001Hello everyone. Um, welcome to the March 12th, 2026 uh meeting of the Corvalis School Board. It is called to order at 6:34 p.m. To support the health and safety of all community members, particularly those who are immuno compromised and their families, the board continues to offer a virtual participation option for board members and district staff. Public comment is available at select meetings both in person and virtually. Details on how to provide public comment available on the Corvallis School District website. Tonight's agenda, board packet, and a link to the district's YouTube channel can be found on the social or the social the schoolboard page of the website. All public meetings are livereamed on YouTube, and recordings are typically posted the following day. Tonight, we have all board members in attendance and first item on the agenda
002is student representative reports. Thank you. Um, so we have a very uh hastily written uh board border report, but uh this month College Hill has become even more diverse uh with a welcome of a few new students and many academy classes are halfway through their uh awesome units uh such as experimental design who's currently studying the intake the dietary intake of fruit flies. uh basketball which remains as competitive as ever uh and choir who is practicing for our graduation. Um and today we had uh a few wonderful guests come in uh into our school uh and we are very grateful for the opportunity to share our stories and experiences with them all. Hi, I'm Ya Akavan Hedari. I'm a CHS representative. Um, unfortunately, one of our ASB presidents was supposed to come, but um, he
003had the student report. So, very unfortunate. Um, some updates though. Um, the leadership team is excited to participate in the OSU ropes course. Um, we are also planning prom and everyone's super excited about that theme has been set in place and believe we're also working on a few fundraisers for our senior class uh gifts and that's about it. >> Okay, that's [clears throat] everybody. Yes. Um, thanks you all for your reports and um, the next item on the agenda is the work session with the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation. So, I just want to say welcome you all to the meeting and we're glad to have you here this evening with us and look forward to this. Um, we have our joint meetings every time. So, um, I know we have we're going to do welcome
004and introductions. Are you starting that or >> do you want me to >> go ahead? >> Okay. Well, um, did you have more welcoming remarks though? >> Uh, no. Again, just looking forward to our time together. Um, you know, we typically do this in the fall and in the spring and this year, um, because of the nature of the fall, this is the first chance for us to come together. So, we look forward to hearing about everything that the foundation has been up to and then also sharing the work that's been happening in the district. Um, and then an opportunity to have conversations together. So just looking forward to the opportunity to spend time with um key members of our community um both in our board and the foundation board as well. And um I'm
005Ryan As. I'm the superintendent. Um so I think we can just go ahead and go around and do introductions. These do you mind going next? >> Not at all. I'm Theres Jones and I'm a um chair vice chair uh for the Corvalis School Board. >> Hi, I'm Bernie Wong. I'm on the board. Uh the youngest member, I guess the newest member. >> Wow. [laughter] >> Not youngest. >> Hello. Uh my name is Sammy Abdra. I might be the youngest board member, most senior board member. >> Hi everyone. Melissa Harter. I'm the assistant superintendent and human resources director for the Corvalis School District. >> Hi, I'm Kim Nelson and I am the board secretary. Hi, I'm Byron Beth, director for student growth and experience. >> Hello, I'm Mark Gohane from the foundation. I'm the treasurer. >>
006Uh, hi, my name is Yian W. I'm the uh foundation trustee. >> I'm Nina Erlick Williams. I'm the interim chair of the foundation board. >> Hi, I'm Angela Hibbert and I'm the executive director of the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation. >> Good evening. I'm Rick Wallace and I'm also a trustee of the foundation. >> Hi, I'm Julie Penry. I'm a member of the foundation board. >> Hi, I'm Hope Rogers and I am also on the foundation. >> Good evening. Gordon Zimmerman. I'm on the foundation as well. >> Hi everyone. My name is Alicia Harter. I am the interim secretary of the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation. Hello, my name is Aya Akavan Hedari and I am a Corvalis High School student representative. >> Hi, my name is Judah Large. I use hehim pronouns and I am a
007board member. >> Hello, my name is Jack Martin and I'm a College Hill student representative. >> Hello, I'm Chris Hawkins, school board member. >> Hi everyone, I'm Shauna Tomy, she her pronouns and I am co-chair of the Corvalis school board. and Laqui Whitebear um chair of the Corval school board and um I always get to see you all once a month or the co- vice chairs take turns with me and but you don't get to see the rest of the board so I'm new folk get to meet you um and everything and then then we have a report that you all are going to do first right >> okay yeah thank you Well, thanks again for having us here. As Ryan mentioned, it's been a minute, a little longer than normal since we've been here.
008So, we're just excited to share some highlights from the last year and give a little preview of what's to come. And Yan's gonna kick us off. >> Uh hello everyone, our website. So in and I thank first of all thank all school board members and uh the school district leadership team and students representative from two high schools uh for taking time to be here and join our conversation. Thank you and second I'm so happy to be the person to start this conversation and second Angel Nina for giving me this opportunity such an honor. Thank you also and uh first um uh I want to start our conversation by um uh talking about the mission of the Kalis public school foundation. Um should we should we have the word? >> Okay, good. Yeah, thank you. So
009the mission of our foundation is to uh provide uh resources and opportunities to every student um to succeed in our public schools. And for us the emphasis on every is very important because we understand that in some cases more resources are needed uh for um students to overcome their um barriers to truly access their education. And next uh Rick we will talk about um how foundation has done to help realize this mission. Thank you. >> Thank you Yan. And if we can go ahead we'll go to the next. There it is. The public schools foundation uh helps students succeed by prioritizing our funding in three areas. Most of you are familiar with this. First, we try to remove barriers uh for students and our deep commitment to the family support program is just one way
010in which we do that and as well as supporting programs like bridges which is the exciting new program that has we have helped launch uh following the leadership of uh the district administration. Our second priority is uh funds for enrichment activities because we know that the day-to-day of the classroom and the limitations of the budget don't meet every need for every student every day. So we try to fill in as many gaps as we can. Our grant programs are perhaps the the main way in which we do that. We invest in uh educator le uh initiatives as well as student initiatives uh in the arts, music, STEM and other hands-on kinds of programs that we hope and we can see inspire students and help them prepare for success both in the classroom and outside the
011classroom now and for the rest of their lives. And then our third priority is to invest in academic interventions, real world learning opportunities with support for the the summer program which is dear to our hearts and I know all of you are deeply committed to it as well and help those students who who need that extra time and that extra support uh get what they need in order to graduate and launch themselves out into the world. But because it's been a year uh since we met last met with this board, we'd like to share just a very brief recap of our 2025 impact in action which I think shows up on the next slide in just a minute. You all have a copy of um our annual report and I know you have all read
012it several times and and there will be a test later. Um anyway, I [clears throat] excuse me. I'll point out a few highlights. Last year, we gave more than $400,000 in grants and other kinds of financial support to our public schools here in Corvalis. Close to 95,000 of that supported those learning enrichment activities. close to um those included the imagine grants where members of the district's staff came to us and uh with proposals for programs and activities that really do enrich the lives of our students as well as studentled Yay grants and those are always fun. Uh we have some very creative, hard-working students who are doing great things uh for their schools, for their schoolmates, and for the community. We contributed $95,000 to students navigating poverty. Um we are all distressed by the level
013of uh need in the community and it's one of the things that we are happiest to be able to support the district's uh remarkable work uh on behalf of all those students and with the support of generous sponsors in the community, mostly business sponsors but some individuals. We also were able to contribute $150,000 to last summer's summer school program. And that's just an exciting thing for us to see. And I know other board members and I other trustees and I really love it when we have a chance to go visit those programs and see what's going. In addition to that, we facilitated over $160,000 uh in support to individual schools and their programs through passroughs and a number of other things. So, with that, I'm happy to turn the microphone over to my colleague, uh,
014Gordon Zimmerman, who's going to ha highlight some of the work that we're doing this year. Gordon, >> thank you, sir. I'm the I think I'm the newest member on the on the foundation board. Uh, but I think I got the best part. >> Um, uh, we kicked off the school year this year, uh, by participating in a back to school rally. It was great to be a part of that celebration. And we partnered with a number of local businesses to surprise 18 lucky winners with $250 grants to use in their classrooms and programs all in the uh style of Bob Barker. If you remember the old Price is Right. Come on down. Uh it was a lot of fun. In addition to those 18 lucky winners, the best part of the event was also reinforcing
015to all the educators in the community how much we support them. And I I think that message got came through loud and clear. It was a great event. And I think we've got a video to show you to give you some of the highlights. [music] >> Principal broker and owner. [music] Congratulations to all the winners. >> [music] [music] >> HOW CAN YOU beat that? Thank you. And I'll pass it off to Julie. >> I do not. >> You don't have a script? >> I don't. That would be great. >> Yeah. So, >> we have to do this. Um, another priority of ours this fall, as you've already heard, we have a deep commitment to supporting our students and families who are navigating poverty and just other challenges. And this year, um, in addition to our
016ongoing support, just seeing what was happening in the community and that need becoming more acute, we collaborated with Sarah Divine and her team in the family support program to try to harness the power of our community to ensure that during the government shutdown and the threats to SNAP funding that our students and families had what they needed. So, we put out a call to the community and they responded and in an overwhelming way and within days really and weeks the food pantries at all the schools were full. Um, I think over $10,000 in in gift cards were donated to WCO and other locations. Financial contributions were made to help us continue that work. Um, and I think it's just an example of um, one of the things that we strive to do in terms of
017to have that flexibility and be able to pivot and, you know, be responsive to the needs that emerge in our schools and have that partnership. I I think the example of, you know, partnering with the family support program is a really good example of how the two organizations lean in together and then have a multiplier impact in our schools. >> Me again. Sorry about that. Um, so another thing that we've done so far this year, um, there's been a lot, you might have noticed there's been a lot of conversation and engagement in the community this year around a lot of the changes that are happening in our schools. Um, we thought it was really important that the business community was one part of that conversation. And so we partnered with Byron and the leadership team
018to bring together a listening session of industry leaders to hear to hear from them. Um the response was really positive both in terms of we had a short lead time and I think everybody we invited wanted to come and came and I think it really showed how the community really does want to be part of the conversation with our schools. And another one of those um less tangible things that you won't see on a balance sheet, but one of the values that the foundation and the partnership can bring is is that convening. So, um I think that was a really powerful uh lunchon that we had together and something that we hope we can help continue to kind of facilitate that conversation. Before I turn off my microphone, I'm just going to take a peek,
019but it's not me. So, Thank you. >> Hi. Hi again. I'm Mark Gohane. I'm the treasurer of the foundation. Um so I have good news to share. Um so most of you are probably familiar with our annual signature fundraising event and outreach event. Hands across Corvallis. We've been doing it for a number of years now. We realized earlier this year um as we look back on on the previous uh Hanscross Corvallis um that we had the opportunity to achieve an ambitious goal this year of getting to a million dollars cumulatively uh over the years for this event and fundraising. So, thanks to our our our community sponsors, some hard work by Angela and the staff, and the generosity of the uh community at large, uh we met and exceeded our goal of 128,000. The la
020for this year, the last number I saw was 138. It could still be growing. Um and so, of course, we'll have to set our sights even higher next year, and we will, but that that's for next year. So for now, this is this again good news that we we met our goal. We're very we're very happy with that. [applause] >> Thanks Mark. That's a victim of success that we'll have to do even more next year. Um so we also wanted to share for a number of years we've been working and partnering with some community donors who really have um a passion and a vision for investing in our school athletic facilities to bring competitive quality safe and equitable opportunities to our students. And this spring we get to celebrate the realization of part of that
021work. Um there's actually a celebration on April 10th at Crescent Valley um for to celebrate the new um field lighting there that's benefiting both the baseball fields and the softball fields and and many other teams and student groups that will benefit from that. And then also the work that's happened at um Hansen Stadium at CHS which also is kind of coming online this spring. So that's been the culmination of of some years of of work and exciting investment in our facilities and our community and I think an example of what is possible um by harnessing the that power and um passion in the community. And as we uh look ahead to the remainder of the year and beyond, we're committed to supporting our educators through a year of change and transition. One way we plan
022on doing this is by partnering with the Benton County Schools Credit Union to offer a unique and low barrier resource grant to help fund uh materials, classroom supplies, and other resources staff might need uh when moving assignments. Um, and we'll be formally formally announcing this to staff in the spring, which is a program that we're really excited to move forward with. We also have another fun event ahead, which is on the next slide. Trivia. So, for the first time, um, we'll be hosting this new fundraising event. We'll be having a trivia night on April 22nd, Earth Day. So, please save the date, sign up your teams. Um there is limited availability, so sign up soon. Um you'll be able to participate with you and three other friends in what we think is going to be
023a really fun and awesome event at Tristing Tree. The goal for this event is to bring the community together for an evening of knowledge and fun um while we raise money for our grant programs um because we know that the need outstrips our available funds and we want to close that gap and also we want to provide a different kind of event that's going to bring in more people and give more people exposure to the foundation and the work that the foundation does. And finally on the next slide, but certainly not least, uh we are continuing with our commitment to summer programs and are currently fundraising to ensure that we will continue to provide this critical opportunity for our students to earn credit, to stay engaged in school, and to develop valuable academic and relational
024skills that pay dividends throughout the the year and their lives. >> Thanks everyone. I'm just going to wrap up quickly. I don't want to repeat what everybody said, but just um you know highlight a little bit about the way that we really see the foundation adding value to what the district is providing and um that I mean there were some impressive numbers shared tonight, but I would argue that that the foundation's partnership with the district exceeds just those dollars um in the sense of both the some of the community partnerships Angela was highlighting, but even you know like I've learned over the years on the foundation board hearing from um district leadership things like summer school. We do contribute a large amount to those summer programs, but the district is also pulling together resources in
025whatever way that it can. And I think a lot of the benefit of having this foundation as a partnership is having these private flexible dollars that can maybe fit into the nooks and crannies where other funding can't work. Um, so both summer programs, like Andrew was saying, the family support program, I think those are two really good examples of that. Um, and just trying to make sure I'm covering everything. Also thinking about um, COVID and during that time where we were able to provide support for staff so that they could also be there for students. I think about like the imagine and yay grants where yes those are really small dollars when you look at them for each individual grant but the excitement that brings to the classroom and also like for especially the student
026grants the real world learning that comes from that of both like they have to apply for the grant they have to manage the grant and then they also see the benefit they're providing to their school community. So, we're just excited about the opportunity to for you know to continue working with you. Look for opportunities to keep growing the partnership. So, that's that's our presentation. Do anybody have questions for the foundation? I'm surp I'm surprised. Go ahead, Bernie. [laughter] This is somebody has a question. >> Angela, is the resource program, the pantry still going on or have we stopped? >> We've we are we we've stopped soliciting the gifts sort of we respond to Sarah and her team. there's times when they can handle a lot of things and there's times when, you know, we kind
027of have enough and storage capacity and things like that. So, we've stopped um actively recruiting for those hard resources, but we're always recruiting in the community for dollar resources, right, which then allow her team to be flexible and responsive. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. Other questions? >> Thanks for that great presentation. I love hearing about all those things and I love hearing about how you're planning on supporting our teachers that are going to be transitioning um because that's not an easy thing to do to move schools or classrooms and um that'll be nice to have that kind of support. My question, and [sighs] I won't get into why I'm asking this, but you'll probably figure it out. Have you ever compared the work that you're doing here in Coralis with foundations around the state? Like,
028how how is what we're doing, what you're doing here different than what other foundations are doing? I think foundation education foundations are as you as different as they are in in number. I mean there are a lot of commonalities but they all have individual focuses. So for example our neighbors in Albany and I collaborate with them a lot um have a very strong focus on scholarships for their graduating seniors. And if you were to look at their financial report, you'll probably find a lot more focus on that than than we do and others have different focus. Um, I think in talking to other EDS, at least locally, I can't I don't know entirely nationally, but I think that our collaboration with district leadership and this partnership is pretty unique. And I think that it allows
029the dollars that we bring to be that much more impactful because the work is informed by what's happening in in the schools and we're not just working in silos. So I think that is is pretty unique and something that collectively these two groups should be pretty proud of. >> Thank you. >> Other questions? Will the trivia be multiple choice? >> No. [laughter] >> Okay. Well, I guess that's all of our questions. I wanted to say thanks for um your presentation. I love seeing it all like pulled together and um know that it's touched the lives of countless students over the years. Um so all your work and partnership is greatly appreciated. And I think Ryan has the next presentation, right? >> Yeah. And before I transition, I just again want to say thank you. Um
030the your ability to provide the resources when they need them when we need them for our students that we know well because that we spend every day with them um is just phenomenal. I today we were at a school listening to a presentation and kids were talking about students were talking about the resources that they've um needed to be successful in school and as that those stories were being shared I was thinking so much about the work of the foundation that helps to fill those gaps and how um so I think that um back to Chris's question I think um what the foundation allows us to do is to be super adaptable and super flexible and meeting the needs of kids in ways is that many of us would just feel um kind of hopeless
031if we didn't have that resource and support. And so it really is something that gives us a lot of hope. So again, thanks for all the work that you do to make that possible for our kids. Um so our plan for the next portion was to share um primarily um Byron as he and a team of educators has worked to develop that Crellis promise. Some of you have had a chance to watch um a portion of the board meeting from last month, but some of you haven't been able to. And so we wanted to make sure that um as we move into some conversation about how can we work together through this period of transition um and really working towards implementing the Calalis promise. Um we wanted people to have shared information and knowledge so
032that as we break into small groups for that conversation um we're able to do that with um the same degree of information. And so with that, um, primarily, um, Byron, I'll I'll add a little bit, but just the work that has gone on since the beginning of the school year is pretty phenomenal. The the scope of work, the ability to gain information and insights from lots of people to pull this together, to move us forward, um, is something that we're really just appreciative of. So, thanks, Byron, um, for the work that you've done to make that happen. Um, so we're going to share a little bit about that and then we'll spend time talking about how we can work together to um achieve those those that vision. All right, thank you. We're going to start
033with trivia night a little early. You ready? Um, Angela, you can't participate because you know the answers and actually most of us probably know these answers. So, um, I'm going to start with, do you know how many students are in public education in Oregon? Someone gonna shout it out if you know it. Any guesses? >> Yeah. >> 53 535,000. >> That's really close. I'm looking. Do it look like he was going to say >> I was just going to say somebody already quizzed this on it at our annual meeting. >> Oh. Oh, >> it was about 500,000. >> Okay. So, from the internet, it says um about 545,000 students in public ed in Oregon. Okay. Question two, how many students are in public education in Benton County? >> A little less than 10,000. >> 9,000.
034really close about 8,500 according to the internet. Um okay. >> Yeah. [laughter] Um and now the next answer is inside your Corvalis promise but don't look. That's like the worst teacher move to do. Um how many students are in public schools in Corvalis? >> Yeah, [laughter] >> Sammy. >> So the Corvalis promise says 5700. Earlier this year it was 5748ish. >> Okay. Yeah. So around 5,700 students in the Corvalis school district. Okay. And then just with a thumbs up if you know a current student in Corvalis school district. Okay. Cool. Keep that student in mind as we go into our next our next piece here. And then also keep in mind that 5700 number too. So over the Corvalis promise is really a coming together actually of like 7 to 10 years of work where
035things are now starting to align in a way that moves us forward in a really clear path. And so what we want to share today is that big things are happening in the Kala school district and um really exciting things are coming out are coming forward into next school year. So let me pull out my notes. Go to the next one. So the Calales promise has and you had the handout at at your kind of spot where you're sitting and in the Corvalis promise this is a collective piece of work that has come together from many many groups including the foundation support um over a number of years. And what the Kaval Promise does is it pulls together all of these things that we've been working on and it puts them together to show what
036we're about and who we are and our path forward. So in your handout you'll see our shared commitments of five core values, four goals which are our board goals, three instructional promises, two community commitments, and one profile of a graduate from from the Kalisa School District. And so what we're going to do is walk through these pieces and then give just a little highlight of some of the things that we're really excited about about what's to come with our school district. So these five or yeah these five core values uh came from our innovation team in 2016. So in 2016 our school district began to go out for a bond to redesign and build schools. And in that time, the innovation team was tasked with a question to answer of what um should guide our
037design process and what should be in place as the values of how we design our schools. And this is what through community feedback, through um student feedback, through staff feedback and the innovation team's work came together with these five core values. So our school buildings represent these five core values and now we're moving ahead to make these come to life through our programming. our board goals. A lot of the people in this room help create these goals. Um, but through community process and staff engagement, uh, student engagement, we have these four board goals. I see them on the left to me post on the wall, too. But excellent learning experiences, equitable systems, relevant and engaging learning, and healthy communities. And I see some of you following along in your little pamphlet as I go along
038that this has the more details to it. So our four goals, our instructional promises um are based out of uh some different educational research that I want to highlight and our instructional promises are about achievement, connection and equity. The definition there under achievement is our definition of rigor. And that comes from the work of Zetta Hammond about high demand and high support for students. Teaching students how to think not just what skills to know or what facts to know. So really how to think critically about the world around them. Connection comes from our work um through the center of educational leadership with the University of Washington on what it means to really have a student educator relationship at the heart of our instructional practices. And so connection is a value that we hold. Um equity,
039our definition there is from Agular's definition of educational equity. Um and how it's designed so that every student, no matter who they are or where they come from, have the support that they need to succeed in our system. Our two community commitments is that all students belong and that every student is a graduate. These are centered on what we believe that when all of our students come to to us and we're focused that they belong and we build the supports they need that they will all be able to graduate and have a plan for a success in the future. So our profile of a graduate is the newest piece that has come together this school year and that is the the one profile of a CSD graduate. Uh you heard Angela or folks talk about
040industry leaders coming together. So that is one of the groups that helped inform the knowledge and skills that we have landed on for all students to know by the time they leave our public school K12 system here in Corvalis. The big highlights there, the categories though are that students are academically prepared and future ready. That they're critical thinkers, problem solvers, and innovative learners, skilled communicators, and collaborative leaders, culturally aware, engaged, and community-minded individuals. emotionally intelligent, healthy, and well-balanced individuals, adapted, self-directed, and lifelong learners. This was a task that this current innovation team worked on this fall through student feedback, staff feedback, community feedback, industry leader feedback on what they want to see coming into the workforce. And um a cool thing that has like developed through this because we're in innovation team 2.0 know now
041um is we're now working on the metrics that measure these skills and knowledge and measure these pieces. And we're also working on how can we take these skills or these knowledge or these pieces and communicate them annually to parents each year so that they know where where their student is or their child is on this pathway forward for the skills that we want them to know by the time they graduate. So in here this is many years of work condensed into a packet here from lots of lots of individuals have come together to talk about the promise of public education and then we have it named here as real skills skills for real life. And so all of these pieces coming together now have started to inform us how we make decisions moving forward, what
042we're up to in our school district and how we design our programming and experiences for students uh for now and into the future. Okay. So the next slide is when we talk about don't skip that one. I don't like that one. Okay. Um, so the the next the next piece here is we've redesigned some plans. And so taking this as a guidepost for us of the Corvalis promise and looking ahead with what you heard from all of these years of work together of how can we make that come to life. Well, we've redesigned some of our educational programming and plans. But first, I want to highlight some things that are embedded that haven't changed or have just adjusted slightly. So we know that there are students who come to us who are lacking skills in
043certain areas and so we continue our types of intervention support. So intervention support means we are building supports for access to education for students. Um maybe if they have skills they need to build in reading or behavior or social emotional learning, we provide that. Special education services are a guaranteed thing for students um in our schools and we have those embedded in all of our plans. Mental health support unique as many of you know to the Kfala School District is our school-based embedded mental health program. Um we have therapists in all of our schools and a mental health program manager that focuses on student and staff wellness across our school district. We heard already too about our family advocate support and our health navigator support, but our team that's led by Sarah Divine that supports
044families across um across not even just our community, right? Across even outside of our community so that students who uh need that access can have access to attend our schools here. School counseling is embedded in all of our schools. alternative education programs like the social emotional growth program, our bridges program and programs. Life skills programming. Life skills is a is programming that's K12 in our school district and that's for students who have an intersectionality of exceptional needs maybe for medical fragility and other special education needs. a talented and gifted program and then electives and art specials K12 is still embedded and and so our art specials when we say specials that means at the elementary level the other things that are outside of a home room class so like art music those types of specials
045with school consolidation and closure um a thing that has happened is it's changed the demographics of some of our populations of schools and so that has reestablished different title one eligibility for some of our schools schools. And so two of those schools that are now title one that were not title one before are Adams Elementary um and Katherine Jones Harrison Elementary. Title one means um that there is a higher percentage of students or families navigating poverty and so those title one federal funds offset some pieces for extra resources for those schools. The other piece that's not changing in our plans is our unwavering commitment to our dual language immersion programs. Um, a a thing that is unique and a hallmark of Corvalis is that we have a K12 dual language immersion program and at the
046same time that our dual language immersion programs are built um on the notion that they are to support uh the heritage and culture of native Spanish speakers, not for monilingual English speakers to learn Spanish. And so that equitydriven type of programming our school district is remaining steadfast um and isn't changing through our our updated plans. So one of the the big things to make this promise come alive is about alignment, right? So taking many years of really good work, also looking at those really interesting and unique and creative things that have been funded in classrooms through things like Yay grants or imagine grants and looking at how those work and inspire students in learning and creativity, but then scaling that up and aligning that from kindergarten through 12th grade and beyond. And so in our
047plans, what you will start to see and notice is more alignment starting from kindergarten through high school um in all areas of our programming. So we highlighted some of the things that are staying the same and here is just some of what's new um what we're excited about. So, one of those things that is a shift in and new or coming back to us is our K6 and K8 library services being open for full days and staffed by our library media technicians with a focus on digital citizenship lessons. We we're getting ready to start an instructional technology advisory committee that will be working through the skills and knowledge that we want all students to know K12 by grade level um for digital citizenship and technology needs. um and skills and knowledge. And so that is
048will be embedded also through some of that work in our libraries. And just the idea of having libraries open before and after school throughout the whole school day for students to visit, not depending on a on a scheduled time um as a thing that we've heard from students and community members as a as a a desire and we're excited that we can start to offer that again. Art and music are also embedded as part of our plans and there's also some expansion and adjustments to our art and music programs coming up for next year. So currently and into the future for next year at all of our K6 schools. We have art once a week for 45 minutes and music once a week for 45 minutes. That currently happens at K5 and that will expand
049to K6. What that means is currently sixth graders can choose not to take music or art and into the future now they'll have that built into their schedule where they will have year-long art and music as well as part of their sixth grade experience. And because they're at that age, they might want to try some other things. They can start to make some choices and forecast for some electives that are for ensemble electives for fifth and sixth grade that will be new for them this coming school year. The other thing when we look at our data and we know where we're moving um into future readiness and real skills for real life, we need to really be looking at science and career readiness. And our science scores have shown some decline and some stagnation on
050where we see students growing in that. And that's partly because of teaching reading and math. We have not had the flexibility in some of our schedules to schedule in science every day. So coming up that will be new next year is a science block for all fifth and sixth graders every day that will happen. And embedded kind of with that block is also the establishment of a new block of of learning called a career block during fifth and sixth grade that will continue on through the junior high levels. Our career block focuses on these five um areas where they start to tie to college and career readiness lessons that help prepare students for CTE or career technical education opportunities when they get to high school. So, we were working on how we teach students, right,
051about arts, information, and communication or the hospitality, business, and management starting in fifth grade to start having those types of lessons. In a board meeting earlier this year, we talked about some of our revised and revamped pathways for math at the seventh and eighth grade level that provide multiple access points for students at different levels of learning for math. and we're excited to be able to offer that. At the same time, we know that there are a number of students that also need to build some skills in math or need extra support in math. And um a theory we are working from is to provide those foundational skills at a more enhanced level at the elementary levels to have students be prepared for that junior high workload. And so for us to do that, um
052we just actually hired this week um and it'll be start to be announced in the coming weeks math coaches for all of our title one schools. Um those math coaches will help our uh elementary classroom teachers at the title one schools with best instructional practices in math as well as how to help struggling learners in math. Um and also how to help accelerate learners. It's a slow it's a lag. Well, there it is. There we go. So with our redesign of schools, we've moved to K6 schools, a 7/8 junior high, and then 912 comprehensive high schools, as well as our other programs like Bridges and College Hill. And the junior high structural changes allow us to really set up a system that is built for high school preparation that's different than that middle level sixth
053to eighth grade type of of a model. And in this change for us, we've moved to a semester structure. And moving to the semester structure allows us to do a full year of science and a full year of social studies. Again, going back to some of that science pieces I talked about a little bit ago. The other piece that moving to the semester schedule and changes does is it expands our elective options. This school year for next school year, we did a thing that was a little different where we base elective options off of student interest. And so, um, about two weeks ago, our current sixth and seventh graders took an interest survey, uh, to rank a lot, I don't know how many, it was a lot, uh, 20 or more, 25 more, a lot
054of possible elective options to see which were the most popular that they were interested in. Then we can narrow that down to forecast for what students want. Um, and moving to the structural junior high changes this way allowed us to offer more elective options than we've had in the past. The same thing for our junior high to connect to the fifth and sixth grade science and career block is career exploration lessons that will happen embedded as part of one of their electives um at the junior high. And then at the junior high, seventh and eighth grade, it's a lot of kids and we know that and we have ways to support that and to help students feel seen and known and and have people care for them so that sense of belonging is increased. And
055so we've designed for the junior high a house model where students will be in houses with small cohorts. And because we made the decisions to move to a semester, it allows us to do block scheduling for the junior high. And what that means is that a math, a science, a language arts, and a social studies teacher can be a a pair of four, not a pair, a group of four. And um and that group of four can teach the same kids for the entire school year in junior high as a block and get to know that cohort of kids in their house. And those that group of teachers might have two cohorts within their house that they get to know. But what that does is it shrinks that down and also doesn't create a lot
056of change for students throughout the school year. Like on our trimester schedules now where a student might have a different math teacher three different times throughout the school year possibly. And so this allows us to really kind of shrink worlds within a big world and also create intentional design where students can get to know and teachers can get to know the same group of students through their core classes for an entire year of learning. I think that's a gamecher for our seventh and eighth graders. Um then we also know there's flexibility needed because they're also seventh and eighth graders. And so the other part of the schedule besides the four periods of their cohort is elective options and other options where they they break apart from the cohort and they co-mingle with other seventh and
057eighth graders throughout the junior high. Athletics continue also to be part of our programming and plans. Our high school athletic directors will also move down to help coordinate our junior high athletics. And then in the plans coming up are how we do fall, winter, and spring athletics um based out of the Corales Junior High. Um and including our sixth graders in in some of those pieces, too. More details will be shared um as we approach those athletic seasons. Okay. So, here is an example of this K12 alignment. And this is just one of the examples of K12 alignment, but it's the newest one. Um and the one that uh has come from teacher voice and student voice on what they want. Um our innovation team, this round of innovation team did a survey with high
058school students about their most memorable experiences in middle school and elementary school both like learning experiences and we also asked what their worst ones were too. Um and we had a lot of feedback from students. And then in our innovation team, our teachers also talked about what kids want. And then going back to our core values in our Caval Promise, it's hands-on, real world, adaptable, uh, meaningful types of learning experiences. And so that is also a thing that has happened over the over the years when teachers apply for grants through I know we look at those grants to help, you know, sort through and it's always things like that that teachers want to do for kids. And so what if we can do that in a big way that's guaranteed for every student at every
059school um across our school district. So that's what we're going to do. So one of the one of our new shifts next year is adding a steam specialist at K4. So that means in addition to music, art and PE in library every week by a specialist, our K4 students will also have a dedicated 45minut steam time taught by a steam specialist that will be hands-on learning. Steam is science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. So that combination of that foundational exploratory, hands-on, playbased creative process for K4. Then that builds through the grades of five through eight. So fifth and sixth graders will start to do that career block that we talked about and that is really around career awareness and so they'll start to hear about careers and there'll be hands-on learning based on those through
060um hands-on kits that we are working through. And then in 78 that moves into like deeper exploration of those careers and um and areas. I just looked at one of the kits online this week that we're looking at and like one's like a veterinary kit and you get like rubber animals to to be a fake veterinarian with and do things with them. There's also a cool cosmetology kit. Um and so but but in those pieces that helps students have a greater awareness of what they might choose when they move into a career and technical path and um into the high school. And so this whole K12 alignment piece starts in kindergarten with hands-on steam experiences that's creative and exploratory and play-based. It moves into more structured pieces in five six where you start to gain
061some awareness of all those really cool creative things I did in kindergarten and first grade. I might be able to do that for a real job when I get older, but I'm not really sure if I want to do that yet, but I'm starting to know about it. Then in seventh and eighth grade, you can start to go, I actually kind of like these things, so I'm going to explore these things more. And then nth grade, we're planning through next year for high school, but in ninth grade, an idea is that you still get to explore a little bit more. And then in 10th grade, you can start to make a post-secary plan for your career in technical education. But we just think um that students starting in kindergarten, my daughter's in kindergarten this year,
062and so I'm really excited to see how this plays out for her. But um that when students get into that 10th grade year, they're going to have a pretty good idea of what they like and don't like. They still might change their mind, but they're going to think critically about it based on what we're teaching them in in their lessons. And then they might have a better idea of what they want to do um and choose in their pathway. The other piece in this that we're excited about is the idea when we get into high school, there's workbased and work sites that students can go to and and test these skills. Like today, I just talked to one of our high school principles about some things we're working through for students who are doing um
063health occupations and working at Samaritan right now as part of their high school experience. The other part is thinking about how do we guarantee those types of community experiences for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. And so we've been working on a community partner to partner with every single grade level. And so for instance, a community partner might have third grade. And then we're working with those community partners to design lessons and field trips for that grade level that are guaranteed for all schools for that grade level. So it doesn't matter what school you go to, you'll get this community experience. And the thought behind that is that in K6, by the end of those seven years of kindergarten through sixth grade, you will have had seven embedded community experiences and you'll know seven places
064in your community that you've explored and been a part of that can help start to inform you as you move through your other grades. And so this is just one example of that K12 big picture articulation that we're really excited about to offer and that we think will really embed to help make this promise come to life. questions for Byron. >> Don't forget to turn your microphone on with the red light if you do ask questions for the live stream. Thank you. Um I have one question for uh adding the STEM specialist and what is the motivation behind this add-on to the curriculum and um also um and how does this trick measure the education outcome for this add-on you know like after a couple years how how can we know if it works or
065not? Um I think our our standardized science testing will be an outcome um that we can measure. The other thing that's been particularly important to me is our student perception data and um does what they learning like does their learning apply to real life and we actually ask students on surveys those questions and um does your learning like make sense to you of like your future like do you know what that what that is helping you for for your future. So I think those two metrics are two that we can that we'll think about. For curriculum and resources, we are just now in the beginning phases of our teacher teams working through what curriculum and resources materials do we need to put together. Um we also are working through the hiring for our steam specialists
066and I envision that those folks will be a big part of that. Um the other part is we also have some great experts already within our school district. Um, I know some people tonight went to the sustain sustainability summit at OSU and that's a really good example of like steam work. Like that's like real life um pieces from our green teams at school. And so we're all positioned to like now just like take off in on on these pieces. >> I don't have a question, but I have a comment. So, I got to spend three hours today at the University of Oregon um at a job fair meeting pre-ervice teachers who are so excited to get into the profession. And um my colleague here to my left, Byron, um had I've heard this presentation many
067times. And so, I was able to speak from this presentation to those pre-ervice teachers about what Corvalis is and why you want to teach in Corvalis. And I can't tell you how um like assuring it was for me. It felt great to be able to say these things over and over again. The um students, I wanted to call them kids, sorry. The students were coming to me um many of them with questions about how our district is connected to the community and that is such a huge part of this um Corvalis promise and I was able to speak to that. So, thank you and I think the future is bright. All right. So, um just going to do a a time check here. Um in just a couple of minutes, we're going to transition into
068groups with some questions that Angela and I helped to develop. Um and for some discussion, do we need to take a fivem minute break before we make that transition or are folks ready to to move into discussion? A break is always appreciated. >> I think I have to >> Okay, I think I officially have to say that. So, we're going to go ahead and take a short break. That's the official announcement of the break for five minutes or so. Five minutes. >> 7:38. Okay, welcome welcome back everyone. Um, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that Judah was excused for the rest of the evening. So, um, we'll go ahead and get started on the rest of the meeting. I hand it over to Ryan. >> All right. So, um, now that you're seated,
069we're going to make everybody get up and move. But this was a good starting point to get everybody back. So, um, we have about, um, 30 minutes for conversation. Um, you you'll see a half sheet with several questions um, to frame the conversation. We have six of our board members. We have nine from the foundation. And then we have some students and some district staff. So really what we're going to end up with is groups of three. Groups of three primarily. So each one of the board members um I'd like you when we get up to find a different spot around the room. And so then other folks can come and connect with you to make those groups of two to three. Um and then we're going to have opportunities for you to have some
070discussion. I'm hoping that you can identify a recorder. So, someone to record the information that you discuss and then we will have a opportunity for the large group um report out and if there's follow-up questions that can happen as well. So, really tonight is about taking the information from the foundation, the information from the district and continuing to think about how we work together um in alignment to help our district to achieve that Corvalis promise. So, with that, I'm going to go ahead >> and turn it over to >> I just wanted to make sure that if there's anybody watching online or watching the recording later that um during the work session, the audio will probably be more limited due to us moving around and having multiple conversations. We will have one mic on in
071the room still um to have the audio recording and live streaming, but I just want to make sure people online knew that. and I'll give you um some time checks along the way, but other than that um go ahead and begin to transition to a good solid conversation. Okay. >> What? Yeah, there are >> Where's Gordon? >> Is Gordon coming over here? Stay here too. >> I got three over there. >> Okay. the upside. There is an upside in terms of community sit still that long. [laughter] Are you going to record? >> Yes, I am. It's more always idea I couldn't help. I mean, Michelle So we were together. I think about that experience. I love and sit down. So, right now. >> Yes. All these are >> military. Exact. And then I I don't
072like having Are you sure? That's what relationship sit down. >> How can we information. the most trusted miracle. station. >> We're at 15 minutes. So, about halfway through the conversation. >> 15 minutes in. Exactly. I don't know. So much Exactly. So, so sometimes something really something got messed up, you know, and they're upset about I don't know. By the way, nobody Yes. As much as they don't see us as policy. >> No, no, no. It's more like the question. What is [laughter] the opportunity? We have about 10 more minutes. I mean, it's got two I don't have to teach science qualify. >> Okay. less affected by the cost of So this part It's not working. Like I said, mortgage house for years. for all of our Yeah. There's only so many channels. >> Yeah. I
073don't want to get political, but we have people in positions of power. [laughter] No, no, we're not. >> We already talked about it all. Of course, I was teaching. Exactly. That's something that's something to tell you. All right, we're down to just a minute or two. So, go ahead and wrap up those conversations and head back. All right, we're going to come back together. Um, typically when we've done this in the past, we've haven't really given enough time for the share out. It has been something that we've done briefly as we um get ready to hit the road. Um so we gave it a little bit more time tonight just so we would be able to have um not just as cheer up, but if there's questions, follow-up questions or discussion that comes from that
074um that is totally fine as well. And so we just wanted to open it up to the larger group for groups to be able to share out some of the things they discuss some of the ideas they may have um come up with or ideas that can then be iteratively improved um just through the discussion. So that's really what the next 20 minutes is uh slated for. And if we over if we if we go beyond that in terms of time that's probably okay too by a little bit. >> I do like the timer though. Thank you Kim. Thanks. Who who would like to share first? >> Sammy's mic is unmuted >> so I can go first. Uh thank you Aya and Gordon and Byron as well. uh very brief points about uh what alignment
075uh what was the highlights from the information shared by the foundation district that is new or important information to share with others uh really the common goal and the focus on the kids was a really great highlight that was highlighted and the alignment between uh the foundation and the district share out uh again the same idea the common goal focus on the kids and how the programming the grants are supporting the students and how the school board and the school district through its uh Corval's promise is focusing on the kids. Uh there was discussion around implementing the Corval's promise. How can both boards the foundation and the school board uh contribute to successful success? And we talked about good communication. Really making sure that we have strong communication grounded by the stories, telling the stories
076that uh we uplift through the grants being granted to the uh school district through the foundation and uh the narrative and the story and the data that's emerged from uh our school district. Um one thing about facilitating collaboration again another emphasis on communication uh making sure that we maintain those conversations that we have as two boards and noteworthy that uh both uh student graduation data and our outcomes are have improved since uh both boards have collaborated together and also the fundraising and the granting has increased dramatically since the both boards started meeting together once and then twice a year. So really something to highlight and celebrate about this collaboration that's ongoing. And last but not least, it's uh when there are barriers uh what do we envision of barriers to exist to implementing the Crell's
077promise and really one uh interesting highlight was disagreements on pathways and ways of implementing um different solutions and options. And I want to highlight something uh the participants in the group have shared is that whenever we had barriers or disagreements, a really great grounding activity would be uh looking into the two comm community commitments. They can be a really good north compass for uh the conversation to be grounded on what's best for the kids. All students belong and every student is a graduate. Uh Gordon, would you like to add anything or Byron? And I see thumbs up from the best of reports. Thanks Sammy. Um, what other group would like to share? >> I can share next. Um, so I was in a group with Nina and with Theres. Um, and I think we had
078a really, uh, nice conversation. Um, so in response to the first question, um, we noted a few highlights. I think um one thing that we were really excited about was the commitment to the community involvement for students and some of the things that Byron talked about and having those points of connection for students with their community, sort of building them up to be citizens of Corvalis and and having um those connections to their community to sort of become liaons for their communities um in their schools. I think another thing that we talked about uh that Nina brought up was um how it's sort of cool to see how the imagine grants that we've done uh with the Corvalis public schools foundation have sort of um gone on and inspired these ideas that are coming from
079um the Corvalis promise uh in [clears throat] order to sort of put those on a bigger scale and give students these like opportunities that they wouldn't have had otherwise by using those resources um in in ways for students to kind of expand those. And then something we also noted was sort of the focus on starting that career-based learning for students earlier and giving those opportunities for them to sort of try out different things and see what works for them, what they're competent in, which bring what brings them joy um starting earlier in in their school. Um so that once they uh are reaching graduation, they have a better idea of of things that they're interested in. I think in terms of alignment between um the foundation and the district, we we talked again at sort
080of about that idea about the imagine grants and then also um a lot of uh opportunities that can reach a lot of different students at different places. Um a lot of the stuff that Byron talked about was just exciting that all of these students, every student like the the board talked about is going to have these opportunities. um and also making opportunities out of what has been um I think a a difficult transition but doing what we can um to make that transition as sort of um pro as prosperous as possible for our students. Um and then finally we talked about um you know how can the school board and the foundation board can contribute to the Corvalis promise. Um and we talked about this continued meetings, this collaboration, connecting with each other so that
081we continue to be aligned and so that the foundation can continue to understand the need of students in the district by communicating with our our district um liaison um in terms of barriers. We talked a little bit about how limited resources um can can make things difficult, but also how with our limited resources, even though they might be limited, they can make such a huge difference in students lives. Um and just making sure that we're continuing to figure out those ways that we can implement um our resources to do what's best for our students. >> Thanks, Shondaanda. Thank you. you. I had a great conversation with Yan and Hope as well. So, I'll I'll do my best and then please feel free to add as well. In terms of highlights, some of the things that
082came out as highlights were just the overall plan and vision h and then down to little details of having libraries open, K through eight option at Mountain View, which was seen as exciting, career path explorations, and also some recognition of students maybe having different experiences depending on their their age and their grade level. So, you know, having a a high schooler at home, her experience may be different with this pathway versus someone else who's coming in with a kindergartener or a fifth grader who is looking at really stepping into something new this next year. And so, wanting to acknowledge in our group those different ways that families might experience these changes depending on what phase their own students are in this process. And also thinking about um sustainability of this plan and looking at is
083this a a promise? A question that came up in our group was, is the Corvalis promise something that is expected to to last for for years or for decades? And to what degree are things sustained that are working really well and things changed along the way as needs come up where flexibility may be needed if something is not working as expected or if needs change or context changes. Um, there were a couple of questions that came up, specific questions that came up in our group around things like electives and how does switching to from a trimester to se semester schedule allow electives or the number of electives that are allowed. is that shift um social impacts of the housing model both in terms of that benefit of having that core group for social and emotional
084closeness and belonging as well as what's the impact on building community with the larger school and long-term impacts of that or or what will be happening. So the questions coming up in our group also highlighted what we came to I'm going a little bit out of order in terms of collaboration and where we may be able to have impact together and collectively and communication just like the other groups came up. So, communication pathways for families who have those questions now or students who have those questions now to help assure them around some of those things that are coming into play that are there to be really excited about. You know, some of the the benefits and the gains that are coming to the district because of some of the challenging challenging decisions around consolidation. making
085sure that families have through lots of different channels, through multiple ways that information about what there is to be excited about as well as pathways to have those questions answered that are coming up for them. Um the need for for positive marketing that's effective and helpful for families came up in our group especially around so many changes that are happening. Let's see. And then also the need to highlight the way that different voices and different different input has come into play in shaping the Corvalis promise and these plans. Sometimes there is emphasis on on one person, the superintendent or one board in terms of here are the decision makers and that doesn't always highlight and emphasize the incredible work that has gone into the planning behind this that has come from student voice that has
086come from family voice over many years in lots of different ways. That has come from really dedicated educators who have put these plans in place and been thinking about how to do this. now that the resources were available this step aligned with it. So just I think deepening all of our understanding around what has gone into the plan as it is now and how do we really effectively communicate that and then just jumping back really briefly to that alignment piece. We noted that the foundations opened with that attention to every student which is really inherent in the Corvalis promise as well and both in terms of really understanding that students have different needs and looking at how differentiated support is provided from everything like math coaching all the way on up through accelerated pathways being
087opened up in new ways as they haven't in the path past as well as other supports that are being put in place. So, a lot of excitement for that and then appreciation and gratitude for the foundations really working so closely with the school district on identifying those high impact needs that need to be sustained such as summer school programs, those very high value situations where students are coming in and looking forward to going to and being at summer school. That is pretty phenomenal. and then seeing the outcomes associated with that too and understanding how important it is to sustain those programs while also having the imagine grants, the Yay grants that are responsive to emergent needs. there will be emergent needs that we can't predict, we can't anticipate. And having these grants that really honor
088and then create learning experiences for students to apply for grants, to identify a problem, to be able to, you know, push their courage to speak to a group of adults and share about that need and actually go through that process and then bring it back to their own school with their identified needs as being so critical as well as those teacherled grants. So, thank you. Did I miss anything? >> Thanks, Shauna. Who would like to go next? Bernie. >> So, I'm not going to repeat a lot of the things uh that that's been said already because look, sounds like we are all on the same wavelength uh right now. U couple of things that uh Rick and Mark and I talked about is uh our different roles um as a board here and also uh
089their board uh because uh their independence is um is very important. But what we also recognize is that this plan uh uh Corvalis promise plan a big component of that is the community and uh the board uh the the foundation has a much farther reach into the community with their connections and than than we do. I mean, I just remember seeing the uh hands across Corvalis event and just seeing all the groups there and it it's it so you guys really have that uh uh additional reach. I think um we talked again hammer home the point communication is the key to our success. Um and also um the a barrier to the success also is us not being able to tell the story of of uh of what we're trying to do. So uh did
090I miss anything Rick or Mark? >> Thanks Bernie. Oh go ahead Melissa. >> Okay I was with um Louie and with Julie. So, um, I want to just bring up a highlight that we didn't hear yet that kind of I think we talked about this kind of struck me a little bit is that the Corvalis promise, you know, talks about the fact that we have five title one schools now and the that that is um really truly telling the story of what Corvallis is and who who our students are. Um, that they we see that across our school district now in five different title one schools. It's just kind of a more accurate telling of our Corvalis story. And when we talk about alignment, that pairs really well with the family support that our foundation
091provides to our students across the district. One of the things we talked about with the partnership or alignment and um the second question is that we're both um in the business of removing barriers for students and we just do it in different ways, but together it creates this incredible success for our kids. So that's work that we would like to continue. And when we talked about new opportunities, um we thought about the um part of the Corvalis promise that talks about well it's actually a board goal healthy communities and investing in our staff and making sure that their wellness is also at the forefront and what would it look like to start considering what our staff need to um have a full um bucket that they can bring into the classroom so that our kids
092can be more successful. Can I add real quick? Um I'll just add real quick when we say there's five of the schools, I think it's helpful to think too like um four out of five of the elementary schools, right? That's almost all of them and one out of two of the K8. So when you frame it like a little bit like that, it's you're like, "Oh, that's almost all the schools. That's almost all the elementary age students in our district." Um maybe not all of them, but at least at the school levels, right? That's says a lot about um how the need in our community and um one thing with the staff one is thinking of how to provide care for staff too. I think is um one of the parts of the conversation we
093had too and and reminding to take that time because I was like how many people take just one hour a couple times a month is really hard and because we live in a society that values like burnout and growing culture and that's not always healthy for not just the staff but the students too and the families that are served and so having some kind of thing in place to emphasize um the health of the staff themselves too. Next. >> Okay. So, um our group was Chris, myself, and Jack. And I'll share a lot of common things came up that I won't repeat, but one thing we spent a lot of time talking about was in the Corvalis Promise. Um, it's really exciting to hear about this um, steam and career exploration embedded all as early
094as kindergarten and things that maybe now people are benefiting from. If you just happen to be in a class where Miss So and So knows Mr. So ando and they get to come to their class, you learn about this stuff, but if you don't happen to be in that person's class, you don't get that experience. And so, you know, systemically providing that and it seems like both an opportunity and and a barrier to consider um the need to really like harvest the resource in our community to help make that tangible in terms of, you know, our industry leaders and partners and talking about work on-site visits and all that things. And it feels a little enormous when you think about K to 12. So, like how do we work together to help make that happen?
095That's a question. And Chris, I thought, had a really um good example to share about when similar work had happened some years ago about bringing all of the mental health resources in the community together to convene kind of like a summit and like how do we break down these silos and barriers? And it feels like to realize the Corvalis promise, we have to be able to do something like that within our community partner resources. I don't know what that looks like, how but that was what we spent a lot of one of the things we spent a lot of time talking about. Do you want to add? >> Yeah, we're really lucky to have Jack with us and just having that student voice is such a gift. Um, and that's we also talked about just
096how do we incorporate more student voice into the work that that we're all doing with the you know we the foundation does it with grants and what you're doing with the promise is just um all around that and so wanting to make sure and then um we also had a really good conversation about uh in this Corvalis promise there's a lot of talk about critical thinkers and being logical. And I don't know if sometimes our community doesn't understand sometimes the importance of um of investing into helping our kids become critical thinkers. And again, Jack was like, "Oh, that's just so necessary." And um how every student needs that. And he even said like his experience as a young boy in our district and just needing that um investment into how to be a good critical
097thinker and how important that is and especially in the program he's in right now and and the foundation supports that with the Yay grants and all of that. And so just the importance of it was really it was a great conversation. Did everybody go? >> Nice. We're on time even. >> Yeah. Did you have >> Were there any follow-up questions or things that another group shared that you wanted to be sure sure to second or had questions about? I have a question. It's for Byron andor Ryan. I mean, it occurs to me that this promise has a has the has the promise of being really disruptive in a good way. I mean, we're talking about qualitatively changing how we will um prepare our young people for life. Um, and I just wonder what what what's
098the implementation plan? I mean, you know, in general terms at least, I mean, you can't just turn a switch and make this stuff all happen. I mean, this is a fundamentally different, I think, approach to education than the three Rs or learning facts or whatever, you know, whatever is going on, you know, presently. Um, so can you comment on that? Yeah, I think um I have a couple things that um come to mind, but one of them is when we started um the innovation team. So, we have a group of educators um a couple of board members, our union presidents um and they started meeting together at the beginning of this school year and a lot of the work came out of conversations they had. Um so, when they met this Monday, some of the
099questions were different now that we have this in place. It was about what sort of resources do we need? how can we assess our progress in this? And that group is going to continue to meet for two years. So, the folks who signed up for it in the fall made a two-year commitment to continue so that way because we know that this isn't something that happens overnight. And so, we needed we knew it needed a longer period of time. And that two-year commitment doesn't mean that a group won't continue to meet as we continue to work towards implementation. But for now, we know that there's a group that's um invested and focused on moving this forward across our system. And it's primarily made up of educators who are in classrooms um both certified and classified
100working with kids every day. >> Thanks. Yeah, I just had one as some folks were talking um a piece of alignment that I noticed and um and we didn't it's not it wasn't explicit in our presentation um but or in the board in the foundation's presentation but it's something that we both do is recognition for educators um and the work that they're doing that uphold um this promise or or our values in a lot of ways. So like the golden apples is a way that that happens and we've also uh will be embarking on a way to recognize staff next year throughout our process for upholding parts of the promise too. And so I think that's a cool kind of connection alignment that we both have in that shared work too. Before I turn it
101back over to Lou to conclude the meeting, I want to just again take a moment to thank the foundation. Um, not just for being here tonight, but just the the innovative idea of making resource financial resource available to teachers uh and educators who are transitioning for next year. Recognizing that there will be needs um unmet needs and a way to help to support folks through that um is something that you shared about tonight, but it's something that's really um I've been able to talk to folks about it and it's really um reassuring to know that the community has your back. Um and that really shows up in the ability to ask for those funds to get the things that you need to so that you can do the so you can teach the way you
102want to teach. Um so thanks again for making that happen. That I'll turn it over to you. >> Thanks Ryan. And um I also wanted to thank you all for um the meeting this evening. I look forward to it because we work separately but towards the same goal and um that's for supporting the students and families in our district and um looking forward to the work ahead. I know that there's some financial um woes potentially ahead and appreciate you all filling the gap in the ways you have and um continuing to support the programs. I don't know where our school district would be without the work of the foundation. Um it would be a different district, I believe. um and you help us get to those goals that are set and also um our cool
103graduation rate that's been highlighted several times, the 90% but um is in part because of you all's support, especially with the summer program and other means as well. So, just want to say thank you and look forward to continuing to work with you all in the upcoming year. And with no further business, the meeting is adjourned at 8:39 p.m. I was trying to round it to 40, but it didn't work. 8:39 Thanks everybody. >> Can um can we make sure that we get a set of notes from each of the groups or a p a picture of the notes that's texted to me or um we have a copy machine whatever um just we want to make sure that we get that information.