001foreign the January 26 2023 meeting of the Corvallis School Board is called to order at 6 30 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 on 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 a recording is posted to the same channel typically the day after the meeting tonight we have director Jones
002myself director finger McDonald director Tommy and director Adams participating in person director al-abterva is participating remotely and directors White Bear and Baker are excused this evening so the first thing on the agenda tonight is School Board recognition well here we are um we as as I shared last at our last meeting we needed to make some changes to the agenda to have our recognition tonight um and we did that because we have students here um who are going to be sharing a couple of pieces with you so the CSD camera the orchestras here led by Sarah Perkins and in this new space we get to turn and we get to look into the music room and we get to enjoy some time listening to our students [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign
003[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] high school I'm the director of Orchestra at School the group that you see here is part of the camarado orchestra this group is actually about 25 people in all uh but if you didn't know there is the Rivalry basketball game going on tonight so a lot of them are actually playing in that game uh we have some other students doing some other things tonight um so this is a good part of them another awesome thing about this group is we have about nine students that were accepted into the all Northwest Orchestra and so they yeah [Applause] today prepared and audition submitted an audition and we're accepted in so in a few weeks they're headed up to Washington to play
004with other selected members from throughout the station in the Northwest and there are about 14 students in the whole District at the high school level who got accepted which is huge for such a small districts like us so around the classroom all of those 14 students [Applause] it was the full bird Suite movements one and three fighter three and the next piece we're going to be playing is called movie All by one of our very own inside uh you can post this piece that we are really excited to perform for you tonight [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] for being here tonight I know that there are other things to be doing this evening and you came to share your
005your talents with us thanks so much for being here as the um parents of middle school and someone who actually did work um play beautifully a day and thank you thank you [Applause] thank you off so yeah coming in playing student compose music it's just like that doesn't help thank you very very much um well I think I just I just heard a board member say that was the best ever so um it pretty much was so thank you for everyone who came out to see our their students play um it is wonderful to have students come to our board meetings and perform for us the last few years we've had a board appreciation event and we've it's been lovely but nothing's better than actually seeing our students perform um so yeah are y'all parents
006parents who's a parent or a family member supporting the musicians friends everybody's like clap for you guys [Applause] the number of drives you've taken where are you those beginning years when it doesn't sound yeah so in conclusion of board appreciation um I do appreciate all that you do as Volunteers in our community and what you have done and the work that you've accomplished over the years as we have moved out of the pandemic and we have gotten back to having experiences such as this it's just a good moment to sit back and recognize this group and to be honored to serve as the role of superintendent alongside you all so thanks for all you do thank you thank you okay it's hard to top that we're not good no we're not going to um the
007next item on our agenda is the acknowledgment of Black History Month which is the month of February so we will read the resolution that was passed in 2021 um to recognize that we will continue to acknowledge this month going forward resolution number 210201 acknowledgments of Black History Month whereas the Corvallis School District recognizes and pays tribute to the significant contributions made in our community by black and African-American people and whereas in 1926 Black History Month grew out of the establishment of was of was then called negro history week by Carter G Woodson and the association for the study of African-American life and history and whereas Black History Month was first proclaimed nationally in 1976 and has been celebrated annually ever since and whereas this nation was built on the stolen labor of African peoples and
008whereas the descendants of African people forcibly removed from their homes now live in diaspora and whereas the state of Oregon has a documented history of anti-blackness and whereas inequality and in citizens to advance the American notion of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all and whereas our diverse culture enriches and broadens the American Experience of which black and African-American Heritage as an Inseparable part as it weaves throughout our country's history profoundly influencing every aspect of our lives and whereas education 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 therefore let it be resolved by
009the Board of Education of the Corvallis School District do hereby Proclaim February 2021 as well as each February annually as Black History Month in the district and strongly encourage families staff and community members to join an existing local celebrations encourage all schools in the district to help highlight this month in great appropriate ways as well as highlight the contribute contributions of black and African-American peoples to the local community nation and Beyond both historically and in current times adopted this day February 18 2021 and renewed January 26 2023 okay so this evening we are continuing our work with osba um with Kristen miles and this evening is our annual board self-evaluation hello everybody thank you for having me back I will not attempt to top your student performers what a lovely surprise for you all and
010for me um got glad I got to be here I love traveling around during January where it's board appreciation month because representing osba how fun it is to also appreciate you as volunteer board members this is my day job to go around and help you all and so I just want to thank you all for the work that you do too and it's great for me to be to be able to facilitate that work with you too so thank you especially as many years as I've gotten to work with you I appreciate you so tonight as part of your MSP project we're going to be looking at your board self-evaluation I'm going to go ahead and share my screen we'll talk about what's in front of you we will look at some of the questions
011that I asked you to consider as you looked through the report ahead of time see if I've got here we go make sure I've got the right thing up yes I do that's always good all right so let me see if I can click through it okay so the questions that I asked you to consider we're not diving into these yet but I asked to consider what did you notice as you looked through the report like What observations did you make and then what do you wonder what questions do you have for your colleagues if any what meaning did you make of what you saw and then how does this how does the board self-evaluation and its results fit into the broader scope of what we're doing here together and the other work that you're
012doing so what I like to do as we look through this is start thinking um is start with the objective what are the facts of what we see and then and then what's the meaning what are the objective things that we see before jumping to meaning and conclusions I know that you know we like to start solving problems first but let but we'll start looking at what we see first and then try to make meaning of those in the end we'll walk away with now what what do you want to do we're not thinking there yet what you've got in front of you um and Vince can attest to this so so we had you probably got a number of reports for me and I apologize for that we've had a little bit of data
013slicing uh issues the good thing is you've done this more than one year in a row that's a good piece so we've got comparable data the tough piece was getting our our back end to figure out how to put this together for you but what you've got in front of you now are your two times in a row you've got 2022 and 2023 this is the overview that you've got in front of you for each of the standards we're going to dive a little bit deeper into some of the results on some of these standards but just take a moment to look at the the first column in each of these is 2022 the second column is 2023 and you've got your 12 standards there and so you can see the how you compare it
014I know it wasn't a full year ago that you took this but it was it was a little while ago I can't remember the month that you took it last time do you remember it was okay yeah so it wasn't a full yeah and um but you can see there's there's a difference and I noted some differences too so so that's how this is laid out and so we're going to be thinking of these questions as we go I'm going to point out so so this is also on this screen we're not going to use as much of this but what we had was this is just 2023 on one side the report also did an aggregate of mixing 2022 and 23 together so there's just all kinds of ways you can do this but
015what I'd like to do is just um is is show you that um between the two actually I'm going to skip that because you've got this in front of you this is this is the best thing for us to look at so this piece in front of you we're going to look at this brand new piece that I did not that is brand new and I didn't get to put in the in the slides so just take a minute and look at this and we're going to talk about what you see so as you start to look through what do you notice first without making meaning what do you notice between the two years foreign I think there's a there are some areas that are really stable between the two years with very little variation
016um that was interesting so some stability what else do you notice rapid change on standard two big jump yep change in community engagement anything else that you notice objective some level of improvement in the majority of the standards and if small some level of improvement mm-hmm we have one standard where we see decline over time which one is that and that is standard nine systems thinking okay it's modest more pronounced on accomplished but an overall pattern of decline is there anything from just like I said we'll dive a little deeper but from the Overview at this point is there anything that you are wondering um one thing I am wondering about and as we get into a new election cycle is from what we learn uh from this pattern what we have here uh what
017kind of things we would like to ask the community if you have strength and in a single aspect or a few aspects that will make our report even stronger uh as we expect uh uh newborn members after June so that's something I'm wondering uh probably Beyond this session thank you anything else that you're wondering as you look at the overall trend I would say for a wondering and whenever I look at something like this I see a lot of the blue and the greens and for those who are maybe listening in blue being effective green being rated as accomplished or things that we really see ourselves as doing strongly as a board what leaves me wondering though is the areas where we have more of the yellow the developing and particularly the red the ineffective
018and so even if one voice or one item is standing out as being something that one or more members of the board feels is ineffective areas for us to really right dive into and think about where we can grow I'm wondering if this if we're as good as we think we are this is a pretty self-congratulatory except for in a couple spots pretty self-congratulatory report um I'm wondering if we're measuring ourselves adequately I mean this is our self-reflection on these standards but do these trans do these standards translate into student outcomes are we impacting students in the way we think we're impacting student outcomes and I don't have a really good sense of that insult at one wondering t or wondering about that you know in terms of it being a self-reflective summary then a
019wondering to add is what others from outside of the board how how might those readings look yeah it's coming from Educators District leaders community members families students would the same Trends come out or would we see something different I think it's the one other other note I made here is that we see on standards 11 and 12 which are really the foundational elements of board work uh one is you know really our own ethics and our relationships both internally within the board and between the board and the superintendent and then Standard 12 is budgeting and financial accountability we've rated ourselves High here and I think that that is generally that is true um you know and I connected drew a line back to you standard eight learning organization and we see some growth across years
020I think that you know starting really with uh Brian's tenure and the change there was a a large change in the composition of the board was 2017. we really emphasized board development and learning um and I think that this is a real reflection of that that commitment to continuous Improvement in on our leadership team and you've started into this conversation but what other from again just from this high level what meaning do you make of what you see anything you haven't offered yet I always look at things like this and I and I wonder like using the same definition yes for the there's some calibration yeah so what's the caliber actually felt like I was being kind of grumpy when I filmed so I don't know um and now I've lost track of what I
021was going to say um but yeah so so I guess what I'm sort of wondering is I look at it and I'm more sort of interested in seeing growth than I am and seeing like it's mostly green and blue like has it gone from having a couple read to now there's some yellow and some green and blue like you know I'm sort of the sort of calibrating it as the shift from you know from one category to the next rather than right you know looking at patterns like rather than is this in a certain category one of the things that um I I guess it's probably still a wondering is thinking about what we've done over the last six months um so two things that we've um that I would note as different than previous
022um the previous survey one is that we've been doing listening sessions with the community and so I wonder how that is represented in this response and second we have more data achievement data than we've had in a couple of years and so again it makes me wonder about how how those pieces play out here um and then in terms of the um will last thing it makes me think about is that I noticed a theme of community engagement with lower ratings and so it made me wonder about how the board has felt about that those listening sessions and if it was more of a response as to we want to continue to do those things or they haven't there hasn't been enough to that I think it's probably my my guess is that it's we
023want to continue to do these things and but those are the things that I've wondered about as I think about the context of time and what we've achieved to date it's so fine I know there were a couple categories that as I was reading things I may have rated it as developing because it's something we haven't done but I don't feel like it's something that's part of our system of doing things yet so the listening sessions we've done them right but is that our culture right right well and to add to both of those comments too in terms of that sometimes in engaging in more of that Community engagement piece such as listening sessions it also opens up our our our own understanding of areas where we can do even more and so sometimes that
024then also can shape how we're rating that in terms of oh we're doing more now than we did last year or the year before and we realize how much more they're instant so that sometimes that resets the scale which can make it even look like a decline sometimes when really we're just learning where the gaps are or how big they are which makes this process the tool for that kind of conversation which is which is the nice thing about this process it is it becomes less about this and more about what did you discover during the process that when you walk away with and and Sean I think that was just a perfect Point well what did you learn in from what goal did you set in the last time which maybe opened up your
025Viewpoint about what else is possible which maybe made you rate yourself a little lower or the same but you actually engaged in more but now you have a higher standard for yourself and and so what does that mean does that actually mean that you think that you're doing community engagement terribly like maybe or maybe not maybe it's just that like oh this is such a this is such a great thing for us to engage in we're going to hold ourselves to a higher standard and just do more and so that's what this conversation is about that we'll we'll get to which is the best part you know in my mind for your caring disinterested third party piece um of hearing you have the conversation and setting goals from that anything else that you want to
026talk about at this high level before we get in and look at because I did bring some of my observations of areas of growth for you and areas where you agreed the most areas where you disagreed the most that kind of thing anything else that you want to offer is part of the high level okay okay I'm gonna skip these little things really quick so your highest overall average is just looking at that and you can see this on here board member conduct ethics relationship with the superintendent budging and financial accountability and being a learning organization that I don't see super often the learning organization piece is is not doesn't pop as much as as the the other two do they pop quite a bit right um but being that self-renewing learning organization does not
027get as much of of you know of of high ratings from board members looking at themselves because it's not just about you being a learning board it's also that promotion of being a full Learning System and so thinking of yourselves as being as being promoters of a learning organization encouraging professional development and Leadership from where everybody sits that's that's great that's a great place to be that is one of those more Innovative and creative pieces that we like to see your lowest overall averages you can see this cultural responsiveness Community engagement and then using data again um why you rated yourself that way again could be you've got a high standard could be that you're discovering more as you go on but you can see that in here so that's just sort of stating the
028obvious here areas where you agreed and disagreed the most so where you agreed does not mean that you rated yourself High it just means this is where you all kind of felt the same about things so you really rated yourselves like you agreed on your ratings for board member conduct ethics and relationship with the superintendent and budgeting Financial accountability as you looked through this there were just a lot of greens and blues and and then the areas where you disagreed the most were in community engagement culture and climate and systems thinking so there were there was a lot of um sort of rainbow looking areas in in the report where there would be like a never and a developing and a frequent or um oh I know I can't remember what they are could yeah
029thank you and then and then exceptional you know there would be a green blue yellow and red and and so that is often those are often areas where it's interesting to discuss you know I not that everybody remembers what they rated but um but where you know where where do you feel like um some of you may feel like you have an excellent system for for creating a culture and climate that that promotes Excellence that promotes um you know your belief that all students can learn that promotes a safe environment some of you obviously believe that is not taking place so and then there is um that calibration piece where you know somebody's blue is somebody else's yellow where there is maybe some discussion about language to be had but if you're if if you're
030thinking of the system differently too maybe that's a conversation to be had so so that's those are the areas where you were furthest apart in how you rated yourselves so that's something to just think about but I wanted to point out areas of overall and I'll read this to you now it's easier to see back there but I'll but I'll have you look at at this the biggest areas of improvement since last time collaborating with the community to articulate core values and beliefs for the district 2023 is on top 2022 is on the bottom you had a couple of Nevers last time and you didn't have any Nevers this time and it looks to me like you believe that you're developing in this way and that you're really getting there so collaborating with the community
031to articulate your core values I I've heard you talk about this that this is something that you really wanted to do and so even within that standard where you wanted to improve I see you reflecting that this piece is improving and while that is one indicator that is a big one that from my perspective I've heard you talk about another one is uh promoting practices that solicit input and involvement from all segments of the community again this one and I'm telling you that 2023 is on the top and 2022 is on the bottom because in some cases they got flipped if you noticed um in this case it didn't get flipped so you can see this is an area of Market Improvement here but but there's some disagreement there but um you know while it
032is still developing some of you believe that like it's really getting there nobody thinks that it is not there at all so again soliciting that input and involvement from all segments of the community that's a big ask and and it's and it's developing in your minds um Switching gears a little bit ensuring funding to implement accountability measures that was a big Improvement there are four of you that feel like this is happening all the time and those accountability measures it would be interesting to hear what you're thinking of when you think about that now that could be strategic priorities but that could also be about the accountability to which you hold yourself to with respect to community engagement so I'm so I have a I have a wondering about what you were thinking of when
033you thought about accountability there um some improvement I wanted to point this out in communicating to the public how policy decisions are linked to Student Learning data um you can see that there was a bunch of red in 2022 still a little bit in 2023 but there is a flip there and there's a lot more development there than there is in the never response so again about communicating to the public engaging the community and talking about how your decisions are linked to Student Learning so you can see there's a theme here and then finally and I want to throw a question out to you here 49 was the board modeling relationships built on trust and respect everybody this is all blue and green on this one this is an excellent rating and this was an
034improvement over 2022. I'm wondering how you got yellow on 2022. but that's you know bygones but um but I so so I I want to sit with this for a minute I want you to sit with this for a minute and look at what you see as themes here obviously we're I'm pointing some things out to you but where you see this is these are areas of improvements from last time does this look and I'm gonna this is an odd question to ask given how much you've talked about your interest in continuing to engage the community and and perhaps that that theme of of wanting to have a higher standard for yourself does this feel real to you does this feel like you are improving in this way is what you are doing as a
035board feel like yes since the last time we took this a little less than a year ago we have we feel like we've engaged in a way that we can track this Improvement I'm seeing heads and on yeah yeah particularly around Community engagement I mean what the I think what this demonstrates is that when the board comes to alignment it's intentional about engaging on a particular initiative we have an administrator that's happy to operationalize that and things happen and actually happen in Fairly rapid form but certainly not recklessly I would say that the community engagement that we've done over this last year has been very intentional and highly effective what has been your role as a board that has allowed for this kind of improvement I mean I think on a really basic level our
036role as a board was that we said this is something we know we want to work on and this year as we work on professional development and we work on goals and things like that we want to make that a piece that we're really intentional about taking on um so I think it was really you know on that basic level us committee to making that an important piece of how we did our work I'd agree with what Sarah's just said because it was clear to me that that was the The Next Step of our work together but I also feel like that is also due to the fact that we have been involved in professional development and that has led us to this is being the next logical thing for us to move on and
037work towards and the fact that we have a board that's been intact for several years that also I think helps to see Improvement because it's the same group of people that were here a year ago doing this work yeah yeah I would say in 2023 and the point well made remember those sessions when we were down at the Marriott and trying to make sense of what what do we mean by board Community engagement or board-sponsored Community engagement what do we want to get out of that and I think there's lots of boards that you know really struggle with it I know that we did um and then we made this transition to doing strategic planning work and it's the perfect vehicle for doing that Sammy may be hard to speak up for virtually so an
038another piece of the puzzle I think is this bottom piece here the board models relationships built on trust and respect I think I feel very fortunate on this board in the working relationships that we have with one another that allow us to focus on the challenges that come up or allow us to deepen our practice you know when we come up with goals or acknowledge that we want to deepen our community engagement for example the kinds of things that we're discussing and focused on are the real challenges and problem solving and feeling like we can collaborate around the things that come up and communicate those together to problem solve effectively together to then make those strides so I feel like that Foundation that we have built and continue to build around trusting and respectful relationships
039with one another also allows us to really dive into the work in really meaningful ways that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise yeah I want to make sure Sammy has an opportunity as well he's currently off camera and yeah I'm just in agreement with uh everything has been said so far uh on this slide uh and I just uh want to reiterate uh the value of stability of a board I think uh I want to just highlight that it was mentioned and uh stability of the board allows it to continue to grow and and be more useful and uh I think this is a good testimony of uh of that being happening in Corvallis anything else you want to say about these themes of improvement these there were other littler areas of improvement but
040I really wanted to pull out where the big noticeable areas of improvement it gets watered down if you pull out every single thing these were the things that really popped anything else here okay oops uh I don't know how to manage all right so there were a couple of areas of decline I wanted to point these out you can do with these as you want but um the board enacts strategic goals and policies to Define hiring practices that ensure employees fit into the culture and core values of the district in this case 2022 is at the top 2023 is at the bottom so this is um this is where it got this is where the numbering gets weird but um so so this time there there was a red in there there was a there
041was a strong feeling about that and we so there was just a little shift down from that um that is one that um that often needs some discussion because that is this is one that um is a highly calibrated question what are what are what are hiring policies what are the Strategic goals around hiring um the board doesn't do specific hiring and lessons of the superintendent what is the culture of the district how do we make what is the um what is the Nexus between making sure employees fit and making sure employees also inform right like because employees also inform the culture of the district it is not a container that everybody has to fit in right it's malleable as as people come in as well so so I'm just laying that there as the
042kind of experience that I have with that question um the next one again 2022 is the top 20 23 is at the bottom a climate of caring respect and valuing of students cultures is established through board policies and goals that saw a little decline into developing whereas it was it was felt pretty strongly last time that that was a big strength the board works to avoid policy decisions that shift problems from one part of the system to another that's awesome decline into developing as well and then the board team is solution oriented that that's all it'll decline as well these were the biggest areas of decline again nothing went like super red but I wanted to point these out as areas where you saw yourself more developing again um it could be that you know
043you you feel like these areas have truly felt like they're a little bit in decline or that you have changed a standard for yourself or that circumstances have pushed some things to the Forefront and others to you know a a deeper place that haven't gotten as much attention but I wonder maybe what you're experiencing or observing or feeling as you look at these what's coming up for you so one thing I would that comes up for me is that I realize that the numbers show decline but I don't I don't feel like that change is negative for me I think some of these areas where I I think I am one of those people who didn't score as well for this year as as from past years is that this last year was a lot
044of learning curves and there were a lot of opportunities to find things that didn't work the way we thought that they did and we had to address those but what that told me you know and reflecting on that is that um we there's more work to do right there are there are still we still have policies that don't work for all of our students and there are still a handful of students who are more likely for the policies not to work for them and I think that as a board if if someone comes to us and says we have a concern about this policy and we we look at it and we can see that and we'll we'll take action right but I wonder like are we going out and looking for the policies that
045haven't yet created a problem or the policies for whom the community hasn't brought it to our attention and said we have concerns about this I don't know that we are doing that um so I think I I marked us lower on the 47 because I think I just became aware that I don't actually know uh which policies may not be working for students in our district because there hasn't been a complaint and so that is not an acceptable standard for me to say we got this because no one's complaining um with that and we've had a lot of discussion about the complaint process which although there are all kinds of legal parameters that have to fit around that bottom line maybe this is true in a lot of places but the complaint process does not
046really function I think the way we would desire for it to function and it does not create the space for people to have a voice um because our staff do a really great job of following our policies so we will rarely find that somebody flagrantly didn't follow a policy but that doesn't mean that the policy is doing what we want it to do either and so that complaint process doesn't always create that kind of catalyst for reflection and change that maybe we we would want to hope that it would and that really came out for me I think that we do a really great job when we know it um I just don't know if we're knocking on the doors of policies that don't get brought up very often asking if everything is working okay
047with those I think I may have been the other two of the other yellow one on that for exactly the same reason is that we don't have a system for going through our policies and seeing where they're not working like we want them to and I and I agree we do a great job with the policies we're looking at but I don't you know that's I think that's why I thought it was developing was we don't have a system to go outside and go go looking for those policies so that one seems to be coming up for folks 47. anything else that's coming up for you as you look at these not to get you away from 47 if that's coming up that's coming up well I always struggle with question 22 it's it's Matt
048Hardy it's just a hard question to understand and respond to I'm just reflecting that you know like the district uh the board is coming out has you know come out of the pandemic and that was a tough time for the board as well disorienting and challenging and I think you know we've spent this year what do you think about what are what are our priorities going to be we're getting our feet back on the ground I am not surprised that we might have higher expectations this board has consistently uh set a high expectation for inclusive education and and I think that we're just now really starting to move that in a real substantive way and I'm thinking about um our work around student Representatives think about what is inclusive School governance look like it speaks
049to what you were talking about Teresa so we don't know how people are seeing our policies why is that that's because our governance processes that are was handed to us it's not really inclusive see it actually pretty damn isolated so I think we as a group are just having higher expectations for our own practicum along the sort of lines of what Vince is saying I think there were several times when it was questions about your questions like 47 where we're building a culture or that I felt like sort of my stand or and our board standard you know as I think about our board as a whole it's not just that we do it when it comes in front of us that how to take sort of what we believe and what we have been
050able to do kind of when it's easy and turn that into something that we go out and actively pursue working on [Music] um if I may jump in I think I'm just trying to think working on solution oriented or or takeaways probably for a agenda setting or I don't know what to call it uh Excellence lens like how can we excel in these metrics uh over the next year uh for the board of leadership to consider from 22 the way I think of it this is really a strong partnership between the board and the superintendent and staff on developing policies and also getting reports on our hiring practices what work we do uh and and before I jump into each one of them I want to say uh maybe we were really harsh on ourselves
051the decline might be a recognition of the importance of this Dimension and we might be doing some steps already but we're not there yet and that's why we're not accomplished I think at least that's my my scoring criteria uh uh personally and and from 22 I think getting to know more about our hiring practices again to know more about evaluation about sharing our core values and and the community's core values uh with staff and and ensuring that's it's just uh stand I think getting to know more about that might be uh important uh we do have uh uh Equitable systems goal and as we develop our goals maybe we need to consider uh 22 uh how it's delineated and benchmarks uh or maybe strategies for number 47 uh I think uh we might need or
052the board might need to consider uh a review of its policies as we are doing with the dress code right now uh gender identity uh non-discrimination based on gender identity and sometimes in the future how are we doing on those policies and maybe proactively ask the community or the staff and students uh on feedback on how those policies are actually uh yielding results uh with 60 uh I don't know how to test that but I think it's worth some discussion around how can we recognize if we are shifting the problem when from one system to another and maybe I would like to lean on uh Kristen and Vince on what kind of facilitation we should have through our policy discussions in order to do better in 60. thank you Sammy anything else on and we'll
053I hate this phrase put a pin in that about you know about talking about you know that that piece about shifting that question succeed policy decision to ship problems from one part of the system to another because as you were just saying um linking I I heard using and just as I'm reflecting on what you all are saying here that peace about chasing down things that maybe proactively instead of reactively also links to 60 there that you know working to not shift and Sammy you just you know encapsulated this really well um to avoid policy decisions that shift problems from one part of the system to another is about that proactivity versus reactivity and um and so as I'm you know sitting here getting ready to ask you what do you want to do with
054this I'm also hearing some things bubble to the top for you um which of course you will identify I will not um but the next thing that we're going to go back to is um how does this fit in to how does this discussion because we're going to get to the what do you want to do fit into the broader scope of what we're doing together and the and the other work that you're doing because you are doing community-based work right now we've seen that you have identified some improvement that you've already made you've identified that you may be holding yourselves to higher standards but you are still making Improvement even from the last time that you took this you've identified that maybe there is some proactivity that you can take in in looking for
055things that directly impact students um and that you know keep the system in mind but I want to ask you how does this fit into the the scholarship program and keeping your arms around the work that you're already doing because now we get to the like now what what do you want to do of course I have an idea um as we had this discretion I was reminded that I pulled out question 44. uh which asks the board has a process to review policies for cultural responsiveness and bias um in 2022 we had two said that we were effective and five developing 2023 there was Improvement maybe uh three set effective three said developing and we had an ineffective I was one of the developing so I went back and looked at my responses um
056you know the district has an equity lens has for a few years now this board has never implemented that Equity lens in any of our activities so I think you know in that conversation around what is inclusive governance look like what is equity governance what is anti-racist governance look like I think that's a really interesting that would be a good to do let's just grab the district's Equity lens it's perfectly fine and figure out how to implement that in our own governance so as we're thinking about our dress code policy as we're thinking about student Representatives apply that Equity lens and work through it and maybe we're not populating that maybe staff is doing some of that work for us but having that as part of our our policy development process where it you know
057every policy is going to have an equity land statement built into it I love it assistant superintendent's on that you know that where we just go through those questions like it's just a form it just becomes part of our process that we're going to analyze every action this board is going to do through the equity lens I don't know are you talking about that that pretty that pretty concise like four question Equity lenses yeah it's a little bit longer oh okay but it's okay do you well sorry Sammy go ahead yeah if I may build on this side I remember we have elevated the equivalents to the board level when uh the racial Equity uh policy was discussed if I'm not mistaken or through that uh training uh with you Kristen and uh just wanna
058a second uh Vince's pedestrian uh is that's in the uh cover letter for uh board policies so we do our best to uh at least Elevate those questions uh and sometimes we do have answers for them sometimes uh frankly we don't have the answers to some of those Equity lens questions uh right away and it's okay it's okay but at least we put it out there so if we get to if we receive a public comment form a Community member saying policy BBC or whatever uh is good or needs Improvement uh they may lean on uh the equity lens questions and we maybe can have I don't know I'm just brainstorming I have a way for us to ask the community proactively help us answer those questions as we do our policy work something that
059I often and and you will get some of this through your budget committee but some something that I often when I am working with a board to develop Equity lenses and it's interesting because when I give sample Equity lenses to boards that I'm working to develop Equity lenses with I give them yours is one of them that I give um because it's simple it's concise it asks a bunch of questions that anybody can ask and it's not seven pages long with you know 10 pages of definitions that would that's more than seven pages um but um during the budgeting process right that's a that's a time to use it policy development process you just identified other big decisions that you make program adoption curriculum adoption um now some of these things will will generate naturally
060because you know in curriculum adoption process you're not starting from Whole cloth you've got you know your superintendent's got committees you know all that stuff comes up to you those questions will be answered throughout the process but then you can answer those questions because superintendent has done like has done all of that work but then you can sit there and say and look we can answer all of these questions we can put this Equity lens on here and say yep that all of that happened um and so I often will say just getting in the practice of asking those questions does not mean that you will necessarily like need to start from Whole cloth every time but you can then see and reflect that those things are happening in your system um so I is
061that something that like you would want to do as sort of a like just start applying your Equity lenses or your Equity lens with the bigger decisions that you make particularly since you all identified like maybe starting to look at policies that directly impact kids every day you know that that might be a great place to start um you sort of ended where I was going next was that you know as as part of or and in tandem with foreign building using the equity lens into our practice also building a system where we will be systematic and proactive about looking at the policies that touch students lives and making sure that they are reflective of the beliefs and culture of this District because right now we like I think the our um gender policy is
062on our list of things to look at at some point but right now it takes somebody saying we really should look at that even if it's not it's either a public some member of the public or a board member but to just start to go through and as part of our policy review makeup piece of our normal policy review that will bring up some of our um policies that aren't the ones that are just kind of on the right osba schedule of right to look at these right right that are legally banned like you're legally bound to look at this right now and Sarah for me I may add uh I I remember sometime in the past two three years uh we started with the policy of policies uh policy I'm not sure yeah you
063know what I mean uh and I'm not sure what we did with that or where we are at that maybe it's a good time to bring that back and discuss uh this Dimension that we're talking about which is community uh informed and Community maybe even Community Driven uh process uh that helps us uh do this work of uh developing policies and reviewing policies and I don't know if you um you are interested in you know picking the brains of other districts that do things like this but Beaverton um developed like a community based policy development they called it Community but I can't remember what they call it um but but that was the idea or there are certain now not all right not all policies but like there are certain policies that can start with
064the community and um and I I had a good friend that worked there who who moved on but he was part of the that policy committee and you know the the essential question was what kinds of things can we bring the community in with first you know and and start there and um what are the policies there so um anyway I that's that may be a partner that um that could you know be leveraged to give some idea of how that went or how it's going that sort of that keeps me from interrupting when I have um that that sort of piece sort of folds into what I was also this other thing that I was thinking of is that the work we're doing this year around Community engagement and I think the real challenge
065like I think we've done great with our listening sessions and reaching out to members of our community who don't always get heard and I think it's been a if we haven't seen the final report yet but um going to those sessions was really good um I think the challenge is then making that part of our culture of how we do things going forward and so something you know I don't know how Beaverton does it and I you know not committing that this is how we would build it into our culture but something like that that's a regular piece of Outreach that happens regularly as we do our work around policies would be a way to make Community engagement part of our system of working so systematizing some Community engagement piece of certain policies that that
066can be flexible in those ways I mean I'm thinking of the policies that can be flexible I mean there are some that are just here's the law you don't you don't get to play with it um and as usual what I'm doing is taking notes on what you say I will give back to you the draft that I think that I heard and then you will improve upon it um so I've got you know this you know using an equity lens um with your policies to review for proactivity specifically ones that directly impact kids um would like looking at some Community engagement piece still thinking about that are we are we looking at something a little different now Sarah are you um I don't want to wrap too much into one thing so are we
067also maybe looking at still in the realm of policy but looking at some way to systematize a community engagement piece in policy development is that another distinct piece that we may be looking at because we've got an equity lens piece it said to me it sounds like that isn't that is a separate piece from like a systematic like culture of adding in or or enhancing a community engagement piece in the policies that can be Community centered sparked an idea one of the we have an advisory it's called the Delta it's the district Equity what does it help me leadership it's a group of community members that are focused on equity they do amazing work and but one of the things that I struggle with most with the with Delta is that the board they don't
068interface directly with the board there's not a lot of vertical communication there so a lot of I think the district gets a lot out of it but the board doesn't get very much out of it just because they're it's just to create a safe space for that group they have to have that that separation and I understand that value that I'm not I'm not criticizing how the delt has been used or deployed but creating a body that would be answered that could talk to the delta feed that into policy processes or initiative processes that then does interface with the board seems really really useful so creating a conduit for transmitting that learning and knowledge and wisdom that's being developed and getting it into the governance realm between the board and Delta yeah that would be
069one of the functions yeah okay and also Act is kind of a think tank as well so we do our work when we're in convenient into a public meeting and either it's run by Robert's Rules or we're having a work session but I mean having us a group of people separate from the board to chew and have you know gritty conversations develop draft language you know policy uh Concepts and then share that and feed it into the board I think it's a really cool idea I don't know who do we get to do it but it seems like a lot of fun well I'm when you talk about that I'm wondering if it's Delta or if it's the new Equity Group that's even broader than yeah so that you have more voices that way or
070maybe the composition of the group is going to change based on the tasks that it's doing maybe it's a finance thing we've got to pull some Finance people or our maybe we're I don't know I don't want to policy specific Ally right yeah and maybe take some workload off of District staff allow say here give this to this group of people they'll Cobble some language together and then give these are superintendents some draft language and then you can polish it up rather than doing the heavy lift all on your own allow you to focus your attention on kids and not a language um thoughts on that Ryan thank you it's been a little while since I pushed the button um I think it would depend on I do I agree with Sarah would depend on
071the policy specifically which group would have um the most interest in the policy the most experience with the policy um but I do like that the concept of bringing community members into policy development and when we have done that the standout example is the overhaul of policy jvb educational Equity I mean wow talk about success it feels like we're um there's two pieces to this I think about both um kinds of policies the policies that we talked about that are oftentimes come from law yeah but we we've also um as we review policies we're changing pronouns were thinking about um we're thinking about policy in a different way even with policies that just have to come forward so that's one kind of policy other is more of a transformational policy and those are the ones
072that we're talking about and those are the ones that we've spent the most time with so jbb being an example of that so I think we just will want to discern which kind of policy we're talking about and what that process can look like because you know I've sat through the policy process with osba going through the whole policy review policy by policy and you could do that in some ways if you're thinking about things like pronouns and just cleaning up policy and then there's another kind of policy like our support of our transgender students what we're doing right now around dress code and what we're doing right now around student representatives to the school board those are transformational and those are the ones that really need the time and intention of community to be
073done right and so I think we're I just don't want to lose I don't want it to feel like we're thinking about that with every policy because I don't think that's necessarily the case with their specific policies that need that kind of support and that's where I heard this conversation start which was about like mining for those policies that that that have that in them that are that flexible that are mostly bracketed language right where it's like that are not just like you need to do this because a lot just passed or there's a rule that says you have to do this but that are you know here's the subject how can you make this Corvallis and and what do you want to say to your kids how do you want to impact your kids
074that those are as Ryan just described a transformational policies that are all your language that may be steeped in law like you need to adopt a policy on this in some way but that you get to say you know you get to fill it with the inclusive language that you want to fill it with or you know or the law is silent but you just get to change it in some way um and so maybe that's part of that like as you apply that first piece an equity lens looking for mining for those policies like that will maybe surface some of those things that then you bring in like members of the community that do have that experience or that need that access to that to help you develop that so that can be maybe
075that two-part thing that gets you that focus on these pieces that directly impact kids every day using an equity lens and a community process and that's big work that's a lot of work I mean I would say stop there for goals yeah I stopped because that's that's I mean like anytime you say policy like that's a year-long process right because OSB is not going to stop just throwing them at you either we're in the middle of a big legislative session right you're going to get a ton of them anyway and um and this is this is big all transformational work too what you're talking about applying an equity lens and then mining for policies that you can make transformational for your kids is all big important work and if that's what came out of the
076bsas and this conversation tonight that's really good stuff and also intersex with um with the rest of the work that you're doing that Community process piece that you're doing if you can leave here with those two goals to do what a what a what a great time spent yeah those are really good goals well I didn't do anything um thoughts on that on those two pieces being what you would want to leave with does that feel like work that you would want to dedicate yourself to does that feel like good work once we finish the board goals remember Kristen came early this year because the next two times she's with us what the first time it will be receiving the report right and then the second time is what do we do with that information
077so just uh put a pin in it put a pin in it but we will come back to it okay yeah and hold on to that we we so maybe we could submit our application for the scholarship program on time oh yeah [Laughter] um so I will I will type my notes up but we will hold on to these right right and and we'll say this is what came out of this we'll obviously hold on to these if you're satisfied with that conversation I think that's great that this came out of of this is there anything else that you would want to discuss as part of when your staff is happy that's a good thing [Laughter] I really do like it because we I mean when we brought I had so much excitement around the
078dress policy um the dress code policy and the idea of creating something based on what you're talking to me about what I researched like it's I'm kind of a nerd like that and I loved it so I'm in let's do it that's great good that's excellent thank you and I and I will say I know I would say this but I but Vince can also attest I don't say this to everybody the work that you do as part of this project is not um is unique and and the work that you do as part of the board self-evaluation these kinds of goals don't always come out of a board self-evaluation right and a lot of times it's just we need to do basic roles and responsibilities so this kind of transformative work that comes out
079of a board self-evaluation is um is is unique and very impressive so um thank you for your engagement and the work that you do that's great service thank you Kristen thank you for helping us get there thank you for your engagement all right that's all I have for you tonight great I will get these back to you thank you and we look forward to our meeting at the end of March where we will have the report on our engagement which I think will be really interesting to look at um I'm really looking forward to that and um thank you to the board members for and staff um for thoughtful for taking this process seriously um because it could be something that we just do by rope and I don't ever feel like we've done that
080so it's much appreciated and moving along the next item on our agenda is the bathroom break [Laughter] so we will have a five minute recess and return I don't have my time my clock up return at 805. foreign so foreign is back in session and the next item on our agenda is the 2023-2025 Lynn Benton Lincoln Educational Service District local service plan and it's the first read of this plan so we will have Jason hey the assistant superintendent here for the second read of the policy he he and Tanya were unavailable this evening but the way that our local service plan is developed through the ESD is that the superintendents from our region meet and review the services that are being provided by the dis by the ESD we then vote in support that goes
081to the ESD board as well as each individual School District board for review and so that's the intention of tonight is just to get that information in front of you it overview it's an overview of the services provided by our ESD which fall into kind of four main areas one is around student services and special education technology is an area that they focus on school Improvement and then also um other technical areas like business services and supports oftentimes for smaller school districts My Philosophy with the ESD has continued to be that as one of the larger school districts in the region they're an important partner specifically for smaller districts that need a range of services that they couldn't go out and have access to on their own so things like augmentative communication Services wouldn't be
082something that a small District could hire a full FTE to do or maybe even find someone and so the idea of the ESD is that it's a collective and we work together to provide the services across our region having come from a smaller District that really needed those Services I see the value in that model and so my recommendation would be to move that forward at the second read but for tonight if there's any specific questions I'd be happy to answer them otherwise Jason will be here at the next meeting I was just curious the you know all the services that were provided seems to make make total sense to me I actually really enjoyed the report it was laid out beautifully very explanative the question that came up for me was how has corvallis's
083Suite of of services changed over time and what does that look like today so it's kind of a different question yeah and it's not really maybe it's it's not Germaine directly to this topic well or this agenda item but so so the service the funds come in tier one services and tier two services and tier one are the services that we all agree um that everybody is needs and so if one District steps out oftentimes those Services move out of tier one and move to tier two and then there's a cost associated with them there are a few unique times when that hasn't been the case so as an example Lincoln County moved away from the student information system we're currently using a year ago and moved to Synergy which is the product we're transitioning
084to next year in that process they said we recognize that everyone else is going to continue to use this product it should stay in tier one that's a unique circumstance typically when somebody goes out especially a larger District because by pupil number or ADM count then those Services go into tier two and then people can purchase them so for us tier one has stayed pretty much intact since I've been in this role tier two we've had some variation but it's been small changes so it's been things like the way that we are paying for or supporting a physical like a PT physical therapist at times it's all been in tier one other times a portion of it has been when we needed more we've moved into tier two the thing that we continue to use
085those flow through dollars for because again those are typically for things that ESD can't provide or does it currently provide our health Navigators that's a tier two service so we're utilizing those funds from the ESD and we're paying the Benton County for half of those FTE for our health Navigators so um but again that isn't something that's changed necessarily it's something we've continued to do so overall I'd say the trend has been that we continue to provide and purchase the same Services through those two or two dollars with my small Nuance in terms of FTE so what I'm hearing is that there's an overall trend necessarily it really is variable based on student needs and programmatic needs those tier 2 services are yeah thanks no well hearing nothing else we are adjourned for the evening
086thank you everyone have a good night