001foreign the April 13 2023 meeting of the Corvallis School Board is called to order at 6 34 PM in the interest of public health and safety for all community members especially for immunocompromised individuals and their families the Corvallis school board will continue to offer a virtual option for board member 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 Corvallis 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 recording is posted to the same channel typically the day after the meeting tonight we have directors alabdaba director
002White Bear myself director finger McDonald director Tommy and director Adams in present in person and directors Baker and um Jones sorry are excused this evening so the first item on our agenda this evening is a reading of resolution number 220302 um a resolution for the recognition of Arab American Heritage Month foreign school district 509-j acknowledgments of Arab American Heritage Month resolution number 220302 whereas the Corvallis School District recognizes and pays tribute to the significant contributions made in our community by Arab Americans which includes people with ancestry from North Africa to the Persian Gulf and whereas the Corvallis School District affirms that students families staff and community members should be valued for all aspects of their identities and whereas Arab American Heritage Month grew out of local efforts in several school districts throughout the nation in
003the 1900s and whereas Arab American heritage month has been proclaimed by several States since and whereas Arab Americans are largely left out of academic discourse and whereas Arab Americans have historically been and continue to be targeted by anti-arab violence and actions of hate and whereas the United States Department of State designated April as Arab American Heritage Month in 2001 and whereas Oregon proclaimed April as Arab American Heritage Month permanently in 2021 and whereas Arab American heritage month has yet to be proclaimed at the national level and whereas Arab Americans have contributed to the history and Collective future of Corvallis and Benton County Oregon and whereas Arab American History Month provides an opportunity to continue the district's growth in learning about the many contributions of Arab Americans to the nation world and local community and whereas
004education is a necessary component for creating a more Equitable and anti-racist Community nation and world and whereas the Corvallis school district has made a commitment to equity and anti-racism and whereas the Corvallis school district has a responsibility to honor and respect the diverse histories of our community and foreign 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 Corvallis School District does hereby Proclaim April 2022 as well as each April annually as Arab American Heritage Month in the district and strongly encourages students families staff and community members to join an existing local celebrations and we encourage all schools in the district to
005help highlight this month in great appropriate ways as well as highlight the contribution of all Arab American peoples and to the local community nation and Beyond both historically and current times adopted by the board of directors of school district number 509j in Corvallis of Benton and Lynn counties Oregon at its regular meeting on the 17th day of March 2022. thank you so the next item on our agenda is the board member reports does anyone have anything they'd like to share this evening yes uh I was very fortunate to tour a Harding Center uh Harding building that's houses uh or alternative programs which is currently under construction it's been phenomenal experience to see the building being renovated is our oldest building in the district reaching 100 years later this year it's been really gratifying to see
006the progress how the bond started back in 2018 and much more before that in terms of planning and seeing the dedication of our staff and local contractors who made the building the way that it is evolving to be accommodating for our students better spaces for the construction program to build micro shelters and for the urban farm to learn about how to be stewards of the land truly truly something that some excited about the building is not ready yet however we are seeing it's getting close to be in shape and I was fortunate to share that Journey with a few of my fellow board members here and I wanted to report that I'll just add that that gratitude that Sammy shared being able to go and tour the Harding Center in College Hill at the stage
007that it's in now which is very much a construction site but also at the point of what we heard was every day something new is appearing there's more paint coming up on the walls there is more infrastructure excuse me being built and the incredible care and attention was so apparent in going and speaking with the the folks District staff as well as contractors who are involved as well as community members and the budget oversight committee who have been involved for quite a long time were talking about and recounting the number of community members who have given input to that building and they were talking about numbers in the thousands of folks that they had heard feedback from that they had called that feedback that they'd really spent time listening and looking at what do we
008do to create a building that really meets the needs of the communities and especially the students and every detail as we were walked through the building in terms of even placement of bathrooms and thinking about this from a trauma-informed perspective as well as classroom layout as well as their new reception area and area where you'll be able to have lunch and um there was so much thoughtfulness and care that went into every single detail it was really inspiring to see how well the community and student voice is being integrated into the construction process you know I was lucky enough to attend that celebration and tour also and my colleagues have covered the most important points um but it was it was a celebration and a tour which felt really good that we're at the point
009where we're celebrating these buildings and the volunteers who've put in an awful lot of time helping us get here so next on our agenda is the Oregon school boards Association and national awards Association updates Sammy do you have anything to share uh share this I do not have a written report this time because I just came back from the National School Board Association conference from Orlando meeting with our counterparts Across the Nation uh we had the fortune to be very well represented in Oregon uh our first black president uh for over against the School Board Association wants to recognize on the stage Sonia McKenzie from parklow Rose and I was honored to be recognized as part of the nsba school board uh nsba board of directors representing the Pacific region uh representing the western parts
010of our country and there were so many lessons so that I want to share and I'll be sharing them in that following reports for that I will choose a very few announcements and and things that happen through that convention number one the community building was my favorite part we have been able to learn about what local board members from different parts of the country all the way from the Virgin Islands to Alaska uh really experiencing the changing dynamics of Education challenges with funding community building so that was very gratifying and very humbling to see the celebrations uh Portland Public Schools was recognized with the Magna award for their sustainability program and they received the award and Oregon was able to celebrate them among other stories that you will see on your nsba magazine that's you
011may have received at your home so happy to share those copies with you and they're available online which is one of the oldest printed journals in education in the country one another thing I want to share is we have several keynote speakers one of them was the creator of Siri the app that ended up being bought by Steve Jobs for apple and he's the same person who also founded a change that's uh co-founded change.org the largest platform for petitions and mobilizing people and he spoke to school board members and education leaders across the country about the importance of paying attention to the development of artificial intelligence he worked on it for decades and now we're seeing it impacting every aspect of our life and he touched on what does that mean for Education how we
012need to really embrace it understand it but also make sure we don't just react to it and be proactive so I'll share some of those lessons from what I heard learned there the last thing that I want to share was a great speaker her name is Jenna Bush Hager she's one of uh twin daughters of George W bush and the former president and she spoke about reading she have a TV show about reading I think at NBC and one of the highlights of what she talks she talked about so many good things one of the highlights she spoke strongly about the importance of embracing reading and supporting kids to learn and read whatever they want and I felt that was really a non-party bipartisan unifying message that we should all celebrate that reading should be
013celebrated and our library Librarians should continue to be trusted that they will lead our students to learn more about themselves and about the universe and their community in a culturally appropriate way and in that Vein on behalf of nsba I would like to share this signed a copy by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush it's called sisters first it's a very heartwarming story I enjoyed reading it and with permission from staff I would like to gift it to the school that's hosted our school board meetings throughout this year in Lincoln school so I'll share it with my colleagues and with the with our attendees here and with permission from Ryan would love to or gifted to Lincoln School great thank you Sammy so the next item is our superintendent's report so I just wanted
014to highlight a couple of things that have come up recently that both I think are important for you to know but also some upcoming opportunities so the first one is to recognize the hiring we've done regarding principal openings in our district over the last several weeks so for next year the first one is Stephanie seals Stephanie is going to the be the principal at shuttle and middle school she's coming to us from North Albany Middle School she prior to working at North Albany as a principal she was in Salem Kaiser and in Wichita school districts always working at the middle level so it was exciting to have her come and join our team also at Lincoln this very building we'll have a new principal next year and that will be Chandra Smith some of you
015know Chandra because she was in the Corvallis school district for a portion of her career initially when we were starting our dual language programs she was a teacher and then she continued to support our dual language work and so she'll also be returned turning to us and the role of principal here at at Lincoln Greg Hyde who is currently the vice principal at Linus Pauling is going to be taking on the head principal role for next year he's been in education for 29 years and has served prior to being at Linus Pauling he was a biology teacher at Corvallis high school so he has lots of secondary experience and his 29 years in education and finally Kalia Kidder is coming to us she is right now in human resources in the greater Albany Public Schools
016district office but before that she was a principal at The Community of Peace Middle School and an assistant principal and dean of students at Hiawatha academies both in California before coming to Oregon and she has she's bilingual in English and Spanish so again we've been able to bring on some really incredible staff members and new principals to our district and so we're excited for as we begin to plan for and think about transitioning to next year what the those these people will bring to our schools and to our staffs and to our kids so I feel really optimistic about our ability to bring in some incredible folks I also wanted to let you know that um this is one that I want you to have on your calendar and I've mentioned it before but at
017the new Benton County calapuya building on April 20th at 4 30. they will have an event that's been sponsored by the foundation so student artwork from across our district will be on display they'll have a ribbon cutting because they're that evening from 6 to 7 30 they're also inviting community members to see those new spaces but as a kickoff they're going to be having our art students art on display so if you can make it it would be great to see you there and so again that's April 20th 4 30 at the Benton County calapooia Building another highlight is our cev robotics team they just competed at the regional level and Charlotte may be talking about that in just a moment so I stole her Thunder but she does that to me sometimes too so
018um they um placed in the in the region they were third in our region and going on to Nationals so they're headed to Texas for the national competition of first robotics and then I also wanted to share that we are at the end of our Golden Apple award season and we have a video that we'd like to share with you recognizing staff who um who have been recognized with golden apples again that's in connection between the work of the foundation the pastega family and the school district so we have a video that we're going to share [Music] she gets to know students on a personal level and uses their strengths to maximize positive outcomes her work as a special education teacher case manager colleague and student family Advocate epitomizes what the golden apple stands for
019the 2023 gold Maple recipient from CHS is Leanne Russell foreign logical and systemic approach to working with students is rare and much appreciated by all who work with him he has a willingness to be an exemplary model of teamwork community and shared listening both for students and colleagues and then finally a staff member wrote there are incredible teachers throughout the Corvallis School District but I am nominating David Abrams of the gold Apple award thank you all these people are here to recognize you and all the things that you do for children for being so student-centered we continue to push and persevere for all kids celebrate the things you've done to create an amazing theater Market [Music] as our students are preparing to transition into the real world she is an incredible person to have in
020their corner she regularly has students who stay beyond the school day to wrestle through challenging math content and celebrate success he is a Marvel ous Jenny Smith [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause] again um being able to go and recognize incredible staff members and an incredible school district is just um heartwarming um you know the last picture was of Jenny with her two sons who flew in um to surprise her and then had to fly out that night back to work but they came because those are the kinds of things that golden apples mean for folks and how the work of the foundation to continue to make that an option for our school district to recognize our staff is just um just phenomenal and so I'm glad we were able to share that tonight a night
021when members of the foundation are here with us so I appreciate the opportunity to be able to be a part of that the opportunity to recognize Leanne Russell um at a an event where students with with disabilities are participating in basketball and the whole school is there to cheer them on and in the midst of that to have Leanne come up and be recognized eyes again it is just it's just special and I know that it's things that these staff members will remember they're throughout their careers today I was at Corvallis high school and we have a staff member who's been out um and just completed chemotherapy their last round of chemotherapy and they drove by the front of the school and Leanne was out there and with her gold nap which is a bell
022and she was ringing her Bell in support of a colleague so again those are the kinds of stories and the kinds of things that happen as a result of the golden apple so again thank you for for doing that for us I had a couple of other topics but I think based on that's just a great one to end with so I'll make sure to send out the others in an email but I really wanted to to actually end with the golden apple we weren't sure we were going to have the video in time otherwise I would have put it right at the end because it's a great closer but um but again it's just uh it's heartwarming the next thing we have on our agenda is our reports from our student Representatives so Charlotte
023from Crescent Valley would you like to start okay so quarter three is ending I believe this week and so we have our last quarter um which means AP testing is around so that's kind of the big theme at um for many of the upperclassmen at CV um but amidst all of that studying there are a number of bake sales and flower grams that are like um just very fun things to have around that are all raising money for various clubs and Charities um around CV um and we actually have a Spring Fling which is our Spring Dance happening uh next week um and I did want to tell you about an event um it's still a ways away but I just want to make sure you guys had it on your calendar so safe is
024hosting a MMI W2s 5K which stands for missing and murdered indigenous women in two-spirit people um we're raising money for this cause um obviously because it is so important and we recently had a mural with a land acknowledgment established at CV so it's also couples as a mural celebration and we just want it to be a community event registration will be sent out soon so if you want to run or maybe walk we would love to have you um and there's food art and music and this will be happening on May 13th um more details to come and um and then for sports and clubs as Ryan mentioned um the robotics team is headed to Houston and I believe it's actually for worlds and so that is very exciting and so um cheering them on
025um and then our combined Orchestra team with chess did very well scoring a 89 out of 100 which for orchestras insane and so it was really cool that our combined Orchestra did that at the Great Western Championship Festival um and I think a big theme that I heard from a lot of students at school were very thankful for the new schedule to come next year um uh yeah I believe that's all that is we said and um and I just wanted to inform the board members and the superintendent that Zoe and I are currently working on a year-long project to just help bring more authentic student voices to um just to your knowledge because I feel like sometimes they're not always heard and I think that's really important so um we're still in the early
026stages but we'll keep you posted great thank you Celia from College Hill um to start off I want to congratulate uh Lily Nordike Lily was selected as a winner in the category of students grades 9 through 12 for the art Center's 24th annual student poetry contest her poetry is displayed with all the student submissions in Corin Woodman Gallery at the art center and will be available to see until April 15th um and this year's digital storytelling students will share their films with the community at our annual Film Festival scheduled for May 23rd from 6 to 9 pm it'll be a night to remember please mark your calendars um May 23rd from 6 to 9 pm trying to get people to go to you know more College events um and I'm also a part of participating
027that I'm in that digital story telling class so um I have a story to share I guess but um and I also was going to talk about Journey how she got the Golden Apple award um she's my favorite favorite teacher at College Hill I've like struggled really really hard with math and I've never done good with math ever until last year she's the only person I work with with math and today actually I I did my knowledge check and I finally got like all of them right and she was by my side so yeah so I love her so much and I'm really glad that she got that word she really deserved it but um we want to thank the board members for showing up at the unified basketball game we really loved your support
028there tomorrow we have our blood drive event and all our donation slots are actually filled so we have all 71 donors along with a I think 10 students on the standby list as well busy event um our talent show auditions ended last week and they went smoothly and our show will be on May 19th the show is open up to the community and tickets will be ten dollars at the door but if you have a student at CHS then they can buy your ticket for five dollars and then we're also aiming to have art displays during like intermission which will include Meadows Woods jewelry Ceramics and drawing and painting projects from the students and then spring Sports have a gun and they're going well um on the topic of sports we're also having a dodgeball
029tournament um which I believe is supposed to start next week and then we'll just be games in the gym at lunch um we also have our elections coming up for the future presidents and other officers of our student council and I think those start in May and then May 16th we chose to go with paper ballots so it's more similar to how we would actually vote in real elections and along with this we have some amendments to our CHS Constitution we're adding a new position that is our student representative to the board and how it works is it's going to be a rising Junior will fill that position and they will work with the ASB presidents which is also the title of Emily and I um to go to the board meetings meet with their
030Mentor On The Board and we're also wondering about our spirit because we've noticed that like spirit this year at all CHS events have been pretty low and that's kind of expected since the pandemic it's been very low and one way that we're trying to attack that is by having another position that would be the social media manager because during covid we really just push the social media aspect of it and we couldn't really focus on actual engagement from the students as much and so we're trying to have that as a separate position and then have the spirit Commissioners who are actively physically verbally encouraging Spirit while we also have our social media managers and just media in general um then there's also some concerns that have arised about the cleanliness of the school especially in
031the bathrooms for example someone had cut their hair in the bathroom and didn't clean it up and so there was hair all over the bathroom floor and all over the sink and then there was also some concerns about the youth truth survey that people recently took at school um and it was about the generalization on topics such as gender and one student brought it up to me that um they and a few of our other friends were concerned that you could only select one option for gender and it wasn't a choice to select more than one thanks for that feedback um it's a youth is the company that we've worked with sort of since they were kind of young and developing and they've always taken our feedback really well and one of the reasons why
032we went with that survey years ago was because it had more than two options for identification around gender and I'm sure they'd be open to that feedback so I'll make sure that they hear that Lucy thank you yep that's that's good feedback for me and then also um I would encourage those of you in the room even if you're not um on the board to come to that May 23rd digital storytelling at Corvallis High School from our students at College Hill it's an event that I look forward to every year super powerful to hear students stories um told through digital storytelling and it is well worth the well worth the time to be there so please make that on put that on your calendar if you can and finally for board members in particular May
03311th is one more event I'll send out an email with all the dates that we've talked about tonight because there's been quite a few but Lincoln is having a multicultural festival at Corvallis High School on the 11th at 12 30. so we'd be able to save you some seats to come and attend and participate in that so again lots of great things going on as we moved into this time of the year and I'll make sure that you have the dates and information to be be with us thank you all yeah it does your we are quite busy busy um so the next item on our agenda is public comment so we will open the meeting now for public comment the complete guidelines for public comment are available on the registration table at the back
034of the gym and on the board's website I will share a few important points with you now when it is your turn to speak please come forward have a seat and state your name and direct your comments to the board 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'll have three minutes to make your comments the yellow light here in front of us will light when you have 30 seconds left and the red light will turn on when your time is up following your comments the board will have three minutes to ask clarifying questions before you start your comments please state your name for the record and state whether you reside within the District boundary so who do we
035have first this evening okay first of all I want to say that um I don't know if you mentioned it Charlotte but the speech and debate for CB and CHS this is their second going to Nationals yeah so my name is Genevieve rich okay so today I stand here in solidarity um with the teachers the teachers that we have right now in the district are excellent they go beyond their pay grade their Duty as teachers and really go out of their way for the betterment of our students from going to lacrosse games to support their their students to buying lunches and Beyond what what teachers should normally have to do but we're going to lose them because the district is failing them and not supporting them um too much and putting too much on their
036shoulders and clipping their wings on being able to do what they need to do in their classrooms teachers have burnout they have burned out from covert they have been given the worst schedule in the high schools this year to deal with after covert um and our teachers do not feel safe in the classrooms right now in high schools in Middle School we've seen in LP teachers walking out of the school where the district has said that we're going to give the teachers um we will help that we will solve this problem by giving the teachers more training this is not going to solve the problem teachers are already trained to the ability their best abilities um furthermore our students are not feeling safe in this schools high schools and middle schools because of lack of
037consequences I can give you a personal thing my daughter who's now a freshman in college she um was on CB campus when a boy who had a gun that looked like a gun my daughter does not know what guns look like sticking out of the window shooting people he got no consequences for having a gun on school property in this period in United States when we have so much gun violence on school on schools this should have seen consequences this boy got off scotbury my when I asked my daughter my daughter said to me she didn't bother to tell because she knows the school will not do anything so therefore my main thing is we are going to lose teachers we have great teachers don't lose the teachers that we have is it good no
038I want to clear clarify what I just heard and I know this is a complaint but I hear you say that there was a student on campus with a gun shooting people okay I I was hoping I misunderstood so there was a student a boy who had a gun that was probably a um what those paintball guns or something like that not an actual gun that actually kills people but a gun that would look to someone who doesn't know about guns like my daughter would see it as a gun and he was shooting not shooting at them or like pulling a trigger but pointing at them as they were walking past that the school day the Bell had already rung and it was in the parking lot at CV okay thank you for clarifying oh
039good okay hi I'm Amy veramontes I am a special education teacher at Crescent Valley high school and I'm here today with some colleagues of mine from Bessie Coleman and we came tonight to share our support with the Corvallis Education Association and the work they do for our students and teachers we know that in order for our successes with CSD to continue such as a 92 percent graduation rate at CV in our special education department our district and governing board need to prioritize the well-being of our Educators and provide them with the resources they need to succeed in the classroom this means hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes hiring more Mental Health Specialists and Behavior Support to help students in crisis as a special educator I'm not trained in those areas and we're seeing more
040and more kids come up with mental health needs that were at a loss we're not sure what to do for them and we would like to see increased compensation to attract and retain the best teachers we hope to work together to support our teachers and ensure that they have the tools and resources they need to provide the best possible education to our students thank you Amy very much for sharing your testimony and just want to make sure I heard you well that your understanding of where the district is at right now is we need to hire more teachers we need to hire more Mental Health Specialists and careers compensation did I hear you right yeah yeah okay thank you and and a follow-up question I have is the legislator right now proposed both the governor
041and the legislator side of the government are proposing a budget that if it translates to a Corvallis that's going to be equivalent to reducing our full-time equivalency by 44-0 and I'm wondering what's your thoughts about how should we navigate that dilemma reducing yes our FTE and that's going to be within the certified staff or is it with our classified support as well so unfortunately I can't speak to that uh because that depends on how the budgets will be presented uh by the end of the year but if you see the whole sum that we will get from the state uh they're saying they expect to continue business as usual they're going to give us amounts of money and the way it translates to Corvallis it's less money by 440 FTE on average are you asking
042for um because I could see the two things in the question one is are there points that you would want Amy to share that you could use in terms of advocacy to keep that number moving up to what is more realistic for our school district to be successful or are you asking for her to identify areas where we would want to make Productions I think you're asking the first thing definitely the first thing because I don't want to put the burden on where should we cut on you that should be on us on I don't think the legislator frankly so thank you so definitely that's my question uh what should we tell the legislator both that you the association and the school board members of the community what should we tell them when you ask
043about the dose hiring the need for them I think we need two options it's like we do then I think that maybe we would see better turnout right like people are I see people leaving our professional droves for a number of reason and it's really disheartening and I think that in order for the legislature to see where we need that money we should invite them to come into our schools invite them to our programs I'd love for them to cop a squat in my classroom for a day and see what comes in and out and what my staff works with I could not do my job without my support staff and what our other students see there are times when I just shake my head and I'll be real Frank with you I'm thankful that
044my kids went through school already and this has been a problem since before covid so I would maybe try to join forces and maybe we all go up as a team we take a smattering of individuals from all the stakeholders and we speak testimony to why we need increased funding or why we but where we're at that would be my suggestion thank you very much appreciate it that was very helpful thanks hi I'm Andy Hunter I am a teacher and a parent in the district I work at look better okay we'll try again uh I have two children in the district a high schooler also at CV and a middle schooler moving into the high school so today's message is personal and also I am a teacher tonight I'm sharing as a designee of our
045of our cea president on behalf of many of our union members we have some concerns about the calendar that have been shared with the community specifically around the start of school for a new students at each building and having enough time to provide accurate and meaningful information to parents and families around conferences we have a meeting coming up with elementary school principals and are happy to share more specifics with them that they can hopefully pass on to the board gentle start or gentle starts for Kinders which I was a part of and part of changing the program and how we have Kinder's enter school for the very first time and ninth graders who I have one of personally who will need this day and new students are gone so those gentle starts being gone they
046will start their very first day with all the other grades the reasoning behind that switch has been parents that struggle to find daycare on Tuesdays for their non-kinder and ninth graders instead of putting pressure on the Boys and Girls Club to offer an option reaching out to our local Community Partners for support or figuring out how we could help those families carry the burden so they can go to work the decision was made to take it away completely from everyone true Equity work doesn't mean taking the option away from everyone it means making it doable for Everyone by figuring out what everyone needs instead the burden and I'll add again we'll fall on the teachers to pull it off we will be welcoming new students many with trauma uh during one of our very few
047prep days to get ready for all of the students there are some new student orientation teacher leaders that are considering not continuing doing their work because of this extra burden and they're concerned they won't be able to get ready for all the students to start in a successful way if they help with new student transition some of you may say but we asked the teachers for feedback already and many teachers feel like the feedback really is just a check box before a decision that had already been published it was made and published the other concern is around preparation time before conferences conferences are one of our only times to connect with all families about kiddos the current schedule only allows oh I'm so sorry thank you sure yeah I certainly can follow through with that
048I might think the end point is basically approximately 90 seconds per students to get ready to communicate with their families for secondary teachers and DLI Elementary School teachers about four minutes per kids to get ready for parents and overall picture of how their kids are doing no that's great yeah so I just wanted to clarify at CV next year or CHS we're not having like the freshman orientation day before that is my understanding as the current calendar that's been uh Pride just published into the public but not yet approved okay thank you I just wasn't sure is that correct I I know there's still conversations underway about how to do that so yeah there's there's like like um was stated at the beginning there's still conversations happening with principals and so we're still there's still
049work to resolve those um questions that came up and our hope is just that we'll be heard with that message of how important it is yeah yeah thank you when your time not when you are cut open the time ran out can you finish that little bit uh yeah one of our main concerns is about the preparation time for those conferences and conferences are one of the only times truly to connect with many of our parents actually um uh the current schedule only allows half a day for prep for all the students on our caseload that means secondary teachers get approximately 90 seconds per student to get ready to communicate with their families and DLI Elementary School teachers get about four minutes per kid to give the parents an overall picture of how their kids
050are doing thank you Jill James hi my name is Jill James I am a parent I'm a student at CV and a teacher at Bessie Coleman um I wanted to speak to the district's inclusion model um well I would say that for the most part every teacher is believes in inclusive practices and wants their classroom to be open to every single child that could possibly have the opportunity to come to Corvallis and be in that grade level and in the absence of additional support it is an impossibility for both actual like literally an impossibility to meet the needs of all of the kids that walk through our doors without additional help and I understand as you had stated earlier that there's budgetary challenges within that um but I'm telling you as a teacher of 30
051years who has an immense bag of tricks that with 27 students many of whom are navigating trauma many of whom are very far below grade level many of whom are tagged um all of those challenges are an impossibility to address in a day and a week in a year and to have kids successfully um navigate the content on grade level much less the extra needs that they may have as I hear about budget cuts um I can't help but think that that's not my problem and I don't mean that in any sort of disrespectful way my job is to teach the kids and if I go home crying and unable to do my job because I don't have the support to teach content because differentiation is impossible without somebody watching and supporting my kids while
052I work with a small group for example or I have a child who has significant trauma who needs maybe something akin to a one-on-one support staff person there to address their specific needs I cannot do my job in the way that I would like to be able to it's heartbreaking I love being a teacher my colleagues love being teachers but we are burned out and exhausted and frustrated and tired and Charlotte I'm going to speak to something that you said a little while ago you said that you really wanted to create a space where there could be like a more authentic communication between students and the board and what I want Union aside is for there to be a space for teachers and the board to have honest communication in the absence of um neces
053I don't it doesn't have to be formal but there has to be a space for heartfelt feedback and right now I feel like there's an absence or a disconnect and an ability to walk a mile in my shoot a minute in my shoes and know how hard it is and how earnestly I want to be successful for these kids but thank you thank you oh sorry do you have any ideas on ways that we can have better communication um to hear you all without it being like the where we're going to end up hearing complaints which we can't hear but outside of the process but to hear feedback from you I mean I think it can I think that they're It's tricky because I would say even within buildings It's tricky to sometimes find a
054way to have authentic feedback without it being a complaint I wonder if you know if there could be a way where there's a you know a survey or you know what asking people what the challenges are asking for candid feedback that maybe isn't in this space but somebody can go through and say wow I'm really seeing thematically that teachers are really asking for and needing and demand and let's be clear complaints often come from a place of an unmet need it's not as if the complaint itself is void of purpose it's just that maybe it's not coming out and being framed in the right way so how can we create a space for feedback and I and I I want so badly for the side conversations to stop and for people like me to feel
055like we're being heard but we don't know who to go to so I'm here and I'm hopeful and I'm hap I would happily partner with any of you if you had an idea and how to make the future of Education more transparent and have less of a divide and more of a connection and for many people who used to be Educators in the classroom and are now in administration to understand still what is like don't forget what it's like because it's really really hard and it's hard to wake up and have it be difficult to go to a job I've Loved for 30 years because the needs are so great that I know I'm going to fail it's very it's disheartening and it makes I've very rarely thought about what else I could do but
056these last couple of years I thought what else could I Nothing by the way this is this is it so if we could work together and it's not that I couldn't I don't want to do anything else I would love to partner with any of you and find a way to create a space for authentic feedback that's not rooted in complaints thank you I appreciate that and I'm I mean the formal complaint thing right we it is a barrier and we understand that um to be able to hear some of the needs so we have to we do need to find ways to communicate and hear from you all in ways that aren't going to land like in that way so that way we can here so I appreciate you sharing with us thank you
057I will say one thing which is that I think that we are brilliant as Educators and we can come up with great ideas we just need to be a part of the conversation and that would mean a lot to a lot of people thank you yeah it is oh yeah you got it right the first time I'm Alicia chrissioni I'm a parent I'm a teacher and a Community member and I want to start by saying thank you to the high school students who are walking the walk and I think it's amazing and I want to thank all the board members but especially the high school students because you're doing the hard work and forging the future I want to speak quickly to what Genevieve said she was the first Speaker I was actually on the
058campus of CV and I did see students I think it was a paint gun or a Nerf gun shooting this was a probably a different day because it was at lunch time picking up my child my child was afraid for me to report it to the school because she was afraid there'd be retaliation but that's not why I'm here you can ask me questions about later in our district after a teacher teaches 17 years they do not earn more money I have the pay scale I'd like to submit for anyone who wants to look at that I was shocked when I looked at it yesterday because I've always been teaching not really looking at my paycheck although recently it's been really hard for me to make ends meet both my husband and I have taught
059in this district for 25 or more years we've had zero pay increases in our our district not even meeting the cola we continue to make less money the longer we teach and we love our jobs we're just like Jill we want to be here for the long run our board is one of the best in the state I imagine in the country and I want to thank you all for your hard work and your thoughtfulness I am proud to be part of this District I voted for you all and I believe that you are all able to find ways to take care of your veteran teachers I looked I was thinking back to our teachers who are at Bessie Coleman Elementary where I teach in grades three four five two of the seven teachers that's
06028.5 percent actually live in Corvallis the longer we teach we lose money veteran teachers are not being fairly compensated I talked to my husband's an intern teacher who was looking at working in Portland starting out making forty five thousand and fifty one thousand dollars a year which is similar to what Corvallis starts at and Washington she'll make sixty thousand dollars once she has a bachelor Plus 90 she'll make sixty eight thousand dollars and in 10 years she'll make more than we make ninety five thousand dollars or more um 95 000 95 000 or more I have here from the City of Corvallis service billing fee adjustment they raised my um water sewer bill 20 they just flat out raised at twenty dollars I have here and this is all for you all CPI Consumer Power
061has done the same thing so every month I have more I have to pay I also have pulled from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics it said 8.3 percent increase in the cost of food which is what I tend to spend my money on is feeding my family I still have kids that I am feeding and myself and my husband um it's just impossible I have to use my credit card to pay for things even like my taxes I coached for CV swim team I taught summer school I I can't do it like it's crazy so I'm hoping you look at all this information I pulled for you I don't want to just blabber on um but it's it's just seemingly um it's just seemingly harsh and I know that we're talking about Cuts but
062I know that you're brilliant people and and I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work so that we feel valued so we can keep doing the great stuff that we're doing just a request as you mentioned if you could hand it to Kim or send a scan to them I'm happy to give it to you today I've already made copies for myself thank you so much and so we can see it electronically appreciate that thank you all so much for coming um I know you have better things to do usually on a Thursday night than come sit through a school board meeting and I really do appreciate having parents and community members and teachers come and share their experiences with us so um thank you for taking the time to do that and
063with that the next item on our agenda is our bond update for the sake of time what I would suggest is if there's questions for Kim we could have her come forward otherwise if there aren't questions I would like to move on so we can spend the time with the foundation if that's okay with folks and once again being shocked by what a light refresh does to a school [Music] we are planning to have in the fall a 100th anniversary celebration of Franklin because that will be 100 years 20 1923 to 2023 so one other thing to put in your camera in your calendar but not till the fall no questions for the bond they're they just know what we want to read about in the report so well at this point but um they
064answer all our questions that way and if anybody watching or or watching this later on wants to see that information is all in the board packet that you can access through the website so the next item on our agenda is our work session with the public schools foundation and that's all these people who've been sitting around the table for this meeting so far so um I'll hand it over to Angela who is the new executive director of the foundation to get us started oh gosh okay okay thanks Kim um first it's lovely to be here today the first time in this new position the last time we were together in the fall we spent a lot of time talking about the qualities we wanted in the new executive director so I hope folks aren't disappointed
065no I'm truly honored to be in this role which I accepted two months ago and very excited to partner with everyone here and I think we want to just start with introductions since most of the trustees here tonight were not at the fall meeting so I'm Angela Hibbert I'm the executive director and I think maybe we just all go around and introduce ourselves there you go hello hello hello hello good evening my name is Kevin Doherty I'm one of the trustees for the board my name is Rick Wallace I'm also a trustee Mike Green also trustee trustee and I'm Leslie Hammond a trustee and I'm Gretchen Morris a long time supporter of the foundation and a trustee Vince Adams Corvallis School Board Charlotte hotels uh Crescent Valley representative Celia Frazier College Hill representative Shawna tomity
066my pronouns are she her and I'm also a member of the school board and a parent in the district all right ask the superintendent Sarah finger McDonald School Board member I'm a school board member and co-vice chair with Shawna I'm Lucy Brown I'm a CHS student representative I'm Emily matsuba and I'm a CHS student representative board member one of my assistant superintendents I know Emily Barton trustee trustee I had a quick question technically so I'm sharing my screen now on the zoom does that mean people can see oh look at that okay great so um I think you have the agenda we wanted to spend 10 minutes on a quick update on what our board's been up to since we last met and then we have kind of a group discussion so I'm gonna let
067our board kind of introduce that absolutely so since we last met uh it has been our focus on ensuring that key cpsf initiatives continued while the executive director search was underway we funded close to 85 000 in Imagine grants this fall our largest Grant cycle to date we just announced more than twenty thousand dollars in student-driven EA grants and we are currently working with Ryan's team to ensure adequate funding for summer programs as most of you know we hosted the eighth annual Hands Across Corvallis on February 2nd it was wonderful to be able to gather in person for the first time in three years and we're really happy to report that we not just met but exceeded our goal of a hundred thousand dollars raised through that event I'd really like to thank all of
068you who are able to attend and to thank Ryan for his uh very effective and positive contribution National research for our next executive director of the Corvallis Public School foundation and yes we are thrilled to report that Angela Hibbard accepted the position and she began as our permanent executive director on January 23rd uh her first couple weeks that's loud uh she was pretty busy meeting with the people in the community uh Corvallis School District staff donors doing introductions also looking at possible staffing needs as well and then actually there's one opening that she's uh leading uh trying to find a replacement for Kim Holmes so that is ongoing we've thought it was time that we gathered and regrouped so our Boyd met with Ryan and Sarah in March for a half day session because of
069the impact of the changes in the past few years not to mention well as an example the pandemic pivots and the search for the new executive director we benefited from reviewing and refocusing on establishing a re-establishing our friendships after all we like you had been zooming together rather than in person for two years plus so we benefited from reestablishing our board relationships with each other and on reviewing the foundation and its mission uh one of the highlights was simply spending time together and exploring our shared passion for supporting our students as well as watching Ryan act out a really convincing Uber driver but we also had a robust robust discussion about the roles of governance versus management and the cpsf and the CSD leadership we reviewed highlights from our strategic plan and began to prep
070for the next stage of strategic planning priorities that guide our work and Mike sheets is not here tonight this was his slide I can never be as witty and Charming as my sheets but I'm going to do my best um in that Retreat we in looking at our strategic plan that's guided our work for the last few years in reviewing the three goals that have been guiding the organization and what's been achieved over the last three years one thing that continued to come up and was really clear was a closer alignment between these two organizations things like the meeting tonight that we now have twice a year was not something that was happening several years ago having District leadership involvement in key initiatives on on the part of the foundation Ryan's attendance regular attendance at
071our meeting a number of things and just really highlighted how the these two organizations the partnership has evolved and strengthened and so that was kind of leads to the next part of our session tonight we really wanted to have a conversation around what are those behaviors and practices that both boards see that we feel you know benefit and ensure that type of partnership regardless of who is in all these seats you know whether it's Ryan or me or folks what are those things that we want to ensure that these two organizations are doing and the reason we want to hear this Insight is because Ryan and I have a goal next year of really re-examining our memorandum of understanding between our two organizations I think everybody has has copies of the mou um it's been
072in place I mean we're kind of like anthropologists sort of digging through history but it's it's been in place since 2015 and my understanding was that it was originally established when the cpsf Ed went from being a district paid staff person to being a foundation deaf person and you know it guides it has some General guidance for some Operational Support Facility support responsibilities of the foundation but it's it's a fairly simple contract that we've been renewing um every two years in 2019 there was an increase in the contribution to Operational Support but other than that it's pretty much been the same and so what our hope our goal is that beginning working next year we could revise this so that it reflects more of our working agreement and what are those things that we want
073to codify you know to ensure that these two organizations are working together again so that whomever is in these seats there's work that we know is going to ensure like the partnership and so that was what we were hoping today was to just get that kind of insight from the two boards of what are those practices and behaviors and things that have strengthened the partners ship that we want to make sure are somehow reflected in the when we review the mou next year and I want to invite Ryan to give input because I know he's he's got a lot to this too yeah so again tonight can you the questions on it we just lost it there we go um so what we wanted to spend a little bit of time tonight thinking about is
074the not just the history of the mou um in the current agreement but also thinking about how this this can easily stay a contract but I've seen in our conversations and in our discussion is there's much more that we do collectively Beyond just these are the set criteria of a contract and so what we wanted to spend some time thinking about is what are those how are we working together now has this relationship has continued to grow and evolve that's beyond what we have here because as we continue to work on this mou in the future we want to be able to also be thinking about the the other aspects of the relationship that are working well so as an example would we add something about that the two boards with me twice annually at
075a board meeting to do joint work that's none of that is in here but that has become our standard practice and so how do we make sure that this is not just a contract but it's also aspirational these are the things we want to work on together and we felt like having the conversation tonight would be valuable because that will help us as we're working together on the contract moving forward that we're thinking about those other aspects of the of our relationship and the work we do together so that way this is a document that that really depicts how that relationship looks um so we wanted to so we made sure that everybody had a copy in front of them and then we wanted everyone not to get stuck in the weeds by just reading
076a contract some of us enjoy enjoy the detail but to think about are these with these bullets that we have in front of us do they represent our Collective work if not what are those other areas that we need to make sure we're talking about and think talking about and so we felt like that would be a valuable opportunity for us to do that alongside one another anything you'd want to add to that Angela nope yeah yeah so um sometimes we've broken up into smaller groups other times we've stayed together we thought tonight it would be best if we stayed together um so I'm going to give everyone a minute or two just to look through this document if you haven't had a chance to look at it in advance of this this evening and
077then once we've had a chance to do that then we'll start to share out these are some of those attributes and working agreements that we want to make sure that to bring forward so I'll give everyone a couple minutes foreign it up I'm having had knowing that folks had a chance to look at some of the details here um and for us to talk about are there things that are not included in this that we would want to include again thinking about new members to each board new executive directors new superintendents how do we make sure that the work that we've been doing together continues to move forward foreign some high level uh reflection on the value of the mou and then I'll draw on what I read from the mou and what things we
078could add is that a good time for it so the first thing I want to share and I looked at the mou back when I was a chair and and I think it's one of the strength of uh this collaboration between the district and the foundation it's helped really the foundations it starts at a point of strength and alignment with the district where it's empowered the foundation to ensure the highest yield from each and every dollar donated from the community and from grunters to go to its intended use so I just want to celebrate the value of the district support with those foundational help that gets you from a point of strength and and also the foundation ability has shown track record of financially and program programmatically successful capacity that compared to other communities that
079might be a larger school size and also a school district size and even higher income we're doing really phenomenal and much better than other places and how the foundation is helping the school districts and the kids and that's a really testimony not only about the mou itself but the leadership of the board found the foundation board and and staff of course and School District partnership so from that point I want to say I really agree with the stipulations of the mou that they empowered the foundation to do what it did and we should continue that practice of the elements that I see there and appreciate bringing that to the board or to this discussion other things that I think we could do and Ryan you highlighted that's proposing that we capture some of the good
080practices and traditions that's we have it right now including that and biannual meetups and the intention behind the biannual meetups uh and maybe with the high level of why we do that so it shows our commitments of new faces and two five ten years they can see the intentionality behind the traditions and activities that we do right now uh also a few things I think we need to do is maybe draw well one thing I want to add is drawing high level understanding of the common Direction both the board and the foundation are headed toward so maybe a very high level similar to Mike Sheet's slide on uh where the foundation and where the district's uh work is geared toward and how we are working together on a high level to have alignment on supporting
081the foundation to have a stronger voice and impact in the community and with the donors and with our school teachers and students from one side and how we can support that and how you can support the board in achieving its strategic goals I believe highlighting that's a very high level not by being any prescriptive would be very valuable so I think the work that has been done to bring the two boards into alignment so that we're here we're both we're working together um to meet not the exact same goals but we headed in the same direction I think is really important and capturing that in this um I think sort of explains the role of the core values Public Schools Foundation more than this feels very dry and I don't feel like this is a
082dry organization um it talks about matching educational needs but the Foundation does way more than just meet educational needs it really supports students and Families um in ways that make learning possible so I think that sort of essential role should be captured um and you in addition to the the your two meetings we have together each year the work between the executive director and School District administration so that you really both both sides of this relationship know what's going on and the others organization um things like the board liaison you know maybe we should consider some um way to in our new member orientation whether it's a new board member for the school board or for your board include some information about the other board and this is why how we're different I mean that's
083sort of what we'd went through at The Retreat you know what are the purposes of these two boards what roles do we play you what is our lame versus their Lane and how do we work together to make sure those lanes are headed in the same direction right oh just right now Kim is working on updating the onboarding materials for new school board members and so I looked at her as you were sharing that idea because that makes a lot of sense for her to be thinking about right now as she's thinking about that onboarding process I was just going to say that there's nothing really reflected in here that says anything about the boards working together right at all and um and so that'd be nice to see in there and it seems very
084much about um it feels leaning towards the district doesn't help do things for the foundation but it doesn't like reflect the other way if that makes sense like it for example like the responsibility of hiring supervision is um is all for the foundation but it doesn't say anything about the foundation not having influence on like the District staff if that makes sense so it's like very lean towards like the district doesn't isn't influenced by or I'm saying that backwards sorry I'm still getting back into the track of being in Long meetings again but um does that make sense what I'm saying okay cool I won't keep rambling trying to explain it yeah it feels once when I read it I was like okay it's all about like what you all are responsible for and it
085doesn't really feel like it reflects the other way that much um as far as some of the operational stuff and I'm wondering how much of that is um can be more a little bit more condensed into something like operational instead of every detail of like hiring and all of that kind of stuff and there's some other stuff in there too but I think those are the two things that stood out to me yeah do you mind just can you is it one you can hold okay how about from the members of the foundation are there things that you have also seen in practice that were not represented there's something that I noticed and I'm not sure it belongs in an mou but I'll just call it out um I do really appreciate the presence of
086Ryan's superintendent and um Sarah our boardly Aids on um at the meetings I don't know if that's appropriate to put in but it really helps guide our work yeah I was just gonna say I think that's exactly the kind of thing that we want to be thinking about how do we codify those things like is there you know some some minimum requirement of the Ed and the superintendent meeting you know right now we meet typically monthly but sometimes that might not be realistic but what kind of commitment do we want to make between those organizations and commitment between the board so I think that's that's exactly the kind of thing we want to hear and think about how we build in thanks well I wonder if just building off of those ideas that came from
087Emily um thinking about the idea of a working agreement between the boards and maybe that mention is what goes into the mou in terms of annually developing or reviewing a working agreement between the boards because it seems like a working agreement the kinds of things we might see there around communication how often the boards are meeting together seems like that might be the space where those things fit and it feels like that's also what is being asked about here in terms of how are we really authentically and meaningfully communicating working together um the kinds of things that were coming up for me as I was thinking about behaviors and practices that really help facilitate the incredible collaboration that's happening between these boards to me sort of speaks to that in terms of you know how
088each year are we engaging really meaningfully student Voice or educator voice in thinking about the next year of grants that are coming up or other thoughts from the district so I'm wondering if something like that might make sense of in the mou putting mention of developing and maintaining a working agreement that then has Revisited each year where some of those practices come out so I've really appreciated this conversation as you know when we sat down Gretchen and I were were expressing our appreciation for this this relationship that it's grown and as I look at this agreement I really appreciate that there's nothing it's there's nothing here to fix it just doesn't quite fit anymore and so as we're thinking about this and as I've been listening I've in my head I see this kind of
089organizing into really three tiers one is strategic at the Strategic level and that's kind of the rhythmic process that we cultivated where the boards meet together and for the school board we we have at the top of our year which is in August we start at the beginning of the fiscal year um and before the school year starts we always go back to our strategic routes and this year I'm sure that you know we'll be in this board will be doing strategic planning I think the foundation Board needs to be alongside the school board at that time that's an important time for the school board and I think it's it's an important time for the foundation board and then having another check in at the bottom of the year January right after the holidays makes
090a lot of sense that's a good time for the foundation to be checking in it's just before you guys go out and make an ask it's a great way to tee up that that season for you folks so that's kind of the Strategic level one of the things that I really appreciate about this agreement and the relationship between the foundation in this district is that there's a material connection there's an operational connection which is our next tier down is that the the district is investing in the foundation ensuring that there's adequate support um on an operational basis for the foundation I think that really needs to continue also the co-location really matters because there's something about just being in the same building with a person I know that I'm you know this is pre-pandemic I
091remember just walking into the the foundation office and having conversations um that's really valuable and I know that you know having staff having that proximity to the foundation is crucially important I think that's something that needs to continue um that said I think there's something in this in this agreement that needs to allow spaciousness for growth so I'm looking to the superintendent in the Ed that as you look at this agreement have that in mind because the foundation has been has been enjoying some rapid growth as you've been expanding your operational capacity working with the with the district so think make sure that there's space in this agreement that it's easy for for it to be modified and that the foundation is able to be continue being nimble the last tier I have here and
092it's kind of where Sarah was going there was a mention of the value of having um the superintendent and board chair in your meetings and I'm wondering is there a role for board members to support the work that you folks do and things like donor development having a donor have being able to sit down with the board chair who has deep knowledge about the needs of what's going on with the board and with the district um I don't know but I put that in a social tier and I don't know if that needs to go into an mou but there I think there's practices there that we can develop that can support the work that you folks are doing that can then augment the work that we're doing in support of children so just some
093I want to excuse myself I'm sorry I don't drive after dark and my husband informed me it's getting dark so thank you and thank you for the support I think the 75 000 in the earlier sixty five thousand dollars each year the school boards invested has really paid off for our schools thank you good night Gretchen well we have a pause and Gretchen is leaving um students if you need to go home for the evening and take care of your other responsibilities you may do that go ahead Sammy yeah I just want to just first of all I really appreciate the tears that uh events talked about and maybe a mindful exploration uh does it need to be in the mou or not I think that's a really good point a few things I want
094to celebrate is the chair being really is on I think is very valuable commitment and as much as possible that would be really good to continue that practice with understanding uh commitments and capacities might change over the years but I think it provides a really valuable tool for alignments between both boards another thing I thought of I'm not sure we should put it there is both celebrating the partnership and talking about it and also understanding the autonomy of the foundation as nonprofit and it's there implicitly in the bylaws and the incorporation of the organizations but sometimes stating it would be good or maybe at the least yeah making sure it's uh explicitly shared with new school board members a New Foundation members during orientation so I'm not sure if that's if it's there but it's
095something important to always recognize that there is autonomy in decision making but also there's very close partnership that we need to talk about and share I I'd like to just second what what Sammy was talking about because one of the things that impressed me from the first day I joined the board a couple of years ago was how close the relationship is and how much respect there is between the board of the foundation and the board of the school district but both groups are autonomous and we're blessed in this community that we're all going the same direction but we don't have to look very far to find districts that are going in directions that I don't think our foundation board would be happy about going and it's conceivable that there are foundations that want to
096go in directions School boards don't want to go and I don't know how you write that into this document but there needs to be something that protects you from us and us from you and I'm sorry to use the word protect in this context because we're such allies here but some inconceivable board in some inconceivable community [Laughter] well thank you I want to make sure that if there's anything else that what someone wants to share that we hear that but I know Angela and I have been both taking notes and Kim will have the minutes as well so we'll have an opportunity to go back and reference this conversation as we move forward with the work around the mou um so are there any other thoughts that people want to share before we begin our
097transition to the next area of the agenda one yeah um I sit on and share share the grants and scholarships committee and we spend so much time you would not believe pondering your board goals um they're very important to us and we want to enhance the work that you do by the awards that we make and so thinking about that you know when you set your board goals we want to deeply understand them and engage in them and understand where you're coming from when you set those goals so that's something that we that I would really appreciate Vince your comments about the Strategic alignment but I also want to think about you know trainings trainings that you folks have experienced through your connection with the school district that has helped inform your goals we would
098really appreciate having joint trainings I know we've been invited to your trainings frequently and I appreciate that and I want to celebrate that commitment that you've had to our education but they also want to think about other opportunities that we have to share training as well possibly training the the foundation invests in and to hopefully be able to share that training with you that was a perfect segue because the board goal aspect is the piece that we're going to talk about now not in terms of the board goals specifically but in terms of our next iteration of those board goals and the information that we've been gaining from our community Through listening sessions and so Sarah was going to talk about that so again as we think about how we are closely aligned that you
099have some of that information and feedback as well so I'm going to turn it over to Sarah to be able to facilitate this portion or share yeah so I've been on mid on the board was vote to replace the boiler at CHS the second thing I did was attend a board retreat where we started the process of developing goals for the last five years and we did that it was the first time we'd set goals for the school district we did it in um partnership with administrators and staff and we developed the goals that we've had that you all have been working with and so it's time to renew those renew revise adopt totally new goals for the next four five years and we decided that this time around after seeing the impact that having
100those goals had on our district and really pulling not only our two boards into alignment but pulling the work of the school district into alignment um that it was really important that the community as a whole be involved in that process so we um partnered with Heidi East McGowan to facilitate engagement sessions that included students and parents and staff and community members and we had some meetings that were focused on specific groups we met with our seaac groups which is our special education advocacy committee group and we had meetings with them in Spanish and English we met with Casa Latinos unidos and the NAACP our new District um diversity Equity equity and inclusion committee um and the safe and pride student groups and then we had open meetings for anyone in the community to attend
101that were held both at lunchtime and in the evening to try to you know people had different times that they could attend that they were available to more people and we provided food and we provided daycare to try to make that as easy as possible and in that process we engaged more than 200 community members that included student staff your parents and some committee members who don't have kids in the school but are just people who care about our education system um each session lasted about an hour and a half and it was a facilitated process with kind of open-ended questions it was the same questions that each meeting there was a note taker at each table who just you know kept track of every you know as much of what was said as possible
102was captured and then Heidi and her partner whose name I didn't write down and now I've lost what was it Kim um you took all that information and data and provided us with a report at our last board meeting and if you want to see the whole report it is on in our board information from that meeting you all have the sort of quick one-page handout of the results of that um and so I just wanted to sort of share a little bit about what we heard because there are definitely pieces of what we heard that are directly impacting or directly the positive things that are really a direct result of the relationship that we have and maybe we see some um holes that you know the school district might not be able to fill
103but maybe it's something that as you all developed through strategic planning you'll see some things that are pieces that maybe you want to pick up and think about because there's just a lot of information in that um so they were sort of started with some broad questions about the strengths of our community and our school district and um we heard a lot of people saying We love that you're doing these listening sessions your community engagement was really a positive that they felt really heard there um and our teachers the student supports and that was a lot of the work that you all do the support for students and families so that families you can send their kids to school ready to learn um and this District's commitment to diversity Equity inclusion which was also interesting
104because when we looked then at barriers and challenges in the district diversity and cultural competence are one of the barriers to access to programs into education which to me meant that we were hearing that that was a good goal it was something that people really cared about and glad we're glad the district cared about but we still have a lot of work to do there which I think we all know um but that was definitely reinforced with what we heard from the community we heard a lot of comments about when we think about Equity um we're not very good at sort of intersection intersections of disability and other identities or just with Disability and Special Education students at those communities are feeling kind of left out of this process um and you're working on academics
105and you're setting a high bar was really what we heard a lot about was that they when we set our first goals we had like we want every kid to be reading at grade level by third grade and we heard a lot of community saying many community members saying but we want to go farther than that we should be setting goals that are more aspirational than that um and just you know behavioral issues and bullying and those kind of things that we've been hearing a lot about basic needs that families just don't have access to um that create barriers for their kids and that's it sort of falls into the next category of the access and program services with Transportation like kids can't access programs if they can't get a ride and that's not just
106school activities but it also May mean when they're younger they don't play on the team which means when they're in high school they don't make the team um and the knowledge of what's available and the communication of that information out to families creates a barrier and I know that something our district is working on really hard is that communication piece right now Language and Cultural um sort of cultural comfort with things that are going on in the school district so it's not just you know languages a piece of that but also for families that didn't grow up in American school systems feeling comfortable accessing things and feeling comfortable with their role as parents in the school district um and then your financial resources um and then a lot of the sort of pieces at the
107bottom with this you know what do we do with supporting students I feel like that's a lot of where our work together comes in because building Partnerships um making there's some of these pieces that are the transitions like the help you've given with some of the um new opportunities for kindergartners to come in early so that they're ready to go but then um you're taking that out to like what do the transitions look like for our special education students who may not be on a path the your typical high school student would be on but may need a different kind of transition so there's a lot there and I could keep talking about all these results I have them all written down but I feel like what would be more valuable is if um every
108sort of had a discussion about if you all have some feelings about sort of these pieces that you could share with us and if they're any of these pieces that could help direct our work together or as you all are embarking on your strategic planning and we're working on our goals how can we take this information that you came from our listening sessions and use that to really direct some of the decisions that both of our boards are making along the way um so as you know the first question would be you know do you is there anything that you feel like is missing from these things you've seen from these the summary or you are there pieces that are really exciting to the foundation that maybe you see us you're being seen it being
109a piece of our partnership I just have a question yeah when it cites Real World Learning yeah can you explain that a little bit Yeah so that covered a lot of things um Sammy wants to talk about it really badly laughs so I'm not going to State the goal however the way that uh I believe in the board in 2018 stipulate The Real World Learning is beyond that curriculum Beyond a graduating what do we need to equip the students to be uh functioning community members and ready for the real world and we captured that through strategies that's included by literacy measured by the by literacy clf bi literacy also by CTE Career and Technical education opportunities are they getting involved in those opportunities so they have a practical skills throughout the Career and Technical Spectrum
110from all the way from the RS to construction to uh to programming to nursing and Etc and we measure that through how many our concentrators and how many of them are participants based on number of credit uh the diamond forgets any other strategy uh Civic Civic engagement I believe in my understanding understanding is within the uh a spirit of the real world learning are they participating in issues related to their Community School Community or larger Community or even the world or Community uh that's something that is the intention behind it so it goes line in line with a student's achievement that they're learning beyond the curriculum and they're ready to battle the challenges of the world the clarification or my recollection is that we were looking for Education that would be immediate relevant and transferable
111into life what do you mean but then also they were talking about really practical things like classes on how to balance your checkbook and those like if so they were thinking like sort of the boots on the ground what do you need to like manage your life when you leave your you know the house of whoever your caregiver is as you graduate from high school so that was kind of an interesting Twist on that I I think implicit in many of these things is the answer to my question but I think it's interesting that we don't say anything in here about family or parents those words don't appear on this page other than who you talk to at the beginning and it's implicit as I say I mean how you how do you get here
112is you work with families you work with parents and caregivers but it's interesting that it's not set I think when we these are sort of the broad themes that Heidi and Kim pulled out and in the more detailed report under each of these sort of sub pieces of each of each question they included your comments or repeat if things that came up a lot under that area and and family does show up in some of that more sort of detailed information under each of these subjects so yeah it's there it just it got kind of lost in this one-page report and I think it's an important note in terms of because of the work that's happening now in really looking at the goals that have been here in the past and thinking about what what's
113the next wave of goals what do those look like where is that represented is our families and parents a sub note under another goal versus is there a goal specific to meaningful communication Partnerships with families so important to bring up yeah I guess I was surprised that there's nothing about there with funding at all like that that the barriers that that creates was that discussed at all I mean it was more in the sort of access to programs and services and it was I think that's really where funding showed up it wasn't so much in it didn't really become a theme and like we have fabulous teachers we should pay them more kind of discussion that you would kind of expect but it was in the kids don't have access to things because families don't
114have funding rather than the school district doesn't have funding and it would be great if the school district could provide those kind of fees yeah but that's an interesting piece that didn't really In My Memory come up much at all yeah I don't I don't remember that specifically coming up and it might have been how the questions were framed to where it wouldn't like it might not like bring that up in somebody's mind to think about like funding for the schools themselves it was yeah that might be a part of it and that was a I think all but one of them or two of them actually but yeah we do have one quick thought um I know it's it's really easy to think about how difficult this moment is and to get you know
115down in there and think about the individual kids that are struggling the individual teachers that are struggling and I think as a community we're kind of all struggling um and to think about this moment as kind of a time of transition um and to think about you know how the studies show that when we go through traumas there's that um I don't even remember what it's called like post-traumatic growth or something like that um and how do we capture those learnings in this next phase you know we're right here you know we're we're doing this post-traumatic growth right here where we're making these meetings accessible to people um so is there some sort of way that we can we can capture that post-traumatic growth and that we we kind of reimagine learning in some way
116that's going to benefit us all in the future and it's it's going to happen like we we can't see it right now but it's going to happen like we're going to be better off in the future because we've gone through this collectively because we've survived and because not all of us clearly have survived but um but we we can transform learning so that everyone can Thrive using the experiences that we've all very um yeah we've gone through together yeah so our plan moving is I'm at a upcoming board meeting this spring we'll be looking at our current board goals and looking at the feedback that we've received from the community beginning to think about are there additional areas that we need to focus on are there ways we can make the information more relevant for
117folks easier to understand and but again taking this new information into account so our plan is to spend some time this spring and then also in Retreat during the summer and then along the along those lines we'll continue to communicate with the foundation in terms of how those things have come to come to pass I heard Emily say that you know we look at those board goals and we use them when we're making decisions about everything from scholarships to the what you're helping to support and Fund in summer school so I know that again the relationship is important and that ongoing communication back and forth about how we move forwards important tonight we just wanted you to better understand what we're hearing from the that will become part of what we use as we revise
118those goals I just want to elevate what Emily shared I think something very valuable throughout the breakfast and when the foundation share about the Investments uh into the grants or programs I think it speaks a lot into what we're hearing a lot in the education Community uh that we're moving from the achievement Gap mindset which is we need to only focus on Bridging the achievement gap which always should be the goal but we should look beyond that and a system with scarce resources and post Collective trauma it is the opportunity Gap so we need to make sure everybody has an opportunity to grow no matter where they are on uh and their well-being Health academic Etc and also invest more resources to provide more opportunities for those who have been lacking opportunities in the past
119or who have been impacted most by different uh crises that we've been navigating so I really appreciate Emily what you said there and I think it's it's highlights where the foundation excels very well is in highlighting those huge opportunity gaps and investing where the need is needed and where the the problem is needed to be uh addressed most uh so really appreciate you saying that and and I think we need to maybe uh learn from it and how we develop our goals Angela anything you'd like to share as we close our time together I was just gonna tonight and for doing this work for the listening sessions I was only able to attend one but I agree just simply being invited to a session like this I think has a lot of power so there
120were 209 people who attended but a lot more people were invited and just got that message that we want to listen so I think that's really powerful and I think the timing is interesting because as we begin to start our next wave of strategic planning we'll be kind of following your update and kind of renewal of the of your goals so I think that's good timing and also I think that um you know we have access to the full report which would be useful to share with our whole board because what the community cares about is relevant whether it's a report for the school board or the foundation board it's still the things that the community was talking about and so um thank you for doing that work and that we can also benefit from
121so yeah I think you know as I read as I was sort of reading through that report again thinking about this meeting rather than thinking about it as just our board meeting I was feeling like there's so much here that's really transferable to both board so I'm glad that you all have access to that information too and thank you all for coming this evening um I always this is always a fun time um so yeah so yeah so thank you for for spending your Thursday evening with us approach should we recess for five minutes to yeah um chat for a minute to thank our guests and then uh come back together all right great we are in recess for five minutes we will return at 8 35. foreign thank you the board is back in
122session with and the next item on our agenda is adoption of a new high school World Language curriculum yes yes and can you hear me okay yeah all right and I just wanted to thank everybody um this is just just a wonderful opportunity to be with all of you tonight and I promise I won't take an hour like I normally do I love being being with you and I guess before I start I just wanted to say that I feel like I'm sort of priming the pump because our um student growth and experience coordinators are working really hard behind the scenes to do a lot of the work that sometimes you don't see so when you when you're adopting new curricula there's a lot of logistical pieces that have to take place right so I
123just want to thank all of them and I also want to thank a lot of our Educators who are piloting materials and just giving us a lot of great input so tonight I'll be talking with you about the World Language adoption and we are hoping to seek approval for these materials and this is so exciting exciting to see Arabic up there we're hoping to seek approval for the Arabic curricula that we've adopted and I wanted to thank Salam because Salam was sitting right here about five minutes ago and she's done such a wonderful job of piloting the Arabic materials French Spanish interculturas in the German portfolio douche right so I think you've seen this before but we wanted to just give you some context in terms of the languages that we have in our district
124and every time I see this it just kind of I have to pause and just be very thankful of the number of languages that are in our district with 59 languages of origin and in the legend you see the top 20 and I just wanted to read the top six so the top six languages in our district are English um Girl Scout cookies I might I would love a Girl Scout cookie English Spanish I'm actually gonna get a cookie this is great wow oh my gosh thank you Sammy get that later um so English Spanish Chinese Mandarin Arabic Korean and Mom so in this process again this is just a quick little highlight of what we did we actually did a lot but we met with the high school language teachers back in the fall
125and we convened a committee we brought them all together when we brought them together we talked about the last time they actually adopted any kind of World Language curriculum was about a decade ago so it's been a long time so this is passoverdue and we asked them when we brought them together we asked them this question we asked them what are your hopes for students staff Community with this world language adoption and this is a summary of what they said that they wanted for students they want authentic experiences for students they want the materials to be culturally relevant they want the materials to be applicable and also engaging and what they wanted for staff they wanted the materials to be to have technology as a focus so that way there's online resources for teachers and
126online online resources for students that there's differentiation because we have many levels of languages in our classrooms so want to make sure that there's differentiation available for them and that it's Rich culturally and has a lot of resources for students and that it also includes language like really great instructional practices when it comes to language learning and then of course for our community just wanting to make sure that the materials that we adopt that it really does reflect the community in which we're in thinking about Corvallis and thinking about Oregon okay so when we sought the feedback from students you can see that we received pretty high marks in terms of the responses when they looked at the material because we did ask them for their feedback through a survey and this is what the
127student said they said that the materials were culturally responsive that they had balance balance and viewpoints and perspectives it was inclusive that it was challenging that it was rigorous engaging and meaningful so I think this is really great that the materials that we shared with students that they really liked okay and then and again this was feedback from the community students teachers and our community so in terms of the Arabic materials we received this this feedback great for learning for the German the materials were visually appealing and also amazing and then in terms of the materials in French and I saw these in all the curricula that we are adopting or hoping to adopt that there was a lot of grammatical grammar vocabulary General instructions were really appropriate and that it was appropriate for high
128schoolers and then lastly the students and the teachers really like the video blogs and the video blogs allowed for students to hear Spanish throughout the world so that's kind of cool and then looking ahead and this is the last slide I said I'd be quick tonight and this is kind of the most important and exciting part of our adoption is that we have an opportunity going into the 20 23 2024 school year that we will provide our teachers with ongoing professional development so all of our Publishers that that we adopt will provide professional development for our teachers to really dig into the materials even further the one thing about um Arabic and Spanish is we want to continue to do the alignment from middle school and high school and we throughout this year even had
129our Middle School Spanish teachers meet with our high school Spanish teacher so we want to make sure that they have time plenty of time to really think about the horizontal and vertical alignment of our Spanish curricula and then learning walks you've probably heard us talk a little bit about that but it's one thing teaching the materials it's another learning from one another so we want to schedule learning walks throughout the year and then lastly you can never have enough time but we want to give our teachers opportunity to plan together to be able to implement and learn from one another so that's our plan for next year and we are excited to be able to have new materials in our students and our teachers hands and so with that that's the end of my presentation
130and I wanted to see if you had any questions or comments if you have more cookies I'll take them [Laughter] let's take this with me as I was going and prepping my packet I was definitely of course curriculum is one of the most important things that a board does adopting curriculum and so it was something that I gave a lot of attention in the packet and I was probing and looking and I was like oh come on there's got to be a critical question here and there wasn't I just ended up being really really enthusiastic at the end I was just really excited particularly one of the things that stood out were the criteria that were used for evaluating the curricula and the feedback that came back I was just really really came out enthusiastic
131so I'm looking forward to making a motion and voting for it but my question is what can the aboard expect as the curriculum's deployed and were Skilling up on that um what is it going to look like feedback to the board on how is the curriculum functioning in classrooms how are students navigating it um comparing contrasting to previous performance student performance it's a great question Vince and part of alerting walks is to give us an opportunity to learn from one another and get feedback a lot of these curricula already have embedded assessments and that's something that all the teachers are excited about that they have opportunities to assess student learning and linguistic growth so we'll be looking at that and I think giving teachers time to collaborate and learn from one another and do that
132vertical and horizontal alignment will be really important so that our student experiences especially I'm thinking about Arabic and Spanish primarily is as they go from middle school to high school there's a continuation of practices so that's what I'm hoping that we'll be able to see going into next year awesome thank you you're welcome just want to share the sentiments of support of the curriculum and voting for it as an Arabic speaker who had to learn Arabic at's age of six I really appreciate going through the some of the examples here so I the way I understand it we're teaching Arabia to NAS which is the colloquial Arabic rather than the formal uh formal Arabic if that makes sense and and one thing I'm curious about in terms of spoken Arabic that would be very uh
133applicable real world unless you want to be a news commentator you would want to speak the the people's Arabic rather than the formal Arabic but one thing I'm I don't know is is in the writing are we teaching them the formal Arabic and writing or are we teaching them the colloquial Arabic as well I believe it's a formal semi the formal okay perfect which I think is really good strategy so I appreciate that okay thanks and someday we'd love to invite you to our Arabic Club at the elementary level so you can meet the students or come to the middle or high school I would love to okay I would love to play it yes and and now I'll speak in Arabic from A to Z I'm probably they will be better than me I
134need to brush on my Arabic okay I think there's an invitation for you it sounds good and I mean the answer is yes Sally there so Vince I'm going to take a cue from you in terms of you said well you know in terms of looking at the critical question I'm going to look at the critical question to ask um also just really appreciating how much thoughtfulness went into this process of adoption bringing in student experience with the curricula piloting first really getting that feedback and so my my critical question then is you know even in looking at some of the numbers there are small percentages of folks who maybe didn't find it to be as responsive or those needs and I'm just curious about what are some of the challenges that came up or
135concerns that came up even if it was from a small number you know no no curricula is perfect it meets all needs but what were some of those things that came up yeah I think that's a great question Sean and I can speak to some of the feedback that we got from some of our teachers is that you know there's no perfect curricula but a couple of them said you know there's just not enough grammar Focus so there's not enough um uh you know I can't think of another example but that that was kind of the feedback that we got they were all of them were really happy with the curricula that they chose but um there were times where maybe just didn't have enough of something and so what we are going to do
136is along with adopting the curricula we also have created space for supplemental materials and every single teacher said you know we would love to have book sets in our classroom we would like to have I'm thinking for Salam you know just to have more manipulatives more games and so along with the adoption we've also told our teachers that we would love to get a wish list from them that we can add to the adoption so that way they have more options in terms of tools for for teaching students to read write and speak in the in the target language great thanks Marcia I appreciate it um I have a question about languages too but it's I don't know if I should save it or if I should just ask it it's about like indigenous languages
137should I just ask it now okay I hope I can answer I'm really excited I'm I'm always a supporter of multiple languages being learned and taught I think it's really awesome and you could tell a lot of thought went into this and I'm excited about it too so I want to make sure that's prefaced um but uh it's not the but it's the and there's also like the move through ode in particular to help amplify learning indigenous languages and it's like kind of um language Restoration in Oregon really and nationally and I know some of their efforts are including trying to figure out Pathways for indigenous languages to receive the syllabi literacy as well and so I'm thinking about those populations which of course is small everywhere because of genocide but um of the students
138that would access them but they would still benefit from accessing indigenous languages and so I'm thinking about if there's ways that we can as a district encourage students to learn about some of those Pathways that can't be supported through curriculum quite yet through the district but are offered through Lake Lane Community College or that are offered through other community colleges a lot of native languages are being taught over Zoom because of like learning the importance of them from the pandemic and I know like personally I'm taking wazteca now what and it's the teachers from Eugene and it's online and so that's kind of that's an indigenous language of course and so I'm thinking about some of the other indigenous folk that already speak in the community that can help with some of that so anyhow
139that was kind of a question kind of comment like I would love to see that one of the things that um personally as an indigenous person that always I was faced with languages was like which colonial language do I have to learn now like for a second language and so that's kind of like there's never an option for indigenous based languages unless you're in a tribal setting and I would love to see that expanded especially with the focus that this district has and so I just kind of wanted to leave that comment thank you along with the excitement about offering multiple languages and so there's like a little bit of the Bold thing to think about for thank you so much I appreciate your comment and I think about so our six most common language
140is mum and so Mom is an oral language and I think about you know you mentioned the Seal of our literacy and we use a stamp test for that and so I think about the juxtaposition that we're in when we want to give students a seal of by Literacy for speaking such a beautiful language but the system hasn't caught up yet and so I think your point is so well taken and I think it would be a wonderful thing for us to talk about and plan for that'd be something like to check in with the Indiana office at OD because they are looking at ways because not all indigenous languages are clearly not going to be in that system for that testing but like how does that testing happen I know like that's a higher
141ed model but it's higher ed has like the proctorings and stuff like that and there's um there's all kinds of why they already do it with Native languages in Oregon because it counts for graduation stuff and so I would suggest that would be a good partner possibly the Indiana office in even if it's outside of Oregon tribal languages that model can possibly be used for speakers of other languages thank you Lou yeah thank you so much do this is no I'm just sitting here thinking um ASL is can students that's another language that's not a written language that we may have students who are bilingual in American Sign Language and so that you know just as we think about including our students with disabilities and families who have members with disabilities and are we talk
142about equity and diversity include them too thank you thank you sir and I think I'm kind of looking over my shoulder and I'd want to partner with Sean Bernard from that thank you Sarah motion uh I moved to adopt Andre kalturas as the high school Spanish language curriculum portfolio Deutsch as the high school German language curriculum Arabia to NAS as the high school Arabic language curriculum and chimmins as the high school French language curriculum I second the motion [Music] I can't I don't have the all the curriculum up in front of me do you have it thank you that spinning around that we adopt on my children who are in the Dual language program will make fun of me for that accent as the high school Spanish language curriculum portfolio Deutsch as the high school
143German language curriculum [Music] as the high school Arabic language curriculum and Sherman as the high school French language curriculum is there any further discussion um director how do you vote aye director White Bear hi director Tommy aye director Adams aye and I we have new language curriculum you can take the box I can take more I just want to say as a part of Arab American Heritage Month thinking about the fact that we are one of two high schools in Oregon that teaches Arabic um and that we just made our curriculum adoption um just feels like the right night to do that we're walking the walk okay so now um a report on social studies ethnic studies and the and Holocaust curriculum updates let me in do do okay I have a slideshow going whenever
144you're ready awesome so um first of all thank you for in having me do this Ryan because as Ryan knows I am a recovering social studies teacher um I taught social studies for 14 years um here in Corvallis and then also in Arizona when I first graduated from college so this is all very exciting to me and um and I enjoy still being a part of all of that process with that what I want to talk to you tonight about is social studies curriculum social studies standards actually and the eventual adoption of new standards and implementation of new standards in 2026 and I want to talk about the road that we are taking to get there the um the three legislative requirements that are going to create the social studies standards in 2026 are first
145tribal history and shared history tribal history shared history is actually a curriculum and that you're going to see that these three requirements that came from the legislature are three different things we have curriculum we're going to have learning Concepts and then we're going to have standards so the first is tribal history shared history which came to us in 2017 and the curriculum there requires teachers to teach a set of lessons for fourth eighth and 10th grade and those lessons don't have to necessarily be in social studies they can be in language arts or math and and anywhere and lucky for us those lessons are available to us on the ode website and also in cooperation with local tribes the second legislative requirement we're going to talk about tonight is Holocaust and other genocides and this
146came to us in 2019 to be to start in the year 20 I think it was 2020 and these are learning Concepts so the law identifies learning concepts related to the Holocaust and other genocide and these learning Concepts will be embedded into the 2026 standards and then speaking of Standards the last is the ethnic study standards and those were adopted in 2021 and they must be implemented within the social science standards by 2026 and those are social studies and those are K-12 and that um Holocaust as well so when I was given this assignment I decided to do a little bit of background and then I also reached out to teachers because I think the question was what's happening in our classrooms and I don't know every single thing that's happening so I decided to
147ask I have two different data sets I was invited to work with the high school social studies teachers in January for professional learning because I because some of the teachers that I taught with at Crescent Valley are still there so I was part of that group and we worked on conversation around this and then I also sent out a survey to teachers specifically fourth grade teachers because of the fourth grade requirement for tribal history shared history and then Middle School and High School social studies and language arts teachers so what I'd like to do tonight is talk about each one of these sections and then what our teachers are saying when it comes to what's happening in their classrooms because I'm going to talk with a first about tribal history shared history it's one of
148my favorite pictures and I think one of the things that really is impactful about this picture is the what the story of Catherine Jones Harrison has done for students at Catherine Jones Harrison Elementary and their study of indigenous people and it's it's part of who they are now and I think that is definitely what the whole idea was behind tribal history shared history is understanding it to that depth and to that level and um it's definitely happening there let's talk about what's happening everywhere first of all again just a little background 2017 this was a house bill that was passed and there were nine um nine essential understandings that were identified by the nine federally recognized tribes and those are listed down there at the bottom before you the essential understandings form the basis of
149content lesson content-based lesson plans and that those Target grades as we said before were fourth eighth and 10th grade and these lessons are now going to be embedded into or these standards are embedded into the new social studies standards and I have them here and I can I can link them when I um when we do the board report so that you can see where all of that's coming up for um for tribal history shared history when I talked when I surveyed teachers what I heard from fourth grade teachers is that they are all teaching tribal history shared history and one um and that they are especially enjoying the um the lessons and content that were given to them from the confederated tribes of the Grand Ronde so we do have that connection with a
150local tribe I'm trying not to do that I'm so sorry the um one thing that we're going to hear some themes tonight from with feedback from our teachers and the First theme is that for all three of these requirements Spanish is a problem in that materials are not always available in Spanish currently I spoke to one teacher who teaches in DLI program she she emailed me just to give me some more information but she's having to utilize our translators um that marcian supervises in order to translate all of these lessons so that she can provide them in Spanish in her class so that is definitely a barrier our Middle School teachers um our social studies teachers both responded that they um or they they both responded that they teach this in their classes because they're
151in eighth grade there's others you know teachers in sixth and seventh that aren't not necessarily doing that and they're teaching using a book called an indigenous people's History of the United States that is available in Spanish so that DLI teacher was very excited to be um to be able to do that most of our language arts teachers responded Yes to teaching tribal history shared history and most of those opportunities seem to be happening though in 11th grade and this was something that our social studies teachers talked about to you that the grade levels don't necessarily match up with the work that they're doing or the content that they've already created but the 11th grade language arts teachers talked about short stories and poems and novels that they were presenting in particular the absolutely true Diary
152of a Part-Time Indian and Indian horse these uh these books provide kind of the the basis for conversations are around indigenous history some positive outcomes I asked for the teachers that in the survey to give me some narrative on positive so you've got one up there to read and I'll also tell you that I also heard in the outcomes I have students create their own personal history narratives using individual cultural and social backgrounds as a spring a springboard for the writing so this is something that these lessons are foundational for that students are genuinely concerned about the history and it is the best unit when talking about white privilege and racism and the last quote was students tell me that they have a much better understanding of the rich culture but also the challenges of
153living on a reservation how non-natives commit cultural genocide through forced assimilation and how appropriation of culture harms natives they also come to see how generational poverty has impacted them challenges and barriers this is going to be nearly the same in every one of our three requirements time materials and Spanish language materials so time is about a time in the day time in the school year time in units and time to work together with other teachers to learn professionally about what they need to be doing and how to deliver the content well I have one um I I had some the teachers shared a lot with me and and I'm reading their quotes because I wanted I want you to hear what's happening for them in the classroom because it sometimes is creating a barrier for
154them in particular I have one quote from a teacher who said I did have one parent who suggests the text that we use an indigenous people's history is anti-catholic I've also had some parents talk or share concerns with administrators about how their kids are not learning the same way as they did so this is going to be a running theme tonight too is um it's kind of strong to say fear but it is that hesitation for many of our teachers to do this because they're worried about what they're going to face when it comes to parent pushback the next requirement is about Holocaust and other genocides and what you're seeing here in these explanations is again that there's content around Holocaust and other genocides and there's also um learning Concepts and there are nine of
155them and I'm not putting them on a slide and I'm not going to read them to you but we will talk about the top four that are being taught in our classrooms in in just a moment but also again these nine learning concepts are all going to be um packed into those social studies standards they already are you can already look up at look them up and see them when I asked teachers which of these concepts are you teaching in your classroom 96 of the teachers told me that they are absolutely hitting enabling students to understand the ramifications of prejudice racism and stereotyping so that is one of the learning Concepts and 96 percent of our teachers are saying that that learning is happening in their classroom 92 percent of our teachers said stimulating students
156reflection on the roles and responsibilities of citizens in a Democratic Society to combat misinformation indifference and discrimination through tools of resistance such as protest reform and celebration these are the types of Concepts that are are out there for Holocaust and other genocides work and I think our teachers are finding multiple ways to teach these Concepts not just with Holocaust and genocide in fact that was something I did hear from a lot of the teachers develop 88 of our teachers are developing students respect for cultural diversity and helping students gain insight into the importance and protection of international human rights for all people and then um at 80 percent preparing students to confront the immorality of the Holocaust and genocide and other acts of mass violence as far as how it's being taught in the classroom
157a grade four student teacher said that um it's it's very clear in one of the um there's an overlap between teaching tribal history shared history in fourth grade and creating those foundational understandings of Holocaust and other genocides so that's where they see it happen they're not teaching the Holocaust but they're teaching about tribal history shared history and it's laying the foundation for that our Middle School teachers teach units on the Holocaust as well as in language arts read the book Mouse and in high school our language arts teachers read night night and The Book Thief and also do a lot of work on um Japanese internment and in social studies in high school it's a topic in global history and U.S District or Global Studies in U.S history challenges and barriers to ensuring that this
158is happening in the classroom here's again time materials and professional learning opportunities especially with this one seemed difficult for some of our teachers they wanted more time and more resources and then you can read that one and hopefully at the same time you can listen to some um another quote from one of our teachers I only have a very short amount of time to teach this and it is not a subject that can be fully explored in a short amount of time I try to give students an understanding of what happened and try to ground it in the human experience as much as possible it is also difficult to teach a subject like genocide to 7th and 8th graders while still remaining within what is considered acceptable to show students of that age this is
159another subject area where they talked about parents challenging the curriculum so the last one of the requirements is standards and these are the ethnic study standards and we're going to take a look at those standards and then again they're being embedded into the new social science standards that will need to be in place by 2026. the ethnic study standard specifically requires social science standards to include ethnic studies examining history politics economics and geography through the lens of ethnic studies encourages the inclusion of multiple perspectives and experiences many of our literature teachers already use ethnic studies curriculum and texts for their classrooms in high school around the state some schools might offer an elective based ethnic studies class where these standards are addressed but the intent of the state was to have these ethnic studies standards
160be incorporated into all social science lessons these are definitions for you as far as what ethnic studies is the study of ethnic and social minorities and these are the definitions from the state and [Music] ode currently there's some school districts who are already implementing this we're not yet but as we're going to see in a second our social studies teachers are saying they're they're doing a lot of content around this and they're connecting with a lot of these ideas we just have not done the work yet to fully align that feels like the work they're going to be doing over the next two years ethnic study standards are identity beginning with K2 students explore the issues of identity who they are in a family at school and in the community they explore the identity of
161others and the role different identities playing community and throughout history as students move through each grade they'll consider how identity shapes their worldview and perspective and identity is the foundational lesson that we do for racial Equity lessons so this is very much connected to what we're up to resistance is the second ethnic study standard and resistance is about examining individual or group strategies for undermining combating or overcoming oppression teachers Center on Resistance rather than oppression that's a really important part of this aspect of the standards and it's most likely where teachers are going to feel very prepared to discuss incidents of Oppression like institutional political and legal oppression the third standard is resilience and stories of resilience help our students to understand that individuals who have experienced depression and practiced resistance can continue to thrive
162students explore how individuals and groups overcome adversity through tradition values language political or Community engagement and politics and the last study is this is called the histories the last standard is called the histories students develop an understanding of the history of traditionally underrepresented groups with or without an interaction with the dominant or colonial society students here should have the opportunity to explore the history of a group prior and Beyond moments of Oppression so the idea here is as an example Jewish history shouldn't just be about World War II era Europe and the Holocaust and the history of African-American people shouldn't just be about slavery we have so many other stories to tell and they can be told in a variety of our social studies classes most of our elementary teachers said that they teach these
163ethnic study standards and that's because they're teaching racial Equity lessons and they're pretty much aligned so they felt very connected to that two-thirds of our social studies teachers in middle school they mentioned particular content and they also mentioned Equity lessons and none of the language arts teachers answered yes to this and I don't know if that's just based on um I only had like four teachers respond from language arts so I don't know if it was just that particular group but that would be something I would want to look into a little bit more and at high school language arts teachers talked about particular novels or units and discussions that arise from this content especially about resistance and resilience and then our social studies teachers also talked about the fact that they have aligned to
164these standards for multiple sections of content and lessons they just don't have specific courses directly outlined or aligned as they're supposed to be to the standards by 2026. we do offer one ethnic studies course at College Hill and I've I've gone in and observed that class it's very cool and I had a long conversation with one of um one of the principals in The District Two I respect we were talking about ethnic studies as a course or as an as embedded in social studies and she and I went back and forth and finally landed on it needs to it needs to be in both places because everybody should have that experience and that opportunity to see that in in their social studies class and there is a place to find who you are and what
165and where you really connect in an ethnic studies class as well so I think that would be the dream is to have both the question I ask teachers here is how do you how comfortable do you feel teaching new and sometimes difficult histories and number one is I have high levels of discomfort and number four was I could teach them tomorrow without any discomfort so I feel a lot of like we're ready we can do this we have the content we have the books we're ready to go I feel really good about that and it just feels like we need to kind of give give the push how it all comes together in 2026 so everything that we just talked about those three requirements are all going to be like I said baked into those
166social studies standards the social study standards will be organized by domains Civics geography economics financial literacy historical knowledge which is that content and historical thinking and social science analysis so if you look up the new social science standards you'll see a lot of those ethnic study standards built in and I'm really having kids think about the topics that they're in they're studying the last question and if you could just give me a second to this I know I'm getting close to the end of time but the last question I asked was do you have anything to add that you would like the school board to know regarding these three areas of study so if you would permit me to read some quotes I'd like to do that we need do and School Board support when
167it comes to parent pushback this always weighs on me as I plan and conduct these units the concern from parents emailing or asking to meet to discuss what I'm teaching it happens and it would be nice not to have to worry about this at all instead it would be nice to be able to include a blurb in a syllabus discussing state standards and requirements and that concerns can be shared with administrator or the district office so they want someone to back them up we are doing the work exclamation point teachers just need to know that they will always be supported when they're doing this kind of work teaching more than the than just the dominant white male perspective of history is incredibly important and sometimes and something that our country desperately needs right now and
168for counter perspective it sounds a bit like we're being asked to teach not history or government but rather a particular political Viewpoint I am very uncomfortable advocating a political political perspective in my classes I see my job as helping students to think clearly not as telling them what to think it is important that we teach about these things and not try to hide them from our history because they could help our future generations and having a more prosperous and Collective world it is also very hard to find these books or materials in Spanish a lot of these books don't have translations besides the original in English I am comfortable with the content and my students are ready I would like support and educating families the burden of Defending one's teaching prevents some teachers from engaging
169in this content and the last one teachers have been integrating these valuable standards in many ways in many courses for a very long time already the board should also know that adding more always means something else must be reduced in importance which is very difficult and that's what I have for you I hope that's what you wanted um they asked for for backup so I'm here for backup and I think this come needs to come for me because I'm the white male and I'm not going to be on this board in 2026 so I'm going to say my piece now um the parents are feeling uncomfortable with this content I see that as a good sign that you know these topics are hard um I remember when I first really learned about genocide it wasn't
170until I got into college before I really came to terms with what genocide really was and that was in Yugoslavia so I was an adult and had to double back to come to terms with American genocide and so I'm I'm really pleased that people are uncomfortable with that um the thing here is that these these uh standards and this instruction is fully aligned with the anti-racist expectations of this board we have not equivocated about this and so our expectation is that this instruction will continue it will expand and my hope is that it becomes fully integrated in our social studies instruction my expectation as a dad is that my daughters are able to learn about this in age-appropriate ways so that they don't have to wait until they're fully adults like I did before they
171had to learn about this and start changing their own thinking um and so I just want to confirm my understanding so I'm pivoting to a question um you put up a graphic and that you know right now you kind of frame this as these are three statutorily required you know standards that need to be taught and they're kind of like add-ons I heard you know from feedback from teachers that we're adding this in and so I just really want to reiterate as a board member of my expectation that this be fully integrated into our instruction so by 2026 and that's kind of what you were alluding yeah so I'm completely pleased that that's the direction that we're going um and I fully fully support this instruction it's absolutely essential um if we're ever going to
172get anywhere dealing with racism in the United States okay um I have a bunch of comments so I'm gonna try to say them fast and slash questions but to just add on to what Vince was saying about support as somebody that teaches ethnic studies at the Collegiate level I hear over and over again every year in my classes and the reflections that my that the students in my classes write that they feel betrayed by their K-12 education they say that all the time and I'm not the only faculty that has that experience like most people that teach ethnic studies hear that from students in our classes in I don't want Corvallis students to be the students saying that and I can't wait till the day comes where I don't see that in my classes but
173every time there's at least a few people that say that they're just blown away by what they're learning and they're just like they literally will write that I feel betrayed by my education in high school or in middle school and I think that that should say enough for people to understand the importance of it because they're thankful to learn it on their own paying for it on their own in college and it shouldn't be like Vince said the first time yeah that they've heard about this and so I just wanted to add that in because I think that's important for folk that don't understand the importance of it to here and one thing I did want to mention is I know that ode is working on the Spanish translation of the shared history tribal oh
174good I know all this stuff with the ode with Native stuff because I'm on the American Indian Alaska native advisory committee okay thank you I know that's been worked on because they just reported it last week too okay and so that's fantastic it's going to come out can't wait till that happens um they did an update on it I even know the person for you to connect to if you okay perfect thank you um and one of the things that is that I know too about that because of like my role of like doing trainings for ethnic studies for the standards and stuff like that for K-12 folk through my role in at OSU is that there's um that's that's there's no curriculum set being developed and I think people are waiting for that and
175so that's something I think is important for folks to know in the community that like don't or just in general for us to know as a board too that the only curriculum set is the tribal history shared histories the um the other one the Holocaust and other genocides doesn't have a curriculum set either and so that's literally the only one that's available please use those curriculums that the tribes helped develop all nine tribes have their own curriculum sets so I just want to point that out um and I heard some things mentioned that are not actually part of the intent of the shared history tribal histories because that's really about organ okay and so that's something for them to kind of reflect on and that might fit more like in the ethnic studies because the
176shared history tribal histories is about organ tribes in The Sovereign Nations within it will it'll apply to other Sovereign Nations as well whereas ethnic studies is an opportunity to learn more about some of the other areas perhaps um but I did want to mention that as well just because because I know about all of those details too yeah thank you yeah sorry um but my um thing with um oh the other thing too is thinking about ethnic studies faculty like not just at OSU but like at U of O and other universities that might know of some good recommendations of books in Spanish okay for ethnic studies because both universities have that program and so that might be a great like connection Point okay for recommendations just remind them that they're high school students not
177College not college students like big Theory books um so that might be something to think about um and then my question was like how can we show support um to the teachers like in tangible ways like we can say it here in the meeting for the few people that watch hurt me yeah but I want to know like how we can there was a mention of like in the syllabus but are there other ways that the board can help show that support of the standards that are required not only by law but they're also great standards and OD has a lot of guidance for all of these too I think that that's going to come out in the work that we do with levels as we align curriculum like you're talking about to make sure
178that this is embedded in all of our coursework and the easiest way to do it is to start with the racial educational Equity policy and talk about those connections and that this is a promise that we've made to our families and to our students and so this is what we're doing that's whenever I go back to that when I'm with groups of Staff it it kind of helps them to sit back and breathe a little bit easier so let's keep that going I think would be the most important part and and just your statements tonight as well and and reminding staff that this is what we this is what this board wants this is the direction we're going um and and then I guess how is it reflected in the new new and improved board
179goals that are going to be coming out pretty soon how how is this idea of reflected in those as well think that's a great idea when we're thinking about the goals too because so much has shifted like at the state level with a lot of like bills not just the curriculum ones and like reflecting on that all right thanks mostly I agree I think we should have it embedded and have ethnic studies because this is not biased or anything yeah all right I'll just censor myself again and on that quote asking for supports could you read us again there were many which one do you the one that's asked us to support them and that we have their back on the curriculum huh there are two of them I just want to highlight that and
180emphasize that I want to come well the first one said teachers just need to know that they will always be supported when they're doing this kind of work there was that one um I would like support and educating families the burden of Defending one's teaching prevent some teachers from engaging in this content and yeah thank you and and I want to comment to that just really leading on uh Vince's and Louisana I'm sure every board member on our staff we got that we were back uh we want to tell them we got your back and uh we have those conversations uh with community members where they ask I want to see the uh a lesson plan and I want to see what my kid will see by this slide and we want to say we're
181adaptive we we have a system in the state where they set the standards a vision and for us just like we did earlier we approve a curriculum but the lessons plans are in the hands of the teachers who are whose boots are on the ground and that's where the rubber meets the road and we actually celebrate and understand that they look into where the kids are at a certain time or what each individual kid is at and and we want them to know that we got their back and we're going to share that system that we have that is intentional making sure that the teachers are are helping the kids be better than who we are right now and and don't feel betrayed by the curriculum that has betrayed us and I don't have kids
182and I'm hoping one day I'll have so they'll graduate in at least more than 18 years or hopefully a little bit more than that so for the one day I would have a kid I I really want them to to have a better deal than me that's they would learn about the Holocaust not just as an extracurricular activity I want the curriculum to teach me to teach my kids that and I want them to be ready to respond to the problems that they face and that means definitely the political pressure should be on us as a board and and I just want to reflect on the words of Bob Thiel and George wise uh sung by Louis Armstrong he said or sung a beautifully much more better voice than mine I hear babies crying I
183watch them grow they'll learn much more than I'll ever know and I think to myself What a Wonderful World and that's what we want to achieve we want to achieve a wonderful world where our understanding of inequities our understanding how we can make the world better is done by what the teachers are doing so thank you for thank you building toward that vision and definitely we got there back to get there thanks so I just want to join my fellow board members in Charming in my support as well for the Educators doing this work for the thoughtful work that you're doing in in a leadership role as well and just how important this is you know we do Sammy as you said with your words we we've got your back because this is so critically
184important and you know it's hard to hear and and something that we recognize and see in one of the educator comments that you shared around this being the worry of this being a political issue and I think we recognize that this is an issue that's been politicized and in fact what's being asked for is comprehensive and real and truthful history exactly that reflects social studies that reflect what's happening now as well as as what's happened historically and what a wonderful opportunity this could be for all of us as families as well to join in that learning with our children with our students and youth if we didn't have those histories taught to us ourselves going back to lose comments of feeling you know potentially trade for adults who I'm continually learning things from my middle
185schooler things that I didn't learn or maybe that we didn't know or understand or weren't teaching yet at that stage or teaching in certain environments and so what a great opportunity for families to also lean in with their students and say yes I would like to learn more too so I encourage folks to do that along with the rest of us and really appreciate Educators who are doing this and I think when we spend time with students in spaces where they step out of a lesson and say I saw myself reflected here how valuable and important that is because that's what's at the root of this work is helping students understand the histories that are are part of what make the community that we're in today both for themselves to see themselves reflected but also
186to see one another reflected in that community and value one another for all of the histories we carry and that matters for everybody so thank you for doing this work thank you while we're doing this as a 51 year old woman who grew up in Robert E Lee's hometown the history that I learned in high school definitely left me with a limited understanding and often a false understanding of our history and I'm one of those students who has a points thought wow I was not served well with what I was taught and my understanding of how the world works and my understanding of my role in the world and it's it was it has been impacted by that and you know my children are I think nothing but richer for understanding that history isn't about
187them it's not about my white kids it's about all the kids and all the contributions and all the strengths and the battles that have been fought and rather than taking that somehow as an attack on us as our little white family to learn to look at it is this like amazing celebration of the strength of the people that this country is made up of and the world is made up of and that it's not limiting us it's expanding our understanding and appreciation of the world and it does nothing but enhance my children's ability to go out in the world and be parts of communities and contribute and work with people who've had different experiences in them because they have some little piece of understanding of where those people come from and so I am absolutely
188supportive of this work and if it means there needs to be a statement in the syllabus that the school board has a policy on racial equity and education and that if they have a problem with that they can come to the school board I'm all for that too so thank you there we are that's a great point B policy piece yeah that backs it so absolutely thank you sir um I was going to mention one more thing there's a lot of mentions of Grand Ronde as the local tribe there's two local tribes so make sure yeah the teachers remember so let's too especially because there's California people that are part of the tribe as well and they um both have their curriculum sets on their web pages awesome thank you they'll just give a fuller
189story got it thanks I think everybody said all the other comments of support that I was going to add so I'll only add that if social studies teachers want to come to the board and share their experience teaching this content and want to feel our support firsthand I'm sure that they're more than welcome okay I will extend that invitation all right thank you so the next item on the agenda is Consolidated action as a reminder the items on this portion of the agenda are for Action does anyone have a question about anything in Consolidated action okay I certainly don't want to pull anything I'm just wanted to reflect on policy bcba you can tell I'm getting Maudlin right I'm it's like June 30th is coming really quick and but I just really appreciate this district
190and this board and how you have taken the work from of a previous District that was last year considered revolutionary and then took it to the next level once again I I just really appreciate how this organization consistently sets the bar on trying to do this work around equity and inclusion so I'm just really delighted that we're we're approving this policy I'm going to enjoy sitting at home with my bunny slippers on watching you guys on YouTube work with students um but this is a very exciting moment to approve this this policy on student Representatives on the board I moved to approve consolidate action as presented I'll second the motion it has been that we approve the items and Consolidated action any further discussion nope I vote I director White Bear aye director Tommy aye
191director Adams aye and I vote I that passes unanimously so the next um as a reminder this the items under this portion of the addenda or for discussion only would anyone like to discuss an item in Consolidated information I wanted to ask a question about the meeting um should I just ask it yeah okay I was like are we pulling more stuff or that's the only thing it's okay um I'm wondering if we're if we've looked into other community meetings I think I've mentioned this before how our meeting overlaps with Community meetings and may explain some lack of participation from certain segments of the community as well and I don't know if we've given that a lot of thought in particular our meetings always overlap with NAACP and I know there's other meetings on Thursdays
192as well besides that one but yeah oh sorry um so I did not look at that I was looking at holidays I was looking at the school calendar and trying to work around those I did not look at other meetings in the community okay I just thought it was worth mentioning again because I think it does limit participation a little bit so but I don't know what we can do about it as I recall we switched to Thursdays to mitigate the impact on staff because Sammy and I both habitually ran very long meetings that ran late and and so we would only have staff completely be blown out on a Friday instead of on a Tuesday night yeah that's we the my first year we had them on Mondays and that was a long week
193and the other thing was is it didn't give board members much time to read the packet because they basically had the weekend um and so that's when we moved to Thursdays again thinking about um staff being up late at night um and that just kind of the implications of a whole week versus one one day we can't meet on Fridays you know what I mean on Fridays right no boards meet on Fridays look at some of those Community calendars and see if it's a different Thursday like of the month that we meet or do we already do that or is it overlapping with religious holidays that was the biggest challenge um I had um and you know I because I think I don't like this um it I looked at like first and third second
194and fourth trying to be consistent and then it ended up I really just had to work around the school schedule and the holidays okay thanks any other comments on Consolidated information okay so moving on to board member comments any comments Vince so I've been observing a pattern it just kind of popped up it popped up in initially in public comment and then I saw it heard it echoed again um in our conversation with the foundation um and it's something that we live with all the time but our sense of urgency about the work that we're doing um it's something that we've been very very intentional about cultivating for ever since I've been on the board this board has consistently cultivated a sense of urgency around Equity work closing the opportunity Gap there's lots of different
195names you can put on it and what I was really struck by hearing from our educators is that they want to do the work they want to be there they're they get it they're feeling the same sense of urgency um we've been very good at building that organizational culture but I feel like we're I think districts like ours are pushing up against this inertia that's in society um this unwillingness to invest to create the social change that we want um I'm deeply concerned about funding levels for K-12 education and I I really I don't think we're going to get where we need to be um I hope we get a little bit more but I don't think it's going to be a lot considering all the other what other agencies how badly they've been impacted
196there just seems to be an unwillingness to invest to create the the change the hardest part of the change we've done all the easy work already we've we're getting if you look at it in a normal distribution we're moving out into the tale of the the distribution where we're trying to mitigate the impacts of an unjust economic system that is systematically leaving people out these kids are coming to us with struggles that we do not have the resources to address I'm not saying County 12K education isn't the place to address it I think we could I think our Educators have been innovating as hard as they can to move in that direction but until there's a really fundamental shift in the way decision makers at a higher pay pay grade in Salem in Washington they
197need to start to feel the frustration that we were hearing tonight where we're a school district and we are gifted to be in the community that we are where we have a public schools Foundation that will aggregate the private money that will allow us to hatch our systems to meet the needs of just a few more of our kids and it's still not enough we simply do not have the resources to meet all the needs so I was just really struck that there's a real structural barrier that we're bumping up against and so if the going feels like it's getting really hard it's because it is I don't have an answer for it but it was just an observation it was a kind of a dark moment when it first popped into my head it
198was just this is we're getting to the really really hard stuff sorry to be a downer at the end of the meeting on the same sentiments and which I think is really important to to reflect on the the challenges we're facing yes our Representatives need to hear from us uh we need to Echo and be the megaphones of this frustration and uh I really don't know what we can do further maybe more emails more phone calls to our legislators both Congressional and and uh in Salem as well and especially for the 10.3 billion dollars for the state's fund just to stay where we are I think it's going to be disasters if we have to end up choose what to sacrifice in a place where they're asking us for more and they're telling us things
199are going to get hard um also I'm reflecting on one of the suggestions about a way for them to share in an environment so that's more conducive than a public meeting and in a setting different than the negotiation table which has its own per View and parameters I think I would like to suggest if the board and Brian is agreeable to the diwani session that the caucus has led in Ben Lapine and we're trying to do it in several other places we might be able to do it here if we would like to do that the premise of it is we would have a round table and diwani is from the Arabic and South Asian culture is that people sit down together and listen to each other no prescribed agenda people can bring their own
200agendas but also there's a community building behind it and there is this intentionality about everybody as a teacher and a learner and it's a community setting where parents teachers community members can speak their mind the caucus could sponsor so that will be subject to the approval of the caucus a leadership and I'm looking at Lou because she's the vice president of the caucus if if we would have a member a uh from the caucus to sponsor it and a Community member to sponsor it then we could have that and definitely we would have that preface that this is not a board work uh this is not a negotiation work that has its own setting uh and uh definitely if a board member or more are there they can't do any problem solving and they might
201need to step away if it's a specific complaint so with those things out of the way uh and I'll share with you the reports from belapan it was really good for us to elevate those voices and shortly after people had those connections where let's work on this project together so if you're agreeable to it maybe we can explore that sometime in the near future yeah so if anybody is interested in the caucus like you can reach out to me or any of the other caucus leadership thanks Sammy I was just gonna just piggyback on what on what you were sharing Sammy and I heard both Vince and your words and Sammy in your early words as you were speaking too just acknowledging that we may not have the answers here and we have incredible wisdom
202from Educators and staff in this district and so looking at really meaningful ways to engage in there there is creative problem solving that's needed in terms of where does education go next to really meet the challenge and the times that we're in now that don't look like times we've been in in the past and thinking about new Solutions with budgets being tight with the need for more staff more support more mental health support more differentiation of instruction Educators may have answers that we are not coming up with alone and are not able to come up with a loan that we really need to think about how do we create these authentic I know there are pathways for conversation of course with District leadership as well but that's something even in the communications audit in listening
203sessions another that continually comes out is where are how can we improve our communication because there are all there always are and always will be gaps where can we grow really authentically and bring in educator voice alongside with us I'll add into that um it's it is there's like certain parameters around what we can do as board members that we know about but like staff and community members might not always know that and so I wanted to recognize that it probably feels really frustrating for some folks to be like why can't you do more and I really want people to know that I can't speak for everybody individually but I'm pretty sure everybody else gets like a little bit frustrated with not being able to do more and um and it's a little bit heartbreaking
204to hear some of the stories and be like wow I wish I could do more and I wish there was like there I had all of the solutions but we're here to be thought partners with folk and so I know sometimes it may not seem like we're doing anything but when we listen we talk um to Ryan and Melissa about like how can how can we change like does this fit within a policy is there another way to another approach to take and that may not feel very public to folk but I want to let people know that we take what people say seriously and we do look for ways to address things if we can and if we can't we can't and it's really it is hard as a board member and it doesn't
205matter who's sitting in these seats it could be anybody and it would be the same parameters and so I just really wanted to voice that because I agree like carrying it and you're like and especially the funding part you're like oh and so yeah I just felt that was important to mention this evening along with everybody so thanks all that and I think you're figuring out a way to open up some kind of communication would be valuable because we saw I mean it wasn't the same kind of communication but we saw it was Angela pointing out just inviting people to be able to come and share their stories had a big impact on our community and so if we could have that impact on our staff even if the things that they're bringing up aren't
206things that are really board work and that's another that's a frustration sometimes that I think people come to us with problems that we can't solve in our role um but providing a way for people to feel heard I think has a lot of value so well and the opportunity for me to also hear allows me to know um and to talk with staff about what our next steps based on what we heard Melissa and I talked about some of that during our break um about again about the things we heard tonight so um while it in some ways for you it feels like your hands are are tied in you didn't say that exactly but just as a term for me it's it just gives me the some action steps um and so while you
207may feel that way just know that I'm thinking about it in a in a different manner so for what that's worth we all have our roles and so I think you know the more people in different roles you can come together and have these conversations the better so um yeah so think about how that can happen and with that what our church thank you