Corvallis School Board Meeting (March 7, 2024)

001the it's not on is it on okay uh the March 7 2024 meeting of the cor valis School Board is called to order at 6 um 36 p.m. in the interest of public health and safety for all community members especially for imuno compromised individuals and their families the corvala school board will continue to offer a virtual option for board members and District Personnel participation additionally public comment is available at some meetings both in person and virtually information about how to provide public comment is available on the Coralis School District website the board agenda and packet as well as the link to the district YouTube channel are available on the school board page on the district website public meetings are live streamed on the district's YouTube channel and a recording is posted to the same channel

002typically the day after the meeting tonight we have um Judah Sarah shaa myself theres and Sammy in attendance and Chris is excused and the first um order of business is acknowledgement of Developmental disability month and we're going to take turns reading that as usual yes Corvalis School District 509j acknowledgement of Developmental disability awareness month resolution number 22y 0205 whereas the Corvalis School District recognizes and pays tribute to the significant contributions made in our community by people with disabilities and whereas the Corvalis School District affirms that students families staff and community members should be valued for all aspects of the identities and whereas developmental disability awareness month grew out of Grassroots efforts advocating for human rights of people with disabilities in the 19th century and whereas people with disabilities have historically been subjected to institu institutionalization

003and Eugenics practices in Oregon and nationally and whereas Fair training center in Salem Oregon was opened in 1907 as the Oregon State Institution for the feeble-minded through State legislation in order to institutionalize people with developmental disabilities including children and whereas the Oregon Board of eugenics was passed through State legislation in 1923 in an effort to sterilize people with disabilities including Developmental and mental health as well as other members of society and whereas forc sterilization in Oregon occurred until 1981 and was not abolished by the Oregon State Senate until 1983 and whereas National developmental disabilities awareness month was first proclaimed nationally in 1987 and whereas people with disabilities of all kinds have contributed to the history and Collective future of Corvalis and Benton County Oregon and whereas developmental disabilities Awareness Month provides an opportunity to continue

004the district's growth and learning about the many contributions of people with disabilities to the nation world and local community and whereas education is a necessary component for creating a more Equitable and anti-racist Community nation and world and where whereas the corval school district has made a commitment to equity wait did you read that sorry racism anti-racism and whereas the corval school district has a responsibility to honor and respect the diverse histories of our community and whereas the carala 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 the Board of Education of the corala school districts does hereby Proclaim March 2022 as well as each March annually as

005developmental disability awareness month in the district and strongly encourage students families staff and community members to establish and participate in local celebrations and encourage all schools in the district to help highlight this month in grade appropriate ways as well as highlight the contributions of people with disabilities to the local community Nation and Beyond both historically and in current times adopted by the board of directors of school district number 509j Corvalis of Benton and Lyn counties Oregon at at its regular meeting this 24th day February 2022 thanks everyone for helping read that and um again we reread those as a Rea as an affirmation of coral school districts um continued acknowledgement of the different months that we have been reading um the next item on the agenda is board member reports anybody have reports good Sammy

006your no your lights on no okay anybody else okay um I was just going to report that I attended Delta and there were some great conversations Chris was also there um last night and appreciate the work that's being done in that group and briefly attended the um the quarterly safe meeting I wish I could have stayed the whole time um and then that was pretty much it for me um the next item is superintendent report thanks I just have um a few things I wanted to update you on or draw attention to the first is that um recently we announced that Elton kakuda will be the permanent principal at kathern Jones Harrison so he will be starting his 40th year at Katherine Jones Harrison in the role as principal um Elton did his student teaching

007at Katherine Jones Harrison and has been there his whole career so we're really excited to have him in that role um he's a fantastic um person and just it's it's a great um a great move for the school and for the community so I wanted to highlight that I know that it's something that's been shared out broadly but just for us to come together and and recognize him another thing to highlight is that this is classified Appreciation Week across our district and so our classified employees play so many roles from helping us tonight um being able to have our um board meeting online to um greeting kids as they enter our schools to supervision to helping kids learn to read and write and do math um helping kids to work on um better understanding their

008emotions and how to learn about that um to the technology department to our mental health skills trainers we have so many Fantastic people um in our district that are doing important work and so this is the week we recognize them I know you all know classified employees in our district so as you see them um please appreciate um share the our appreciation with them um we had with the support of the foundation we had ice cream Sunday bars at our schools this week so just again an opportunity for people to come together and be with one another and um share some appreciation so that's happening this week uh another event that will happen this week is um collaborative classroom is our one of our curriculums at our elementary schools and the authors of collaborative classroom

009um came to Mountain View and Adams to see the materials in use um so that was nice to have the authors who think about the way is written for students see how it actually plays out in the lives of our kids um so that's one of the things I wanted to highlight also I have a few more things one is that um recently we shared that we were putting in an application for title six which is um Indian education or and so we received um because we started an application we received over $10,000 to support that work um not just in completing the application but bringing Community together in ways of recognizing our um our native students and also um continuing to find ways where families can be um together sharing the experiences of their

010students so we continue to make improvements and so a big appreciation for marcianne who's been leading that effort along with Dr Whitebear um and um Julia blue arm at um Crescent Valley so I just wanted to share that good news news also um appreciation for all the volunteers we had over 130 volunteers for the um High School um career fair at Lal um a couple of weeks ago now and um again it was one of the things that we had done pre pandemic and so being back to that so people were able to share about their jobs and careers to interviewing students um and practicing those um career skills um was a great event over 700 students participated as well and then um also this is the last weekend for Newsies so if you haven't

011had a chance to see Newsies other than the the brief um period of time when they came and uh shared the stage here at the board meeting um there's still an opportunity to see that um next at our next school board meeting the caralis public schools foundation will be here and so in anticipation of that we have um done some PL planning and they Foundation wanted some time to share some of the ongoing work that they've been doing so there will be a little bit more of a presentation than there was in the fall and then also an opportunity for you to work with Foundation members or have discussion with Foundation members about um sort of the role that you have as Schoolboard members and how that plays out day-to-day questions that are asked of

012you ideas that are brought to you the foundation finds themselves in similar situations quite a bit and so it would be an opportunity to share some um ideas and suggestions about how to engage community in this in this work and also help people to know the right spot to go if they have ideas or suggestions either on the side of philanthropy or on the side of policy or um any other topics that come up so it was a thing that they spent some time working on in their Retreat last spring and it felt like it would be worthwhile that we spend time together doing a similar thing and then the last announcement I have is that um we have been working over the last three years around cyber security and one of the things that

013is going to be our next phase is multiactor authentication and so we're going to be implementing that um over the next couple of weeks because our goal was to have that in place prior to Spring Break um we know that that is a a um a practice that is important to have in place and also we know that um cyber attacks are up when it comes to school districts um we had a a close call the other day and I wanted to also sh give a shout out to our technology team because they have been working hard to put systems and processes into place and ways of communicating out so um again thank you to them for helping us um both to avoid um an attack and also to them as they roll out that

014multiactor authentication and so that will be the same for you as board members so FYI that's a something that you'll see coming your way so that was my um list of updates and um points I wanted to share with you if there's any questions any questions for Ryan what are you all using for the authentication do you know what tool um Daniel know is it du okay nice yeah yeah okay oh did it okay I haven't seen it yet okay cool thanks yeah that takes a little while to get used to just for people to know we have that at um OSU as well and and really important as we know districts around us have um H had instructional time um impacted by um ransomware attacks and so it's yeah definitely something that does take

015time but we got to move on it yeah it's important and once you get used to it it's not that bad yeah don't forget your phone or your little token thing um okay any other questions or comments for Ryan okay um we next on the agenda is public comment um we will now open the public comment period we value the lived experiences of students family staff and community and welcome public comment as a necessary an important part of of the work of the district and board I'm going to read the guidelines for you all now um the complete guidelines for public comment are available on the registration table at the back of the gym and on the board's website I will share a few important points now when it is your turn to speak please

016come forward and have a seat and direct your comments to the board um I almost I usually tell you last minute but there's a button to turn on the mics and when you have a green light your mic is on um 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 alert you when you have 30 seconds left and when your time is up um I try not to interrupt while you're speaking so I kind of like wave at you the the yellow light is on is 30 seconds and then when it's red your time's up and at that time time I do let people know your time's up um

017following your comments the board will have three minutes to ask clarifying questions but are not able to engage in conversation if 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 um which means we can't engage in conversation with you even though we would love to usually that's um something we're not able to uh before you start your comment ments please state your name for the record and state whether you reside within the School District boundary and I how many do I have we have one okay hi hi my name is Kelly Longway I live right down the street from here well within CD's boundaries um and I have three children the oldest of whom is a my second

018grade daughter who goes here to Lincoln um she is one of the 14% of students um who attend Lincoln who are identified as having a disability um I just wanted you know I have some sort of critical remarks but I want to just make sure I preface them with um L teachers from kindergarten to second grade have been amazing her classroom teachers go above and beyond every day her Special Education team tries so hard to help her and um both former principal Hal and current principal Smith are just wonderful Educators and administrators who have a real heart for their students um but even with all of that wonderful staff and all of the support that she's getting um my daughter is struggling she's struggling so much it is a fight to get her to come

019to school every day she feels isolated she feels sad she's scared and overwhelmed um and some of this is directly related to um reductions in Staffing and other things that have happened with the budget that have made it so that children with extra needs are um are not getting some of the supports that they were getting or would like to get or that would be provided in in a perfect world um and when I saw the recent email outlining these covid budget cuts and the projected um enrollment budget cuts I just couldn't help but think about how how bad that is going to be for my daughter and for students like her um you know we have the wonderful team that I've described here she has overly involved parents um principal Smith is you know

020is in constant communication with us and and things are still so hard for her um and if it's this hard for her I wonder how many other students who aren't able to access these Services who aren't able to who don't have parents who are able to participate um who have economic and listic and cultural and other concerns that make it difficult for them to to advocate for their students um and I see if she's struggling so badly I just I worry for these other students as well so I mean I don't have a solution I mean find more money I guess is what I'm asking which I know you would all do if you know there was this magic wand solution um but I just I just wanted to share a little bit about what

021it's like for her to come to school every day and how hard it is for her to get here and how hard it is for family to support her in getting here too um so thank you find more money if you can um and I just hope that you will keep keep um a perspective out for our students who are experiencing disabilities and extra needs um when you're looking at adjustments to the budget and Staffing thank you thank you um is there any questions from the board Juda are there particular supports that you could name that would make a difference for your child that aren't available right now more educational assistance in previous years she had received more one-on-one in small group help for instruction for social skills for supervision and that's no longer available

022at the levels that it was due to the reduction in educational assistance in other par professionals thank you any other questions thank you so much for coming tonight and providing comment that's our that's our only comment okay hearing no further comments the public comment period is now closed um the next item on the agenda is bias reporting update and marcianne and Melissa are up for that one with a presentation okay good evening everybody we are here today to um give you a bit of a midyear report on bias incident um not only reporting but also response so I'm here with marcianne and we're going to be collaborating tonight to talk about data student voice and proactive training so we're going to get started with the numbers and that's mostly going to be me so the

023first slide that you're seeing are just straight up numbers reporting by level a comparison between all of last year and just this reporting period which which ended on January 31st so I'll give you a second to check those out I feel like we're when I look at the data and if I want to interpret it I feel like we're on track um for what I see is um adults I think helping a little bit more with elementary students to report or adults reporting things that are happening in their classrooms or in um general areas Middle School seems to be on track to continue to be our highest reporters and um and then High School is a little bit low because if it's mid year we're um we we probably could do a little bit better

024there but that's part of our presentation tonight here's who is reporting so um staff is in purple students are in teal and other in red remembering that our report is available to anybody in the community as well all CSD staff or CSD staff are asked to report when a bias incident occurs that's why I think we see so much um staff reporting they've all been R trained to report into the form so that we can have the most accurate data when you look at it by grade level you'll see again Middle School is um is a definitely their our highest reporters and just some fast facts for you about uh the what we just looked at 25% of our reporters are reporting anonymously which I think goes to show how important that aspect of the

025reporting is and every Anonymous report is still sent to the school from where it originated a lot of of times those Anonymous reports once received by the administrator they can piece things together that they know have happened and they also have this report to to support any investigation that they're up to so that's happened several times um when we send the anonymous report students are the most common reporters of lgbtq plus bias and our staff are the most common reporters of racial bias types of bias reported you see there um religion um is at the bottom I mean the lowest and uh reports based on race color nationality are still our highest um some of these incidents include um intersectionality so it's a double count so that's happening up there in that um in that

026uh graph and I know that there um has typically been a slide where we break down race color and nationality by category that's a hand pull of data it's not automatic so you'll see that probably at the end of the year some fast facts again um the most common form of bias is verbal abuse the most common time of day for a bias incident is lunchtime or right after lunch and the most common location still um tends to be the classroom Maran all right so for this report we wanted to seek the feedback from students so prior to today we went out and um reive student responses with focus groups and we also sent out a survey and so they said a lot they they provided some um some good feedback we asked them three

027questions we asked them what is working well what are some challenges and what ideas do you have to make it better and then in the next slide you'll see some of their responses this is what they said was working well they said that the forms were easy to find that it was a smooth process and dealt with accordingly that the reporting they like being able to report anonymously because it help them to feel safe when they're reported and I'll read out loud what they what some of the students said one student said I think the bias response is going decent what is going well is people feeling comfortable to report a bias incident being able to be anonymous is important to feel safe and helps if people are nervous about reporting a I personally have

028used the bias incident Reporting System once before and it is very smooth and it was dealt with accordingly and then the last one it said how easy it is to find it so that was kind of awesome there were some chall challenges as well and some of the students said that um they didn't know that we had a form so awareness was a piece that was more in the elementary a at the elementary schools and then some students said that they um hadn't heard like if they reported an event or something happened they didn't get feedback so kind of closing the feedback loop is something that we thought about that we need to improve and then next slide so ideas for improvement I thought and we were talking like this is really cool um some

029of the elementary students this feedback came from their safe coaches and they suggested to have a separate elementary form that is shorter with simpler phrasing which makes a lot of sense some of them said it felt like adultish had a lot of adult language um they also asked for the an updated poster which we will share in a little bit which is kind of cool um with more simpler phrasing uh more colorful more colorful and one student said they want it to pop they said the current Poster's boring they like different yeah and then lastly uh they wanted um lessons on how to provide um a bu or how how to input a a bias response and one suggestion was um I know I've come to to the board and spoken about our lessons for

030racial equity and we thought of including um how to report a bias response and it's called Unit zero which is a first unit that you do at the beginning of the year and again that's an effort to just make sure that students know how to report okay so staff training continues um one of the things that I wanted to share tonight is that we don't want to do a one and done like just one training and we're done we want to make sure that we come back to the training uh it's ongoing and we provide training in multiple ways multiple entryways so what we've done over the last couple of years and this is with um support with Jennifer Duval she and I have gone out to all our schools I think we're going on

031our second round which has been really wonderful and we've been training staff on mitigating bias in iring and in that training we provide a lot of information about unconscious bias and um ways to interrupt it we have um have trained specific groups uh they're listed there Transportation so at the beginning of the school year we tra we train all our bus drivers with the idea that school isn't 8 to 8 to 2:30 actually starts as soon as they're picked up on the bus making sure that the experience to school and going home to school is also a safe space our mental health team has been trained um um last time the TAC was here and we shared that they also received bias training uh We've trained specific schools who've sought out specific training so we've

032done that and then we've also provided some training and some resources for our coaches the ongoing and intentional training that we've done is at the beginning of school year all our teachers um do safe schools and we have a microaggressions module included in that which all staff no matter where you work in the district um um they complete that module and then and we have the ongoing lessons for racial Equity that our teachers teach at all our elementary schools and lastly um and it just keeps Ono uh and this is something that Melissa Ryan and I have been doing for multiple years we've been part of a regional racial Equity Group which is a cross District group that meets um four times a year or so and one of our topics of our last last

033year and continuing into into this year is bias um and and bias training and we're so we're collaborating and talking with other districts in Sharing resources so that feels great that we're able to have thought Partners in other districts this is just this this is a slide from our presentation actually no our training that our um principles do every year with the staff this is just one of the many slides in the slideshow talking about what you do when a bias incident occurs I think this is um to me the most impactful one it's the one that's first and and it just kind of sets the expectation that if a bu incident occurs in your presence you must interrupt it and it's followed by a slide with phrases of um ways that you can interrupt

034that bias and we go into conversation about the difference between calling in and calling out and that many times when you need to interrupt a bias incident that is a call out sometimes you have to do it that way but we also talk about the opportunity to call in there was some uh common misconception last year that when bias incidents occurred on campus there wasn't a behavioral consequence for them a lot of Staff because we had the bias incident response didn't really think that maybe a student would have to serve a behavioral consequence for a bias incident it's not across the board but there was enough that we wanted to be very clear this year so as part of all of the work that we did to ensure there were districtwide Behavior guidelines um this

035was one of those pieces so harassment and bias has its own page and you can see up here um links to the racial language Behavior scale to help you determine if a bias incident is medium level severity or high level severity a version of this also exists in the corval School District student parent handbook along with all the other behavioral information but this um is there as well for parents the last slide in the staff training um slideshow is this one which is again setting the the tone that whenever a bias incident occurs it's your responsibility to report it you can report to your beh your building principal dean of students the behavior team and then they'll enter it into the um bias reporting form and handle it but um you can also just put

036it into the website it's also a guarantee that those reports will be investigated so there's accountability on both ends if I'm um the person that Witnesses it as an adult in this system I need to report it to someone and I know that someone's going to handle it because there's a check on the other end as well all right so in an effort to continue our proactive measures uh we introduced this year this idea of a biased educational kit so in the fall every single school got a kit a basket filled with resources and in those resources they received um a whole bunch of books that were um grade and level appropriate and the lessons and resources Within These kits um address the following incidents so anti-Semitism racism anti-immigration anti-muslim anti- LBGTQ ia2 spirits ableism

037and the picture that you see on the on the screen is a picture of some books that are included in the kits folks that have access to this is everybody in a school um I do get phone calls from Deans and counselors and administrators so sometimes those are the folks that use and counselors these are the folks that use the kids KS first but it's available to all staff at every single school right and then this is what the students wanted some preview posters for this year they wanted it to pop but this this poster here um was based on the data like Melissa was talking about from last year and we've created this um these posters uh disability bias posters that um you know give it students information it has a QR code and

038um I think they're they're pretty pretty cool to look at and it shows there at the bottom disability bias and also gives it the definition of ableism so these are two posters um and then the third one I'm going to show you but the two the one here on the right about disability um is very similar to um the lgbtq plus poster because if you remember we talked about the increase um in bias incidents against students who are lgbtq plus as well as students who are disabled that kind of like bbal bu up in the end of the school year so these posters are in response to that and um hoping to do some more timely um intervention and that's what we have for you thanks thank you Melissa and marcian um questions comments from

039the board Judah thank you so I love the new posters um what is available right now to educate students on being able to report bias and what the response Pro process is guaranteed to be so the so the report form exists and it's a q there's a QR code there's posters I'm looking in here to see if I see any but most of our schools there's these posters are mostly all black and it just says a bias incident or when you um if you see something say something um and students are able to scan the QR code um if they're middle and high school um they have access they have canvas accounts their canvas accounts have a link link um that will take them directly to the bias report so that they can do a

040bias report if they need to on their computer while they're sitting in class uh most of our elementary students again that's that usually takes some assistance or um you know the student reports to an adult and then the adult takes care of the reporting piece and and what we're talking about adding in the classroom is in the unit zero talking about that's what reports what a bias report is and what it's for yes and that's what we're going to incorporate is um as part of the unit zero that we do at the beginning of the year um which really the focus of that unit is to really create a space for um conversations in the classroom and so part of that unit and I think this is a great idea that the students gave us

041is we want to make sure that in that unit zero kind of at the beginning of the year when you're trying to build community and talking about routines and you know how we're going to treat each other with care in the classroom we want to include this as part of that unit zero so that all students know how to report and for the younger kids most likely their teacher or a trusted adult will help them report um and then for the older kids you including that in advisor lessons for middle and high school so just making sure that we're letting all students know how they can report and then having multiple ways of reporting thank you yeah um thank you for sharing this uh I had a question I was wondering if you could had

042an example you talked about um interrupting um and talking about calling out and calling in and so I was wondering if you might provide an example of what each of those would look like yes so this is um an example that we looking at Jennifer Jennifer do it so what we do this is I'm so glad you asked that Tes um so when we're doing the mitigating bias um in hiring one of the things we do is we talk about calling in and calling out but we want to make sure that that we practice it um because we tell staff that if we can't practice it together how are you going to practice it when the real event happens kind of like fire drills right that's the reason why we have a drill because when

043the event happens everybody knows where the exit doors are and knows exactly what to do so what we do in the training is we give them some scenarios right so calling in could be somebody says during a hiring um your debriefing a candidate who just interviewed with you and somebody in the committee says H for know for some reason I just don't think that candidate's the right fit for our school right so when I hear that and we all hear that we're probably thinking like whose fit are you talking about right so there's a lot of bias in that you know where does that come from and so that would be an opportunity to practice calling somebody in so thees tell me a little bit more about what you meant when you said this person

044is in the right fit what is it about you know so just kind of trying to um learn a little bit more about what that person is thinking so you can care uh paraphrase and uh revoice what they might have said right to get a deeper understanding calling out is the opposite that's when Houston we've got a problem somebody said something that was pretty egregious um something that was not okay and we need to interrupt it in the moment so we actually practiced this in the training we did this with Tac as well we did this with students and he heard a lot of giggle but that's okay nervous giggle is okay um but we want students to be able to feel comfortable inter corupting when something is said that is not okay so for

045example we do this in our training um you know candidate leaves candidate happened to have a thick accent maybe they had a dress that was part of their culture and then somebody in the committee again this is just an example this hasn't happened says um ah you know that I just couldn't understand that person I just didn't really like their accent I didn't like the way they dress right to me that's a calling out because if we don't call out then we are basically saying it's okay this type of behavior is acceptable so we teach and we actually practice saying um what you just said was not okay or please you know C can I um can I stop you right there and just teaching people the difference between the two and making it okay

046normalizing that so those are the examples of calling in and calling out you're welcome other questions comments me I've got three okay um comment question another question so the first comment is really thank you for sharing this uh there's really phenomenal uh Improvement and growth in the presentation that shows how us as an institution are growing in in understanding in depth uh utilizing the data to make decisions and and centering student voice and designing uh the the uh the tools and instruments that we're doing so I want to just share my ackowledgement and appreciation of this work the second thing I want to share is probably a question or maybe an ask if you have considered the slide that you mentioned about training is great when we all are no longer here policy is the

047guard for us to continue do that so the question is or the request is if you recall our conversation last time about cyber bullying bullying menacing policies JFC and gbn whether we need to cross reference or reference what you're doing in training if you pass this baton 10 years from now how can we sustain uh the professional development as a commitment of the district as a commitment at at the building level and also as a commitment for individual staff members and I believe that both the policies JFC and potentially gbn and maybe it's already there in AC CB that every student belongs uh um so making sure holistically we capture that yeah I comments or just you're good with that I like that yeah you know I love policy but um yeah exactly and and

048I think I feel like there's something in ACB that asks that says a superintendent's required to ensure that there's training every year um and then you know what that training looks like is kind of what we're up to so yeah I like that awesome awesome and and definitely we want to do a little bit less than top down and maybe bottom up or or really driven by what you're seeing awesome so the third thing is uh really a heavy aspect to to the whole thing uh it's been about a year where I'm hearing a growth in anecdotal uh stories about anti-muslims xenophobic anti-semetic uh bias uh from students or families and community members uh talking about what's going on in schools and uh acknowledging the process run this course through through the bias response uh

049definitely increasing with the um what's going on in uh the Middle East but also locally in the community how we're responding to it and I want to be candidate I don't know what are the answers um but I'm I'm personally hurt that I'm feeling sometimes the adults in the community or adults in the community may instigate bias to grow or may actually help uh bias to be reduced and addressed and I want to lean in on no better than professionals like you who are working on this and addressing it on a local level and or on school level and and and and I want to ask you this uh we have we have as a board as a political organization or as a district as an educational institution uh addressed issues related to racial bias

050and other issues and leaned in to say here's what's right here's what's wrong and here's how we can prioritize the safety of our children children and I want to lean on a few couple things uh first of all if if there is any insights you have learned from uh anti-muslim xenophobic or anti-semitic or anti-jewish bias that we have been observing recently uh what would you like to share with the board and not necessarily immediately but down the road uh what can the board do and what can the community do so our kids don't receive those uh this treatment that they're they're reporting right well I'm on more of the response end of that and I know that we've had some incidents that were um that occurred in um some of our schools and I know

051that the response from our building administrators were Swift and they were um decisive and um I was um briefed and asked opinions and I signed off on what it was that we were up to I I feel like um we're we're all in in that same in that same place and I know that in some of those incidents it's I I think you mentioned it a little bit about adults in the community kind of um growing that biases I think is how how you put it um I think a lot of our students not a lot but some of our students um say things do things don't really understand the impact so there is there is that Swift like this is this is not okay calling out this is a consequence for that behavior and

052you have a responsibility to restore trust with your community because do you understand the impact of what it is you said did published and that part of it is the hard part that's the hard work but um our I don't find our staff to be turning away from that hard work I think that um that's honestly when they contact marcian because they'd like some help and some resources and we know that she's the resource Queen so she has that available but um I I I see both sides of that as far as the Swift response and then the hard work that follows and I I feel like we're up to that task and there's some prevention too so yeah yeah thank you I just want to comment by really I have full confidence in how

053uh you're responding to that I want to thank you for that and for the vulnerability uh leaning in and helping and it's really open open invitation to for us as a board how can we support uh in outwardly communication if ever necessary if you see that's necessary uh I want us to be courageous to do that if it's necessary thanks Sammy any other question hi um oh loud I was just wondering how the system for bias incident reports works if um the report is made about something maybe about a student that happens off campus so there's um there's School law that or Law related to to education that says that if that incident if an incident like that happens off campus but there's a Nexus with the um the victim for example and what will

054happen for them when they're back at school possibly um not feeling safe at school because of what happened off campus then we can get involved and our principles have that ability to do that and we'll begin um investigation and make something happen to ensure that the person person who feels that they've been harmed um can feel safe good question thanks Liam shaa thank you so much for all that you've shared and all of your thoughtful work can you tell us anything about efforts to share this information with families I know that there have been you know email blasts out around just knowledge of the system itself but also thinking about the prevention side thinking about you mentioned that the districtwide behavior guidelines are in the student parent handbook knowing that some parents May read that

055some parents may not are there other efforts to get that information out or also contribute to prevention and ways that families can can better support their students in these conversations I'll start I think this is important information for families but I honestly could use some help with how do we not be the next letter that comes to your email inbox and how how do we make it an important part of what it is that you're reading and supporting when it comes to the school district so um I you know I I wonder where the best place for that is there's times marcianne and I will talk about this at Delta meetings but and that's a population it's important and it's also important for everybody so H how else can we get um to a place

056where we can have a conversation about it because a lot of times information like this isn't really best served you know just cold here it is this conversation like we're having having right now is an important part of the whole presentation so I I I don't have that answer but I would love to find some really good ways to do that anyone else okay um I do why did you have something to I just wanted to share something okay so I have um two questions one is around accountability if staff are not actually reporting like what happens um if that's the expectation um so here if students are like well we say stuff but we don't know what happens we never hear back kind of stuff yeah um so what happens in that case is

057the first question do you want to do that and then I'll come to the second one so that I mean that that is an expectation and so that would be a professional responsibility and that would be something that we would talk about in in in those conversations that we have each year when we talk about um job performance so that's where we would start um and then beyond that I'm I'm feeling Jennifer du all looking at me from behind because it is a it is a staffing question that we um we haven't yet faced but we um yeah that that's the expectation we just talk about it as the expectation so have yeah yeah thank you um I'm just thinking of things that I hear from people and that's one of them as like well

058is their accountability um and then the other question um is about training and even some of the resources I'm I am going to say that I was a little bit sad that I didn't see anything about anti-blackness and anti- indigeny and anything you all presented tonight um and those were the top two reported things last year and I know all of us were really surprised including myself for anti- indigen given the small percentage and that was one of the top reports um I know there's great work happening to support students happening with the tital 6 Grant but as far as training on what that looks look like I um and and specifically antiblackness because I hear a lot from young people that like saying inappropriate things about the black community are still happening heavily um

059especially at the high school level which is the one that has the least amount of reports so that's a little bit of a I feel like a maybe it's not getting reported like it could be right um and so I didn't because I didn't see that in there I was wondering one why if those were the two top two and like if there's plans to address those those are you can do racial um Equity kind of work but if you don't specifically talk about anti-blackness and anti- indigeny it's not the same thing and so I'm kind of wondering where those are in there thank you so much Lou I I think the um your Point's really well taken and I think that's really good feedback for us to make sure that we call it out

060because if it's not called out if it's not present then it's something that can be overlooked and we don't don't want that at all so I think thank you so much for that feedback and I'll make sure that we that we Elevate that and make sure that it's present so that staff know it's an available resource and speak to it so thank you yeah yeah and so I'm thinking about like um the Dei and Delta and the Indiana parent groups as maybe potential like Partners from feedback from those communities um to think about like where where it fits into things but yeah or even for resources if you all may not have them and I'm thinking about like especially like prepping for in 2025 when the tribal history shared histories and ethnic studies curriculum and

061plus the Holocaust and other genocides curriculum is coming in that there may be like people may not notice it coming up because they haven't had that ahead of it um and so those were the where some of those comments were coming from too I also want to go back to the student feedback that you saw that was a very limited um set we haven't yet gotten any information back from high school so the that um the the three questions that marcianne brought up were they're specifically targeting asking questions about why what's going wrong with the process that you wouldn't use it and when we see that number in high school I want to know that answer but we haven't had that addressed yet with our high school students so we'll have more information the next

062time we're back thank you yeah um I know we're at our time for this topic and we're also ahead of schedule so we can just go ahead and extend it five more minutes because I know Ryan had something to and did you all have more to or was it okay so yeah if we can extend a few more minutes I just wanted to express my appreciation to Melissa marcian um bringing forward um some tough information um in a candid authentic way about um thinking about an organization that's working to improve and looking at hard data and um getting important feedback so we can continue to improve upon it so thank you to you too for this continued work it feels like um when we started this um talking about coming forward twice a year to

063Pro provide the data um it it you it was a little clunky at the beginning because we were still learning about it and it's there's still areas that we need to improve upon but I do feel like we are um creating systems and I appreciated the comment that was made about the policy component because I think that's where um where we're headed and I think that is going to be be um still part of this journey and but I'm also feeling optimistic about the fact that these um systems are getting cleaned up verified Clarity for student staff um and and how you handle it and I think that um alone is one of the things we talk about a lot is how do you um you know how do you lean in step in or

064you know call in and call out how do we do those things um I don't it's one of another example of the things that I don't think adults are very good at and we're really working with our kids to become better um than we are um and it and it's important that we have systems that support that so again um thank you thanks thanks Ryan um and I was also thinking back to the safe meeting like almost about two years ago almost exactly probably where this came up and um as a board member really had pay to sit with what was being said and shared with students about their experiences and wanted to thank you both for all the work you put in the last couple years it's like seeing where this process was to

065where it is now in just only two years is like wowk and so I did want to say that too so thanks and also Ryan for supporting your staff in absolutely this process as well um so I just wanted to mention that as well too before we move on that um it's actually a huge growth in a short amount of time and with also always there's always room for growth for everything always so thank you for leaning into the growth to continuing that work um so other comments thank you both um next on the agenda is board goals first reading I'm sure we have comments on this um so let's go ahead and oh Ryan's gon to go sit over there thank you Ryan I'll wait for well okay like it's usually cold in here

066to I'm really warm tonight it's it's nice that it's it's nice that it's warm in here I'm not going to complain about yeah yeah we do think Kim that it is warm in here and whoever else is controlling temperatures back here or over somewhere yeah okay I think Ryan's set up now we can refocus on board goals so um first reading of board goals um any comments questions oh you have some I'm sorry r no that's okay so I took the liberty of calling this a first read um because we have been at it a while and I think that you gave me really important feedback last time we met and I try Kim and I worked together to and really tried to take all of the feedback that you had um and specific information

067that you wanted incorporated or things you wanted um modified and I think um based on what you shared with us at the last meeting this is this does feel like it um represents the thoughts you all had um as always I'm open to suggestions clarifications remembering that these are your goals um and at the same time they drive so much of the work we do so okay everybody raised their hand at once so Sarah hasn't talked for a while your mic's night on my question is um when will we see the profile of a graduate so we would um spend time getting it would it will take us some time um because we're going to want to get feedback and have people share um what they're um what they Envision for students leaving our system

068I don't think again I don't think it's a process that can happen in a vacuum I think it's going to take um opportunities for Community to come together together and share so I in some ways I Envision that almost like not a not quite as lengthy of a process as this but uh process that's going to take that kind of commitment Judah so I actually have positive comments I'm really loving how goal four has shaped up and I very much appreciate the hard work on this and especially director director Tom's like repeated efforts to make sure that we're getting um f a focus also on staff um and I really appreciate how it's been reframed to be um emphasizing families navigating poverty as we've noted that as a very um significant that being a significant

069barrier to um to Student Success in our schools and then also in the top making sure that we're including the entire at the very top I don't know what to call that Preamble um including uh including families in that so that's just a straight positive comment so thank you I really appreciate all the updates and the work on that goal thank you Sammy so I gotta say ditto to the positive comment and appreciation of where we are right now uh on the go four and all of them I would like to highlight the uh uh student identity where we call ability instead of disability uh in the preface statements uh and I know the addition here I I noticed goal one it says and ability encompassing students with disabilities um I I consulted one self

070Advocate from the disability community and they provide feedback about ability or disability but honestly I'm not sure what's the right answer there uh whether uh it should be called disability in the preface or the same way that's it's been called out in goal one um just want to make sure we Elevate whatever uh is uh reflective of what self- Advocates uh from the disability Community would be advocating for uh as disability is an identity that was a um piece of feedback that you all shared um and in that conversation one of of the things I was worried about is that um it felt to me that that is an area where just saying ability Stand Alone um is overlooking a community and um and I just heard enough of you like enough conversation around it

071that this was our attempt to recognize um and be fully inclusive if at the same time if it is you know if it causes um harm or is not what we're trying to say here I'm totally open to changing it and at the same time we didn't have um I I was still concerned that we were going to lose lose the message can I explain a second because I was the one that was um my my concern on just saying disability is that that is an overly broad statement that we're recognizing ability groups and that disability is always contextual and so my concern on just saying disability is framing something as a negative and not recognizing ability groupings and I I think that the language is a little clunky but I appreciate very much the

072thoughtfulness and making sure that we're recognizing that we're also talking about disability as a self-proclaimed self- outspoken disability Advocate I'm a person living with um disabilities I wanted to really recognize the diversity of what disability means other comments questions can I ask a follow up to that sure yeah I have I have more for that one too but I'm saving it but go ahead oh then then I'll hold it okay go ahead ch um I just want to say generally I think um I really appreciate the changes um this is like nitpicky but that's the level I'm down to because most of the other things I felt like really got a trust um in goal two for Equitable systems um we have the strategies and I don't know why it just feels like it still

073just reads weird to have the second one now reads while working in community we will enhance um it's just Sy the syntax of the sentence is just very different from every other strategy and I I realize that you're trying to offer something that is not just enhanced students and I I appreciate that um and if there's a way to word it that would feel like it just reads more consistently with the others it just stands out in a way that feels kind of odd there Sammy no no what you say say that parallel construction parallel construction is where the list uh have to be consistent if you start with a verb you always have verb so I'm wondering um based on that if you would prefer starting with enhance and then ending with um while

074working in community or could it be work in community to enhance student family sir did the glasses drop sometimes when we we Smith it is helpful so then I'm going to make the modification for second read to say I'm working in community to enhance work work yes thank you other comments questions you have any sh great thank you so much Ryan for all of your careful work in going through and adding in many of our comments through many many rounds feedback from the community as well well the work that you've put in really shows so thank you for that I'm wondering if we want to add in country of origin in the parentheses at the top this is one small but important edit where would you um want to add that within the parenthesis of

075race culture socioeconomic and family status country of origin language somewhere in there and then I had one other comment under Equitable systems goal two and I don't know that I have a comment necessarily to change this but just to name this when I read the third strategy develop and Implement an equity plan to support students and staff that to me feels like a very weighted strategy something that could be massive something that might not be and so I'm just just curious what you think or others on the board think in terms of I guess the parameters around that because that that feels like in and of itself the developing and implementing an equity plan that that is could be all-encompassing of this goal it could be I don't know if I'm expressing myself very well

076in that but it feels like something that could be pretty significant in its effort yeah it feels to me like like um it's sort of a similar lift as um developing a profile of a graduate I in in in in a several ways one way is that we have some things in place um in our systems that help us to um continue to move forward and at the same time um making sure that we take the time to um think about all the data we have like the data we looked at tonight night and how does that um play into this this um this plan so yeah I could I could see it being a sign significant lift and I don't necessarily mean that that's a bad thing that it it should be a significant

077lift if it's done well and something that's ongoing continually and so I I know that some of that will come out in the what comes under strategies activities so in that next level but it was just something that really strikes me as that is such a significant piece of that goal and needs to needs to be handled well with care one other thing just to highlight is that this these are 24 to 29 and so some of these things will take some time as we continue to to make Improvement okay um did you have more oh go ahead okay one tiny one under goal three strategy number one I'm wondering if the word art education should be Arts education to be more inclusive of multiple forms of Art and art and the Arts got it

078um okay so I didn't really have a ton of comments oh one of them was um I do appreciate I looks like strategy five under goal one is a little bit more specific about tracking um academic indicators I don't that's worded a little bit differently now so hopefully that is more um explicit that things are being tracked for everyone and then under goal two um there was an ask from Community I believe for strategy 4 to include disabilities in there as well for the equity work so goal to strategy 4 because it has racially culturally linguistically and gender diverse staff um and am I remembering that right yall yeah I think I I recall that and thank you for bringing it up so like recognizing hiring for a diversity of ability yeah um under that

079as well I remember that being some feedback that seemed like it was important it feels important to um add in there and then I did want to um comment too about I understand like the the more positive for thinking about ability and also somebody that lives with different levels of disability myself I understand the positive part and also want to make sure that we're we don't decenter that people have disabilities um and think about how that lands with Ada language too um and so thinking about like I know we're that the goals are different necessarily than like Ada comp clients and laaff which D I know you know all kinds of yes just a little bit um and so I just want to make sure like we're being consistent with language too and so yeah

080I've wrestled with that I think the the more what I'm really trying to Encompass is that disability and ability are diverse yeah um and something that I'm trying to pull away from is the idea that we have disability as an idea as a monolith yes exactly because nobody can see mine for example yeah it's sometimes similar so just for me I am very much feeling like pulling against just saying the word disability but using some type of language to incorporate the absolute diversity of ability or disabilities in the context of the school system and I I don't know exactly how to say it but that's something I is important for me to capture yeah so um that could be something Ryan for I like that we're using the terminology for a second read on both

081that top part and the Equitable systems on and um goal one as well has it in there right is thinking about how that's worded where it's centering um students that do strongly align with identity using the terminology disabilities and also recognizing what you're saying Judah about like the diversity of abilities and disabilities so somehow I don't know what the answer is for the wording but I think it's important that we think through all of those things and um yeah so if you can I don't know who you can work with but maybe some you know if there's some local disability um activist groups and seak and stuff maybe yeah I'll do that yeah thanks wow look at we have time left on this topic this is I have more questions oh no actually this may

082take 15 minutes may take a couple minutes so uh I'll okay I'll preface with 30 seconds and I'll leave it to the board to discuss I think this is one of the critical questions I want us to be okay with um and I'll I'll go to a different organization so we can come back to this say you have a public university with three goals uh research academics or teaching and extension right uh an important question an organization or institution should ask if you lose uh you have an earthquake you have a budget uh crisis and you lose third of your people third of your money uh which goal would you start with first are you research extension uh uh teaching or the other way around what is the sequence and I want us just to

083recognize and maybe have this uh conscious discussion the four goals that we have here they're not mutually exclusive and they're not in a certain sequence that imply any budgetary uh uh prioritization necessarily or do they and if they do is this the sequence that we want to have I think that's really important for us as a board to think of uh for Budget preparation all the way to the building level and the the the education uh classroom level to be aware of so I just want to elevate that question and have us have consensus around it for the next few years do you mean like because they're numbered one two three four correct yes that's a really good point Sammy because I know when we were listening to the community during our listening sessions they

084thought the numbers equals the level of importance and um so that's something that was should probably put on there whether or not it is indicating that that way it's super clear so yeah yeah or at least have this uh uh we said the culture had the expectation that the numbers don't imply prioritization I think that should also be on whatever is published yeah could we just leave off the goal numbers there's still in order order but they're not like one I was thinking well like if we wanted to solve that we could say we could put them in alphabetical order or we could just say listed an alphabetical order or putting something on there that they're because I as soon as you said this like that's a great point about are these priorities in order

085and then I was like it was like like oh no I for me that's not how they're listed and I don't want them to be listed or thought of as priorities in like if we can only do one thing we're going to do this that we would instead choose to pick pieces out of all of them maybe we could just put it that they're not numbered in in priority order because that way it's clear because they're all important so and obviously we're um the educational part is like the whole purpose of public education is education so that's like implied but um it's also like I remember that being something really in every almost every listening session in the groups I was in they were like well this should be this instead of looking at the

086goal they were looking at the orders because they were like oh these are all important but we need a reorder so thank you Sammy for bringing us back to that so it sounds like we have um a general consensus on that we would add something around goals are not written in priority order okay that only took four minutes not 15 nice um okay I think we're good thanks Ryan and um I hope the community listening is um seing their feedback that they offered um and all the groups that have contributed along the way and we'll talk more about that at second read but um if you have further feedback please let us know Community yeah we've had several hundred folks provide feed back and input in this so yeah yeah there's a lot of involvement

087that's pretty exciting nice we you come back over um we're on do you all need a break do we need a five I see okay um before we go into because we do have more policy discussion I'm sure um ahead of us and also the evaluation um Brian's evaluation so we're gonna can we take a break like five in um in oh wait did you have something we we already was it about the goals or was it about stuff on the okay um because the comments are way at the end and that's the yeah okay yeah we're going to go on break okay um welcome back everyone the next item on the agenda is um superintendence 23 24 evaluation so I'm going to read that now so this is the um value valuation of superintendent

088Ryan NOS 2324 um sorry my allergies I'm like sniffly um okay Dr Ryan NS is completing his eighth year as superintendent of the Corvalis School District this past year has shown growth highlighted areas of struggle and made good on the B Bond Promises to the community Ryan and his team have continued to show they are committed to helping students move towards graduation and prepare for Life After K12 through last through the lasting effects of the covid-19 pandemic and increasing state budget reductions even still persistent barriers remain offering a lens to seek ways to continue to look for what may be impacting student learning this evaluation has been compiled in a way that synthesizes key items shared by board members uh the areas evaluated are the 2022 to 23 priorities goal one which is student achievement

089goal two which is Equitable systems goal three which is Real World Learning goal four which is health and wellness and goal five which is long range facilities planning uh executive summary there were areas of growth identified by board members which were also highlighted by Dr NOS in his report board members pointing pointed out ways in which they see the district moving towards addressing those needs most understand the lasting impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on student learning mental health and behavior will take many years to overcome currently the students in kindergarten this year are the first cohort of students that have not had Direct covid-19 policies and processes in place that impact School attendance and learning even still students and staff continue to miss days due to covid-19 Ryan has spent much of his efforts in

090ensuring the corval school district has funding to keep the summer enrichment program operational through strategic partnering with the Corvalis Public Schools Foundation the board recognizes this and also sees the ways in which students continue to struggle in this area through the data available to us while we are while we are still measuring above State averages attention to students with disabilities students of color students navigating poverty and English language Learners need additional support to intervene the lower learning rates in these areas given the continued budgetary declines at the state level Ryan's creative and strategic thinking will be relied upon to help the district move forward in the best way it can social political tensions locally and nationally as well as the national econ economic and housing prices impact students in our district efforts around Equity including

091safe DDI Delta Pride Tac and cak offer support centering the needs of students whose data continues to show lower rates related to learning out to learning outcomes mentioned above additionally Dr gs's thoughtful partnership with the Corvalis Public School Foundation has allowed for stronger support of students navigating poverty students have access to more Mental Health Resources directly in schools which fills a gap in the community every school has been positively impacted by the bond project which is near completion fully reaching the promises made to the community that it would make this has allowed for expanded opportunities through CTE arts and science as well as better supports of students with learning disabilities and increased access to restrooms for Trans and non-binary students students it is clear to the board that Ryan is invested in Student Success on

092multiple levels while it was noted He does care about staff questions about how this type of systematic support offered to students can be replicated for staff arose as well as a desire to know how staff are doing and what their needs are Dr Ryan NOS is described as thoughtful strategic student centered and a collaborative leader it is noted that he involves staff as thought partner Partners in decision making and advocates in the community for issues that impact students families and staff Ryan models what it means to challenge oneself and continue to grow uh CSD is fortunate to have Dr NS as Stu superintendent to lead us through the challenges that lie ahead and help the district address the areas in which need to be approved so that is the um evaluation of superintendent Ryan n

093so thank you for your work Ryan thank you for the again thanks for the opportunity to serve in this role and to work with all of you um I think again working with a great board of directors is um Paramount to the success of a superintendent um as we all know and I really appreciate all of you your thoughtfulness um and the different skills you come with um as you fulfill this U voluntary role appreciate it than okay all righty um so we're going to move on to the next item which is non-representative employee benefits and compensation we have Jennifer Duval and Ryan on the agenda so Jennifer is gonna come up so I don't have anything additional to add other than um answer any questions that come up based on the agreement that we've

094provided any questions for Jennifer okayu one question on the uh on the um updated mileage is it were you updating positions that were eligible yes to get mileage and then categorizing them corre is that okay I thought that's what it was but I don't have any other questions so okay thanks for your work on that Al righty um the next item on the agenda is cons do you want a motion for nine script thing sorry I don't have a I don't have a script it's fine um does anyone wish to make a motion chair I would like to make a motion um Sammy uh I move to approve the non-represented employee salary and benefits agreement for the 2024 25 school year is there a second second okay it has been moved by Sammy and second

095and by theres is there any further discussion okay I have to pull it up to reread it so just one second everybody thanks for your patience um oh thank you Sammy okay um it has been moved by Sammy and seconded by teres to approve the Chang es to the non represented employee salary and benefits agreement effective July 1 2024 um Judah I Sarah I shaa I theres I Sammy I and IO I uh motion passes okay now we can move on to Consolidated action thank you um Samy for pointing that out my pleasure um as a reminder the items under this portion of the agenda are for Action does anyone have a question about anything and Consolidated action ume um just acknowledgement of uh the applicants uh for the budget committee appointments uh so sorry

096I'll just pull that out for for an acknowledgement only okay I was going to pull out the calendar second read too so anything else okay okay Sammy go ahead so just uh uh I want to applicant the applicant for uh uh applying for the budget committee and appreciate that my understanding there is still vacancy uh or two vacancies one vacancy more so uh just want to remind myself and colleagues to recruit uh folks from the community to apply uh for the additional uh vacancy um and looking forward to uh working with Mr uh Tony vender thanks Sammy that was the other one I was wanted to pull to say thank you as well so thank you for doing that um I just I wanted to pull the calendar just to remind the community that this

097calendar is out now um and so if folk have questions about um what days off are ahead or what potential weather makeup days there are um this is the 2526 calendar calendar so the other one has already been approved and is out I know um we get questions every year about the calendar um so just want to make sure that folk knew that that was out um and that was it okay and you yeah goe um yeah and I think as we're looking at how to deal with the days we need to make up this year I appreciated looking at that and looking at our calendar and seeing makeup days you into April so that as we have weather that seems to be shifting oddly later and later we have the ability to make up

098days without extending into the into June so I thought those were good to look at together so thank you I appreciate that as well especially because school gets out and there's like holidays involved in June now and climate change is definitely shifting our weather patterns so yeah thanks you all for your work on that okay um um does anyone wish to make a motion I move to approve the items and Consolidated action second um okay has been moved by Sarah and second in by Judah I will now entertain final discussion is there final discussion okay has been moved by Sarah and seconded by Judah to adopt the Consolidated action items as submitted Judah I Sarah I shaa I teres I Sammy I I vote I passes unanimously okay the next um item on the agenda

099is Consolidated information as a reminder the items under this portion of the agenda are for discussion would anyone like to discuss an item and Consolidated information um just for clarification does the um policy updates is that also under consolidate information that's information because it's the first so first three policies are under here so if we want to discuss the policy somebody needs to pull it um could I pull policy JBC and JBC AR for discussion yes anything else okay so we're gonna this yes um policy JBC and policy JBC um so I have is there any way that I could preface this conversation yes okay Melissa um I I would like to talk about my process and um I invited Pride Club students to come as well as their mentors and to do public comment

100they're not here so I want to bring their voice into the room um so after the first time we did a first read on JBC I think in November um um I I was it was suggested I go out and meet with pride clubs and talk to students about what they're thinking um with the the biggest concern being what is the title of this policy so I went out to three of our four secondary Pride clubs and I want to thank publicly uh Christa schmeer Leah Tomlin Julia blue arm Stephanie reinwald Dolce hope Garcia and Tiffany Walter for welcoming me into their clubs and giving me some space on their agenda to talk to students I went in with a show and I started by um talking about the policy surprisingly how many students were

101unaware that we had that policy so that um was a topic of conversation in many places and I want to um to let you know that when it came to the title of the policy they are all over the map um some say gender expansive feels more inclusive others says gender expansive is not specific enough um and then they talked about it takes away important language used by students to identify themselves it's too wish you Washi too vague but non-conforming is othering and then someone said gender expensive is othering so it was quite a um an experience to be with students didn't hear what they had to say the suggestion for non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity came from CV and their pride Club um when we got deeper into the policy and talked

102about student safety I think it's important for this board to hear what the students had to say um one of the students told me that people are both uneducated and purposefully biased against LG ptq plus students um and that there needs to be more education at school about those students when we talked about identity um students said that they um would like more help with teachers to understand what it means to have a student in your classroom who's lgbtq plus and they'd like Synergy which is our students information system to um it'd be nice if we could change pronouns and Synergy was one of the comments from a student the addition of the term queer in the AR was um brought up in a conversation it is important that people know this is not a

103slur or a bad thing to say and then when we talked about facilities um this was a hot topic of conversation especially at Crescent Valley High School um will we ever have gender neutral locker rooms and the quote is I don't feel safe walking through the locker room to a changing space that is curtained this is a student who's nonbinary is there a way to create a portable changing space and the lack of gender neutral restrooms for students at high school was also the the there's not enough there are some there they know that but they're not enough and the distance to walk to get to places was seems like a barrier so I wanted to bring their voices in before we got started thank you for giving me that time and I'm ready for

104questions thank you Melissa for bringing their voices and since they couldn't be here tonight and for working very directly with the students in staff um questions and comments go ahead Juda well I I did want to say thank you and that I really appreciated the changes and the updates to the language and I believe that these policies are ones that we're going to be looking at regularly as language evolves and changes and um to recognize what fits best for our students and I only had one question um and it was on JBC is there a way that we could that second paragraph So I know that we had taken the bulk of that policy and then moved it over my only concern in that second paragraph that starts with the superintendent is responsible for is

105having the policy reflect that you know bias discrimination discriminatory language are not acceptable in the school and to me if I was not very knowledgeable about Schoolboard policy and I was looking at this policy kind of in a vacuum that I would say like it's going to happen we got we're going to have a plan for this over there and I'm wondering if there's a way to incorporate references to other existing policies to ensure safety just to reflect that yes we've got this it's not in name only that um student safety and inclusion is very much a part of other policies so somebody's just pulling this up like a student looking at it that they know oh it's not this Emeral plan we have a lot of stuff in place already for you so would

106that be similar like our all students belong policy yes racial educational Equity policy those types of things cross references to those polic cross references to their policies because the policies exist and I what I didn't want is for a a particularly a vulnerable student just to be reading that and thinking great that doesn't really mean anything for me okay thank you thanks for that Judah is there any other comments on JBC before we go to AR I mean the s that same um paragraph This sort of feeling like it's sort of wishy-washy this is something that will happen eventually kind of feeling I was looking at that and it says the superintendent is responsible for developing and I was wondering if using a stronger statement like the superintendent will develop any others on JBC good

107I wantan to uh I want to acknowledge receiving a comments from a Community member about parent uh and I want to just highlights or elevates the intentionality of this is that's an AR I'm sorry okay just so just the JBC one just JBC yeah okay if we're ready to move on to AR you can sure yeah go ahead thank you I think we're ready to move was it only in the AR or is it also in the policy itself JBC is only like it's really everything is in the AR right because it's kind of like right so I think we're used to reading it in that one but it's like all I did that earlier too I was like okay yeah okay regarding the R I just want to reiterate our commitment for students autonomy

108in deciding when to share a change in their uh pronouns or or information that uh that that's this policy provide protections for them in terms of the decision making when to do it uh I believe it was intentional to do it that way and I know Community member multiple reach out to think maybe we need to change it and just want we our commitment uh for the students with the students to have the autonomy in decision making and have the uh support to be able to notify their parents when when they're ready if that makes sense yeah and I think some of that was um a request to look at um OD language you know what I'm talking about most I do so do you want me to I I thought I think what you're

109saying though Sammy is our language is stronger yes our and so if we and and I want to say too that when I went through the policy or the J the AR and I compared it to OD we this is policy but if I was to use the OD language then I'm reducing the rights of our students so I didn't think you would want me to do that but okay so everyone's shaking their heads so if you would like me to use that different language let me know but this is stronger language and it gives our students more rights correct correct I think we're just asking like for that to be explained that way people understand like why it doesn't match OD yeah thank you yeah and I would say and I'm completely not the

110OS ba hats uh the Cal hats I would say our language is stronger than Odes stronger than the sample policies it is and recommendations of ospas uh and I I feel very proud of that we are at that at that uh level of protection for our kids absolutely for the kids and and and I want to uh maintain that and I believe that's the will of the board yeah the templates and stuff from OB osba those are about two and a half three pages long for the whole thing and we're looking at eight pages of Protections in our AR and um the commitment in our policy when would for those us who were on the board when we first adopted this and that was the intention we wanted a strong policy that protected our students

111and so I really appreciate that you've look I appreciate that you've done the work to look at the other language but I also very much appreciate that you've stuck with the intention that we had when we first developed this policy and um also that it's stayed a student centered policy and that's reflected in the conversations you had with the students about this policy language in particular um okay any other comments on the AR just just about AR from when I was first developed I actually had I was working in Corvalis and I had an individual present the policy and I had assisted in drafting some of the language for a proposal and I thought that it was never going to pass because it was so student centered and so protective and so outside of what

112was the cultural norms for um respecting Youth and children and their autonomy and their identity and them as people and I I really strongly believe that this policy says to our students you belong you matter you're safe in our schools and I feel like we need to acknowledge Judy ball who was the driver for getting us to do this policy and it was really important to her that she actually was gone before this was a was past but she was really instrumental in putting it together and and really sending us in this direction so I'm still very grateful for her work on this other comments on this one I did have one on definitions okay on um the definition of two spirit yes um I know that this is coming I can't remember it's coming

113from a out of the OD guidance out of the OD guidance which I would this is something I might recommend actually to the American Indian Alaskan native committee okay as well is that it's actually reinforcing like a stereotype about the two spirit community that two spirit only means somebody that identifies as having male and female I think it's how it's worded in here Ence essence or spirit and that's not encompassing of the whole two spirit Community okay and so it's um and there's a misconception that that's all it means to be to Spirit when it's very contextual okay and so I think that that's something I don't know if they want to help with or if that's something just for our policy at least for now that we can work I'm happy to work with

114you on that we can change that definition some of these definitions that were asked for like I think we asked for Neo pronouns and that is not in the OD guidance so I went out to different places to look for that definition so we we can change our definition if we'd like to yeah I um I would appreciate seeing that do you want to send me something and then I can put it in for second read yeah okay and maybe we can um also work with some of the folk in the community yeah um okay so that's that was my only thing on that one um I do have a question though that I don't know this isn't really the policy but I'm just wondering like I'll save it for board comments just kidding okay

115um I didn't pull kja I forgot to pull that one I just wanted to say um thank you for helping clarify about the guard signs because I know there's questions about that there and now it's very clear that's that's Kelly was trying to make create some clarity yeah thank you Kelly yeah anything else on I just have one little thing um and goes to the the students keep keep asking for the gender neutral bathrooms and the gender neutral um changing rooms and showers and in the last paragraph under the section on um gender neutral bathrooms and we say that we in new construction we shall include consideration of additions of those and I feel like that language that's another place why our language needs to be stronger okay that especially if there's changes in the

116board we need to say that if we're going to build new spaces we're going to include gender neutral spaces rather than just consider it so not considering adding them but we will be adding we will be adding them yeah and um I'm wondering about the language of gender inclusive and instead of um neutral because that erases gendered identity in some ways yeah if that makes sense yeah yeah that's good I don't I can't yeah so that's just another thing thanks for saying that so I can remember that part there's a lot to keep it's a lot to keep track of with that one but thanks yeah um okay any other go ahead um I just want to thank um thank you for your time and your effort on this and this is a I think

117a really great example of how um a board and an Administration work together we came together as a board all years ago and said we need this for our students we did this work to you know craft something that we thought this is this is it this is what we want and then uh we got some things wrong so then we had to make some changes and then now time has passed and now here we are again and it is um it's just a really great it's a really great example of how a board can have an idea um and but it's up to the leaders in our district to figure out how we're gonna that idea is going to hit the ground and actually be able to to to be successful and so I'm

118aware the number of times that you said and I couldn't find that so I had to go out and figure that out and I think that um we shouldn't take for granted that that's something that leadership anywhere would do that is something leadership here does though and so if we were giving an assistant superintendent evaluation that's what we would say is that we're very fortunate that you do not shy away from the hard work of figuring out what you what you don't know and that it's okay for you not to know um and you'll you'll you'll get it and our students are well represented because of that so I'm deeply appreciative of that effort and I'm very proud that we are here in this policy all this time later saying we need to make the

119policy better because we always can we always can do better to represent our students and to ensure that they are protected so anyway thank you thank you what Tes said yes okay yeah okay all right we look forward to a second read on on those um is there any we're now we're on board member comments are there any board member comments who was it teres yeah um so uh last month the lonus Pauling Middle School was um um very um aggressively tracking down all of the pennies in our community um to compile them in jugs as a donation for the um South um Corvalis food bank and I don't know exactly how much they raised but I know that uh it was a there was a lot of conversation among the middle schoolers that I

120heard and I just want to acknowledge that that the food bank is a really important part of our community and it is a wonderful thing to see our kids um being involved in and learning about um the need for um to address food insecurity and realizing that they're some of the people some of their peers um are experiencing food insecurity and they got to be part of helping um I think saying Solutions too far but get to be part of bringing um ameliorating the frustration and the suffering that comes along with not knowing where your next meal is coming from I'm really proud of their effort and I'm thankful for the administration for encouraging them to find a fun and collaborative way um to uh to motiv and to motivate them to participate and um

121I hope the rest of the community can be as motivated as our middle schoolers are to make sure that our neighbors have meals s John and I may have similar things to say um so I was at the open house for CHS last night and I actually had the same experience five years ago with my first child um it's really fun to go and see all of the CTE and art spaces and all of the amazing programs that our students have access to and hear parents talking about like this is amazing that we have this access and hear about the certificates and certifications that students can get before they graduate for high school from high school and automotive and welding and things like that and um I just wanted to express my gratitude to the

122district and to the community for supporting those kinds of programs because you I heard parents being amazed at what was being offered and I heard kids saying like wow this is where I want to spend my time and that's pretty powerful too so thanks to everybody who makes those opportuni happen and on the other side of town we were at CV for the openhouse at Crescent Valley high school and just want to extend my gratitude to staff and students who were there volunteering creating such a thoughtful event to guide families around incoming students around to show off the incredible range of classes and as you said to Sarah being this close to that work and knowing deeply what's happening and then seeing there's so much more more than we hear on a regular basis happening

123there and just the joy of students and older students being able to share with incoming freshmen what they love about their school what gets them excited being able to get handson even in the short time span of an open house um was really just wonderful and such a warm welcoming way to bring incoming freshmen into the school so thank you to all who are involved in that any other board member comment go me I'll go for a quick one I uh and on March 15th celebrate corval is going to be happening and I want to encourage us all to go there to S celebrate uh uh champions in the community uh it's a the Chamber of Commerce holds this event every year traditionally they celebrate high school students it will be a great opportunity I'll

124be handing the crown uh for the junior First Citizen and Junior is very uh the uh a liberal term from 18 to 41 so still qualify uh and I look forward to really uh meet people I just want to say one of the things that uh uh we do is uh choose a PIN to put on the crown make it a little bit heavier and I chose a pen that reflects uh some of the values that uh uh we stood for here on the school board and look forward to do that on uh the 15th I hope to see you there thanks Sammy um I did have one question just based on our or I guess comment based on our um conversation on the policies um for first read is I'm wondering what it would

125take to address the restroom needs um at the high schools because that seems to come up and um I know it's like we're past all the bond we have a long time um I don't know if there's ever any grants available to help with restroom Renovations but um that's just something to consider I know it's like a that does cost quite a bit because of all the exhaust system that happens and stuff like that but I'm just thinking about like if there's other resources somewhere I have no idea but um especially when we're in a budget um squeeze right now from the state but there's that doesn't mean there's not additional funding somewhere so maybe that's something that's something um I can talk with Kim about and we can um bring forward at a later

126date with just sort of an update of the what's what's happening and how we're um working to still work to address those needs that' be great thanks and then my other comment was going all the way back to your report from the beginning to thank marcianne for speaking of money for getting an extra it doesn't it's like in the grand scheme of the CSD budget it's not like a huge amount but it's a huge amount to a new um emerging program to secure an extra $110,000 so um thank you for your work and getting that application in as well so yeah and thank you Ryan for supporting marcan and doing that work yeah um okay that was it and I hope everybody has oh I did have one thing I'm really grateful that folk were

127able to go to the um the event this evening I forget the name of the whole name of it the what was it it's the whole the fentanyl awareness event yeah I'm thankful that that's such a um it's a really sad reality facing young people and I'm really glad that it was available for a community to go to um so yes FAL awareness is important and that's it okay and we are adjourned at 8:39 P.M