001with the order unless I'm um told that I can move things based on um one of our guests that might be coming in or someone to help us. Um I believe with the capital bond financing update is where we might have that adjustment. So we're going to go ahead and start with the roadmap 27 first trimester report from Dr. Cassuda. And so you're you're up for us. Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you. Right. Good evening everyone. Happy to be presenting the first report fall report of road map 27 update. Uh can everyone see this slide? Sums up if you can see something that says >> you can see your audio is a little light though. >> Oh my audio. Okay. Let me do a little bit of adjustment here. Turn everything way up. That's better.
002>> Much better. Okay, great. Um, I'll first uh start by saying if you've had a chance uh to download the presentation from Boardbook um or if you haven't, please I I highly recommend it. Uh the slides uh are pretty detailed and it might be useful for you to have that somewhere on your screen or off to the side there if you want to look at some of the details that aren't uh maybe as visible projected. So, all right. So, I'm going to jump right in. We've got about 20 slides, so I'm going to u maintain a perky pace here. I'm going to jump right into our first goal is building a strong foundation uh prek. Goal one focuses on building a strong academic foundation for uh in our earliest grades because learning in prek through
003grade three sets the trajectory for students long-term success. We monitor grade three specifically because it aligns with the Oregon integrated guidance priorities for early literacy and numeracy and because proficiency by third by the end of third grade is a strong predictor of later academic success. Currently, as you see here, 38.6% of grade three students are meeting reading standards uh based on the uh fall star assessment, which is similar to last fall's results. This level of performance is below what is needed to meet our roadmap 27 goals. This uh fall data serves as our baseline for the year and our target is to increase reading proficiency to at least 42% by the end of this school year to stay on track uh to meet our 2027 excellence target. These results indicate that too many students are
004entering upper elementary without the foundational skills they need. And while this reflects unfinished learning from earlier years, it reinforces the need to accelerate improvement rather than maintain current performance. You see here reflects prek math as measured by the fall uh star assessment. Um this uh again uh this current baseline shows results that are similar to last year and uh below our desired trajectory. Our goal is to increase math proficiency to at least 37.5% by the end of this school year to maintain a track towards our 2027 excellence target as you see here reflected on the slide which is 40.6%. We are prioritizing instructional consistency through clear alignment to standards, structured instructional practices, and stronger grade level collaboration. Our improvement strategy focuses first on strengthening core instruction so that more students succeed in tier one or
005what we call core settings, instructional settings before additional interventions are added. Right? So, uh, digesting the last couple of slides and the outcomes that you see there at this point, wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, what we're going to do, uh, what we've been doing and what we're going to do. So, this slide, you'll see a section there listed listing actions and then the next level of development. Our improvement strategy is grounded in strengthening what we call core instruction. We have implemented district-wide standards mapping, structured literacy practices, clear identification of critical standards so that teachers are aligned on what matters in teaching most through elementary PLC's or professional learning communities. Teams are collaborating around these priorities. Our next phase is strengthening how teams use formative assessment data so instruction is adjusted in
006real time based on student learning. At this point in the year, these fall data represent baseline performance rather than growth. We expect to see improvement by spring as instructional consistency increases. This goal area remains a top priority, as I said, because early academic foundations have the greatest longterm impact. I wanted to um invite um April see if she has anything she wanted to add around uh her very focused work uh with elementary professional learning communities. >> We um thank you Tasha. We um are really committed to um the work uh with each grade level, every teacher at each grade level for our standards mapping this year. While we have had curriculum maps or scope and sequences, they um weren't always tied or aligned to the priority and critical standards. And so giving teachers an opportunity
007to really unpack those standards collaboratively rather than um have someone present them with a document that tries to explain the standards as well as establish the success criteria and develop um summitive assessments that are aligned to those standards so that PLC's can backwards map um is really a focus of ours this year especially in um in reading and writing. Um, we are just scheduled our third round of of meetings with all of our staff. We're receiving very positive feedback, especially their appreciation of being involved um in the development and the understanding of the standards and what um we are expecting our students to know and be able to do. Mhm. You'll see it threaded throughout this uh presentation that we uh as a districtwide uh team have school level teams uh come together every trimester
008for what I'm sure uh sounds familiar to you. The data summit uh that is one event of many that again encourages a cycle of looking at information uh around student learning and adjusting our plans, our action plans. And the idea is those teams go back to school buildings and replicate that uh data analysis process and really thinking critically about uh what is make having an impact on uh student outcomes um and what may be lagging in changes in instruction that needs to be made because of it. Um and I I'd like to invite at any moment if you have questions although I can't always see the hands. They're really tiny on my screen. Um, so you may have to unmute. Uh, but at any moment if you have some questions as we go through each
009goal. I'm Oh, I see Jess's hand. Yeah. >> Hi. >> Hey. Thank you. Um, yes. So, the improvements you're hoping to see some results by spring. What I mean that's three months, two months. >> Yeah. >> What are realistic expectations for what it's going to justify improvement? Mhm. >> We're at 38.6. Do you want to be up to 40? Do you want to be what what is going to be considered a successful um improvement? >> Yeah. Successful improvement for uh language arts or reading I should say is we need to have 42% by the end of the year. So I would say by the next term and uh percentages uh uh uh increase uh slowly and incrementally when you're working with hundreds of student data points, right? Um but 42% by the end of the
010year means we should be hitting 40% or more by next term. So the next time we meet, our goal is to have more than 40% students at grade three reading uh meeting grade three reading benchmarks, right? And and similarly for math, it's a few percentages above that as well. In order for us to get to 40, you divide the difference by in half. That's six points three percentage points. So we should be 37 38% uh meeting uh grade level proficiency in math at grade three by the next time we meet. >> So that'll be the expectation that we have by spring. >> Yep. That's that's what we're aiming for, right? >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Yes. >> All right. So, we're going to talk a little bit about goal two, supporting every
011student's well-being and inclusion. This slide reflects three responses that students provided us to three questions from the elementary student perception survey. And we call our perception surveys and fall and winter progress monitoring surveys. We took 10 highly critical questions that we wanted to monitor the constructs of from our comprehensive survey. Our comprehensive survey is about 30 questions or so, but we wanted to monitor in bite sizes and really focus in on some of these constructs like inclusion, well-being, that kind of thing through these questions. So students take 10 question survey in fall and winter instead of 30 questions which can be, you know, it give them survey fatigue by the end of the year. So um so in this survey we have three questions. I feel like I belong at school. there there is at
012least one adult I can go to if I have a problem and my school is a welcoming and safe place to be. Um we see areas of strength as well as some variation by school and student group which indicates that the student experience is not yet consistent across the district. Uh this perception data typically changes more gradually than achievement like reading and math uh because it reflects trust and climate over time and varies quite a bit over time um with our students depending on lots of things that happen in the school year. Right? So uh given our high student mobility uh building consistent relationships is especially important and we continue to strengthen advisory structures, class meetings, uh MTSS or multi-tered system of supports uh structures to ensure students experience predictable supportive adult connections. Be talking
013a little bit about MTSS in an upcoming slide provide you a little more detail of what that would look like. All right. So this uh slide reflects secondary students perceptions of safety, inclusion and belonging. Uh focusing on on those same three questions, right? We see overall an upwards trend in belonging and feeling welcome with those indicators meeting the excellence targets. You see, and you'll see here, um, I'm not sure if you'll actually see my cursor, but there's a dotted green line that starts in the middle of the cluster of first question bars here at 59.7% uh 71% and then down to 57.4. Was having a discussion with Superintendent Owens earlier today that this dotted line on this particular graph might seem deceiving like this is some sort of progress line. These are actually static excellence
014target markers. It's a little different than the slide prior where at at the elementary level you'll see our excellence target that we set uh based on our baseline and where we wanted to be is 95% across all questions. So as these bars rise we hope it meets this green line and because it's the same for all that bar makes sense. Um, I see here recognize that this dotted green light might not make as much visual sense, but know that our excellence target for I feel like I belong at this school should be as 59.7%. At least one adult I can go to is 71 and a welcoming, safe place to be is 57.4% there, right? our goal. Um I I I should also mention fewer students report having a trusted adult uh which remains an
015area of focus of ours. Our goal is not to simply meet targets which are not particularly high but to ensure high and stable levels of belonging that reflect a healthy school culture across all schools. >> Dr. Katsuna, you've got a question from Director Sowski. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Um I just have a question about these excellence targets. So with the um the math and those type of things, I know that they're we're at an incremental level of like of where we are. We keep moving our targets. Are these targets going to be moving or are these like we're we're really shooting for 59% of students feeling belonging? >> That's a great question. Uh these are the access targets we set. uh when we uh first launched our uh strategic plan uh like many plans
016I don't I would not say that 59.7% is an acceptable response rate for that question and once we hit it our intention is to keep setting a higher bar for ourselves um and we recognize the critical nature of of students um feeling of safety inclusion belonging and academic success being really dependent on that in the schools. So, yes, the bar will be raised if we meet it. Um, >> thank you. >> Yeah, appreciate that. >> Yeah. All right. So, let's see here. This is a slide that reflects attendance and you'll see here on the far left side 56.7% that's aggregate prek post12 students across the district right um that's um um single very broad indicator right um there are so attendance data is very very complicated when you look at all levels and disagregate it
017in a variety of ways And so for the sake of monitoring, we're looking at that very high level singular aggregate data point and then monitoring every term over time. Uh know that schools when they're in their operating in their MTSS teams are continually monitoring data at a much more disagre aggregated manner so that they can really target strategies and approaches based on what they're seeing the needs are and the supports uh that may be needed. Right? uh but purely for monitoring sake you'll see these really broad numbers right I'll say this is one of the most concerning indicators on the dashboard because attendance directly impacts every other outcome the board may reasonably ask why this number is not higher and I'd say the answer is that intendance is influenced uh by a number of very
018complex factors some of which are out of our control and a number of which are in uh out of out of our um sphere of influence, sometimes health stability, right? Um sometimes transportation and at the same time the district, you know, has made great strides in mitigating transportation barriers, right? But I'm just providing a couple of examples, right? And so it's it's it's important to note that policy doesn't change attendance, right? You can have the best written policy that's not going to necessarily impact the outcome of attendance. Um but provide a clear direction, right? So uh that must not deter our work despite all of these uh significant influences um and monitoring and intervening on attendance, improving the culture and climate of learning environments and partnering with guardian guardians to emphasize the importance of regular
019attendance. All of those things are within our control. Our strategy is shifting from compliance-based approaches to relationshipbased and systembased supports through MTSS and school teams. suit on. >> Chair Shields had a question. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Going back. You don't have to move the slide. >> Okay. >> But um safety and inclusion, right? And here we are with well-being and inclusion >> and you did mention all the factors that can have impact. >> Um we are living in an extremely difficult political environment. um a a huge safety concern within East Multma County and there's an assumption I am making that this is going this has impact on how students are going to report out. It's also going to have impact on how many students actually do feel safe to come to school. it
020may not be a matter of being in the school, but just getting to and from a school uh can be a challenge for uh some of our student population. So when we do this reporting just like when we had to do this um with our pandemic reporting I think it's appropriate especially if anything gets published you know that there's the asterisk um there's a footnote there's something that reflects back to these kind of difficult times um that have impact on our students and it allows us to say you know how do you drop from 64 almost 65% if you know 10 points in one year in the same month. Well, if you reflect back on what that month was like previous, right? Um we might remember some of the things that were challenging for our
021families. And sometimes we need um a way to look um at the footnotes if you will or what have whatever mechanism we have to um reflect back on >> the influences that are not under our control. >> Yes, that is a very good point. You know um director Wright and I were just discussing this earlier just even influenza A that has hit our area has decimated the attendance in some of the schools and we don't want students coming to school when they're not well. Right. So, this is one of the things that makes it uh that we have to consider and keep in mind when we're looking at attendance data. And so, this is a a great example of when schools look at attendance data, they're looking at all the reasons students are out that
022matters, right? So that's that's the I think the power of having a MTSS um system where folks are looking at u much more detailed data and that's why I was emphasizing this is a very broad number and and at the same time because the data is so uh voluminous um that percentage won't change quickly even if we have great attendance it will take a long time for that percentage rate to go up because it's cumulative and it's the aggregate of thousands thousands of students and thousands of data points throughout the week. Right? So, um those are all things to keep in mind and we are not happy with this attendance rate at all. Right? And so we have some um uh pretty um important questions to ask ourselves around what we can impact in terms
023of supporting attendance. When we get to the MTSS part, I'm going to punt it over to Denise because I know she she spearheads a lot around MTS uh supports and teaming across the district and I want to make sure that we uh tap into that information on what is happening there. >> Tasha, I've got a quick question. Oh, James does too. >> You go first. >> Um so, are there schools I I appreciate that you talk about this as aggregate data. Are there schools that you can see that are potentially bringing the aggregate up like that are are wildly different? And are you are you guys able to really then um see what some of the outliers are doing that could potentially help move the data? Is that kind of what happens in those data
024summits? >> Yes, absolutely. And I was going to say, so for example, Meadows has a higher attendance rate overall and has maintained a consistently high attendance rate for variety of reasons and different schools have, you know, leadership or leaders have interacted with the principal there to figure out what she's doing around culture and climate. It's a place of um joy that when you walk in, you just feel it, right? And students want to be there. Pleasant Valley has had some great successes and has been um acknowledged for the growth and attendance, right? So, it's not to say that uh there aren't some bright spots and some growth there and some learning to be had across the district, which I'm don't want to steal Denise's thunder she has it, but like that's a good point. But
025overall, when you look at our district, uh there are some significant attendance challenges and issues that we need to address. But yes, there are successes. Absolutely. >> My question was going to be similar to um director Silowski, which is that Centennial has been recognized by OD and then we also have embargoed data. So I can't really speak to that. It'll be released later this week except to say that in that data, I believe it shows year-over-year increases in attendance. So that's I'm if there's a nuance in between the data that we see here which shows a trend down and then the things that I just mentioned which show a trend up. Can you I don't know if this is you Dr. Katsuda or director Wright if you can speak to some of that discrepancy. I
026think I think maybe should >> sounds like my way. Um, one of the things with data is often assuring that we have the same data points that we're looking at and so being able to look at the data that Dr. Katsuda shared. This is the same data point and being able to look at it and then the embargo data. Um, we also have similar data points and so um, our attendance data continues to be low. We will need to have to look at both pieces so we can really get at why is it showing up better looking in one place than the other and OD definitely scrubs data in some different ways potentially than we do um, as well. And overall, we want to like celebrate any of those little tiny wins that we've been
027having year after year because before the pandemic, we were not happy with our attendance rates and it's definitely taking a really long time to recover post pandemic and um to um Director Shield's point, there are so many things that are happening right now in the world that we're really trying to um hone in for students who are staying home because of fear or families who are staying home because of fear. Um, we want to make sure we're getting those students connected with resources because we don't want them out of school before that. We have other students and families that there's misconceptions around when we look at our kindergarten attendance rates, they still continue to be way lower than we would expect. And some of that become is around misconceptions of families not realizing the importance
028of kindergarten that while it's not required, it has a huge long-term ramifications when it comes to developing those habits. And so we continue to build family awareness around that. And then when we have students who have aversions to school, so the additional data when we look at the climate and culture and um some of the academic pieces, they're so intertwined that attendance is really one data point and can't just be looked at by itself because everything connects so strongly that the more that we're working on climate and culture, the more that we have engaging academics, we would expect our attendance rates to go up. and um all of our schools are focusing on that. >> Thank you very much. Thanks for the question. >> All right. Uh so the next two slides reflect student engagement
029using additional responses or three responses uh to questions related to effort, persistence, persistence and enjoyment in school. So I can learn almost anything if I try hard enough. I work hard to do my best in school and I like going to school. This slide reflects the elementary grades three through five uh student survey response rates. Um these questions are uh um actually let me see here. These questions are strong indicators of whether students are cognitively and emotionally invested in learning. Lower engagement often aligns with instruction that feels less relevant or less connected to student voice. And our work in this area focuses on improving instructional relevance and expanding opportunities for student choice and engagement. The next slide would be the secondary slide. Uh across both elementary and secondary levels, the lowest levels of agreement are
030on the statement I like going to school. At the next uh data summit which is coming up shortly and subsequent staff work sessions that follow that data summit, schools will revise instructional action plans with relevance, engagement, joyful learning as key uh targets. Um you'll see here at the secondary level uh this past fall we had a positive response rate of I like going to school of 39.7%. with our excellence target being 71% by year 2027. So, we have some work to do in that area. Might I suggest editing that question? Because I don't think if you ask a bunch of adolescents, do I like going to school? We're going to Yeah. >> Um Okay. Yeah, we'll consider that. Um, this slide reflects how elementary students perceive their ability to be heard, contribute, uh, and contribute
031based on three survey questions. My teachers really listen to me when I talk to them. Adults in this school ask students how uh, to make the school better, and my classes really make me think. Results, as you can see here, are mixed and in some cases have flatlined, indicating that while structures exist, student voice is not yet consistently embedded uh in daily instruction. Here are the secondary survey uh results. Um here uh as you can see, results are are similarly mixed. Uh this suggests that instruction must continue shifting towards practices that increase student thinking, participation and agency. Our focus is moving from student leadership as an activity the secondary level to student voice as an instructional practice that shapes daily learning. talk a little bit about I keep referring to this as such a drum
032roll multi-tered system of support MTSS seeing here uh similar sort of structure on these um um nondata slides of what are what are our actions and what's the next level of development and I felt like with multi-ter system of support be important to highlight what practitioner actions are what student actions are and then what our next level of development is right. So MTSS functions as the backbone of both academic and social emotional support. Uh we've established regular MTSS collaboration in all schools and align this work with equity focused professional learning. Data summits have been held across all schools with intensified focus at the high school where we brought together ninth and tth grade core subject area teachers uh to look at data and strengthen core instruction. Our next step is improving the quality of MTSS
033work sessions specifically around how data is used to make instructional decisions not just to identify problems. So uh we can continue to work on our districts oh and we continue to work on our new um data system in the district synergy analytics so that we can strengthen data driven improvement in our practices. Uh synergy analytics uh has been under development uh was seated was it about a year and a half ago two years ago and since then is continuously being developed. Um it's not easy to develop a digitally based uh cloud-based uh data system that holds a lot of a variety of data sets. Um and our our districts uh growing that on their own and it does take some time and we're already seeing uh quite a bit of excitement and increased use around
034synergy analytics looking at attendance data, discipline data, demographics, academic outcomes, etc. Um, Denise, uh, what am I missing? Um, >> as a part of this, each of our buildings has a tier one team, tier 2 team, and tier three team. The tier one team is looking at big buckets of data similar to what Dr. Katsuda has been sharing with you, and making moves to impact the whole school when it comes to climate and culture, academics, and attendance. All of our buildings also have tier 2 teams, which are looking at smaller groups. So again, I had used the example of kindergarten attendance. That could be a data point that one building looks at and says, "Hey, we're recognizing one of our grade level levels has lower attendance than everybody else. What can we do to help
035inform parents, share information so that we can increase that? They're also looking at groups of students based on need that might be coming up." And then they have tier three teams that are really looking at individual student needs. So, as a part of the data summits, most if not all of our building teams looked at their um perception survey data and they recognized kind of some focal groups of wow, if we looked at our Native Pacific Islander students and how they're responding to um how they feel connected to the school, if they were having results that were lower than expected, then buildings made um specific action steps around a certain group of students to help to really boister up how they are feeling in the school. So, it's continual work, it's perpetual work, and um
036our buildings are really digging into it and trying to make a difference for our students based on data. >> Thank you. >> All right. Goal four, ensuring equitable access to high quality academics. Uh you'll see in this slide, uh reflects language arts, specifically star reading in grades 4 through 11. I'll highlight again uh there's a percentage in the left hand side here 36.9 that is the aggregate across all grade levels 4 through 11 and then you can see the specific data points for each uh grade level here right within the bars um and then the excellence target that we'd like to reach uh by 2027 is 50.5% or higher right Um currently, let's see here. Uh comparison across the last three assessment windows. Uh as you can look uh at the various colored bars here
037show limited progress. These results reflect that instructional practices have not yet produced the level of growth needed to close earlier learning gaps. Um the idea is we accelerate learning to support students and uh if if they've had earlier learning gaps in order accelerate learning so that to support them in meeting grade level standards. Um our strategy cannot be remediation alone. Um sometimes folks think logically well let's put them in some sort of intervention program if they're significantly uh below or below grade level. But when you have this proportion of students who are not at grade level, it actually points to the strength of what we call core instruction. What approaches um are we using grade level content? What what pedagogical approaches are we using to support students in engaging with the content and skill development?
038Right? Uh so really the the theory of action and research shows that it really is about improving core instruction when when you are uh seeing data reflective of these percentages. Um um okay so hold on to your seats. You see here uh the same data but this time grades 3 through 12. I've disagregated it by student groups, race and ethnicity and service level, English language development, and students who are receiving special education services. Um, I wanted to highlight um a few significant points. So, you'll see some percentages here reflective of this past fall star reading assessment. we compare it to uh fall reading assessment in school year. So you'll see here um all students grade 3 through 12 the aggregate of students at grade level was 37.12 this past fall that this aggregate is six.12%
039higher than it was last year as compared to last year. Right? So, I'm going to kind of go through each of these groups and and provide you with a little bit of information that's that shows the difference or the growth uh or the change in percentage from last year to this year. Um I didn't get this second set of data in time to sort of put it into the graph. So, I'm just going to share a few points with you here. Um let's see. American Indian Alaskan Native uh you see here at 17 uh.64 um in year 202425 that was 34%. So it actually went down about 17% 17 18%. Asian uh you see here is as reflective of um 43.24% 24% last year it was 41% so it went up uh black African-American 22%
040or you see here it reflected as 23.6% last year is 22% so it went up 2% or so uh Hispanic Latino is 27.62% last year it was 22% so it went up 5.62%. um multi-racial you see here is 48.61%. Last year it was 33%. So it's increased over 15%. Um all the other groups as well is significant increase. Uh Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders u increased from 13% um increased by 8.59% to 21.59%. So um I'll say overall aside from American Indian Alaskan Native which dramatically decreased uh and when I look at the end of that there were six students. So when you have just six students the the data is fairly volatile and not always showing uh a trend that we typically think of as a trend right one student can make a difference of
04120%. Right? Sorry. Um but overall across all groups aside from the American Indian and Alaskan Native, there have been increases in percentage um um of students um meeting grade level standard at at the star benchmark. Um and again even as we talk about the increase in in students disagregated in this manner uh meeting grade level uh benchmarks um the percentage are are still significantly lower uh than they should be in order for us to um reach our roadmap 27 excellence targets and reinforces the need for stronger differentiated instruction, culturally responsive instruction improved core instructional practices, right? And again, we're going back to our professional learning communities, MTSS, and our professional learning as levers in changing those practices. Are there any questions before I move on? That was a lot of data. Um, in mathematics, uh,
04221.8% 8% of students are meeting uh standards in grades 4 through 11 as indicated by the star math uh fall uh reading assess or math assessment. Uh that makes this the lowest performing academic indicator on the dashboard. Math performance lags behind reading which we believe reflects both curriculum alignment issues and inconsistent instructional practices. uh PLC work is now focused on improving formative assessment use and instructional decision-m rather than pacing alone and the um theory is that that will also uh provide some supports or that will promote improvement in math instruction. again uh fall star math assessment grades 3 through 12 disagregated is reflected here and again um all groups across the board increased between 3.2 2 to 15.53% just by I'm not going to list them all because it's a lot. Um and so that
043is a positive thing that we're seeing um some significant uh increases in the percentage of students uh meeting benchmark across the disagregation. And although we see those increases across almost all groups, proficiency remains far below desired levels. Um and again these results underscore the urgency of improving core instructional practice to ensure more students reach grade level expectations. Uh high functioning PLC's are central improvement strategy for strengthening teaching and learning. We have clarified expectations this year uh and we continue to clarify expectations around and supports for improving PLC practices uh to ensure PLC's uh remain focused on student learning rather than operational tasks. Our next phase is strengthening data literacy so teachers use evidence of learning to adjust instruction in real time. So you see here under the actions the start of this year there was
044a significant amount of work um in refreshing the purpose expectations and routines of PLC's uh currently uh there is observation and feedback provided to PLC's in terms of their functionality and their focus on instruction um and um through our professional learning um there is identification implementation of cultural and linguistically responsive instruction and other high lever practices. Right? Um again our next level of development is really considering the use of valid uh measures of learning to examine and change and improve uh the practices that we are seeing. Yeah. >> Dr. Katuda, there's a question from Director Harden. >> Director Harden. Yeah. Uh for one one question was on the benchmarks we were at 23.6 I believe it was for all students. >> Yes. >> Um what was it? Or 23.25. What was it before? Because you
045said there was growth in all of them. It was 21.8 the last time. >> Are we looking at math? >> Because you said there were growth in all the demographics. So go this slide. So it's 23.25 for all students and grades. >> All all students said there was >> Yeah. And you said there was growth in all the different um uh ethnic uh Yes. >> backgrounds. >> Yes. >> What what was the growth of all students? >> Go back one. >> What was it before? >> So this uh >> do we have that data? I think it's right there on the left with the overall. >> The overall is 21.8. >> The Sorry, I was looking at the chart. Um, not >> here. Yes, that's right. So, 19 last year uh and then 20%. >>
046Okay. Thank you. That >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh let's hear. Okay. lots of data points trying to keep it all straight here. Uh so this uh slide reflects goal five preparing every student for their future and specifically focuses on ninth grade on track. And just to refresh uh information, ninth grade on track is indicative of students earning six credits by the end of the school year. Right? Currently, our fall uh monitoring shows that 77.4% of 9th grade students are on track. Though the high school had a slightly lower number. I've been working with Principal Miller on this and then I worked at the district level and looked at some other additional data and there was some cleanup or something. So, there are a couple of numbers that are slightly different. I I
047opted to select 77.4 because that seems to be the direction we're going. and it wasn't much different but like 1%. Um so um currently that is the figure we have which is similar to last fall's results. Uh this is uh a critical leading indicator for graduation outcomes and highlights the importance of strong transitions from middle school to high school. Our target is to increase this percentage to at least 83.7 by the end of this school year in order to remain on track uh towards the 27 2027 excellence target of 90%. I'll say that in response our focus or response to the nth grade on track uh marker our focus has been strengthening 8th through 9th grade transition supports clarifying academic pathways and ensuring students and families understand what it means to be on track. Um
048part of this is really underscoring the idea that uh education has a driving purpose uh which is very much reflected in the profile of a graduate. Profile of a graduate defines the skills that students need beyond credits and distributes responsibility for that vision across all grade level educators. Uh we are engaged in a pilot as you've been um hearing in the update, superintendent updates and we aim for the pilot to work to gain traction and excitement as the year progresses and plan to share and showcase um their work uh before growing implementation across all schools next year. Uh this year again we just actually had a profile of a graduate work session last week. It was very very productive. Teams from all the schools came together to uh continue to work on their identified pilot
049project where they're embedding profile of a graduate instructional uh practices that promote the competencies into their instruction. Um and so that's that's been exciting and um holds a lot of potential uh not only for our students but also for our educators who um um left that session I I believe feeling pretty positive and inspired. Right. Um I just wanted to also um point out that the graduation data uh for 202425 school year is pending state validation. And so I've decided to capture uh all of the state state data in the next update that we'll be providing to you. Uh that'll include uh OSAS assessments as well as the the graduation the four-year graduation rate and 5-year completion rate. So that concludes the uh fall board for roadmap 27 and welcome any other questions you may
050have. Board members, if you have a question, I think it's just a matter of waving and shouting it out. You're all good. That was really, really something, too. And I really appreciate getting the materials ahead of time, but it makes so much more sense. and the fact that you had to remind me aggregate aggregate aggregate and the definition of that and that's that's the piece of I bothers me I guess the most because sometimes this data just gets out there and it's in this format and people are like well what's happening we're not seeing the kind of growth that you know we know that staff and teachers are putting into this so where is it But we don't we that's not it's not the luxury of having all of it presented right when it's being
051used in a particular way throughout the system. So I don't I don't don't know what the answers to those questions are other than the opportunity to ask you questions and dig into it further and make sure that we understand when we have questions that we have people to come to and ask. >> Yeah. >> That's kind of the way I feel about it. Um, so are we good everyone to move forward because we're just about ready to um uh Director Sutherton, I know that you are going to be working with us on the 2020 capital bond financing update which is the second report and we uh we do have our guest with us as well. Board members, are we all ready to go or does anyone need a five minute because um Director Suchen, we're
052going to be in this for what a half hour or so. >> I'd say uh 20 minutes with, you know, another 10 minutes potentially for Q&A. >> Okay. So, board members, are we good, everybody? All right. If you don't turn off your camera and run, that's the way it works. All right. Take it away, Director Sutherton. Great. Thank you, uh, Chair Shields and board. I will read a little bit from David's bio, do a little introduction here. So, David, uh, hope your bio is up to date. David Williams is a director in the public finance group at Piper Sandler, where he focuses on advertising, advising rather, school districts, education service districts, and community college, cities, counties, and other local governments. Issuers on both short-term and long-term financial strategies. Piper Sandler has been a longtime partner
053with Centennial uh and he's here to provide us an update on the 2020 general obligation bonds and an opportunity for the bond the uh school board to consider in the regards to the repayment plan. But David, I will pass it off to you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you uh Paul. Thank you all for uh having me on tonight. Uh appreciate tolerating moving me around in your agenda. I had to do a quick airport run and uh at first I thought, "Oh, brilliant. I'll do the airport run and swing by the district and join the board meeting." Paul said, "No, we're online." Okay, although I got to get home then and get online. But, uh, thank you all for for that. I'm going to share my screen. Um, somebody give me a thumbs up that y'all
054can see that just fine. Perfect. Excellent. Thank you. Uh so uh as Paul said uh uh Piper Sandler, we are your um uh financial consultants on kind of all things debt related. Uh our big piece of course is helping districts with their general obligation bond uh work that they do. We have been a longtime partner uh to the school district as we have been with uh many districts in the state. Um, my colleague Carol Samuels has, uh, worked with the district for many years. Her bio reads back 35 years in this work. Um, and, uh, I'm I'm happy to continue that relationship uh, with you all. So, Paul reached out to us and said, "Hey, David, um, we we might have some timing things we need to work on because if we look back at
055our 2020 bonds, we know we built a little step. uh little being an operative word, we built a little step in there so that maybe we can come in and layer some additional capital funding in on top of that uh to continue to do um good investments in the district. And uh uh he told me a date and I said um hang on, let me let me look at your your debt profile. Um and it turns out the date was not the date um that y'all are trucking for. So that presents a challenge but um some opportunity um and there are some definite silver linings um to that. So, what I want to walk you through today is essentially a possibility for you all um to refinance a little bit of debt from your existing
056bonds, kind of bring it forward in time, pay some of it back sooner, um achieve um cash flow savings from that debt which would otherwise have carried interest out longer um and set you all up for the timeline that you are currently working towards to have that convers conversation with your community about investment. Um, and then I'll I'll paint some additional silver linings as we as we go through that. Um, okay. So, you all know who you are. Centennial School District. Great. The first thing we like to do when we talk about debt or or we don't necessarily like to do but we need to do is couch it in the frame of interest rates. Um, I I am uh a 51 so this could also be my EKG. But, uh, what we're looking at
057here is two different lines on here. So, the the the black line and the blue line. Black line is taxable interest rates. They're generally always a little bit higher than taxexempt interest rates, which is the blue line. And you notice they mostly move in tandem. The spikes are generally aligned. Um, obviously this giant trough here down at the bottom in 2020 was brilliant. Um, and people who borrowed debt in 2020 are absolutely brilliant. Hint hint. Uh, great interest rates there. Um, definitely good borrowing. However, most districts don't time their borrowing for when interest rates rise and falls. They time it for when the needs rise and fall. Right now, we're of course a little bit higher than that. Um, but we're not historically high. We're just sort of temporarily high. Um, don't ask me to
058predict where interest rates will go. um if I could do that, I probably would be doing um something more lucrative um than this. All right, the other piece we want to talk about is property value. And this is where a little bit of silver lining comes into play um based on your current conversation of timeline because obviously your tax base is the base on which you will levy a fixed amount of debt service in order to generate a repayment, right? So the more tax base you have, the lower the received levy rate by the taxpayer or conversely, the sort of higher amount you can borrow or tolerate in a debt service payment at a targeted levy rate. You can see that's this magic number here. This $3.8 billion. your real market value at 7 point
059almost 7.3 billion is quite robust but obviously your assessed value being 50% of that um is the real target here. If you want a seminar on property taxes and why these two things don't line up I'm happy to do that another day. Um it is a long and winding road that's for sure. The other key thing on this table here is my column on the far right which is AV growth. And this is important because generally when we build out debt profiles, for instance, when you sold your 2020 bonds, you bu we build it out on we like to use a conservative estimate of growth in AV. So that way you can maintain a level levy rate over time. You have to assume a growth rate. We generally assume a 3% growth rate. That is
060the constitutional allowable growth rate for um existing property. And there are other valid reasons by maintaining that. But if you have a growth rate that exceeds 3%, therefore what's going to happen is you'll have a steadily declining levy rate, right? Your fixed debt service now spread over a slightly bigger base year-over-year. If conversely that growth rate was less than 3%, you would have a steadily inclining levy rate. Right? So you have a nice problem in that you have are growing faster than 3% therefore you have a steadily declining levy rate which will over time create additional capacity. Um however it means the tax rate today that voters or taxpayers are paying on your existing debt is not what we originally projected when we sold that debt. That's of course this 2020 issuance $61 million um
061which will mature in 2050. So this is all of that kind of broken out and you can see this blue line in the middle is today. Your taxpayers today on the ballot you estimated $119 taxpayers are paying a $19 now. So because of that growth that fixed debt service is being spread more broadly on that tax base which gives that space. Now 10 cents is not a huge gap right that's not a a significant it is it is significant statistically but it's not a a measurable amount there. Um, but it was always built that you can see if you cheat and look ahead, you can see that you're projected to drop to 83 cents in 2028. Let's put that in graph form. That's this beauty here, which is way easier to see and figure out.
062So, you can see you have this last high year in 27 and a low rate than starting in 2028. Well, what that means is in an ideal world, you would be on the ballot in fiscal 27. Well, if you're doing calendar math in your head, that means you would need to be on the ballot in November or May of 27. So, as I understand your planning and timeline, that that is aggressive and that's the the district is not ready for that conversation yet with the community, but there is an interest in making sure that we're sort of keeping faith with that dollar 19 and using sort of best practices to make sure we're um tapping the resources of the community uh in alignment with that original ballot title. Right? So, what can we do? So,
063what I'm going to walk through is a couple of refinancing scenarios that we've produced for the district. And then we've done a little thought exercise to give you a sense of down the road, what would that mean in possible new money? Um, hint, it's not $60 million. This will be a small bond, but an opportunity to make small investments and leverage the awesome state matching grant. Awesome. Awesome state matching grant. Okay, so let's look at the first one in graphical form, right? So in this first refunding scenario, we say let's just jump one year ahead of time. Let's reestablish the $119 levy rate and let's jump one year ahead of time. Therefore, you would be projected to be on the ballot in fiscal 28. So that is November of 27 which by the way is
064a non-election or May of 28 which is a uh general primary election right so fiscal 28 uh passing in that year then you would be able to take advantage of this new delayed step space out here. So what you see on this tape on this um uh uh chart here is where we fill in. So these orange blocks are the new added debt service payments from the refinancing and that almost comes entirely from this little spot down here in 2050. Right? So, we're going to take debt that you are carrying out to 2050 and we're going to repay it back in the next two years in an accelerated manner, which gives you that reestablishment here. It also because this debt out here doesn't just sit here forever. It has little bitty interest payments all along
065every single year. And that's this barely sliver on top of each of these. So you save all of that little bit all the way along and then this chunk at the very end, bring it up to the next two years and pay it off, right? Okay. So this is a type of refinancing that we use, you'll see the word at the top refunding. Refunding is just our fancy word for refinancing. But in a refunding, there are two kinds. There is what's called a taxable advance refunding, which is what this is, and then there is a current refunding. So, when you sold bonds in 2020, almost all debt sold in the public marketplace carries with it a 10-year call provision. So, the bonds essentially from year 1 to year 10 cannot be refunded. You can't they
066there there's no there's no prepayment, right? Unlike say a mortgage that has no prepayment penalty at all and you can, you know, pay it off anytime you want. This does have prepayment. You you or a limit and the limit is you can't, right? is you have to carry that first 10 years. It's a little bit of a balance in the marketplace where people are going to invest in you and buy your bonds. They want to know they're going to make money for a little bit of time. So that's how the standard has developed in the marketplace. But everything in year 11 on out is all callable. So you can refund that, right? We can we can dig into that and refinance it. But when you are refinancing before the call date, so this debt you
067originally issued is taxexempt debt and and that you don't you don't pay tax. Well, you all pay taxes individually. The district doesn't pay taxes, right? What it means is the investor, the person who bought the bonds is not paying income tax on the interest you're paying them. So that was what we mean by tax exempt. So in exchange, they give you a little lower interest rate for it, right? Well, because we're paying that we're we're doing this before we hit that call date, which is in 2030 by law, we have to do it as a taxable refinancing. So, we don't exchange a tax exempt rate for a tax exempt rate. We're exchanging a tax exempt rate for a taxable rate. Now, if you remember at the start that chart where tax exempt rates are higher
068than taxable rates. So, that's the inherent challenge when you do this. but it does give you this opportunity to restructure your debt service to align with the conversations you're having and the planning work you're doing. So, this one, let's call this the short refunding, right? So, we're taking a little bit out of the back end and we're just doing the next two years. Um, this one has the good and the bad. The bad part in it is on a net present value. So that is a calculation that takes into account the time value of money. Essentially the dollar in 2050 is worth a lot less then than it is now. So the debt market wants you to leave it in 2050. They don't want you to bring it forward. So time value money says this
069is not great. This has a net present value loss of just about 3%. Right? Okay. However, it has, let me scroll down, it has a cash, actual dollar savings of $1.4 million, just under $1.5 million in cash savings. So, that's actual dollars you won't pay. Again, net present value wants to deflate the value of that dollar uh now compared to later compared to now, right? But you can see the cash savings. So on this table, the way to look at it is at the very top here, you have these two years with negatives. These are dis savings because we're making higher debt service payments in these first two years. That's where we're putting this new debt service. But then every year for the next 35, not 35, the next 25 years, you're saving 80,000. So
070that's the interest payment you were going to be paying. And then you save the 1.68 on the actual debt service payment in that final year. So, cash savings of 1.5, net present value, a a slight loss uh of $65,000. Right? So, that's the short one. That would set you up for May 27. May did I say this right? May I always get lost in these election cycles. >> May 28 uh election, right? However, there is also a high stakes game here to be played. Um, where if you pass in May 28, yay, fantastic. We come in and we layer in a a new debt service structure based on the amount you ask. If you don't, however, the drop happens and you have to go back to the drawing board and there's not time to fill
071in an additional year. So, Paul asked us to look at what if we filled in for three years. Now, we do that. you still have opportunities. I think the goal would still to be targeting the May 28 ballot conversation and there are tools we can then implement to sort of jump the fence. So, let me show you what an additional year of refunding looks like and it has a slight silver lining to it as well. So, this looks oddly similar to what we just showed you. However, it has one more year filled in, right? These little boxes on top are just slightly bigger than you saw before. And this chunk out of 2050 is also slightly bigger than you saw before. So that gives you a little bit of flexibility as you head into fiscal
07228 where you're not playing the high stakes sort of do or die May 28 ballot. Okay. Now I'll show you what that means on subsequent bond issuance but for this purpose um you get some added extra benefit in our world we call it as a little more juice in adding that additional year uh of of fill in or a little bit more of the outyear bonds. And what that means is you can see the net present value uh loss drops to only 30,000 and under a percent. Um I'm a cautiously optimistic guy, so I like to be optimistic. It's in a decent world where interest rates continue to soften. um this might be zero or very slightly positive by the time we actually place this issue um and sell this refunding bond. So let me
073show you in a savings parameter that then jumps by more than a million about million4 to a $2.8 million cash savings. So you can see it gets measurably better. We're bringing long-term debt, putting it into kind of a sweet spot in the curve. Having a little bit more volume in the refunding begins to overwhelm. The primary driver in the short refunding that is sort of costing you is cost of issuance because it's not just transferring the debt, right? Their bond council will be paid, we will be paid, a municipal adviser has to be paid as part of an advanced refunding process. So adding more par amount brings it in begins to overwhelm those cost of issuance with the savings on that debt. Right? So that's why you're getting a little better NPV on this and
074significantly better um significantly better cash savings. Okay. So then the question would always come up. Okay. So but like thought exercise, what does that mean when we begin to think about a May 2028 election? um and potential bond. Well, again, I said it's not 60 million. So, we baked in a couple of scenarios here um to show you capacity. Now, I want to caution a couple of pieces on this one. Don't get wedded to the half a million dollar increment. Um the the there are fundamentals that will change as we move forward in time. One of the biggest is this thing down here. So because we are naturally cautious, we like to underpromise and overd deliver. Looking this far out, we put a fairly healthy cushion on current interest rates just to hedge. So as
075we move forward in time in your planning, we begin to lower that cushion on interest rates begins to get a bit more precise on what you would be able to raise. That's why I say, hey, if you're like 10 years and about 14 million is the right number, great. work from there. It might be 14 and a half. It might be 13 and a half depending on what happens in interest rates, but don't get wedded to the half million dollar increment. Right? So, we said maintain a$119. So, we we we do the refunding, continue the $119 on out um uh for either 10 years or 20 years. At 10 years, that will uh tolerate a borrowing amount of about $14 million. And for 20 years, a borrowing amount of just under $24 million. For reference,
076Paul will shake his head yes or no. I think I remember this correctly. The awesome match that you're eligible for is $10.2 million. Am I have that right, Paul? >> You do. Yeah, that's correct. For this bienium, >> for this benium. So, dollar for dollar you'd be eligible for up to $10.2 million. So, for instance, if you went for a 10-year, $14 million bond, you would have project fund at the end of the day of $24 million, right? Or $34 million on the 20-year bond. So, does that make sense? Yeah. So, this is the thought exercise of what would it look like layered on top of that. Uh, these are that in graph form just because we like to show it very simple. Obviously, the idea here is uh you layer in a smaller um
077you know, you can't do maintenance with a bond, but let's call it a maintenance bond. You layer in the smaller bond here uh in this little drop. We move forward in time. It gets us meaningfully closer to the point at which all your debt falls off the table. It also gets us past that call date. So, let's say you went with the 10-year approach. you or your successors or certainly Paul and I in about seven years will probably sit down and begin to talk about okay what are we thinking about for the 2037 November or May 2038 election and you'll begin to layer on and possibly do a current refunding because interest rates will be down to 3% by then I'm sure and we can carve out some space here and then we can begin
078to wrap debt around the waterfall fall off at the end of here, giving the district much more capacity at that point in time. Right? So that's just in a 10-year and this is that obviously in a 20-year takes you all the way towards the end of your current issuance. So that was a lot in a short period of time. Um uh happy to answer any questions you might um have about this. Okay, good, good hands. I see good hands up. So, I didn't see who went first. So, Will, we'll start with you and then Jess, you're right after that. So, watch each other. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, David, for this presentation. It's definitely a lot to take in. I look forward to digesting it a little more deeper and then probably coming back
079with some other questions. Um, and uh, briefly I just wanted to jokingly mention that as a realtor in the group, please don't say things out loud like interest rates will be back at 3%. >> That's a dangerous thing to say in my world. Um, >> uh, yes, I'm not predicting interest. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. It's not a prediction. Yes. Uh but to to this report and and to kind of this refinancing of things we're talking about, are we are we talking about reducing total interest paid or really just kind of lowering um payments to extend the debt and ask for this replacement bond? Am I tracking with kind of where things are going there? >> So So there So there's two things, right? So the refunding um serves
080two purposes. one, it lowers actual interest paid. That's that's lowering this number here for the existing 2020 debt, right? So, you are lowering interest there. Um, the other thing it does is it takes advantage of that space that has grown in your levy rate as a result of that growth to do that. Right? So had you not grown at 3% and your levy rate was at $119 right now, you probably wouldn't be having this conversation because you didn't have that gap begin to grow. So in the the conversation is generally when you were on the ballot in 2020, you projected a $119 levy rate. That's the that's the faith. Uh, I hesitate to use the word promise because voters do not actually approve a levy rate on the ballot title even though it is included
081as information, but that's the that's the faith you want to keep with the voters is that $119 for the investment. So you have because of growth, you have an opportunity to refinance, save interest, fill in to to keep at that $119 levy rate and set the district up a year later than was originally designed by the 2020 for a space in with which you would then return to the voters to have another conversation about an additional um bond in that space. That second bond, the 14 million and 24 million we're talking about, those are what you would call new money bonds. Those are not those would not impact the 2020s. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, >> it does. Yeah. >> I'll add at the risk of being out of my depth here. I think
082part of the issue that we look at and it might be similar to real estate and folks that maybe purchased a home, you know, a lot of folks will look at the payment and say that's how much home I can afford, right? And that's similar to what we do when we go out for a bond. We look at the payment or the mill rate and that's how much we can borrow at the interest rate. And part of that is what will the assessed value increase over the life of the debt to incorporate what we can then um you know borrow and essentially what the community the the debt payments that the community agrees to take on. And with a conservative approach of a 3% growth rate, we essentially indebted the community, the district, you know,
083out till 2050 because that's what we thought had to fit within that $119. Now, having the hindsight and the the benefit of moving forward, we know that we could have paid that debt a year earlier, a little bit some of it earlier, right? So we're we're saving those interest payments and we're essentially paying the debt that they approved earlier because we have the capacity within the payment amount that we again didn't promise per David but that we shared would be what we thought would be likely. So um they're saving interest um not paying any more money than what we shared on a on a mill rate on a property tax basis and we're paying off the debt sooner. we're, you know, un uh indebting the the district sooner. We're paying that off. So, ultimately, it's
084it's a in my mind a smart fiscal decision and responsible decision to pay off debt earlier if you can and save those interest payments and not uh carry that debt longer. >> Thank Thank you, Paul. So, we're from tracking we're we're changing um we're slightly changing timing of payments, but the long-term tradeoff on that is that our our debt capacity will be stronger um in what we're in and the way that we go out and ask for a replacement bond. Is that right? Am I tracking that right? Yep. >> Okay. Exactly. Thank you. Yep. >> Yeah. >> All right. Is it my turn? All right. So, I I'm I'm not familiar with terms very well. I know just enough to be dangerous. So, follow me here. What are we running as a risk if we
085do not refinance these? What are the repercussions of not refunding these? That >> That's a great question. Um, thank you. I let me let me just show the the the chart that it's you're not to say you're running something at risk is probably using the term risk is probably not the right term. Right? So if you just stayed where you're at imagine these orange bars didn't exist, right? you have a projected to have a slight decrease in your fiscal 27 bond right in the levy rate payment the levy rates and then you have a step down it's a about a 15cent 20 cent step down in fiscal 28 and then assuming 3% flat growth which is you know whatever you would have this level levy from here until 2050 and fill back fill this back
086in, right? So that that would not come out. So the the risk is probably the the question of let's let's play this forward. The risk is political. And the risk is if you don't do this here, yet you still say you want to be on the ballot in May of 28, it means you're on the ballot having conversations with the voters about something that would very clearly be increasing their current levy rate, right? Because you will have experienced the drop. Let me go up to the baseline. Mhm. >> Uh based on >> because the drop is in 2028. >> The drop is in 2028. Exactly. So in May of 28, taxpayers will have already had the drop. It will have happened, right? And so you would be on let me let me get this little
087guy here. You'd be on the ballot here, right? And if it got voted on or or rather you would be proposing a new bond that would be filling in like this, right? So it would be one level drop down to 84 cents and you'd be asking to go back up to $119 in on that ballot. Right? So the traditionally the the the common wisdom is as long as it is a cash savings, there's value in going ahead and filling in that space, utilizing that capacity. As Paul said, had you had this plan from the start, you would use that debt capacity. You would not have had that drop, right? And therefore, it would have made the total indebtedness slightly cheaper. And so, you're just, let's make it slightly cheaper now by pulling that money forward
088and paying it off. And that allows you in May of 28 to have the conversation with the voters about a continuation levy. Hey, we want to continue at what we have been doing since we were on the ballot. in 2020, which is $119, right? >> Yep. And this refunding would cost us $4 million. >> The the refunding um is actually a money saver, right? The short >> in the long term. >> No, in the long term, it's a cash saver. It has again so in finance we use this net present value calculation and we are required to use it and that's this loss of 0.84% or 30 grand in lost net present value. So that's the the present value today of that dollar I would be paying in 2050. Right? So I got to devalue
089it when I bring it to today. So I it's a net loss in a cash savings. It saves total 2.82 million on this table where we've got a bunch of numbers on here. Um a couple of things that are key to point out is basically we are refunding $3 million $3.025 million of bonds of your current bonds. We're going to refund three refinance 3 million of that into and it's actually a $3.5 million bond par amount that you borrow to replace it with again because of net present value. But I'm trading out a 5% interest rate on that bond in 2050 and I'm turning it into a 4% interest rate today. Right? So that's the trade that saves you those that saves you that interest over time, both paying it early and trading a 5%
090for a 4%. Right? So um the if you do this refinancing, the district writes no check, right? Um it all happens in the refinancing process. The providers get paid out of that. It's about let's call it say $100,000 in total cost of issuance between the there are basically three primary providers involved in any bonding process about $100,000 in that um and all of that happens in during the transaction um the district writes no check involved there now why wouldn't I come and always propose why don't why don't we just do this all the time right well because there are spots in the curve that don't make sense, right? One, I would like this to be a break even number or a positive number, right? If I was just looking for refinancings to come talk to
091you about, I wouldn't initially flag this. But you have other goals and objectives you want to accomplish, such as maintaining that $119 levy rate as you head into another conversation with your community. Right? So, there is that goal. Now, if Paul came to me and said, "We want to do this," and it showed me a negative here and then I come down here and this was a negative number, cuz that does happen, right? I'd be like, "Yeah, that that we're not doing that, right?" Like, if I took all of your remaining debt, that's not on this table. But if I took all your remaining debt and refinanced it all into taxable, because I could do that. I could take the whole thing and just create a whole new series out of it. it would be
092a cash loser and a net present value loser, which is why nobody's going to talk to you about it, right? So, there are certain things we look for before I would um want to jump in. Right? Cash savings being strong, getting closer to break even. When we were looking at the short one and it's a 3% loss, I'm starting to feel pretty nervous about that. This one getting to a break even point from a net present value, just from a finance perspective, makes me feel better. and then add on the cash savings on top of that. Right. >> Thank you. >> Our community would save $2.8 million in interest payments, pay off debt a little bit earlier, and stay with the $119 levy rate that I know we didn't promise, but we represented in the
093ballot language. So, it's in line with all our values and everything we've communicated to our community. And we're saving $2.8 $78 million worth of interest um over the time. It's a I look at it again the house analogy. If you you paid off your house a little bit early, we're paying off a portion of the house early and saving that interest because we have the capacity within the uh communicated not promised but communicated levy amount of $119. I love that Paul. Here's the analogy. You bought a house and you said, "I'm willing to devote 20% of my income to my mortgage payment." You got four years into it and your actual cash payment was down to about 15% of your of your uh income and you said, "You know what? For the next couple years,
094let me run it. Let me make some extra payments trueing up to that 5% that extra 5%. keep paying 20% for the next two years and then maybe I can afford this is a terrible analogy this is where it falls apart the vacation home maybe I can afford to do the remodel is maybe that's the more apt right and I can then take out my equity line and layer it on top in that 5% because I've now got capacity because my income has grown that's probably a much better analogy to to think about it >> and we're presenting this information tonight is an opportunity and information. There's no decision. There's no, you know, action on the board agenda for today. This is obviously a large and complex decision. So, we want to socialize it with
095the board well in advance of any consideration of approving any action. So, no action this evening, just information. I'll add though that it's information that we're going to need because we're going to be parallel with our um strategic planning for facility planning in the future. And so it is going to have impact on what we will ultimately be asking our community for. And Jess and I um remember back in the days uh 2016 the 2020 bond work that we did and how you bring your community on and the selling point was high which of of you're maintaining you know we're not going to ask anything more of you but we are please asking you to maintain >> and not I I'm just going to say it kind of plainly I is not allowing that um
096that dip in October that we all see or or maybe it would be a dip, right? depending on which year. Um because we all have that that hit in October of what our taxes are and allowing our community to experience it going down and then coming back out the next year and saying, "But we really want you to put it back up there is a little bit harder sale than that cell of just can we maintain what we've been doing?" Um and we learned that um when we went out and did this. gives us um some time to look and be realistic as well with our long range facility planning because you know how that comes out comes out with gosh there's so many things that we need and then at well there's so many
097things that we want and sometimes we have to look at the wants versus the needs and plan accordingly for that and see how we can finance that with future bonds. So, there's a lot to it. And I don't know, Superintendent Owens, I'm not sure um how many people we have signed up to go to the bond conference that OSBA is putting together, but I know that that's an important part of this, too, in terms of understanding. This gets us started with this thought process. >> Yep. We've got uh Director uh Newman and Vice Chair Moing from the board scheduled to go. Excellent. JGA other board members though um with questions before we let David relax in this this evening. Appreciate you coming in this evening. my pleasure >> this way and and helping us and
098it is going to be something that as we sit with it um Paul is excellent at walking us through in a common sense way of understanding numbers but it's also important for us to have s seen the entire picture and sits sit at it for a while um so that we can come back with thoughtful questions to Paul you can decide and discuss it and and be, you know, do we need you back, David? You know, help us some more. Um, all righty. So, I think, um, hearing nothing else from any other one question. >> Yes, please. >> How fast do we need to act? >> Like, what kind of timeline are we on making a decision like this? >> Great question. Is this something you're going to come back to us next meeting or
099is it something that we talk about going into fall of 26? >> Paul in your um >> or something in between. >> Yeah, you need to give us some timelines, Paul and David. Yeah, I'd say uh if we don't want the mill rate to drop, then we would be looking for the board to consider authorizing this in the by the end of February, early March and at the latest so that um we can incorporate it that in the budget documents and in our forms that we file with the county tax collector offices. So, and that has to be done, you know, right in June. So that's that's the the opportunity there or the timeline. Uh conversely, you could potentially as a board determine if you want to move up the um the ballot measure, which
100would be difficult to try and get it on November 26 or May 27. Um but that would be another opportunity. Um as as Chair Shield said, you know, when the mill rate drops because it is, you know, no action would mean the mill rate would drop down to 80 80 cents. Um nobody can tell the future, but you can look at the past and you can see when our mill rate dropped, it was well above $2 at one point in time in our district and it dropped to around 2010, 2012. And uh you know, we didn't pass a bond for 20 years, right? Um, and we went out several times to voters. Um, and the only time that it passed is 2020 when it's when we could go to voters and say without increasing your
101levy, you can approve this money to invest to make the investment in our facilities for our students, right? And so, um, it would be, I would imagine, very difficult to go out in 2028 or later and ask them to go back up to 119 after they've dropped to 83. it would be similar to what we tried to do from from 2012 on and were never successful with. And so, um, you know, that's why we're bringing this forward to you all today. We know that there are needs of our facilities, for our students, for our staff. We know that we have an obligation to protect our buildings and invest in our buildings and take care of the assets the community has paid for. And to do that, we need, you know, we need to uh make
102sure that we have a levy rate that supports the capital investment that that is needed. Um, so a little bit longer answer to your short question, directing, director Harden, but is that helpful to round out the information and timeline and the reason behind it? >> Yeah, that's great. I just want to know how quick I need to ask for a tutorial on all this stuff. Yeah. And David has made himself very much available. So, I'm sure I'll volunteer him, but I'm sure he's willing to come back at uh the February meeting. >> Yep. >> If we'd like it. >> Anytime. >> Thank you. I appreciate your time. So, what we're going to do, um, we are at the superintendent report in our agenda. Uh, Superintendent Owens, do you want us to persevere or do we
103take a quick break? >> Up to you. It's a relatively brief report. Uh, I see. >> Vice Chair Moing saying soldier on is how I interpreted that. >> All right. Greetings board members. It's my pleasure and privilege to share with you this update about happenings in our school district. On January 21st, the district convened the second of five profile of a Centennial graduate pilot leader work sessions, continuing cross-dist collaboration among teacher leaders and school administrators focused on aligning instructional practices to the profile of a graduate learning progressions and co-designing supports for future scale. This session built on the initial work by deepening alignment between critical standards, formative assessment practices, and feedback rich learning while providing structured time for collaborative instructional planning. Participating educators focused on translating the academically prepared competency. As you might remember, there
104are six different main competencies in the profile of the Centennial graduate. So the academically prepared competency into classroom practice and refining instructional approaches informed by shared expectations and student evidence. A few examples of the profile of the Centennial graduate pilots in process are examination of land and water forms in grade 2 at Pal but Palute Elementary to learn about the impact of earth changes. Centennial Middle School plans to start and strengthen studentled conferences. Pleasant Valley Fifth Grade is developing plans to support students in examining and eradicating invasive plant species via the wildside. And Butler Creek continued work on strengthening their career exploration unit connected with the feature that you saw at the last board meeting featuring Bistown. And those are just some examples of the work that happened that day. The series will continue with
105additional work sessions scheduled for February 18th, March 11th, April, and April 29th, allowing the pilot leaders to refine instructional strategies, share evidence of practice, and prepare for a culminating student showcase later this spring. And board members will be provided more information about that at a future date. On Thursday, January 29th, board member um that's tomorrow, board member Rose Salowski, student representative to the board, Yahir Castro, director of business, director of business and operations Paul Sutherton, and I plan to participate in a preession legislative breakfast briefing with the Multma County delegation of state legislators alongside Multma County School District superintendent, one board member from um each school district, and a student from school district. The briefing will take place from 9:30 to 11:00 at the Multma Education Service District and is being coordinated by the district's
106government affairs administrator, Lisa Merik, in um collaboration with Portland Public Schools. The purpose of this briefing is to provide legislators with a coordinated regional perspective early in the legislative session, centering student voice, shared district trends, and financial realities facing Multma County school districts. The agenda includes student introductions, district snapshots, a plain language discussion of school finance constraints led by Director Sutherton on behalf of East County School Districts, shared legislative priorities, and a dialogue with lawmakers. And those were the pictures from the legislators websites uh on the state page. And they're fuzzy because they were fuzzy on that page. As a follow-up to prior communication, board members are invited to participate in a Multma County School District lobby day coordinated by the Multma Education Service District. The event is scheduled for Friday, February 13th from 9:30
107to 3:30 with an initial meeting at the local government center in Salem. Participants will meet for breakfast, a brief orientation, and meeting preparation before walking to the Oregon State Capital for scheduled afternoon meetings with legislators. Lunch will be provided. A registration form has been shared with the board um to support planning in maintaining an accurate headcount and I plan to reshare it once again um in my weekly Friday email. Last Friday at the invitation of Multma County Commissioner Vince Jones Dixon and in coordination with Lisa Merrick, I joined superintendents from Reynolds and Gresian Barlo along with the mayors of Wood Village and Fairview for a tour of the Amazon robotics facility in Troutdale. The visit provided an opportunity to learn more about a major regional employer's operations, including the use of robotics and automation in
108logistics, workforce safety considerations, and workforce development programs. Participants also engaged in dialogue about regional collaboration and the connections between K12 education and post-secary pathways and local employment opportunities. This engagement supports broader relationship building with regional education and municipal leaders and contributes to shared understanding of the local economic landscape and potential future collaboration related to workforce readiness. Finally, the district was recently notified that um the Centennial School District facilities team has been selected as a recipient of the Gresham Fire Department's 2025 community award for community risk reduction. Centennial is one of three local school districts being recognized this year for collective excellence in improving life safety across school facilities. According to the Gresham Fire Department, this recognition reflects the facilities team's consistent effort, perseverance, and professionalism, as well as the strong partnership established between the district
109and the fire department to improve fire and life safety conditions across schools. The fire department emphasized that while resources matter, the impact is driven by people doing the work every day. The award will be formally presented at the Gresham Fire Awards ceremony on February 4th. And here on the screen, you can see a couple of photos from the fire department's Instagram page from a previous award ceremony. With that, I invite any questions or comments that you might have. And that concludes my superintendent report. Nicely done. Directors questions. No. All right. Then what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and take our comfort break and then come back. Please be ready to look at the confirmation items and then um looking forward in the agenda. I want you to note that under
110old business, we have the policy committee. I sent out an email to all of you. I'm going to be referencing that dated January 23rd. So, um, if you have any questions about that email, this would be the time to pull it up and then to go ahead and, um, have our questions asked. So, it's now says 8:19 on my screen. Um, so let's let's go for 8:30 and get back at it. Okay, take a break. And that time goes fast. Let me know when you're ready, Pam, and I'll hit recording. >> All right. Just checking to see. All right. I got proof of life from Jess. I need proof of life from Melissa, Rose, and Will. Ruth of life. Ruth of life. Okay, good. I just don't want to miss anybody. Hey. All right, great.
111Thank you, board members. Back on time. I know that felt like well, it felt like a really short break to me. So, we are at that part of the agenda for confirmation items as listed. Excuse me. Unless there's a question, can I have the confirmation a motion to >> motion to approve the confirmation items? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Second. >> I got everybody else seconding me. Great. So, we've got the motion and the second to approve the confirmation items. is listed. All those in favor indicate by saying I. >> Raise your hand. >> I. >> Yay. All right. Thank you everyone. Let's move over to section seven board action items. Old business. Um the policy committee as I mentioned to you before uh that information was sent out in um on Friday. There's a
112list of the policies um themsel the the title of the policy there is a list of who the facilitator is for that and a list of other members who have expressed an interest and all except the field trips and excursions group already has three members who have expressed an interest that as you know superintendent policy review committees can't have any more than three um participants. We've also added an administrator which um will help us in that review process and that um email indicates the facilitators in each of those and attached were the PDFs of the current policies with one exception and that would be the um board member compensation and expense reimbursement. There is the current one we're working under and then the proposed one. Remember, we were kind of waiting until those questions um
113from the ethics committee were being um asked and answered. And so that committee will be actually looking at the current and the kind of proposed. >> Um then these will come back to the uh superintendent because it is his policy work and then uh board leadership will help review those and bring those back through uh to you. So, unless there are any questions about the email or questions about the assignments, um, we can check this particular piece off of our list. And Rose, question. >> Yes. Um, timelines. >> Yeah. Um, we'd rather have it done sooner than later. And that's the challenge. Everything feels like that, doesn't it? Um so if if you could at least have the initial meeting um like next month then you're going to know if it's just minor things because
114if it's minor it's minor and frankly you know we know that OSBA doesn't like us making overreaching kind of um reviews because of you know liability legal issues. So, if you could just get a meeting in um in February, then give us a timeline from that. >> Perfect. And those of us that were put as the lead are the ones that should be scheduling that meeting and reaching out to everybody. Perfect. >> And I'm assuming everybody has everybody's emails. Um and so if you need any of that kind of support, Missy says that she could help us. I could certainly help you guys, too. I've got all of our emails. the only one. In fact, Rose, yours would be one that we'd want to move on because we we will be going through the budget
115after the budget. We would be looking at the timelines, right, for the budget committee. So, that might be one that's pressing us a little bit. >> Okay, >> I'll get on it. Thank you. >> And then Melissa, yours with the evaluation procedures if we were going to do something for like um a retreat, right? And if we wanted to have somebody come in and do something for that, more lead time would be helpful for that. Um, but the other field trips, I've been at it for how long, uh, Principal Miller, that I said I'm going to be doing this and have >> at least two years, I think. >> At least two years. Exactly. So, let's see how long I can keep that going. And the compensation and expense one, that's a that's a really
116new one to everybody. So, we don't even have a whole lot of places to go back and look um because it's not been on the books that long. Although, there are other districts who have been doing it for a while and I know that committee will be interested in finding out maybe what other districts are doing as well as what we may be proposing for that. Just appreciate the extra time. I know it's going to be tough um because of the other things that are going to be on our plate. All right. Thank you. I'm going to cross that one off. So, we're into new business and because we're in a work session, these are going to be first reads of the policies. When we do first reads, it's um it's good to get our
117questions out because if um we have all our questions answered, we'll be ready in our next meeting to just kind of move pretty pretty quickly through it and probably just through the approval process unless there's something that came up in the in the couple of weeks in between. So our first is on policies. Um is that I I like I know it's for me some of this is always difficult. I I a I I a r the instructional materials and director Olsen is going to be going over that with us. D um superintendent Owens did you need to to weigh in before director Owens gets started? >> Yeah I mean I've always got something. So I would just say that director Olsen will competently walk us through but what I would say before that is
118that last spring director Callahan brought this forward. What you have now is a new director and a new version. So keep in mind what was there before but know that what you see is uh going to be different and director Olsen is uh going to try to monitor the changes not only in the policy itself but then between the version that you saw before and now. So she has a little bit of a juggling act to do. Uh Director Olsen, let's see what you got. >> All right. Um, good evening board. Let me see if I can get you in a bigger grid so I can see a little bit better. Um, everyone seeing my screen? Good. Good. Okay. So, um, as Superintendent Owen said, I am Why is it not advancing? There it goes.
119I'm bringing this uh to you. It is different. Uh it has been revised since you saw from the spring which was a revision from what the current policy was. So now we have two revisions. Um the revisions uh while um important in substance are um are relatively easy to follow. Um the there was a Senate bill that passed last year that amended one of the OS's related to instructional materials. Um it distinguished some definitions more with more clarity between classroom library, library materials and school library. Um it clarified non-discrimination um prohibited under um the OS as you see there related to um the protected groups in the state but as well as um some um additional racial ethnic groups students with disability or people with disabilities, immigrants, refugees or those that are LGBTQIA+. Um, it
120also clarifies um, and I, if you'll remember, this may have been kind of a sticky point. It clarifies that the process for request for removal by people who aren't responsible for the selection or retention of library materials. Um, it clarifies who those who those people are eligible to be, and I'll show you that when we have it marked up. and that the removal is not made until the written explanation has gone public. Um there are a lot of ARS attached to this um to this policy. Um I've linked here for your um for your information and so that you could have previewed it in reviewed previewed it in advance. Um, and then but I'm going to stop uh sharing the PowerPoint in a while and just go straight through kind of the working documents. You'll
121see though that we have the current adopted policy. Um, it is wholesale differently organized than the proposed one. So, I didn't do your tra traditional kind of markup um that you're used to seeing. Um, I I've included the proposed deleted, which isn't really applicable to us because we didn't adopt that one in the spring. Um, and then I will walk you through the the new proposed review as well as the six ARS that accompany it. One of the um one of the items that I that I think I remember hearing when I rewatched the board meeting that where Director Callahan brought this to you last spring was related to kind of the work the flow of um the different types of instructional materials. Who is responsible for selecting them? Who does the reconsideration request? Uh
122who is that directed to? Who makes the final or the decision based on the reconsideration request? And then who makes the is the appeal to and makes that final decision based on the appeal. Um the ones that are in asterisks are decision points in the um in the policy recommended and we will show you through the typical strikeout um what our recommendation is but the um the recommendations are as um on this chart. One other clarification um is that the appeal decision is based on whether the correct procedure was followed only and not the merit of the decision to um to sustain or remove the instructional material. So you can see that the core um materials are selected by the board or are approved by the board and therefore um the the recons well the
123reconsideration would go to the superintendent. The decision um would be in the purview of the board ultimately and for these there would be then be no appeal. Um the other items supplemental materials school library and classroom library are selected by staff at different levels of the organization dependent on where the material lives. Um so in these the reconsideration request would go to the principal or via the teacher to the principal. than if it was classroom library. The decision would be made by the principal since they are uh under the purview of the principal's responsibility and the appeal would be then to the superintendent. As I said, I kind of marked these up a little differently than you may be used to seeing. Um because what I am attempting to do is share with you the
124changes in the new proposed policy compared to what you saw in the spring, not compared to what our current policy is. Um, so if it's the regular text is just the current proposed language, I highlighted in yellow any new language or wording in the current version that was not in the previous proposed version that you saw with Director Callahan. And I used a red striketh through to show language that has been removed by OSBA from the one you saw in the spring to the current. and then regular strike through for where there were decision points made or language that we would uh propose to change. There's a little bit of proposed new language that's not in the current version that I also wanted to call out because it got it got pretty um there's a
125lot in there. Um, so let me go into are there any questions on the kind of my leadup before we dive right into the policies and the ARS? I only see six of you and no hands. So I'm going to keep rolling. Um, just you know mute and ask questions at any time during this. So for the actual policy um instructional materials you'll see and these are um com these are kind of parallel throughout the ARS as well these that I will call out in the policy is that um they've taken out the um because it became a little bit um redundant once the what is in yellow was added. They took out this sentence. The process to select all materials will show respect for all people regardless of race, color, etc. We we want
126to note that while the language here that you'll see in yellow is updated, Centennial School District has has long held non-discrimination practices in um dedication to equity and inclusion and the commitment that our students see themselves represented in the literature in our schools. Um so while this language may be new um in our policy, it does not change our our past practice when it comes to instructional materials. Um but as I noted, those OS's um um that got some amendments are specifically now called out in the policy for the protected groups. um that anyone responsible for selection or retention of the materials can't prohibit the selection of or refuse to select or retain materials as well. Um some minor changes in that it's not just a reconsideration, it's a reconsideration request. We are proposing adding
127this sentence here in in green throughout a couple of the different locations that just kind of clarifies that principles are ultimately responsible in their buildings for maintaining um and implementing our district requested materials and academic programming. Um the um the policy goes on to um include some definitions of which I I kind of uh reviewed with you before. Core instructional material is that core adoption that we bring to you annually based on the cycle and that the board does approve. Rose, yes question. Um can you go back to that last green statement? Yes. >> Yes. Is there um cost associated with that that is getting passed down to the principles because of this statement that like the district should be covering or like what what exactly does this mean >> cost? Did you ask? >>
128Yeah. Like um if we say you need to use this um certain curriculum and principles are responsible for maintaining those materials does that mean that like it come like it's the district paying for the curriculum right yes the district is responsible for it. Uh this sentence is kind of to to clarify that you know when we adopt materials that is ultimately the principal's responsibility to ensure that those are being implemented and maintained in their buildings. Thank you >> director. >> Uh yeah. Um what about the scenario where we have an interm principal? Um I believe the responsibility would >> still fall on them. >> We would fall on them as you know in their role as interim principal. Um of course with support of you know the um curriculum department for a principal in an
129interim position in a capacity. Okay. You'll see here additionally um the definitions for the supplemental instructional materials. Again, those are not part of core instructional materials. Um they help supplement or differentiate core instruction and are generally either teacher selected or building selected. Sometimes they're district selected um but they're not adopted by the board. Um this is it again where we've kind of distinguished library materials in that um are not inclusive of textbooks um and differentiates a school library from a classroom library >> question when I'm looking through the entirety of this and by the way love that you did the yellow and the red and the black I mean it makes and I appreciate that there are still items in here that are in the brackets. >> So, can you explain how that works in
130our process or >> if there is any later? >> No, thank you. Thank you for asking that and I should have clarified that at the outset. If it's in brackets and we haven't struck it through, we're suggesting to retain that to keep adopt that language. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. That's that's helpful. >> Yes. lots lots of um you'll even notice some places like where just a bracket was removed. So it you know there was there was a lot of editing done here and it wasn't always in parallel structure. I'll draw your attention to a couple places in the ARS where that comes up. Um again um just continue I made it bigger. Sorry I just realized I hadn't biggered it. Um so that's the end of the policy proposal. Um, so if we
131move on to, and I need to move my little screen sharing thing. There we go. If we move on to the first AR, if we're ready. I don't see any other hands. Um this is um again I'm not certain why it was deemed to be uh because it seems to be redundant but the first 8 R has the same additional language about protected groups. Um there was an opportunity to consider language about um public meeting laws. Um we opted to strike that. um the the any reselection committee would um you know would be submitting a recommendation um but would not need to necessarily need to follow public meeting law. Um the rest of this AR really is again um more definitions about like um school library materials. Um again that it um the the discrimination
132statement being clarified. Um and that is the entirety of the first AR. Are there any questions on that one? Okay, here's where we get for the next three. There are some um consistent um revisions that you'll see. The first the main one being in this first paragraph um that who is eligible to request a a reconsideration of materials. So initially it said it was quite broad to be construed that any member of the community whether or not they had a a child in the school or were an employee of the school could make a rec reconsideration request and the new language now says that and this is for core instructional material. So the board is included. Um the board a staff member of the district student was struck out. We are opting this is our
133bracket added. I maybe should have put that in green. Um but we're opting to include students as a um potential um group that could um request a reconsideration. um parent or guardian new language of a student in the of in the school in the district um may raise concern about core instructional material. Um and then they added access to use of materials under reconsideration will not be restricted. So not just access but use of materials will not be restricted during the reconsideration process. um no substantial changes to the initial um concern part of the process. If there's concerns by any of those people in the previously mentioned group, then for core instructional materials, again, that would be submitted to the principal. Um the again anything that's in brackets we're we're fine with accepting that proposed
134language. Um the principal and we did add or designate um because in some of our schools this may fall to an assistant principal. the principal may opt for a designate to meet with the people around their concern um and issue an informal or try to have an informal resolution issued within 15 days. Um the process includes um staff members most directly involved with the use of the materials as well regardless of you'll see that as kind of consistent throughout as well at this just initial concern stage. Um come on keep scrolling. So then if um the person is not who submitted the concern is not satisfied with the outcome um they have 10 days um from the conclusion of that to file um a official written request for consideration um which takes us to to
135the second step. Again you'll see in these next this AR and the following two it's follows a similar process just the types of materials are different. Um so again distinguishing that it needs to be a staff member of the district parent or guardian of a student in the district and we are proposing also to involve students as people who could um who could request a reconsideration. Um and this this section in B is specific to core instructional materials that only um requests for consideration from these people um will be cons considered um and that they must have completed step one first. Um you'll see here there were some brackets where there were decision points in the one you'd saw in the spring that are now not decision points. it's it's the suggested language. That's what
136those red brackets mean. Um so we are um therefore asking that all requests for considerations will be in writing. Um it can be you know electronic or handwritten on the form prepared for the purpose which is in AR5 um and signed by the purpose making the request in this instance because it's core instructional materials. If it's not resolved at the school level, it's submitted to the superintendent. Next, um the other part uh that will be consistent across this and the subsequent two ARS is um about the makeup of the reconsideration committee. There was some suggested language you'll see that struck out here um that indicates that people are are selected annually um and who selects them. Um it um oftent time we don't get a lot of requests for consideration. So often times these reconsideration
137committees are kind of ad hoc when the need arises and really in specific the people on the committee may be really specific to the types of materials the use of the materials the grade level of the materials. So in order to make it just a little cleaner um we are suggesting this language here. Whoa, it really jumped. Sorry. uh curriculum instituted uh that there would be oh curriculum and student learning oops sorry curriculum you know learning administrator um would be a non- voting person but as a facilitator there wasn't a facilitator indicated in the proposed and I think that that's important for this types of of work um district librarian u we don't have school librarians so it made sense for us to do school librarian or district librarian, sorry. And then two teachers, one
138additional administrator, members of the community with a put an option to include a secondary student um for at least nine members uh or sorry, seven members. Question chair shields. Where am I missing it? >> Where are you trying to see? I'm sorry. Right. So there's the librarian, two teachers, one administrator, two members, six >> and one student optional. So it would be one 2 3 4 5 6 seven if we include the student and if it's not then it's not limited to. So we may uh you know have another member of the community, another administrator or another teacher. And is community defined well enough throughout the excuse me policy and or AR that it has to be a member of the district. >> That's a really good question. Um uh I mean I don't want
139to get down there and find out that somebody says, "Well, I'm a member of the community and I want to be there." >> Right. No, that's a really good question and we can consider um some some clarified language about that. Members from the community um you know we could go back up to language similar here of a student of a school in the district or >> you can also as defined in and then just reference back up in the policy a paragraph or a section. >> Okay. Okay. instead of having to to line it out. But I just it was you we've been specific and so I want to continue to be specific. >> Thank you. >> Why would we make a secondary student optional if we really need seven members? >> if it was
140an elementary issue. >> Uhhuh. That would be what I can I think too that the facilitator are we counting the facilitator as a person or not? >> No, because they're non voting. Yeah, we want seven for the vote the purpose of voting. >> And Melissa's got her hands up too. Is is it about this too, Melissa? >> It is. I I was just when you say community member, I thought did you mean community partner like son or metropolitan or, you know, etc., etc., etc., or do you mean community member, someone who resides in the Centennial School District community? >> That is not well defined as you see down here in number four. Um, even in the, you know, original proposed, it just said members of the community. Um, so I think if that's an area
141that we'd like to provide some clarification, um, we can make that determination. Well, because we know >> I just when when I when I read these as general, we use community in two separate ways as we are creating these policies and statutes and various other things through our governance. So I just want to make sure that if we are listing community member that it means within boundaries of Centennial or whether that means community partners. And so I just think that that language becomes a little bit important because we tend to use them interchangeably um throughout some of this. So I think that we just need to >> uh define that just clearly. Um it's not a not a criticism or like oh change this immediately. It just that overall structure I think needs to be
142clear. It makes sense to me that it would be um one who lives within the boundaries of the district or um who has a student in the district. Um >> why if you can go back and find a specific section like 2A as defined as in 2A which does give you parent or guardian student. >> Yeah. >> Um because Yeah. or or just extend. Yeah. No, it's got to be as it's got to be very it's got to be defined and we we've got to know who can be on the committee and >> Melissa said that's too broad and two different combinations of definitions that could confuse us later on. >> We've been lucky I guess but this has been a contious issue right >> in some districts. it has been >> therapy is is
143>> and I and I think sometimes the the um often in some of those districts the challenge was brought from a member of the community who was not a parent or guardian of a student in the school. So I think part of the language in 2A is to clear is to clean that up but does it open it up down here in in D number five? >> Yeah. Good. Can we do we think as a group that one secondary student should be optional? I'm feeling like maybe it shouldn't be optional. Maybe that's one of the seven. >> Well, except Superintendent Owens brought up what if it's an elementary um reconsideration versus a secondary. Would that make a difference that it's a high school student and I'm assuming high school student versus um on about an
144issue of um reconsideration for a primary grade adoption. >> Yeah, >> I guess that's the question mark that Melissa and you >> either way it might be a good experience for the high school student to sit through. But >> Melissa keep two two things. I I don't know that you're going to get too many high school students that want to sit through this sort of thing. First, second, um uh I think that that's something that you can be specific with language again. Um you know, where it can say one secondary student as based on curriculum need or um as based upon, you know, state standards and guidelines. Like I think you can get very specific in that language as well. You're not going to need secondary students to sit in on an elementary process and
145vice versa. I just think we have to be very um clear in in that sort of language for the current board and then the future board in future use >> noted taking notes. Shall I move on to the ne to the remainder of the AR? I'm seeing some dots. All right. >> Yes. And then when you do when you come back to us with that um we've got two members who are not here. Hopefully they will have an opportunity to have listened to the question marks. >> Um, but this might be a color. >> Yep. >> Right. To remind that there was this new discussion in blue. I don't know something that might be helping us with that. Thank you. >> Um, again clarifying that the materials will stay in place and use during the
146reconsideration process. The procedures for the reconsideration committee are pretty straightforward. Um, select, you know, a chair and a secretary. Um, adhere to all established policies. Have a calendar. Look at the materials. Um, consider the materials suitability. Um, in use of or in context of the use and the request. Um, review entirety. uh the material in entirety um considering level of difficulty, age groups. Um you'll see also again this is consistent across all three E ARS um an opportunity will be provided for the person who filed the request and staff members involved to offer oral or written testimony on the reconsideration. outside consultants, lay people, other staff members or other individuals will be offered an opportunity to provide that testimony um within procedures or limitations that may be established by the committee. Um and that we
147will keep the person who made the request informed throughout the process and that at after weighing everything the reconsideration committee will discuss continued use with no restrictions restrictions or modifications or removal of the materials. again um with a with a the caveat that we can't remove on the basis of um of perspectives or stories um of protected groups. um that there there's the procedures for voting are are laid out and that a vote um from a majority is of those present is required um and that the they have 45 days um to make the final um recommendation. The recommendation and justification will be forwarded by the superintendent to the board because again the board is the one who adopts core materials. So the board would be the final um the the recipient of the recommendation.
148The board has 30 days in order um to make a final decision at a meeting. Um and then um needs to provide a written explanation for the decision that will be made available to the public prior to any removal. And again, we are just um having that um sentence about principal responsibility for implementing and maintaining required materials. Any questions on the next few will should run a lot more quickly because they're very similar. >> Question about board review number four. >> Number four. >> Yeah. >> The board is going to give um uh what? One, two, three, four, five. Five lines, six nines down and a written explanation of the decision. The decision is only to affirm or the process. Correct. >> Yes. Oh well no this uh the board can make the re recommendation
149and make a final decision. Um >> okay the >> because this is core >> this is course. So yes >> okay that's what I have to keep reminding >> will have been adopted by the board through the adoption process. Um yes, this one is different. There is no appeal on this one. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> remind myself. >> So AR3 is in is for supplemental instructional materials. Most of this is the same. Um they struck out the language or resident of the district which kind of goes to that uh discussion we were having previously. Um that concerns Oh gosh keeps moving. Um will uh same process that if the original um you know concern is was not met uh was not met uh to this what the you know complainant wanted that it
150could then go to reconsideration um only requests from considerations from staff, students, parents um and here it interestingly ly you'll see that student was not struck out in this one. So uh there wasn't that parallel structure but we want to maintain student in the parallel um that the reconsideration committee same verbiage so I'll take that into consideration when I re revise these for your next read um that the procedures for the reconsideration committee are the same um and that um the this part was um was struck that uh the written recommendation will be forwarded to the principal and then um a copy of that um sent for reconsideration to the board because there is now the um a decision point down here below. So after the voting and the vote, there was a decision point
151whether to um have to kind of go through a similar process above um or as in the previous one or we are proposing this language here that the decision will be um regarding that if they the decision will be in writing justification and that if they want to appeal it would be appealed to the superintendent um and that the decision would be communicated to everyone. The appeal would be to the super superintendent through um as opposed to the board again because this is supplemental materials which is approved by the curriculum department and the superintendent as per you know the the the board giving them that the superintendent that responsibility. Um, the rest of this is is similar to the one before. And then the AR4 is reconsideration of library materials in a school or classroom
152library. same clarification of who can make that um that request and then distinguishes the um the difference. We oh we struck out the building's designated librarian because our not all our buildings have a designated librarian. So um selected principal as the language there for who the concern would go to. Um and that the initial um response again would be the responsibility of the principal um or designate and that if that was not you know to someone's liking they could do an official request for consideration. Um same language as in the other about the reconsideration committee and the procedures for that committee. Um and then um that the procedures for voting again this is parallel language to the other ones and that the um this one would again be appealed to the superintendent because they're library
153materials that are selected either by the the district librarian uh or by individual classroom teachers. Um, and those are the three different ARs that go over the procedure. Any questions on those? All right. >> The AR5. Oh, yes, Director. Harden. Uh so my question is if we have each building responsible for supplemental library materials are we going to have different content at all the different schools? >> We could um you know especially in like a classroom library because that's where teachers have um some autonomy of what books they bring into their classroom library. There may be some consistent things that the the district or school librarian says, "We're buying this for all second grade teachers. We're buying these five books." But then teachers can bring in their own. Um, additionally, supplemental materials um can be
154purchased with like title one funds um for to really respond to this uh specific needs of students in those buildings based on their school improvement plans. Okay, >> that would be Thank you. >> It doesn't it doesn't deviate from core. It just down the road there may be a few things. >> Correct. Correct. So, we might have a reconsideration request that's specific to a school that is offering a book that others schools may not. >> And the decision made at that school stays at that building. That's >> I'm sorry. cut out a little bit. >> Oh, sorry. So, if we reconsider at a specific facility, then that will influence just that one facility. >> I think it depends on how the request is made. if the if the request is made just for a school.
155Um but if someone is aware of a materials that they might have become aware of initially at you know the school their child attends but then recognize it's at other schools they may make the request for um all of the schools. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Not to get too far. We just >> potential >> AR5 is the form. Um we are fine with the suggested form questions um and information that's collected. And then AR6 seems a little out of place in this but um is part of instructional materials. And it it is just um related that um we can do an independent adoption of core instructional materials when it comes time to um to adopt. We don't have to select one that's on OD's um list. We can do an independent adoption.
156So that just clarifies um that ability to do that. Any further questions? Um on your slide, you don't don't don't move. So going back into it, but in your slide presentation, I I pulled up um the comparisons because I was, you know, I was working with price or and what it is. >> Where can that live in our process to help people have a visual of how it works? >> Oh, as opposed to the definitions that are in the policy. >> Well, yeah. I mean, good grief. This thing is like a toone of I mean, it just keeps going. >> Oh, you think, >> right. It's like boy. Um, but the comparisons when I keep going back >> and looking at this chart that you provided in your overview for us, I go, "Oh, yeah,
157yeah, yeah. No, that goes there. That goes that thing." Yes. >> The only thing that's a challenge for me with it is that, you know, it says instructional materials. I would I would we would have to massage it a bit, make sure that's consistent with the language, but at least it gives me an idea of what if I'm going to tackle this, I'm this is the process. So, I don't know. You guys can work on that. That's a cabinet decision. It's but I I would it just helped me tremendously to keep looking at the chart to help me figure out where I was >> these um ARs? >> Superintendent Owens, when was the last time or or Director Olen, when was the last time anybody made a request about our literacy materials? >> I'm unaware
158of any requests. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you. >> Back to our agenda. >> Principal Miller, has there been any requests that you're aware of at the high school level? >> No, no requests at the high school. >> Thank you. >> And knock on wood and consider us lucky. Have you seen some of the things we've seen? We are in new business. Um, item two, first read of policy JA, directory information. And Superintendent Owens, you are on deck for that. >> Great. Thank you, Chair Shields. Let me just pull it up briefly. >> All right. Hopefully, this is a little bit more straightforward than what we just went through. But nevertheless, um, what I will say is that the state board of education recently made changes to their rules regarding directory information and student
159permanent records. And then you'll see in the um proposed policy the red lines and changes that were included with that. Um, I have a couple of things that I could uh point out with it. Um, one of which is, uh, one thing I got tripped up on was on number seven where it strikes through grade level. Um, if it's not directory information, then that means in implicitly that it's now um, personally identifiable information and so it has a higher uh, regard in terms of being confidential. Um the concern I had was with like high school activities and athletics in terms of um flyers and things of that sort uh that indicate the athlete or the competitor or the person who's involved and their grade level. Um, I talked with Principal Miller and he could weigh
160in on this a little bit if he'd like as well, but that can be um, potentially addressed with whatever permission slip is used to join that activity um, if they want to consent to having that piece of information included in any sort of promotionals that they do. So, there's ways around it, I guess, is my point. Principal Muller, would you add anything to that? >> I would not. That sounds good summary. So, uh, this is intended to be a, uh, first read, but I invite any questions that, uh, board members may have about what they see. >> You'd be good. I do not see any hands raised or any concerns. >> All right. That'll make it easy at our next meeting. >> Yeah. And if it's if we believe it's straightforward, I mean, between now
161and the next board meeting, uh, feel free to reach out if there's any questions. If there's not, then I would suggest that we maybe put this in confirmation items. >> That would work. >> Thank you. >> So, board members, unless they feel like you need to come back and discuss it, it'll be in confirmation items. If it's if you need to discuss it, you can always pull it out for that discussion. Excellent suggestion. So moving on to new business item number three. First read a policy JFG AR student searches and this is director Sutherton. >> Great. Good evening everyone. So we have a first read tonight of a voluntary policy update. This is the most recent policy from OSBA uh that Missy Grindle or board secretary uh Missy Grindle has identified. We're doing a voluntary
162update. So 2015 was the most recent policy. You can see it hasn't been updated since then. And so we're hoping to align uh the language in this policy to uh be more student centered and student focused and aligned to current practice. Um, so the uh additions are highlighted uh in blue bolded font and they begin in paragraph 7, excuse me, paragraph 4, student search, sub paragraph F and then this the recommended removal aspects are the red with the strike through. So, paragraph F adds the language students who identify as non non-binary will be allowed to choose the gender of the district staff member who conducts the search. Previous language was that would be of the same gender uh as you see in the earlier paragraph earlier portion of the paragraph and then sub paragraph H
163there would strike of the same gender u in case that wasn't available or that wasn't the student's preference. uh or we didn't have a non-binary staff member potentially had a non nonvary student. So um metal detectors simply adding the or designate component there for that existing language. So that's in the uh paragraph or this paragraph 5 or section five paragraph A and then on the bottom of that page under discipline u we do occasionally um confiscate contraband or inappropriate items. There are times when the family does not want it returned. So this codifies the practice of the district destroying a non-illegal item because illegal items we turn over to the law enforcement legal but prohibited at the school items. We uh return to families uh if families do not want them then we are left
164with items in our possession that we cannot return. We do not turn over and currently as the policy is written cannot destroy or discard. So this just allows that practice uh documentation. Uh this is the current practice that a design not the administrator themselves necessarily documents every um search and so this would ensure that the the appropriate staff member um documents it. it does still require the documentation to occur uh and unless uh paragraph A there unless it's part of their normal plan. So, we do have students that are are in their normal safety plan or they are IEP have a daily search. And so, currently, we're required to keep those records every single day, not just when there is something prohibited found, but just an a daily search. And so, this would um change
165the practice so that if it's already documented in their plan that they have a daily search, there's not the redundancy or the need to create additional forms and documentation. All those uh changes are called out in the board note. Um as well, we did or we are recommending updating the student search form as well. So gender identity rather than just gender uh for example and then having some gender neutral language and bullet point three. So rather than his and her, it's there. Um, so overall I think just up to-date in alignment um with uh student focused and student supportive language. >> I welcome any questions you may have. >> Melissa has her hand up. >> Um I read all of these so quickly and I'm sure that I just missed this but um this has
166been pretty timely um and this one jumped out for me. Is there language that we have included in our policy that I'm missing or that we could add that is a little bit more trauma informed that kids can choose um a secondary adult to do the search for them? It doesn't necessarily have to be same gender or different gender. Just um just that lens of um looking at it with that student comfort level where it's already sort of an invasion of their um their own privacy. if we could add some language in there where it allows the student to ask for either um a staff switch or um a secondary adult to be to be present. Could we look at including that in the policy as well? >> Yeah, I would say I' I'd certainly
167welcome the feedback and the suggestions of the board um for the AR. Um there was some back and forth conversation a little bit on that. Um whether you would um want to be introducing uh that optionality where a student could um could choose a a gender of a a different gender than they identify um to search them and just that dynamic um potentially. Um, so but I welcome feedback and suggestions from the board. >> Yeah, I I I bring this up just having acted as principal last week at my school, we had to do >> uh a backpack search daily for a student and he was much more comfortable having myself and the secretary there, two females in in doing that for him. That was his comfort level. So I just I I bring that
168forward. Is it is it the student made the choice? >> It went a heck of a lot easier allowing the student to have some of that sort of um ownership. He knew it had to happen. And so just just keeping some of that in mind as we're doing some of the language development and sort of policy development there. Um again, I don't have anything against this policy. it's important and it exists, but um just um having been someone that's had to conduct these um there are things that pop up for kids. So, >> I think no, I think it's a great question and to answer it spot on, yes, you could certainly add that to the policy. There is it says um you know um that the default would be the same gender and we
169could strike that, right? We could we could put anybody, not just a student who identifies as non-binary, but any student could choose the gender of the folks that would be providing the search. So, short answer is yeah, we we could certainly or you all could certainly want that in there and we could make that change. Why don't we bring it back for the second read? I think that makes a lot of sense because there's some judgment there for when you're first coming to a student saying, "Ah, you're you I think you're non-binary, so now I'm going to ask if you want this thing." Whereas instead, you're just coming to every student saying, "Hey, I want to ask who you feel most comfortable with." Um, it's not it's it's then it's again the same for everyone,
170not singling out those who are non-conforming. >> Yeah, I think that's a a really helpful suggestion uh to include that in there. I don't know, Principal Miller, you probably have this uh process the most at your school. just simply numbers. You have the largest student body population at a single school. Um any thoughts on >> No, definitely making students feel the most comfortable offering choice. There is a limiting factor on when staff are available and that is especially like give you example on arrival and dismissal when when we have to institute back um searches the most. It's staff availability that actually drives a lot of this. But yes, um providing as much choice as possible so they feel as comfortable as possible is something that we want and it aligns with um our goals. >>
171Your hands hands again. >> It is I my only push back would be is our staffing changes but the needs of our students shouldn't. So, I I'd like our policies to stay um disregarding whether it's, you know, whoever is in place, whether it's Tom or Tommy um in place, that it's for the students first and um staff secondary in in these instances. I don't mean that everywhere. I just mean when it's student focused. >> Great. I'll note that and have it updated when I bring it back for a second read. >> Yeah. And I'd like um because it's giving me pause because I also know that it there's ways of let's just play devil's advocate. You know, what do I know about the policy? What I don't know about the policy as a student that's
172going through this particular process. I don't want things hung up based on the fact that I don't want things not proceeding, right? Um that are necessary to proceed. I don't know how you're going to balance that. This is going to be it's going to be very interesting. See how you word this when you come back. Let's have a good time with this one. >> Yeah, I guess. >> And I think you're going to have to um I would imagine I'm not maybe and I don't know this to be true. I'm just I'm just supposing that this is um there's more likelihood of some of these kind of concerns at the middle school and the high school that we would have to take into consideration. So I really would want you to, you know, really think
173that through and maybe even with your proposed changes in the board note that you present to us um in our next goound that the way you your decision-making process is given to us the explanation kind of in consideration of the discussion in our previous meeting. it, you know, it was decided. I just need to know why. You know, I may have a difference of opinion on lots of things, but having the understanding of why is important in process and policies. Um, so anyway, just >> that's helpful. Thank you. Yeah, I may offer a preview of um uh including language for student choice, but also maybe some additional language that says unless not readily available in the building or in the school. Um something like that. There are cases when a search is you know a
174potential you know firearm or something is out alleged and you know delay could pose greater arguably greater harm right so um I think um ins ensuring that we have something like that um I think with unduly you know over burdening it >> appreciate that put a comment in chat too for consideration. So, um, >> perfect. >> Have a good time. You've got you two. That sounds like it's going to be something that you're going to be working together on. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Then we're going to move on to uh, Superintendent Owens. Future agenda items. >> All right, we've got a few here. We have uh just a reminder to Chair Shield's email recently, there's an executive session that is positioned before our next board meeting related to a couple matters that
175uh will be communicated to you here shortly in more detail. Um as for that uh the meeting itself, we have a proclamation for Black History Month. We have the Meadows Elementary School report, a facility planning update with DLR. Um Dr. Katsuda will be sharing the student transfer process report and the recommended transfer parameters. It's that time of year. Um we will perhaps have the MEESD local service plan. Um I think Mr. Miller is working on some student recognitions. Um we will have uh we'll bring back some of the policies that we went through tonight and perhaps introduce one or two more. And then we'll also finish the meeting in an executive session which has already been placed on um board members calendars. So we've got uh quite a bit coming up on February 11th. >>
176Thank you. Directors, >> you want to add anything to that? That's a lengthy list that we're going to be going over. Plan for a long evening, but at least we'll feed you at the first executive session. That's the plan. Um before I adjurnn, I have a procedural question I'd like to ask. >> Can I Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't >> Yes. I was just going to throw out there um if anybody else is going on the 13th down to Salem and wants to carpool, let me know. Um that's it. >> Thank you. So, um executive assistant Missy, should I be reading the information about the executive session prior to the adjournment? >> Yes. >> Okay. I I think I made a mistake the last time and so I'd like to not do that again
177if I screwed up. Okay. So, um board directors, uh what we're going to be doing is going into executive session. I will be reading the statement and then we will be adjourning. Uh we will stay on this channel, right? Correct. Um so after uh the adjournment um I will check in with you to see if you need a fivem minute comfort break. All right. I'm going to read the statement about our executive session. The Centennial School District governing board will meet in executive session pursuant to OS1 192.66 66 subsection 2 subsection D and O RS192.660 subsection 2 subsection K to conduct deliberations with persons designated to carry on labor negotiations and consider matters relating to school safety or a plan that responds to safety threats made towards a school. All right, it's understood that we
178will be moving into executive session and only those members of the board are related to these two matters may continue to be in attendance. So it is what time? 9:37 p.m. So we are adjourning our regular meeting and saying good night to those who are not involved in the executive session. Bye to those the rest of us. Haha. Stay here. All right.