5/12/2026 FGSD School Board Meeting

001The May 12, 2026 Force Grove School Board of Director's meeting is called to order at 5:30 p.m. We'll start with a roll call of board members present. Resa Franco >> here. >> K Grandki here >> Maya Andrade here. Christy Cotkey is here and is on the way to the Dallas and it's official. Okay, welcome. We will I'm going to ask everybody to please stand for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God for all of tonight's agenda motion to approve the agenda as consent second. All in favor say I. I >> opposed. All right. And we're welcoming Maya tonight um for student representative report. Welcome Maya. >> Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. It's been a

002while. So I um have a lengthy kind of report but I hope that's fine. Uh May is here and all the students at for high school are excited to wrap up the year. Uh most of our AP exams are pretty much over and everybody is happy and confident um that they all got high scores which I think is a great thing uh for our teachers and our students. Of course um the seniors have a couple weeks left and most of them are excited to start their new journey in the fall. We have a lot of great students going to different colleges around the US and decision day on Thursday was a great success across um senior classes. Um let's see. Uh senior nights have also started. We've began across boards academic recognitions. Uh we're wrapping

003those up as well. A lot of the seniors are having a lot of um I guess sad moments they report. So um happens every year. And spring sports are also wrapping up with success among our tennis teams, lacrosse team, track and field team and all of the other great spring sports. Um a lot of districts I've heard this year which is really really good. Um and then uh this month in ASB we have focused on transitioning from one executive board to the other and next year's president was chosen on Thursday of last week. Um Gladia Ramos won the ASB president with her vice president Maddie Couture and I will be introducing you guys to them very soon hopefully. Um, across ASB, we've also started uh the focus on recognizing students for the last portion of

004the school year and focusing on starting traditions, honoring past ASB members, big champions, academic stars across our school. And we've also um have started sending out surveys to see what students want to see moving on to the next year. Um, and we will be working on kind of getting a couple meetings to discuss those things among our administrators and school board as well. Um, we'll move on to club recognition. Since I haven't done that in a while, since it's uh May, which is um, Asian-American month, I wanted to introduce our happy club, which is the Hawaiian Asian-American Pacific Islander Club. Um, they invite the small Asian minority of our school and come together to advocate um, to recognize students and to put up events in order to show their culture. and they have a very

005special place in my heart because they are always willing to help everybody. Um they're really really great collaborators and you will always find that working extra hard um even if their group is really small. Um Audrey Fong is the president of the student. She's graduating and she has done amazing work over the past four years with this book and has brought it from a very small club to you know gain bigger and more recognition across school. Um that is pretty much the one I have for today. Yeah, >> thank you. Thank you, Maya. Um, it just I feel like we were just introducing Maya to the and now it's already happening. I believe that your last meeting will be the next meeting and we'll have you talk then a little bit about your plans and

006things that you are hopeful for the future. So, thank you so much and thanks for the pictures. It's great to see um it's really great to see pictures and presentations. All right, we are going to move on to uh to board reports. We'll start tonight with Kate. >> Um okay. Um I went to the counseling meeting at Joseph Gale last week and um it's the end of the year uh meeting was well attended and the data that they showed was um the attendance has really improved. the the the two counselors there, they um work really well together and they call every student that's absent to do a followup to make sure is there anything they can do? Do they need help? They need to have resources. Um you know, I think oftenimes people do not

007really realize how many hats the counselors wear. And I think it was last year when I added up it was like 30 hats they wear. and they put together assemblies. They do counseling. They do in class work. They do individual work. They do, you know, the list is really long and we're really fortunate. The counselors that we've had have had for a long time and they're well connected and well respected. So, that was a really a good medium. Um, let's see. Uh, but let me talk about the culinary. >> Sure. >> Okay. Um, actually see if I have Okay. here. We'll do this. Go ahead. >> Um, so we divided up that the board would take um food out to well the orders came in and then we would deliver and so I was delivering

008out Gail's Creek and um it's just outstanding. The pasta is so so good. It freezes excellent and um the sauces are terrific and the only thing she said is next time we need a little bit more turnaround because we get quite a few orders but um a couple of my neighbors that ordered they said thank you nuts because they said it was so so good and um and one of the students that I thought would become an electrical engineer or a scientist he said I am um I want to go to college for colony his mom said he'll get a business degree and then you can also have a book. Um, and he he's in his second he's going to be in his third year now in the culinary program. He really really loves it.

009And this is a kid that I've known since he was born and he wouldn't eat anything. And now he's making sushi and and when I got there he said I needed some help with computer stuff yesterday. He said um he said look I made this and this and he's opening up the recruiter. What do you want? So from someone who is really a gear telling me program next to maybe a new career and also all kinds of so those were the two that I think of and of course and I also know review the district policy. You want to talk about them? Not much to talk about. Um, we reviewed the district policies, kind of went over what was out and into the I guess the agenda for us to collect. >> All right. Thank

010you, Kate. Franco, would you like to report regarding reports? >> Um, not particularly. Um, I went I mean, I went to our first farmers market. Uh, that was great for a lot of people. It was great weather. um to wait to continue to building a few officially. Okay, Dr. T. Thank you, Chair Kaki. I had uh the opportunity this morning to attend a counseling meeting at Forest Grove High School. um was not was not aware of what all that meeting entailed. I didn't receive the invitation until about 20 minutes before the meeting began. Um and I won't blame anybody. >> Well, that's that's well I I've been attending those meeting. No, I I attend those meetings on behalf of the board. I could not attend this meeting today. So, in a last minute effort, I

011texted uh Pete and said, "Is there any chance we can go to this 8:30 meeting?" And he said, "Yes, he can." So, I yeah, I emailed it. No, that we have those invitations. >> Oh, I signed my cup of coffee this morning. >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Um, and it did give me an opportunity to make a couple of points uh about their program. They do a very good job of catching this trying to catch the students that have multiple Fs and someday I'm going to have a discussion with people about what makes an F and so on and so forth. But it was that's a discussion for another day. Um what they do is they try to develop a a process by which student can recover those grades. And the issue that

012jumped out at me was that they will have meetings with these students in advisory and pull them from their advisory classes and get them into counseling and talk about what they what the menu looks like for them to recover the grades. But then advisory all of a sudden comes up with other requirements, other things that they have to go to. So in peak my curiosity is to something as important as recovery or great recovery gets and this sounds nasty on my part sort of gets shut to the end of the line because they have other requirements. that advisory all of a sudden says, "Okay, we have this this assembly coming up or we have other classes that sort of get in the way." And I'm I'm thinking to myself, it wouldn't take much for a

013kid who's having trouble graduating or having trouble getting those Fs taken care of for them to say somewhere in the back of their mind, well, this is how they're treating my credit recovery, the hell with it. And I would like to have that sort of I would like to have the advisory people shove other stuff out of the way and get this these grades taken care of, get this credit recovery taken care of so that we can put that foot forward. Now, I know there are other things that are important in the high school education and they're not all centered around around grades. But if we spend this much time on reducing the number of deaths that this that the student body has and it looks like only onethird of the students have at least

014one F this year. Maybe we ought to be sending a different maybe ought to send a different kind of message. And I I didn't get any argument on that this morning when I when I raised that. And I'm not doing I'm not doing a very good job of indicating the impression, the positive impression I had from this counseling presentation. They recognize that there are some issues. They're moving as quickly and nimly as they can to address those issues. Um, that was that was one that stuck out for me and it had always been something that I had issues with when I was teaching at the high school that students had other obstacles placed in front of them to recover their their credit to get those FC raised and get um more satisfactory onto the transcript,

015but the energy that the counselors not only at the high school, but at Neil Armstrong and of Tom McCall, they were also part of the program. They were exhibiting a great deal of compassion and care for students to to get them through the high school to get them a solid education that they can go on and do great things like my do. So, I'll shut up by talk way too much. I get three to five minutes. I think I took seven. >> No problem. Thank you. Uh, director Lazada. >> Yeah. So, there are two things that I haven't shared. I So, I did a career uh day over at Corning Elementary. That was really fun. I mean, just I I believe I was in first, second, and third grade. It was they were the sweetest

016thing. It was like I was walking into my own home and my child was greeting me. They were just the sweetest thing. Teachers were really great. They were really good listeners. Um, there was an incident when I first walked into the office that there was a child that was having a hard time, but once I went into the classrooms and even with the substitute teacher being there, they did really well. So, it was really fun. It was really nice to get out there and kind of see uh the teachers in action and then see the students and how excited they were about learning about different careers and they had so many questions. It was really fun. Um, I also went over to the high school uh with Dr. ress and we did deca interviews and

017that was incredible. I mean the students are professionals just speaking to you um the way that their development is. I think it's such a great program to have there and I'm trying to encourage my child to but yeah very very good stuff very fun stuff. Um the the students definitely um impress me a lot. They are so ready. I I felt like I could go to them and they could help me open a business. >> All right. Well, I'm going to build on a couple of those things. I wanted to Oh, sure. After you're done, I'd like to get the mic back again so I can talk about the visit with Congresswoman Buchi at Roale um and u scholarship applications for the Hall of Fame committee high school hall of fame. So, >> okay, we'll

018circle back. I did want to share briefly um Deandrea Laughler has been partnering and really helping the board help her with this little pasta pilot, but this is the slideshow that we were able to show when we went to noon time Rotary. Um and it just is a little summary of what's happening in the classroom. It gives an example of the different pastas. And I'm previewing this now because for those of you watching out there, there's going to be an opportunity to order, do round two and order with a QR code or a live link for the next pasta delivery. But this the pasta little birdie form gives you options of the type of fresh pasta. And like Kate said, it freezes really well. All kinds of different pasta, including my favorite to see was

019the Viking mascot that they actually made a personalized pasta that is the Viking mascot. the Viking heads. I did not ask her what was the most popular. Um, that is a video. That is not It's okay. It is a video of someone actually running this pasta machine, which is which is quite something to see. I don't know that I can get it past. Is >> there music in it? >> Not earlier. I bet YouTube. >> Oh, it's okay. >> Music. >> YouTube flagged it because pasta music danger. Danger. Okay. Can you agree on this? back. >> You should be able to try again. >> Oh, there we go. All the sauces which can be frozen that you can order. Specialty sauces. They also make in seasons and then bread sticks with directions and and this

020is the QR code for the next order. The deadline will be after the budget meeting on the 14th. We're hopefully going to have little QR codes for the budget crew as well to order. And then there's um a live link that we'll put up well somewhere. We're still working out the kinks of how we do this and have a link that's just live. But this is a way to just support the kids and support the program and get the word out to someone anyone in your family. I know Kate reached out to a couple people and and um I also heard back from someone who gave some to his neighbors and his neighbors said, "Where did you get where can we get more of that pasta?" So uh so thank you to Andrea for her

021work on that. We did mention DECA. I also participated in those interviews. Um and again I'm just going to echo what everyone said here that this is a program I was not aware of when I was in school. I don't know was there, but you're given a 10-minute prompt and and you I Blake was the person that um that presented for me and Blake had to come up with the visuals in 10 minutes and an entire presentation of what his what his company has to offer and it was really amazing. It would be amazing even if you had more than 10 minutes to prepare, but the fact that they just have 10 minutes to prepare and it was a surprise and then they're meeting some person across the table and multiple members of the community

022there. Dr. West was participating. So that was um that was a great experience. And um just a couple other quick things again we mentioned a counseling spring advisory. I Eric did send over from Joe Gail um the slideshow that accompanies that. We will share that with the board as well. One of the slides and it speaks to what Kate talks about is a slide that talks about the different kinds of interventions that do happen within the counseling team within the school and it was pretty it was pretty good reminder of all the different roles that they play. And I probably will talk a little bit more about the dream board discussion but I was able to attend the votto Latino candidate forum. Um Selena who's in the audience was there as well. community was there

023and we were able to um I just wanted to compliment the moderator of that forum uh Linda Bario I'm not yes so you're naughty you're naughty I did not know that she had did serve three terms on the force probe school board years and years ago um and is now the director of Unidas for Oregon which is a leadership program of Latino network and she did a really amazing job of setting the tone for forum of moderating of keeping things going and then her summary of just how important it was for people to be able to have respectful conversations and what that looks like. I just um I just really commend her from that. I'll talk a little bit more about some of what we saw during that during the legislative conversation. And so I'll

024go back to Pete and then we'll toss it over to Dr. West. >> And I'm sure Dr. West will have some comments on the congresswoman visit. But I had the opportunity to meet with uh first district congresswoman Suzanne Balamichi at Joe Gale School, Joseph Gale School and walk through classes. Uh editorial comment here. Um, I taught at the middle school and at the high school for almost 30 years and developed, as every middle school and high school teacher does, a feeling of superiority over um, elementary teachers. Elementary teachers were good, but we really did the step where the rubber meets the road there at the high school. And then I when I retired I worked at Pacific evaluating student teachers and one year they were short of elementary evaluators. So they asked me to evaluate

025the elementary school teachers. And if I ever will say again that high school and middle school teachers are the the basis take me out and beat me out. uh leave me in a garbage can or something because I saw then and I saw again uh last week that if elementary teachers screw up, we can't correct the secondary level. Simple as that. They are the basis on which our education is found. So the next time some physics teacher or a chemistry teacher or AP English teacher at the high school says something that disparages elementary teachers, send them to me. Um I'll put the fear of God into them and also explain but then using little words and talking slowly so that they can get it. Elementary teachers themselves of the earth. This has nothing to do

026with the fact that my wife was an elementary teacher for 34 years and I should have figured all that out long before. But Joe Gail reinforced that those teachers are doing an excellent job. Excellent job. Um and that is not to say that our high school faculty and middle school faculty don't know whether it's P. They are also excellent but the groundwork is laid by those elementary teachers and the love of learning for kids is laid by elementary. Um I also had the opportunity today to go visit the uh fill out the some paperwork for students seeking scholarships from the Viking Hall of Fame. These are $1,250 scholarships. So, not $1,250, $1,250 scholarships. Uh, two of which and and the competition is rather tough. So, uh, as a as a member of that committee, I

027also participated in that. I think I'll shut up. >> Thank you. Do you want to try the video again? >> Good. It's It's only a couple seconds. Let's see. Oh, there we go. Do I just click to play? >> Yeah, try again. active care music in the bathroom. Really love it. All right. Thank you. Thank you for repeating. Dr. W, superintendent report. Thank you. Um I'm going to highlight a few things this evening. Um starting with the visit from Congresswoman Suzanne Bonichi. Uh she visited Joseph Gale Elementary School on Friday and it was a remarkable visit. Congresswoman Bonichi is a incredible advocate for education. If you've ever listened to her floor speeches or looked at the legislation she's put forward her entire career has been in support of education. There's other things she does at

028a federal level as well, but education is a significant portion of her work. So we were honored to be able to host her at Joseph Gale Elementary School and the staff there to direct her true access were incredible. We visited two different classrooms. One of which was being taught in English and one interest being taught in Spanish. And in both environments, we saw students engage. We saw discourse, academic discourse taking place between the students at a level that was developmentally appropriate for elementary school. They were engaged in rigorous content in one lesson. They were learning about maggots. I mean, how cool is that? And they were doing some writing associated with the discourse that they were having. um and fully fully into the lesson, which is exactly what you want to see. Um at one

029point when we left a first grade classroom where we have observed students practicing language around fact and opinion, the congresswoman leaned over to me and she said, "Are students really learning about fact and opinion at first grade? that seems very advanced. Um, and so it was a pleasure to be able to talk to the congresswoman about how we're increasing the level of rigor that students have access to, but with supports, with really solid curriculum, and with the professional learning that staff need to do a good job with the lessons that they are instructing students with. So, all in all, it was a great visit. In terms of the classrooms, we did have an opportunity to visit with the congresswoman for a few minutes about the impact of immigration enforcement in our area. She was able

030to speak directly to some of the staff from Joseph Gale who um supported students and other staff during that period of time and discuss what the impacts still are. not only the lingering impacts of trauma and e economic challenges to some of our families, but we still have immigration enforcement efforts in our area. It's become more quiet. So, we don't see it in the same way. So, we were able to talk about that. But on the good side, while we were engaged in these conversations, the congresswoman has been one of the strongest advocates and supporting our immigrant neighbors who had been detained wrongfully. And during these conversations, she learned that one of the Forest Grove residents who was detained unlawfully is being released from Tacoma. So, she was able to during that conversation share that

031information with us. homeless were one day immigration detention centers. So she was able to share that information with us during the conversation that we were having and in fact her and her staff left Joseph Gail to meet um the individual who was being released as she was driving back area. So really exciting to see her efforts play out in real time in that way. So that was an excellent visit and we welcome her back anytime. Um in addition, yes, I also participated in the DECA presentations and they were fantastic. Like everybody said, I learned that you can actually buy influencers. I'm not even quite sure what an influencer is, but apparently there's packages that you can purchase when an influencer will promote your business. And so all new learning to me and it was fantastic.

032Um kids did a great job. I also want to highlight two things that may be of interest to the board and to the community. Um the first is that at the elementary level we are engaging in a pilot around stoic. So that's the first acronym that you see on the left hand side there. And stoic is a framework that helps with behavior management in the classroom. It is more about the teacher moves than it is about the student moves. It helps our educator colleagues think about how to structure the classroom and structure the lesson so that students can be successful within that learning environment. And so stoic stands for structure for success, teach expectations, observe and supervise, interact positively and correct fluently. What you see up there is what the pilot team has put together

033in terms of what is our why for doing this work and then how will we go about doing this work. Um the pilot team, I was able to observe their conversations a couple weeks ago while they were meeting at Tom Hall Elementary School and they were super engaged in this conversation. I was really impressed at the way they were challenging each other with their thinking. Um asking deep and probing questions about what will this look like when we buy this at the elementary level and how might elementary students developmentally be different than our secondary students where stoic and chance are already in place. And so I'm really excited that we have this group of educators engaged in this conversation to help us figure this out and equally excited to see as we eventually roll this

034out across the organization the positive impact that the implementation of STO will have. These are researchbased um efforts that we're undertaking. There's a couple decades now of research that lends itself to these structures as being really effective for organizing a classroom, structuring lessons to provide the optimal amount of success for students. So, more information about that coming soon. Uh the other thing that I want to highlight is our incredible mariachi judicon who are state champs. Every time I see them, I am more and more impressed. Um, they are opening for Latin Grammy awardwinning artist Lanta Cecilia in Portland this Saturday, May 16th at 8:00 p.m. So, if anybody is looking for something exciting to do on a Saturday evening uh to be able to organize for a Latin Grammy Award winner is pretty special. Um,

035and there are still tickets available. I checked before coming to the board meeting tonight. And then the last thing I'll highlight are the data that I have been sharing for the last couple of years. Um, these are our enrollment numbers. And I won't spend a lot of time decoding this since we've been looking at this every month for a while now. I do want to highlight that we are 86 students down in our enrollment projections and that's consistent with what we saw last year at this time. Um, and it's consistent what with what we've been discussing throughout the entire year. The high school and NAMS are the two environments where we are either flat or a little bit up. We are significantly down at the elementary level. And based on our projections, which we've looked

036at, that will be the case for several more years. So everything is consistent with what we know. It's difficult for the situation that we're currently in. Um but despite that, we are still able to maintain class sizes of 24 um nearly across the board. In 912, it's 23. So even a little bit better. So with that, I'll turn it back to you. Could we go back to the stoic slide just for a minute? >> Of course. >> I have a question. if you could share um a couple examples of what that would look like in practice like if >> Yeah. Um so again, Stoic is about the teacher behaviors primarily. So and that's why it's paired with champs. Champs are the student behaviors. So champs will tell students this is the level of volume that

037you should have when you have conversations in the classroom. Stoic organizes the teacher's practice around, for example, what are the expectations that you have of students for this lesson. Reteach those behaviors, retach those expectations so students know on the front end what it is that you're looking for. Um, so what would you see? Probably nothing unless you're actually looking at teachers lesson plans. If you are in a classroom, the way you see this play out is that students understand what the expectations are. The learning environment is set up in such a way that the teacher is circulating the room correcting behaviors that are unexpected in that particular lesson. she's moving around or he's moving around to supervise to make sure that as they are monitoring they're providing the inputs and the feedback to students to

038keep them on pace the pace that's perking. Um if you know what that means you there's not a lot of downtime. students are moving from one task to the other, one learning um opportunity to the other and that the rout routines are practiced or if it is a new routine, it is being practiced. Again, it's the structure for teachers to help students be successful with their own learning. So you it may be invisible because when you walk into a well organized well ststructured class we we don't always see the teacher moves that make it so but there is a lot of intentional planning behind that. What we often see are the student behaviors that tell us that this is a well planned well organized lesson. Does does that help you? Yeah. And I'm wondering this

039is a pilot group working on this in a particular school. Is the pilot what what is the scope of the pilot? >> Yeah, it's across all elementary schools. So again, our secondary schools, especially at the middle school, they're quite good at this. Um, I've been in I think every middle school classroom at this point and they have champs laid out when I walk into the classroom so that students actually know these are the expectations for that particular class, that particular lesson. Um, and so at the elementary level, we have teachers representing every single elementary school. What they're working on right now, as I said, is the why. So why would we undertake this same framework at the elementary level? And then what will it look like for us? What is our how? So they're wrestling

040with these ideas and concepts right now. Um and then they'll be implementing this next year in their schools. We'll learn as they implement and then we'll scale it across the whole organization. Other questions? Thank you. You're welcome. Uh Forest Grove Education Association report. I can I have a report? >> Okay. No report tonight. Unscheduled public appearance. We do have one. The board appreciates community members sharing information during public comments. Public comments can be made in person or through Zoom by submitting the designated form on the web page. Public comments will be limited to 3 minutes as is the protocol of board meetings. Board members will not comment or respond to questions. Public criticism or complaints about school district personnel are not allowed. If you want to come on up to the mic here, I'm going

041to have you state your name and then your topic. Okay, we'll start that way. Hello, my name is Alakina Bell and I'm talking about stipens for the thespian troop. Um, hello forgrove school board members. My name is Alakina Bell and I'm here to discuss youth arts in our schools. I'm a senior from Forskrove High School and the current president of our thespian troop. And this past year, my fellow thespians and I have been hard at work preparing our competition pieces for reason regionals and state. In February, our troop competed at regionals with an array of different pieces. And at our state competition in April, we brought a one act, a monologue, and many technical pieces and won in three different categories: makeup design, short film, and we were also the chapter selected one act. This

042means that we are the only one act chosen to represent all of Oregon at the International Thespians Festival this June in Bloomington, Indiana. We are now paving our way to make the International Thespians Festival a reality for us despite the hefty price tag. While doing this though, we've noticed a pressing issue that weighs heavy on us. Our troop director is not paid for her time working with our troop for the three days that she spent to take us to the state competition and the week that she is now planning to take out of her summer uh for international competition. That also doesn't include all the extra work that she does outside of school hours to make this all possible. Currently, the only payment option offered to her was to take it out of the money

043we fundraised. Um, I was looking into other clubs at our school who compete in and out of state and found that their club advisers get paid a stipen. Examples are FFA and DECA. Just like these other clubs, we are working tirelessly to represent our school across the state and country to show others the talents that our students hold. Without support from our own school board, how can I feel secure knowing that the club I poured so much love and care into can continue continue to thrive after I I graduate? Our current troop director is amazing and inspiring. And if coming here to talk to you all today is a way that I can pay her back for her unwavering dedication to us students, it will have been extremely worth it. I may be scared um

044talking in front of you all today, but the thing that scares me more is losing her as our troop director, which could be the inevitable outcome if her labor continues to go undervalued. Someone like Miss Cooper Munoz is hard to find, and I truly believe you should do everything you can to keep her in the thespian troop director position. I ask that you all please consider creating an extra duty salary for the thespian troop director position. Theater changed my life and I would be devastated if a lack of stipens shut this club down and prevented others from being able to experience the amazing community that is thespians. The workload is too heavy to be unpaid. Thank you >> so much. >> Excellent job on that. Um usually that we do not respond and I will

045not be responding to this point but we do have your uh connections here and we'll we'll be in touch. Thank you. and you did not seem scared. Um, all right. We are going to move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is made up of routine non-controversial items to be voted on under one motion. Are there any items within the consent agenda a board member or the superintendent wishes to discuss separately? Seeing none, >> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Great. We're going to move on to our presentation. Superintendent goals with Dr. with Dr. West. I mean, my brain is saying one thing and I'm giving the words and some doesn't match. Thank you. The um school board asked for a brief presentation

046on the superintendent goals, what those goals were, and some examples of the progress we've made, but also what we're working towards. So, that's what this presentation is. Um I'm going to start by orienting us to the path that I think we are on right now. Um, I do think we have a really solid foundation and we're continuing to nurture that foundation. One of the ways we nurture that foundation is by ensuring that the organization is fiscally healthy and we've had conversations about that the last couple of years. Another way we ensure that foundation is healthy is solid is by making sure that our students have the types of experiences that they deserve. And so there's a a balance here that is tricky. We need to be fiscally healthy and responsible with our resources. We also

047want to make sure that our students have every possible opportunity that we could provide. So what does that look like? Um several years ago, the Forest Grove School District went through a strategic planning process. During that process, the Forest Rose School District identified these maxims that we care deeply, we stand strong and we adapt and grow. These maximums are the foundation upon which we often stand when we are making decisions about where do we dedicate our resources. They inform our entire strategic plan. They inform the conversations that we have with each other and the conversations that we have students and families and the conversations we have about students. As we discussed earlier and director Truax pointed out when students are struggling in our schools, what are the values, the maxims that drive those conversations. So

048these are aspirational. I can't say that in every single conversation, every single person, every single moment that we all model these um but they're important to us and that's why I start by orienting us to those maximums and values. In terms of the goals, these are the four goal areas that I set for the school year that we're currently in and just about wrapping up. Um this is not the entire breakout of the goals. There are statements underneath these that articulate what attainment for each of these goals looks like. But at a high level, there are four goals. One around advancing instructional excellence and alignment. Two, improving literacy and numeracy outcomes for all learners. Three, three, strengthening two-way communication and engagement with staff, students, and families. And then four, ensuring strategic stewardship of human and

049financial resources. Uh, and one more thing about that, you can see there I did align those goals and call out clearly which strategic plan goal that they align to. There's a lot of overlap. So, I probably could have written every single strategic plan goal under each of those four goals, but I tried to highlight where do they most support and align. So in terms of the growth in literacy and numeracy and language acquisition some of the areas that we've made progress is within the science of reading we have a solid start on teachers going through the letters training and I have shared with the board previously that a very early analysis of those teachers who have been through letters training compared to those teachers who haven't. We see greater growth among students in literacy for

050those teachers who have completed letters training. It makes sense when you deeply understand how to teach child to read, you make more progress with the students that you are teaching to read. We've made progress with curriculum alignment. We're bringing in the curriculum that our colleagues, our educators need to do a good job of their instruction. A reference to that were the visits, the classrooms we visited with Congressi. The lessons that she saw in those classrooms were directly out of Amplify, Amplify Literature and Amplify Science. And so through that alignment, we have students all across the district at about the same place at about the same time in the content that they're learning. We still have some work to do around variance and practice, but in terms of the actual curriculum, we are far more aligned

051than we have been in the past. We're also making progress in language acquisition. In fact, where's Dr. Kelly? Dr. Kelly and I were just looking at some data prior to the start of this meeting for students who are still taking ELPA, the English language proficiency assessment for the state of Oregon. and we're seeing some good returns. We we don't yet have a comparison of year-over-year, but we're really encouraged by the number of students that are gaining proficiency. And one of the ways that I think that we are realizing these results a couple ways. One is the introducuction of flashlight 360. The data related to that we brought into the boardroom previously to share how we are regularly assessing students who are receiving English language development services on their progress with their speaking and listening skills.

052Um, the other way that I think we're realizing progress in this area is that for the last couple of years, our teaching and learning team have been very intentional about identifying those strategies that are most impactful that have high evidence of successful progress with our English learners. An example of that is opportunities to respond. our students who are learning English are going to struggle to develop spoken proficiency if they don't have opportunities to practice their English in an academic context. So just by creating those opportunities, we are developing that particular skill set with our students. And then lastly, I'll I'll say this year there's been a particular effort to revisit a framework called constructing meaning which is specifically designed to help our English learners um develop the skills around the content and knowledge, the forms

053and functions of the English language um which collectively I think are are moving us in the right direction in terms of language acquisition. what we're working towards. We just recently completed an instructional framework and there's some really good content on that framework, but we don't yet have all of our programs and systems aligned to that. So, that's an area that we're continuing to do some work. It's not part of our psyche yet. It hasn't quite completely sunk in. So, we we need to do a little bit of work around that area as well. And then alignment and growth will be something that we continue to work on. It will never be completely done. Um for this reason it is really easy to drift. You can go through a professional learning experience. It might take you

054a couple weeks, a couple of months, it could take a couple of years, but as soon as that experience is done and you're in your classroom and you're back to teaching whatever your content area is or your grade level, it's it's pretty easy to drift and to move away from some of those practices that you learn. There's also a limit to what we can learn and then embed within our own practice at any given time. So these professional learning opportunities, many of us here are educators, it's like drinking from a fire hose. And so when you leave those experiences, you may be able to implement one or two or maybe even three things, but the entire experience was a whole framework. And so being able to return to that to reinforce to retach to model

055that is an ongoing process for us that I don't think we'll ever be able to say we're there. And based on our data we currently still have a lot of work to do around growth. Again we're making progress but there is work to do there. Where you can see some of these outcomes play out. These are data that have been shared with the school board previously. the the winter benchmark data that we shared a couple months ago. We right now are in the midst of our spring benchmark testing period. So, we don't have those data yet. But what we talked about when we looked at this a couple months ago is that we are starting to realize the type of growth over time that we know will lead to actual achievement improvement. it's still going

056to take us a little while. And the reason that it takes a while for growth to show up in achievement is that it's not just one or two students that are crossing over that threshold for proficient that will lead us into meeting the state expectation for let's say third grade reading or eighth grade math. We've got to move the whole system. And so when you're looking at growth over time, if we're just looking for example, black is not working. If we're just looking for example, as I'm pointing here at the screen on the right hand side, you see the 25 26 data there for third grade MC class cohort data. We still don't have enough of our students reading at benchmark. We would see more green and more blue there. We need to see a

057lot more green and a lot more blue to actually have that show up in achievement metrics. But we are trending in the right direction. And so that's really encouraging. That tells us that the efforts that we're undertaking are working, starting to work. And that if we stay the course, if we sustain our efforts, if we don't get distracted, if we are careful about drip over time, we will start to see our achievement results improve as well. So, I want to pause here for just a minute before I go on to the next goal. What questions does or have You mentioned drinking from a fire hose. I think that's what I'm doing right now. >> I am able to form questions. Okay. U one thing I want to say before we move ahead. Uh Director Trux

058made a comment that when students leave elementary school, I'm using my words, not yours, but when they leave elementary school unprepared for middle school and high school, it's really challenging to catch them up. Um that is true. There's lots of data to show that and we talk about third grade reading because again there's a great deal of research that show us two things about third grade reading. I'm going to say three things about third grade reading. One, in fourth grade is when we largely switch from learning to read to reading to learn. So if you don't have those early literacy skills really solid, it is difficult to keep up with all of the academic learning that you're asked to engage in. So there is that aspect. Two, it's the Matthew effect. And for those of

059you familiar with this Matthew effect, you you may have heard this explained as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The same effect can be seen in educational data. So when students start to struggle and they start to differentiate from their classmates who are showing growth, it is really difficult over time to catch them up. And what we tend to see across national education data and Oregon education data is the gap grows wider and wider instead of closing. And so these early years of literacy development are critically important for that reason too because it's statistically and even from an effort level it's just hard once students fall below typical growth. And then the last thing I'll say is that I've read some research that absolutely breaks my heart. It is typically by about third

060grade that students decide if they're a great student or not. And it is really difficult to change their mind after that. And so these early years of development matter a lot which is one of the reasons why we spend so much time looking at these growth data and investing in our early educators. All of our educators matter and make a huge difference but these early foundational years are critical to the success of students in our system. >> So I do have a question. Um the issue that I see and been an issue in this district for a long time and I think in other districts is those kids that are dyslexic. They um they know right away by the end of kindergarten that they they don't know their sounds, they don't know their letters. and

061from coming in and being really positive then what ends up happening is there's you know that insecurity motivation and that and so typically what has been said is well let's wait until he he or she is in first grade well then let's wait until they're second grade and then by third grade they're referred for special ed and it is really it's a huge hurdle to get over and because I toured many kids in this district because I went to Orton Gilling um to to try to figure out how do I help these kids? Um but when they're in fifth grade and ninth grade um it's a hole that's very very difficult to dig out and so how are we addressing that because um you know um at an early age that's my question. >> Excellent

062question. Some of that work is being done this summer. So we we were one of the districts awarded a summer learning grant. Um we are taking the opportunity this summer to purchase the intervention material that we don't have. So Director Grandusty, one of the things that I've learned is that we have different intervention material in different schools. It is not systematized across our entire elementary system. And some of those curriculum don't actually meet the needs that students demonstrate. So for example, those of us who have taught early literacy know that if a student is struggling with phmic awareness, we don't use a fluency intervention. We need to provide them instruction in phmic awareness. And so there's gaps in the curriculum that we have available for our educators to use to actually meet student needs. So

063this summer we are using the summer learning dollars to purchase some of the curricular materials we don't have. And then we are providing professional learning to those educators who are joining us for summer programming. And we're doing that with the intention of providing them their own training and learning and then letting them practice with students that are right there in front of them so that they develop the skills to use the intervention curriculum correctly. We'll do that this summer. We'll learn through that process and then we're more more widely push this out across the organization in the fall. We need to couple that along with really robust MTSS systems and that's another area that we need to shore up. Um we have recently re-engaged with a group called Oregon RTI. They're a longstanding group here

064in Oregon and over the last several years they've done quite a bit of work to update their systems in a couple of different areas. one, they've been working with a researcher at PSU to make sure that the response to intervention systems, that's what RTI stands for, the response to intervention systems specifically address those students who are English learners. One of the deficiencies in the prior system that was established is that it was all English focused. And there are real differences in the trajectory of development for those students who are simultaneously bilingual and learning in two languages at once. So they've made that correction and they've also provided the resources and the structures for those who are primarily Spanish speakers. And so that for our district that is really really important. So, we're working with them

065to establish the MTSS systems that will allow us in kindergarten to be able to identify this student is not making expected growth and to start intervening right away and not wait until second or third or fourth or seventh or eighth grade to identify that a student is struggling. We need to do that as early as kindergarten. So to your point, it has not been I will say 100% in place across our district. We do have some pockets like everything we're going to be talking about tonight. We have pockets where it's great. It's excellent. Um but we need that in every classroom, every teacher, every school. And so that is something that we are working on. That's good because a lot of the individuals that I've worked with and also the research says that individuals that

066have dyslexia are very bright and you know to to get to third grade and on and not um implement their gifts because they can't read is is just really tragic. >> Agreed. All right. Um for the next area, belonging and safety. Um so we're making progress with our instructional tools. Um again, this make sure I didn't skip too far. Excuse me. Just one. No, it's okay. Belonging and safety. Um I shared just previously our pilot of Stoic at the elementary level. The elementary level is using packs right now as well. If you visit our elementary schools, you might hear teachers as they're walking with students in the hallway say, "Be a good pass leader." And students put their finger to their mouth and their fingers up. Um, you might see that in the classroom. So,

067we we are at the elementary level teaching some routines and behaviors to help students access their education. But the combination of these three things, we're we're making really good progress with. Again, I highlight the middle level. Um, it's Champs and Stow are being much more consistently used at the middle level this year than I saw last year. So, good progress in that area. Another data point to illustrate just how effective um these routines and the teacher preparation with STOIC can be. If you do a year-over-year comparison of suspensions and expulsions at Neil Armstrong Middle School, I'll focus just on expulsions. For the 2425 school year, Neil Armstrong Middle School had more than 20 expulsions. It might be more than 25. I don't remember the exact number. When I looked about six weeks ago, there were

068four. And so just having the structures in place where students understood expectations that we had the right individuals supporting those students with the right frameworks and language to help students understand what their instructional their academic expectations were their behavior expectations were. It it makes a difference. Um I don't I can't promise that every year will be just four expulsions at but at a level I'd love to say we could get down to zero. Um but those those results are really encouraging and these structures are a part of what led to that result at Neil Armstrong in terms of what we're working toward specific and actionable feedback. So being able to use observational data um and specific and actionable feedback to ensure that the tools that we're working with teachers to develop that they're actually being

069used consistently and doing that will protect instructional time and allow students to focus. Um a little piece related to this, there's been a lot in the news recently around instructional time in Oregon compared to other states. the governor's recent executive order. I just read this morning a summary report from the University of Oregon related to instructional time. And one of the uh areas that they point out where schools can gain more instructional time than maybe they realize is just how classroom time is used. There's a lot of time that is not spent in learning when students are transitioning between tasks or some of them complete a task early and then are not given the next thing to do. They're not given an early finisher task. When an educator is taking a long time to set

070up, that's time students are not learning. So these tools help with that. When we are ready, well structured, students walk in, everything's a go, that we're maximizing all of the instructional time that we have available to us. In terms of what that looks like, I've been talking a lot about New Armstrong and here's another example. Um, we asked our administrators at each school to put together a behavior matrix. Um, the behavior matrix that you see here is not complete. There's a lot of stuff below that. Um, but what I wanted to point out is that for these behavior and discipline matrices that you see here, there's two ways we categorize student conduct um that is undesirable. Either it's a minor behavior, which means it's typically addressed by a teacher or other staff, the types of

071developmentally appropriate misbehaviors that you would expect to see in a middle school. And then there's major and those are more serious behaviors. It might be bullying. It might be cutting class. And those are typically handled by office administrators. What I want to point out though is that regardless of whether it's a minor behavior or a major behavior at Neil Armstrong, they start with are we using stoic and chance? Do we have these structures in place? It's it's just like tier one content academic instruction. We're never going to intervene our way out of an instructional problem. You can't intervene your way out of behavior problems either. You have to have a really solid core. And for behavior, Stoic and Chance provides that solid core for us. on the left hand side, that's a checklist that teachers

072can use to self-evaluate. Do they have all those pieces in place? There are also tools for administrators to use, but I wanted to provide an example of one of the tools that's available for our educators to use themselves as they check to make sure they're ready for students to arrive for the day. What questions do you have before I go on? Does this discipline plan also include the whole launch thing that Neil Armstrong has for those students that are learning maker? >> Yeah, I I really appreciate that question. So Neil Armstrong has a school within a school and that is launch. Um the launch program is specifically designed for students who have been expelled and uh under an expulsion students who are expelled don't interact with the general education student population or for students that

073need a highly specialized environment. There are a couple of students I understand in launch who are struggling to find success in a traditional classroom. And so launch provides a smaller um more intense studentto staff interaction which some students need especially at the middle level developmental level. um regardless of whether they're in launch or whether they are in Miss Kolgan's R class um they are subject to the discipline matrices that you see here. So if there are behaviors that take place which a teacher should address, then Coleman is going to address that in her art class and she knows exactly what that looks like. Those are minor behaviors. If there are behaviors that an administrator should address, then Colin knows she needs to send students to the office or call to the office for support. >>

074Does a lot of people also have fall into that class as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I want to emphasize none of these are perfect. there. I I'd love to say we're perfect, but we we are humans and we work with humans. And so the process of these systems that we are talking about is a constant process of teaching, reinforcing, retaching, monitoring, feedback, teaching, reinfor. We're constantly in this process as we work to improve. Thank you for those questions. Okay, moving on. Um, equity and datadriven decision- making. Um, this is another area where I think we've made a lot of progress. So, the district equity advisory committee, we completed a successful first year. Um, the committee, we're almost done. We do have a couple more meetings ahead. The committee really uh did some pretty intense

075work first collectively trying to wrestle with this question of what is equity? I think if you were to line up a hundred people and ask them what equity is, you might get a hundred different answers. And so we wrestled with that question for a little bit to start with and then once we had some agreements about what does equity mean to Forest Grove School District and how will we work with each other because conversations around equity can become pretty intense. So we wanted to be clear about how we work with each other. Then we started diving into data and the first bit of data that we took a deep dive into were discipline trends across the district and we have a lot of disproportionate discipline happening in our schools. We have some student groups that

076are being disciplined at much higher rates than other student groups. And so that is something that we really need to take a hard look at as a school district. What the district equity committee um decided is that they would help us out by forming a small subcommittee where they started to take a look at our policies related to discipline and to identify where our policies themselves may be leading to disproportionate discipline outcomes. and they've made some recommendations related to those policies and we've started to make those revisions. We brought some loose policies to the board policy committee to take a look at. We're going to continue that work. The next level of engagement with the district equity committee, which we're starting to look at now, is access for students to advance coursework, to CTE opportunities,

077and to electives to see which of our students are actually accessing these courses and which are being successful in these courses. And we're optimistic that given what the equity committee has been able to do so far that they'll help us be better in that area as well. Here's some examples of the different types of data that we looked at with the equity committee. Um the top leftand corner, there's no way you're going to read that. Um those data are the data that we shared related to access to CTE advanced coursework and elective opportunities at the high school level. And it's broken out in grade grades 9 through 12. And then for the overall school in the bottom right hand corner you can see an example of the discipline data that we looked at. This particular

078screenshot is middle school race ethnicity and you can see the disproportionality there. And the team was really great about diving into that asking tough questions and pushing us to think deeply about those data. And then right there in the middle is a screenshot of some of the work that we agreed to do this year. We didn't make it as far as we want wanted to. I think we were ambitious, but that's okay. We we set a stretch goal. Uh we didn't quite make it, but we made really good progress this year, and I'm excited about finishing the year with this team and looking forward to year two. What question may I answer for you? Okay, still drinking from a fire office. I'm almost done. So, in terms of fiscal stewardship and organizational health, we've talked

079a lot about fiscal responsibility and around operational efficiency. Um there are areas within our organization where we have progress to make. We and we've been making that progress. Um, we did some hard work to bring to the budget committee here on Thursday a balanced budget that addresses our structural deficit. And that's been really hard for our organization, but also really necessary in terms of our operational efficiency. We've been prioritizing staffing and other essential programs. Uh, we're looking at operational costs. Uh, we looked at service contracts, material goods. We will talk more about this on Thursday, but all of that was part of our budget process. And then we are diligently working to modernize our HR and our fiscal systems to improve our efficiencies. Um there's there's work to do there. We know what the work

080is. It's going to take us some time to tick away at the list that we have going, but we have the right people in place to do this work. Um, so I'm really excited about where we've already made progress and the work will continue. Uh, we want to continue to invest in pathways for our educators and support professionals so that we're retaining the best talent and we want to continue investing in our leaders as well. second to classroom teachers. School principles are the most powerful impactor of student education. Teachers are the first teacher advocacy. So, we know that we need good leaders in place that have good schools and have good outcomes for our kids. So, we're investing in their development as well. Let me pause before I get to this last slide. What questions

081do you have? Okay, I'm almost done. Um, so commitment is to civility, advocacy, and promise. In education, we I've been in education a while now, and it seems like every two or three years, we chase the next shiny thing. That doesn't help us. We We have to be stable. We have to be focused. We have to set a target and go after that target and really resist the temptation to drift and to get caught up in all of the noise that comes at us on a day-to-day basis. To do that, we have to advocate because some of that noise comes from the state level. And so we need to be able to tell our elected officials that some of what they're doing, although well intended, is actually making it harder for us to educate kids.

082And then we need to continue to fulfill the promises that we've made to our community. That's our focus. That's our commitment. So we're steady, we're focused, we're persistent. That's what's going to get us to the goals that we've set. In terms of my own personal goals, this is supposed to be about superintendent goals. this is how I do my work. So, I'm giving you a little bit of insight, pulling the curtain back just a bit so that you can see as I'm thinking about how do I support the organization? These are the things that I'm asking myself. Are we focused? Do we have the right people in place to be persistent to stay steady as we are as we have all these outside forces trying to pull us away from what matters? That wasn't at

083all brief. What questions may I answer for you? I appreciate that it was not brief um for a couple reasons. If for those of us that were on the board prior, um we have seen elements of what was in this presentation building for the last year and a half. As a board, we have also seen all of these most of what was here, maybe not with the specific examples, which I appreciate. Throughout our meetings, we've made sure we'll talk about that a little bit later during the evaluation process when we have asked Dr. West to bring those things into the meetings. But for tonight, um I did ask for this summary to be prepared. Just I think so there's people in the community sometimes that aren't watching all of this scope and sequence and this

084that was a really nice synopsis I think of where where we're headed mostly which is helpful to see in the context of where we are and then for those of us who've been here where we've been. So I appreciate the thoroughess of that. I I know it was for newer members there was probably more there that was new and those are all things I think we'll ex we'll explore as we move together and bringing more of that into the boardroom to just be able to like you said pull back the curtain I think it's very helpful any other thoughts directors >> thank you um and thank you for the report as I look at these three bullets Maybe this is an unfair question, but connecting these boats to what I observed in the counseling meeting

085this morning, it seems like we are going down the road of dovetailing this stuff together that creating a learning environment where every student matters. That's what they're trying to do with the counseling program, indicating that each student is important and that there aren't students who are being thrown under the ashes of history. Um, and I like that. Um, at the same time they are delivering rigorous and engaging learning that we are not saying, okay, this kid got an F in ninth grade English. We're going to have them write a paper and call it good and we're going to have them do the curriculum that they missed and we'll call it good. there is a there is a sense of rigor that is also in that and I appreciate I appreciate that. >> So I think

086we're heading the right direction. >> Thank you. >> I would just like to say thank Suzanne. Um it's a very good presentation and it's complex and and the thing is that like a a car you can't drive with just two wheels or three wheels. need for and it's so interconnected and so if you have one we one flat tire it's going to not not we need a real connected force in all those elements and I really appreciate you presenting that and u I hope many of our community members are are watching and listening because it's not something that we can change in one day or two days I mean if it takes alignment that takes a community of educators working together and I really appreciate um you being here the second year. I really see

087a difference um in us in the projection and uh and you know I can't wait to see what happens at five. Okay, with that I think we're going to move on to action items. We'll start with the high school health curriculum and amendment to middle school health adoption with Dr. Lyanna Kelly. >> Hi. >> Hello. Um a few weeks ago Dr. Lomaley brought forward um some health adoption items and at the time we weren't quite ready to bring forward high school um but we are now. There are two pieces on your board packet. The first um the high school team met together with me and we went through um a great process of looking at um health standards for the high school and looking at live well curriculum and they decided unanimously that this is

088the the right program to move forward with the right curriculum. Um so we are um proposing to move forward with that for the high school um for one year at a time. However, it's a six-year adoption, but the financial piece we're we're going to do one year at a time. The second piece of this is that when we went through the approval for the middle school, that was also supposed to be a one year at a time and on the paperwork it said six-year and we are trying to watch our budget. So, we want to make sure to uh amend that so that it is just one year. So, this is a approval and then an amendment. Any questions on that? Madam chair. >> Yes. >> Certain thing on my mind. Um I move to

089amend the subscription for Livewell Middle School Health curriculum for one year cost of $38,368. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Post. >> Madam Chair, I also move to approve the adoption of Livewell High School health curriculum with a one-year cost of $55,880. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I post. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Item two, Tom McCall upper elementary roof replacement of director. >> Good evening. Um tonight we only have one bond project to have for you of your approval. Um it's the Tomakall Upper Elementary School barrel roof replacement and we're looking at going through Garland and doing a 30-year warranty. um for the roof. Garland was able to do three quotes. One with McDonald Wed West Coast Roofing and

090then JR Sig SW Spur Company. Um administration is recommending the board approve the barrel roof replacement through Garland with McDonald Wed for $495,286 using the 2022 bond funds. questions. >> When will the roof replacement take place? >> During the summer >> and I have a question. Um, a community member asked me when we are doing these quotes and they're watching the board with the options that are in the packet. The question was, why aren't there other quotes that are much much lower? Or can you explain how the district chooses different people for quotes? So, we're required to get three formal quotes for anything over 25,000. Anything from 25,000 to 250,000, we have to get three formal quotes. That's why there's typically only three in each bid um or each approval process. uh anything over 250

091we have to go out through formal RFP and at that point we could get one response we can get 25 responses and so it's about the process and um the different price points >> okay thank you that explains it a lot better than that I would ask thank you um motion move to approve the Tom Hall east roof replacement through Garland with McDonald for 495 $5,26 utilizing the remaining 2022. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> All right. Thank you. >> Out of state trip request for the Basian troop. Dr. West. >> Yes. Thank you. I'm really excited to bring this to you. As we heard during public comment, we have a pretty incredible bestian troop. Forest Grove High School Thespian troop 5712 is requesting approval for out of state

092travel to Bloomington, Indiana to participate in the international thespian festival scheduled for June 21 to 26 of 2026. The troop qualified as finalists and state representatives in the categories of makeup design, short film, and ensemble one act. Participation in this national level event provides students with the opportunity to showcase their talents, engage with peers from across the country, and further develop skills in theater arts. Total cost is approximately $23,000 which includes the cost of lodging, food, airfare, and full access to the festivals, plays, and workshop opportunities. The troop and their families are strategically fundraising through multiple avenues to cover the cost of this trip. Questions, how many students are in this troop that are going on? >> You know, I don't know the total number of students in the troop. I did see them perform

093on Sunday and I noted about a dozen students. I'm gonna look to our students. There's 10. So, my estimate was pretty close. The other question I had is I believe in the Friday memo was highlighted for the board um by Dr. West. This this was happening with um with some connections for how people could support the fundraiser. one of which just happened um at the theater this weekend. I know the board has seen that and I've elevated it with people in my networks. Is that something that the community could access as well if you were not I mean how would people get to know where >> that's something that we can highlight. Yeah, we'll work on some communication around that. Okay. >> All right. So this uh question so these 23,000 covers about those 10

094participants that are uh going so about 20 2300 for each student. Is that what that is? >> So 2,300 for each student for each student. >> Okay. And that doesn't include any adults or anything else just the student. >> And no it does cover their chaperon. >> Okay. So it covers the chaperon as well. And is there like a timeline like I know the festival itself was 21st through 26th of June like a timeline when they're hoping to raise those have to pay it >> by. Would one of our students like to come back out of the microphone? >> Hello. >> My name is Elan. Um, we have to pay the first payment by May 13th and we've already fundraised that first payment worth of money. Um, which is around $15,000 or $15 to $17,000.

095And then the rest is an airfare which we would like to buy the tickets as soon as possible but doesn't have as strict of a deadline. >> Thank you. Follow the motion. I move to approve the Forest Grove High School Fespian Troop 57112 request to attend the International Thespian Festival in Bloomington, Indiana from June 21st to June 27 of 2026. >> Is there any discussion? >> Yes, there is couple of things. One, again, this is going back to ancient history, but when Mickey Johnson was the drama teacher at Forest Grove High School, he would during spring vacation take a group of kids down to Hashund for the Shakespearean Festival. Did that on his own time. He got a a van or from the district and and and basically drove it himself. Ellen Stevens, the late

096Ellen Stevens, who was principal at the high school, got wind of this and told Mickey that if it's worth going to, it's worth going to on the school's time, not his. So, she instructed him not to do it during spring vacation, but to do it during school time because it was part of the basically she said it's part of the curriculum for for his drama classes. and he went and they hired a substitute for him when he took when he took the kids down. That's what I would like to see active participation on the part of the school district to make this a class project field trip if you want to call it that. It's not going to help now. is not going to help in June, but maybe down the road we start adjusting

097things uh to allow for that kind of um that kind of help. It doesn't solve the problem that was raised earlier this evening, and I'm not going to address that. But it it just seems to me that one of the things that I've learned, probably the only thing I learned in 20 years teaching is that a kids a student's success is in large part measured by how connected they are with the school. They look forward to going to school. they're going to succeed nine times out of 10. And if they go look forward to going to school because of Mr. Johnson or because of the secretary in the elementary school that is so nice to them and reminds them to put their jacket on before they go outside. or if it's the lunchroom monitor that

098asks how the family is doing. If there is or the football coach, if there is a reason for the kid to go to school, there is a reason that they get up in the morning and say, "I want to be in that building with this person or with this activity or with this class." And some kids go to school because they love algebra. got to work on that. Um, it's it gets them it gets them through school. It gets them connected and is a connection. I'm going to vote yes on obviously. >> Thank you, Pete. So and and there are many people in the community that are constantly asking what can we do for the schools what can we do for the schools and so I think it's things like this it's supporting this group

099it's buying the fosta so again when people are asking us how can they help in any capacity I think this is another opportunity where people are willing to step in they just don't always have something in front of them to to do so I think any way we can elevate this would be helpful and then Kate >> question u so what is what is the fundraising. Is there somewhere online where we can go ahead and >> Yeah, there there is a gofundme or donors choose a gofundme gofundme that the students have set up. Um and so we'll push that information out so those who want to access it can do so. Um I I want to agree with Pete, but one of the other aspects to supporting theater or exposure to libraries or to the

100music program. These people a lot of times when you leave high school, you'll ask people, "What was your best time?" and it's oh when I was in in a play or when I was in the orchestra or I mean sure football and basketball and all of those things but the our students will eventually become adults and they will eventually become voters and we need them to support you know theater. I mean Ashlin is a golden gem of the state of Oregon. people come from all over the world to go there and you know the bands that we have and the orchestra that we have um so it's really important yes we need to focus on reading writing and math but we also the arts are critical the arts are critical to the soul and and

101um and we need it all and I know we have limited budget and I know we're all in agreement but I just want to say that when our students participate in things like this, it's it's huge. I mean, it's just really really huge. And so, uh, any way that we can support them and next year finding a way to also support, um, this club, I'm I would really support that. >> All right, I think with that, we're ready to take a vote. All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. All right, motion passes. Moving on to the DECA out of state trip request. Thank you. Polish Grove High School DECA group has submitted an outofstate overnight trip request to attend the sports and entertainment marketing conference in Orlando, Florida from January 27th, 2027 through February

1021st, 2027. Students will be immersed in workshops receiving behind the scenes tours. They'll participate in valuable DECA networking opportunities with chapters from around the country. This request involves three days of that should be two days two days of instructional loss time. Um it is three week days they'll be the students will be gone but one of those days is actually a grading day. So it's only two days of loss instruction. The cost of the trip will be $2,200 per student with opportunities to fund raise this fall and winter. And this is a trip that DECA takes every single year. and take a group of students to this particular marketing conference questions >> and you expect to lead fundraising as well, right? >> Correct. >> I move to approve the Forest Grove High School Vea Group's

103request to attend the Sports Entertainment Conference on Orlando, Florida from January 27th to February 1st, 2027. >> And I second. >> Any discussion? Moved. All in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right, we are moving on to superintendent. >> I just I have to say um Deca is going to Orlando and you guys are going to Bloomington. You need to get out more often. >> Dr. Tra, you're out on the dice up here. Okay. Uh we're going to move on to superintendent evaluation and we uh tonight we do have let's see I wanted to briefly share again and we did this last year and thank you to Bethany for um for getting this ready for for members of the community. This is a process like I've spoken about earlier that we go through

104and we really tried to make this uh as public and in front of the community as we could. I I think this is unique in how much of what we see for the superintendent evaluation is brought into the boardroom and for the community. So we start with a a work session with cabinet, superintendent and school board where we work on the goals together. Three new board members will get to experience that work um well yeah coming up this year. Superintendent evaluation and timeline is approved in open session. The monthly superintendent report is one of the ways that we actually hear from Dr. West of what's happening in the schools. That is part of what we use when we take into account um when we have that conversation about the evaluation the quarterly benchmark assessment and

105interim progress on goals which are again brought in for the community into the boardroom. That is where the board asks questions. We have discussion uh much like what you saw here tonight. On January 27th, there's a midyear reflection where it was a work session and this is where we do look at articles of evidence that we've agreed on. We all agreed on what are those articles that we're looking for? What are the outcomes in the fall that we're looking for? And this is a chance for us to take a take stock of where that is. Again, asking questions um and again something for the community to be able to to watch and give feedback about questions they may have. And then unique to the because this is a superintendent evaluation. It is every board will

106do this next piece in executive session because it is personnel discussion and that is when the superintendent prevent uh presents a self value self reflection to the school board. The superintendent then will leave that executive session and that's a chance for the board to talk amongst themselves um and have follow-up questions. We look at evidence together. Much of the evidence we look at is evidence that has again been brought into the boardroom. But this gives us a chance to each share individually about our individual conversations with Dr. West and questions that have been brought up around that. And then we together take that feedback and then the board chair compiles um kind of a final uh evaluation statement. We then have a second executive session and that's one one we just had last week and

107that is when the school board meets again with the superintendent to look at that final or semifinal uh reflection and evaluation and the board then deliberates and decides if we if we are in agreement in what was there. So we did uh we will vote tonight on the summary of evaluation. The last piece that's a little confusing if you're not a board member and haven't heard this is that we don't actually share that evaluation in the public meeting because it is a not a public evaluation. What we do share is a summary of what the board uh believes is the best way to sum up for the public of where we are with this. So that is what I'm going to read at this point. And it's a lot to read there. I'm reading it

108out loud, but I did ask Bethany if she would put it on a slide so people watching would be able to capture that and read along as well. I'm going to start with a quote from Dr. West. We have weathered a year that tested our resilience, yet we have done so while building a stronger foundation for our students. This statement drawn directly from Dr. Suzanne West self-reflection reflects several key components of her leadership and vision. The board considers her performance during the 2526 school year to be strong and impactful. First, it acknowledges her ability to lead meaningful change despite significant disruption and trauma experienced by students, families, and staff due to federal immigration policies and budget adjustments. Second, it highlights her continued focus on improving academic and instructional excellence while identifying a myriad of systemic

109procedures and policies that have required immediate attention. Finally, and perhaps most notably, it reflects her commitment to collective leadership as demonstrated through her consistent emphasis on the work that we do together. Her leadership style empowers her team to lead the organization through change together. Throughout the year, Dr. West has shared progress in multiple board meetings and for the community. This board recognizes strong data that shows student growth with a particular focus on literacy, a consistent presence in our classrooms and our community that informs her practice, and an ability to make the hard yet necessary decisions for the long-term health of our school community and systems. This board has high confidence in Dr. West leadership and performance as we move forward with a focus on aligning highquality instructional practice for the 2627 school year. We are

110grateful for the steady, informed, and compassionate leadership that she provides for our district in this role. And I do want to thank the board and Dr. West and Bethany for all of the time that goes into this process. Every board does this process differently. Um I think our board has really leaned into making it very comprehensive and we're constantly thinking about how we can improve and doing that together. And um with that I think we're going to move to Oh that would be necessary. May I say something first? >> Yes of course. Um so similar to last year and I appreciate you acknowledging in the summary that you shared um a superintendent don't work alone and it may be a lonely chair that a superintendent sits in. All of the responsibility falls on that one

111person but it's a team that does this work. And so thank you to my team for the work that they do every single day. A lot of it is completely invisible to people in the organization and the community, but when they're not working as a team and when systems falter, we certainly see it. So, I I just want to acknowledge the good work that they're doing and thank them for that. Thank you. To approve the superintendent evaluation for the 2025 and 2026. Any discussion? Um again, um Dr. Thank you for choosing Force Group. I remember when we interviewed you and um I just so thrilled. Um you've made a huge difference, you and the organization and the trajectory that we're on. Um I just feel like we're really on the right track and thank you

112so much and thank you for the community of the whole organization because it does take a team and thank you for the board. the board has done a good job. Everybody working together and putting in the time and it takes it takes a community takes a village. So thank you. >> Dr. Tress, your paragraph, it highlights your continued focus on improving academic and instructional excellence. And the sentence that precedes it first, it acknowledges their ability to lead meaningful change despite significant disruption and trauma experienced by students, families, and staff. And I would expand what why those problems have occurred, not just due to the federal immigration policies, but I am also, and Congresswoman Bonamichi alluded to this, and maybe I'm stepping a little bit out of bounds here, but my concern is with the basically

113the total collapse of federal support for education And I don't use the word total lightly. Um the people that are in charge of our federal education policy to be unkind is is but to be direct. They don't have a clue. And we are a drift without any federal legislation or federal action that supports the teacher in the classroom. And that's where the rubber meets the road. Despite all of that and despite some of the actions that our state legislature has taken, which are also not designed to help with education, um we're still fighting the battle. We're still manning the ramp parts and doing what we need to do in order to make sense out of this myriad of educational morass that we're facing. And Dr. West, you are helping lead that charge in a much

114more polite way than I might be doing. um you understand where the where the levels are. You understand what the what the actions are that need to be taken and you dispassionately point that out to us. Uh you don't throw things against the wall to see what sticks. Um you're doing it in all all the right things for all the right reason. Thank you. >> I'll shut up. Anyone else? All right. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> All right. Motion passes. And yes. Thank you. Just like it takes a team to do the work that the district needs to have done. Supported forward makes all the difference. So I appreciate each and every one of you including our student adviser. Couldn't do this without a perspective. Thank you. Um, with the

115school board's agreement, um, I'd like to engage in a conversation with Chair Ki about continuing my contract if that is something that the board is interested in doing. >> Yes. >> All right. Yeah, I think we have that. So, we'll take that offline. Thank you for that and thank you for all of your support. It's it's been tremendous. >> All right. Um we we do have time tonight to have a board discussion about legislative candidates and a and a process. I think this is a new process that this board has done. What we did publicly was come up with some questions that we thought all candidates who and really not all even all candidates but maybe just community members would have to anchor to when we're talking about our needs in the district. We develop

116those questions. We then emailed the questions um to all of the candidates who were running and and then as a chair I reached out individually to each of those candidates to make a connection to see if there was additional conversations that wanted that we wanted to have and I know individually each of us have approached that differently because this process is new. Um, I'd like to take just a not a long time tonight, but I'd like to hear from each director first about the process itself and if it helped at all in your interactions with candidates, if it if it made a difference in how we do this work or how we have these conversations and um and just surface that I think each one of us have have interacted with candidates in different ways

117and then some not in personal ways but on social media. media or through people in the community. I know we had members of the community asked to use our questions for different forums that were that were held. And I personally have been to I went to the Votto Latino forum. I' I've been to several different forums and conversations. I've had conversations with many, but not all of these candidates in person. And I'm still really struggling with how we do this work. I think what I've been most surprised by is how many people in our community aren't voting, aren't planning to vote, and how many actually don't even know who the candidates are when I'm in conversation or I'm at the doors talking about candidates or platforms or the schools. And I'm wondering if if some

118of the work eventually that we actually need to do first or maybe in tandem with this is how do we help our community be more engaged? I myself, not being a social media person, I do not do social media. Um, and I rarely even go online to see what's going on. So my interaction with candidates is completely different. Um, and that's making me wonder what am I I'm what am I missing? So, as a board, what's useful as a board is to hear different perspectives, I think, and maybe flush out was some of this useful or not. Um, and I think we'll just start there. And I think we'll start with Alma just what you thought about the process itself, us as a board trying to maybe elevate the conversation for the community. And then

119maybe you personally, you know, what? >> Yeah. No, I think I think it's good that we asked those questions and we put them out there for um for the candidates. I believe only two maybe responded to them. Um which gives me a huge perspective as a community member, as a parent, um doing having a business in the community as to who who actually is putting in the work. um you know and coming forward and taking the time to at least answer some questions than we have um here at the board of at district level. Um it shocked me that only those responses were there. Um I really was expecting a lot more from the team that we are voting to be our leadership team. Um unfortunately I didn't see that. And so you know going

120back to what you mentioned which was the community not knowing the candidates. I think that's very true. I I think a lot of it will those that do have social media and go have social media. I think that's the platform that they go with sometimes versus actually attending town halls or you know making the time for something else where um you can hear from them directly and and get to know them. Um I mean social media is not a super reliable platform to get to know someone. Um there's a lot of gray areas in social media. So if I I have the same question as you do, you know, what can we do? How can we communicate? Um because it does matter and it's really important even as a real estate agent, you know, when

121I'm out there. Um and and I have clients that are looking into purchasing in in our district or, you know, in in in our town. Um those conversations sometimes get brought up, you know, like how's our district? uh what's the health of it, how are the schools, you know, all that is very important. So, we definitely need to have a supportive um group of leadership behind um affordable housing, any you name it, everything that comes along with that. So, um a lot of our community either doesn't vote because they don't know them or will just go ahead and maybe coin toss and see who they vote for. Um which is very unfortunate. So I'd be Yeah, it'd be great to find some sort of connection. Were these questions these questions were open to the public,

122right? >> Yeah. >> So yeah, I would say just getting maybe the community uh the link as well and seeing for themselves who answered and what those you know answers were. I think that's the especially in our community. I mean the school is the school system is really >> important. stuff. Um I guess I just want to share that I was astounded by how many candidates we had um in various positions. Um I think it reflects both of kind of our community's desire for change and the district's need for growth and progress. Um I also want to acknowledge that change can be difficult but it's also necessary. Uh without change we become fairly stagnant and I believe our community kind of deserves the opportunity to grow. So, I think our conversations we've had about kind

123of what questions we want to ask of our leaders and our candidates and what we want to see as we move forward has been a great conversation and like it's um I think it's important for us to kind of collectively agree on what we value and what we want to see in a representation. Um I found myself kind of reflecting a lot on the importance of leadership that goes beyond just statements. Um, and so kind of like Anna said, a lot of it is just what's on social media and what's being said. But I kind of want to see some action behind the scenes that um kind of being more engaging as not only a school board director but also as a community member and kind of challenging myself and encouraging others to challenge themselves

124to go out and seek those opportunities to talk to their uh candidates and kind of see what those statements are and kind of ask them what actions will be behind those statements as we move forward. Um, so I hope to see more open communication and engagement as we keep moving forward. Those are some of my thoughts about the process. Um well today I was um out and about and I was listening to NPR and they were talking about the candidates uh running in the state of Oregon and I was really surprised that 49% of individuals are not affiliated with any um not Democrat Republican nothing. And when you look just within Forest Grove and Cornelius, how many people usually vote? It's maybe 3,000 between 3,000 4,000. It's pretty low. And um so, and I've been

125on the board for a while. This is the first time these questions that a board has come up with questions. And I I think it's I think it's I think it's wonderful. I think I might have mentioned, but maybe I didn't, that you share these questions with the other board chairs within Washington County because I I keep looking and thinking about, you know, since 2011, um it just doesn't seem like there's any um real consistent action by the legislators to really engage with what is really reality in each of these school districts. And so one of the thoughts I have is um is to send these to these candidates and say please you know submit in writing your response to this. The other thought that I had um is that I've been disappointed by the

126newsletter of candidates. Not all of them but the majority of them. It looks like it's a photo op with no meat or accountability. So when a legislator goes to a town meeting and makes statements that are inaccurate, there's no followup on correcting that. And that really bothers me because there's an assumption and um that you know that that person is giving an accurate statement and they're not. The other thought I had was I think it has to be really asked each and everyone that's going to run. How do you plan on engaging a force grow to school districts um educational at the board and the superintendent on a regular basis? U making a statement at a town hall meeting saying I'm in I'm in contact with the superintendent and the board members. You know what

127is that? I mean, because I've been here and when one candidate says, um, I've never been invited to a board meeting, um, it's an open meeting. And, and then when one candidate says, um, I meet with the board with all the board members, never been never met oneonone with the board member. So, um, I I'm disappointed and I think I think this is a beginning of a tool to start having candidates be more accountable. And I know it's the beginning, but it'll be tweaked, but it's really really essential. But it's it's about our kids and our school district and the funding. The federal the federal government has gone crazy. And so um but these are our future. These are our doctors. These are our nurses. These are our technicians. These are our plumbers. These are

128all the things that we need in our life as we age. So um um so there was one last thing but probably I thought too long but I I think that there has to be more accountability by these candidates and they shouldn't have to have a personal invitation to come to kill me and one candidate that's running has never except two weeks ago or a month ago come to a boardroom and that to say that I go to board meetings and and um it upsets me. Um so we have to collectively work with in Washington County and um and I think this is a beginning as I said but um we have to hold them more accountable and also recognize that 49% of the people are not affiliated as a Democrat, a Republican, independent. they're

129just not affiliated and there's a real low turnout of voters in the state and so it's I don't think one person can do something but I think collectively I think we can be a voice and um I want to say Christie thank you for doing this and the rest of the board helping put this together because I it's the first time I've seen it that I've been on the board in 20 I come to this board with a little bit of experience in legislative offices. Um, and this is the first time I've seen this number of candidates run in local elections in regional elections. And this is not the first, but it's the most it's this is the most divisive election I've run into in a long, long time, if not ever. Um the amount

130of mud that is being swung uh in in all of our races is unbelievable. Give me a reason to vote for you. Don't give me a reason to vote against somebody else. That's I guess what I feel and have the gorge rising in me when I go to the mailbox and I see some of the literature that is out there. Um, we ought to be pushing our own candidate, our own candidacy, not trying to bring people down who are making the same kind of commitment to the public uh that we all are making. That's that's one thing. And I think these questions help get around that issue. Let's not use a forum to criticize somebody. Let's use the forum to answer the questions. Um, this negativity just and I'm going to show my age here.

131It takes me back to 1964 when Barry Goldwater was running against Lyndon Johnson for the office of president. The Johnson campaign ran one television commercial only once. But over 50 years later, over 60 years later, we still talk about the girl pulling the petals off of the flower and then the shadow of the nuclear explosion. It aired once and we still talk about it. It was the wrong idea at the wrong time. We find ourselves getting much more and getting the same kind of sleas today and we don't react to it. We just brush it off and move on. That commercial did not cause Lynden Johnson the presidency. He won in a landslide because of a variety of other issues. But the discussion within Democratic party circles at that time was we can never afford

132to do this again. And we can't afford to do that today. And the questions that we are posing to the various candidates give us an opportunity to say let's get rid of he said she said and let's find out what the objectives are of the candidates and how well they match up to our feelings, our beliefs, our core values. I think these questions go towards that. But I'm also deeply concerned that all of the negativity gets all of the attention. >> Thank you, >> Maya. I think that the board came up with these questions and they they were really good questions that kind of brought different perspectives together and I think hearing that only two candidates responded out of the many that had kind of show where we are as a community if that makes

133sense. um and how we really I I think I really agreed with K when she said it's kind of about accountability um and how it's about stepping up and showing what you want to do and that doesn't really show um through these responses that we're getting. Um at the same time I think that these are people that are going to be changing our future for sure. It's not something small but something grand like a large scale if that makes sense. And it it shows a lot that not all of them are willing to take the accountability and answer these questions. And like Pete said, it's not really about pointing fingers and saying like, you know, if you wrote this, a person like this will happen, but instead kind of showing what you plan to do

134as yourself. And other than social media, my only I guess other idea would be kind of coming into the community and speaking about that like your like your own plans that accountability that you take um so that we don't end up with a public that just kind of flips or coins votes on whoever. And my what what what do the students when you talk in ASB about the adults out here in the world and your perspective on how we're all doing this? What is that conversation with students? Are they noticing that? Are they is it just not on the radar? I think a lot of the times when we do have these conversations, it's these major kind of events that bring attention to the schoolboard and what we do and also just kind of what

135the big figures around the community do. But we never talk about the smaller kind of details or even like when elections like pass, it doesn't really catch the attention of students because nothing is really marketed to them if that makes sense. And I think what I've heard a lot from my peers is that school for us is kind of just a train stop and we're going to keep moving. So there's really there's no reason for us to take a stance or to hear out candidates because we're not going to be affected in the sense that we will be moved on by the time things like this happen. Um and a lot of them just aren't sure what happens at this level. They're not sure what they can do and they they don't really understand the

136roles. So most of the time it's just a blurration of them. >> Thank you. Uh, I mean, I agree with most of that, almost all of it. And I think my experience has been I've been I've had the one-on-one conversation um that was the most important and that was a conversation I had with Harold Hutchson and he was one of the first to turn in the questions and those are posted on our website for people to read and that was a 45minute conversation where we we have a completely different viewpoints on a few things but within that conversation he learned some things about the school district that he did not realize and and he and I came to an understanding around shared values. And I think that experience with with him and that conversation is

137what I'd like us to try to get to. I don't know that these questions got us close to that and I would think moving forward we might think about more of what you just said Maya or is getting when we can sit down with people and have a conversation. And I've also I talked with I mentioned this before with Juan Carlos Gonzalez. I went to the Hillsbor town hall that format of the town hall. I was talking about this with Pete earlier. I don't think that's conducive to a conversation. I know the school board format of public comment. It does not allow for the kind of conversation. um the photo Latino forum which was again all these forums are set up differently and I compliment the moderator for setting up respectful boundaries and guidelines of

138how we communicate. I do feel like the candidates in that particular forum talked more about what they would do. However, at the close of that forum, there was a very performative moment that was live streamed apparently and and it was it was saying just it was saying things it was saying things in a way that I don't think we we do not want to be communicating that way. we've talked about in this boardroom like how do we show that respectfully and how as adults adults do we make sure that we're showing that no matter what the form but the form itself I think is that that form doesn't work now I think what we need to have is the conversation um and there's a couple candidates still I could not get a hold of the

139candidates I actually had to reach out to a candidate in Beaverton to connect me with a candidate that was running for my own district and I've had other candidates that call and are texting me questions about school district. So, it's kind of run the gamut. I haven't been able to get a handle on how do we how do we do this? But, it was a it was a starting point. And I think I'm just going to end I mean several of you mentioned um maybe Dr. West mentioned the outside forces that pressure a system or I think and we've talked about engagement, engagement, engagement. That's a board goal. I think this is pretty much the same theme with this. This did not do much to increase engagement, but maybe what it did was make us

140realize, whoa, we are really going to have to do something a little differently. And the two differences that I've noticed overall in candidates in general, at least in our district, it feels like there's candidates that are approaching the work as a we do this together, wanting to know on the ground what the needs are first, and then it feels like there's candidates that that piece comes later, that they are working for a bigger agenda. And I think it speaks to to what you hear when people get on a school board. People run for the board and they think I'm going to do this when I'm on the board, but you hopefully get on a board and realize, no, the board is going to work together with the superintendent to move in one direction. So, I

141I mean, I'm I'm wrapping it up by saying out of all of that, we've got work to do there, but what I what it really made me reflect on is Resa, you mentioned it, too. How how do we do this work? Are we out in the community enough? Are we actually going out to ask people how we're doing? Well, I mean, we are in some ways, but I'm looking at myself now to make sure that, you know, maybe it starts here with this modeling. And what I've been so happy and proud about with this board and this district is it feels like everybody is genuinely trying to work together and trying to do the work based on what the students need instead of board boards thinking we know what everybody needs. And that's compliment to

142Dr. West leadership but also to the members of the board who I think are thinking in that bigger sphere and that is the conversation we've just been through this budget and the conversations people with me have have about the budget. I found that parents in general approach the conversation as a we what what do we all need to do and then there's other people that approach the conversation with me as board and they say what are you doing you're not doing and it's a it really kind of a perspective of how do you think about are you thinking of this as a we or are you thinking of this as a you and a and a them and I think that's kind of gets to this bigger core issue of how we build community where

143we all see that we're we That's a lot. And we didn't get into specifics. We do have two candidate um questions posted on the website for people to read. I know we have one more coming in. I I received a call and it was a family thing that happened. But um I just encourage anyone listening to vote and Kate has a little network where they just call and get five more people to vote. But even reminding a friend of yours, no matter who they're voting for, to just vote might be our first task, right? Getting that engagement back. How do we engage our legislator to come? How do we get them in here? That's that's a great question. We're still working on it. I mean, we have invited legislators. We have literally invited on the

144for the budget committee. We invited both our sitting Senator Soulman and Rev. Mlan. Rev. Mlan has I believe is planning to to come. Um, but that is a great question and but I think what you know legislators across the state and Pete could correct me on this don't typically come to their council or board meeting unless they quote have to. I mean it's not a practice and again it comes back to thinking about how we do the job. And one of the changes I've made is I get Brian Shiml's newsletter which summarizes city stuff. And let's be honest, I love that newsletter but I'd always just read the first news stories. Well, this whole process made me think, you know what, what's my accountability? I'm going to read that old newsletter and I'm reading that

145section about transportation even though I don't want to because I want to be involved. So, it it does come back to maybe individually like looking at ourselves. How can we each be more accountable to some of this in a capacity that we can, >> but we have to make them. >> You talk about this a lot on Yes, work on that. That's the goal. >> Yes. I mean, absolutely. >> This all goes back to silos for me. Yes. When you talk about accountability, when you talk about >> uh reading uh councelor Shiml's newsletter on transportation, transportation impacts students, housing impacts students, housing impacts education. Um the Maslo's hierarchy is pretty accurate. If a kid doesn't know where he's going to sleep that night, parsing sentences doesn't get real high on the list of important things

146to do. If a student is being abused by an uncle or an older brother or father figure. Um again uh education doesn't doesn't really matter. Survival does. And we got to we have to get away from that and say rather than say okay we've talked about education now let's talk about housing. We talk about education and we talk about housing and we talk about transportation and we talk about child care because they're all connected and nobody in Salem or in Washington DC or various city halls across this great state has convinced me otherwise. And maybe I'm just out there in the ozone all by myself. And I like to think there are people that say, "Yeah, we need to we need to look at this holistically." And I have some other weird ideas, too, about

147having all shot. >> And with that >> with that, >> let's get out of here. We'reing at 7:50. 674.