001matters discussed in executive session. As a reminder for folk um we already uh called the meeting to order and um just for folk that weren't here, Sammy is attending virtually and Judah is excused this evening. Um and as you can see the rest of us are here in person. Um so as pertaining to the matters discussed in executive um session, does anyone wish to make a motion? I will. Okay. I vote that the board not hold a hearing on this matter as discussed earlier today. I second. Okay. It's been moved by Chris and seconded by Bernie. Is there um is there any further discussion? Okay. With no further um discussion, it's been moved by Chris and seconded by Bernie to Can you repeat it because I don't have it written down? That the board not
002hold a hearing on this matter. Okay. That the board not hold a hearing on this matter. Um Chris I Shauna I uh Theres I Bernie I Sammy I Okay and I vote I motion and passes unanimously. The next item on the agenda is acknowledge of ArabAmerican History Month and we're going to um take turns reading that now. Acknowledgement of the ArabAmerican Heritage Month. Whereas the Gravalis School District recognizes and pays tribute to the significant contributions made in our community by ArabAmericans, which includes people with ancestry from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. And whereas the Corvalis School District affirms that students, families, staff, and community members should be valued for all aspects of their identities. And whereas Arab American Heritage Month grew out of a local effort in several school districts throughout the nation in
003the 1900s. And whereas ArabAmerican Heritage Month has been proclaimed by several states since. And whereas Arabameans are largely left out of academic discourse and whereas Arab Americans have historically been and continue to be targeted by anti-Arab violence and actions of hate. And whereas the US Department of State designated April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month in 2021, and whereas Oregon proclaimed April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month permanently in 2021, and whereas ArabAmerican Heritage Month has yet to be proclaimed at the national level, and whereas ArabAmericans have contributed to the history and collective future of Corvalis and Benton. County, Oregon. And whereas ArabAmerican History Month provides an opportunity to continue the district's growth in learning about the many contributions of Arab whereas the Corvalis School District has made a commitment to equity and anti-racism. And as whereas the Corvalis
004School District has a responsibility to honor and respect the diverse histories of our community. And whereas the Corvalis School District believes each and every student must be celebrated and appreciated for the distinct and vibrant contributions made by sharing cultures, language, ideas, beliefs, and values within a school community. Therefore, let it be resolved by Oh, sorry. It's where it says read. does I'm so sorry. Therefore, let it be resolved by the board of education of the Corval school district does hereby proclaim April 2022 as well as each April annually as ArabAmerican Heritage Month in the district and strongly encourage students, families, staff, and community members to join existing local celebrations and encourage all schools in the district to help highlight this month in great appropriate ways as well as highlight the contribution uh contributions of all
005ArabAmerican peoples to the local community, nation, and beyond both historically and in current times. Adopted by the board of directors of the school district uh 550 509J Corvalis of Ben uh Benton and Lynn counties, Oregon at its regular meeting this 17th day of March, 2022. Thanks y'all. And just as a reminder, we um reread those anytime there's a heritage or history month to um reaffirm our commitment to those statements. And apologies, Sophia. I am used to that last part being read out all at once. So, yeah. Um the next item on the agenda is board member reports. Do any board members have a report? I see. Uh it's in my bag in the car, but I do have a photo of it. Um, it's board member board member reports first. You're good. Sorry. That's okay,
006Harvey. I apologize. That's okay. You're doing fine. Yeah, you have time. Did you have one, Chris? I'm sure this is going to be talked about again, but I just have to say I um went to the um dine out fundraiser that uh was to help support College Hill. And I mean a lot of schools do the dine out thing and it's you know a lot of people are there but what was really exciting and I'm sorry they're not here to hear this is that that both um Eileen and Harvick and several staff members were several staff several students were there greeting people giving us the little flyer but it was it was like a party you know that just everybody was there really positive and and I want to say a shout out to Burger
007Burgerville because they allowed the kids to give everybody that walked in a flyer so that they got a percentage of whatever was sold that day. So, it was a a nice positive thing evening. I had three three things to share. One from March since I had to miss the last board meeting. Um just wanted to thank staff and students for coming together for the student youth truth workshop back in March. Um district leadership and staff for bringing together students and student leaders from across multiple schools. I know Eileen was there as well to really think about how we can deepen the district's learning with and from students about their experience for students to be thinking about how to engage one another in the youth truth process of learning um from from one another's experiences to
008really strengthen what's happening at the district policy and program level. So, I'm excited for that to continue. And I was only able to be there for the kickoff of that workshop, but I'm looking forward to taking the full day off of work um in May when students come back together again to really dive even deeper into that work. So, wanted to thank everyone for making that possible. Uh my second update comes from Garfield. We were invited to attend an event that happened this weekend, Libros e Desuno, books and breakfast with the Garfield community. And this was the culminating event following a week-long book fair, which for Garfield Elementary School was the first time they had had a book fair in the last six years since 2018. Um, they received a generous grant from Monstran Company
009and their owners, Jesse and John Munster that allowed all 374 students at Garfield to walk away with a free and forever book. and to go and see this event where families and community members, students were represented, staff, um 32 parent volunteers contributed to making this happen both across that week of the book fair as well as for um books and breakfast that happened on Saturday. There were over 200 community members who came to that books and breakfast event. And then several of the um parent volunteers gave me a tour of the book fair itself and showed me the the ticket that was very much in bookmark shape that every student had received. And students were taken during their I think it was during their library time and given the chance to go and choose any
010book that they wanted and it was entirely their choice. Cost was not an issue because of this very generous grant. And to hear the parents reflect back what that meant even in watching students go and how excited they were to choose their very own book that they got to select and even the surprise of students saying we get to keep it. We get to take this home. How meaningful that was. So also at um the books and breakfast event there were families and community members bringing donated books. So there literally were cafeteria tables covered in books that students had an opportunity to come in and say, "Oh, I brought that one. That used to be mine." And then also students being able to to walk out with more books in hand. And um in the
011the numbers that the Garfield PTA very generously shared back with me, students were bringing home another book or maybe 10 or 10 plus books in hand as they left that morning. So that was really joyful. And then I also wanted to mention that there were about the estimate was $885 of community donations to raffle prizes and others um that day from WCO, Bodie Cafe, the book bin Bursts, Inkwell, Elmer's, as well as um private community members that just really highlighted how dedicated the community is um and with the Garfield PTA's leadership to celebrating literacy together in our schools. So, just wanted to give a shout out to that entire community effort. And then finally, um, this morning, just wanted to give a shout out to Mr. Love Tang and the combined high school choirs from
012CBCHS. Coral Combiner had a chance to go and participate in a state choir festival. Um, which is why I happen to be an all all black today. I think I was uh invited in as a volunteer uh piano accompanist and had a chance to go and play with them when they had a moment of of need for an accompanist. So that was a really joyful way to spend a little time this morning. this phenomenal group of students and their musicality, their musicianship. They sang this range of pieces in across languages reflecting many different cultures and they were very very challenging pieces which was noted by one of the the adjudicators there afterward of just how challenging the pieces they chose were and how they truly rose to that challenge. So, it was just exceptional, a
013really joyful way um to hear music in our schools happening in schools and beyond and appreciated that opportunity. And from my understanding, they are actually performing with the Sheldon Middle School choir on Tuesday at 6:30 if anyone would like to hear them. Thank you. Any other board member reports? Theres, thank you. Um well, a couple things. Um, but also I'm having a memory when you're talking about the books and breakfast that one of the perks of living across the street from the elementary school was that for five years we baked all the eggs and carried them over in the pans and we didn't do we haven't done that and I kind of missed that and I've never cooked five dozen eggs at a time and it's a lot of work. So, um, but those breakfasts
014are really a they're really delightful. um just wanted to um first get a program and I just want to bring attention to it and if you don't know about it um it's a it's a program that allows the district to um through uh funds raised alongside the foundation um the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation to provide assistance um for um barriers that families are facing. Um, and so in the last month, I have worked with families who have received assistance with clothing, have had utilities paid, um, have had car repairs made, and so every one of those payments as an investment in our kids being able to stay connected to our district. So, I'm really grateful to be in a district that has that. And I just I want to thank them for their hard work.
015And this month, more than others, I feel like every time I turn around, I'm hearing the family relief program helped with this or they took care of that. So um a huge thank you to their work. Um eighth graders um are for they have forecasted for their um high school transition and that was really exciting process to see how many electives um our school district is offering. And so um I had lots of conversations um with with eighth graders about whether to do woods or metals or can they really get both. And um it's just fun to see them uh really excited about what's coming next. and they recently had an open house. So, many of the kids got to go see the building. But there was something about writing down on paper, this is
016what I'm going to do in my transition to high school. Um that seemed to really kind of make it real. And I saw a lot of excitement among them. So, thank you to the staff who um who really help both create diverse curriculum and then help our eighth graders in a really engaging way um to think about what they want their high school experience to be like. And then uh on that note also um planning for eighth grade graduation is coming and so um there will be lots of opportunities from the community to help support that. Um and I know fifth grade graduation is coming and kindergarten all kinds of graduations. Um eighth grade graduation's on my mind because I live across the street from Linus Pauling. But um but yeah, it's just a really
017lively time to be hearing from our students, many of them planning for transitions, and just again brings to mind um how hard our staff um our teachers and our classified staff and our administrators are working uh to make sure that our kids are getting um a well-rounded education and something that's meaningful to them. So, I'm full of a lot of gratitude this month uh for those things. That's it. Sammy, did you have any board member report? Does he have his hand up? No, it's not. Thank you. Okay. And um I'll just do an extra minute. Our time is almost up. But I did want to say that I was able to um volunteer, not only just attend um but volunteered at the Indian Education um ribbon skirt and shirt workshop last night and that was
018really a lot of fun um to see that happen. And I wanted to say thank you to the Katherine Jones Harrison Elementary School for hosting the space and um also to Marcen and Elena for all the work in that went into coordinating that. Uh it was really awesome to see how um excited people got to see their projects come together and looking at it like oh my gosh what am I doing into um just eyes bright and excited um to see something that they made and um I can go on and on about it. It's just it was just really beautiful and I um we'll save a lot of it for I know we're going to have a presentation about the program here pretty soon for the um reapplication process. So I don't want to
019go too deeply into it but I did want to say thank you to Marcen and Elena and um to the Katherine Jones Harrison School for hosting um look forward to more nights like that. I was um I volunteered as the assistant to the person who came in from the sele tribe and um helped provide instruction and so that was nice to be able to share some of my skills with um the community too in that way um not just as the board lays on so it was nice to be involved with the projects as well. Uh and that's all I had to for my report. The next thing on the agenda is the OSBA and NSBA updates. Um Sammy, did you have anything for NSBA? I do. Um my reports, uh I do apologize for
020the board that I did not have a letter head or a an overview summary, but just content. So I will briefly describe the content that is in your packet. Uh there is uh I just came back or I just I just attended the Atlanta annual convention for the National School Board Association where we hosted uh about 255 exhibitors, school board members and education leaders, superintendent uh in Atlanta and also held the delegates assembly where states representatives uh from every state and member state and territory participated in affirming the resolution. s the beliefs and also amendments to the governing model of NSBA. I would like to highlight that there's a a multitude of resolutions and beliefs that might be relevant to our community. So I would invite the community to review them and uh for the
021board to uh share any uh thoughts or inputs about any of them and basically those resolutions and beliefs they provide uh NFBA membership which includes school boards and including Corvalis uh the priorities that we will be focusing on in the strategy that NSBA has to all uh uh all members of Congress and members of the Senate in the United States. Um and also I want to highlight one uh resolution that was under discussion is protecting undocumented students from removal and there was a discussion on it and I did chime in with uh my personal values, personal stories that I have heard from children who have been impacted by lack of access to education due to their documented undocumented status in other countries and how it is important to uphold the law and the Supreme Court's
022rulings and uplifted the uh resolution that we have passed in Corvalis and uh sanctuary laws that we have in Oregon as a rationale to support the resolution. Uh the resolution passed uh with us with a majority. Uh I would like to also uh uh highlight another thing on your packet which is uh a new grant go green grants for indoor air quality and the importance of indoor air quality improvements and monitoring energy consumption uh to reduce cost but also to improve health outcomes for students and prevent illnesses. uh the go green initiative and NSBA brought millions of dollars uh in terms of uh technical support and assistance and uh funding uh without any earmarked uh how you use the fund as school district uh up to $50,000 per school district and in the pack you
023will see some information about how we can apply for it. So I would like to encourage the uh school board as the school superintendent and the administration to take it into consider into consideration. Uh one of the points that you get marked on whether a member of the board attended uh the uh overview or preview of the grant uh communities uh who are rural or with predominantly poverty commu uh communities with poverty uh and uh with native representation. That being said, all school boards across or or all school districts across the nation are invited to apply. Uh the third element that is in your packet is the slides from uh the director of uh professional developments at Oregon School Board Association uh who shared what does it look like to see a school district school
024board uh being behaving in a way that influenced the superintendent's behavior that influenced students outcomes positively. and uh she measured the standards that you might be very familiar with from the board uh self-evaluation tool that we have used with OSBA and she presented some uh data around what are the elements that uh provide cor positive correlation and highlighted those with really strong correlation. The strong correlations were um community engagement standard, using data to make decisions standard and the third standard uh that had a strong correlation uh was related to cultural responsiveness. So I would like to invite you to review those slides uh uh and really thank you thank uh the school board for its commitment to doing this professional development. It's really contributed to this work that Chris Miles from OSB was able to
025share on a national level. Uh last but not least, I want to really share the general sentiment. Uh school board members and superintendents across the nation are really focused on supporting the kids in those uncertain times and we are hearing uh folks really navigating budget cuts and uh lack of certaintity around funding uh all across the nation. So this is really unfortunate thing to hear across the country. However, it is uh reassuring that we are uh seeing patterns that are not necessarily unique to our community. I understand we have unique attributes to our community and challenges we need to address but there are some common challenges that we're seeing across Oregon and the country and would love to share those uh in later uh times what what are we're hearing and what kind of themes
026we're seeing across the country. That's my report and happy to answer any questions. Thanks Sammy. Any questions? Okay. And um the main thing I would share from OSBA, I know Ryan's probably going to talk about in his report um the some of the work that OSBA and KOSA is um doing. So I'll leave that to his report which is next. All right. All right. All right, I have a few things to highlight, but the one we're going to start with is that it is Golden Apple season, and the foundation um put together this video to highlight the uh winners of our golden apples this year. The winner of this year's golden apple [Applause] [Music] is game uh being valued as part of the sports community is it's so meaningful and I have nothing but amazing
027things to say about the process foundation. and this this award it it is absolutely amazing. So, thank you all so much. Love you guys. This is really great. We're here to present you with a golden apple. Her her son was here to do that. I'm I'm so honored and humbled. Uh just the people that have gotten this before are inspirational. So to be in that same caliber is is really humbling. So thank you. Maria Ortiz is a legend in building teaching Mexican traditional dances to our staff, students, and community. Come on in. Congratulations. And your family's right over there, too. Yes. Hi. Well, I didn't expecting this, but it was a big surprise for me, including my family because I remember they told me, "Oh, mom, dress up nice. It's Friday." I said, "No, no,
028no." Because I am working with kids. So, this is my really great job I do. So, to be recognized as one of the best teachers in the schools, I feel really proud about my, you know, my profession because that's what I love. Jen Creda is an amazing human being. Congratulations. Your hobby. [Applause] [Music] It's just a special thing to be able to recognize people in their work and I'm just really fortunate to be one of those people. I've really enjoyed working in Corvalis all these years. There's a reason I commute every day because it's a really special place and so is Lincoln and couldn't be prouder to be here. [Music] So again, it's a really fun time of year to be able to recognize people who do really important work in our schools um for
029our students and for our community. Um we have continued to be able to provide the surprises year-over-year. We haven't been caught yet. Um, and every time it's a little dicey, but we've made it through and we've been able to surprise staff and have their families there to cheer them on. And it's just, yeah, it just feels good to be able to recognize um just a few of the people in the district that do amazing work. And we just have incredible staff across our district. So, it's always really hard to decide who to recognize um because there's so many people worthy of recognition um and including Elaine, Ela Markley. This year we also were able to recognize her um as a a recipient of a an award um for all the contributions she's made um year-over-year.
030She was a Golden Apple winner at one point in time and now distinguished service award um for her commitment to the district and all that she does in our community. Um with Elaine, I shared the story that um the first time I met Elaine, it was at an AYSO parent meeting and I left as the coach. um and there was no way I was going to get out of there without being the coach. And that um sums up Elaine and her passion for making sure that kids are taken care of. So again, um that's been a highlight this spring. A couple of other things I want to share with you. One is an update around Osborne. Um I feel like I'm giving you an update monthly at this point in time, but this one is
031a really positive one. Um, last week, Senator Geleran put in a request um to the legislature for um for $5 million um as a way to um address the needs of Osborne. Um so um Kim Patton um was able to work alongside um Senator Gster to get that information to um be submitted and so we're waiting to hear back. We probably won't have additional information on that till the end of the session, but that was really uh positive and an important step moving forward. And then with between the city and the district, we've identified Scott Edwards Architecture as the firm that's going to be reviewing the um the needed fixes of the for the natiatorum and we'll have that report by um the end of June. So we will have a sense by that time
032if we have those funds from the state. we'll also have a better sense of what the needs are in terms of repair. Um, and so continue to anticipate more reports coming forward. But, um, tonight I just want you to know that we're continuing to make progress. It feels like it's slow progress, but it's a significant undertaking and we're working alongside the city to do what we can to get that back up and running. Also, um, thank you to the 440, um, question people that have sent questions in related to our budget. Um, so we had a budget presentation and we've sent out that QR co code far and wide. So, we've had student questions, we've had staff questions, we've had community questions. Um, and appreciation to Lauren. Um, Lauren put together an FAQ that's about
03311 or 12 pages at this point in time answering many of the questions that came forward and theming that out. Um and you can find that now on our district website. Um two other updates for you. One is that last week we had our students from Niji, Japan. Um with us again they come on an annual basis. We had 24 students who came and they this every year it goes back and forth between CHS and CV. This year it was um primarily at CHS and students had the opportunity to spend multiple days in classes learning about the school. Um this year um we were able to host two of the students at our house which was a lot of fun to have them. Um and again it's just a great opportunity for us to um
034understand different cultures and um ways of life and for our youth to understand that and have those experiences and perspectives um is really important. And so we will continue that partnership. in the summer, I anticipate we'll have students that go over um to visit their school as well in reciprocity. So, that has been really fun and um I really enjoyed it. And then finally, I wanted to give you an update which Lou alluded to um related to some of the um federal changes that continue to come our way um and some of the requests. Um in this case it was a directive to comply with title six um and um that was included pieces around DEI work. Um and our state responded um on behalf of all of our school districts. So individual school districts
035do not have a responsibility or an obligation to make any um just statement um at this point in time. I wanted to just read a little bit of what Dr. Williams said in her response. Um Dr. Charlene um Williams wrote, "Oregon has implemented and continues to implement education programs in accordance with the state and federal law. Oregon remains fiercely committed to its values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we celebrate our differences in common humanity. Our moral and ethical obligation is to stand up for public education. We want to assure Oregonians that their children can learn and thrive in safe, welcoming, and supportive environments. So, that was just one com um section of that um that letter that she sent back to DC. And I just think that that's a a poignant piece of the
036letter. And I just wanted to make sure that you had a chance to hear that and to recognize um the work that's going on on the behalf of our students, not just in our district, but um at the state level as well. That's my report. Thank you, Ryan. Any questions for Ryan? Okay, thank you. And the next item on the agenda is student representative reports. And we have a couple of you all here, so I don't know who wants to go first. I'll go first. Um, a new experience that College Hill has offered our students this year is our experimental design course. This class was taught in collaboration with our science teacher Kate Baron and David Hubert from Oregon State University. David is an expert in all things pertaining to fruit flies. Fruit fruit flies
037and he brought in some specimens for our students to learn from. David and Kate have worked with our students to develop hypotheses, make predictions, and collect and analyze data. And um excuse me, I'm sorry. So often in our science courses, results are neat, tidy, and predictable. But this isn't the case in real world situations. Data is often messy and leads us to new conclusions that we're not expecting. That is what our students found. And they were able to do this. They were able to do real primary scientific inquiry alongside real scientists. Earlier this week, our students went over to OSU and presented their experiments, their predictions, and their findings to a group of Oregon State faculty and students. This type of exhibition is an essential piece of scientific learning and proved extremely valuable for our
038students. They did an incredible job and we're so proud of themselves. It was a gift for them to rub shoulders with the scientific community in our town. Special thanks to the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation for their financial support for of this program, to David for providing his expertise, access to graduate level lab equipment, and his time and relational energy to our students. And as always, thank you to Kate for making opportunities like this happen for kids at College Hill. We hope to make this something that we are able to do year after year for kids at College Hill. And I also want to add, we had a very successful dine out fundraiser at Burgerville last week. We raised over just over $500 for our yearbook. Um, and so we want to thank Burgerville for reaching
039out to us to set that up and thank all those who supported the event. Um, yesterday we had track senior night, which is it was pretty early in the season, but I heard it went really well. Um, a lot of seniors PR which is really great. Um, yeah, it was just celebrating their hard work uh for the season. Um, yesterday we also had our last assembly of the year which included a lot of fun games like uh we have these big blowup balls we use and it was really exciting. I don't know. It was it was it's new. It's it's a great game. It went very well. Um, AP test season is coming up so uh a lot of classes are starting to prep for that. Uh hopefully it goes well for all the students.
040Um and for the end of April, there will be the blood drive which will be the um it'll be next Friday, I believe. And then there will also be ASB elections coming up at the end of April and early May. And also Key Club members just went to decon, which is like the Pacific Northwest uh district convention. I think it was in Seattle and I heard a lot of good reviews from it. Um there was over a thousand students from the Pacific Northwest who all went there and just you know shared experiences that they had in Key Club and um yeah I heard our our team did really well with leadership there and yeah that's awesome. Thanks you all for your reports this evening. Um the next item on the agenda is public comment. Do
041we have public comment? Yes. Okay. Um, so we'll now open the 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. There's a little microphone that when this is red, it's on. Um, speakers may provide objective criticism of district operations and programs, but the board will not hear complaints about individual district personnel. As a reminder, you will have three minutes to make your comments. I will alert you when you
042have 30 seconds left. And when your time is up, there's also a very handy timer that Kim has. You have a green light, yellow is 30 seconds, and then red, your time is up. Um, after your comments, the board will have three minutes to ask clarifying questions, but cannot engage in conversation. If board members wish to revisit a topic or issue raised during public comment, they may do so at the appropriate time in the agenda. And that part is really um hard sometimes because we like to engage in conversation, but we're not able to do that at this time. So, you're always welcome to follow up um and communicate with us outside of this meeting. And before starting your comments, please state your name for the record and indicate whether you reside within the school
043district boundaries. Amanda Cordis. My pronouns are she, her, and I am both a parent and a resident in the school district. I'd like to begin by saying thank you for providing the budget FAQ. I'm here tonight because there are two questions in particular I'd like to dive more into. The first, why are executive positions and administrators getting raises? Quote, we believe that all staff are important contributors to student success at Corvalis School District and intend to honor the work accordingly. Historically, non-represented employees receive a cost of living adjustment equivalent to that of our classified or certified employees, whichever is lower that year. And second, how does our district level of staffing in the district office compare to other like-sized districts? To which the answer is, the district is currently in the process of gathering this
044data and will have information to share during the budget process. to read those two in close succession and hear we don't even know if our staffing level is appropriate but regardless that executive salary raise line item is sacred was a complete record scratch moment for me even Samaritan with their budget issues found it appropriate to temporarily reduce executive pay as seen in the March 22nd OPB article I am here today as we continue on in this difficult budget process to ask the district and the board to reconsider the approach of making certain line items untouchable. Last year, our elementary students shouldered the cuts with a reduction in their access to behavioral skills trainers and librarians. And as an elementary parent, I see firsthand those impacts. Maybe this one cycle, district admin foregoes raises so that
045students aren't always the ones taking the hit and as a community we can share the burden of the undoubtedly crappy, sorry, crappy situation that we're in. Um, I'd like to invite everyone to think expansively and put all options on the table to center and best support our students in this moment. Thank you. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you, Kim. The timer is already running. Can you reset the Are you on? Okay. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I thought you made a hand moment. Give me a a thumbs up. Great. Thank you. Um I am Patricia Vonl. I'm a parent and a volunteer within the school district. Um my questions or my inquiries pertain to the reductions across the board. Um equitable reductions are needed. We all
046know the budget realities, but it has to be equitable across across all electives. And I'd like to know electives and specialists. Um, how does the district prioritize? How do they pick which elective or which specialty area is more valuable than another? Where is the research data to support the emotional, mental, physical, and social development of one elective verse another? It's very, very important. The difference between I mean we offer a lot of electives. The difference between culinary, woodworking, child care, metal work, art, music, library, band, choir, athletics. There's a lot to choose from. Where's the data to support the cuts? Um second the if teachers and specialty personnel can share jobs one day in this school that school.36 where's the data for that and can administrators also share in the reduction of time placement um
047to have a principal assistant principal dean students, uh, several athletic directors, assistant directors, uh, behavioral specialists. We all need to share in the cuts, in the reductions, and find a way to make it peaceful. Um, the other area of interest is the lit the literacy program. We have money for this new literacy program and I'd like to gather more information uh pertaining to the proven methodology for why we are taking this method over another of the level of teacher expertise and the group size that's going to be offered. Um, I spent lots of years in the area of reading and I just spent the summer, excuse me, not the summer, a couple weeks in the University of Eastern Oregon, which was not even on my radar. And um, I did the research. I know the
048professor who was speaking and they're doing great work there. Um, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but your time's up. If you can just hang on a second. Sure. Does anybody have questions? Patty, it sounded like you might have just one final point to make. Is there one final point that you'd like to share with the board? Um, although I did not put forth the documentation for harassment and threatening by a staff member at one of the other board members. Um, it should not occur again. We will have difference of opinions, but to have a staff member approach me coming at me and promising this is going to be the worst thing I've ever done. This is not tolerable. It's it's we are going to have difference of opinion, but you have to be respectful. So,
049that's all I have to say. I'm glad to hear all the good words. There are some very nice programs going on, but please make the cuts equitable. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you for your time tonight and for coming here. Thank you. Is there any more public comment, Kim? Okay. Hearing no further comments, the public comment period is now closed. And we are a little bit ahead. Is everybody here from or do you want to take a break? Can we take 10 minutes and reconvene at 7:30? Yeah, because we're I'm not sure if Yeah, because we're doing a work session next and I'm not sure if everybody's here. So, we're going to take a 10-minute break. Thank you. Okay. Um, thanks uh, everyone while we took a break and we're at the next item
050on the agenda for the um, Corvalis Public School Foundation and Corvalis School District work session. So, I just want to say welcome everyone and I'm um happy to see you all from the foundation here with us. Um I know we have a slide presentation. Yeah. And Angela and I are just going to kind of coc. Um so, um Kevin, would you mind starting and we're just going to go around and do introductions and it's the button on the right. Uh good afternoon or good evening. My name is Kevin Doerty. I'm a trustee with the CPSF. Hi. And I'm Angela Hibbert. I'm the executive director. I'm Leslie Hammond. I'm a trustee. And I'm Scott Elmser. I'm a trustee. And I'm Wanda Arp and I'm a trustee. I'm Harvick. I'm sorry. Oh, hi. I'm Harvick. I'm a
051little confused. I'm sorry. Chris Hawkins, school board. Eileen Lewis, I'm a uh college hill student representative. Shauna Tomminy, she her and co-vice chair for the school board. Lu Whitebear or Lou and chair of the school board. And I'm Ryan. I'm the superintendent of the school district. Thanks for joining us tonight. Theres Jones. I'm a school board member and co-chair. Sophia Orbell and I'm Corvalis High School's ASB president. Bernie Wong and I'm a school board member. Hi, welcome. I'm Melissa Harder, the assistant superintendent for Corvalis. And I'm Lauren Wolf. I'm the director of finance for the district. Who is this? Kim Nelson, board secretary. Do we have all the mics out already? Okay. If Michelle doesn't come, maybe we can give one of them to Scott that way. Um, yeah. But yeah, you're okay. Okay. They
052don't need it right now, I guess. But yeah, Lesie says they're good. If we needed Yeah. But thank you all. And then um if you could start the the slides, that'd be great. Thanks, Josh. And while we're looking for that, we should have Sammy introduce himself because Sammmyy's online. Everybody, uh, this is Sammy Alropo, school board member. So, um, as we plan for this evening and for our hour together, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight a little bit of the work that we've been up to. So, we're going to start by talking a little bit about the um, meeting we co-chared related to the budget. Um, moving on to highlight some of the things going on in the school district and some of the wins um, on the side of the foundation. and
053then an opportunity for some conversation between members of the foundation board, members of the school board, and our students as well. So, at that point, we'll do a little bit of a a shift in terms of who you're sitting next to in the room. Um, so we have that again that opportunity to um collaborate with one another, which is always one of the um highlights and one of the areas that we get the most learning from um as we come together uh twice a year. Angela, anything you'd like to add to that? Oh, okay. All right, let's go to the next slide. So, um again, thanks to um Angela and Nina um and the team at CPSF, we held a community meeting on February 27th in order to talk about district budget um as well
054as some of the drivers that influence and impact the budget in our school district. again appreciation for Lauren for leading the conversation on the behalf of the school district to Lou for talking about our advocacy work and also um to the conveners I really feel like Angela um continued to come to me and say how let's go about let's figure out how to make this happen. So, appreciation for you, but we wanted to open it up. Um, and that's why I asked Lauren to come sit up here and join us as well, just because there were folks um from the foundation and folks from the school district who were part of that conversation um and involved that night. And so, we just wanted to start with the opportunity to share any highlights that people um
055left with. I again, I recognize that not everyone was able to attend in terms of the school board. We didn't want to have a quorum, so we only had three members present. But again, I think it's worthwhile to share um some of the opportunities that came out of that discussion. And so rather than um break up for this part um into smaller groups, we're just going to do a broad share out. So if you were able to attend and had highlights that you wanted to make sure both organizations are aware of, um this is the opportunity to do that. Could I just add something real quick to that? I would say also that it is that meeting I feel was a direct um product of these joint work sessions that we've had and just building
056up the dialogue between the two boards and the two organizations and when we met in the fall and talked about advocacy and getting information to the community and how could we collaborate and work together I feel like that directly led to this work. So I think you know we meet together twice a year and sometimes it feels like what's the fruit of it's hard to sometimes see immediately what the fruit is and I feel like this was definitely fruit from those collaborative work sessions that we've had. I was able to attend and I was totally impressed because I'm not a real numbers person but I the way how clearly um Lauren the way you expla explain the bud budget and and every time you would explain something that go but and then you would answer
057it before I even would able to formulate a question in my mind. So, I would just wanted to really thank you for the effort that you put in to really share um how the budget works for the community. Thank you. I uh really enjoyed the session as the newest board member. It was great just being able to sit there and just see the community participation. Uh, one thing I took away from that is again the information that went out to the community and the the fact that the it seems like everybody walking out of there had a gained a better understanding of our budget situation. It it it's uh it's really uh um important to see that outcome and thank you for facilitating. You know, a big underlying theme and goal that we've talked about
058over the year has been community engagement. And something that was very inspiring to me about this gathering was when we look around the room, thank you to those of you who are here tonight for the school board meeting, this room was packed. Every seat was taken. it. The community showed up to have a conversation, to engage, to listen, Lauren, to learn from the very just detailed and thorough and very accessible information that you shared. Some of that information's been shared before at schoolboard meetings. And having another format for the community to come together and know that they'd also have a chance to ask questions, to engage in another way, and that they were being invited into that space really intentionally seemed to make a big difference. Um, I heard from community members as they were
059leaving that they'd like to do more of that, that it really felt like there was opportunity for some back and forth, which we don't have in the same way during school board meetings. So, that was something I heard from several community members was, can we do more of this, it's nice to be able to have that back and forth conversation and have our questions answered. And I think in the follow-up engagement, Ryan, as you noted, having 440 questions, having community members come to ask follow-up questions, then to those questions, the dialogue that's coming out and the questions being asked, as well as those follow-up conversations are so important and not something that we always have in the same way with everyday school board meetings or business meetings. I just wanted to say I thought it
060was awesome, too. been glad that we all got to work together on it. Um, and it shows like we're really committed to community being engaged with the work that we do and also with understanding that way it's not this big mystery. And um, Lauren, your presentation was so good and has so much information. and I refer people to it a lot because it's so thorough and um as we're getting closer to the budget season to have that information and to have all the many factors that you put in there was really helpful. Um I've heard from community members that it was that have watched it since. So I just wanted to let you know that too. Yeah. Lauren or Melissa, you were also there that night. Anything you would like to add or share? I
061was I mean I've seen the presentation. Um I I love the added presentation with the demographics. Um I attended with my 27year-old daughter and um we have found a lot of um opportunities since then to make connections to things that we're seeing or hearing in the community and refer back to this meeting, you know, for resource. And I think that that just kind of goes to show um how incredibly informational it was. So yeah, I think my favorite part of the meeting was I've never had an audience of that many people that were interested in the in budget. So, and I always say I could talk about it all day. Um I really also appreciated like that opportunity to have the back and forth um conversation in a a bit more casual of an environment.
062Um I think as we enter into you know continued budget um situations that are a bit unfavorable I think this is one of those additional tools as far as communication and we've really been trying to think about um other opportunities to engage and so I think this was you know a a good step in that direction. Um and we also as a that was the meeting where we kicked off um the budget input survey which was also something that was new this year. Um and we had like Ryan said I we had 4 I think 44 responses on that. Um and so along with the questions there was all of the the survey input that we gathered. So, um, we're in the process of putting together the report, um, that will show all of the
063the data and that it's been a bit more work than I expected because we had such a good response rate, which is a good problem to have. Um, but I just think it was a really good platform to kick off those conversations this year. So, I really appreciate the foundation's support. Um, and it really was an idea that I think maybe Nina kind of came up with originally. Um, and I appreciate just that that collaboration and the fact that we can work together on those things. So, thank you. Anybody else have anything they'd like to share? Um, before we shift gears, of course. I'm glad you said why some of us were not at the board me or at that meeting because we all wanted to be there and I wanted to make that clear
064that I wanted to be there. I told him that. Yeah, he told me no. I don't take no will. Um, but I watched the video several times and I think yesterday when I was re-watching it, um, there were still like 400 and something views on it. And so that tells me one thing that that's really important. So I just appreciate all the work that you did and that you made it so that we could also view it online over and over again. Sammy, I want to just reiterate everything has been said. Uh, agreed to it and I believe this video uh should be shared again and again. There are so many valuable information there in capturing the complexity between the challenges that we have as a community and the challenges that we're navigating as Corval
065school district and how it impacts the kids, how it impacts families. It's really phenomenal work that uh has been done to make that video or to make that session. So I really enjoyed learning from it and also felt uh the the weight of the responsibility that we have ahead of us. Uh the school board alone cannot solve the problems. The city, the county, the state, uh the community alone cannot do it. But together maybe we have a chance. And what I'm hoping for is how can we really capture the wealth of details and complexity in uh the community meeting and make sure more people know about it uh more people understand it and also uh more people have the ability to know what they can do about it in their own capacities and and roles
066in the community. Uh I think that's the takeaway that I have. uh I have shared it multitude play uh in many places and uh recommended it to uh folks who are taking leadership crales uh in lie of the education uh day that unfortunately got cancelled because of the weather. So uh again thank you for uh everybody who worked to make that happen. All right. So, we're going to shift gears a little bit and share some of the highlights of things that are have been happening or have happened within the last year in CSD. Um, some of the things that I'll share are are data points from last spring because we haven't yet got to the time of year where we have new data about student outcomes. Um, but also highlight some of the activities that
067have been going on around our district. and that will be followed by Angela sharing more information about what the foundation's been up to. Uh can great. Um so one of the things that I wanted to highlight um is that this over the last summer and into this school year um our staff at our elementary schools have been really focused on additional professional development around the science of reading. um about 75% of our staff in our K3 classrooms, our special ed teachers, our language development specialists, and our principles have been participating in that. Um it's one of the things that you hear a lot about in terms of outcomes across our state, and it's a way that we're continuing to grow in our work. Um it's through training through Eastern Oregon University that our um staff
068has been participating in and have felt really that it's been um successful um in increasing their knowledge and skills. Next slide. Um last year, um successful completion of algebra. Um we look at that for both eighth graders and ninth graders. Um and 85% of our students successfully completed algebra 1. Um a couple of the things that our staff are working on this year um is really um getting tighter around the scope and sequence because those classes are being taught at both the middle school and high school. and also the assessments, the common assessments because again we want to know that a kid who accomplishes algebra in eighth grade has the same skills um in preparation in mathematics as students who um complete that in nth grade. So that's work that's been happening around algebra in
069our district. Another thing that um I highlighted earlier in the year, but again because of the timing of where we're at and students getting ready to take AP exams, last year um in our district we had um at CB um 450 AP exams were taken. So sometimes that's more than one exam per student. And at CHS 520 were taken. So students are leaving with um college credits. um and the higher percentage of students scoring threes or above in those classes in those exams. So again, students leaving with additional credits in preparation for the next stage. So those are some academic highlights I wanted to share. Um belonging and inclusion. Some things that I think are really cool that are happening in our district. Again, things I wanted to share. um the College Hill construction program.
070If you haven't had a chance to visit and see what they're up to, it's been really um incredible. The seniors in that program are um um building micro shelters and those micro shelters are then um provided to unity shelter for folks to have um have safe um and dry places to be. Um and that at this point they're building two of those that senior class. Um, so again, a way that we're thinking about belonging and inclusion beyond um the walls of our schools. Um, that's one of the things that I think um we're proud of as a district. Um, at middle school um we've been able to um support um mentorship for our um black students um specifically um at both Lionus Pauling and Sheldon. Um Coach Eli's one of the folks who's been helping
071us to be able to do that. You probably heard me share a little bit about that at the foundation breakfast, but again, um that's one of the ways that we've been supporting our black students. And then we also are part of the um end of NAACP regional um black student success grant. And so there are other things that are currently underway in our district, Kalia KD, who's one of the assistant principles at um Lions Pauling, has really taken the lead in that. Um and then a fun one just to highlight Leticia Carson's marathon club. So, if you're um if if it's Friday and you need to go on a run, just go to Leticia Carson Elementary School because that's where it's happening. Um they've ran over a thousand miles this year. They they're keeping track
072of that. One student's ran over 40 miles. Um and one student's ran over 70, so they're they're they're marathoners in the making. And it's one of the ways that they really focus on attendance. Friday can sometimes be a a less attended day of school. So to do something special on that day and to build community pride um is one way that they've been going about that at Laticia Carson. So some social and emotional regulation um you know when we talk about what happens in our schools we're talking about all the aspects of who our kids are and the skills that they're building and developing over time. And um as um our elementary schools adopted caring schools community, which is a program that really embeds what it means to be a member of a community. Um
073one day I visited a classroom um in the fall and they were talking about what emotions come with things that are new. And for some of us, things that are new u bring excitement and anticipation. Sometimes things that are new bring anxiety and fear of the unknown. Um, and so they spent a lot of time talking about the emotions that come with what what it means to be have something that's new. And they um moved into a conversation about having a new student in the classroom who is coming the next week and how all of those feelings may be true for that student. And as a community, how do they bring that student into the space and respect however they come into the space in terms of feeling that excitement and anticipation or that fear
074and anxiety around that? And what does that mean? and how does that mean our community um welcomes a new a new student? So, taking the development of skills, but also taking those in a way that recognizes um how others are showing up in the experiences of our peers and helping to create community around that. Um it's part of a daily circle where kids come together and talk about um aspects of who they are and also practice um understanding and listening to one another. So in terms of what we're working on there, I think that's a great example at Mountain View Postsecary and real world prep real world preparation. Um on the top right is a picture of the culinary space at Crescent Valley that was redone within the last year. Um, one of the cool
075things that happened that I shared with the board recently was that when the space was done, um, the students invited our maintenance team in who had done the work to create the space and, um, served them breakfast as a way of appreciation, which was, um, super cool to see, um, and to think about as again as we think about um, not just being prepared for the real world, but also that um, piece about community um, and building that in. Um, Trio Upwardbound is a program that is happening at CH um, CHS where students are building skills towards um, college college preparation. We have 55 kids in that program right now. And last summer they um did they did some visits in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. And that's in partnership with OSU um, upward trio upwardbound.
076And then um this is um another thing that is always fun to highlight is that B bet Benton community um career convention. Um some of you participated in that in terms of being volunteers. So students had the chance to practice their interview skills, hear about different careers in our community. Um so for that day we had 279 volunteers in our community come to Sage 2M Hill Alumni Center to work with our students as general volunteers um sharing about their careers and also doing those interviews. Um so again we're helping to prepare our students but we don't do that alone. We do that with our community as a whole. So some of the highlights I wanted to share there and I think those go on to one more slide. Yeah. A couple of other things. um
077health occupation career day. We had students participate in that with partnership with LBCC where students learned about um all sorts of areas of med of the medical field. Um there's our preschool which is always a way that we start to look for who are going to be our young educators um moving into the field um working with our our little ones. And then one of the other things to highlight is this year um at CHS with our DI program. We have students in DLI who are going down and volunteering um a couple days a week at um at Garfield. So again, a way for um folks um students to practice their language and language acquisition, but also to be seen as leaders um and potentially future educators. So those are just some of the highlights
078of what's been going on in CSD. Um, and I again, the reason why I share that is because when we all come together, we're all in different spaces in the community as community leaders. And for you to be able to share some of those stories, it's really important and valuable. Um, it makes you way more fun at dinner parties, by the way, if you can share those stories. Um, and also because you now are um, you have that video um, from our budget committee or our budget presentation that you could also share. Um, you don't have to watch that during the dinner party, but you could uh definitely send the email um after the fact so people have a chance to better understand what we face as a community, not just in terms of our
079ability to fund our schools, but also um the impact of um the changes in our demographics are that we're facing. So, those are just some of the highlights I wanted to share. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Angela to share some of the highlights from the work happening at CPSF. Okay. Thanks, Ryan. Yeah. Um, I'm not going to do we have time. We usually come in the fall and give you our full annual report of all the things that we've done. But I wanted to speak to we wanted to sh talk about the wins that we've seen in in the district because I feel like a lot of times especially when the foundation's involved, we're focused on kind of deficits like where can we try to help plug gaps and um
080I don't know that we always have the time spent on the great successes that are happening in our schools. I appreciate that Ryan highlighted just a few of those. I mean, I get super excited when I hear about that ninth grade algebra number and the AP exams and the number of students who are participating. It's it's really exciting and we you know we play a small part in that. We don't manage curriculum. We don't manage programs like that is all happening because of the incredible work of all the people in the district. But our mission is clear that we're here to provide resources from the community to support the success of all of our students. I mean that that is why we exist. And as you talk through a lot of those wins, I almost
081every single one that's mentioned, something pops into my brain about something that we funded like sensory paths in elementary schools that help with social emotional regulation. And I've seen kids use those. Um, and so I just wanted to kind of bring us back to our kind of three priorities for how we support success in our schools is around educational access about supporting programs that are removing barriers and theres teed up earlier today about the support for the family support program which is huge. Um, also in the last two years, we've invested close to $50,000 in the Bridges program, which is like changing lives. It's incredible the work that they're doing there. So, you know, that type of support is really important and I think we see the result in in students growth. Um, and then
082learning enrichment of course are our imagine grants and our YA grants, our student driven grants. And you guys teed up another highlight I wanted to share. I got the chance I was invited to go to that presentation on Monday at OSU which was awesome. Your um fellow students did a great job presenting real scientific hypothesis testing data all the things. Um it was incredible. It was really fun. I was very glad that I was invited to attend. Um, so that's an example of I think a lot of times those grants that we fund can be small in in amount and can often be overlooked, but they contribute to really the sense of real world learning, of ownership over student success, of just belonging. Um, and then our final priority is about academic support in terms
083of like very specific interventions to help keep students on track and that's primarily, you know, our support for summer programs, math camps for those students who are transitioning, high school credit recovery. So, those remain our three kind of priority areas to help, you know, underpin student success. And I just had I think a couple photos to show of just some highlights. Um from some the upper left is the ecology class from last summer. Um the career convention you can see which is another program that we sponsored this year. And I think another example of the collaboration between the two organizations and really just trying to outreach to the community and get participation in that um and the community budget forum down in the corner. And I think if you advance one more time, Kim, for
084me um I think for us these contribute like I mentioned to that sense of belonging. Often the these programs that we're asked to support are the things that are vulnerable at times when the budget is constrained, but really create a sense of connection for students, create an environment where they feel like they can they belong and can be successful and become even more important and provide opportunities for real world learning. And I think increasingly seeing our role and um some of this work in building those community connections, communities within the schools in terms of funding programs that help create the community at school, but also connecting our community to our schools. And that can look a lot of different ways like the budget forum like support for the career convention but also I think in
085less tangible ways um especially as we face you know just the reality of less funding. So, just one anecdotal example, this fall when we reviewed all of our imagine grant applications, you know, sadly there were at least half that we couldn't fund, but we put a fair amount of time into trying to find other people in the community who could directly support them. So, like connecting Samaritan with the health class who had a grant application that we weren't able to fund, but Samaritan, bringing them together to try to see if there's a way that they could provide some support. And I I think that that's potentially one way that we can kind of continue to add value and bring in resource from the community. So that's kind of our summary. All right. So we have
086here we go. You I'll start from this start from the top. Um, so we have a little bit of time to have some discussion in smaller groups. Um, oftentimes I sort of orchestrate where everybody sits and goes. I'm not going to do that tonight. Um, I'd like you to try to find folks from if you are with CPSF, folks from the board or staff or students and so that you have multiple viewpoints. And we have three questions for you to spend some time talking about. What have you heard tonight and how will you share it with the community about um the value of the things that happen on our schools? What's the role of the foundation and school board in this in this work? Excuse me. That's why I didn't turn my mic on. And
087are there other opportunities for the foundation um to further contribute to these wins? So um we're going to spend about 10 minutes in that conversation and then we'll have another 10 minutes or so for share out. So um Um, yep. Do you want to go share that the 8:00 piece? And also it's um 8:03. So student representatives, if you have homework to do, you are welcome to um take off if you need to. And if you want to stay, you're welcome to stay. I just want to make sure you knew about that part for a time check. And CPSF's you don't have homework, so you're you're you're sticking around. All right. Ready? Go. self- selecting this time. Mixed up. I'm gonna leave this Josh. I'm gonna leave this one on. If there's anybody in the
088community listening, it's probably going to be hard to hear. Just a heads up. Go ahead and join Scott and that group. participate. All right. So, the question is Really? I do think this is what It's an outcome, but it's an out% Even Happy to learn. Welcoming. opport Please. No single part will give us comprehens. foundation. There was no more ability to get to the next thing. That family that is starting a CDL training program by a different community. understand how many people What are the things? As far as I mean, My child It's not because There's a huge sexy program. It should be, but it's not. I can't remember. What kind of program? But we have some kind of I don't know. I know I know it's there. Right. Like This is why you don't
089want to touch it. What does it mean? It should mean that one exhausted. So watching this family and then your time at your time, right? You don't get money for something else, right? I think All right, go ahead and finish up and uh we'll reconvene back back at the main table. Are you Come on back everybody. Good to see us up here. Josh, could you put those questions back up for us? Do you mean? Kim, could you put those questions back up for us? Please do. All right. Um, so it would be great to hear from at least one member of each group to share and highlight some of the conversation that happened this evening. I yield my time to Bernie. I second that. We have a motion that's been moved and seconded. Any discussion,
090Bernie? the chair. I I think I'm going to put all three questions into one as I I summarize it. I think um I think what we talked about is we we had a um a really strong partnership between uh u the board and uh the foundation. And I think um one of the the things we talked about is how we can complement each other um in our different roles. We are elected officials and we set the direction and uh the foundation appreciates that and and uh do their things to help us out. We can't be all things to everyone but with the partnership um I I I use the military term you know the foundation is a force multiplier and uh so so um we really do appreciate all the opportunities and how we can
091complement each other. I think uh communication is going to be the key in in us working together. Yeah, I really like that point that it's a force multiplier. I talk a lot in the meeting, so I think somebody else from my group should talk. Hi everybody. Um we had a great conversation and um I think we when we landed on I don't know I'm just going to talk about what I talked about then when we landed on number three I was listening to what everyone had to say and we talked about how the get together for community engagement for budget was a really positive experience and one of our group members said wouldn't it be great to do that but not in a crisis moment like how can we do it in a way that's
092you know different um then we had some other conversations around the power of alumni um the graduates from our high schools and what they have to offer. Um especially because they're out there in the community, many of them, you know, close by. Um so we talked about what could what could we do to create an opportunity for our alumni to come back and be part of a conversation, engagement opportunity about how they can give back to the schools where they attended and not just with money, but that would be good, too. Um yeah. I nominate Chris from our group. I already asked her and she said no. [Laughter] I'm getting married on Saturday. Doesn't that make a difference? Like I, you know, my mind's a little be your wedding gift. Thank you. That would be
093a great gift. Okay. Thanks. To be clear though, I didn't tell Angela to tell you to do it. I told Angela to do it. I told her it was a board meeting and the board members always talk and so the foundation should do it, but that's okay. Um, well, we had a good conversation. Every time I think about them when we do these summaries, I'm like, I don't know if we answered the questions. I never know if we answered the questions. A couple things that came out of our group, we talked about a similarity between the board, um, the school board and the foundation as people who can bring a counternarrative to the community. So, you know, especially uh at budget season, um and especially now in the last couple of budget seasons that we've
094had, uh there are a lot of challenging narratives and sometimes narratives around failures. Uh and we are close to work that gives us a lot of exposure to wins also. And so one of the things that we can do is make sure that those don't get lost even as we have to deal with hard things that we're bringing that attention back to the the hard measurable things that people can land on. Like people know what $50,000 is. And so when we say we've invested this, that means something. Um or 85% is a number people can wrap their head around what that could mean and translate to as um you know an investment toward a good outcome. And so we have some responsibility and some opportunity because we are not district staff. Um we are elected
095officials, we are volunteers and so we are stepping into this different kind of role. So that was one thing that we kind of landed on around what we could do. The other thing we ended talking about um no surprise because it was Chris and I were in a group together. We talked about poverty and we talked about the importance um the the important role the foundation plays in um in elevating the opportunity for kids um who they don't have um maybe there's not another resource left, right? They they've tapped the resources and and then here's the foundation. It can be another bucket. It can be another resource. It can be another pool. It also can be how how big is your board? Like 14 people or something? It's huge, right? 14. Okay. Um, it's 14
096more people in our community that are committed to having eyes on a vulnerable part of our population in our community and can welcome them in and treat them as our as our community that they belong here and help create space where they have a place to land. And so there is something really powerful about that. And how do we uh how do we increase that? How do we increase um the resources? How do we increase the um the reach that that can have? um how do we braid a little bit better the resources to get uh a little bit further for each person. So that was a little bit we didn't have any answers. We just had really great questions I think but it was good. Thanks. I think I've been nominated by my group
097and we'll also invite folks if anyone has a specific example that you'd like to share maybe through my share please feel free to. So thank you Wanda Harvick and Eileene. We talked a little bit about that the value of having resources such as the recording of the most recent comm or really this first launch of the community engagement session on budget and also look forward to as our group watches that and comes back and and talks about and reflects on it together. And we talked about the importance of especially while navigating challenging times, how many amazing examples that we heard tonight across the entire board meeting of wonderful things to celebrate in our district. And we know that what we want to do ultimately is preserve and expand all of these incredible things that are
098happening, but how do we continue to really take the time to know about them, to understand them, to share them with others? The point came up in our group of how challenging communication of all of those things can be that they exist across so many different spaces that for our student representatives for example they have the pleasure to hear about all so many things at the school board meeting. What about other students and other families? Are other folks getting the same information? And Harvick, you pointed out really importantly that this information exists across social media, across newsletters, across websites, and it's hard to find one consolidated place to really understand what's going on. And even through lots of different means of information being shared out, we are all hit with these information overloads that it
099can also even if you see it right in front of you, you may not recognize that it's even there. So, we talked about that as a challenge as well as an opportunity. And then also, we're able to hear from Wanda about some of the excitement of the foundation's work in really working closely with the district to meet goals set collaboratively by the community, by the district, by by the foundation, um, in bringing in support from donors and grants, as well as being able to follow the needs and gaps identified by students and staff through those grants as well. Anything else for my group to add? Did I miss anything? Okay. All right. I think we've heard from all the groups, but I also we have a couple minutes left. So, if there's anything else that
100you um wanted to um further discuss that you heard as a point or things that you um wish would have been shared. Um, we have just another minute or two to do that before we um before we close this part of the part of the meeting. I'll share an example. um recently, and I haven't shared this with you yet, Ryan, um but we I was recently in a a a meeting with um OASBA, which is the Oregon Association of School Business Officials, and there was just a lot of um you know, conflicting feelings about what's going on with our funding. And we were specifically talking about summer school. And um I realized in that moment the fact that we're not worried about summer school um and that we will be able to have those programs
101and we're honestly I mean we're planning we're thinking about it from a um you know the programmic perspective but from the the the dollar amount we we aren't worrying about that. Um and I shared that with that group and I said they said well how are how are you paying for it? And I told them, well, we have a really strong foundation in Corvalis. Um, and it really wasn't a question that they were that they wanted to support that. They're they're all about it. And um, I think that was something that would be very easy to take for granted, but it's something that we have and we're very fortunate to have. Um, and I think that's a great example of the the collaboration that's happening. Um, and I they specifically asked me the dollar the
102dollar amount that was attached to that and they were blown away. Um, that we have a a community foundation that is is willing to support us at that level. Um, and so I think that's just important to know. Um, I think we're setting a good example across the state of how we work together and and how we do that. Um, and I think that's just such a huge huge win for this community to to be able to serve kids during that time. Sammy, I also want to make sure that you have a chance to share if there's anything else you would want to highlight or bring to our attention. Not thank you. The wisdom in the room is uh uh more than enough. I would not add anything to it. Um, I just want to
103say before we close out that I really hope we do have those community conversations more with the foundation. And I think that was um amazing and um and a good way to highlight the work happening and say like how can we continue to grow this as a community like that um is this a direction that we should be going as a community with all the things going on because it's I've seen such a awesome positive impact on the students because of the relationship with the foundation. I shared in our group too that OSBA uses the summer program for a positive example as you all know and so there's so many other examples like that that a lot of people just aren't aware of. So even like community sessions focused on um on the positive pieces
104too that way it's not just the um the one time only. So I would hope that we continue to have those. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here this evening and for your continued steadfast support for our school district and for our kids. Thanks again. I appreciate it. And we'll just take a really short break to like transition folk. Um, and also if the student reps need to you can still stay obviously, but can we take Goodbye. Okay. Um, we're back from our break and 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? I do. Which what one is it, Sammy? Uh calendar. The the schoolboard calendar. What?
105What? Oh, calendar. Yeah. Sorry, my my audio might be not really clear. It sounded like you said candidate. That's why we were like, "Huh?" And it says it says um it says meeting schedule on here, too. So, it's just different word, but same thing. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Okay, Sammy, what do you got for that one? So, uh I'm sorry. Let me put the headsets. Probably my audio will be better. Um can you hear me okay right now? Yeah. Wonderful. So I I just want to ask the question and I'm not sure about the answer. So I'm just going to pose the question on October 9th. My understanding it falls in the week of uh uh Sukkot which is a Jewish holiday uh one of the major holidays between the 6th and the 13th. Um
106my very uh brief understanding is uh the first day uh the folks uh usually observing observing the holiday uh don't go to work and the following days leave work early. So I'm wondering if uh if we have uh consulted uh folks about that specific date uh if they would like to attend the meeting it might be a conflict. So I just want to highlight that one specifically. the the August 13th retreat October 9th. I'm so sorry. I apologize. October 9th. That was my bad. I thought you said August, not October. Okay, that's what I was like. Okay, Sammy. Um, I when I was looking at this this year, I was looking at two other districts who observe and I thought that I um double checked specific days, but I will triple check that one. Wonderful.
107Thank you so much. So, we're taking that one out then? Yeah. Okay. For another read. Okay. I mean, I guess you could re you could accept it. And I if I may, I do not have any objections after that. Uh we approve it and if we received or receive input from staff or from the community, we may revise it. Okay. Do you all want to do that? Consider adopting it and then revise or do you want to Kim to pull it? I don't see a time urgency. So, why don't we pull it and and consider it later? Okay. I think it's going to it it it's clearly going to fall during the week and so um I guess we should I think we should just pull it because we probably are looking at a change
108then. Yeah. Okay. So the um we have the other items non-resident transfer spot stops spots. Yes. Um the minutes and licensed personnel action left under consolidated action. Uh would does anyone wish to make a motion? I do. Okay. Chair I move uh to approve consolidated action as presented. No, because we're pulling something. Oh, I'm sorry. I I would you like to resend your motion? Yes, I do. Did you want to restate it? I I move to approve consolidated action with the exception of uh board meeting schedule. Second. It's been moved by Sam and seconded by Theres. Is there any further um discussion? Okay, it has been moved by Sammy and seconded to Theres or by Theres to adopt consolidated action with the exception of um the 2526 um board meeting schedule and Chris I. Shauna
109I. Theres I Bernie I. Sammy I. And I vote I. Motion passes unanimously. Next item on the agenda is consolidated information. As a reminder, the items under this portion of the agenda are for discussion. Would anyone like to discuss an item in consolidated information? I have one. Which one? Um act the policy 2 a one two and three uh yeah just it's a com the ars no I I just have a uh comment yeah but is it all three of those ARs? Uh yes. Okay. Any others? I need to um there's a typo in uh 2A AR4, so that needs to be corrected before Okay. we finish. Any others? Sammy, you have any you want pulled? I do not. Okay, Britney. Yes. I I I like to um for those reconsideration uh series, I like
110uh to see if we can think of a online way of filling out the the the forms. It seems like under the policies right now that you're going to have to request that form from somebody and and I think uh maybe we should visit uh making it more accessible by by uh having an online process. I can easily make that happen. Okay. And was that for all three of them? Is that Yeah, the reconsiderations are two, three, and four. Oh, two, three, and four. Sorry. With the reminder that people always need to start with their principal in the building. Thanks. Is that the provision you needed to make? No. Oh, it was like, wow. Yeah, that was quick. No. Um if if we can look at um AR4 there was a copy and paste error.
111So in AR4 number one A it should say any concern made regarding school or classroom library materials. Okay. It accidentally said supplemental instructional materials. Okay. All righty. So the rest of them look good. Then I I did have a question on one pulled it. 2A- AR1. Okay. And my question is just about one word. So under core instructional materials starts with the board selects core instructional materials. And I was wondering if select is the appropriate word to use there. That's a good point because we adopt it, right? We adopt it. Select to me brought up the the connotation that we would actually be the ones choosing um the curriculum. Not that that isn't part of adoption, but that really that selection is coming from another place before it comes to us for adoption. So instead
112of selects, we could use adopt or approves. Um but you're right, you don't go through the selection process. We bring to you after a full-on process from the um growth and experience team. Yep. Okay. So that was my one recommendation. Was just checking that word. Good. Good catch. Just a quick question too on on on these policies. Uh are there any deviation from the OSBA uh language or or is it uh all pretty much the same? Um there's some deviation. So um I think you all received an email from Erica Cheney who's responsible for our work at CIMC and um their participation the library media staff was like integral in all of this. And one of the things that was very important to them because right now they are um we don't have a certified
113librarian in our district. So some of the deviation in language had to do with accounting for that. So you'll see in some of the places where it says it should be a district librarian doing blank and then a footnote if there isn't one then we'll select district library staff. Um they were also very um it was very important for them and critical for them to um feel safe in their position in the work that is requested of required of them in here. So there's some things that we adjusted a little bit to make sure that um selection of materials especially classroom and library materials that it was the principal is responsible and using the library staff to do that selection so that they can feel safer in their role which I 100% understand given times
114and the fact that these are library materials. So there was some deviation not a lot but enough to make them feel comfortable with what we're doing. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions, comments? Okay, go ahead. Just wanted to comment on the engagement with staff and I know we heard from at least one staff member over email just stressing how important that engagement was. So, just wanted to thank you and everyone who was involved and really making sure that staff experience um was reflected in these policies. Thank you. I I'd like to say the same. Thank you. This is a lot of material to go through. Um, I met with library staff online. We did an online meeting, excuse me. And then I gave them opportunities to go through the materials. They just, if you
115can imagine a Google doc with just tons of comments and suggestions, going through revising, revising again. Um, and then obviously inviting them to come tonight. A lot couldn't, but just so that they knew that they were an important part of the process. So, they were, and I appreciate all of that work. I just wanted to I guess kind of expand a little bit on that the language changes um definitely are about helping making sure that they feel comfortable and I think it's also about accurately reflecting what really happens in our district right so we want our policies to reflect the real work and in our district we don't have a district librarian and so beyond just simply we want to make sure that they feel safe in their work it's also we want to make
116sure that our policies reflect how we've chosen to staff this really important work and we've chosen to staff it with highly qualified people that don't bear an MLIS degree but are doing um that heavy lifting for our district. And so anyway, that's it. Okay. Um I think we're good. Thank you. And the next item on the agenda is board member comments. Is there any board members that would like to make a comment? Go ahead and um so uh the board um has uh a lot of opportunities to be involved in community engagement in various ways and uh one um opportunity that is in front of us is that the Boys and Girls Club of Corvalis has reached out um and uh asked about the capacity of the board to have a designated liaison and in
117the days prior to CO um board liaison were a pretty common thing and then for lots of reasons we haven't exactly organized oursel officially in that same way. Um I have the fortune of working with people that are on that board and so the email came to me. Um but I don't think the invitation came to me. Um I think I was the recipient of the email. So, I wanted to bring that to you all and ask um if there are folks who um have an interest in that and would would really be passionate about stepping into that role. Um it's I think it would be it's wonderful that they want to involve us. Um it's not a um you know they're not asking our a liaison to take a formal role but just to
118be a you know that point of contact. Anyway, I didn't want to keep that opportunity just to myself and so I'm sharing with you all and if you that is something that you would like to do, we can have more conversation about that. Um, we don't really have like a formal process for like how do we do that? So, I guess it could just be if you put your hand up first or it could be um, you know, let's find out if there's more than one person interested. But either way, um, I wanted to share that with you all and see if there is one or more who feels really excited about that opportunity. I think the more we can stay connected with community the better. So that's my thoughts and I guess is there
119anybody interested? Do or what do you have Ryan? Should um folks um let Kim know if they're interested and then Yes. bring it to board leadership. Does that That sounds great. Thank you. Okay. That's what we do with the other ones. Yeah. No, I appreciate you offering a process because I had information and no idea about what we should do with it. So, that sounds good. There you go. Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Yeah. All right. So, as a family member in the school district, I had the pleasure of seeing the invitation to take the family survey for the youth truth family survey come through my email. So, I just wanted to bring that up. I know that this is one of the ways that we're really looking to hear from families to engage with families
120more deeply. So, I know that the email came through asking for folks to complete it by April 25th. I have not done that myself yet, but just wanted to also mention and elevate it for others who are family members in the community of students in the district and just to make sure that we were looking at different ways to get the word out. Thanks, Shauna. I need to do mine too. I have done mine and it's not that uh taxing. You can do it in 10 15 minutes. Thank you, Bernie. Any other board member comments? Yeah, I have a but you can go. Uh no, you can go. Um earlier when I was giving my superintendent's uh report, one of the um important dates that I um did not share with you um because I
121was reading from my paper, not from my screen, is that the CSD art party um is being held again this year, April 24th from 5 to 6:30 at Corvalis High School. So um if you're able to attend, it's a great opportunity to see the work of our students. Um, and it is a um just an enjoyable time to be be together. It's the April 24th, 5 to 6:30 at CHS. Thanks, Ryan. Sammy, Chris, Bern, you have anything? Okay. Um, I was just going to ask um we had some communication if we can pull the um bullying policy for review. I know it's been a little bit. That's a good one to keep reviewing and working. Absolutely. I'll bring it to Mark to May for sure. Thank you so much. Yeah, no problem. Um, okay. With
122no other um business, the meeting is adjourned at 8:52 p.m. Have a good night, you all.