001The November 13, 2025 meeting of the Corvalis School Board is now called to order at 6:33 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 are available on the Corvalis School District website. Tonight's agenda, board packet, and a link in to the district's YouTube channel can be found on the social or on 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 the first item of on the agenda is board member
002reports. Are there any board member reports, Judah? Um it was mentioned previously but I am super grateful to CV for inviting uh Lou and I to come speak to their um student council. That was a really wonderful experience. So thank you so much. And also I was one of several board members who attended the um Oregon School Board Association's um annual conference. >> Anybody else? Shauna. So, I want to thank the just wide range of community members who have reached out to connect. I've had a chance to meet with numerous groups of families, with staff um yesterday with staff at Leticia Carson, with student groups, with folks from all across the community who have been reaching out. Really appreciate that out outreach and those conversations that we've had. Um, something else I've been able to
003do that just to bring into this space, one of the reasons why we're all doing this work, why we're all here and volunteering. I had a chance a week and a half ago was it two weeks now um to attend the joint high school orchestra concert which was really phenomenal led by Miss Perkins. It was just an incredible night of music. The next night I had the joy of going and listening to the joint choir concert uh directed by Yens Love Tang and just wanted to share gratitude for the incredible musicianship of our students, the incredible dedication of staff who are making those programs happen. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Chris and Theres. >> Um couple things. I just wanted to thank all our staff members and teachers who provided conference time for families.
004Um I know a lot of them did it at in the evening so that families could attend um working parents could attend and I just I know it takes a lot of work and a lot of time and effort to prepare for conferences and I just appreciate um that we did that. And then um I just wanted to say thank you to our two high school football coaches. Um our Crescent Valley where my grandson plays and CHS. Um they just both coaches did a really good job just really um teaching our our kids about good sportsmanship. You could see it on the field um watching Crescent Valley kids. um they went to a playoff game and and unfortunately they lost, but they came out of there saying we're okay. We felt good about what we
005did. Um and they felt really good about their team and and the efforts that they did. So I just that was a really positive thing for me. So I appreciate that. >> Uh yeah. So, I wanted to um just give a uh some attention to the district for the effort that they um put into assisting our households, our families, and our community as uh we were navigating the crisis of the suspension of SNAP benefits. Um they really rallied in the community came came together to really support those families. Uh so, I wanted to say thank you for that um that effort. Uh and um if you don't know, but uh our CHS boys uh soccer are headed to a playoff game. Hillsboro, right? Is that where it is? On Saturday. >> Yeah, the state championship.
006And so I'm looking forward to getting to go and um and watch them and cheer them on. Um and the uh the playoff game between um CVS and our Crescent Valley and CHS was um also really delightful. We have a lot of really great athletes out there. So um if you haven't had a chance to take in a soccer game, um it go to one. It they're they're really fun. >> Sammy, >> thank you. Chair, I did have uh several uh many meetings recently with constituents uh from calls and texts and as uh many of my colleagues have done, I just want to elevate that. Uh uh most recently uh I shared probably was it four or five hours marathon between the chair and I uh with uh community members from save coalition and we
007learned a lot from them. Uh so really want to acknowledge uh folks who did reach out to us individually uh or in groups uh small small groups less than a quorum of course. Uh, also I've been knocking on doors not to ask uh people for votes but ask them for feedback uh including uh leading to tonight uh late this afternoon I walked the neighborhoods of uh both schools uh being in the proposal to hear some perspectives and and opinions and even questions that uh I'll be uh bringing forward in my thinking and deliberation. Uh also uh my colleague Chris Hawkins maybe forgot to share what she did yesterday. So, I'm grateful for uh her inviting me to tag along with her. I was an attendee of uh the priorities town hall uh by our own
008Corvals resident Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield alongside with Senator Sarah Gelzer Bluan and Representative uh Sarah Finger McDonald. And Chris signed up uh in advance to ask a question related to education funding. And she told me you want to tag along. So in our individual capacities, we identified ourselves and shared uh the importance of uh communicating to constituents from the legislature about what they're going to do to continue to fund education and to fund it properly and also asking the attorney general to prioritize the rights of our uh students in public schools and their families as he navigates uh upholding uh our constitutional rights uh in in courts. Um few more things I want to share or last thing I want to share is an invitation to any of my colleagues. This is an invitation
009I just got uh an hour ago. Uh there is an invitation for um myself and I want to extend it to two more up to two more who would like to uh feel free to reach out to me after the meeting tomorrow at 1:00 with the possibility to join for lunch uh a group of retirees from one of the labor uh uh unions in the region uh trade unions invited me to speak about education education funding and the challenges around uh supporting title one funding and special education, what can they do to support us in their advocacy? So, uh I asked if I can have uh one or or two uh board members to join me. It's going to be lunch at noon uh optional potlock style and then 1:00 to uh speak with them
010in Albany and happy to share more details offline with any two who would like to join me. And that's my report. >> Bernie, >> yeah, just a quick shout out to the CHS robotics team. Thank you for inviting me to your pancake feed tonight. Unfortunately, I couldn't go because I got wrapped up preparing for this meeting, but again, please support that team uh any way you can. Uh they're great. >> Oh, and CVS, too. >> Um I was just going to mention that I was one of the board members that was able to go to the Oregon School Board Association conference and learned quite a bit. Had some eyeopening announcements and things I heard there. Um learned a lot from some of the work being done in the rural school districts in our area, too.
011and across the state and some advocacy from that angle. Um I also went to the OSBA regional um fall meeting which was pretty good and also learned some um eyeopening financial information and um uh went to the Indian education program parent committee meeting to hear what's going on um with that program. Really excited for um the events coming up this year. There's the first one is in December for a end of fall early winter kind of gathering for everybody for families and then of course the core council meeting as it was mentioned. Um and I also wanted to thank community for inviting me to speak with you and um the many times I have been able to. So, I wanted to say I appreciate that that one-on-one conversation really helps um build community and also
012help things become more clear for me as a board member and also to help answer questions for community that I may not be able to answer in a board meeting. So, I just want to say thank you for that. Um I didn't want to add up all the hours because it was many, but um I do appreciate your many hours preparing for those meetings as well. Okay. And with that, the next item on the agenda is the OSBA and NSBA updates. I just went, so do you want I can go again. Um, so Sammy and I provide these updates. We're fortunate as a school board and as a school district to have representation on the state and national um boards because we're able to get updates a lot sooner and also kind of see the
013larger landscape. Um, one of the things, as I mentioned in my report, um, from going to the regional meeting and then then the conference that has really stood out to me is, um, the state that we're in financially because of impacts of HR1 at the federal level um, of over about$8 billion hit for Oregon and for a lot of reasons. And that's something that I've been thinking about a lot and what that means for investment in public education both federally and at the state level. One of the things that um oh my gosh, Representative McIntyre, that's who it is, um said on the panel too that was a little bit it was sad is that there's no more funding coming from the state for education. And so what that means is that um I'm not
014trying to cause panic or anything like that by the way, but I'm just this is part of my report. What that means is that there's um it's not likely that we're going to be able to plead to the state for funding for things that we need. So when um so the angle that folk are going from um OSBA for a lot of different school districts and our school boards and I hope ours is one of them too is to really talk to the state about like what unfunded mandates they can let go of for a while. And so that's one of the angles. And so we're going to need community support on that because there are a lot of unfunded mandates that are required of school districts. And so I just wanted to elevate those
015parts of the conversation. Um the conference itself was really awesome. We'll probably um check in more about that later, but not at this time, but just the learning that happens there and the connection. So, it was it's kind of a bummer update really. Sorry. But that's really what's it's that's the state of things and the impacts of even SNAP for that short amount of time has been very impactful, too. So, I'm glad the shutdown's over. Not glad about health care costs as a result, but here we are. Those are all wrapped into that state and national work that happens. Sammy, >> thank you, chair. Uh, so by the in the end of this year, I would be concluding my service with Oregon School Board Association as its past president. Uh, and as Lou shared, we're
016fortunate in Corvalis to have her advocacy continue on the board of Oregon School Board Association representing us. Um, and I'm continuing to uh represent us on the National School Board Association. Uh, one of the things speaking of the shutdown, the National School Board Association has been uh, giving us uh, daily updates, sometimes three updates uh, a day about the shutdown and some nuances and some really behind the scenes of what's going on and what stories can we uplift from our local community to our representatives that will help uh, our congressional representatives understand the impact. Uh one of the things that we heard about and still speculation but it's very likely to happen that the special education office may move uh very likely will move from the department of education to the social uh services uh
017human and social services. Uh I don't know what the impact of that is uh for school districts. Uh I am on the legislative committee of National School Board Association and in its inaugural meetings uh we talked about priorities that are informed with what we hear from our local communities uh in Corvalis and across the nation and also prioritizing some education and resources that schoolboard members can have access to. One of the examples is policy hour uh which is one hour during your lunch break. Uh you get to learn about some topics of importance. One of them is the federal vouchers program that might really hurt public schools everywhere in the nation. And uh the upcoming session is going to be a webinar about special education funding. And I had the priv privilege and honor of
018connecting the National School Board Association with a parent and a school board member from Phoenix Talent who has been advocating a lot about special education. Uh last but not least uh uh for the first time in Oregon history to my understanding I got nominated to be the uh next national schoolboard association secretary treasurer. It's a position that uh I take seriously in terms of understanding how can we allocate resources to support board members and corales across the country and making sure our communities understand how resources uh can be allocated to support their children. So uh the final decision is going to be after two steps. One step uh is going to be an interview in January with a a nomination committee and then a final vote by leaders of states associations uh nationally in April.
019And if successful, I hope that I can continue doing the work of uh advocating for full funding for education locally and across the country. Thanks. >> Thanks, Sammy. And the next item on the agenda is the superintendent report. Ryan, >> good evening. I just have a couple of things to share with you. Um the first is a reminder. So next week our board meeting um will be the scorecard um presentation by our secondary principles. So that packet will go out tomorrow. So please spend some time looking at those um reports. They again identify what the goals are for our individual schools um and how they align with the district goals and how we are tracking progress and the work that's underway to make progress in those areas. So again, that's next Thursday night. Um the
020second thing was um relating to um work and action later this evening. Um based on the feedback you gave me at our last meeting um regarding the proposals and language um the first proposal um that you will have in front of you tonight is that initial proposal and the language that was added to that is related to the high school conversation. So the language is this. The school board will review the feasibility of the current high school model during the 2029 school year or when enrollment falls below 2025 students. Prior to this review, the district will collaborate with students from all high schools to assess priorities for the high school experience in our district. This language has also been added to the revised proposal tonight. So, if you are looking at the revised proposal, that
021language about high schools is there. also language related to Wildcat Park continues to be accessed by the community for recreation which was a request that was made and second to that is the district is committed to engaging in community conversations with Leticia Carson's direct descendants the Leticia Carson Legacy Project the Oregon Black Pioneers and the Lynbent NAACP on how to best honor her name through CSD buildings and programming. So again, that language was added based on the um input that you provided to me um on Monday night. >> Thanks, Ryan. Okay, next item on the agenda is public comment. And I know we have public comment and we're are we doing virtual first and so we have um some folk >> Oh, we only have two. Okay, Kim's gonna let us know who it is
022because she's helping get them online. So, >> Oh, yeah. Thanks. Yeah, thanks. We have not even opened public comment. Thanks for that reminder. I was so excited about like, oh, who is it next? Um, sorry. I have very official things to say now. Um, we will now open public comment. Period. We value the lived experiences of students, families, staff, and the community, and welcome public comment as an essential part of the district and board's work. The complete guidelines for public comment are available at the registration table, outside the boardroom entrance, and on the board's website. I will now share some important points. When it is your turn to speak, please come forward, take a seat, and direct your comments to the board. And make sure this little red light's on by the little button with
023the people if it's not on already. Speakers may offer objective criticism of district operations and programs, but the board will not hear complaints concerning individual district personnel. As a reminder, you will have three minutes to make your comments. I will um there's a timer right here. This is really important because I know folk were confused about this before, but there's the timer up here is green at your three minutes. At 30 um seconds, it is yellow and red. Your time is up. When your time is up, I do have to ask you to um not say anything else like to conclude your comment that you're on. Um and then following your comments, the board will have three minutes to ask clarifying questions but are not able to engage in conversation. We can revisit the board.
024If board members would like to revisit a topic or issue brought up during public comment, they may do so at the appropriate time in the agenda. And again, just to reemphasize, we can't have a discussion with um people during public comment. And that is one of the really hard parts about engaging with folk through public comment. We're just here to listen in these times. Um before you start your comments, please state your name for the record and state whether you reside within the district boundary. And please remember to say your name in that part because it's it has to be on the official record. Okay. Now Kim's going to call our first person. Okay. Sarah. Uh >> oh. >> Sarah, you can unmute. >> It's already but there's nothing playing. >> That's my phone reacting.
025Sorry. Sarah. >> Let's Let's come back to Sarah. We can try the other person and then come back. >> Press start. Oh, never mind. There >> is it working now? >> Yes. >> Oh, wonderful. Um, >> and not for lack of trying. I pressed star six four times as directed. Um, this is Sarah R. Howard. I live within the boundary of Leticia Carson Elementary School in Shelin Middle School. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. Um, dear school board, uh, I agree with you that ample time is needed to help students, families, and teachers adjust to school closures. I see you using that need for time to propel you into a sense of urgency about making a decision for next year. I know you want to do this, right? But you have
026to know that any proposal decided on so hastily has no chance of being implemented effectively simply because you have not given yourself enough time on the front end to garner the trust of the communities if this proposal would impact before you make your decision. Essentially, you've crash crashed the race car right out the gate. Let me be clear. You do not have us all on board. You have not been discussing school closures with your district community since last spring or even before that. We learned about it from you two months ago, some of us three weeks ago. No, I do not think talking about closures at board meetings last spring is not the same as actively informing your district community members and drawing us all into conversation about the real possibility that our schools will
027close. I think having us on board is absolutely worth dipping into district budget options. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it impacts how we are able to trust your leadership moving forward. Boy, and in the times ahead, that makes me pause about how important that is. Um, that trust will impact how our bodies and hearts process the changes ahead. It even impacts how we vote in the future for levies, for bonds. You can do so much better on the front end here. And if you want to do it right, if you want our trust, you need to earn it. Here's how. Take the rest of this year to do the research. Send out the surveys. Get the actual financials around necessary transportation changes and building changes. Do the so
028much harder work that Superintendent Nos referred to around considering boundary changes around the district. Consider a way that all this town can make concessions for these budget deficits. I urge you to give yourselves the time to present a better proposal, one with the community's backing, one that you can vote on in the fall of 2026 for closures that would happen after the completion of that school year. This is the kind of process that would actually earn our trust and will give us all time to adjust to the changes ahead from that place of trust. As one of my heroes, Lavar Burton, said when I was a kid, but you don't have to take my word for it. Dave Corvalis Schools Coalition conducted a survey just this past week. We emailed it to you today and
029it's available online on our web page. There you can see how many many community members across Corvalis agree with what I've said here. >> Your time is up, Sarah. >> Thank you. That's it. Thank you for your time. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> There's no questions. Thank you so much, Sarah, for calling in. >> Thank you, Lou. Thank you for your time. Alex, you can go ahead. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hello. >> We can hear you. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh my name is Alex Gooff. My permanent residence is in the district. I'm an alumni of Latistic Carson Shuttlein and Carson Valley. I decided to call in today because I have strong concerns on the consolidation proposal and the post proposal plans. First,
030the longranging planning commit committee found that reviewing the boundary was crucial to ensure equitable resource distribution. This is not a surprise as CV students and staff have been saying this for years. Secondly, the committee spoke on the underutilization of our schools, essentially suggesting consolidation. Why is the school board not directing the superintendent and his team to review and readjust boundaries during this process? It is the opinion of many of the community that this board should review which schools to close independent of the capacity of neighboring schools. Once those decisions are made in isolation, then I recommend redraw the boundaries to redistribute students evenly across the whole district, thereby lessening the burden that has been placed on Mountain View and Bessie Coleman. Also, the district has been unclear and frankly contradictory in financial savings. Just last
031May, the finance director stated, quote, "It takes about three years for an impact on the cost savings. In the first year, it costs more money to do consolidation and closure." End quote. May 15th, 2025. I would appreciate it if a board member asked for clarity on that during your time for deliberations. Additionally, the district has asserted that this has been a long and thoughtout process and started with the long range planning committee. If that was the case, I'm curious as to why the board has not taken the recommendation of that committee. Similarly, myself and others brought up the need for consolidation during the budget process last year. We were told by some members of this board that we were quote inciting panic end quote. It's inaccurate to allege that this process has been clear, thought
032out, and driven. One board member recently said that for the schoolboard nerds, it was clear that consolidation was on the horizon if you watch the meetings. Well, if I'm not one of those nerds, I'm not sure who is. And all I saw last spring was a minimization of the importance of closure by members of this board. Please scrutinize district presentations more. Misleading claims have been made constantly about public busing to Mountain View, incorrect classroom numbers at Bessie Coleman, overpromises on offerings post consolidation, fitting K through 12 students on buses together, and staff being able to drive kids to school. Finally, I want to address the proposed 56 model. The district has repeatedly said that details cannot be provided until the proposal is approved and then planned out. That's ludicrous. Families, staff, students, and especially you,
033the board, deserve to know how their classrooms, programs, and resources will be affected before a decision is made. It's unreasonable to ask the community to support a plan without clear answers about its implementation and impact. There are so many other concerns I have, but this community has shown up in a tremendous fashion, and I'm confident that they will raise the rest in the continuing comments. Thank you. Thanks, Alex. Is there any questions from the board? Laura has a question. Go ahead. >> Could you elaborate on what the equitable resource distribution is that the long range planning committee mentioned because of the current boundaries? >> Yeah. Um well they didn't mention specifically what they believe the resource uh distribution is but in my view as someone who attended Crescent Valley and spoke often with staff uh
034we have less FTE which affects what courses we can offer. We no longer offer classes like creative writing, outdoor and lifetime recreation, marine biology, broadcasting, computer skills and German. Additionally, teachers are often left with heavier workloads because they have to teach more courses. you have one teacher teaching one period of this, one period of that, one period of that. There's not enough prep for that. Finally, CV has 10 APS. Um, CHS, I think, is 17. We also receive less funding for student programs. So, our ASB sales, but despite this, I want to be clear that we have very strong studentrun activities. Our robotics, model UN, speech and debate, uh, youth and government show up so large. and our students even funded a club that does a club that does STEM after school clubs at schools
035in this district which is ironic because under this proposal STEM rooms are brought into classrooms and so I'll just finish your question by saying that students have shown up and and fought against these adversaries despite that we have such a high civic engagement one students on the OD youth advisory board the C student reps are at almost every single meeting um so I think we're we're there are clear issues but But we are students are still showing up with grit and perseverance in that in the face of that. >> Any other questions? >> There's no more questions. Thank you so much, Alex, for calling in. >> Thank you, >> Julie Alexander. My name is Julie Alexander. Um, I live within the Corval school district boundary. I have a fifth grader at Leticia Carson who rides
036his bike there every day, rain or shine. Like you will hear from others tonight, I harbor serious concerns regarding the articulated cost benefit of consolidation over both the short and the long term. No realistic strategy has been presented for addressing the existing problems with district transportation, and significant gaps remain in our understanding of what busing will entail following the closure of two schools. Under the current model, we have kids on buses for an hour each way. And on Monday night, we heard that no one really knows how much additional busing will be required. So the cost cannot even be factored in. Um I'm also questioning the feasibility of achieving the projected cost savings while implementing curriculum changes for multiple cohort bands and whether some investments are even wise in the long term. What will happen
037to the program at Mountain View once the relatively larger cohort um of upper elementary and middle schoolers moves through and enrollment again dips? Um does the new programming get retained or decommissioned? Wouldn't it be more practical to implement this at a site that's more accessible than Mountain View, even one of the southernmost schools um to serve students who are more geographically distant from the current middle and K8 programs? Regardless of which schools are closed, rebalancing enrollment across the district is fundamentally an equity issue. Um if it's not prioritized ahead of closures, the cost of consolidation will be disproportionately borne by students and staff at those consolidated schools. When capacities are uneven, um resources are effectively subsidized by students at overcrowded schools. And consequently, maintaining schools used exclusively for singular programming going forward will perpetuate inequity
038in the form of higher relative fund expenditures for students accessing these programs because these schools will never be pushed to near or capacity under the current proposal while their peers are then being housed at areas that are high capacity. Rebalancing enrollment across the district is also a health and safety issue. Post pandemic, we're even more aware of the importance of space, handwashing, etc., particularly at the elementary school age. Um, I'm concerned about the potential for increased spread of illness in schools that are bursting at the seams. Higher transmission rates will mean more absences for teachers and students. This affects school attendance-based funding, and it's going to disproportionately impact families who can't afford to miss work. In addition, I am concerned that the two-story Bessie Coleman building is located within just meters of the Corvalis fault
039line and it will be operating at or even above capacity under the proposed plan. Given that we're overdue for a major earthquake, this would not be my first choice of schools to have at capacity when there's other choices for spreading out. Please consider these concerns along with others that people will raise later when you cast your vote. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there any questions from the Sammy? >> Thank you, chair. Uh, thank you, Julia. I I just want to understand if you could elaborate on your um suggestion. What I'm hearing is that you are in favor of both consolidation and um boundary review. However, you are in favor of the boundary review first and then closing a school next after balancing the schools. Correct. >> Accurate. >> Okay. And could you elaborate more?
040You did share some some rationale. I'm wondering, could you elaborate? Your fear is grounded by fear of overcrowding. So, as long as we're not overcrowded, we should not do boundary review. Or is there other elements you want? I'm what I'm fundamentally taking an issue with is that when you just have one or two schools that are operating at or near capacity and the remainder are operating for example the DLI schools will never be remotely near capacity under the current proposals they're actually closer to almost 50%. And so you have this sort of relative cost burden that's being borne by these students at the denser schools because there's, you know, there's an operational cost, right? You know, there's other examples like besides DLI, there's bridges, there's Wings, College Hill. These are programs that serve relatively fewer
041students. And I'm wondering why they're not being considered first for consolidation. And there's some amazing and creative ideas that are being floated all around the community that you know the College Hill program which has some really cool programming. Moving that up to CV would be a really great opportunity to allow access to like the construction program. The urban farm program is amazing. Um, you know, I just think there's some more creative opportunities. And I'm in no way suggesting that DI programs should be cut, but I think we're acknowledging that if we're going to keep those schools as only DLI schools, then we're acknowledging that they're going to cost more to operate. So, either add an English-speaking cohort to them or figure out a way to make the schools operate at higher capacity so that it's
042it's more equal. >> Um, and that can go both ways, the distribution, right? Um, of of resources. Like when you have more students in a school, you could argue that the students that are at a lower capacity school have fewer staff. But when you look at specials, you know, it would be unfair to allocate fewer minutes or contact hours to the kids that are in lower density schools. But the reality is if you're in a class with 30 or 40 kids, you're having fewer contact minutes with your specialists teachers when you're in a huge class, right? So you got to look at the equity in the distribution, too. >> Thank you. And we're out of time with that. Um, thank you Julie so much for your time. >> Debbie Goodwin. It has to be red
043like that. The Is it on? That one might is >> the little people on. There you go. Yeah. >> Okay. I'm Debbie Goodwin. I live in Benton County. I'm a volunteer and grandparent of Connor Xavier Robinson at Leticia Carson uh Elementary School. And I'm here to say the proposal to close Leticia Carson Elementary School should not be considered as a revised proposal, should be considered as a new proposal. Um, this proposal should be considered uh in its lawful time of 7 to 12 months of review considering student staff and community. If you don't do it in that time frame for consideration, you're violating the students civil rights by inequities in the process. And you and yourself said this in your frequently asked questions. Uh the question put to you is why is the amount of
044time between initial proposal and the final board decision so close? Why wasn't this proposal shared earlier? The proposal feels rushed and rushed and performative. Your reply or the Corvalis school district reply was based on feedback from other school districts. Not the people in the community, not the students, not the parents, not the families, from other school districts. We decided to shorten the time between a proposal and a decision. This will minimize the negative impact on students and staff by allowing us to move from debate to planning as quickly as possible. Those are your words. In the equitable processes and outcomes are important while inequities in the process could violate again students rights. This is from the Oregon PTA every child one voice. The steps that you are supposed to go through in that 7 to
04512th month time is one and this is the only one I've seen occur is analyze existing conditions. Then set clear and measurable goals and criteria with objectives to carry out these goals in more equitable outcomes for students. All of this to be reviewed by the community. The second part in this process was to develop alternatives by engaging the community based on the analysis goals and objectives. At least one alternative should not include closing a school be developed. Then develop an implementation plan. the school board. Number three, school board only makes their decision after steps one and two have been completed satisfactorily and respectfully, engaging students and families centered around public hearings that are held to the sat satisfaction of everyone. These hearings should be scheduled based on the recommendations from the community committee or task
046force that has been appointed to address these steps. >> Debbie, your time is up. >> Okay. >> Apologize. Is there any questions from the board? Bernie, >> uh Debbie, the 7 to 12 month, uh timeline you gave, is it uh based in statute or is it uh the recommendation of the >> the Oregon uh PTA association and also based on the violation of the student civil rights? And is that based on the federal civil rights provision or >> um inequities in the process regarding school consolidations? >> Okay. And and also uh did the PTA um report you're citing did it uh cover financial aspects of uh the process >> on how much that process would cost? uh I didn't review that part but uh it did address what the cost for school consolidation would be
047and that to address that as part of the process. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. I have a question too if we have time, but go ahead. You go ahead. >> I I wanted to go back to the law piece because I'm like really nerdy about laws and impacts and stuff >> and knowing that the Oregon PTA is not a law, >> right? And um those are a recommendation of an association. Do you know the exact law? >> No, I do not. >> Okay. >> I'm referencing their document. >> Okay. Because when you use law Yeah. I can't get in discussion of code myself, >> but it does open it to the point that that should be looked into. >> Okay. Sammy. >> Yeah. Thank you, Debbie. Appreciate it. So, I
048did speak with the president of PTA Oregon after the guideline. Uh I don't want to ask you about it unless you think there is an answer there but in your understanding was there any time in the past in Corvalis or in other districts where the 8 months has been implemented from the time a school closure with specific options were announced to the time a decision has been made by the board. Are you aware of anyone who have done it that way? Well, I'm somewhat hearing that from you all because you're saying April May was when you started this process. Yet, you didn't disclose that Letician Carson could be one of the school closures. Yet, you're wrapping this into your revised proposal, >> which to me you've said started in April or May or even as
049early as February if you look at your frequently asked questions. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm sorry. My question is regarding is there anybody else like as a benchmark for us to follow who have done that where they say we're announcing this is the option and now let's have eight months before the decision is made. Uh did that happen anywhere? >> I'm going by the recommendations. I did look throughout nationwide and I saw in Connecticut and other uh states where they've gone through this consolidation process and they have had a much longer than the end of October when you disclose the Leticia Carson CL it's going to turn red right now. So no sorry Sammy you can't um and sorry Debbie to cut you off again but um thank you so much for your time
050this evening. >> Thank you. As a reminder about clapping, that eats into time, too. Yeah. Michael Eller. >> All right. Good evening, board members. My name is Michael Eller and I'm a parent, spouse, community member, and a taxpayer within the 509J school district. Tonight, you're going to be making a vote that will decide the fate of Leticia Carson and Shelderland Schools. You are fully aware that this proposal is inequitable, that the data appears incomplete and biased, that there are discrepancies in the cost, and that this has an unrealistic timeline even if it was approved tonight. You are also aware that it lacks community engagement and support and more pee more importantly meaningful input from teaching staff. You are also aware that this process has compromised the community's trust in the board and the district. Given
051the timeline and the criteria that the board gave to the district in preparation these proposals, this situation that we're in is not a surprise. This proposal has caused such chaos to address a deficit equal to 2% of the overall current district budget. But a deficit is still present. And as board members, I recognize that you feel the pressure to act by voting yes on this proposal because this deficit forecast doesn't look good. But news flash, voting yes on this proposal may do very little to the deficit in the long run. You see, what the proposal hasn't accounted for are costs related to implementation of these closures and consolidations, the anticipated loss of families leaving the district, and the negative impact that this process will have to the future 2027 levy for future closure costs or
052for closure costs. The FAQ says it's a one-time operational cost that won't diminish the savings that will come through closures. As Alex pointed out, um Lauren had pointed that these closures will save costs eventually, but it takes about three years for them to come to fruition. That's a long time. And I had a chance to talk with Lauren today about this. And I recognize that there's some nuances. But there's also some truth to it. This cost can be significant when you account for infrastructure improvements, new curriculum, increased busing, playgrounds, etc., which have not been included fully in this proposal. Also, this process has been handled so poorly that families are looking to leave the district. Our Save Corvalis school survey found that 25% of the 170 families surveyed are looking to leave this district if
053this is approved, removing additional funding. This compromised trust will also impact the ability of the district to pass and renew the local option levy in May 2027. This current proposal will bring forth short-term and long-term cost impacts that may diminish any savings that can come from this consolidation. Moving forward with this proposal in the manner that has been performed will make Corvalis the case history for other school districts to observe and to avoid. Board, I'm with you. I love this city. I love this town. I want to see our students, our staff. I want to see this district thrive. We are on the same team here, but we know that the forecast indicates that some schools will need to close and we need a better comprehensive plan. >> Sorry, your time's up. Sorry. >> Oh,
054thank you. >> Is there any questions? >> Did you have a couple more sentences you would like to read from your statement? >> I would love to. Thank you. So, here is what I need from you. Vote no on this proposal. direct the district to engage with the long range facilities planning committee and the budget committee to develop a multi-year multi-school plan that follows the best practices. Engage the public and the district staff throughout the process and set a realistic timeline because we're on the same team. Let's do this. Thank you. >> Yes. I did have one question. You mentioned um in addition to wanting to hear the last because I can tell you we're almost done. Um the you mentioned there was biased data. Can you elaborate on that? >> Yeah, absolutely. I just
055think the selection of the schools uh given all of the parameters looking at equity, looking at accessibility, there's no way that you can approach that um if you were kind of going an unbiased mind and seeing where kids are distributed. And you know, I asked a board member about this in doing one of our one-on ones, which I thank all the board members for getting together with us. That was huge. That's what community does. I think that the response that I got from the board member indicated that there wasn't a a clear um defense against biasness, but I think it came to the conclusion that we're all biased, right? And if you can tell me that there's no bias within this analysis, please let's have that conversation. But from everything that we've seen, it's there.
056And it can be from, you know, who is developing the bias, who who is going to be benefiting from some of these changes. It's not the students. It's not the students that's benefiting. And I'm concerned. That's really that's Yeah. unfortunate. >> So, >> we have a minute left. If you can do it quick, you got it. >> It's quick. >> Um, so, um, if we go through this long process and we identify the same schools for closure, is that acceptable? If you go through the long process and it you follow like just transparency and we're on the same page, like I said, we're on your team. Yeah, that's the right path >> and equitable concerns. >> I think that if you're going to develop a long-term um analysis or I'm sorry, not a long term.
057If you're going to develop an analysis, bring everybody from the community. That can be it. I mean, get representatives from every school. Don't bring just, you know, Leticia Carson or Sheldon or whoever. Every school, please. like this is a Corvalis schools thing, not not a Leticia Carson or Sheldon. So, >> yeah. >> Thank you, Michael, for so much for coming this evening and your time. >> Thank you, >> Amanda Nolik. Good evening. My name is Amanda Naik and I'm speaking tonight as a parent and a community member. I want to begin with something fundamental, trust. Over the past two weeks, some board comments have dismissed community concerns as uninformed or overdue. That's unfair. We've had nothing substantive to respond to until the last two proposals were released. And even six months ago, May 15th, the
058board acknowledged that no boundary or closer decisions were expected this year. It's not the community's responsibility to anticipate unspoken plans. Our role as citizens, parents, and taxpayers is to hold the public officials accountable and to ensure that our schools and policies reflect the needs and the values of our city. And this proposal does not reflect those needs and values. It sidelines one entire section of Corvalis, both geographically and demographically, and disproportionately impacts one of the district's most vulnerable communities. Equity is not about pretending every school is the same. It's about recognizing where the needs are greatest and ensuring that the support follows those needs. Your community has lost trust in this process. The district has tightly controlled the narrative both in the boardroom and in community sessions and consistently steered it towards a predetermined outcome.
059Even at Monday's deliberation, when board members asked critical, direct questions about data and process, other members intervened to soften or redirect those questions. That's not transparency. That is evasion and it has undermined public confidence. As Alex has already said, your dire your own director of finance, Lauren Wolf, stated on May 15, 2025 that meaningful savings from consolidation wouldn't appear for three years. You know that this proposal does not solve the immediate budget shortfall or the impending future deficit. Please do not capitulate to the threats of FTE cuts without a comprehensive district-wide plan because those cuts will come and without real planning they will be reactive, destabilizing, and harmful to students. You have the community's full attention. Use it. Your own financial forecasts make one thing undeniable. More closures are coming. Approving this proposal tonight will
060lock you into a narrow path and erode the trust that you urgently need for the hard choices ahead. But for now, Corvalis is ready to work with you. I urge you to reject both proposals. In the next three months, we can de develop a phased district-wide plan to implement in fall 2027 by immediately convening the long range facilities planning committee, calling on the budget committee, and creating a process for genuine community input. Save Corvalis schools and hundreds of families stand ready to help. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there any questions from anyone? >> Thank you, Amanda. Appreciate your input. I would like to ask you under the assumption, this is just my personal assumption, if the runway to make any plan effective is now. So it's either we delay for a full year or
061we adopt one of the two proposals or slight modifications to the proposals. we go in May and we need to go into one of the community priorities on programming and we need to say we have to cut those at least for the first year and potentially more the following year because of the gap. Do you have recommendations? What should we prioritize first? And I'm sorry to put you in this tight spot. >> I don't know. I mean that's a good question and I think that's part of this like long range decision that we have to make and I think we need to have discussions open discussions as a community where we have actual back and forths and again I thank all of the board members for sitting with several of us over over the last
062week or two to discuss this. But um you know we are not necessarily the experts in in every single piece of this but we can see that there are things that are not meeting our needs and values in the community. So if I may follow up in general direction, you would prefer programmatic reduction in a classroom instead of building like >> I think that there are a lot of creative alternatives that we could have for finding the the finances that we need to bridge a gap and I think you also have the support of the community to help bridge that gap. Um and so if that means fundraising, we can do that. If that means boots on the ground, we can do that. If that means volunteering, we can do that. You have your support
063of your community as long as we are have the buy in but you don't have that yet. >> Thank you >> Bernie. We have a minute left. >> Hi. >> Quick question. Uh can you tell me your timeline again? >> Yes. So um immediately in the next three months I like really immediately I think we need to start developing a a long range plan and that includes the budget committee. It includes the the long range facilities planning committee and it also includes the committee the um community. And if we can work together in the next three six months, we can get a plan that just that looks at a the district as a whole and thinks about what do we have in front of us that we can actually afford? What what kind of open
064seats do we have and what can we how many schools do we actually need? and we can start from there and plan out instead of, you know, looking at it school by school. >> Just one I I know I'm running out of time. What What happens if we reach an impass at the end of this process? >> I don't think you're going to reach an impass at the end of the process. I think with you get the community engaged. >> Amanda, I'm sorry about your time's up on that part. Um, thank you so much, Amanda, for coming in. Susanna Davis. Hello, my name is Susanna Davis. I reside in the district and I'm a parent of kids at Sheldin and Leticia Carson. I'm also a research scientist with a PhD in education whose work focuses
065on educational leadership, policy, and change. I am urging you tonight to vote no on the revised proposal to close Leticia Carson Elementary. There are still significant gaps in both the process and the analysis behind this proposal. It does not reflect our district's core beliefs that our community expects and deserves. Our district's core beliefs say we must actively address inequities and foster equitable access. Everyone deserves to be treated equitably. Better decisions emerge when diverse perspectives are intentionally included and trust is essential. This proposal undermines all of those principles. It was developed on an extremely compressed timeline using only two narrow metrics, enrollment and capacity to make a decision that will deeply affect children, families, and entire neighborhoods. Let's do the more sophisticated values-driven analysis. This moment requires analysis that considers equity impact on children experiencing poverty,
066student demographics, difficulty of traveling to reassigned schools, impact on busing, neighborhood impact, and geographic equity, ensuring that neighborhood schools are distributed in a way that keeps schools accessible to families. The capacity data shared on Monday night highlight the imbalance. Schools involved in this proposal would be at or over capacity with Mountain View at 102% and Bessie Coleman and KJH at 98% while others remain significantly under capacity like Garfield at 80% and Lincoln at 64%. This is not equitable or sustainable. Transportation concerns make this work worse. This plan increases busing costs, forces more students to rely on buses, and reduces the number who can safely walk or bike. That's not good for families, for the environment, or for our community. I also ask you to consider the very real human cost for a specific cohort, this
067year's Leticia Carson fifth graders. Under this revised plan, they face multiple transitions in rapid succession, leaving their stable K5, spending one year in a newly expanded K6, then moving to a consolidated junior high, and then to a high school that may also face changes or closure. This level of disruption is unacceptable. Instead of pushing this through, let's take the time to do this right. Let's clearly define our goals, ensure they align with our values, your time, >> and conduct a comprehensive analysis. >> Is there any questions? >> Go ahead, Bernie. >> I'm going to ask a question I asked previously with the new speaker. If we go through this process and if we identified Leticia Carson as one of the schools to close, >> Yes. >> would you accept that? >> Of course. If we
068go through this process and we do this comprehensive analysis that takes multiple factors into consideration beyond enrollment and capacity, this should not be let's find the easiest math. It should be let's look at all of the things that we care about as a district and then let's find some metrics that will help us understand what our different options are and look at multiple alternative options and think about again think about this in a holistic and comprehensive way and if that's and if it ends up being Leticia Carson and this has been done in a transparent and community-engaged way yes of course I would accept that. Other questions? Z. >> Yes. I'm gonna lean on your professional aspect of uh your expertise. >> I don't think you may be glanced over it, but you probably attended
069our meetings. We had conversations before. I want to lean on your expertise here. >> On Monday, we understood uh uh in general, we do have poverty uh in all of our almost all of our schools and above a certain threshold in most of our schools. Mhm. >> Do you feel the school district should allocate boundaries or allocate students to schools based on their uh socioeconomic status or independent of their socioconomic status? >> Oh, no. Independent of their socioeconomic status. I mean, that's not how we should be um how we should be boundarying students. No, but I do think that when you have a current boundary, right, like our boundary of Leticia Carson, a current boundary, an existing boundary that serves a large um population, a a relatively for Corvalis, a relatively large population of students
070experiencing poverty that we should take that into consideration that the research shows that students who are historically underserved in a lot of different ways students experiencing poverty, students of color, English language learners, students with disabilities. These are the folks that have the hardest time with these kinds of disruptions to their education. So, we need to be explicitly taking that into consideration from the very beginning of the process. >> Thank you. >> Other questions? >> I have one that could be a yes or no because you're almost out of time. Do you think we can do this kind of review without protected data information that is necessary for some of this? >> Yes, I do. I mean, obviously, right, we follow we follow all we we make sure to keep everything to to keep what needs
071to be protected protected. I am >> Yeah. Okay. >> I and I do think that we can do that. >> Okay. Thank you so much for your time, Susanna. >> Thank you, >> Mariana. Let's go. >> My name's Mariana and I'm in fourth grade of Leticia Carson Elementary School and I wanted to ask you guys, why are you cl closing this school down? Cuz it was my community. I felt safe here. I felt like I was born here and I loved it. all of my teachers in every grade and I don't want to leave that school. Thank you so much, Mariana. If we can't answer questions, unfortunately, I'm sorry, but um we appreciate you coming tonight. Did you have anything else you wanted to share? Does anybody have any questions? Go ahead. Could you tell
072us about some of your favorite things about school? >> Um, one of my favorite things at school is to do literacy with Miss Nelson and Miss Bailey and all of the other teachers. >> Thank you. Do you have a favorite book? >> Um, Harry Potter. >> Judah, what are some of the things that makes your school special to you? One thing that makes my school special is that I have a community that I fel feel safe with and all my friends. >> Can I ask another one? Um, if you feel comfortable answering, do you ride the bus to school or do you get there some other way? >> I walk to school. >> You walk to school. And what's that like for you? >> Um, feel calming >> even when it's raining. Yeah. Okay, good.
073You're tougher than me. Other questions? Thank you Mariana for coming tonight. Tess Lucco Luco. Good evening. My name is Tess Lucco and I live within the Corvalis boundary and I am a parent of two children in Corvalis. I'm here tonight to talk about the importance of clarity as it relates to the proposals to close Sheldon and Carson schools and how unkind the process has thus has thus far been to our children in the community. As a parent, I'm deeply concerned. I think it it's been said multiple times by many folks tonight, but I think it bears repeating. Um, this process has been rushed and lacks clarity. As you know, current guidance for school consolidation recommends a lengthier process of 7 to 12 months for full data data analysis and community input. What our families have
074experienced instead is almost the opposite. Too little time, too little transparency, too little sense that our voices are being heard. The lack of community engagement and visibility into the development of these proposals is creating distrust of both the board and administration. There's a growing sense that these proposals were decided upon months ago and these meetings have been nothing more than charades designed to feed us all foregone conclusions. If there is any truth to this, I would like to assume positive intent. That those in power have avoided fully revealing the ugly reality of where our district may soon be headed as a form of protection for us all. The actual effect, however, has been a profound and deeply felt disregard. Clarity, as you may have heard, is kindness. As parents, we're not asking for perfection from
075the district or in this process. We're asking for honesty, clarity, and respect. The current proposals purport to address a budget shortfall, but the numbers don't add up in a clear way. There's a projected deficit of roughly $4 million next year. Yet, this plan saves only about 3 million, or likely less. By all accounts, it also isn't entirely clear what pushing schools like Lionus Pauling and Bessie Coleman to full capacity will actually look like. and most importantly from the perspective of my children feel like. If we all aren't absolutely certain about the data and math involved, whether Sheldon and Carson are the right schools to close, what trade-offs were making, and/or how students will be impacted, then a decision to move forward with these proposals without a deeper examination is likely to trigger a cascade of
076consequences that will result in complete erosion of trust in this board. Our schools are not just buildings. They are communities, places where our children find belonging, support, and start to shape themselves as learners and citizens. Closure of both schools would disproportionately impact some of Corvalis's most vulnerable. As we've heard, over half of of Carson's children live with financial hardship, which makes closure of this Title One school even more distressing. And yes, those of us who are parents of Carson children are and have been very aware of what Title One designation is and what it means largely because of the impact it has on our children. When we remove the school-based supports inherently part of Title One, force families to travel longer commutes, and eliminate very real community school connections, we aren't just unkind to those
077who need support. We create a system of cruelty that we are all forced to navigate. The absence of a fully transparent, clear strategic plan for the future of the district is a missed opportunity for courageous leadership. Board members, I know the decision you are asked to make tonight is >> your time is up. Is there any questions? Shauna, >> did you have just a few concluding remarks that you'd like to share? >> Yeah, if I have a second. Um, so I know the decision you're being asked to make tonight is difficult and scary, but our children deserve leaders who lean into the hard conversations, who invite scrutiny, and who treat families in the community like full partners, not afterthoughts. Please make the kindest and bravest choice. vote no on these short-sighted proposals and instead commit
078to a process that honors transparency, equity, and community. Thank you. >> Thank you. I have a question. Does anybody else have questions? I usually go last. That's why um in referencing that a process needs to be kind to children. Do you think that it would be more do you do you think kindness fits in if they came to the same conclusion that Leticia Carson and we've and students have been told this year and then if it's not closed and it's we're told it's closed would that feel kind to them too. So I think if there is clarity around what the process is moving forward >> for the kids for the kids for the kids I think if there is clarity from the board from administration from certainly school administration and teachers about um that you
079know there were plans made that we maybe didn't include or didn't know to include the right voices the right stakeholders and so we're having to reconsider and figure it out. I think kids understand that. They know that mistakes can be made, but the but the important part is how you fix it, how you address it in the end. So, I don't see that as um a lack of kindness for our kids. >> No, I meant my question was if we came back next year and said it was Leticia Carson, >> would that feel kind to the kids to tell them twice? >> So, I think that's a really good question for the kids. >> Yeah. Um, but I would say from having children in the district and my son being in the next room, I
080think he would appreciate knowing that the community, the district administration did everything they could and went down every path before landing on Leticia Carson. >> Okay, any other questions? Sammy, we got 48 seconds. >> A tough spot. If we delay, just like we had to do it last year, we have to choose programs that face the students to be reduced. Do you have recommendations for us for the May budget meeting where you feel comfortable come May, you would be comfortable with certain aspects of cuts? >> So, I'm going to hearken back to Amanda's response, I think, to a similar question that um there needs to be inclusion of more voices in that discussion. um folks that are teachers, students, folks that are expert in what's happening in our district to be able to decide that.
081I think what I would do is defer to those expertise. I would trust that. >> Thank you, Tess, for coming in tonight. >> Stephen Hul, before you get started, just one second. I'm sorry. We're going to let you talk, but I just wanted to ask the board how much time, how many more comments do we have? >> So, >> um I would prefer we hear as many comments before we break at the end of comment if possible. And that way we're it doesn't interrupt the public comment phase or should we take a after this comment. Do you want to take a break and then >> I don't think I can go for 14 more comments and discussion. >> You can take a break right now. I'd be fine. >> Are you okay with that? >>
082Yeah, because I really need to take a break too. >> You need to take a break. >> Thank you. Because it was I didn't want to tell you to go sit back down if you were not. I was going to I want to respect the public comment. >> I didn't know what I was going to be up here. Haven't gone. >> Okay. So let's take a five actual five minute break and then um when we get back the board needs to decide how much time we are going to extend public comment for I believe we are back. Everybody's here. So, let's go ahead and Okay, we are back online. And um is the board okay with an additional 30 minutes of um public comment to start with? >> I consent. >> 30 minutes. Okay, it
083is. Oh, no. I have to do math. It's 7:53, so we'll go for 30 minutes on that. I should have did it on a round number. Okay, >> we're ready for you. >> Yep. Just press the button, right? >> It's already on. It's on. Look at that. >> My name is Steven Hook. I reside in the district boundary with students at CV and Sheldon. >> About 15 years ago, I learned about a powerful tool to use in my classroom, and it's called a midcourse correction. If students are off track or the lesson isn't working the way it's intended, the lesson gets stopped and you make adjustments. Why? Because that's what honest leadership looks like. Recognizing when a plan isn't delivering the results you hoped for and having the courage to change course. The district needs
084that kind of courage right now. The consolidation plan, the shifting of resources, the way this has been communicated, none of it is producing stability, trust, or clarity. Families are confused, teachers are exhausted, kids are caught in the middle. And one of the most serious consequences of the proposal is what it means for students in the K8 model. Under this structure, what happens to band art, technology, CTE, or other elective classes? These are essential opportunities for growth, exploration, and identity building at a pivotal age. Removing or restricting these opportunities narrows students futures and limits their ability to discover their strengths. That is not a trade-off this community should accept. In education, we talk a lot about modeling the behavior we expect from our students. So, let me ask plainly, what are you modeling right now? Because
085what I'm seeing isn't accountability. It's not transparency, and it's not leadership. And to this board, you were elected to serve the public, not to protect a plan or a person. The community trusted you to make decisions rooted in fairness and honesty. That trust is wearing thin. If you continue to move forward without truly listening, if you ignore the overwhelming feedback from the people that you represent, understand that we will remember. Positions on this board are not guaranteed. They're earned through integrity and lost through silence. It's not too late to course correct. Admitting that something isn't working isn't failure. It's how responsible people lead. We can rebuild the trust. We can restore stability, but only if you're willing to be honest about what's gone wrong and take ownership of fixing it. That's what our students deserve.
086That's what this community deserves. And you're welcome for the break. Thank you. >> Thank you. And yes, thank you for the break. Um, is there any questions? >> Thank you, Stephen, for your time. Thank you, >> Carol McCarthy. Wherever you'd like to sit on the whole row, >> the the person on it and the red light will come on. >> And you can move this down if you need to. Your mic. There you go. I always have to. So, when the red light's on, am I >> You're good. You're >> good to go. Okay. Hi, my name is Carol McCarthy and I live in the district and pay taxes in the district. I was in the first graduating class from Wilson at that time, Leticia Carson now, and also the first graduating class of Shodelin.
087I was the first vice student body vice president at Shodelin. And that helped me become politically active throughout my life. I've held leadership positions in the community because of that foundation. I love those schools and I was just devastated to hear that um they're even up on the chopping block. especially taken aback when I saw as a data analyst myself how the decision was made and what was not considered and also how for every school the same information was not provided to the community let alone the short time frame that you've heard so much about already. So I would just urge you to reject both of these proposals. I think there have been some very strong arguments here tonight. Especially I was impressed when one of the speakers said that this is the second proposal
088is not a revised proposal. It's a new proposal. And as a new proposal, it should start from ground zero. It should say not be based on already making a decision to close a junior high and then pick an elementary school. No. If you're going to include a junior high and an elementary school, start there and see how it plays out. don't just um you know build on that and then go forward that way. It just doesn't make sense. I also think um for myself I value um neighborhood schools and I also value protecting the vulnerable students and I'm not sure how those were all factored into the analysis that I saw. they were um so I think you need to start over and I'm not sure about the boundaries but a lot of people seem
089to advocate for that but um I I think keeping a junior high open is extremely important because those are such critical years for people and I think children young adults need need that environment. So I think it's for me a very last thing I would do would be to close a junior high. So I did try to go from the beginning and listen you know to the staff report and take the numbers out of what was presented and I thought no that that the analysis for not closing Franklin was in properly done. If you look if you value neighborhood schools you can distribute those children back to their neighborhood schools and close Franklin for the same e economics as closing Latisha Carson. So I think it would be a preferred option to close Franklin all
090other things being equal. Um so I also just wanted to comment because I >> earlier times. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um is there any um questions? >> Could you conclude your remarks? Well, I'm a chemist and I love having my previous junior high be which was Highland at the time being named for Lionus Pauling whom I met and who is one of the most respected people in the whole world who had such a strong connection to Corvalis. I I just don't see the sense of bringing that into the mix of what's going on right now especially because naming it Corvallis Junior High sort of precludes Shodelin and ever reopening as what is it? Corllis Junior High number two. you know, it's just a bland, generic name that to me doesn't make any sense. So,
091thank you. >> Any further questions, >> Bernie? >> I just um need a quick um uh clarification. You said you want to keep two middle schools. >> Yes. And if that leads to closure of more elementary schools, which >> again I would I would if we had an a thorough process, I would rely on the outcome of that analysis. Also, I just wanted to address if I could one of your questions about if there is an impass. I mean, if you do an analysis and find three things are all equivalent and you can't find any other way to distinguish them, toss some, you know, throw the dice. You know that's um >> that one more question and that's it. >> One more question. We did thorough analysis and also we did debate in a public
092meeting whether should we put multiple schools with names and faces competing against each other or ask the for a proposal that is the best attempt. Which one do you prefer? Which model do you prefer? >> Could you repeat what the options are? Do you prefer an approach where we have multiple schools named and having conversations with them that this is a possibility before we vet their viability or do you prefer that we have one that says the best attempt? >> You know, I I'm I'm too inexperienced to even know. >> I think just first I would I would put the name changes off the off the agenda for now and uh I deal with it after the other more important issues. >> Thank you very much. Um, I had we had like 30 seconds left.
093Sorry. >> Sorry. >> I just was wondering if you know about Lionus Pauling's approach to eugenics against people with disabilities and stuff like that. It's a yes or no question. >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um, thank you for your time, Carol. >> Thank you, >> Heather Rankid. Is it on? Okay, thank you. Hey. Um, my name is Heather Rankin. I'm a parent of a fourth grader at Leticia Carson and a sixth grader at Linus Pauling. We're zoned for Garfield. My fourth grader attends Leticia Carson as part of the sister school program. I'm here because I'm concerned the district is preparing to close schools without a clear long-term plan for what comes next. The 2018 long-range facilities plan identified upcoming enrollment and facility challenges. While many of the maintenance and upgrades have been addressed,
094in 2025, we're being told there's no choice but to close schools at the end of the school year. On Monday, I believe it was finance director Lauren Wolf who said the district can't plan for 2038 because the budget cycle is two years. But that's not long range planning. That's crisis management. And two-year thinking is how you maintain this problem and not solve it. Strategic planning and budgeting are not the same. Budgets are a short-term tool. A long range plan is the shared vision that guides facilities, staffing, equity, and community partnerships over time. Without that vision, decisions become reactive and communities lose trust. The district's current plan ends in 2029. And while a new long-range facilities planning committee is said to be underway, there's no published framework beyond 2029 and no long-term plan showing how these
095closures align with the district's stated goals of equity, belonging, and adaptable learning pathways. This decision will shape our schools for decades, yet the focus has been on logistics, not direction. If none of us have a map, then how do we know we're going the right way? We need to focus on the destination, not just the route. I understand the urgency. Staff and students need time to adjust if closures happen. But what's wrong with waiting one year to do it right? By then, we could have a coherent community supported plan to guide facilities, enrollment, and budgets for the next decade or more. And I want to be clear. If after a full year of thoughtful, transparent planning, the district concludes that closing one of my children's schools is part of a resilient long-term strategy, I can
096understand that. But what I can't support is a decision driven by short-term pressures. Rushing now risks repeated closures every few years as populations shift. Pausing to build a resilient, long-term, and dynamic plan allows decisions that streng that strengthen rather than fracture school communities. Community is everything. Right now, trust in institutions everywhere is at an all-time low. This process is eroding trust at a moment when the district can't afford to lose any more of it. So, I urge you, please pause the final decisions for one year. Build the long ring vrange vision first and then let that vision guide the closures, not the other way around. Thank you. Any questions, Bernie? >> Yeah. Um actually I'm going to ask a question that my colleague has brought up previously. Taking a delay is an action in and
097of itself. It there are resources that has to it's associated with it. So if it leads to programmatic cuts, how do we determine what what uh how to do it? What to cut? Well, I think it was in one of the summer meetings also the finance director had said that um the first year was going to cost more money anyway, right? The first year of like budget cuts. Isn't that >> I feel like that's what the clip show, right? Yeah, because we I watched that clip earlier today. So, they said the first year tends to cost more money. It was like a June meeting. I can send you the link later if you want to. Yeah. Um and so it was going to cost more money that first year anyway. So, I don't know like
098I don't know how you decide what programs are cut and I know you have to have a balanced budget but I think the best thing to do is go through the budget line by line. I think I sent an email about this too like make f make sure people are justifying their spending you know because like it looks like on paper and like from what I've compared it looks like Corvalis is spending a lot more money on areas like travel and transportation and things like that than other schools that are larger. But I'm also not a budget expert though I did apply to be on the budget committee so you know >> other questions. I just want to do a point of clarification that the reference was a budget meeting so that would have been
099in the spring. >> Okay. >> Yeah. That's Yeah. Which that's all it's not a discussion. I just needed a point of clarification for the record. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you so much Heather for your time. Donna Kim. Hello. I've had many roles in Corvalis. I've been a classified person. I've been a PTA president, a teacher, uh chair of a career convention, a coach. I've done a little bit of everything. But I've also been a part of the school board when we needed to start the process of closing schools and needed to come up with a timeline. It's hard to believe that we're now at that timeline that for the next round of discussions and I have some updated thoughts of when we first began this closure process about 15 years ago. With three
100of my children teachers in the district, I still keep up to date on how the district is doing in terms of all the staff and the students. I volunteer when I can in my grandkids classes and field trips so I can stay connected with the schools. I volunteer in the ceramic studio with locker cleanups and I'm amazed at the talent of all of our students. When I was on the Corvalis school board, we had to deal with the enrollment numbers gradually going down. I vividly remember the 15-year prediction of lower enrollment by the numbers in kindergarten. We are now in those years when the biggest impact of lower enrollment was to happen. that normally corresponds with needing to close the school. I've been through a few of those closures. When Harding School closed down, we
101had a huge parent advocate group that looked at creative ways to keep the school open as a primary school. I even joined the school board to be involved with the decision-making of what schools would be closed. We had to lose two elementary and one middle school. Numbers do not lie. After the hours of listening to testaments, seeing the numbers, the future enrollment predictions, the older buildings, it was obvious that we needed to close down the schools that we did, and one of them being Harding. The parents that fought hard were devastated. Two of my children went from Harding to Adams and found a new set of friends that they're still in contact with. The kids are the ones to watch. They embrace new schools, new friends, and still have some of their teachers that went
102from Harding to Adams. Change is hard, but keeping the children with all the resources possible to help them succeed in school and getting them to explore their future interests are the most important issues to address. We must remember it's about the students and what's best for them, not we as parents think should happen. We have a dedicated and hardworking school staff. We have a district office that works hard to keep us always addressing the future and how to be prepared for that and a school board that needs to always look at facts and both what's best for the students and staff. It's never an easy task because I know from being on a school board member after retiring from teaching that the board has so much to read, calculate, listen to all sides of the
103issues and do what's best for the entire district. I believe in them and their discussions and I support whatever hard very serious decisions have to be made and I thank you school board for taking this responsibility very seriously keeping students and staffs forever in your thoughts when you make those tough decisions. >> Thank you Donna. Any question Bernie? >> Just a quick question. Um, do you feel now looking back that your decisions uh made the school district better? >> Absolutely. Because I knew all of the re because we would constantly in schoolboard meetings be talking about but if we don't do this then this program's got to go, this program's got to go. We've got to get back to the basics and that's all that we can give them. And we have so many amazing
104other programs that we have given this community which is awesome. I've I grew up in California and I was amazed when we came up here. Uh at this school district we have so much more than so many other states and we forget that because we've always had it so good. >> Donna, thank you for sharing. >> I think I she had something. Okay. >> Oh, >> Sha had raised her hand then Laura. So, or do you want to >> I'll defer to Laura? >> Okay. Go ahead, Laura. >> Um, do when was you when were you on the school board? >> Oh gosh, it was after I Let's see. Was it after I taught or before? I can't I want to say like 06 maybe. >> Okay. >> I'd have to go back and look.
105>> Um, I don't know if you know. So, um, if the school board knew about the enrollment decline, would they why did they pass the bond measure to upgrade the schools >> as well? Part of that is is while I know when we were still open, I mean, when all of those they they needed so much work that you know, you you just have to maintain buildings. I mean, that that's not a program decision. That's a there's codes you have to have in place to even have a school there and that's why we did it. >> Thank you, >> Shauna. We have about a minute left. >> Thank you, Donna, and thanks for sharing from your historic perspective too of of a past consolidation. Um, could you share with us examples of how the community
106were engaged in that process? >> Pretty much what you're doing now. Um, we had I know I just remember I think I went to every school that had the potential of being closed and we had three to five hour meetings just getting uh the comments from those families and that was very powerful because you know there was a lot I learned about those schools. I mean I knew where my kids were where I was teaching but I didn't know the other schools. That was awesome. Um I just felt like I learned so much. And then we also had um and I and I haven't been involved reading everything that you're doing, but I know we had some very specific criteria that we had to use to even make the decisions. Not all financial, but just
107specific criteria and then from that then we use those criteria to go through the process. >> Thank you. >> And we had a lot of open meetings too. >> We're actually out of time, Leo. I'm sorry. U maybe you can follow up later if you don't mind, Donna. >> Yeah. Um, thank you. >> Thank you so much for your time. >> Yes. >> Sorry, Leo. >> Erica Wood. Hello, my name is Erica Wood and I reside within the district boundaries. As I've watched this process unfold over the last month and a half, I've thought a lot about the concept of legacy. Consolidation isn't a decision that will just impact the district for a couple of years. It will shape Corvalis for decades. Your vote today will be your legacy on the school board. Do you
108want to be remembered as the board that stood up for equity, but only as a buzzword? Do you want to be remembered as the board that refused to think creatively, but instead named arbitrary constraint after arbitrary constraint that prevented you from creating a plan that didn't disproportionately impact one of the most vulnerable populations in the district? Do you want to be remembered as the board that claimed to serve all of Corvalis, but chose a solution that buses scores of low-income students out of Corvallis city limits, effectively telling them that they don't belong here. Legacy isn't about the effort you put in. It's about the consequences of your actions. Your legacy will not be making a hard decision. It will not be your campaign slogans. It will be devastating Corvalis, particularly Northeast Corvalis, for decades to
109come. And it will not matter that you aren't up for reelection until 2027 or 2029. If you vote for this proposal, we will not forget and we will vote you out. Is there any questions? I have a question. Um, where did you get your information that there scores and scores of low-inccome students? >> Um, I said scores singular score. refers to 20. Approximately 32% of Leticia Carson will be now going to Mountain View. Um given the uh demographics of uh Leticia Carson, if you approximate that across the uh roughly a hundred students that will now be bus to Mountain View, that adds up to scores. >> Okay. But how do you know they're all low-income students is my question because that's protected usually people's >> information. Uh yes. Well, I once again was just extrapolating
110from the uh Leticia Carsonwide information, but uh Northeast Corvallis in particular has um lots of multif family housing and section 8 housing, which tends to be families in poverty, particularly section 8 housing, which has income requirements. >> Okay, thank you. Does anybody else have any Judah has a question? Um Erica, were you able to do any research to find out where the section 8 and multif family housing is relative to that 99 border? >> Um I'm referring to the uh east of 99. Um section 8 housing uh I I know in relation to where my neighborhood is and it um if you know where Jackson and Frasier wetlands is, there is a bunch of section 8 housing back there. Um, and that is also right around where there's significant multif family uh housing. >> And
111so you're talking about the specifically the section 8 housing that you're aware of where you know that that's in the LC boundary. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I have a clarifying question. The Jackson Street or not Jackson Street, the wetlands, isn't that in Mountain View's boundary? >> Uh, yes, but I'm referring to the area behind that. Uh, there it's a very sharp cut off. So, um, the Canterbury Circle and Dorchester, that is in the Mountain View boundary. Um, but back behind that there is significant section 8 housing and that is in Leticia Carson boundary. >> I would have to look at a map, but thank you for clarifying that. >> Yes. >> Any other questions? Thank you for your time, Erica. >> Anna Robinson. the red. >> Is it Is it red? >> Okay.
112>> Um Okay. My name is Anna Robinson. I have two children that attend Leticia Carson Elementary. Um and I am um active with the PTA and volunteering at the school. I have a lot of volunteer hours. So, I've come to know all the teachers really well. Um, and I feel like the decision was um very quick uh information for the teachers as well, let alone the students. Um, I don't feel that um aligns with the Corvalis school district um philosophies. And I also have the budget parameters here as well. That was from February of this year. um sorry this year 2025 not this school year um coming up but um this is on the Corvalis school district website. Um the bullet points of that are student outcomes should drive the budget process. Um they should
113also provide every student with equitable access and opportunities. Um decisions should be informed by data uh base resourcing decisions on the total value created for students. Uh the budget project should seek to allocate resources in a way that creates relevant and engaging learning experiences for students that support their short and long-term goals towards an evolving future. Um which under that is prioriti prioritize strategies and programs with proven cost effectiveness um and make student centered decisions. Critically examine re-examine patterns of spending. take a long-term perspective, engagement, transparency, and accountability. And that means engaging student and staff voice in the budget process, fostering identity and agency. Make performance data readily available. The budget process should be informed by valid and reliable data on fiscal and academic performance. Consider all direct and indirect expenditures in evaluating the cost
114of educating students. Use a consolidated budget that considers all available funds. Acknowledge constraints on categorical spending, but consider all available funds to make the most impact with available resources. Be clear on what actions are being funded to help the district reach its board goals, not just line items and broad expenditure categories. And under that, it says board goal one, excellent learning experiences. Board goal two, equitable systems. Board goal uh three, relevant and engaging engaging learning. And board goal four, healthy communities. um with two schools closing on your proposal, that doesn't really align with what your um budget parameters are saying in this that you've done this year. Um so I think it's also clear that the community of Leticia Carson and um Sheldon do want that transparency that you are saying that you've adopted in
115the school board budget parameters. >> Your time is up. >> Thank you. >> Questions, Leo, >> can you conclude your remarks? Um, so the the beginning part of the budget parameters, it says, "Budget parameters are general guidelines that the district intends to honor through its budget process. They set forth the ideals that the district's decision makers will adhere to as they develop the budget through an understanding that these decisions have long-term consequences. Budget parameters are important for creating a shared understanding of the overarching values that underpin budget development. Unlike the district's fiscal policies, which tend to be more technical, budget parameters can be understood and appreciated by all stakeholders, including the public. So, I feel like this is a very good outline of what it is intended by the budget committee and the school board
116and everything. And this is on your actual website and this is from this year. So, this would have been similar to that spring planning time that was discussed earlier with one of the speakers. And so I just want to make sure um like that accountability is here, transparency is here like many other people have said and um with how involved I am with the school, I just have seen firsthand how it is affecting the students and the teachers um after they had first heard everything and I just I feel like more consideration needs to be at hand. um especially since it's affecting you know hundreds I mean over a thousand families really because if you account for the middle school and elementary school staff custodians I mean PE teachers music this is affecting literally everyone
117in those two schools and I just think um they really do need to be considered in this whole process and it just can't be rushed when there's you know thousands of lives that are being affected by this. So >> go ahead Sammy. There's one more minute left. >> So thank you. Um and briefly Ann Hannah we heard from the community through the budgeting process over the last two three years that there are priorities like maintaining class size, programming, access to music, arts and and uh libraries. And one of the suggestions we heard in the listening and learning budgets inputs that we need to think about consolidation to preserve those programs and what you mentioned the budget parameter which is any decision should drive student outcomes. Do you recommend that we slash some of those programs
118that drive students outcomes in order to preserve buildings or do you prefer that we preserve buildings? Um just coming from my own experience and um my kids experience they were kind of that was in the discussion too. I mean we've already seen cuts with the library staff staffing time. She's being split between two different schools possibly three. Um you know people are going down to part-time and everything and I think um with students those things your time's up. I'm sorry. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sorry. Thank you Anna for your time this evening. Um, and before you call the next person up, I need to do a point of cl You can go sit down if you like. A point of clarification because um, budget parameters are applied to our budget process and we adopt
119them in the winter to be applied in the spring through that process each year. So, it only applies to the budget process during that timeline. So, I just want to make sure that's clear to the community um, that it's not part of this discussion for that reason. It get it happens every year. So, I just want to make sure folk know that. >> Christa Schmider. >> Oh, hold on. Sorry. I'm so sorry, Christa. Um, >> you're good. >> How much time would the board like to extend? We went 30 minutes. How many comments are left? >> Eight. >> By three. That's 27. Sorry. >> Another half hour. >> 30 minutes. Okay. Up to 30 minutes. We are not going to be able to extend beyond that though because we actually we need time before we're
120very tired to This is a very important decision. So, I want to make sure you all know that. We're not trying to cut you off. We have to be able to actually talk to about it. >> Huh? >> I don't think that's allowed under public meeting, but yeah. the correct button and the right button. Uh my name is Christa Schmeer and I teach at Coralis High School and I'm also a parent of kiddos in the district and um I'm also the union president. So it's hard for me to talk about all of this because our staff are just really really struggling. Everybody's exhausted. um whatever decisions in is made if it impacts a building I hope that there's a plan to support staff at that site tomorrow because they've been carrying a heavy weight trying
121to teach and do their research and read the board reports and watch the board meetings and so I just whatever decision is made please support people. Um the union decided not to advocate for one building over another because we thought you were going to bring two names and then it was going to be hearing from two schools about how their programs needed to be saved and we'd be forced to pick to advocate against our own members and we didn't want to do that. We have some members that are totally pro- closing two sites because they want to see our pathways at the high schools developed. We have some people that are anti-closing any schools because they are have not been part of the process. So in terms of like a decision, I can't make it
122easy on you and say all the staff feel one way, but the decision being made would be super helpful. And from what I understand, if no schools are closed, 26 certified teachers, mostly classroom teachers and specialists will be cut and class sizes will increase by five students a grade level per class. Um, if one site's closed, there will be a nine and a half FT loss, mostly through admin, uh, non-rep and classified staff, and 15 classroom teachers and program like specialists will be cut. And if two sites are closed, 18 staff will be lost. Um, mostly admin and classified, and we'll still have a budget deficit we'll have to figure out somewhere, probably from the district office budget. And we will lose 5.5 classroom teachers. And most of those would not be classroom facing teachers.
123So I'm assuming TOSAs and people that support the work that we do, which is still really crappy to think about. So when people say that closing a school doesn't save money for a year, I've come to understand the physical building, there won't be a savings in the physical building for a while because the the savings is from people. And so um you're being asked to make an impossible choice to pick buildings or programs and people and the communities that people love and imagine their children going to for the next like 5 years. So, um, I don't envy your position. I'm just really sad for all of our members and for you guys that you have to make this decision because it's been pretty awful. Um, that being said, I'm starting to feel like a bad
124luck charm because my elementary school was closed. Um, and now is College Hill. My middle school was torn down, is now the AYSO fields that I see a lot of community at every weekend. Um, and my high school is closed and rebuilt. Um, so I'm starting to feel like a bad luck charm. Um, but when I heard that student talk about what really mattered and the walkability piece is a big deal to a lot of people and that's a hard sell for Mountain View, honestly. Um, but she cared about her friends and her teachers and her art time and all of those things. And I just want all the students out there to know that they're all doing a really good job and they I don't want them to think that anything they said or
125didn't say or posters they made or didn't make had an impact on like a negative impact on their school in any way because they're all doing a great job. But I want them to know that their teachers hopefully will be coming with them if their school closes or they'll be back at their building with many of their teachers. Um so anyway, the time was up and I'm sorry but um I just want the kids to know that none of this is their fault. Thank you, Christa. >> Yeah. >> You all have any questions. Shauna, >> Christa, thank you so much for being here. >> You're welcome. >> You mentioned some staff just in terms of, you know, feelings being all over the place and lots of support needs and you also referred to staff who
126felt like they haven't been engaged or or part of the process. Are there asks that you've heard from staff as to ways they could better be involved in the process? I ask that question a lot because I feel like sometimes a little bit of a failure in that department because like I've been thinking about the schools closing since 22, you know, like when I saw the budget reports and I saw like the staffing and what people don't understand is that we got all this ESER money during COVID to do magic, right? to like make up school overnight and feed our kids and get clay boxes to the kids and fire their projects. You know, I remember doing clay lessons on my computer like this and being like, "Can you guys see me? Okay, I'm making
127a thing." You know, like it was crazy. But we got all this Esser money and while our enrollment was going down, we were spending it to support students with people and like it was doing this and I'm like, "Oh god, no. Why?" Ah. And then they took away the esser money and like usually staffing goes like you know people and kids do this and hopefully we have more people than extra stuff you know classroom facing people and EAS and all that but we did this and then we were like ah and then we made reductions and we're like oh no reductions and like I don't know what else we can do with less in terms of people like we just we don't have enough people and I also love all of our schools. My niece
128and nephew went to Laticia Carson and one, you know, is really upset by this. So, anyway, other questions? >> Thank you so much, Krista. Oh, sorry, Laura. Go ahead. >> Um, did you mention that you're a teacher? >> Yeah. >> Um, as a teacher, how important do you feel that um you're maintaining a relationship with your student? like in terms of consolidation or in terms of like general >> well in general like the relationship piece is more important than any piece of equipment I have in my room. Um the kids rarely stop by to say hi to the slab roller, you know, like most of the time they want to come say hi to me. Um so I think relationships are super important and I always learn a lot more from my kids than I
129get to teach them. So thank you And you mentioned that staff could potentially be following depending, but it's all dependent on the negotiate or the contracts, right? We only have like 9 seconds. >> Yeah. So, there's seniority. Um, there's skills specific merit. So, like, you know, if you're going to teach ceramics, you have to know how to fire a gil. Like, that's a thing. And then there's culturally and linguistically diverse staff >> provisions. Thank you, Christa, for your time. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off like that. >> No, you're good. I don't want to talk anymore. McKenzie Hernandez. Hi. Can you hear me? Okay. My name is Mackenzie Hervasio Hernandez. I have a son at Shelderlin and a daughter who's in fourth grade. Um, I'm just coming to you as a parent to plead, to
130just pause it. We are being affected in so many ways. this happening and you know I'm thinking of the staff not myself. Um they need it. They need the help and we need time to really think about this and pause it because your this is a your decision is affecting these children. Honestly, my daughter's truly devastated. Um my son is in Shuddalin and he's a troubled teen and they have alternative classes. If you put those two middle schools together, it's not going to help these children at all. You are putting in too many kids in my opinion for this school. And to give these children smaller classrooms, I don't think this decision decision will help my son. It may not affect him next year, but I'm thinking of the future children of that school. And
131I just ask you as a parent, I plead and beg you just give it one more year. And if this is still your decision next year, I will be on board and I will agree. But as of right now, I think you guys need to wait. >> Thank you. Is there any question? Are we done with your comment? Yes, sir. Any questions? >> Theres, go ahead. >> Um, thank you for sharing. I I know I'm hearing from a lot of folks that this will any decision whatever it is is going to be difficult. Um you mentioned class sizes and so if we don't do anything as you've heard this evening um it's it's a large gap >> that will um the folk person before you shared we're talking about 20 25 26 um certified teachers.
132um how do you think that weighs against the potential shifting of locations? Um changing location versus losing across the district almost 30 adults that can facilitate classes and and assist with class sizes. What are your thoughts about that balancing those two things? >> My thoughts should not be shared. That's all I can say. I have certain thoughts and I think that maybe keeping them to myself would be best on this matter. >> Okay, I appreciate your discretion. Thanks. >> Yeah, >> Leo, >> um, do you think you'd be more on board with the proposal now rather if it was a longer process rather than holding off for a full year? >> I think it gives us more time to prepare ourselves, especially if we are walkers. as you can tell my daughters that she enjoyed
133walking in the rain. No, it's because I don't have a license. I do not drive. If it is a local school, there is no point to drive. So, I would rather give it more time to prepare my children. Laura, >> um, what do you think your students, if you feel comfortable, what do you think your students might, what challenges would they feel, um, if they have to transition from Shaolin to um, CJH um, they would not handle it very well. My son is a very troubled teen and that just is more of a handful for teachers that are already dealing with enough. Uh my daughter would transition fine. Kids are resilient. But my goal here is what about the staff? How are they going to handle it? >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Thank you,
134Mackenzie, for coming tonight. Kai Bredawick. You got this again. Um, I feel like I want to just put out that Leticia Carson feels like a second home to me and closing it would just be a shame to me and having it be a second home. And I'm pretty sure that's the same with most other people in my class. And >> hey buddy, can you slide up just a little bit? >> Oh, sorry. and then move the mic down just a little bit to your mouth. >> Thanks. But it would be an impact big impact to another the community. And I another thing um that I want to bring up is um I I live close enough to Lester Carson that I can walk to school every day. And that would take away the convenience of
135being able to walk to school every single day. and I would have to like change the whole thing. And well, next thing I want to bring up is um like every basically every day I go to Wildcat Park after school and um play with friends and um if I if we transition if I transition to a different school, that would be a lot harder to um to like go to a park and meet up. So that's one of my concerns and that's all I've got that I feel like sharing. >> Good job. Thank you. Can you tell us what your name is again? >> Kai Bradway. >> Thank you. Does anybody Judah Kai? You said you walk to school every day. Can you tell me a little bit more about why that's important to you?
136>> Well, um it's convenient and it saves um the time of getting through traffic with everybody else on their way to school. >> And can you tell me about how long it takes you to walk to school? >> Five or 10 minutes. >> So, it's really close. Yeah. Um, even though Wildcat Park will still be open, how would how would the that kind of relationship with your friends change? um we'd have to like organize it instead of just being able to get like walk like I don't know 30 sec like a one minute take a one minute walk over and >> thank you so much you you did awesome >> any other question oh it looks like we have more questions for you >> did great I want to ask you one more question if
137that's Okay. I really want to lean in what you shared about it feels like second home. If you can talk to me a little bit more about what makes it feel second home in terms of people and relationships and help you get from adults. Well, um I've just got a lot of people I know and I've been there for at least five years and it just it would be a shame to know know that I'm not able to go back to that school. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing. >> Thank you for coming tonight, Kai, and sharing with us. Xavier Robson. My name is >> Can you scoot up a tiny bit? >> This is where your voice is. >> I go to Laticia Carson. My name is Xavier. I think I
138like my school because there is a lot of fun stuff. I like the school and I like playing with my friends and Mariana. I like my teacher teachers. I like how my school is kind and this is the best school. Thank you for Wildcat way. Go wild cats. >> Thank you. Is there any questions? Judah >> S, can you tell me about um what's special about going to school every day? >> Like because like sometimes I know math. >> You do math. Is math your favorite subject? Um what about reading? Yeah. Um how do people help you learn when you're at school? when um I go in reading groups. >> So, do you walk to school or do you take the bus? >> Um I drive my car and sometimes I bike to school. >>
139Um do you like biking to school? Thank you so much. You did great. >> Any other questions? Sammy >> Xavier take your time and I want you to tell me if there is any story or something that really you will bring with you always in your memory about a nice experience one of the teachers or the people in the school have uh made your experience nice >> when I have sometimes epic. >> Tell me more about that >> like reading books. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Appreciate your answer. >> Any other questions? Thank you so much, Xavier, for coming here tonight. Sirill Gable. My name is Sarel Gable. I do live in the district and I was a member of the school board from 1995 to 2005. and I'm here to speak in support
140of the members of the board as they face these difficult decisions. I know what it is like to be embroiled in controversy when the barrage of comments from the community, no matter how carefully stated, can end up feeling like personal attacks. At the very best, you may feel that your best intentions are misunderstood. I'm not here to support any particular outcome as you seek to address declining enrollment and your very grave and immediately present budgetary insufficiency. I'm just here to support you and acknowledge the courage that it takes to make the hard choices that must be made. I want also to recognize the extensive work the administration has done in support of making these decisions. Today, the board faces circumstances that are similar to those that we faced 20 and 30 years ago. Those years
141were very difficult as we faced steadily shrinking budgets due to measures five and 50 and the centralization of the school funding. Many services were curtailed. I mean, every year we were cutting something and we addressed many impossible choices. On the positive side, we were the first district to put on the ballot and pass a local option levy, which today still assists you to some extent, some small extent. Um, during my tenure, we too used a bond measure and made the first round of renovations to earthquake harden our schools and built two new schools, CHS and Lionus Pauling, to address earthquake safety. And I believe that the bond measure that you then later passed continued to address a lot of those earthquake safety issues. Um, nonetheless, we also closed several schools as has been mentioned, Harding,
142Fair Play, and soon thereafter, Inavale. Um, and we consolidated three middle schools into two. Um, like today, our decisions caused great community consternation. um completely understandably and I remember feeling torn by the pain and fear that parents expressed. I was a parent with kids in school then too and my kids were also affected by the decisions. I know that you too feel this pain and are loathed to cause disruption to students and families. Um you were elected to bear this burden. I see you addressing it. Um I wish you courage in making these difficult decisions. >> Thank you. Any questions from the board? Bernie, >> again with hindsight, >> would you change your decision from previously on the consolidation? >> It was necessary. It was It was just It was horrible. And it was necessary.
143Shauna >> Sirill, thank you so much. Were there any lessons learned from community engagement approaches that you think could be helpful for us to be considering today? >> Truthfully, I don't think that I remember very clearly exactly how we managed the community discussion. So, I don't think I have any advice to offer you there. Other questions? Thank you so much for coming tonight. Sarah >> Will Roen Cober. >> Good evening. My name is Will Roen Cobber. I am a resident of this district. I have two children at Leticia Carson. I am an alumni of Sheldon and Crescent Valley. I spent eight years working with the Crescent Valley robotics team, both as a mentor and as a coach. And I see a lot of parallels between coaching 50 somewhat passionate high schoolers building one machine and
144what we're all doing here today. Lots of ideas, not a lot of time, not a lot of money. and a lot of frustration because there's passion and there's a lot on the line. But I think there's also opportunity and I want to answer Bernie's question from meeting on Monday. What's the risk? What's the risk of our actions? Your actions today. Sammy mentioned that vouchers are coming. Federal vouchers are coming. The money is going to follow the students. You're going to have to compete against private schools. This is an opportunity. It's not a burden. We have to have comprehensive consolidation. Not one school, not two schools, realistically four to five schools to make this district competitive and streamlined. I think in my opinion and my comment is that we need to start with the child, with
145the student. We need to build concentric rings of support. As far as adults, we need to support that child and what is decided as far as the model student, what we want them to learn, the skills we want them to have. And we need to build those rings in accordance to those guidelines. We can't have sacred cows. You know what my opinion is? Sa sacred cows taste the best. We should eat them all. Everything should be on the table. Everything. And I mean to the point that if it's not legally mandated, we should have it on the table. We have to decide what is important here. And it should be the children. This enterprise, this school district exists for children. It doesn't exist to employ adults. We have to support these children in their development.
146We have to guide them. We have to give them the skills and opportunities to thrive to the best of their ability. They are not equal and I don't expect them to have equal outcomes but they should have equal opportunity and that's what we need to provide to them as adults in the room. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, is there any questions? >> I had one question for you. you mentioned, since you mentioned the vouchers, would you be willing to help advocate to not allow those in our state? >> I will tell you this, I'm one of the families that said that I would leave this district if you guys can't show leadership. I was one of the 25%. And I was also a family who put my children in private school to great personal
147cost during the pandemic because it was the best decision that I could give for them. I am choosing to stay here in public education with my children until it is no longer the best decision because my children are my biggest investment. If I have to sell everything I own to give my children the best opportunity, that's what I do as a parent because it's my responsibility. That's what every parent has as a responsibility is to put everything they can into their kids. I will do what I can when it's the right thing to do. And I told you at the last comment session that I am here to help you. I'm here to do the hard work, too. And there's some big brains out here that want to help, too. I'm not saying I'm one
148of them, but there are some big brains out there. There's some smart people in this community, one of the most educated communities in this state and in the country. And I think you should lean on that expertise in building this plan, this model to help our kids. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you for coming tonight. Well, >> you're welcome. Thank you, >> Chris Blacker. Is this on? All right, man. We have some great parents and kids out there, aren't we? This is a heck of a night. Well, tonight I'd like to take a step back and just ask ourselves, how did we get here to this proposal? How do we get to a place where we're closing a middle school against our own data? The data that says we'll be at 86% in
149three years in order to maintain inequity and to protect privilege. The long-range facility planning committee did its work over the summer. They did great work. They did the analysis and they came out with some recommendations. We need to redistrict our our school system. We need to engage the community before developing any major plans. And we need to distribute resources more equitably across our schools. They did not recommend a closing. They did not name a school, but instead of rebalancing or following their guidance, the district has explicitly avoided redistricting. Dr. Nos said in his initial proposal, this was a benefit of this plan is we don't have to redistrict. But what does that cause when we decide now to close a middle school because the immediate problem is obvious where do we put all the kids?
150So the easy question, the easy answer, sorry, was hey, we can throw them into Mountain View and make a ad hoc K8. But there's no plan for transportation, electives, programming, teachers, teacher licensing, or capacity. Mountain View is said to be at 102% by the district's own data on day one. We had a board member ask, "Is 102% too much?" Well, I can answer for you, yeah, 102% is over 100. We have these metrics for a reason. If we're full or over capacity, this is not a plan. This is failure. So, what about the rest of the spur students? That doesn't even fix the problem. Just creating a K8. have to push all the sixth graders back to elementary schools. Again, no programming plan, no elective plan, no licensing plan, no capacity plan for certain schools,
151and no transportation plan. But now we might even add transportation to Franklin. So again, what does the district say when they're propos these questions? How are we going to do this? They say, we'll figure it out somehow. Some way we'll get the innovation committee. We'll get the long-range facility committee to help us. But neither one of those committees are actually even engaging these questions. The innovation team folks have told us they're not actually talking about this. The long-range facility planning committee is not even engaged at all. They have not even reviewed this proposal and given their feedback. We should allow these folks to re-engage. We do not need to wait a year. We have plenty of time to re-engage the long-range facilities planning committee to re-engage or actually initially engage the budget committee. And let's
152look what's going around us. We have examples of other school districts doing things just like this. Bethl just closed a middle school. They did not decide that at the district level. their long range facility planning committee, a group of 24 people, looked at the options and voted. They are the ones that gave proposals to the board and the board decided without district interference. We can do that, too. Eugene is moving up their budget process significantly because of the budget downfall. They're going to use that with their long-range facilities to be able to look at all the options on the table line by line. They're going to have the time that our budget committee did not. I watched the videos last night, all three from last year. They had no time to to look at the
153budget and actually review the lines. They were told they couldn't even do that. We need a budget committee to look at our plan, look at our budget, find all the savings we possibly can, and then also not look at middle schools because it doesn't make any sense. We have to consolidate elementary probably two or three. >> Any questions? I have a question as well. Go ahead, Crystal. >> Thanks, Chris. Um, what has you came here several times and used as your platform to close elementary schools. >> Yes. >> So, what has changed? >> Nothing. I think you should still close elementary school. So, your own data says something. You have 1,400, let me say that again, 1,400 empty seats in your elementary schools. The average elementary school is 4 or 500 kids. You could close
154three easily and have no problem with capacity. The only reason we say we can't close it is because it requires redistricting. You can't do it unless you redistrict, but that's what the long-range facility planning committee told you to do. The middle schools have 150 empty seats. That's not enough to consolidate. So, when we put this plan out immediately, it's like, oh god, where do we put the kids? Well, we have to have a K8 at Mountain View. even though it has absolutely no capacity for that, nor the facilities, nor the ability to offer electives. You know, the last meeting someone pushed on this, I don't remember which board member asked Ryan, like, well, what is the plan for that? And maybe it was Theres, you know, we have this coming up. We need to have
155some idea of what we're going to be doing. And the response was honest. And I appreciate it. It was, hey, we're doing the best we can. >> Chris, thank you for an kind of answered my question there. And second, >> I'm still I still just maybe did I do I do support closing elementary schools. That's what I always said. I never thought a middle school made any sense. Neither does anyone else. >> Second, when you referred to Bethl again and their decision recently. Yes. >> So they allowed no community output. >> There were many community members on the long-range facility planning committee just like ours. And if you would ask, if you would ask now, right now, a couple weeks, say long-range facilities planning committee. We never asked for a proposal. What would you do?
156You did the work. They're the group that you keep pointing to that said this started seven or eight months ago, right? But you never asked them for for for a proposal. You never asked them what would you do. They said redistrict. They said it has to be equitable. And they said you have to engage the community before you make a plan. >> So how did we follow their guidance? Why are we not asking them what they would do? That's what Bethl did. And they voted and the community is accepting it. It's not fun. All of this stinks obviously. >> Thanks. >> But they applied an equity tool. They also had members of their equity committee on that committee. Where is your equity? Some board members here have said that equity is not even a consideration.
157It is capacity. It is savings. Where is the equity data? And I won't say one thing. I just find it pathetic that we keep dismissing and diminishing the poverty at Leticia Carson. We keep wanting to look at certain data, certain report cards, and say it's only 37, it's only 39. At one point, I believe Looi even asked, "How do we even know it's a title one? It's not at 40%." But the Oregon Department of Education data says there's 70% plus kids there that are on SNAP, pre- reduced lunch. That is Oregon data from 2025. We cannot dismiss this. this and as someone who's been spent hundreds of hours there, you've seen some of the children speak, there is significant poverty at this school. Please do not ignore it. >> Um, it's a yes or no
158question with our last 8 seconds. Are you aware that Bethl's board went against what was recommended by their long range facilities by closing an entire year or or sorry, it's a yes or no. >> My time's expired, but it is expired. >> I don't believe that's an accurate representation of what's happened. Okay. >> At all. I think you're trying to mislead the question and try to lead yourself. >> Yep. >> Thank you for your time, Chris. >> Thank you. >> I did need to do another point of um clarification for folk on the long range facilities planning committee work would that consolidation was not within their scope and I think that needs to be clarified. Um, that's why it was not a recommendation. And if it feels like I'm challenging people by doing points of
159clarification, it's extremely important that accurate information is clarified when it's skewed or misrepresented. >> Penelopey Seldera Bonsson Oh, he was already on. Sorry. Um, my name is Penelopey. I reside within the Corvalis School District. If you don't already know, I'm a senior at Crescent Valley High School. Um, I graduate in about six months. I'm not going to school at OSU, and so I will leave Corvalis. I do not have much at stake in the school district. That being said, I still am here speaking to you because I have witnessed the impact that the p past few weeks have had on countless students, staff, and families. This community is resilient. We show up and we demand our voices be heard. This will not be stopped when you make this decision. As the senior class president at
160CV, I am involved in the community. There is chaos around this plan. People are talking about election recalls and lawsuits. People are infuriated at the lack of transparency and lack of communication. This decision will affect your legacy. You are a school board. You are supposed to serve the public. If you believe in your position, then actually act like it. Listen to the public when you ask for our opinions and take it into consideration. Don't be like the eight Democrats that broke party line earlier this week for insurance premiums, losing the respect of their Democratic constituents. Stand strong and listen to us. Do not fall into line with conformity and pressure as the Democrats did to attempt to end the shutdown. make a decision that will truly positively reflect what your community needs. Additionally, we as
161CV, there's a bunch of bunch of CV students showing their support in the overflow room, just so you know. Um, we appreciate the historic perspectives from last the late school board members. Um, as you heard, we are receiving you are receiving support from schoolboard members members from before I was even born. Um, I ask if you are saying that we are in the same position as we were 20 or 30 years ago, is that not an obvious sign that what happened then did not really work? That school consolidation requires more than just school closures? Tonight, you have the opportunity to create a new outcome and stop us from being in the same position in 20 to 30 years. This entire night, you have heard pleas to slow the process down and re-evaluate. I echo these
162sentiments. And not only that, I reiterate the fact that as the school board, you are making decision decisions that will actually help or hurt families, students, and staff. You are making decisions that will impact this district for years to come. And you are making decisions that will impact how you are viewed in the public eye. Thank you. Is there any questions? I have one question. Do you think it was mentioned about how many teachers we could lose? Do you think that would be supportive? >> What do you I'm not sure what you're asking. >> You're mentioning impacts on to think about impacts on students and on staff and everybody. If we lost that many teachers, would that be worth it in your opinion as a student? >> Like if we are closing the schools? >>
163No. If we don't close closed schools, it was already mentioned that we would lose I have to look on the other page 20 25 to 26 teachers uh counting other staff. So >> um I don't think that would be worth it. That's why I'm asking us to slow down the process and reconsider that part of it like the whole process in general. >> Do you have a question? >> Yes. Um so the the um if we don't do anything if we if we wait um we are we will have to reduce staff positions to cover that gap at the rate of about 25 to 26 teachers. Do you think that it is in our best interest to wait and preserve the schools themselves but lose 26 staff or close the facilities and preserve more um
164teaching staff who are interacting with students? >> Um I'll say that obviously no. I don't think that's worth it. But where I'm coming from is after having multiple meetings with various board members um and the superintendent um where they have made it clear to us as CV students um that the consolidation is not they're I don't know how to put this but they basically told us that they're not really talking about the buildings. They're talking about like they're trying to close the buildings and not affect the people. And so where I'm coming from is that that we were told that fewer staff would be um affected by this. I don't know if that makes sense, but >> yeah. Um Leo, you had your hand up. We have about a minute left. >> Um I was
165just going to ask, how do you think this proposal affects enrollment at the high school level? >> Um as the current proposal stands, I think that if it were to pass, it would not do anything good for CV. it would um there would continue to be an increasing discrepancy between the two schools. Like right now CHS has 400 more students than CV and that's impacting our resources. Um I think if uh we focused on that a little bit more, we would not have to make as many drastic cuts. We could balance the students and balance the staff and resources. >> Thank you. We only have 12 seconds, so probably not enough for another question, but thank you Penelope so much for coming tonight. Kim, how many are left? >> One more. Um, is the board
166okay with hearing their last comment? Thank you for that because we already went over our half hour. >> Steve Muayak. >> Hello, my name is Steve Mamoyak. My wife Joy and I are longtime 35-y year residents of North Corvalis. Our two grandchildren attend Leticia Carson Elementary. Their mother, our daughter, has been employed at the school as an inclusion assistant for the last 5 years. We first learned of the Corvalis school district's proposal to close Leticia Carson on October 22nd. The same day staff and students were also informed. We along with the entire Leticia Carson community quite understandably felt blindsided by this news. Some board members have argued that the process has been ongoing since May and has not therefore been rushed. Consider, however, that prior to October 22nd, Leticia Carson staff, parents, and students had
167no inkling whatsoever that an elementary school, least of all Let It Leticia Carson was even under consideration for closure. How is that fair? I'm not here to tout any of the public's many potentially viable alternatives to closure of Leticia Carson. Instead, my question to you all of you is this. In the short amount of time since Leticia Carson publicly emerged as the elementary school schedule for closer, can you honestly say that you've had ample time and opportunity to adequately review, discuss, and deliberate with your colleagues and responsibly and fairly act on all of the input received from the Laticia Carson community. After closely following the three hurriedly assembled board meetings, the round table on October 27th, the limited public comment session on October 30th and Monday night's board deliberation session, which did not allow public
168comment, it seemed pretty clear where at that point in the process at least the board was most likely headed. It appeared that the board had for the most part already concluded that closing Leticia Carson was their only viable option. This despite p extensive public input to the contrary. During board discussions, we've observed a noticeable lack of in-depth, detailed assessments of potentially viable alternative concepts submitted by the public. With few exceptions, the board has seemed all too ready and willing to accept at face value the district's position. Given the enormity of the decision you are about to make, why is the district's proposal not being more vigorously and thoroughly vetted? Our family was still, excuse me, coming to terms with our realization that Shelin Middle School was proposed for closing when news of Leticia Carson's proposed
169closure went public. As mentioned earlier, we have two grandkids attending Leticia Carson, one in second grade, the other fifth. We worry greatly about the impact of the revised proposal on them and their classmates. Both grandkids will be separated from their close friends who will be transferred to Mountain View. Our fifth grader would be sent to Bessie Coleman for a single year, then to Corvalis Junior High, for two years before going to high school, presumably Crescent Valley, that may itself very well be closed while she's there. We've suddenly been forced to confront the stark reality that our community's beloved neighborhood school may go away. This knowledge along with the very real possibility of Crescent Valley High School closing in a couple of years only furthers our resolve and commitment to save Leticia Carson. As many have
170argued, the revised proposal >> Steve, your time is up. Is there any questions? >> Sammy, >> would you like to conclude your remarks? >> Sure. Thank you. About a few seconds. Uh, this knowledge along with the very real possibility of Crescent Valley High School closing in a couple of years only furthers our resolve and commitment. Sorry for the repeat. As many of us argue, the revised proposal unfairly subjects North Coralis to bearing the brunt of consolidation, blatant discrimination of the geographic kind. We'd argue this is unfair. Plain and simple. In summary, we respectively request that the board reject the revised proposal. Delaying the closure for a year will give the district and board the time necessary to truly do their due diligence and come up with a comprehensive and thoroughly vetted consolidation plan that is
171fair and far superior to the current proposal. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Is there any other questions from anybody? >> Do you have a second question, Sammy? Or a question? >> Yes. Uh thank you and I appreciate you really leaning in on on the process. I want to ask you about the impact of decision as you know we're evaluating three alternatives. One of them is the pause and it has budgetary implications to programs for the kids. Do you feel there are programs that may sit uh under or high? Which one is more critical than consolidating and keeping the neighborhood school for your for your ch uh grandkids and neighbors and which ones you're willing to say no maybe you can cut that so you buy one year. >> So you're talking about
172programs not alternative approaches to the consolidation >> right because now we have two alternatives for this year. So if we need to cut $4 million it's got to be from programs in May. And I want to hear your thoughts about that like >> Well, I I'm not sure I can really answer that. I think we've heard repeatedly that the process is, in my opinion, flawed and that you need time to, as I said, go into it comprehensively. Um, analyze all your options, uh, take in the consideration the public input you you've received. It's been a lot and really good. A lot of smart people as was mentioned earlier. I'm not sure I make that list, but um I know that there's a lot of information that's been provided and I don't get the sense that
173it's been thoroughly adequately accommodated quite frankly. So, I know it's a tough situation. You like it's it's uh it's it's terrible that you're in and I appreciate that. And I you've asked numerous times if you know you had to make a choice either staff cuts or building cuts, what's it going to be? Yeah, you know that's I don't know. It's kind of impossible. >> It is. Thank you. >> Thank you, Steve, for your time for coming tonight. >> Let me say the took a lot of notes. I had to get back to that page. Um, hearing no further comments. The public comment period is now closed. The board needs to take a break, I imagine, before we enter our next topic of discussion. We're taking a break to make it clear that we're coming back
174to talk about things. Five minutes. Five minutes. Okay, we are back to our five or 9 minute break. Um, the next item on the agenda, which I'm sure everybody has been waiting for us to discuss, is consolidation update and action. Um, before we get started, I wanted to do just a recap. I did this at the last meeting too about a little bit about how we got here. Um besides the declining enrollments, we've also been seeing the loss of funding to public education over the years, both federally and at the state level. Um a complete disinvestment in um not complete but a disinvestment nonetheless. We lost federal funds where we seen a lot of our education assistance lose um positions that were supported as we heard earlier and um during an first round of budget
175cuts. After that we seen a loss of services to library and media um and then we seen a loss to music and art. Throughout those past three years of these impacts to students and staff in our community and to families, we've heard a lot of critiques of the district and the board about um the loss of those programs and the impacts that they have had on us. And we have heard a lot of comments of threats of pulling students, threats of um losing the levy, much of like we have heard this evening. Um, so over the last few years, the board that has been a consistent message to us, which shows that the public um, cares deeply about the services we offer and the education that students receive. We've also heard comments about trust and
176how we have broken that each time staff are lost in the buildings and services are lost. And at this point, we can't keep losing more to the district. And that's what brought us to this conversation of school consolidation. I appreciate the previous board uh members that brought up their experiences when they were in this same boat um which obviously was outside of their control as well. And um I did want to remind the board that be as and the public since we are um district-wide representatives, we do not have zones that we represent. we cannot be a representative of one area of town. That's not how the board is comprised by having a district-wide seats. And so I just wanted to put that reminder out there that we represent the entire district and that um
177there as we mentioned at our last meeting there is students experiencing poverty at a pretty high rate across the district and I'm really curious about that for a later discussion. Um, the conversation today affects not only a couple schools, our a few students, our families, our staff members. This decision is impacting over 5,000 students in our district and over 900 staff members. So, the conversation is quite extensive of who we're representing and who we're discussing this evening through this process. And so I just wanted to make sure to remind the board and the community about those um pieces as well before we got started. I know that there's um a couple comments that some board members have questions before we entertain a motion. I don't want to we have 40 minutes on this topic and
178I want to make sure that the majority of it is discussing a motion that has been presented. We made a commitment to the community on Monday that we would make a and to the staff that and students that we make a some sort of decision tonight, whatever that may be. And um I want to make sure we get there, which means we need to think about how much time we want to allocate to pre- discussion before a motion is made. So with that being said, was there? >> Yes. And so making a motion does not necessarily always represent a vote. It it opens an opportunity to discuss that motion. So I just wanted for folks that aren't familiar with that process. Just so you know what that means. So if somebody puts forward a motion
179um that is to open it for discussion and then there is a vote in which at that point would actually reflect how somebody would vote on it. Does that make sense for the board as a reminder too? Okay. Is that helpful? Yeah. >> Okay. So, I think there was a couple of folk that want had some questions or comments. >> Bernie? >> Yes. Uh, is it possible uh for Lauren to come up because uh her name was mentioned several times in public testimony. I just like to hear the other side of the conversation. >> If we have questions for staff for clarification before we make a motion, that is okay. So, Lauren, we heard uh public testimony uh saying they had conversations with you and they were questioning the the three-year uh savings, I I
180guess uh the cost of closing down facility. I think I brought up that question back in the uh budget meeting a long time ago. Can you clarify that for us, please? >> Sure. Yeah. Um the sound bite that's being used for whatever purpose is from a board meeting or a budget committee meeting that was last spring. Um and the question was brought up about um moving up the timeline actually if I remember the context correctly. Um do we need to be doing this now and or do we need to be putting it off? Like what is our sort of timeline? Um, I think that was towards the end of the conversation around the budget. And what the actual full context to that statement was is that it does cost money. There are one-time costs in
181the first year of a consolidation. We've mentioned several of what those would be in the past. Um, it's contractually we pay staff to to pack and unpack their classrooms. So, there's contractual time there for staff. um consolidating one or more schools would be very impactful to our facilities and maintenance crew um who we've had to cut multiple millions of dollars in the last few budget cycles from that um department specifically. And so I believe that Kim and her leadership, Kim and Doug and Alexis have done um a great job of of putting together a new staffing plan, but it was reduced staffing. So, in order to make a big move, we will most likely um need to contract with someone to do that work, much like we did during um the bond program to help
182with the move because they're constantly busy. They're I don't know if they ever get their check marks all checked off on their to-do list probably. So, um we'll need some additional support there. there is um the potential if it's say if it's included in the motion for the renaming there's some costs associated with that. So yes, there are costs um in the the year one. That doesn't mean we don't recognize any savings. Um and so I think context is important when you want to use other people's quotes just personally. Um but I also think that the second part of that is year three is we do know that that costs compound, right? We deal with inflation every single year whether or not it happens in the um it's happening externally like say for utilities expenses
183but we always know that we are going to recognize that within our staffing costs. So we start to see the big impact and this is based on um national research from professional organizations um around K12 finance um and uh governance and it takes multiple years to really see the full effect of that um financially because all of those decisions have a compounding effect. So, for example, if you saw um our long a long range budget plan um from a few years ago, I I think there was a year in there that looked about 11 million. Um but we've made adjustments every year and now that number is much closer to to 2 to 4 million. And so that's what I'm talking about to realize the full aspect of a consolidation is not just going to
184happen in year one. Did that answer your question? >> Yes. >> Okay, >> Sammy. >> So, thank you for sharing that. That was really uh helpful. Now, I want to ask uh and I know we uh discussed this before, but since uh I heard about it really recently, uh I want to elevate it beyond just the financials and the capacity. If you can use any of the that these two, but also the other criteria that we considered, why could you remind us why Leticia Carson and Mountain View uh were chosen to be uh as proposed instead of having uh Mountain View as K8? Would Leticia Carson be a K8? And what what are the advantages or the limitations that could be between these two? And I I have to recognize I did not give you
185any heads up about this. So sorry about that. >> Leticia Carson is not large enough to be a K8. There's not enough classrooms available. >> Thank you. So really viability from capacity points of view. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Is there any other questions for staff at this time? >> Okay. Um if you could clarify, I know we've talked about the capacity for Bessie Coleman and where this will put us in terms of especially year one. Um I have a um question about the capacity of that building to handle the um OD requirements of physical education for the number of kids that would be in the class, the target number that we're trying to go for in terms of grade level and the well the one gym and the one teacher um as
186well as the maker space as I understand it would be would be need to at least temporarily be converted to a classroom. Can you just say a little more about how that is going to work? >> So, I can say that we already have a school this year um that is is working on a co-eing model um because of the number of classrooms and how many minutes the students need um that allocates additional staffing. So, one of our elementary schools has I 1.2 sorry I'm not exactly sure but I think it's 1.2 FTE um and there's a co-eing model between staff. So, we've already started doing that work this year based on the the need that would just arose at um one of our elementary schools this year. So, I anticipate that we would probably
187discuss with those staff like how that co-eing model worked. I know that so far like that we've tried some some things with that classroom and I think it's going well. Um, so I think we would just emulate that model um at another school. And I I don't know the specifics, but I know like that our newer gyms are a bit bigger than in the just remodeled schools. So there is more space. >> The gyms are considerably bigger. We also have really nice outdoor covered play areas that are well equipped to provide that extra space for PE and that it's not one group of students that would be outside in that play area all the time, but there's really um good opportunities for teaching different things outside on the playground and within the gym spaces that
188are larger. And just to follow up on that, the way that our the minutes requirements for PE, if you um recall, are twice as much as for music and art. And so I'm not concerned about that with those two because of um the minutes that we have on that and it will just barely push us over on PE. So the other ones will fall within the parameter. Any other questions? >> Okay, go ahead. >> Just a related follow-up question. Thinking about a a school with as many students after a a big change if if that were to happen. Um, such as Bessie Coleman, I know some of the elementary schools already are rotating students through at lunchtime in two groups, sometimes in three groups during that period of time. Has there been thinking around what
189that would mean at schools where they're um gaining a large number of students and how that affects students ability to eat as well as have time at for recess? >> So, um our school that has the smallest cafeteria is Garfield and they're already doing multiple lunches. All of our other schools will be well equipped to support students for both lunch and recess within their facilities. And typically the way um when I've been the principal of a school of over 400 before um and so typically the way that that happens through scheduling like programmatically is we work there's a couple things that we keep in mind. One is sustainability to be able to do some composting. And so we create systems where maybe part of the student body is at recess while part of the student
190body eats and then they switch. And there might be two switches like that. And so in like a 45minut period there could be a lunch and a recess happening twice and then another four 45minut period with a lunch and recess happening twice. And so you can rotate through all of those through your scheduling. >> Thank you all for answering questions about operations that are of course outside of the scope of the board but it is helpful to know how some of it works as we're um discussing options here. >> Okay. I think >> I have a policy question. >> A policy question. Okay. >> Um my last question before I'm comfortable to chat about the um the proposal. Um in the um FAQ uh and in the stoplight report I think definitely in the FAQ
191maybe in the stoplight report and in some of the discussions we have talked about the um feasibility of folks who are going to experience a redistricting having the option to transfer. Um, specifically, this was called out with the Mountain View seventh and eighth grade um, classes that won't actually exist organically from Mountain View for a couple of years. Um, and then discussions around for the Leticia Carson families um, that might be physically closer um, to a different boundary or prefer but are for the way that the boundary is drawn would be going to Mountain View allowing transfers. And I guess my question is really basically this. How are we going to do that? Uh, if people go to Mountain View, let's say that no seventh and eighth graders want to go to Mountain View. According
192to our numbers, Lionus Pauling doesn't have room to absorb them uh without going over the capacity, which was one of the reasons we did not consider Franklin. I want to remind everyone that we did that. We did talk about Franklin and one of the things we talked about was that um was that that we need the the K8 space if we go down to one middle school. So what happens if families are just not as interested in 78 at Mountain View as you're expecting or if there are compelling reasons why moving transferring into another elementary school than Mountain View which would put them at probably not Garfield because they that's they're going to have a language barrier um for admission um would put them at two very full schools Katherryn Jones Harrison and Bessie Coleman
193which will both be at 98%. So, that's my question. What's the district thinking about policy-wise? Do we need to be looking at a change? Can we really say the families have an option? Um, that's my question. >> I can I can't speak to the the policy specifically. That's more um Melissa, but what I can tell you about the capacity and I just want to remind people is that the the utilization is already adjusted um to allow for buffer and class size. And so we know that for example in the short term as Mountain View is building um to a K8 in that scenario um that with at the middle schools the utilization there I think 85 is that right 85% so we have a 15% buffer until that building is at capacity. it's our target
194utilization. And so if for whatever reason um families that's not the choice for them and they choose to go to Linus Pauline then as those smaller classes start moving up through the elementary schools and then they're already in the the middle schools now hitting there we have that buffer space which is what we talked about I think on Monday all the meetings are kind of running together but just about yes it says 102 but it's 102% of our target not 102% of the full capacity of the building. Um, and so there there is some buffer there for a small window. >> And to add just the transfers from Melissa's office, I know this has been a question um that we plan to um give priority transfers to families from Leticia Carson and Sheldon. And instead
195of doing one formal window that we typically do, we're going to adjust to do two formal formal windows for transfers. I feel the need to clarify though that although we'll be providing transportation to Mountain View or Corvalis Junior High from the Mountain View boundary that if transfers were to occur at this point, we don't have any accommodation for transportation to an elementary school if you're in the lat current Leticia Carson boundary. I just felt like I wanted to clarify that so there's not a misunderstanding around transportation. Do do you mean if they are in the Leticia Carson boundary and then in their reassigned boundary they don't want to attend to that school there's no crossboundary transportation. >> Correct. So there there was the question if we gave preference or if we said we want to
196make sure that families can transfer to an in town school currently. Right now under policy there's no transportation to a different elementary school from other than those that they are assigned to. >> So that would be the policy review stage then. Right. Yeah. cuz that is under the current. I know I've heard that from community members who do transfers and they're like there's no transportation. I was like I know it's the policy and sorry but >> and the piece that I want to point out about transportation to Corvalis Junior High or Mountain View. It won't be additional buses. It will be on the high school system. So we already have and we have this year have middle school buses that are serving that area. So it's not an increase of buses. High school buses would
197serve Mountain View and then the middle school buses that are currently in this year's model would continue into next year to be able to provide that service to the junior high. >> Thanks. Okay, Chris. >> Thanks. I do also want to ask um one of our um parents who I know is a um OSU scientist had a valid question about um the transmit, you know, rate of transmission and and illnesses and all of that with so many kids in a room like in the cafeteria or wherever. And so do you have thoughts about that or what we're going to do with like extra washing stations or things like that? So Bessie Coleman is one of our newest buildings that has the most current according to building new building code as far as turnover of air.
198We also have um sinks in every classroom for handwashing. Um and our buildings are designed for this many students. We're actually targeting a 90% enrollment target of the full building capacity. So, they're built for this many students. I want to remind you that when we're talking about transmission of illness, we have air turnover that keeps the air moving which helps with the transmission of illness. We also when you talk about touch points, you can disinfect and that touch point is only disinfected until the next person touches it. And so we can be really diligent on that and I don't think that the number of students in the building would impact that. That's my opinion. But I can tell you that our buildings have all been updated with air turnover and that we are in a
199better place now than we were precoid by far >> to support that. >> Thank you. >> Followup question. Did the bond help us with that? >> It sure did. >> Thank you. I think we're good on questions for staff. Thank you so much for clarifying. Huh? >> Oh, yeah. Thank you. Um, any additional comments prior to entertaining a motion that folk have? >> Okay, go ahead, Chris. I you we were just talking about um the policy around transfers and I I do really want to make sure we prioritize that. So, do we put that on our agenda? >> It's already on there because if we talked about it on Monday, it came up already. >> Great. >> Yes, it's on our list of requests to review. Mhm. >> Bernie, >> I'm just uh wondering also
200about uh assessment plans uh to gauge how well we did whatever plan we we adopt. Uh should we add that as part of our whatever uh motion we make? >> What do you mean >> requiring a uh say a report every March and and so on about how we're doing? I think we can request that as part of updates from the superintendent throughout the year. Would that fit in your reports? >> I I'd want to work with board leadership on agenda planning. Yeah. >> And identify how often you would want that to happen and what um what degree of information you're wanting me to present. >> So I think we need to hold that to >> um for board agenda planning as well. >> Okay. >> But yes, it sounds >> Yeah. >> Of course.
201Okay. Go ahead, Chris. >> The other thing that I'm I'm concerned about um in our future is if we do end up doing this um the concern about the same group getting hit over and over again. And can we put that in language somehow that like if we are doing this then looking ahead at Crescent Valley that maybe we phase out you know or somehow do something so that those kids are not having to adjust. >> I think that was the spirit of the language that was added about the high schools that it would involve the students to help lead those discussions before anything was deliberated on by the board. That was a big step that we added into >> and you think that language will protect that cohort of group. So that >> I
202think it would help. >> Okay. >> Depending on what happens. Yeah. With the future of that, I don't know that we can guarantee. >> Well, might not be us. >> Yeah. It might not even be us, >> right? >> Making those decisions. >> That's a that's another important thing to think about. And so um yeah because I think that there's the students who have been impacted by COVID are at every school and I understand the transition piece around that um as well. Yeah, Sammy, >> to that point, uh, and not passing the buck, but looking upstream, I think one of the things we could do, and frankly, I'm not sure we can catch up with the cohort, is see structural challenges that we're facing as a city and as a community that's impacting our neighborhoods
203in terms of accessibility, transportation, development, annexation, uh, social services, support systems for children and youth and and teens. And I think maybe maybe one day and I hope within the timeline of this cohort we can reach the promise that we hoped for or this board hoped for 20 30 years ago which is our community is going to grow north and we're going to have lots of housing all the way to CV and Mountain View where uh the population will keep the schools open for decades to come and that did not materialize. I think I'm hoping that we as a board can work collaboratively with the city and the county and have those discussions and and my hope maybe this is a good deadline for us. We can aspire but we can't guarantee that this cohorts
204should be our goal. How can we make sure that we we keep our community thriving? And I I'm going to say I might be a little bit too optimistic to say that but we should aim >> Lou. I'm going to say that I think we're crossing into like we probably need a motion. Yeah. Some of these are going to require to interact. We're going to need to talk about pieces that probably need to be covered in actual That's my thought. >> Are you calling for me to call for a motion? >> Well, I think that if we're not going to call for a motion, we probably shouldn't be talking about future planning of interacting with the city and thinking about what comes past this because we haven't even discussed this. >> Yeah, exactly. I think
205we I think we're at a point where a motion is appropriate. Is anybody I just wanted I didn't want to rush the board if you had like things that needed to be said before or answer before we entertain a motion but to >> totally and if there are things that aren't actual probably fall under discussion we can still do that. >> I was I feel like where we were heading was probably in muddy waters there. >> Okay. I would um go ahead >> actually >> unrelated to emotion but I think it's a really good centering conversation uh I've seen that when we do negotiations and let I would like to state some statements of values what's centering me in this conversation and I want to open it up if uh my colleagues would like to
206share that >> we heard sorry >> I think that might fit under >> motion >> under the motion because it would inform it once we hear a motion I think that would be a great time for board members to share what's guiding them in this process because otherwise it feels a little bit like disconnected to does that are you all okay with that if we hold that till okay anybody want to make a motion I very quietly ask there has been um in board book there are there is potential language for motions just like any other decision that we make. Um, if you have prepared a completely different motion that needs to be emailed to me and Kim so we have it for accuracy. So, oh, hold on. Please pause. So, if people have other
207thoughts while um we are able to pull up the language because it's quite long or one of them is and one is kind of long. They're longish. >> I'm not seeing them. >> They're in the um they're on the side of board book where it says motions. >> Oh, I'm not in board. I just downloaded. >> It's in board book. >> So, >> oh gosh. >> I can't do it because we can't get it. >> I have that smart. Does that mean one of you is trying to make a motion? >> Well, Bernie was smart and pulled it out of board book so we can see it. >> Chair, can I provide a point of information for the community? Uh, just as a background, I believe that we discussed during uh Monday of two possible
208options and the third one is doing no action. And based on it, uh, my colleagues are referring to two sample motions that we have that reflects our discussion last meeting. Just want to make sure people know what we're looking at. Thank you. >> And those are accessible to the community as well to the public through your board book where our agendas are if you wanted to follow along as they're being read. So, I'm happy to make a motion. I just want to remind everyone that making a motion is not a commentary on whether or how individual board members are going to vote. We literally can't talk about it unless we make a motion to discuss it. So, I'm going to make a motion so that we can have a conversation. Um, so I move that
209the board adopt the revised proposal which includes the following. Lincoln Adams, Katherine Jones, Harrison, Garfield, and Bessie Coleman elementary schools become schools serving kindergarten through sixth grade. Mountain View becomes a kindergarten through 8th grade school. Lionus Pauling becomes a seventh grade through 8th grade um school and is renamed Corvalis Junior High, allowing students to develop a new mascot and school culture. Sheldon Middle and Leticia Carson elementary schools are clo closed. Students currently enrolled at Leticia Carson will be distributed as follows. Students living in the Mountain View boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer and those living east of Highway 99 West will attend Mountain View K8. Students living in the Garfield boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer or because they are unable to participate in dual language immersion program will
210attend Katherine Jones Harrison. Students living west of Highway 99 West will attend Bessie Coleman. Katherine Jones Harrison will become Garfield's sister school. This means that students who move into Garfield boundary after second grade and are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will be placed at Katherine Jones Harrison. Sheldon and gyms will continue to be accessed by teams in the community. Wildcat Park continues to be accessed for the comm by the community for recreation. The school board will review the feasibility of the current high school model during the 2829 school year or when enrollment falls below 2025 students. Prior to this review, the district will collaborate with students from all high schools to assess priorities for the high school experience in our district. The district is committed to engaging in community conversation with
211Leticia Carson's direct descendants, the Leticia Carson Legacy Project, the Oregon Black Pioneers, and the Lynn Benton NAACP on how to best honor her name through CSD Buildings and Programming. This motion made by Was that for me to read? >> No. Okay, I'm all done then. >> It's been moved by Theres. Is there a second? >> A second. It's been moved by Theres and um seconded by Chris. We likely have further discussion. I did want to do a point of clarification that it was updated in board book to specify high school enrollment. So that was that's the Is that okay that it says that when I read it back? Okay. >> Y >> thank you. It was probably after you downloaded it, Bernie. And also that was really long and so I am certain that um
212I'm not that attentive of a reader and I've probably read an error in there. So I won't be making another motion because that was a lot >> to read out loud. So >> it is a lot and it's a lot. >> It's a lot. It's a lot >> discussion by the board. Judah. Um, so we as a board gave Superintendent Nos and the district after the original proposal a few days to provide us with a workable plan to close specifically an elementary school and Superintendent Nos and the district did exactly what we asked. I regret asking this because it we asked for a rush proposal and that's what we got. I'm not just saying we should do better, but that we can do better. I do support the proposal to shutter sheldin middle school as
213reflected in the original proposal as part of the initial consolidation. I made a mistake in joining with a request to add an elementary school, failing to consider how detailed a plan we would need for the district-wide change to provide the most equitable solution. And I do not believe the revised consolidation proposal reaches that mark. First, we have not truly considered geographic equity in removing two neighborhood schools so close together. Second, this proposal does not meet the needs to equalize students across all of our district schools. I agree that we need to do a boundary adjustment simultaneous to a consolidation. The revised proposal creates significant concerns for transportation and it particularly struck me that Leticia Carson has only 90 regular bus riders out of their total population. While there are some financial downsides to adopting the
214original consolidation proposal, we can come back earlier next year with a more thoughtful plan that meets all of our goals. The plan currently proposed in this motion is not it. other board members. Shorto and then wait and then Bernie was next too. Okay. >> Thank you, Judah. We've heard from so many folks over the last several weeks and I think Sammy to your question earlier that you were starting to pro propose was around values. What are you carrying with you into this space? And there's so much that I'm carrying tonight. I I've only jotted down bullets for myself and I know it's getting late for all of us. So, forgive me while I I work my way through my words, but something that I'm balancing is hearing some of the really deep needs that are
215coming from um family members, staff, students, Laticia Carson at Shelderlin as well as well as at other schools that will be all all schools will be impacted to some degree around just the tremendous loss of a beloved school community. And we know and recognize that any school that is closed ultimately will be closing of a beloved school community where children feel loved, where they feel supported. We've heard about the importance of neighborhood schools as community hubs. We have heard about walkability and the importance of that. We've there are so many so many things that I could bring up around how important schools are to students, to families, and to the staff who really take care of them. Every over the past several years for the budget committee meetings, we've had to make really hard decisions
216where we've passed a budget that oftentimes we go around the table and say we don't we don't feel good about this decision and that we ultimately are making more and more cuts to staff, more and more cuts to programs that students, families and staff care about and seeing those colleagues leaving and some of the beloved teachers that that children have leaving as well. And I heard um Christa Schmeer's words tonight around are we choosing buildings over programs and people. And I also came tonight with I think that a feeling that what I'd like to get to is not not necessarily to feel good or feel comfortable about a decision because I don't think we we will closing any schools. And a place where I've been able to get to in our budget committee meetings is
217getting to a point where I can say, "Okay, I may not feel good about this, but I now understand it and I feel I can justify the decision or the vote that I've made to the community." And tonight, I've come feeling like, as sad as it is, children's been in my my own family since the 90s. Um that I have come feeling like I can justify the initial proposal. I've heard the community also saying, "Stop the slow bleed of staff, preserve people, preserve programs any way that you can." And I do strongly believe that closing an elementary school this year is in our best interests. And despite meeting with and I, Lauren, you've done such a thoughtful job continually answering questions, going back into the data, really showing us what's there. Um, Ryan and the
218rest of your team as well. And Judah, as what you were saying, I've had that same thought and feeling if we ask to add an elementary school because we heard from the community that we need to go deeper to save those programs and people. And I'm coming back with a question of if we had asked a different question, would we have a different answer, right? And so I put that back on us too as a board. If we asked for one elementary school versus a more comprehensive plan of elementary school cuts, boundary shifts, what would that look like if we either took a little more time or asked for something that was more detailed? We asked for a particular type of plan. And for me at this point in time, I think it would be
219very hard despite having lots of conversations, seeing lots of numbers and data. I'm holding some of the same concerns you are with knowing that we ultimately want to rightsize schools and feeling like we'd be starting with a pretty big imbalance across where our schools are. And so also holding reservations of where we are right now. Bernie, >> I share a lot of your concerns. Um, I want to start by saying this as clearly as I can. What we're talking about tonight is hard. It's painful for families, for staff, and for students, and honestly, for me, too. I mean, I the recommendation of closing two schools in the neighborhood where I live is not abstract to me. I mean, I drive by there every day. I know those uh the schools of my neighbors and they
220represent memories and they represent a lot of things. But ultimately I I I I I am reminded thank you chair that I was elected not to represent my neighborhood but rather the whole school district and what I am struggling over the last several days to decide on is what is the best for the school district. I think uh Sammy mentioned negotiations and he probably heard of this term BATNA, right? It's the best alternative to negotiated agreement. And and in simple terms, it means when the options are hard, you pick the one that would do the least damage and the most good. And that's what I I I am looking at right now having can we continue to drag this out to add time to to this which in and of itself is a cost factor.
221That means we're going to slowly cut programs. We're going to slowly cut people. And that is unacceptable because it takes away from our students. So this is where I am right now. So >> Teresa, were you raising your hand? >> Oh, was a new Oh, there's other people raising their hands if you want them to go first. >> It's not competitive. So >> I know it's like a Who raised their hand? Sorry. I may want to paste my contribution so I'll go but can I go >> sure as whoever wants to go next honestly because yeah I just was looking at theres and said her name my bad for call pulling you out >> so um I'll go and and probably I'll lean in this is hard and I need to pace myself I want
222to talk about values how I'm feeling and then maybe I want to talk after we go one round just very briefly about how I feel about the process and then decision. Um, so tonight we're making a decision about next year for the children. And last night I stayed up at night pretty late. It's not untypical for me, but remind me of a very unique night every single school year, college year, and even teaching years, which is the night before first day of school. you know those nights and usually those nights you're excited and you're looking forward to the next day and the uncertaintity um and I I think there is an uncertaintity here for the kids this night is going to decide the first day of school for every child the children of our community
223members here and the ch everywhere in Corval are going to be impacted by one of two different days either Many many of them or big portion of our community is going to be in a building other than theirs and most of them might have a teacher other than that the one they expected but at least with as much programs, services, support, counselors who would access to services that will help their family stay safe in this community in uncertain times or their first day in school will be in the same building uh with less people. I was really excited when we did the bond and I am still excited and I thought about this cool idea castles of hope and schools are buildings but they are castles of hope. They kids feel safe in them. No
224one goes hungry and and these walls You feel you can hope you can find an opportunity not because of the walls but because of the people inside it. The teachers who know our students, the programs that help them grow and the staff who really take care of every need that they have and the sense of belonging that makes school feel safe. And if tonight's decision preserve more of these people and those programs, then we are protecting the true heart of our castles of hope. Even if the buildings must change, I have changed many schools many times. One, two, three, probably three times. And I know that leaving a place you love can feel like losing a piece of your second home. I know many of our community members are feeling that grief right now and
225that feeling is real. It deserves compassion. And in these moments, I think of one person. I would ask myself, what would Mr. Rogers do? Well, I asked this question several times for people who are close to me and they tell me Sammy, well, he'll think about it from a child development point of view. He would acknowledge the feelings honestly and he would remind us that when choices are hard, we must choose the one that best protects children with kindness and courage and with understanding that sometimes the neighborhood will be different but the neighborhood will be together. So this is my statement of value that children watch us how we handle moments like this. How they learn that adults can do hard things with compassion and that their well-being is always in the center. And I'm
226going quote one of the emails that's got to us which is children are going to navigate the 21st century. They need to be ready for change. so many necessary change and so many changes that we need to navigate and right now the first day of school is going to be a change of reduction of programs that are really important for the kids or change of buildings and the delay will make us choose one of these two. So, what I'm hoping for is I want to speak to every child who really took time to watch us on Zoom, on YouTube, the day after processing this in the classroom, and also those who are here. Thank you. I really hope that you feel loved and you continue to feel loved. And I'm so proud of our Wildcats
227and Cougars. And I know you will bring something so valuable to whatever comes next in your first day of school. So I want to ask you, what is it that is very valuable to you from your experience that you will bring to your neighbors? No matter what we decide, I think you have that power. So I'm going to pause here and allow my colleagues to share more. I wanted to center myself what's going to drive the conversation moving forward. >> I just wanted to point out that we actually went to our 40 minutes that was allocated, but I do not believe we are ready to vote. So, um, my suggestion would be to just not time this discussion if the board is okay with that. >> Absolutely. >> If you just want to turn it
228off, that's and we'll turn it back on. We'll turn it back on when I come because we actually do have other items after this unfortunately which is going to be tough but yeah I don't know who wants to go next. >> Okay, go ahead. Um so uh I want to um offer a few things that I think have been important for me to think about and I think my colleagues have been thinking about them too. Um, but I want to start with an assumption uh that I don't feel like is necessarily represented in the community to the degree that I would like it to be, that I feel like it warrants. And that assumption is that our district staff have worked their tails off to try and figure out what to do about a hole
229that they did not make. And they have lost sleep and they have responded to emails to my emails at weird hours. And then they're replying to me at weird hours, which tells me that neither of us are sleeping. And I that is really important because whatever this board votes on this particular motion, we are voting to help our district leadership do the very best that they can. And they have brought their agame and I am struggling with any implication that they have done anything less than that. They have not always made decisions that at an individual level because we don't occupy their seats we might not have made. But I can't do this job. I can't think about this topic if I come suspicious that we're not on the same team. I am confident that
230the folks that have come and presented here that we are on the same team. I am confident Mr. NS that I am on your team. You are on my team and that you are leading our team. And whatever happens that is not going to change my feeling that you are leading us through an incredibly difficult process. And I am happy to talk to the community. I love to talk to the community. I've talked to so many community members. It's been wonderful. A silver lining of this is that I have been in more schools in the last month than I have been in in the last year. And I have talked to more um involved community members outside of board meetings in the last month than I have in the last year. And I do not
231want that to stop. But when you sit down and we have coffee together, I want you to know my position is that our district leadership are filled to the brim with integrity to make the best choices they can for our kids. and I won't entertain a different perspective on their leadership however I vote tonight. That's not in question for me. And I want to say that because I think that's really important because they have been raked over the polls over circumstances that are not theirs. They do not set the budget. They do not vote for the people who set the budget on their own. They they did not make this situation. Okay, that's all I'm going to say about that part. I want to say something that has been amazing about this process. There are
232amazing things about this. One of the amazing things about this process is that I went to pickup um from four elementary schools in the last week and a half. I went and I hung out and I observed and I um I saw something really awesome at every one of the schools. I saw teachers that knew their children that knew the adult, the safe adult for that child. I saw them give them high fives. I heard them say things like, "Did you remember your jacket?" and "Don't forget about something such and such tomorrow." I saw principals who knew the children's names. And here's the thing, I saw that at every school. So, we've had a lot of conversation about what has made our schools really unique because when because the school got named, we've talked about
233what makes our schools unique. We have not talked about what makes our schools um not unique, which is that in every single school in this community, your kid is walking into a building where there are people there ready to greet them and know them personally. And that is going to be true no matter what building our students are walking into. And so, as I'm thinking about what do we do about Leticia Carson, what I am not thinking about is what about the kids? Will they be cared for? They will be. Well, what about the staff? Will they be equipped to meet their needs? They will be and they will. That's not what I want to think about when I'm thinking about whether or not Leticia Carson is the right school to close. I'm thinking about
234if the delivery of services that we have committed in our district to each of our students is best actualized if we close or don't close Leticia Carson, if we close or don't close a different elementary school, or if we try to come up with a different plan. But the things I'm not thinking about is can our kids IEPs be fulfilled because they can be. And can the teachers be qualified to teach the curriculum? Because they are. That is the certainty of our district. And I'm hanging a lot on that reality as we go through this conversation. A lot on the promise that inside those buildings, whichever one our kids are walking into, the people in there know more about what they're doing than we do. And if I if that's not true, if I can't
235believe that's true, I don't need I shouldn't be here. Uh, I I know that I'm not the expert in financing and budgeting. I'm not the expert in building capacity. I'm not the expert in how to lead a district through a difficult time. That's not what I am an expert in. I we have experts in that. So, what have I thought about then? I have thought about what's sustainable for us long term. What puts our district as best as we can in uncertain times five or 10 years from now in the best position we can to meet the needs of a community that doesn't exist yet that's coming. So what can we anticipate? What can we try to anticipate? I think that's an important thing to think about. I'm thinking about if I was a parent
236coming into this district, what would be important to me to see? So that makes me think about class sizes. that makes me think about um accessibility of the building and its its ability to meet the needs of a diverse set of students. I'm thinking about can I get there as a parent safely? Can my kid get there safely as a as a child? I'm thinking about if I'm the parent that's got two other little ones at home, can my child walk safely to elementary school without me having to load up everyone and go out the door or does everyone have to get fully dressed in winter gear to get this little one two blocks? Right? I'm thinking about those things because they're important things about how families organize their lives. And here's the thing in
237thinking about all of those, there's not one school that makes more sense. There is just the trade-offs of what will one school afford us, what will one school cost us. That's where I've landed. There is not one school that best does this in total. There are schools that will let us do it more quickly and there are schools that will make it easier for us to rebalance overall and those might not be the same schools but there is no magic school and we can run all the analyses we want and I promise you this boardroom will be filled with people telling us we're making the wrong choice no matter which school gets named. So, I have had to set aside the reasons that emotionally compel me to not want to close Leticia Carson because they'll
238be true with every set of kids who come in and tell me that they love their school. And that is the strength of Corvalis School District is that this room will fill every time because every kid is going to tell us that they love their school. So, those are some things I've been thinking about and I I I'm curious about what other folks have been thinking about and I'm not going to say more right now because the conversation's not done, but I feel like it's really important as I'm interacting with and hearing from my colleagues that I'm transparent about the stuff that has really mattered to me and the things that I feel really comfortable setting aside and saying it's not that they're irrelevant, it's that they're not where I'm going to put my attention
239because I think there's other things that are more important to put my attention on. Um, and I'm not trying to be like, let me not give you a clue where I'm going with this. I'm not. I'm saying that I'm here for a conversation. I know the things I've been thinking about, and I trust my colleagues have been thinking a lot, too. And I would like to hear what they have been thinking before I decide if what I have been thinking is where I ought to land or if maybe in collaborating with them and hearing their thoughts, I hear something that I have not considered yet. So, I'm not trying to be koi. I'm not trying to play games. I'm honestly trying to be here for a conversation with some, I think, really brilliant people on
240this side of the table. There are brilliant people out there, but there are also brilliant and compassionate people on this side of the table. And I really want to hear what has stood out to them before I decide that I feel good about the things I've chosen to focus on in my thinking. And that's what I'm going to share right now. So many thoughts and so many so much thinking and I have vertigo really bad. So I'm going to try really hard to hold on to my paper and say my thoughts. Um I am probably the oldest one here and I have been in education since I was six years old. So that's many many years. And what one thing I've learned is I've always wanted to be in schools and I want to be
241here. I also have learned that there is always more to the story. When kids came into my classrooms and they looked like kids that were wellfed, well taken care of, and later I found out that wasn't the case. There was always more to the story to every kid in my class. And I tried to learn about each kid. And there's more to the story here. And there's more to the story of what's been presented to us. Not because people weren't trying to explain everything. It's just running a school district is huge and there's a lot of facts and details and information. And I feel so fortunate that I get to be here in a district where we have incredible leadership in our district. And I too, and Teresa, I appreciate what you're saying, but I
242I too have so much confidence in Ryan and Lauren and their team, Byron, Kim. I have so much confidence that they number one have incredible amount of integrity in their jobs. They know what they're talking about. They are so well respected amongst the around the state. Um, and they're always I can't tell you enough how when I have a conversation with Brian that it is all about our kids and what is best for our kids. It's not about anything else but what is best for our kids. And he has provided all of us as staff members many many opportunities to grow so that we learn how to be better educators and better um staff members and that is because of the integrity of him as a person and the team that he has hired. So,
243we did ask him for the the um proposals and I was reminded today also from a past board member who emailed us and I also appreciate Sarill coming to say kind of the same thing. But this past board member emailed us today and said she wanted to remember to remind us that we were elected to represent the whole district and the whole Corvalis community. And it made me think about the many emails that we have received or the many comments that we have received across the board about supporting the positions that the proposals that have been in front of us. And that made me think also um that I just had to remind myself about that. And I also wanted to say that a couple things. The parents like I met with several parents. We've
244I've gone to every listening session. We've been here at board meetings. Um I've walked in the grocery store many times and been stopped to have a conversation. my pickle ball game has been stopped several times to talk about this and I was okay with that. I'm I appreciate having those conversations. I am very impressed with all the advocacy that Leticia Carson parents have done and it's such a high level of professionalism and whatever the decision is today I really hope that you will take as someone said such knowledgeable people and effort to take that effort to the next level and help us advocate Sammy and I were there last night. We weren't complaining about things. We were there advocating and trying to ask our leaders, "What do we do? And what can you do?" And
245I invite you to do that with us. We're very fortunate that we have board members that are always advocating at the state level. Lou is on committees. Sammy's on committees. Several people have gone up many times. We're lucky. We need you to come with us. And then I just want to say one more thing about our kids too, which is really where I've always think about first too. Remember I've been in here since I was six and I choose to come back again again. And now as board as a board member, I know that the educators at Leticia Carson and the staff are over the top with their dedication, with the way they teach their kids, with the way they serve their kids. Um, I know their students are well loved and those teachers are
246very well respected and I want to just give time and space for that because I want to honor that. I also want to just say I've been in all the schools. I've spent a lot of time in those schools and that I know that at every school those kids are going to be loved. They're going to be nurtured. They're going to be taken care of. They're going to be offered services to help them. If they need support with food or clothing or whatever, they're going to get that at each school. And that each teacher at each school is going to embrace each each child. They're going to learn their stories and they're going to do all they can to love and teach those kids wherever they're from. So that's my my two cents. >> I
247didn't >> Huh? >> A clarification. Yes. >> Sure. And then I'm going to go because I >> You can do your clarification if you need. I wanted to clarify that this superintendent is a man who personally gets in his car when it is icy or snowy very very early in the morning and he personally checks to see if the roads are safe. >> He drives those roads. This team and there's a people that I'm not looking at is incredible. I think they've done the absolute best absolute best with what we've given them. My position is I think we asked them the wrong question. >> I have 110% faith and the leadership style of the person who sets his alarm, gets out of his house by himself way before the street lights go off. He leads
248in all aspects in that way. And I have I've confidence in him. I'm saying that I made a mistake in what I asked him to do. >> Um I didn't get to talk yet. So >> yeah. >> Um I just wanted to start by letting the community know that the level of engagement in this process is like not the norm. And so it may feel like not a lot of engagement um if you're new to engaging with the board, but there has been this has been the most engagement I've seen over anything and I truly appreciate how much engagement there has been. Um there's been a lot of people who have shared things about trust and transparency without us having a common understanding of what that means. And that makes it really hard to answer
249the call for transparency if we don't know what it means. And sometimes certain things can't be shared. And um and I have a lot of questions for myself about that. Like what does that mean to be trusted? What does it mean to gain somebody's trust? And what does trust even mean at this point for folk? And um I have the same question about transparency. And so I think that if we don't have those common understandings of what those words mean, it creates a little bit of confusion too on how to approach conversations. Um, I wanted to share w with the community and with my colleagues that um I will probably get emotional just to pre-warn everybody, but um I come from a family that's been discussed a lot when we're talking about families that come
250from poverty, that live through a lot of things that young people shouldn't have to live through or even adults for that matter. better. And so when we're told that we don't understand or that we're being cruel to people without understanding the experiences of the people in the room, that lands really hard. And those are the experiences that I lead by because I've been in those shoes. I know who's under reppresented in this town. I am one of those people. And I know what it's like to live in a vehicle and go to school to public school and what that means to get ready in a gas station. I know what it's means to be homeless as a parent and have to have your kids stay with a relative. Those are things that I've lived through
251and that I've had to survive. And so have my kids, so my siblings and my parents. And there's a lot of families in our community that don't have the privilege to come talk in these meetings or even to go to the other meetings that people are organizing. And I don't think it's fair to speak for them without their permission. I know there's families in our district that are facing food insecurity even though they have a home. So, it's not just homeless kids trying to figure out what are we going to eat for dinner. I don't know. I know those people. They're my friends. I've been those people. It's only in the last couple years I've even been able to know if I have food for the rest of the month or if I'm not going
252to eat so my kids can. I know what that's like. I know who those families are that we're talking about that have been called the title families and the title kids. People like me are not programs. We're community members and we belong in this community with integrity. There's kids in our district that are surviving homes with domestic violence that rely on our services. There's kids in our district that are homeless. There's kids in our um in our community that are couch surfing. There's ones that don't have stable h homes in general. That's all over our district. That is not in one part of our town. And I need people to understand that. It's not in one part of town. It's all over. And we have families not only that are in are facing those things
253on a daily basis. We have families that are being torn apart by ICE. that we have kids in our district who have seen their parents disappeared that rely on services that this district provides. There's kids in our district that have nothing because their their parents were taken. And those are the ones that I'm thinking about because I've been there too. Maybe not with the ICE impacts, but the other ones. Yeah. And they rely on services. So when it comes down to a choice between do we cut all these teachers, do we cut all these services that we've been dwindling every year where these families and these students, they don't have those services anymore. That makes it really hard, right? Because I understand, I hear, I know the neighborhood schools I've been a part of and
254I love those schools, too. And there's one other thing that I wanted to mention too is that there's no school deserts in this town. It's not big enough for that. And I'm sorry, but that's the reality. We are a city of four miles and my kid rides three miles on the bus to get to school right now. And it's tough. And I've had to drive my kids around to three different schools, three different start times as a single parent just so they can go to school in town. It's hard. I understand that. That doesn't mean we have a desert of in this town. And there's been some other conversations about like, can we raise funds? Can we do fundraising? And I wanted to I see the Corvalis Public School Foundation here. They do that already.
255And it comes down to how much more can we continue to ask our community to keep paying through the donations that they already make. And then they're already providing critical services for students like I was just explaining through that as well as the ones that we already have. I think that this community has been very compassionate with each other and cares deeply about education. That's been loud and clear over the last few years as we've seen these services lost. So it does make it to that point that question that comes back. Is it about is it about a building that we love in a community that was built there? Can we build that community somewhere else? I think we can. And some people may not agree and that's okay. Some people may think they if
256we make a choice tonight that they want to take their kids out of the district and that's a choice they're going to make. And I don't know what to say about that part. But I do want you all to know that it's important to remember that the choices we make impact a lot of folk that really don't ever get to come and be engaged in these conversations. I find it a point of privilege that I've been able to find a way to this board to be able to understand how to navigate systems on my own before I was even on this board so I can share that with other families like mine and like everybody else's families in general. So when we come down to what are our values and what's driving our decisions, I
257just think about those things, the things that my kids had to navigate in this district that have been supported so well through them and that made them feel like they're people that deserve respect and they have some dignity because of the services they've received in this district. And I think that's all I'll share right now. and don't let the I'm trying not to like let them roll out, but they're there. But thank you for allowing me the time to share that part with you all. And if we have a second round of comments, I'm sure we do. >> I'm sure we have at least we could have as many rounds of comments as we could manage to sit here. So, um, I would like to say one thing about what you just shared, though, because
258I think it really I I don't know where the individual board members are specifically going to land on first proposal, revised proposal, no proposal, make a totally different suggestion entirely. But I know this, I know that I don't question the heart of any one of you. And I don't, however you've landed, wherever you have landed, I know that you got there through a lens of thinking about how are we going to best serve our community. And that's not always going to be the same conclusion for each of us. And that's not a weakness. That's a strength of our board that we can leave room for each other to get to some place maybe in a different conclusion, but still support each other. And I think that's really important. And um so I really I appreciate
259the vulnerability that you brought to sharing because there is no requirement as a board member to let people into your personal life or to reach across and help them see how you share their lived experience. And you did that and I I'm I'm grateful to have been able to hear that. I also would like to and I sh I share some of those lived experiences, but I'm not going to go through them because I'm I want to say I hear you and I resonate with that. I also hear Judah and I resonate with what Judah said that we probably brought the wrong not probably we did bring the wrong question. And you know why we brought the wrong question? because we are not the experts and our superintendent brought us a proposal and we were
260like we people who are not experts would like you to do something different and they did something different but this is really important is that he did not lead with the revised proposal and I feel responsible that I didn't do more work to understand why not all of these other ideas that I have that I think are viable and great before I said hm Hm. I'm worried about the gap and people are worried about the gap. We need to do something more about the gap. So 100% the board created this situation. All the uncomfortableness of this moment is right here with us. And it was suggested earlier that if this doesn't go the way that some folks want it to go that we'll be out. And I say to that that could happen. We knew
261that could happen when we took these seats in the first place. And so that does not worry me. What worries me is if people think that that's the best way to collaborate. We need to collaborate. There's a lot of misinformation that's been circulating. Collaborate with us and get the right information. Let's circulate the right information. Well-intentioned, but misinformation has circulated. I'll give you an example of something that has troubled me that we spend more on administration than comparator districts. It is hard to spend less than a comparator district that has 2,000 students more than you when you are dividing up the costs of basically state required positions over 2,000 fewer people. That per cost is simply this is math. This is elementary math which our district does well. You cannot get a number lower if
262you are dividing over fewer people. That's not how that works. So, let's talk about what's really different about the administration of our district to our comparator districts because there are important things to call out, but the cost per student isn't it. So, let's collaborate on that. I have a list of things that I think have circulated that are not helpful to the community conversation. Email me if you want to talk about those. Let's have another meeting. Let's get coffee again. Let's gather as a group and let's break down the points that have come out that the board has learned and heard from the community that we hadn't thought of and let us bring some perspective about the pieces of information that have circulated that are not reflecting what's actually happening at the state level or
263at the district level because there is direction both ways to share information and we're ready to share and we're and we have I think demonstrated that we are interested and listening. So, let's do that again. Let's get together and let's say if we're going to create a slide, let's get the right information on it and let's agree on what is it that we're trying to have that slide do. And then let's figure out the right information. Not the information that works best in the moment, but the information that reflects the real story. And maybe what we are thinking isn't what's going to be on there. And maybe what you're thinking isn't what's going to end up on there, but together I think we can figure that out. and that whatever happens next that collaborative energy
264if that doesn't come out of this this will have been for nothing and it won't matter who's sitting here in two or four years if there's no collaboration uh it's it that will be irrelevant we did not do the right thing I no not we I did not do the right thing in suggesting to the superintendent that I knew the better way to close the gap he respected the role of the board and he brought that I don't love what was brought. It raised questions for me that I didn't know that I had. And I probably couldn't have known that I had them until I was looking at something and going, "This does also not does not feel quite right." But I really want to say to Judah that I am with you that well,
265this is my spilled milk, not the district leaderships. And now we have to figure out what we're going to do. But when we I I we knocked the glass over and now we're here to try to figure out what is the the best next step having because we can't just put it back in the cup. I have a question about that actually um for folk that are feeling in that same boat is what makes it the wrong thing like I'm I'm looking for the like beyond if the feelings about a particular school it could like yeah that's a legit question like why does it feel like it was the wrong >> I'm happy to lead with it of why I feel one of the reasons I feel like it's the wrong thing that it's not
266the best option not the wrong thing I No, our our ask. >> Oh, our ask. >> Our ask, not the outcome. >> I don't think our Let me re maybe that maybe I need to back that up and say I don't think our ask was wrong necessarily. I think that that the ask rather than a conversation about we don't feel comfortable about this particular thing. We feel like there's something missing. What should we do? I don't feel like I brought questions to the district leadership about what we should do since I don't feel comfortable with this with the gap that remains. What would you recommend? What would you I was like, we need to close the gap. And I wish that I had said instead, oh, this is still a really big gap. And so,
267what other ideas do you have? As our leadership, what would you recommend we do to close the gap um that doesn't an alternative to reducing our staff? Is there another alternative? and let them come forward with we would suggest maybe closing another school might be the best way to do that. I don't feel like we left that room. I think we said the gap is big. Close another school. That's how I feel like we presented it. And I wish we had presented it with people who know what you're talking about. What do you think we should do? Because I don't think I can support not close not doing something more about the gap, but I don't know what that thing should be. And I would like to hear from you what you think it should
268be. >> Okay. because that lands a little bit different than than that whole like we asked we did that's why I was like that's why thanks for clarifying yeah where you were coming from >> and I suppose I'm using emotional language about how it feels now to be sitting in this seat >> and going duh like this is one of those where it's like oh in hindsight right in hindsight ah this is probably avoidable >> but we don't but we don't know if it would have been the same thing >> but we don't know if it would have been the same thing that's where I'm like >> and that is the that is the unknown and that is why you are the chair And you can reflect that back to me because that is that
269is that's a very fair uh observation. Yeah. Um I thought you wanted to know why not the proposal, not why do we feel that way. So I won't say the why not the proposal because people might want to talk about the why. >> Well the other thing >> um why was this the wrong ask? First, I want to second what Teres said is that I I I had in that moment staring down the $4 million and the the pages and pages and pages and pages of consistent comments saying, "You just need to close another school." And I just I jumped to that. And by jumping to that, especially at that stage in the discussion, I effectively eliminated the opportunity for any kind of creativity or discussion like meaningful feedback, alternatives, proposals from the district. I
270am, you know, I have a strong sense of justice, which is appropriate because I am a public defense attorney for children. Um, and so I am still, what first pinged me was like, look at how close those two schools are together and how many families with differently aged children are losing both their schools. That hit me right away. And it wasn't until I took a step back and I took a lot of deep breaths and I said, "Okay, follow that and stay with that that I realized that I that by that request I had forced the district's hand into something that was workable in that amount of time period, which would have had to have been a very simple solution with a very easy answer, which I believe was not the right answer." And so
271the reflecting back the person who said hey do a course correction is what I'm what I'm attempting to do but I am taking accountability for the things that led me to that place and where I am still sitting today. So this is one of the examples where this board has a characteristics that's very similar to this community at large. We're unified but we're not uniform. And I want to really disagree vehemently with my two colleagues in that spirit and remind us whatever we decide we have to make it work because this district succeeded in changing the narrative around education. Our graduation rates are eight or nine or 10 points ahead of the state. We're using our resources and the return over our investments as students who are succeeding, who are talented, who are really navigating
272challenging times. And we see again and again that things work when we put ourselves together into how can we make a plan work. I'll be vulnerable with you. I don't know if this is the perfect plan on how to go about closing schools. And I talked with Oaklair, Wisconsin. I talked with uh Bethl School District. I talked with the president of the PTA Oregon who uh shared with me take it or leave it. We don't want to tell Corvals what to do. It's between the board and the community to decide. But we thought these are the ideas and we vetted it. We actually followed their guidance. And I want to just say those who worked on this and I I heard tireless evenings on Thursdays to publish it every other Friday. Thank you for doing
273this work. this 300 Q&As's and I hear the community they ask questions sometimes the answers are not satisfactory sometimes there's a push back on the answer and that's the beauty of this institution an institution where someone asked me actually told me Sam when you're having a break and you're going to discuss are you going to close the doors and this talk behind closed doors like no we can't do that by law uh except for very few things you have to discuss in front you have to make decisions with the community in front of the community. And while one phase ends, another phase starts and the buck stops there. No, the buck stops here. No, the stop buck stops here. No, the buck stops with every one of us. The community holding I said accountable. The
274board supports and have oversight over the superintendent and the team. So, I want to just say for the Leticia Carson community, parents, staff, and students, the Shelon community, and everybody who's going to navigate what's ahead. This decision is difficult, but you're doing great work and you're doing great work. And what's ahead is we're going to make the best out of it. And here's where I want to say I really disagree with the characterization of a wrong ask. Even though I agreed I agreed with you back then I agreed with my colleague back then in October remember everybody on the board said why don't we ask a question and I said here's the thing is there a marginal benefit and the superintendent told us yes there is marginal benefits and the finance director told us not
275only one year the marginal benefits will be exponential for years to come so whatever we decide now if we save more through buildings you're going to save more and I was in favor of let's handle the initial resol uh initiative or proposal but the board was really reluctant about the prospect when Ryan told us we may get back to this in a year or two or three and I was like yeah that sucks excuse my language and I shared with my board members I'm sorry this is like in front of the public I I I I have to be honest I was like if you want to ask for that there is a marginal benefit and there is a marginal cost and that marginal cost not the tireless hours for them to bring up the
276modeling about what how can you do it and which school you can do it with. It's the labor that everybody in this room have put in for weeks and now the question is is this a decision that will work or not. So for those reasons, you did not ask a wrong ask. It is part of the messy process. There's no perfect way of doing it. I think Bethl did the perfect way. Oaklair are going to do it perfectly. We're going to do it perfectly, which is a messy, imperfect, but involves every single person in the room. So with that sentiment, I want to say maybe we can do it better next time. We maybe we can learn from it. But guess what? You heard from the community loud and clear. If you don't bridge the
277entire gap with buildings, that's not enough. And we heard that very clear. And that's impossible because we're going to overcrowd schools. And we tried multiple different innovative ways. And halfway through was not enough. So, we're trying to really do it in a way where we can save people. I know this is not good exercise to ask the superintendent, but come May, we could say could have, would have, whatever we decide now, we could say could have, would have, if we decide a different way, what are we going to lose or what are we going to save? And you're going to have people really having very passionate insights about those needs of our students that really matter. So for that purpose, I feel the process is messy. I supported it. I support it. And I have
278to say this was my probably the worst way of doing a campaign promise to tell people I think there is a school closure and I contrasted myself by saying there's two ways I got about it. promise people this is what I'm going to close and I think it's irresponsible or what I promise we got to commit to a process and we got to walk with each other with the process which is until right now honestly is uncertain because I really don't know how my colleagues maybe I can speculate from what they said we're debating in public at the end of the day a process that involves you involves you and involves our staff and community members and parents telling us here's the problem with every single plan you may bring up and here's the opportunity
279with every single plan you can bring up I think that's the messy process of democracy and frankly it is the best option that exists that can work so for those reasons I really want to push back on my colleague two colleagues and say I think you did the best that you can and I did the best I can at the end of the day what really matters how we can moving forward make the decision of the majority of the board or the entirety of the board. I don't know what is it, make it successful and and ask for the community, how can you help us be successful internally as an institution and also externally with city council with county commission and with state legislator and frankly federal as well. We need to show up with
280more voices than the electeds. They hear from us a lot. They need to hear from you as well. And I hope you continue this because the kids needs us every day. For those reasons, I'm ready to share how I'm leaning to vote after we finish another round. >> Bernie, >> yeah, I'm going to tell a story, offer another perspective, and and I think a couple of testimonies I heard tonight, too, really help illustrate this point. So 41 years ago um I was in high school. My own high school and middle school were closed in a consolidation process just like this. I remember back then sitting in a similar table behind a microphone giving testimony and trying to convince the people who sit up here who are looking at the adults up there and wondering if
281they really understood what they're doing to us. I'm much older now. And one of the thing I look back in in hindsight was that that consolidation, losing that middle school, losing my high school in similar circumstances as here, the resulting high schools, the new merged high schools were the top con consistently were in the top 10 of the state of in the state of Washington. the middle school also consistently well above. And that informs me that we really need to give as much resources as we can to get the talented people who teach, who care about the children a chance to succeed. I'm glad the former board members testified here because I wasn't here when all those decisions were made. But what I knew when I came here to Corvalis was that the schools were
282good. It's one of the positives of this community. There weren't damage done by the previous decisions. In fact, it helped us to where we are. And what I like to see, what I when I make my decision, I'm not looking at the kids in the buildings today. I'm looking at the ones coming in 5 years from now, 10 years from now, and what they're going to get, what my grandchildren are going to get when they come into the schools here. It's but with hindsight I I I am able to to look at this differently because the 17-year-old me sitting over there saying much of the same things that were said here and and I really applaud the students by the way for doing that because I did that too and that started a lifetime of
283public service. So I I it it is important but you we got to look at it not from the perspective of this moment but rather what it can be in the future. So, >> I appreciate that. Bernie and wanted to just share that like I get where folk are coming from about like maybe we could have went a different angle, maybe we could have did this or that, but we didn't. And we were presented with a plan that shows certain things. And so that's where we're at tonight is not about what we could have did, it's about what we did ask and the result. what that has shown us. Is there compelling reasons that benefit the entire district in that what was presented to us? And that's something I think we should really think about.
284Is there compelling things that aren't attached to the whole I'm not to be disrespectful for everybody, but that are not attached to the part about that's my school. And so that's where I'm at with it. like so that I've been really thinking about what are the compelling reasons on each side and so I wanted to share like that I'm thinking about those thought processes too um of of the whole thing. So I just wanted to throw that out there as a discussion point um of things I'm thinking about as and I'm also hearing everything that's been said. So yeah go ahead Trace. >> Yeah. So, um, thank you for we get getting us down to the So, things that I think are strong about this proposal. It accomplishes a a really important thing of giving
285us some fiscal stability. We need fiscal stability. So, that is a strength. It is going to do that. I believe it's going to do that. Um, a potential um hangup for me because it doesn't expressly state that we're going to address redistricting. I'm worried that if we go with this, there will be a loss of momentum to make that happen. And I don't think we get long-term stability in our schools unless we redistrict. And so I um I think that our district, our community can weather the closing of any specific building. But what it is not going to weather is not figuring out how to rebalance to bring consistent comparable services from one school to another. And this doesn't do that. Although it does address a part of that in terms of getting more students
286into a specific building, but it leaves us vulnerable to long-term. We're not making that change that that that we that the long range facilities committee said we need to make that we as a board said we needed to make in 2019 that we said again in 2024 maybe we need to think about redistricting. We have a Lincoln problem that the boundary to Lincoln cannot let enough students get into that building to make that building full because of the transferin rule. I support DLI, by the way. I strongly support keeping our DLI programs, but the way that it's currently structured, it's going to be really difficult to get that building up to capacity if kids in the neighborhood can't come in unless they can get there before second grade. and it will make it very difficult
287for kids to move into the Adams area and not end up overcrowded. We know this. I don't have an answer, but I think that this is a smart group of people and we can figure out one. And my hesitation and giving the the thumbs up to this plan is what if if we do this and then we don't do that work, then we will be back here. But we'll be a different problem, which is we'll have overcrowded schools and then schools that don't have enough people in them and then we'll be moving people because they're not enough of chairs. That's a that's a possibility and it's an avoidable possibility because we could reboundary and we could more evenly distribute our our kids. And I hear so I some some stuff got said about Garfield. Garfield
288is is plentiful. I'm not concerned about Garfield not having enough kids in it. Garfield's doing fine, but my child had like in in one of his grades 27 kids in his class and then across town there were 19. that's not doing the best for our kids. We need to address that. Somehow we have to figure out a way to address that and that is not going to get that closing any specific building isn't going to make that go away. It's not going to make that situation better or worse inherently whichever one we close than not looking at the boundaries is. So that's my that's my that's my hesitation. I have a little bit of push back on that because it doesn't matter how you redistrict if families don't move in an area. So that's where
289I was like how do you like I live in Southtown. I've seen the prices in I moved to Southtown because it was used to be the more um lower income area still is because in certain parts of Southtown um but it's been a little bit gentrified as well and um I have a lot of thoughts about many things about Southtown, but I will save those for another time. But um that doesn't mean that people are going to move in those areas that have kids. And so that's kind of where anywhere in town doesn't have that guarantee. So that's it's not necessarily a push back to the the cla this class size disparity part that you're talking about because that's hard to control because it's where people move and so it's like how do we address
290that beyond and I don't think that's within the scope of even the consolidation >> I'm not with the with the where people live >> well where people live you're right people are going to move where they move but we one thing that I in the I've been in the school district for my son's a freshman now. So, for a long time and I have never lived in a community where the boundaries were as rigidly protected as they are here. >> I see. >> Like we just don't even talk about it. The idea like people are actively resistant to let's talk about moving the matter. Not everybody. Lots of people in this room think we should do that too. There are people that do think we should do it. But there are plenty of people who
291are like no no no don't touch the boundaries. >> And I think that it's not a one time. We don't redistrict one time. We have to constantly iteratively look at where are the families coming in and how do we distribute the services. But to say that we've we're okay with having two buildings that have less than 300 kids in them and then two buildings that have pushing 500 kids in them because of where the line is drawn on the map which we can control. I don't think that's that's not the best approach. I would say we should have a regular interval of evaluating the boundaries and we should be putting in triggers that say we do it this often or we do it when this amount of gap exists between one school's regular enrollment and
292another school's regular enrollment. This gap is big this big. Now we need to look at our boundaries and make sure that this is still sustainable. that that makes more sense than the how you explained it for for me because to be clear I also think we need a boundary review but I don't I don't know if that would be like >> that's not going to address how you explained it the first time. So >> thank you for explaining it better for me. Thank you >> and I appreciate you asking that clarifying question. Um and I'm not saying that this that this consolidation proposal is the best place to solve that necessarily. I'm saying it's what worries me about it is that this will be a check the box. We did the thing and it's such
293a hot button topic that we won't come back to it, but we need to come back to it. >> Isn't that something that the board can discuss though? It's not like we can't and like everybody you have something Sammy, but like everybody's sitting here. We're talking about it. So, it's not like we don't talk about it. It's not like we've never talked about. So, I'm sure people will remind us what we said. >> Probably. Yeah. >> I was like I Go ahead, Sammy. Shauna has Shauna has something to say, too, and hasn't talked for a while. just to move on from the boundary review. I still have sour taste from 2019 boundary review. There's so many lessons learned, we learned. And I think yes, we need uh remember 10 October 2024. Uh inspired by a
294conversation I had with the I talked about to red line a red dotted line when we should start the conversation. >> Red line is the right word. >> I'm sorry. Yes. Okay. >> Dotted line. Thank you. Dotted line where we have to start the conversation around boundary. We started it in the right order which is long range facilities planning first and the other one was what is the delta where there is imbalance we need to start the conversation. I would say I would urge us as a board to be systemic. So we talked about triggers delta also duration and frankly we need to have a clear expectation with the community what are we going to commit to because I talked with former chair Blake Rodman uh when uh the boundaries of uh what is currently
295Katherine Jones Harrison uh were were under debate and then we had our discussion we were saved by the crisis uh where we could we did not need to have kids in the middle school and it was temporary problem because it was three to four years problem and the middle schoolers graduated. What I would caution is let's approach it in a time where we would deal with all of these questions set parameters to the superintendent in terms of frequency triggers of when we started and also uh social contract with the community and probably we need to say your school your neighborhood may change come to the meeting and we need to have that conversation and I really want to caution in the context of today's problem we have two different problems they overlap But you can't
296solve them together. You rarely can't solve them together. Declining enrollment is solved with consolidation. Imbalance is solved with boundary review. If you try to solve them together, you better have a really good forecast of your modeling about declining enrollments. And we know declining enrollments, we have 5 to 10 years. If we want to engage in this, let's have an honest conversation with the city. Are we going to bring more kids into the community or are we declining in our enrollments? because then we might need to engage in the boundary with another consolidation. So to conclude the remarks, I think yes, this could be an an icky feeling about how we're consolidating right now and we have imbalance. But frank frankly, I'll be very honest, I heard from their community members who said this is this
297is too much of a big imbalance. And some said it's okay. You still can't function the schools with the same services and and intensity programs. You're not overcrowded. You're not spread too thin if you go into two schools closure. We can live with that. We want to hear from the experts and from the community what kind of imbalance we're comfortable with. >> Yeah. And I think that we need to be careful that we're not talking about boundaries right now and it's not even in the in the motion at hand. However, I understand that it Yeah. So I just want to make sure like that's my job as board chair to be like >> so this proposal does not talk about boundaries and my I brought it up entirely because it's a thing that leaves me
298feeling like we are not solving our problem as as fully as was available to us. This is the wrong question comment that I think that well when I was talking about asking maybe the wrong thing that's I think this is part of what I'm getting at is This is ne a necessary component of a long-term solution. Long-term planning is something people have suggested they would like to see more of in this. This is an area where I think we could have. We didn't. >> I need to let people know that there's no comments from the audience and if um people comment they will be asked to leave because there's this is not a place um for yelling from the audience. Um, the last thing I think we should say about boundaries and then I know
299Shauna has been waiting to say something is that boundaries do not create more students. It just creates different distribution of students. And so that's why it's hard to have the conversation in the context. So I just need to make sure people remember that that it will not create more students. It will just distribute them differently across the district. And so go ahead. So, one one worry I have with all of that and I don't disagree in terms of um boundaries and really looking at just equitable shifting of where where students are and where the resources are going is layering that on top of a recent consolidation would be a concern for me of having really full schools and saying now we need to shift boundaries. So students who moved next year might have to move
300how far you know where where does this come as as part of this conversation. Does it come all at once or does it not? And then there has to be recognition of who is that impacting twice. >> Thanks for that Shauna. That's a really great point. And that was some of the feedback is like how many times do you move students right? Yeah. So Judah, do you have your or were you just going like this or did you >> just >> Okay. Is there further discussion? Chris hasn't gone for a while. You have I just want to make sure there's space for folk who haven't gone for a while. You don't have to say anything else. And if students have anything, Bernie, Shauna, Judah, go ahead, Leo. >> Tay restroom. >> Yes, you can. You
301don't have to ask, but yes. Thank Yes. Take care of yourself for sure. If no one else wants to go, I'd like to ask a question to Shauna about her last comment. Is that okay? >> Christie, do you want to go ahead? >> Okay. So in the in the um the original um proposal which would have addressed Sheldon versus the revised proposal um without a revised proposal that addresses an elementary school. If we were to not do that, we would be able to reboundary before closing an elementary school and moving kids. And so I think that's where that's what I was speaking to about why the proposal is a challenge for me because there is a thing we could take that would allow us to not put the kids through multiple changes. It comes at
302a cost to us, right? Um but I am aware that that is that is an option. We could we could do that. I don't know that we should, but we could. And so that concern that you have which is a very valid concern of multiple transitions not helpful is is it worth it to us to delay in order to do that so that we are making one sweeping transition rather than doing it in stages because I don't know how long we could go without a reboundary. I don't know how long we should go without one but if we do it too close together we will have exactly what you're describing. So, I just want to throw that out there. >> I think we would need to talk to staff too about that process too been
303with facilities because I think that would be important to inform any kind of conversation about it. And um and there was something else I was going to say on that and I forgot now. But um it must not have been super duper important. Sean, go ahead. >> Try and see if I can I was going to say I should have brought coffee tonight instead of tea, which didn't didn't carry me quite as long. But um something I've been thinking a lot about and I know community many community members have come forward and asked for greater collaboration a slower process. We've also heard from folks online through email who have said please just make a decision so that we can move forward. Um and I just want to acknowledge that that a lot of ideas have
304come forward for deeper collaboration. some that Lou I think you also acknowledge there is some information that can't be shared that's protected at the district but also a lot of visions for how do um families staff more deeply engage I appreciate what you said too Christa in terms of thinking about staff who might want to be engaged in different ways than they are able to be already um and so there's there's a big part of me in in thinking about the different paths to move forward rather whether with I think status quo would be very very hard in terms of loss of staff. Uh moving forward with an an initial or a revised proposal. Each one of those by pausing we gain something really valuable in terms of trust with community in terms of process
305in terms of time and each one also comes with a cost and still weighing um Lou I think you just in sharing of your own experience and also in thinking about staff and programs that will be lost with a pause and what level of a pause is something that I continue to just hold. I have a big concern about doing this process all over again next year, especially if it's the same community that is named >> and that would be so heartbreaking for the students. I feel like um based on some of the stuff they shared and that's why I asked that question earlier to a parent. I think it was a parent um about like or maybe it wasn't a parent. I think it was a parent. Sorry. I don't know who all his
306parents and who are community members and who are staff sometimes. So, um I would have to look back on my notes. Um that question I asked about what would that mean to a student, would that be kind to them to do it again next year and say like, "Oh, yeah." So, I just am thinking about that and have a lot of hesitancy about pulling the entire community through another round of this conversation, right, again, because it's going to have to happen again. And um we did that was a big motivator of why we asked for an elementary school was based on the projection that we would need to close an elementary school. And I wanted to come back to that too. So I'm glad that that was mentioned earlier. I can't remember who said that,
307but that was one of the reasons why. So it didn't drag the community through this process back to back, which was what it was going to do. And so I just wanted us to think about that too as we're thinking. Who had their hand up over here? Chris, go ahead. Um well I just want to go back that we and many of us have said this that we have trust in the proposal that came to us from Ryan and the team. So I just want to remind us that that they considered all those things and then with the reboundary talk I think in that we have to also look at transfer request as well because I know that we accept a lot of transfer requests amongst the dis amongst the district and that that would
308affect it and so >> that's going to I mean I don't know how we how we Um, >> do you mean um interd district or from out like from outside? >> I think both coming. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Or in district. >> I guess it's a high number of kids that transfer from school to school and then in in from the district from other districts. So, I'm not sure. I think that would affect the boundary review as well. >> That's true. >> That's a good point. >> Just a thought, >> Bernie. I just want to point out something from um the motion. >> We have an opportunity when we engage in this high school discussion. >> Exactly. >> To inform processes and the issues that come up in terms of reboundry or >> uh transfer
309or anything else. So, so I I I think is it wise to stack on top of that? I think we need to focus on the high school issue. >> Yeah. Yeah. And that's why that was worded that way. So it was open to include the ideas that the students and folk had from the high schools. That way it was >> not defined right now. >> Correct. >> And so that's >> could be very well what we don't know what it's going to be. >> Right. >> Yeah. Thanks for pointing that out, Bernie. Judah, >> I'm concerned that if we do the elementary school consolidation tonight and then we go through the process of rebounding when we're looking at equalizing school numbers that we're going to be pulling students way across town and losing even more
310of that walkability and that neighborhood access if we're packing so many elementary schools on one side of town and then Southtown is being ignored instead of going through a process where we're kind of looking at it like a clock and trying to figure out, okay, we're gonna do this at the same time. We're going to make considerations about which school we're going to close and then we're going to reboundary and equalize. And I know what I'm proposing is let's have the entire school district angry at this board. And if I if I believe something's the right thing to do, I I'm very open to everyone being mad at me. Um, so that's what I'd like to see instead of even like because if we're talking about this redistricting, this reboundering after we've done a consolidation
311and then how much would it take like to get Lincoln up? Where would they pull students from? How much would it take to get Adams up? Where would they pull students from? Lincoln and Adams are close together. >> Well, that's that was my point earlier and just I think historic context is important too. So the schools that were closed down a lot many of them were on the south serving the south side of town, right? So it's and so at that time I'm sure there were similar sentiments. No, not all of them. Some of them >> Harding. >> Which ones were Let Wait, audience can't answer. Let me ask Chris, which ones were they? >> Harding. >> Inab for south. >> Which ones were in South? >> Oh, so in Dixie, >> Western. >> So,
312I think that that's important to remember like folk can disagree on what counts as the south. I don't mean south town. I mean the south side of Corvalis. And so South Town is its own little zone that has a history of redlinining and all of those kind of things um historically. And so >> Western View. So there are schools that have that in that last round that serve that side of town is why there's not a lot of options right now. And I think that's that historic context is important. And like I said, um well, I actually don't know where you would pull students to fill Lincoln at this point other than there there's nowhere really unless they're going all the way across town, right? And that's the issue that currently with having moved like
313I my kid goes again three miles all the way across to um Lionus Pauling. Um, I'm thankful that we have a small enough town where that's not a huge issue. Um, versus when I was riding the bus, 15 miles each way to school because I lived out in the middle of nowhere on the coast. But that's okay. But it's a it's a much shorter ride and I'm thankful for that in our town. Um, so I just wanted to show that. Do you have your hand up? Okay, go ahead. >> Yeah, it's fine. So sorry I think just remembering the boundary review discussion I think this is very good discussion and we may have glanced over it in during the retreat when the superintendent gave us the findings of the long range facility planning and we
314talked about what is included here in the FAQ about the uh reviewing the boundary scope and what is the first step in right sizing our schools. is consolidation proposal to maintain high quality educational offerings for all students. B uh consolidation gives you opportunity to keep services in the classroom. Boundary make sure that you're effective doing it across the district uh in a way that you avoid overcrowding and and you balance. What I would caution is the 2019 conversation, one of the findings we heard is we got the best of the best in modeling boundaries. We got a community uh advisory board and the community wanted more engagement. And I think if we want to engage in this, we got to be as thoughtful as we were in the consolidation process where we decided during the
315retreat we're going to go uh into into uh consolidation as a first step for very r very in my opinion very rational reasons. So I would caution us unless I hate to say this, unless you think strongly your decision on the motion will go from one place to another. I would caution we go into the rabbit hole where we may give an impression to the community. We may go into the boundary review study one way or the other without actually getting a similar discussion to what we had during the retreat about what does that entail? What's what are the numbers? I feel we should not stray away from the topic, but I understand there's overlap. >> Some of my comment was related not just to the boundary, it was related to like where there's even
316schools to consolidate from and to. And so that was kind of my comment of like the side of town um is where that came from. And I do think we I try to move away from boundaries and here we are again because it's not even what we're the motion. I I guess that it is an it is relevant to people's thoughts about this proposal though because one of the reasons that we didn't do a different thing was specifically stated we need to get the numbers up in our schools that don't have seats and redistricting does do that. We still don't have any more people than we had before. And one way to get seats filled is to close a school. And another way to get seats filled is to redistribute. And we probably need to
317do both of those things. But my point is just that. My point is just that if we are going to say that there's a reason why a different solution that was presented isn't viable, but the reason that it's not viable is because it doesn't do something that redistricting does solve. I think we at least need to name that. I want to name my discomfort with that. And I want to say and then I'm I'm I want to say one more thing to the person out there who under their breath but not under their breath said misinformation when Lou was trying to get sorted out on what the schools were. That is I just that is so shockingly disrespectful. She is trying it is 11:30 and she is trying to engage in this part of the
318conversation. and tell me without telling me that you don't plan to be a constructive part of this conversation. That is just so rude. We self-corrected and we got the information out there and there was no deliberate attempt to mislead anybody and I couldn't let that go because I'm tired and I'm annoyed that you think that's an okay thing to do in a public meeting with people who are working really hard to come up with a solution. So Lou's not going to say leave. I'm going to ask you to check yourself and see if you think that's the spirit of collaboration that we're trying to have here. I'm upset. I don't get upset very often in meetings, but I'm upset because I think that is really, really disrespectful to her leadership and her attempt to facilitate
319the meeting. It's just bad form. And if we're talking about modeling for kids, I'm going to ask you to ask yourself if that's what you want your child to do in a collaborative environment. Thanks, Trace. >> Chair, can we take five? >> Yeah, >> I I would be okay with taking five um with the reminder that we have a motion that is still on the table that we're going to need to make a decision on. And I would love us to do that before 1:00 a.m. I don't I was like, I don't know. I just threw a number out there and as I just wanted to say one thing to the public that the board is not allowed to speak about this behind the door when we're going to we're going through that way to
320go to the restroom not to deliberate. I just want to make that very clear. That's not why we're taking a break. Okay. Yeah, you can ask. We're we're back. Um, is there any further questions, discussion, Shauna? >> Yeah. >> And then Chris, >> um, I I'm not saying this with any idea of where our vote is headed. Quite honestly, I know we've had a lot of discussion tonight and a lot of different a lot of different things come up. Um, but I'm thinking about if ultimately there is a consolidation vote tonight of one school or two schools. Um, something that I heard was around transfers and transfer priorities and thinking about I think what I heard was yes, there would be transfer priorities in terms of a transfer window, but there wouldn't be transportation provided.
321And I understand typically in the district there isn't transportation for transfers. Um, and I also know that something that came up at our last board meeting was thinking about Franklin in terms of starting to offer transportation there to think about shifting who has access. And a wondering that I have is if resource if there is a consolidation or two consolid or two schools being closed if it would be a better use of resources to prioritize in this first year transportation for students who are having to shift schools over adding a new transportation system to Franklin. >> That makes sense, Sean. And I think that that would just be part of when we talk about the because the I don't think it's because the district doesn't want to provide transportation. And it's the how it's a
322it's no it's a board policy. Oh, it's a district policy on transfers that it's not provided for when you do an inter intra district transfer. And so that is something that the board can choose to revise within the year and try to talk with folk about feasibility on that and stuff. Um I agree on the priority when we were talking about the priority of transfers for students. I would hope that we would have that conversation as well um should that be the direction the board goes. But um I think transportation is very important and I already felt that way about transfers anyways that it was it's hard when because there's a v a variety of reasons why families request in intradistrict transfers and when there's no transportation it makes it difficult if there's a family
323in a circumstance where they need that and they can't because of that and so it's overdue for that conversation anyways and it would I believe would help with what you're discussing and that is on our list to discuss as a board as a policy update. Is that helpful? Okay, Chris, >> I just wanted to before we forget and before people leave, but I guess maybe some already left, I wanted to thank him and having her um Doug and his team here to just kind of support us. Um, there's been times when I felt like I needed that support, maybe walk into the parking lot and I appreciate that and I want the community to know that some of us have felt that need and I appreciate your team being here to support us. >> Thank
324you. >> Did you have something, Sammy? >> Yeah, I want to echo Chris's remarks. Uh it it's not unknown that uh I had some challenging times uh over the course of my board service and this is the minutes exactly when I was sworn in at 11:35 if I'm not forgetting. So this is a new record for me. It's very meaningful to go through some really tough times and tough discussions. But it's even more meaningful to know that uh I can feel safe serving on this board, having staff really supporting us with wisdom, with uh the means to really have a healthy discussion and conversation with our community members. Grateful for the discussions that we're having. We have a laundry list of actions that will impact our students significantly. weather the uncertaintity with issues. I really
325support the issues that's already has been discussed over the course of frankly the last year but more intensively the last two months around transportation discussion around equity and transportation uh the budget parameters and how can we ensure that the whatever plan we decide on today is going to be successful for students outcomes and uh I'm going to tip my hands I'm going to share that I am ready to vote I with really hard look into the trend that we're trending and the long-term forecast that we're seeing for students enrollment and the commitment that we had the community to engage with them. And with all love to the children who are going to navigate a tough choice for them on their first day in school, less buildings, movements between buildings or less support. I want to
326ch choose the support because schools without the people are nothing. the people who help them, who show up for them and to them is everything. And for those reasons, with a plea for our community members to volunteer, with a plea for our community members to show up, apply for the budget committee, hold us accountable as co school board members and every single agenda item that's touches your children and your neighbors children. I believe the best course of action today is to vote yes on the motion. And I encourage my colleagues to vote accordingly. And shall this proposal passes that we return to be unified, not uniform, but unified in our approach to make sure this plan is successful and helping our students feel loved, that they belong, and they're going to be the best versions
327of themselves. and they're going to be their brothers and sisters and siblings, helpers and supporters. Thank you. >> I just wanted to Thank you, Sammy. Um I just want or is we're still streaming, aren't we? >> I believe so. >> Okay. Just want to make sure I had a question about that. Good. >> Thank you, Sami. I know that we're not voting yet, but just want to comment that um where I'm sitting right now and where I'm grappling with a vote does not reflect my trust in the district or the work that's been done or the leadership here that's been done. I think it's been really incredible and phenomenal. And where I'm coming from is that I do believe that we need to prioritize people over programs. And I recognize that there's been an ask
328to move forward quickly, as quickly as we can in making a decision so that we can move through that cascading impact of what it takes to really shift people around and make those choices. Um, and I felt very prepared to vote on the initial proposal. And as I mentioned earlier, I feel I understand the importance of cutting deeply for long-term preservation of those programs. and those people and I'm still struggling in myself with coming to a place where I feel I can justify the particular school we would be cutting today with the revised proposal given some of the open questions that I have around redistricting or um some of the imbalance it would cause. So that's what will be shaping my vote today. >> Any other comments from the board? Oh, do you have you
329don't have your hand up? >> I thought I thought you >> clearly. >> Okay. >> No other comments or questions from the board or I feel like we're ready to entertain a vote. >> Okay, I'll make my comment before you vote so that when we vote I can just vote. >> Okay. I um share um the core question that Shauna expressed. She said it very well so it's late and I won't repeat it. Um and what I will say is that when I vote uh and what has shaped it is not um I don't know that that it has to be the end of the conversation for the district. whichever way this goes, there are still opportunities for us to make meaningful impact in this um year. And so, uh I vote um recognizing that
330um the work that remains will be shaped by how we vote, but it won't change that there is work. And so, um I feel I feel okay about the possibility of potentially making it a little bit more challenging for us for a minute in the possibility that we could land in a place that might not that might address some of those areas that leave me a little bit unsettled. Um, and I totally could be wrong about that because this is unknown. That's right. >> Other comments. >> Um, I'm just really still sitting with the the families and the students that rely on our services and knowing what's at stake no matter what. Everything is coming with a cost. Should that we vote on the motion at hand there? I am sure we're going to potentially
331lose families perhaps and also um engagement from folk. I would hope for not that if that was the direction that the board goes. However, it's been loud and clear from community members how they feel and um which makes it hard because then it turns into this do this or else kind of situation and I don't think that's fair to the board when we have to make a decision on the whole district. And I think about the services and the programs. I think about the staff, the impacts on them. Um and I think of how our budget season could look either way. So, I'm thinking about both of those things still as I'm procrastinating calling the vote because we're all still thinking. So, I just wanted to share a couple last thoughts on that. Yeah, go
332ahead, Chris. >> I appreciate that and I appreciate every everything that's being said and it's again, this is really hard. I just keep thinking about the whole district, the all the comments and support we've heard on the other side. I think about where we would be making budget cuts and cutting a lot of staff and support services and where we were last spring and listening to all those stories, all those people that were getting cut and all those families that were going to miss out on music and art and library. And so I'm just reminding us about all of that as well and that we have a really good team that gave us a proposal and yet I'm hating everything that's happening. So I just want to say that. >> Okay. >> Ask a point
333of order. >> You can ask a point of order. Okay. So, if we have a round of voting and we don't get a majority, then we does that mean that we can put forward a different motion or is that what would happen if we if we don't end up with a majority? >> Is that okay? I'm just wondering. We've that not been in this specific situation before. >> We have. >> And so, we have. >> Yeah. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Okay. It's too late for me to remember that situation. So, I'll believe you. >> Not in this kind of situation. Yes. But on votes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for reminding me of that. >> Yeah, we did that recently actually. It was Yeah, because we had a reason I remember is because we were
334sitting here for a long time writing a motion. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> I remember that. >> But that was a very specific >> reason why that didn't pass. Um chair >> yes >> I want to share my support of the this motion also my hesitation that we did deliberate very thoroughly on this motion and I feel honoring the process the emotional labor however people feel about this I will be not feeling good about debating another motion so I just want to I'm sorry I don't want to be assertive if I have to uh I feel really strongly about committing to a decision that we feel is the best decision possible and this is the only decision today given the discussions we had the thoroughess that we had. I just want to share that
335and sorry to try I think I'm influencing my colleagues about any other alternatives with that this discussion but I just want to be very upfront. >> I disagree with Sammy. Okay. Well, I mean, I don't think any one board member gets to decide whether or not we're going to even vote on something because things have to get moved and seconded and then it's up to people however long they want to deliberate on a topic. We've spent a lot of time on this one. And so I just want to say to both of you, it kind of doesn't matter cuz it it has to there has to be I didn't know how else to say it. I'm so sorry. But it it's really just a clarifying thing around like >> agreed. >> Yeah. So thank you.
336>> Sorry. >> Okay. Theres one more thing. >> Okay. So then um I the one thing we didn't talk about in the um proposal either version of the proposal is the changing of the name and I um I think that Corvalis Junior High um will it it messages alignment with Corvalis High School. Um here's the city junior high then this is the city high school. And we've talked a lot about um the desire to figure out our high school situation. And so I'm wondering about um well the appropriate moment to say if we go forward with this, what can we do? What are the options for us to to not necessarily have to commit to the name Corvalis Junior High tonight? I don't think we should debate the name tonight, but I but the motion
337includes that. And so I think we would have to amend the motion to say something different if we aren't going to do that. And I might be the only one who feels this way. And so it may be irrelevant. >> I think that it came up and it it has not risen to the point of discussion as um much as the part about Leticia Carson Elementary like that has consumed the entire process where other pieces were not able to be given some attention like that. And so I think that's a good point, but and we didn't ever we had a lot of opportunity as a board to change that part of it. And so I just wanted to remind us of that. And so that doesn't feel like because it's in both e if we
338if this motion does not pass and the next and another motion is it's in both of them. And so I just wanted us to remember that. And I don't know what to do about that at this point. So, uh, I don't I don't feel like that's something that should stop us from going forward. Right. That was my point. Thank you. >> What I would like to do is explore a revision to that when we go are further in the process of actually forming what the schools will look like, >> re-evaluating if that's the best option. Um, that's what I'll put out there. And I'm not going to not vote or ask us to hold it up because of it alone. I just think that it is I think it's unfortunate that it's 11:45 before uh
339anybody myself included thought to say it out loud because I don't know that I'm the only one who thought it but now it's taken a long time to come out so I'm understand that >> Sam moments like this I have to look at Ryan and ask a question uh is there a viability of engaging right now and how that will balance with executing the the plan should we enga if shall we decide decide to change our minds around junior high. Any feedback there from an executional point of view before we lean in into even hinting of of that possibility? Uh like I shared on Monday night, um the capacity to pull off either proposal um with staff as well as going into negotiations and all the things that are day-to-day in running a school district.
340I don't think that our staff on hand has capacity to lead a naming activity stand alone. Um similar to what I've said about um bringing community together to work on um boundaries or or any of those pieces right now there's a capacity issue that I think we need to be um realistic about. >> Thank you. >> Judah >> I mean we already have Corvalis High School. We need to make sure that we're actually doing this conversation around the high schools and around potentially balancing. I think that is going to be the key difference. And right now, this prevote is starting to feel like the end of the Lord of the Rings. >> Yeah, >> there's so many ways that you could mean that. >> Okay, >> that makes sense. Good thing we all have watched
341that. Not everybody. Okay. Not everybody. Just know everybody got it. Okay. Any other further questions? My last thing I did want to say is I do have serious concern. As I said, I wanted to reiterate that about having the community go through an entire process again around this and um especially should it potentially land on the same exact school community. And so I just wanted to share that as far as thinking ahead. Um, yeah. So, okay, I think we're ready for a vote. I have to reread it. Bear with me everybody in the room and on if there's anybody still online. It has been moved by Theres and seconded by Chris to move that the board adopt the revised proposal which includes the following. Lincoln Adams, Katherine Jones Harrison, Garfield, and Bessie Coleman elementary schools
342become schools serving kindergarten through sixth grade. Mountain View Elementary becomes a kindergarten through 8th grade school. Lionus Pauling Middle School becomes a seventh through eighth grade school and is renamed Corvalis Junior High, allowing students to develop a new mascot and school culture. Sheldon Middle and Leticia Carson Elementary School is closed. Students currently enrolled at Leticia Carson Elementary will be distributed as follows. Students living in the Mountain View boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer and those students living east of Highway 99 will attend Mountain View K8. Students in the Garfield boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer are because they are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will attend Katherine Jones Harrison. Students living west of Highway 99 will attend Bessie Coleman. Katherine Jones Harrison will become Garfield's
343sister school. This means that the students who move into the Garfield boundary after second grade and are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will be placed at Katherine Jones Harrison. Sholan gyms continue to be accessed by teams and and the community. Wildcat Park continues to be accessed by the community for recreation. The school board will will review the feasibility of the current high school model during the 2829 school year or when high school enrollment falls below 2025 students. Prior to this review, the district will collaborate with students from all high schools to assess priorities for the high school experience in our district. The district is committed to engaging in community conversation with Leticia Carson's Direct Descendants, the Leticia Carson Legacy Project, the Oregon Black Pioneers, and the Limb Benton NAACP on how
344to best honor her name through CSD buildings and programming. I'm going to keep track. Sammy >> I. >> Judah. >> Nay. >> Chris >> I. Shauna >> abstain. >> Theres >> nay. >> Bernie >> nay. >> And I vote yay or yes. >> Um that equals a 33 split vote. Motion does not carry with a split vote. >> Could I just have I didn't print it off. If somebody has a printed copy of the original proposal's language, I assume that means that you want to make a motion for that. >> Yes. Okay. And All right. That's >> I move that the board adopt the initial proposal which includes the following. Lincoln, Adams, Katherine Jones, Harrison, Garfield, Leticia Carson, and Bessie Coleman elementary schools become schools serving kindergarten through sixth grade. Mountain View becomes a kindergarten
345through 8th grade school. Lionus Pauling Middle School becomes a seventh through 8th grade school and is renamed Corvalis Junior High, allowing students to develop a new mascot and school culture. Shelder Middle School closes. Shelder gyms continue to be accessed by teams and the community. The school board will review the feasibility of the current high school model during the 2028 2029 school year or when enrollment falls below 2025 students. Prior to this review, the district will collaborate with students from all high schools to assess priorities for the high school experience in our district. >> It's been moved by Judah. Is there a second? >> Second. It's been um moved by Judah and seconded by Bernie. Um can I add that clarification that it includes it's high school enrollment is what it was supposed to say. >>
346Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I ran into the same problem as theres. >> Yes. Is there any discussion Chris? >> So I'm not real sure what what happens here. If we vote for this, then are we not taking care of the deficit? So, what do we do? >> That's exactly what the whole discussion was. And I um I would like to say that I feel like it's fiscally irresponsible to um not go with an option that provides the best services for the whole district that retains the most staff. and I am adamantly not for going through this process with the community again. And so that creates a situation where we're going to continue to have to cut staff every year. And I'm not trying to scare people. That's actually the reality. And um I
347don't know how else to say it besides being really upfront because that's what I do is that I do feel it's very irresponsible of a board to have a viable option in front of us that would have helped prevent that from happening and we can agree to disagree on that but it is a viable option that was um and everybody has their reasons for voting how they do. Um and I just think that really needs to be said that it is a choice that folk made or the board made. So we have to live with the repercussions of that. Any other discussion? Go ahead. >> This is really new to me and I want to really lean in with some cander. If this propo if this motion was made before we asked the superintendent for
348a revised proposal, I would have v voted yes. I can't in good faith vote no given the circum vote yes on it given the circumstances right now. for the following reason. We probably unless the city changes or the state changes their funding, we will engage in this according to the estimation somewhere between a year and three. Process-wise, we had really robust conversation and we are completely split on it, which is good indication that this process worked into a very healthy way of us considering the merits, the pros and cons of the discussion. And for those reasons, I think Sorry, I need a second. I think I can't really see a path forward for us doing this proposal again propos process again and see that this process worked in a way where we were able to
349fully vet it and it's okay if the process fails and that's why I think if we want to decide as a group that we should go to the initial proposal I feel actually that's not really honor ing the process and I feel it is fiscally irresponsible as well both ways. The consequences of my decisions, 25 staff who are going to be in the classroom. That being said, what's worse is the trust in us being committed to what we promised this community to honor. Are we going to go through the same process? I haven't heard anything from the questions or anything from the process that we need to change something that I can't say okay that's why I would vote no. So I'm going to go back to the former motion that's really relates to this
350motion. And I struggle with this and this is why this is new to me. I struggle with this to my colleague because and I say it with really we're friends and and and I'm gonna say it and I'm gonna push back in a way that I hope it's taken with a with a light spirit. If the mo if the vote was four to three or the vote failed with the majority, I would be able to go to back to my constituent community and say, "I support the second motion with a revised plan because the majority of the board decided, the feedback we got, whatever it is, the justification of the majority, I'll support the decision of the majority being split. I feel I want to lean in on my colleague and say the abstension abstension
351makes me feel this process failed and we have to start again. The cost is so high but what's higher is making sure we have a process that actually works next year. That's why I really will vote no on this one. And I would encourage a reconsideration of the motion where we would vote, we would fail it completely or we would pass it completely and maybe we can debate it where we can discuss the merits where we have the majority of the board go one way. For those reasons, I I feel structurally really I'm not comfortable voting for the initial proposal. I feel is going to give our community who put the labor into debating this discussion disservice. They asked us to decide. We decided not to decide. Not good. >> Can I ask a question
352then? >> Yeah. >> Because I know I understand. Thank you Sammy. Um is that an option in terms of what is the process if the original or the first motion is brought back? Do we first go through this current motion? >> Yeah. >> Vote it yes or down and then come back to the other. >> Yeah. There's multiple ways. We could uh table it. We could vote it down. Uh or yeah, we could table it, vote vote vote it down. If we vote a yes, then the initial motion becomes mute. Revising the motion. Either side, sorry, this is weird. either side who uh is uh tied can bring it back motion to reconsider and if we all can agree uh the majority agrees motion to reconsider then we can bring it back and debate it
353and I would say for us uh probably we need the hint from you that's you want it and one of us uh will do a motion to reconsider if that's an option that you would be willing to I personally I feel that will inform the discussion better and maybe tableabling it will be really healthy for us so we can go back to If the majority of the board wants to, >> I don't think it's good for the community to have this conversation next year or the staff. And that's where I struggle with the ask to do that. It's pretty clear that we're going to have some tough times ahead. And that's where I was like, I don't know if going back to that. That's just where I'm at with it. But um which makes this
354motion hard because it's the original one and there was a more viable option presented to us that was um default failed. So I would um Okay. So, I think we should I think we should table this motion um so that we have the opportunity to decide if we want to revisit the other motion. And I think we have to do that before we can comment on the other motion about what would what would need to happen for someone to potentially change their vote on that motion. Mhm. >> And so that's what I think we that's what I think is the is the uh the what should be the next step that we table this one and that then someone calls the first motion back for for discussion so that we can address what might be
355the barrier to being able to um reach not a a tie, not a not be stalled. on that one. >> Do you to agree to t do we vote to table it or >> it's a either unanimous consent uh or uh a vote but have to be motion >> um we need a motion to table it and then >> I move that we table the um motion introduced to discuss the original proposal. It's been moved by Theres, >> second >> and seconded by Chris. I hope we don't have discussion. Is there discussion? >> Or if there is, there is. Uh, I mean, well, I don't want to discuss the first proposal. Um, I want to table the first proposal and revisit the revised proposal. That's very weird. I want to revisit the one we talked
356about first, which is the revised proposal. Yeah. Um, that's what I that's what and then I don't know the way to call that out and say let's I want to revisit that now that we have moved and seconded and unanimously consented to table this one. >> We haven't we haven't consented to do that. You're right. >> We have to vote. It's been moved by the seconded by Chris to table the motion um that has been presented by Judah and Bernie. Sammy >> I >> or Judah >> nay. >> Chris >> I. >> Shauna >> I. >> Theres. >> Hi. >> Bernie. >> Nay. >> And I vote yes. Did you keep track of those? Okay. Thanks. Because I have a bunch of check marks and they're going to get confusing. Thank you. The that passed
357by majority. So that motion has been tabled. And does anybody wish to say anything or make a >> Well, I I motion I would like to move that we revisit that we that we what that we reconsider. Is that the language? I move that we reconsider the first proposal presented the revised proposal. >> It's been moved by Theres. >> Second >> and seconded by Chris. It's been moved by Theres and seconded by Chris to revisit the um first motion that we discussed. Sammy >> I >> Judah >> nay. >> Chris >> I. >> Shauna >> I. >> Theres I. >> Bernie nay. >> They vote yes. Um motion passes. So are we discuss >> we have discussion now? >> Yes, we can have discussion on Okay. Do I I will reread the motion again when
358we come back when it's time to vote on the again. >> Yes. Okay. So I think the conversation that I would like to have or I'd like to entertain if this is you know really feasible is is there any viable um adjustment to the revised proposal that a person who has voted not in favor would potentially could potentially move them to feeling comfortable enough to support it or vice versa. I mean, is there something that could be changed that could I guess I I that doesn't really seem necessary to look at that direction for the proposal to carry? We need to have discussion about whether or not there is um some in that proposal that a individual would need to see that could move them from where they are to someplace else. Um does I
359don't know if uh anyone question >> wishes to share a concrete example of what might that might look like. I would like to, you know, for my position, if there's language and they're committing to investigate, not a directive, but rather uh a sense of the board to look at redistricting redistricting in the near future. I think that would change it because right now I don't think this is sufficient in terms of the the longer longer uh picture. >> So Bernie with the the way that the high school one was worded was intended to have have that as an option but you would prefer to see it stand out in their >> maybe add and redistricting >> or calling you're talking about the entirety of the district >> the boundary. Yes. >> Boundary. Okay. >> To
360discuss the feasibility of >> it. It's not a directive but rather a commitment to do that. >> I see >> is what I I would look for. >> Okay. Beyond just the one that we made as a board earlier, but it have it stronger in this. >> Yes. Chair. Yes. I'm sorry. Can I ask for a purpose of expediency? Uh I like the question and every time we have a proposal we actually entertain it as a motion debate it and then move to the other question other idea. Uh sorry we're giving priority for the first one but I think that will help us vet each idea one at a time. Is that a good thing to go about? >> Um I think I want to hear what people have first because if we can include
361them okay >> or I'll keep a list. So this is the um commitment. Let me write it properly. Um com the board let me see if I read if I did this right. The board commits to review feasibility. Is that correct, Bernie? as part of um >> the board I'm just trying to get this part of it. The board commits to review >> boundaries. >> Boundary feibility >> is a separate uh sentence after um uh with students from all high schools that assess um priorities for the high school experience in uh district. The board also commits to um investigate options for um boundaries adjustment. >> Investigate what? >> Options for boundary readjustment >> can would I thought you said feasibility earlier. >> Is that part of it? >> It's late. So, yes. Um, >> board
362also commits to investigate the feasibility of boundary adjustments. >> Correct. >> Districtwide. >> Yeah, that sounds good. >> Chair, can I ask uh maybe I want to ask staff investigate versus because investigation has its own connotations. Investigates versus eval what's I'm sorry. I'll I'll getting late for me too. Does the word matter if we use the word investigate versus evaluate? >> To me, the word investigate means that first process that we went through to come to you um and then ask you how to move forward um ra more of the lay of the land. >> Is that what you were going for? >> Yes. >> Okay. Shauna and then Judah. I think it's important in that investigation or evaluation of also con continuing to or exploring the I know everyone's saying it's late. It is
363late. Um feasibility of maintaining a school of choice over h having maintaining all neighborhood schools in the district. >> Would that be a and or is that a new sentence? It's probably a new sentence. >> Okay. >> So, it's and while you're working on that sentence, I'll just put out there that those two changes are sufficient for me to say that I can support this proposal. I don't like this particular I mean, not like is not the right word. That's not the right word. It's too late to come up with the right words. I agree that we need to make a fiscally aggressive move and I think we need to have a commitment that we are saying we will do longer term work while we are living out a short-term solution and without the commitment
364to do that I wouldn't be comfortable supporting it but with that I I think I could I think I could see the gain the trade of the short term for the longer term security that I think that could bring us um that feels closer to something that our community could um collaborate on because a boundary review could also turn that into a boundary school perhaps. Right. So um that has been a question of mine about Franklin as well. Um so does this sound right? The board commits to also investigate a school of choice as part of the CSD structure and that would be right after the boundary question. Does that sound correct, >> Judah? >> Um, there is not information that is available tonight that would make me comfortable with voting yes to the um
365revised proposal. >> Is there um any other things that need to be adjusted in here? I will say that given the lateness of the hour, I don't want to haggle over feasibility of a school of choice, but I would like to go on the record as saying that I don't I would really like us to evaluate the equity implications of a school of choice. That's what I'm going for in saying that that needs to be present in there. I don't want to be I don't want to misrepresent to the community that I'm not on that I'm somehow on the fence about that. I'm not on the fence about that. I think that that is something that it's time has passed in our district with limited resources and I'm not going to insist on stronger language
366to move us forward tonight. But I also want to make sure people know when that that that's what I mean when I say I don't think that this has a permanent place in our district if we are going to advance equity. And I don't think we can advance equity if we don't have our people. We need our people. And that's I think that's how in my mind I can be okay with the potential tradeoff, not trade-off, the potential recognition that we have to do something in the short term to be viable. I understand that. I don't want something in the short term if the if the commitment to longer term doesn't also significantly address equity and boundaries and Franklin as a school of choice they are huge moves toward addressing inequities between our schools and
367so I'm with those changes I would support this and move this forward. Shauna, >> I was just going to say I agree with Teresa's recommended language change on that because feasibility, I know I suggested that word. Um, we know it's feasible. It's already happening. And so I think what Teresa is saying is that we actually need to explore how that sits with >> Did that still did this still capture it because it doesn't have feasibility with with the school of choice? >> Okay. And just so people know, um I'm not like advocating for any of the schools or anything because I think this is a um something I've had a lot of questions about as well is that um Franklin it goes through the regular transfer process. Correct. And so it's not like a extra
368step or it's not a it's and it's a lottery for any school once they hit capacity. And so I wanted to make sure folk understood that process that it's not just a lottery all the time. It's a transfer request just like any of the other ones. So but it's not a boundary school. So it doesn't start with anybody. It's just an interesting model. So that's not the same as the other schools. So I just wanted to and that's why it turns into that piece about the inequity with transportation just like it is with any other transfer. And so I think that's important to also recognize how it actually operates as far as getting students there. Um that has caused some things. So that's why I'm really excited about our next step about because it's not
369just Franklin, it's any school that students transfer to that I have a lot of concern about. So I think that's a great next step. and um and also just brings and I want to say thank you to my colleagues for bringing in the things that we already discussed doing to make it as part of this to make it a little bit of a stronger commitment to those things and um I still stand by the fiscal responsibility that we have knowing what lies ahead um and knowing that we represent the entire district not just one area. Um, is there any further discussion? >> I just want to renew without saying them my comments. >> I want to renew my comments and state that I I do not believe that even the revised revised proposal addresses the
370significant concerns. Okay, I need to put these where they need to go really quick. So, just hold on a second. Wait, do we have to we have to vote to include these in there? So, I'm going to read the both the sentences. Can we vote them as a bulk to add into this? >> I think if you read it all together, we can vote to add the language all together. >> I have to vote to add it into the thing. We have to >> Yeah. What I'm saying is I think if we read them together, it's one vote to include everything that you read. >> Can we do you It's so late. I'm like, what are the Robert's roles? Can we do unanimous consent if I wait we because no people want to vote on
371it. >> I I think to honor the process and the voting record I would say probably we need to go through a motion. Um I I really don't know if uh there is uh folks who might be supportive of one element of the motion and the other elements but if everybody's comfortable with a thumbs up we can have one motion to amend uh both and you would read it amend to read as and then we would vote on the amendment you would read the whole thing we would read them we will be voting on adding it and then we'll be voting again for the entirety of the amended motion >> I I have another procedural question for the board. When we're looking at this language, no, we would have to do it separately because we
372have a tabled motion. So, I don't want to have to vote on this twice because this language is applicable to both of them. >> Okay. >> So, can >> but we didn't introduce it when the motion that was tabled was being discussed and so it's it's been introduced under the revisiting of the original motion. >> So, can we >> So, I don't think we need to vote on whether to amend both. Right now the tabled motion is not actively being discussed. >> Okay. Thank you. It >> it is uh the motion to reconsider brings it on the table. >> The original proposal that was >> Oh, I'm sorry. The table one. >> I apologize. >> And I want to say for the record before the vote, I think that the revised varives proposal is better
373than the revised proposal, but I still disagree. So I want that to be clear when you're looking at what I'm doing. >> Okay. Does anybody want to make a motion to um to add the two pieces? >> I move that we add the language regarding boundary review and reviewing school of choice as will be read by Dr. Whitebear to the revised proposal which is currently being discussed. That >> chair, would you chair, would you state the the revised revision before a second for the record? >> I was going to read it. >> Yeah. Can you read those? >> Um Theres moved to include um two sentences which read, "No, scratch that. That's too long of a motion for Kim to type. Teresa moves to add the board also commits to investigate the feasibility of boundary
374adjustments for the whole district. The board commits to also investigate a school of choice as part of the CSD structure. Is there a second? >> Second. >> So moved by the seconded by Sammy. Any discussion? Yes. I know it's late. >> Yes, fine. >> Just thinking about the technicalities of this. I'm supportive of a boundary review and I'm concerned about students who will be moved and misplaced from consolidated schools than going through a boundary adjustment. And so I'd like to think about something in there that prioritizes minimizing the number of transitions that students have to make even if there is a boundary review. >> Yes. and boundary reviews take years. And so I don't know if that would be as much of a upfront concern knowing that it like it wouldn't happen. This wouldn't be
375like if we would have we would have to get the information presented to us. we would have to engage in a process and that does take a it's not a so um does it need to does it need to be more explicit in there about it or I don't know how we can >> I hear what you're saying that students who have to transition to a new school may not be involved in that >> and if they are >> how are we accounting for or how are we considering that or including that language in some way. So, I think yes, I'd I'd like to see something and I don't mean to or at least some acknowledgement that that that will be a priority for us to consider. How would you word it? >> What do
376you have down already? Boundary feasibility and adjustment with attention to minimizing the number of transitions students are required to or Ricard maybe the wrong word >> with hold on with attention >> minimizing the number of transitions impacting students based on previous consolidation >> I can't remember how to spell right min it's a n minimize there we go I'm dependent on spell check now with attention to minimize impact on students previously impacted by consolidation. Okay. Are we do you have a procedural question? We have to vote it down or are we just do >> this is an amendment that Oh, wait. Second amend. This is second amendment. We can vote on it. We have to vote on it >> on this one to that. Yeah. >> Yes. Sea's suggestion of equitable uh the equitable elements. Sorry.
377>> I need my I don't have like I have Robert's rules so down it I just cannot remember right now. Um I'm sorry y'all if we are supposed to vote on the original language and then come back or we we can vote on adding this in before I don't know what we're doing >> since it is pertinent to uh the amendment. Uh it can be a second amendment and then >> it can be a second amendment. >> Yes. And we treat the second amendment and then we go to the amendments as as adjusted. >> But do we do we vote on the amendment before we vote on the whole thing? That's what I'm confused about. >> Yes. We vote on the second amendment >> and then we vote on >> and then you vote on
378all the amendments. >> This is a lot of amendments that I'm trying to write down. That's why I'm trying to keep track of them. Okay. >> It is. Yes. But I think that is what we would do. Or alternatively, we could table the first amendment. >> No. >> Okay. Never mind. >> Let's stick to it. >> Let's just let's just let's vote on adding it and then we'll vote on the amendment. >> Uh actually, chair, was there a motion to amend? >> Yes. >> Specific. >> Yes, there was. >> Then we need to vote on this motion to amend. Well, it was >> Wait, you mean a motion to amend the amendment? >> Yes. >> No, we did not. Shauna did not move to amend the amendment. >> She was just adding to it for
379us to discuss. >> So, we So, we would need to do that. >> Yes, >> that's what I was asking. So, I move to amend the amended language to include Shauna's uh recommendation of minimizing transitions as will be read by Lou. >> Yes. I understand this is late and we're making sure that we do the right do this the right way and if you're frustrated and want to the doors right there. So please be respectful of our process. >> Did somebody second it? >> Second. And chair could you read that's everything? >> Yes I will. So, it's been moved by Theresa and seconded by Sammy to add Shauna's um language that reads um the board also commits to investigate the feasibility of boundary adjustments for the whole district with attention to minimize impact on students
380previously impacted by consolidation. That's what this is. Are you all ready to vote, >> Sammy? >> Yes. I >> Judah. >> Hi >> Chris. >> Hi >> Shauna. >> I >> Theres. >> I >> Bernie. >> I vote I. Motion passes. So that has um it has also been moved by Theres and seconded by Sammy to include um language to the motion on the floor that now reads, "The board also commits to investigate the feasibility of boundary adjustments for the whole district with attention to minimize the impact on students previously impacted by consolidation. And the board commits to also investigate a school of choice as part of the CSD structure. That is what we're now voting on to add that into the thing. Sammy >> I. >> Judah >> I. >> Chris >> I. >>
381Shauna >> I. >> Theres >> I. >> Bernie >> I vote I. Motion passes. Now the motion that was moved by the seconded by Chris. I'm going to read the whole thing again. Now reads. No, it's I can't do that yet. Hold on. I got to put a little arrow. It has been moved by Theres and seconded by Chris that the board adopt the revised proposal which includes the following. Lincoln, Adams, Katherine Jones, Harrison, Garfield, and Bessie Coleman elementary schools become schools serving kindergarten through sixth grade. Mountain View Elementary becomes a kindergarten through 8th grade school. Lionus Pauling Middle School becomes a seventh through 8th grade school and is renamed Corvalis Junior High, allowing students to develop a new mascot and school culture. Shelderland Middle and Leticia Carson Elementary Schools close. Students currently enrolled at
382Leticia Carson Elementary will be distributed as follows. Students living in the Mountain View boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer. And those students living east of Highway 99 will attend Mountain View K8. Students living in the Garfield boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer are be are because they are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will attend Katherine Jones Harrison. Students living west of Highway 99 will attend Bessie Coleman. Katherine Jones Harrison will become Garfield Sister School. This means that the students who move into the Garfield boundary after second grade are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will be placed at Katherine Jones Harrison. Sheldon and gyms continue to be accessed by teams and the community. Wildcat Park continues to be accessed by the community
383for recreation. The school board will review the feasibility of the current high school model during the 2829 school year or when high school enrollment falls beow 2020 2025 students. Prior to this review, the district will collaborate with students from all high schools to assess priorities for the high school experience in our district. The board also commits to investigate the feasibility of boundary adjustments for the whole district with attention to minimize impact on students previously impacted by consolidation. The board commits to also investigate a school of choice as part of the CSD structure. The district is committed to engaging in community conversation with Leticia Carson's Direct Descendants, the Leticia Carson Legacy Project, the Oregon Black Pioneers, and the Lin Benton NAACP on how to best honor her name through CSD buildings and programming. Is there any
384further discussion? Sammy >> Chair, I just want to recognize thank you for the community. We I think the compromise we're reaching right now and the discussion is because of community input. I don't think we would have arrived here without it and and our discussion and our ability to be cander candid about what we feel the community needs for the student success. So just want to appreciate that and sit with it. Thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Go ahead Trace. Um I do want to um extend gratitude that um board members are still here and we are still actively in conversation. I don't feel entirely comfortable um well let me rephrase. I don't think to families who have been reaching out to us that this feels like a workable compromise. And I want to acknowledge
385that um it's it's not a workable compromise for what is in their lived experience going to happen in their community. And I want to recognize that. I also want to recognize that we've got staff who do not do not know what their contract will be. We cannot leave here tonight without movement on that. We have to leave them with the ability because we need to we want to retain our we want to retain good staff and we cannot ask the district to not have the ability to figure out what they need to accomplish for next year. So this is for me not um a fantastic compromise. It is moving the log jam because we can't get on to the rest of the business if we don't figure out how to do these pieces. And I
386am committed um to one not um surrendering the idea that we can continue to brainstorm ideas. I think that's still we need to implement something in our district. I want the community to still be bringing ideas and emailing and reaching out to the board. I don't want to leave room for the possibility that somehow someway we are going to reach folks um somewhere and they're going to say, "Wait a minute, maybe this is not the best idea." and we will find some funds that will allow us to come back and re-evaluate if this is the best idea for us while still giving our district permission to recognize there is a real limitation right now. I don't. So, I'm uncomfortable with where we are and I'm uncomfortable with not being where we are. And to me,
387this is the only way that we can work both directions to figure out how to move our community forward um and still be sure that our schools are ready to open um in the um in the fall. And um so, and it and and it's okay that I it's not a solution that everyone is going to like and I accept that. I understand that. Um, and there was no possibility that we were going to leave here tonight with something that felt like it was going to work for everyone. And I don't love that. And um, and well, that there's nothing there there isn't more to say about it. I It's a bit It's That's what I'm going to say. I'm going to stop. I'm not >> Shauna, >> there's been a lot of discussion about
388trust tonight and something that I I recognize very very keenly is that families absolutely want the best for their their children and that's what families have been asking for and we've heard some talk and some vision from the innovation team from others about what could be even better in this next phase of Corvalis education. And I think it's a really hard place to be to say we've got so many unanswered questions about what that is in a K- through6 model, in K through8 models. And I have tremendous faith in the staff of this district, the educators, teachers, certified and classified staff, and the magic that they do every single day. and they also are going to need a lot of support because it's really hard, I think, for me as a board member, but even
389more so for families and students to not know what's coming next if that vision hasn't been laid out really clearly. And so I just also want to recognize that I I know that there is a vision and I know that there's a lot of intention in that and resources and time and bringing staff together to create that vision together and without seeing that how hard it also is to be standing in this moment. Judah. >> Um, I'm not I don't want to plate anybody right now, but I want to say if this decision is impacting you and your family when and if you are ready, I would love to still be a part of the process with you no matter what happens. Any other comments? I just wanted to remind everybody that um decisions about
390either one of the motions, one's table, one's active, impacts the entire district and staff and families. And I wanted to remember that because of how um things move around and um yeah, that was all with that. So, I'm going to do I have to reread the motion? I do. Huh? Before we vote. >> Oh, do you? >> Yeah, I have to reread it before we vote. >> Okay. >> Because we No, you >> had discussion. >> Yeah, because we had >> We hadn't had discussion, you wouldn't have to >> Yeah, I wouldn't have had to reread it. It's fine. >> Okay. >> Um, any final discussion? I would just say that um it's um it does not feel good to make these kind of decisions at all. And um and as much as the audience
391is scoffing the board right now, um I want to let people know that we care about the students in this district and folk can have the body language that explained to us and I want to let folk know that we feel it and that um to Chris's point earlier that board members shouldn't feel um threatened community and we've also received messages about that and how we vote on something shouldn't make us look as less than a human being because we also are impacted by these decisions whether it's our personal relationships with people, our kids, our professional lives. And um I just wanted to say it's not an exciting thing to do to have to make these choices at all. in I'm sorry >> is it short? >> Yes. Just want to acknowledge it's late early
392in the morning and for the community members here staff. Thank you. I'm going to say something. I know it is going to happen. Ryan have done that throughout the process notifying staff and students whenever there is a tough time there is resources and support and I just want to share my trust that uh we're going to be there in the schools impacted the most and all schools uh helping the community tomorrow or today and uh the weeks and months to come. So I just want to share my trust in that but also the hopes that the community lean on us. how can we make sure the path forwards is successful for everyone? >> Um, also we also have more business after this. So I just want to let the community know that this if you
393leave it's fine. I understand but the board is still has other agenda items and has committed to this um discussion quite heavily. Um, so I just wanted to mention that too that if you're feel like you're ready to leave after whatever happens or however long you want to stay, um, that we're not going to probably take a break unless the board really needs to. So, it has been moved by Theres and seconded by Chris that the board adopt the revised proposal which includes the following. Lincoln Adams, Katherine Jones Harrison, Garfield, and Bessie Coleman elementary schools becomes schools serving kindergarten through sixth grade. Mountain View Elementary becomes a kindergarten through 8th grade school. Lionus Pauling Middle School becomes a seventh through 8th grade school and is renamed Corvalis Junior High, allowing students to develop a new
394mascot and school culture. Chelin Middle and Leticia Carson elementary schools close. Students currently enrolled at Leticia Carson Elementary will be distributed as follows. Students living in the Mountain View boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer. And those living east of Highway 99 will attend Mountain View K8. Students living in the Garfield boundary who are attending Leticia Carson on a transfer are because they are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will attend Katherine Jones Harrison. Students living west of Highway 99 will attend Bessie Coleman. Katherine Jones Harrison will become Ca Garfield sister school. This mean that students who move into the Garfield boundary after second grade and are unable to participate in the dual language immersion program will be placed at Katherine Jones Harrison. Shelin gyms continue to be accessed by
395teams and the community. Wildcat Park continues to be accessed by the community for recreation. The school board will review the feasibility of the current high school model during the 2829 school year or when high school enrollment falls below 2025 students. Prior to this review, the district will will collaborate with students from all high schools to assess priorities for the high school experience in our district. The board also commits to investigate the feasibility of boundary adjustments for the whole districts with an with attention to minimize impact on students previously impacted by consolidation. The board commits to also investigate a school of choice as part of the CSD structure. The district is committed to engaging in community conversation with Leticia Carson's Direct Descendants, the Leticia Carson Legacy Project, the Oregon Black Pioneers, and the Limbbit Bitten NAACP
396on how to best honor her name through CSD buildings and programmings. >> Sammy, >> hi. >> Uh, Judah, >> nay >> Chris. >> Hi, Shauna. >> Hi, >> Theres. I >> Bernie >> I >> and I vote I motion passes. >> Um we have more agenda items. Um the next item does the board need a break or are you all good? >> Okay, I'll give folk a moment to get out to move out of the room. I should say I said that I didn't mean it as a you must leave get out. I meant allow time to exit >> for them. >> Yeah, for them to leave. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the Oregon School Boards Association 2025 election. Um, the board will now vote on position number 10 on the
397OSBA board of directors, followed by position number 10 on the OSBA legislative policy committee. The board secretary will submit the official vote to the Oregon School Board Association on behalf of the board. Um, I don't have the Do you have it? Does anyone wish to make a motion? >> I do. Um, I move to vote for I gota try to figure this out. I vote I move to vote for Dr. White Pair for position 10 on the Oregon School Boards Association board of directors. >> Second. >> It's been moved by um Chris and seconded by Theres. Is there any discussion? >> We're fortunate to have you >> and your willingness to serve. Thanks. I just want to say thanks for your confidence and I don't know how the vote will go since it's contested, but
398um as you never know when votes are contested, but I appreciate the board's support and doing that work um and being able to bring the information back on how state um things are impacting and um making their way to the local district. has been moved by Chris and seconded by Theres to vote for myself for position number 10 on the Oregon School Board Association Board of Directors. Sammy >> I. >> Judah >> I. >> Chris >> I. >> Shauna >> I. >> Theres I. >> Bernie >> I vote I. Motion passes. Is there um a motion for the OSB legislative policy committee? >> There is. We don't. >> Is that the other position? It's the um the legislative policy commission or committee. >> We don't have to cast a vote. >> No, because because there's
399he's not contested. >> Okay, that's fine with me. >> I'm going to agree. >> He's I've worked with him over the year and I think he'll be just fine without being contested. So, I didn't speak for him on the last one, though. I was just for the record um in appreciation for partnering with him for our region. Um the next item on the agenda is consolidated action. As a reminder, the items under this portion of the agenda are for action. Does anyone have a question about anything in consolidated action? Is there a motion? >> I move that the consolidated action be adopted as proposed. Second. >> It's been moved by Sammy, seconded by Judah. Is there any >> Oh, it's been moved by Judah and seconded by Sammy. Thank you. >> Um, is there any
400further discussion? Oh, I thought you were going to ask something. Has been moved by Judah and seconded by Sammy to adopt the consolidated action items as submitted. Sammy, >> I. >> Judah, >> I. >> Chris, >> I >> Shauna, >> I. Theres >> I >> Bernie >> I vote I a motion passes. Um and then on the agenda the we also have board member comments. Do any board members have comments? We have said many comments. Does anybody have any final comments? Shauna >> just thank you to the community me can't even speak at this hour of night um or morning but thank you to the community members who were here to the staff who were here who stayed I think later today since we're already on Friday now will be a day where there are
401a lot of big feelings and a lot of grief and anything we can do to take care of one another to take care of the community to take care of staff families and especially students Um, I'd like to be a part of helping and I know others in the community are doing that too. >> And I just want to acknowledge that includes us. Like this, we've all said it. It was really, really hard and our hearts our hearts hurt right now. >> Any other comments? >> I appreciate your your mic's not on. >> You might have died. You might have >> I appreciate you got to use use Ryan's. >> It's not even that important to say. I just appreciate Chris's language. Um because we are also sitting with um big feelings and grief. So,
402thank you for putting words to that and to the staff for hanging in there um with us as we um we work through the process. >> Any other board member comments? >> Yeah. uh tonight. Um I see students and families who are now upset and frustrated, but just make it clear, I don't see resistance to change. I just see that people are grieving something that's real to them. And I want you to know I see you and I honor that grief. Judah, I'm I've been like a walking billboard this whole time so people know what I think about what we just did. Um, and on another note, completely board related, there are some issues with our policy I think we need to address that I um in two parts. first about how we did this
403consolidation process and I intend to bring a proposal to this board um about policies around communication and doing that in the future and second um to bring some policies forward that were suggested by the govern government ethics advisory trainer at the Oregon School Boards Association. There's a couple policies that it alerted to me that needed shoring up to make sure that we're um really intentionally compliant. Like we are like really obsessivecompulsive with that on that board. I don't say that that's kind of shaming, but we're really really into ethical compliance, but to make to encode some of those in policy. >> Which policy was it? So we can make sure to get that to >> Well, we don't have one. >> Oh, okay. Um, >> so we need to adopt a policy. >> We need
404to adopt a new policy. Um, it seems like such a terrible, but it's it's important to be in ethical compliance to be looking at there are some things for which board members are eligible for reimbursement. Very few things. and we need to adopt a policy as to whether or not board members can pay for those and then be reimbursed if you're receiving any kind of rewards or points on credit cards or debit cards. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um I would say that if OSBA has um the directory of templates and so we can get those to I don't know when Melissa's who's who those go to right now. Is that to you? Um, yeah. >> So, send those to Ryan. Um, so we can know which ones we need to staff can present to us
405at a meeting. And we also have on there the transport or not transportation, the transfer policy. I wanted to remind us that we committed to that as well as a policy review. Any final comments? Go ahead, Sammy. >> Just thank you for everyone sticking around here. take care of yourself and if you can uh a loved one and someone you can take care of and it's been difficult but it's just meaningful that we're doing it together and I want to just share my gratitude for the hard conversations each one of us have had uh together here on the board and with the community. I feel we're going to be better and we're going to be successful if we continue leaning in and have this cander and I'm grateful for that. Um I'm grieving the hardship
406that many people are going to go through this change uh but hopeful that students outcomes are going to improve because of this hard work. Um, I just want to also say that, um, I know that this is really hard for the community. It's harder for the community than it is for the board, even though we're also impacted by it because we have most of us or a lot of us, maybe not all of us, but many of us have family members are are part of the district in other ways. And I wanted to acknowledge that. And I wanted to um say a special thank you to um the union leaders Christa and Mary for caring a lot for the staff and for supporting them through transitions ahead. I know that's not easy on you all.
407And so I wanted to say thank you and um and we often forget about all of that labor that happens to support the staff from the union leaders and the district staff um through these processes whenever they happen. And so I just wanted to say um a note of gratitude on that. And um and we heard you earlier too, Crystal, on the support for staff. And um yeah, and this and I hope that decisions made um like it was shared with our past um by our past board members that had to make a similar decision was a reminder of the benefits that we've had because of those decisions that they made. And I hope that students in the future also are able to have positive benefits through all of this. So, um, with that being
408said, the longest meeting I've ever chaired, and we're still done before 1:00 a.m. like I promised, um, the meeting is adjourned at 12:57 a.m.