligation bond that was in the information, kudos. $436,000, that's pretty good. Um I'd like to see that money actually being put this in buildings that are falling apart out there. Um I'm kind of concerned at the same time that in the last 2 months, most of the money that's
070been spent through that bond has been through employees instead of actually doing work on the projects. That's a concern. Um Also, I did send an email to the board members regarding the last meeting after the executive session. Um The vote that you had was not correct because you didn't follow public meeting laws. I'm just laying that out there. Um I sent an example from the Oregon School Board Association and also the ORS documenting what was wrong. It wasn't a critique about anything. It was a vote, fine, but it's not It wasn't done correctly. So just in case. And then also about a month ago, I sent in a formal complaint and I really haven't heard anything about that. It was regarding the asbestos removal previous that was uh from Travis Hall. Sent in March? Yes.
071Sorry, I should be >> 30 days ago, yeah. Got it. So under 3 minutes. There you go. Thank you. Thank you. And then Zoe Bradberry Desautel. Good evening. Um I think as you all are aware, um Bandon Schools Deserve Better conducted a survey to better understand community opinion around some of the problems in our district and to gather input on how to move forward constructively. The first thing I wanted to speak to in regards to that survey is that Bandon Schools Deserve Better is not just me. I know there are some people who want to believe that, but the fact is BSDB is a collection of many brave parents and community members who are worried about the declining quality of public education that kids are receiving at Bandon. Some have insisted that there are only
072four or five unhappy families, but the survey confirmed something we have suspected. We are a multitude. There were 119 responses, and the overwhelming majority share our concerns. There are also some who do not, which is to be expected. But our request is simply that the board take all community input seriously. The terrible thing that we have learned as we've advocated for better schools this past year is that a lot of people are afraid to speak up or even fill out an anonymous survey out of fear of retaliation from the superintendent. I ask you to stop and think about what I just said. People are afraid to speak up because of retaliation. For their child, for their spouse, for themselves. What does that say about the culture of this district right now under this leadership? It
073clearly indicates we're falling short of the board's goal number five for community engagement and transparent communication. Regarding enrollment, of the 100-plus survey respondents, almost half are considering pulling their kids from Bandon schools. That's a problem when we're already worried about declining enrollment at BSD and big budget cuts. We're also still losing teachers. Two people who were hired just six months ago have already resigned, further further destabilizing classrooms. And we need to remember how we got here, replacing experienced teachers who left after last year's involuntary transfers. Those decisions had consequences, and we're still seeing them play out in our classrooms. Unfortunately, the superintendent and the board have repeatedly dismissed the proliferation of community concern, which has eroded public trust. Survey respondents rated the superintendent 1.6 stars out of five and the board at 1.9. That mirrors
074what teachers told you last fall when 85% voted no confidence in the superintendent. I'm not sure how the message could be any more clear. It is time for change. We need new leadership so that we can salvage our kids' education before it's too late. Finally, I have a budget question. I understand the district is paying significant legal fees after choosing to go to trial in the ULP case instead of accepting a settlement offer from the union, an offer that would have resolved this months ago and saved tens of thousands of dollars. Do we have an estimate for what that ULP will cost? And are you aware that a similar settlement offer has been made regarding the upcoming grievance? Thank you. That will be it for the public input items on the agenda. We are going
075to be going into executive session to consider the dismissal of discipline of or hearing complaints or charges brought against public officer, employee, staff member, or agent unless he or she requests an opening ORS 192 .660 to be. We'll be back in a bit. >> Mhm. >> And we are back from our executive session. Um and we're moving on to section 8.0 adjourn. And I make a motion to adjourn. All in favor of adjourning? Excellent.