001Mhm. >> April 4th, 2023, Forest Hills School District Board of Directors work session is called to order at 5:30 p.m. Roll call of board members present. Alma Lozano. Here. Lisa Franco is absent. Kate Grandusky. Here. Pete Truex. Here. And Maya Andrade is absent and Christy Cottrell is here. We're going to move right into our work session topics tonight and the very first one is an introduction of Dr. Doyle Holtzman, who will be our new principal at Tuality Plains and I'm going to turn it over to you, Dr. Ernest. Great. Thank you. Should use this. Um so it is my absolute pleasure to introduce Dr. Doyle Holtzman as our new principal for Tuality Plains High School. Doyle will be taking over on July 1st officially when the new year turns over for Tim Gram, the retiring
002principal. We are really excited about Dr. Holsman and his experiences that he's bringing to us here in Forest Grove School District. Um, Dr. Holsman has experience in alternative schools, so he brings a really important lens for our students and is also also multilingual and Spanish is one of the languages that Dr. Holsman speaks, which will be really important for our students and to all of the Plains. Um, up on the slide there, you can see some information about our new colleague, um, but I want to offer, Doyle, is there anything that you'd like to say to the school board or to those watching at this time? Yeah, just that I'm I'm thrilled to be here. Yeah. Great. Um, well, again, we are super excited. Um, Dr. Holsman has already spent some time visiting with the
003staff and the students, um, and we look forward to all of the great things that he's going to bring to, um, the high school next year. So, welcome to Forest Grove School District. We're excited. Thank you so much. And next, we're going to hear about our RAMP achievements from, uh, uh, counseling team. I'm going to also turn that over to Dr. West. Thank you. I'm going to provide a very brief introduction and then I'm actually going to turn it over to Cassie Kenny. Um, so I want to take a moment to recognize the work happening across our district and, uh, specifically related to school counseling. In 2026, there were only four schools in the state of Oregon that achieved RAMP status and Forest Grove School District is proud to be the home of three of
004those four. So, that's pretty remarkable. Three out of four of the schools in the state, not just our community in the state, are here in Forest Grove. Um, so congratulations to the teams at Forest Grove High School, Neil Armstrong Middle School, and Joseph Gale Elementary for earning this distinction. Um, I also want to recognize Tom McCall Upper Elementary, which achieved RAM status in 2025. An incredible accomplishment that continues to reflect the strength of our counseling programs. I think one of the best aspects of this is not only the great services that we're able to provide to our students for achieving RAM status. There's a pretty cool plaque to go along with it. Right there. Thank you for the show and tell. This recognition speaks to the dedication, the collaboration, and the student-centered work happening in
005our schools every day. So, at this time I'd like to invite our counselors, Tommy Cox, Kelsey Call, Gwen Torson, and Eric Sevy, as well as Cassie Kenny, to come up to the mic here and share some comments about the RAM program. Wonderful. Thank you. It's a work for us to just all kind of Yeah, to do the stand around here. Okay. All right. Thank you so much for allowing us to talk. Oh, I think we're good. Um, thank you for allowing us to come and talk a little bit about the great achievement that our school counseling programs in our district have had over the past several years. We are going to do some quick introductions, and then we're going to keep it short, although we could talk about comprehensive school counseling for hours. Um, and
006we just have a few slides to talk about RAM. So, I'm Kelsey Call, school counselor at Neil Armstrong Middle School. I'm Gwen Torson, school counselor with a cold at Tom McCall Upper Elementary. I'm Tommy Cox, counselor at uh, Forest Grove High School. Uh, Eric Sevy at Joseph Gale. And Cassie Kenny, district coordinator for behavioral health and wellness. And So, this first slide is a summary, quick summary about RAM. And Mike, Kelsey, and just for people that might be able to see or just to know There is a mic right there. Thanks. What's what those are called? Jack, Jack. Yes. Uh thank you for that. So, RAM is an acronym and it stands for Recognized ASCA Model Program. ASCA, also an acronym, which stands for American School Counselor Association. So, it's a very fun acronym inside
007of an acronym. I know, it's special. Uh but it's a designation that is awarded uh by the American School Counseling Association to schools that provide high-quality, data-driven, comprehensive school counseling programs. And the application proce- process is very rigorous. Uh there's a lot of data collection, a lot of uh evidence that you have to show about how you're balancing your direct and indirect services, that you're planning your program's fidelity, uh and it's a pretty intensive data analysis that you do for one particular year, and then you apply based on that data. Uh and the rubric for achieving the passing score is quite high uh and rigid. Uh but it really helps us shift from a reactive model of school counseling to a proactive one that uses data-driven student outcomes. Next slide? Yeah, thanks. Thank you. Um
008and yes, so there are 11 RAM schools in Oregon, and Oh, that was fast. Um and we are four of them. Um so, Forest Grove High School, uh Neil Armstrong, Tom McCall, and Joseph Gale. Okay, so what does research say about RAM? RAM has been around um for about 20 about 20 years or so roughly in school counseling, but it's increased job sat- satisfaction and reduced role ambiguity. Directly correlates with higher ASCA implementation in patient scores. ASCA assessments allow counselors to basically look through data. ASCA also it helps basically close achievement gaps. So basically what it does to summarize kind of all this academic language is that ramp targets interventions for students that have that are behind with the achievement gap or underrepresented students. It basically has a focus and a purpose and a scope
009and sequence for your whole school building and your community. It improves students attendance, behavior, academic areas and it improves your school climate. So it basically gives you a focus as a school that really affects the students that need even extra support. So that's what ramp does. And so it's like a two-year process like we mentioned, a year of kind of reviewing how it how it works and then another year of have basically we submitted ramp the association. And so I've got a very bright group, sorry. And so we love to ask our colleagues why ramp, why are we doing this? And so we captured some thoughts from each of us and our teams. It's definitely not one person applying, it's a team, it's inclusive advisory council and administrative administrative approval and feedback. So it's not
010a solo um interaction to apply and receive ramp, but a collective. So I'm going to pass the mic around and each school counselor is going to talk about their why and it represents the school, not just the one individual that's speaking. All right. We'll kick off with Joseph Gale. So Joseph Gale, our students like all students deserve the best programs. Um and RAMP really ties that up for the best programs for our students. Um using data it it like I said previously it lowers achievement gaps, it improves attendance, it improves climate. And it basically looks at the areas in the schools that need that boosting so kids can get what they need to be successful. You know, have a joyful life. Well, Okay, at Tomahawk when we put our heads together, we value the importance
011of the balance between what we would call old school counseling which is really being in our office and being available for any intervention that might come those way and what we know as best practices we don't get the results with all children. So, um part of being a RAMP school and the RAMP process is letting us evaluate what we're doing and ensuring that we're using data to drive all of our decisions. Without data and for example of the Panorama platform that lives on our screen and we're looking at that social, emotional, and academic child, it's not just one glance but a collection a collection of data points and from there we provide the additional support or reinforcement for academics or that emotional piece of who we are as well as with them and their friends
012socially. Over at Neil Armstrong, um the thing that has stood out most to all of us uh every time that we talk about it and we talk about this pretty frequently I would say uh because we appreciate it so much what the process has allowed for us to achieve. Um but we focus a lot on using our data more intentionally in order to identify the practices that are more effective and how we can become more efficient with our time uh because for a very long while we were very reactive And we are able to track better what's actually working for students because we are all collaborating using the RAM framework more thoroughly. And then we've been able to evolve our school counseling program in a sustainable one step at a time for different areas and
013that growth has maintained and has been back and forth with last year. So it's continuing to evolve for us. And at the high school, I would say same. We really use RAM to help us assess like our current programs and evaluate what we're doing and try to figure out how we can improve to best support our students. Another thing I would like to mention is it our data using RAM really helps us communicate with stakeholders inside and outside of our buildings about all the supports we do and provide as school counselors. Great, thank you. So it's more than just a plaque is what I'm hearing, which is good. That's everything. What's next? Dilley Elementary is currently in their data collection year and they anticipate applying for RAM in October 2026. So fingers crossed. Like you've
014heard, it's a very rigorous process. Cornelius Elementary and Echo Shaw Elementary are next cohort of schools to go through their data collection year next year. They've been working on alignment this year and next year they will be collecting all of their data and hoping to apply in October 2027. And we also just want to put a plug in here for anybody who is listening about how you can get involved in comprehensive school counseling and our RAM programs in district and that's through our school counseling advisory membership. I know we have a couple of school board members who currently sit or have sat on our school counseling advisory at our RAM schools. They meet twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. And the purpose is to look at the goals our
015school counselors are setting for the year, to advise on what are the community needs, how can we improve as a comprehensive school counseling program. And then in the spring we look at data. And we review, what did we do this year? How did it work? What worked, what didn't work, and how can we continue to improve? I was just going to say it's built in really great partnerships. Sorry to interrupt you, Cassie. Uh, it's built in really great partnerships. That advisory committee with people here in Forest Grove and other organizations that have really benefited our students throughout the whole school year. And so that's been the biggest part is these partnerships that now we have those relationships that have been year after year now. And so now it's just you know, over and over again,
016which is benefiting our kids and our families. So. I think that's Okay. Anything else, Gavin? Any questions? If I could add before the questions, Um, this is unusual across the state. I've been in several districts working several districts, and this commitment to the counseling program is unusual in the state of Oregon. Uh, when I've never been in a school where counselor had a caseload of 700. Um, but I have been in schools where a counselor had a caseload of 400, 500. That is not unheard of in other schools across the state. So, this commitment is really unusual and an important for our students. So, thank you for the work that you're doing. Questions from the board? Comments? May I just ask really quickly, what kind of partnerships are you referring to when you talk about
017partnerships? For For us at Joseph Gale, we've been really fortunate. Um, we have some partnerships with the city of Forest Grove, Parks and Rec, also Pacific University. We have a really strong partnership with the athletic department there. And then also, um, the Hillsboro Hops as well. And the Trail Blazers. So, there's been some really, if you like sports, you know, so for our students, they like sports and getting opportunities to go to events for free. And I'm actually going to bring that into the scene. So, so we have some great partnerships there. And community members, too. Parents and I am. Sure, Jeff. We also have had Autzen Stadium part of our advisory and we really work to get local community members on board and we're very cognizant about who are the parents, who are the
018community members, board members. We get to cross-pollinate across schools. We attend each others advisories. So, we know that all of the children, for the most part, are in the local town of Aloha going to go up to Neil Armstrong. And so, we're really looking for that consistency. So, also just being able to partner with our colleagues, as well as our parents. And a lot of our parents have a lot like six have wanted to move from our advisory at Tom McCall to ask if they stay in the advisory at Neil Armstrong. That's good. One other that's been really great over at Neil Armstrong is the connection with Cornelius Public Library. I think actually one of our longest standing advisory committee members is Dave Freeze over at the public library there. And over time, they've been
019adapting some of their homework support that we refer a lot of students to and get tutoring homework support and try to get them plugged into the library as much as possible. He's been great. I think I think I'd like to add, I mean, I haven't been able to participate in the advisories, but once at that middle school within the high school. And what I really, first of all, congratulations because I think the work that it takes to qualify for this program, if only a piece of that do see really when you're in those advisory sessions and you see the detail that's presented and the work that goes into that alone. I think what it's really done for me is it's changed how I understand how counseling has changed since the days when I went to
020school. And one of the the biggest takeaways I have from those meetings is how every minute of a counselor's day is detailed in where it where it lands in support of kids. And it really shows a complete picture of the work that counseling is doing. But the other thing when that you you talked about was collective action or the collaboration. You can feel that through the counseling department. I mean, that's a compliment to everybody in the departments that you all work together and that thread when I'm in the middle school in that meeting and what's happening at the high school is is evident. And so I think the team effort here is probably what has made us go above and beyond. I feel like the counseling department you've gotten the rap, but I feel like
021you go above and beyond that to dig into the data. I would like um in the in the future somehow to figure out how we can bring more of even a example of that meeting where we could even film a piece of it to show the community like this this is the type of thing that our counselors are doing and this is the work that this this is just getting us through after. So that's now helpful to me. I get asked all the time if counseling comes up, what are the counselors doing? And I can speak to that more specifically now because of that inclusion there. But just a compliment to your team on that work and for all that you do on so many layers for kids. And for the time tonight to then
022come to the work session after day and share with the board. I think it's really important to get the word out. Any other comments? Yeah. And so it's with huge appreciation because of that the board's support and getting that that class size down our caseload size down, it's impossible to do best practice. And so, I also want to recognize our board members that have made it a priority, our superintendent that says mental health is really important. Kids can't learn if the frontal lobe is shut down. So, thank you for that because that allows us to do best practice. And then, as much as she doesn't like it, I really want to pay tribute to Cathy because without, you know, sorry Cathy, she literally has allowed us the space and the time and carved it out
023and advocated at the building level with our administrators, as well as pulling us together, down to doing the templates for us ahead of time so we plug in data. So, really without her support, I've not told her many times, so she knows that is, but without that, it would it would also been a a much heavier lift than it already was. So, thank you and thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for the time again tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Cathy. Thank you. All right. We are going to I'm going to talk just briefly to about some classroom visits that happened this week. Um we were able to Well, multiple things happened. Today, we Thank you to Kate and Andrea Loeffler at the high school for the pasta pilot, which is continuing. We were able to
024deliver the kids made pasta in culinary arts four. I don't have a picture of it yet, but we will preview the the pasta slideshow. We were able to go to Rotary and show a slideshow of the kids in the classroom working, and then people at Rotary were able to order pasta, try out this new form, and then Kate and I today and Henry zipped around town. Well, we didn't zip, we drove carefully around town, and we're able to deliver pasta to different members of the community. And I was just telling Dr. West the value in being at the doorway with pasta, then being able to have some conversations to happen among the school district. And I think it's just these connections with people who maybe don't have kids in the district, but wanted to know
025more about schools. Um but thank you to Andrea. She has been text messaging, adjusting forms, making, you know, getting supplies. I know they were at um Dia de los Niños as well. I think Arturo mentioned that he brought some pasta home and hoping to expand a link for the community so they can take advantage of of that program. So, thank you for that. Um the next slide there is uh we were able to get into Neil Armstrong and um Dr. Lowery and I were able to walk around and see the the new science curriculum in action. And if we if we click to the next slide, um Mr. Taplin, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Marshall, pre-science teachers that were put it put together a lab for us to see on this Wednesday. And the setup for
026this lab was really kind of mind-blowing to watch them setting up in real time for, you know, 30 60 kids and then another 30 in the next room, all getting instructions and then being set loose in these labs to work with these chemicals. And um what they were doing is they're creating ultimately an incubator to keep uh a certain turtle, certain tortoise, that's endangered at a certain temperature. And so, they're trying to look at different combinations of chemicals and take measurements on a time scale, record those, and and be able to use that information to then build eventually the incubator they think would work the best. But, um if we go to the next slide there, it's just a couple examples of of every single student engaged. And And it wasn't just because there was
027a school board member in there, it was because these teachers had all these kids prepped with their roles, all the materials you see laid out on every single table. We had instructional assistants helping individual students. We had kids working together in teams, and it was just really impressive. I We talked to a couple of different kids about what it was about this curriculum that they liked better, and every single group said because we get to get out of the classroom, that's what they said, and we get to do hands-on work. And they were very engaged in this high level. That was what was brought up is these these labs. I think it was Mr. Marshall talking to me about how these labs weren't really designed for middle school. Essentially, they were making adjustments to make
028it work for the middle school curriculum in real time, which teachers are able to do, but just the kids are all going back to get ready for the next class, the teachers then immediately resetting up the lab for the next class, and everything was just working like clockwork, and the boxes of materials that they're kind of trying to figure out how to arrange. It was just really amazing to see it all working, to see the kids connecting. Um So, that was a really That was a really great experience. And just being in NMS in general, uh learning happening in every classroom. We walked through and saw lots of different types of classrooms and different kids engaged in different learning experiences, and it was just a really good vibe. I'm kind of I'm a middle school
029person myself, so I was right back at home, but um nice to see the engagement and really appreciated that the teachers who took the time to make some adjustments so we could see the work on that particular day. Um and we'll go to the next slide. And then I We popped over to the high school, or I popped over to I was I was in the hallway, and um I happened to I was passing time, so I was trying to find uh Gwen Bullinger's room, actually, to look for her. And Andrew, and he's the one with the thumbs up in the picture, just this just a student seeing this lost middle-aged lady looking around, and I stopped him to say, "Where you know, where do you can you point me towards art?" And he said,
030"Oh, you know what? Yeah, and I'm happy to take you." And he walked with me all the way down to Gwen's room. And during this walk, he chatted with me about his goals. I asked him what he was hoping to study, and I said to him, "You know, you have you have excellent customer service. You know, you're just picking up this person in the hall and walking me down to class and talking to me about the environment." And he said, "Well, I've been told that before." And I said, "Well, you know, am I going to keep you from class?" He said, "Oh, I'm just going up to mechatronics." And I said, "Oh, I'm coming up to mechatronics." So, we stopped in that but we went up to mechatronics, and they are inventing, designing, building, troubleshooting,
031auto-loading, pneumatically adjustable flywheel robots. Now, that's not something I remember again from my science days. But again, engaged in this group work, they were in this phase of experimenting, um and it's equipment that was granted through partnership with the city of Hillsboro to enhance high-tech manufacturing career pathway expansion. Um they were Yeah, so we had a we had a good conversation about the work they're doing, and then uh John works done over a video, which is the next slide just really quickly. Um this is a real quick video of the contraption actually working. They're building a this contraption that will fling a um slingshot a ping pong ball. Things that that entails. Thank you. So, next slide. And then we stopped by art. And for anyone in this entire community that has wants to see
032miracles happening every day, it is in Miss Hollander's class. Um these students were You can see the picture there. They had chosen a picture, and then on their phones, they had a program where it breaks it down box by box and she has them begin to shade in these these portraits and it blows my mind. If I've been in there several times and I used to teach with Lynn, but we again have an art instructor that is teaching these kids just above and beyond and again 100% engagement, amazing um just amazing outputs here. We talked about she was hoping to find an avenue and and maybe it's Valley Art that would eventually host an art show in town so these kids could put their artwork up in a public space where um and again it
033speaks to some possibilities of partnerships, but so that was great to see and I think let's see. Yeah, those were those were just some classroom visits. I think we've heard some really good feedback from the meetings where we are showing either videos of what's happening in classroom with instruction or just videos of kids at work in the classroom and highlighting the work that's been done in these classrooms every day and um very powerful. So that's that. Um we are going to move on to board reflection and discussion. Before we move on, uh I had the pleasure of attending a bake-off Oh, that's good. for the culinary arts. Um made an idiot out of myself cuz I was eating way too much eating all of the delightful food that they threw in front of me. They
034didn't throw it. I I apologize for that. But um again, the participation there um was remarkable. Um students were interested in first of all, how well they did. Um and how well um their creations were accepted by the the judges that were there. Um the other thing and you made you made a comment um about the art program about Ms. Hollinger and mentioned Valley Art. I am old enough that I can remember Phil Tyson at the high school doing the same thing, not only being an art teacher but also on the board at Valley Art and coordinating the student art show that was there and we do need to bring that back and I'll um have a conversation with Linda Allen, the executive director of Valley Art to see if we can establish reestablish that
035particular bridge, but again, that gives a student a real world appreciation of what what they do at the at the high school and how it bleeds into the community, so um I'll work on that. Thank you. And I think the library, they have the new teen center. That'd be a perfect place to highlight some art. Um that would be a good And we need and we need to thank Mayor Wenzel for creating that area and for her art charging on the youth advisory committee for for the mayor of the city of Forest Grove. And it's really I was there today and you know, they're really using that space. It's it's really exciting to see the kids being there. All right. Okay, we're going to move into board reflection and discussion. Um I want to take
036a minute. I I we all have had this is a really intense time for our district and our community and we've been really working to make sure we're listening and available, but also sharing information that needs to be shared. I think the board meeting tonight is a chance for us to take a little bit of time to just reflect on what we have heard, some changes we've made and then where we're headed, what's next as far as our roles. Um So, one of the things I I there's a whole bunch that's happened in the past week and all of us I know have been hearing from different people and experienced different we've come to the Tuesday meeting, we've had emails and phone calls and conversations with people in the community. I just was meeting with
037someone in the community before this meeting and he he did not realize I said, you know, this board meeting tonight is really the only time twice a month of this board gets to sit and have a discussion and he said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well, we don't we aren't able to have a discussion outside of this board room together." So, I think that there's some of what I've heard from people is not really learning about what this meeting is and why some of what they see is happening and who's playing what role, but I think for tonight this meeting is designed a little bit differently so that we can have a little bit more of discussion together and get aligned on where we're going and also share information with the community. One
038of the things that came up I think I've asked Dr. West to speak a little bit about trying to break down how what board governance is. We got questions from different people. I know all my you've mentioned it multiple times in meetings like people saying, "I don't understand what the school board does. I don't understand who tells who what to do, who's making the decisions, how this all works, how does the community interface and how should we interface? So, the first few slides here, I'm going to ask if Dr. West-Wright talk us through um a little bit just a little summary of what that looks like. Yeah, the attitude. Um if you can advance the slides, please. I'm going to go through these um just briefly and ask the board to pause if they have
039any questions. Um essentially, if you think about the eco-system of education, it's helpful to think of them in these three different categories. Um if you start with the roots, we have the community. It's our community that provides anchors in values and the student needs. And it's really important that we listen to our community, interact with them, hear their perspective and input. If you think in terms of a tree, the trunk then is the school board, and the school board is responsible for governance and structural policies that help the school district run and operate. It's a governing body, it sets policy. Um it does not direct daily operations. And then you have the branches and the leaves, which is includes the superintendent and the staff of the school district, responsible for daily operations, fiscal management, improvement
040efforts, responding to emergent needs. Um you could compare a school superintendent to a CEO, and the CEO is in responsible for the operational and instructional arms of the district, and importantly translating board policies and policies that the board determine into strategy and action. Next slide, please. In terms of the board itself, the board has a few really important functions. One is policy authority, which we've already touched on. So, the board establishes policy to govern the district and the schools. Um and the conversations take place in public meetings just like you just referenced. And those meetings are recorded. Votes are recorded in the public. And then the board provides a direct method for the school community to share values and needs that inform policy. The board has executive oversight. So, the board appoints the superintendent, evaluates
041the superintendent, authorizes the budget, provides financial oversight, and approves contracts. The board also has appellate authority. And the appellate authority is not often activated, but it's an important function for the school board. In that when there is a staff member, a family member who feels as though the district in South or an individual within the district has violated our policies, they have the option to work through an appeal process all the way up to the school board. And then the school board acts as a fact-finding body, an appellate body, to determine were policies followed or not. And then the school board either upholds the decisions made by the district and the district personnel or can overturn those decisions. Next slide, please. There's a lot of overlap between the school district, the superintendent, and the school
042board and what this table is trying to show is that there's areas where overlap makes a lot of sense in terms of decision-making authority and communication channels. The colors are a little wonky there, so I apologize for that in this um version. But I'll try to orient us to it. So, a school board defines policy, the superintendent implements policy and oversees district operations. That's something that is distinct. It is the primary focus of both the superintendent and school board. In terms of decision-making, the school board acts collectively and authority exists through recorded vote in public meetings. The superintendent acts as an individual executive, the authority to delegate, manage, direct staff. In terms of staffing and personnel, the school board employs and evaluates only one person, that's the superintendent. The superintendent implements personnel policies, evaluates, and
043manages all other staff in the school district. And then in terms of communication, the school board advises the superintendent on matters related to policy and directives and policies are communicated to staff through the superintendent. The superintendent then provides that conduit between ongoing communication among community, staff, and the board. And I want to emphasize there that that does not preclude anyone in the community from addressing a school board member directly, and they should, just as it doesn't preclude school board members from visiting school events and interacting with students and others. But the reason for these distinctions is so that the work can proceed in an organized fashion, and it doesn't get messy. You need to have defined roles to ensure that the work of educating kids proceeds smoothly. And there are areas where collaboration is super
044important. Next slide, please. So, while there are distinctions, without that collaboration, the school district doesn't operate very well. Um so, it's important that we keep those channels of communication open, that we have common goals, that we are working on a strategic plan, that policies and the decisions center student needs. That's how a school board and a superintendent work most effectively, when we share those values and those goals. This is a super high-level overview. There's hundreds of details underneath that, but that's the gist of the distinction between the school board as a governing body and a policy governance structure versus the daily operations of the school district. What questions may I answer? I want Could we go back to the previous slide just one back? Thank you. And thank you for putting that together in that
045explanation. I think when we when I reflect on really how we just went through this most recent decision, um, and like you said, there's hundreds of things underneath what you just said, but what we need to tease out. But I think this gives the board a starting point. This isn't a deep discussion we'll go into tonight, but I think it is a discussion we can come back to. I know as a board member, and this was true as a city councilor, I I seem to lots of comments to me in that role requesting me to do things that were the superintendent's or the city manager's position. And so, really I think what our board has been trying to do this year is resetting, first of all, people having those discussions at the at the levels
046where where they are. Where it's if there's an issue if they have with the school or question, first bringing it to their principal or their local leadership. And that's, you know, redirecting people to where those questions and decisions need to to lay. And I think sometimes there's still an education piece, and I wanted to sort of start here with a refresh, and also for the community so we can kind of work together to figure out what what that looks like and when people say well can't you just make this happen and then I can say well actually no I don't make that part happen but here's my role. Um so I'm going to pause there. I think this gives us a starting place to be able to have a conversation with the community when they
047when they want to give input and my conversation is well it's it might be input about a a value or or a goal but input about a decision that the superintendent's making is is not is different and I think we we're getting a little big we need to get some clarity around what that looks like and that comes from just continuing to ask the questions and having these conversations around you know referring to a model like this and um I'll let other board members jump in there but I I do like this. I think it is uh as a parent who's working you know in in school board and being more involved and some of these were questions of mine you know so just having a clear understanding of where to go and who to
048talk to makes me as a parent feel perhaps less frustrated. Not going to someone that I think is going to get it done but isn't really the person I need to connect with so having this understanding gives kind of a clear picture of everyone and you know who we are so I I do appreciate that as a parent and community member. I think it's pretty common that um the community misunderstands the role of a board member. You know they think that we have more board of authority more power than we actually do. And uh part of that is because um they they have busy lives but they think that because we were elected we can do something but it's no different than city council the senate you know, Congress, you know, there's some things you
049can do and some things you can't do and and I think the thing that happened recently um is that you know, people I felt um that um the staff felt like that we weren't really strongly advocating for them. And um you know, we do have to approve the budget, but we don't make the budget, you know, we question, we ask um and we get clarifying answers, but we do not we do not do any of the everyday things that happen in the in the workings of the the organization. And I think, you know, the question I always had is since I've been on the board is how can we help the community and also our our staff understand our role, what we can and what we cannot do because um you know, what recently happened
050that we had to take these um decisions about our budget that we're in a deficit spending, that I the community was saying, "Well, couldn't you do more? Why didn't you ask more questions?" And um and that's a whole other example of how we can try to communicate better because um anybody had been watching the budget meetings from a year ago or listening in on a monthly basis, reading the superintendent's um you know, weekly report, it would not have been a surprise. But um being a teacher myself, I recognize that, you know, I have my nose in the classroom and I'm focused very much there and I'm not thinking about anything else and then all all of a sudden, "Oh my goodness, you know, this isn't okay." Or you know, "Why can't the board member do
051more? How did this happen?" So, in both instances, how do we communicate our role and and how do we I mean, I don't know what else we can do um with communicating about you know, I mean, since COVID, we do have uh Zoom and YouTube where you can watch the board meetings, which I think is a real gift because you know, after dinner or Saturday or Sunday when you have some time, you can watch those or listen to you know, they tend to be very boring, but um I don't I don't know. I I was talking to Christie about this, you know, maybe once a month the the monthly teacher meeting in each building with the principal they remind staff, you know, tune in to the superintendent report, the budget meeting, and uh the board
052meeting, and uh and I know that our our business manager puts out monthly a statement of where we're at, but we're all in this together. You know, it's not just the board, it's not just the superintendent. It's all of us, the teachers and staff, and how can we creatively work together and then also find partnerships and solutions you know, so that our kids do well. I I appreciate that. May May go back to something you said about where the board has authority. Policy governance is a pretty powerful tool. Yeah. There's a lot of power within policy, and I I think that is sometimes challenging for people who are not in the public role or immersed in the type of work that we do to understand the difference between policy governance and oversight, which is what
053the board does, and then day-to-day operations. But the board within the realm of policy sets the direction for the school district and creates bumpers for the school district in terms of what we can do and what we can't do. School district policies are determined for us by law, federal or state laws. Um but we have many policies within the district that we have purview over and that is where the school board has quite a bit of authority. A good example of that is the recent session around the ending fund balance. I don't know when 8% was set as threshold. Um somebody had the foresight to realize that we need savings to carry us at least through a month. But that is an area where as a school board we can say 8% isn't the right
054number, it's 11% or it's 15% or do we need a contingency fund as well as an ending fund balance? So that is where the school board has quite a bit of authority and power within a school district and can really set the direction um for a leadership team. Good comments. Okay. I think I think this is a starting conversation around these roles that we can come back to, especially when things come up and we can refer back to this as where we're anchoring and who's doing what. Um and this is helpful too, I think, for the board to be able to be clear in our communication when we're talking to people in the community. To your point, Kate, and we'll go to the next slide if we can, that around communication, one more maybe. Yeah,
055we So we did we we have been able to make some adjustments I think that will improve the communication. When we look back at the process that we've used to get here, we do feel pretty confident that that process of every every school building having a meeting with their staff and principal around the budget opportunities after that at each school for the community to join, community opportunities to join, um the budget meetings, those those parts of the process were were needed, and I think what we're hoping to figure out is how do we encourage more people in the community and in those school communities to come to those to come to those meetings and give that feedback. I know when staff had those meetings in their buildings, I believe it maybe in during in-service time
056on Wednesdays or like the time's Time's different. But opportunities there and making sure that when, you know, that we that we can build on those existing um processes that are there. I do think there's a couple, based on conversations we've had with different people, so teachers about the process and parents about the process, um Bethany, if if we move to the next slide, we were able to add a couple different things to the website. The first thing we added was a running frequently asked questions, and those questions change daily, and thank you to Dr. West for um being very responsive in adding as they came in, and I want the community, if you're watching, to be able to reference those frequently asked questions, and and those are also that's feedback you could give to the
057board like this is another question we're wondering, right? Or if you're a teacher asking your principal, I don't see this on the frequently asked questions, how can we get an answer to this? But that's a pretty extensive list right now of questions. I just looked through it recently. And that strategy of especially when we know there are going to be questions being able to respond in real time, think we did something similar in the city around homelessness, and people were appreciative of having it somewhere to anchor to. Um the second slide there after this, the next one in Brigade, um we did add we have a board legislative advocacy page as well, and so one of the things I was able to do is I asked permission from our speakers, the teachers who came that
058evening, um and our Equity A rep who gave testimony if they would be willing to share that written testimony with me so that I could attach it, which we were able to do, and send um to Representative MacLane and Senator Salomon with a summary of the cuts that we are making and the impacts having and attaching those letters to that. And now we have a place where we will be able to attach letters and advocacy work that we do. There's also a place um that gives information about public testimony and public testimony that is submitted through the website that will be posted in the packet. And then we've also added the link to the legislative candidate questionnaires. We've had two submitted so far, Senator Salomon and I believe Harold Hutchinson responded to the questions that
059this board put out, and those um are uploaded are uploaded for the community to be able to take a look at those answers. So, a change made there to have that more accessible. Um and then next slide. Where And then again, just orienting people to where you can see where the board packet is posted. And the board packet is posted before the meeting, usually on Friday. By Friday. And that is a time where we hope people will access that board packet, read through the materials, read through the agenda. That is a great time when you see that there to reach out if there are questions. Again, it might be if you're staff to your your principal, might be if you're community directly to us with questions. But time before the board meeting to be able
060to ask questions that we can answer, um have a conversation. Because I think we've we've talked I've talked about this at these meetings. Board meetings and this is not a conversation we'll have tonight about public comment and how these meetings run, but as you can see here tonight, we have a couple people here and I'm I'm not sure how many people will be able to see the conversation, but Kate's point of, you know, how can we do more to share what we're doing um and make sure we're sharing maybe some highlights that people need to see, but we're happy to continue to get get feedback and answer questions and have people come to this page and look at what's there and read the materials, the same materials that we all get on the same day.
061So, the materials that the community sees is what the board sees on that day. And then we take from Friday to Tuesday to read through it, to do our due diligence, to call and ask questions if we have them. So, I just heard again from a person before this meeting, it seems like the board just comes to these meetings, rubber stamps the contracts, for instance, that was and I I explained, well, that we post that for the community 5 days before and that's a chance for this board to ask questions and do that work. And and when you're when you're seeing us at this final meeting, that is the meeting where we're taking the action. So, trying to get people um to participate a little bit more when they can when those packets are posted.
062Anything to add to that? Yes, Mr. Kusstatscher. My concern is then or my observation is that when everything is going smoothly, when budgets are balanced, when things are moving languidly through the school system, when students are learning and nobody's getting expelled and there are no fights and so on and so forth, we do a terrible job of saying, "Look at the great job we're doing." It's almost like the kid who was growing up and never said anything. Stone-cold silent. And then one night when he was 14 years old at the dinner table, he said, "Pass the peas, please." And mom just went nuts. She said, "You have never talked in your life. This is the first time that you've ever mentioned that everything was okay up till now." Bad joke, I get it. But the
063the the idea of us we have to put up sometimes with people saying, "Yeah, everything's fine. Why do I need to rock the boat? Why do I need to look over people's shoulders?" Well, they do. Um because that's when you can find out what you're doing that's right and you can get reinforcement for that. Not only as a superintendent, not only as a teacher, not only as a school board member, but as a community. And when things do get rough, everybody remembers, "Yeah, we are all in this together. It's not so-and-so's fault. It's not you know, we can we can find a number of people to blame for the situation we're in, but maybe the seeds were planted 10, 15, 20 years ago and we're now just bearing the bitter fruit of that particular crop.
064And I realize that I've mixed up my metaphors there and I apologize, but it if we are going to pay attention if school board members are going to pay attention, if teachers are going to pay attention, if public is going to pay attention we need to examine those things that we do in light of what's going to happen I mean 10 5 10 15 years down the road. Because we all know measure five was passed in 1990 and we are really beginning to see what damage that has done to education in the state of Oregon and nobody nobody predicted that it would have that kind of effect. But it it does. It did it it does. So And I realize that I have talked way too long and apologize and I don't know if I
065said anything worth listening to. Got it off my chest. I I I I think uh your point of uh when everything is flowing well um it's a time also for the board to continue to interact in schools, whether sports, you know, your kids playing sports and or plays or um be a listener and also a communicator and also uh celebrator of of the accomplishments that the students have made and also the teachers and and being seen. I think it's really important to be seen and uh you know, and and each one of us comes to the board and different passions, you know, your children are in sports think you know everybody and think they're but we all have something that we're really interested in and you know and I since I've been on the board
066and since I've been retired I go one day a week and I've been in all the schools of the year I go and read and you can walk into a building and really feel the ambience of the building and uh and I have seen since 2011 so many good things happening in all of our buildings uh do I want more oh yes I want a thousand times more more more more for the kids and we have all kinds of dreams and visions but what I do see is that consistency by being in the building uh I see the hard work of the staff and I see the joy of the children and uh and I also see and I felt how appreciative staff have been to see board members and uh and we have been
067elected by the community and uh we have different ways that we can serve them with our unique interests and I think that's an important piece that when things are going well you know you still need to stay engaged and and I have seen it since I've been on you know especially this board and and the previous boards uh you know people have been engaged by their interests and their passions so and you know also as a community what they see us I don't know that's sort of what they'd like to see us do but uh you know being out in the community but uh you know some of us work some of us have retired so we have to be flexible uh uh I think it's important I I also think that school districts are
068not good in advertising themselves I don't think they I don't know if I'm putting this right, but we can there's a tremendous amount of good, I would say, you know, just tremendous amount of good happening, and we don't seem to know how to advertise all the great stuff that the kids are doing. I mean, I should have filmed today when I went to the the high school, and you know, six kids came out, everything was labeled, everything, and then one girl ran out, she goes, "I forgot to put the thank you on one of the boxes." You know, and I mean, they're just really, really sweet, and they were so excited, you know, and I mean, you see preschoolers really excited, but here are these high school kids, and they did a beautiful job, and
069and I I've seen that since I've been on the board, we just don't seem to advertise all the wonderful good stuff that's happening pre-kinder all the way through, you know, transition. Uh and I and I I think I often think we need a professional uh PR person to help us do that, because we are doing really really good things in every single building. Um you know, even here at the district office, you know, it's not the kids, you know, so um that's my two cents. I just to, you know, go on that, I have to close that whole loop. Um I I think that's not just the school district. I think that includes our parents and our community members, too, you know, sharing the good stuff. I think often it's you'll hear the bad stuff
070versus hearing the good stuff, and that's very common in our community. Um so, it would be nice to share the positive things, but honestly, all of this, I think, in my opinion, it's it's accountability, but accountability from the root. I'm talking about, right? It's just all of us really engaging in having that accountability, okay, do what role do I play? It's not just the school system. It's, you know, from so from the roots and up. And I think if you something isn't going well, if something's not going well, like really advocating for um you know, more our students or our teachers or, you know, whoever it is that needs that accountability, that advocacy. And then at the at the end of all that, you know, when it does get rough, the best thing to do
071is to unite and find a solution versus come against each other. I think that that just divides us and it doesn't really give us a good It's just not a good feeling overall. And it it feels like it's them against us or, you know, and it shouldn't be like that. It really shouldn't be like that. Even in my household, we have different opinions, you know, but we don't just go ahead and say, "Well, bye." You know, we go ahead and just work it We unite and we work it through. And I mean, it should be the same thing in in our system here. Um so, accountability, advocacy, and of course, when when things get rough, we unite to get through it. I think that's a nice segue on that um to the next piece here,
072but I think that is what what what came up from this from what I've heard from lots of different people, all kinds of things historically. People from mentioning things in the system from 20 years ago that, you know, things that have just bubbled up, not just about this incredibly stressful situation, but it brought up all of the things we hear that people want for all of our school systems in the state. Actually, this is a perfect This is a perfect segue because what I think what we did see, and I do want to compliment everybody, and a a gentleman said this to me about the meeting on Tuesday. He was surprised and relieved at how respectful people were in the comments. I heard that about the board meeting. It was amazing that the audience just
073was able to listen and then come with comments that were critical but and I think those are all the conversations we've been in. I don't think I've had one where I felt like it was um combative. I felt like parents were bringing concerns and listening and partnering. I felt like teachers were doing the same, understanding information, asking good questions. And I I agree with you, Al. I think we all This is an incredibly stressful situation. We recognize that you've made some changes we think are well. I think we've all learned from these last few weeks of of moving through this and even moving forward from tonight forward, I think it already feels like we're setting a new foundation for how we can work together. Um but that being said, this this last part of the
074meeting is is something I did want to bring publicly and we'll have um Enrique go to this next section. Um when you mentioned advocacy, I'm not sure any of the advocacy any of these boards have been doing in this state. In fact, I know it has not been effective. Um we've just talked about this time and time again with OSBA and board members saying, "We've done everything we could do. We've written the letters. We've gone to the legislative days. We've invited our reps for meetings and coffees. We've shown the budgets in January. We have done everything." And not just this board. It is not working. Today, what we're going to see here is is a is a heartbreaking and soul-crushing example of what is happening at the state level of Superintendent Mendoza and Becky Timchuk
075advocating and saying all the things that we have been saying as as boards and as superintendents to the Board of Ed, to the people who supposedly are setting some rules, um and a complete breakdown and a I've said it a million times, a disconnect. So, I don't know I don't have an answer today and we're not going to have this discussion today, but what we are doing is not working because our legislators are continuing past things that aren't things we need. And today was another example this morning in the Board of Ed meeting. And again, Kate, to your point, when I was a teacher, I did not even know there was a Board of Ed. I did not even know there was a union. I mean, I know I was in the union. I did
076not know I was like teaching with my little teaching team and that was what I was doing. But there is a layer here that that I would like the community to have access to, including this board. And again, this makes it a longer meeting, but this is the only time this board gets to watch something together and discuss it together. And this I think is going to be a really key thing to watch. So, the first um And before we go to that, yes, the ask for the community is this budget meeting on May 14th at 6:30. We would really encourage you to make time in your schedule or eventually screen or get word out to all your parents and community that this is a foundational piece that we need the community to understand how
077the budget works and what the budget is going to be proposed and why, so that we can build together, kind of build a common understanding. So, next slide, Enrique. Um Again, upcoming meetings and maybe we will start to do this if this works in these meetings to let the community know the next actual business meeting we have will be on the 12th. That will be where this board um brings the superintendent evaluation to the public meeting for approval. Prior to that, we we usually show timeline. That is something we do in executive session because it's a personnel issue and that's what the law requires, but we did we did now we are going to add a section to that meeting where we do a a big review of what it is that the board looks
078at when we look at superintendent evaluation. What our superintendent shows us, we aren't allowed to specifically go into the evaluation of Dr. West, but I think for the community to wonder, well, how is this board evaluating the superintendent? Great question. Great question. So, we're going to try to show more than we did last year about how we do that for people. That again will be posted in the packet the week before. So, if you read that packet, that will be a great time to reach out questions, and we're just trying to make a few improvements here to communication. Um and then the budget meeting May 14th. The next slide is the Board of Ed. A couple weeks ago, the Board of Ed met, and the governor's office a week before the Board of Ed meeting
079called every member of the Board of Ed into the governor's office individually for a conversation. The conversation was not something that was public, and then I don't know, rumors kind of got out that the governor was planning to show up at the Board of Ed. It wasn't on the agenda to announce an executive order. At the beginning of the Board of Ed meeting, they changed the agenda in real time and said the governor will be here to we're adding an executive order to the agenda on that day. And then the governor showed up at the meeting at the table and dropped an executive order that you've all seen in the news, which is about no longer being able to use furloughs. Now, there were multiple variations of what the executive order could have been. There
080was some behind-the-scenes finagling of maybe it's this, checking with people, should it be this, but none of that process was was transparent. And that is not the way the state can be doing education policy, which you'll see in a minute. So, the the comments that we're going to watch here are the comments immediately after this executive order dropped. The original order would have required school districts to essentially add more days to their calendar. So, this happened in real time. People in the board of Ed did not even have a copy of the executive order. And so, this is a response. We'll start with superintendent advisor Becky Timchuk, who represents school boards. And then, we're going to watch uh George Mendoza's response. He's a superintendent advisor. This is their direct response after this executive order dropped.
081So, Enrique, could you play the Okay. And then, we'll go to our school board advisor, Becky Timchuk. Thank you, Chairman Burdick. Uh board of education There's an old saying that education is not the filling of a bucket, rather it's the lighting of a fire. And I have kept that saying in mind during my career as a leader in an education nonprofit that worked with our state schools as a parent, as a classroom volunteer, and as a member and a chairman of the Beaverton school board, as well as a member and and current chairman of the Northwest Regional ESD. In all of those roles I have worked to make it easier for our schools and our teachers to light fires in the hearts and the minds of our students. That work has never been more important
082than it is now. And it's no secret because the press reminds us almost daily that Oregon ranks near the bottom based on just tests. But, we know our students are more than just tests. We know that our schools are made up more than just what the press sees. We know the hearts and the minds, but that is what our public sees. And the questions I've been asking myself and I thought about during this week of getting ready for this meeting cuz I have heard from many many school board members. And what are we doing? Everything we can do to empower our schools and teachers to light those fires. Are we perhaps just a state with just good intentions adopting policies that snuff out those fires? So, we need to be honest. With the state board
083that sits here in Salem and doesn't have the responsibility of balancing a budget like all of our 197 school districts do. Are they making decisions that will reduce the levers available to local schools to balance theirs? And the state board will get to take credit for protecting instructional time, and local leaders will be the ones to take the heat when there are layoffs and impact class size when bargaining over schedules. Ask to pay the consequences. And you don't think these decisions are difficult, or that districts just haven't been managing their money well enough. I would challenge any legislator, any business leader, anyone to come and spend an hour or two at our school districts and see how hard our business managers, our superintendents, our central office, our teachers, our bargaining units, our students are dedicated
084to trying to do what is right in our classrooms. So, let's not just be in a bubble here of thinking that the decisions that this board, the rules that this board is going to make do not have absolute, perhaps horrific consequences out in our school districts. And then we're going to keep it so much for board advisor Becky Tippens. Thank you. And then we're going to go to >> And then Next one is superintendent advisor George Mendoza responding to the impact that this executive order potentially could have on school districts. Thank you. And then we'll go to the superintendent's questions. So, we have Superintendent Advisor George Mendoza, and then we will go to uh Vice Chair Shirley Weber Long Canyon. Thank you, Chair Skelly. Um I I've been able to ask a few questions here
085and there um to Dr. Williams, so I'm I'm not necessarily going to ask a lot of superintendent questions. I I can uh elaborate with other superintendents at some point. Um but I'm going to make some comments so just the implementation of this and the impact. Um I do support maintaining as well as increasing instructional time. Um so, I want that to be clear, but I think just adding time um for the sake of adding time is not going to to do a lot. We need quality instruction. We need adequate staffing. We need student safety and conducive learning environments to ensure that learners thrive. So, you need that first before just adding time. We need sustainable funding. And if if we're going to have that, then we can add more days back. So, I'm specifically focused
086more on the executive order around uh Section 4 Part D, the the re- revision of hours of instructional time definitions, specifically for taking away 30 hours of staff professional development and 30 hours of parent-teacher conferences. I'm I'm just going to say most districts use those 60 hours. Uh they count those 60 hours. So, to add back seven or eight days is a lot for school districts. So, even the new rule that's being proposed at Section 6 Parts D and E for the 30-hour provisions, um we need significant funding to support the implementation or changes around that. So, I'm going to say these things cuz I was typing them down while while it was being presented. Most districts with declining enrollment are currently reducing 10 to 15% of their budgets right now. If If we add
087back another 60 hours as written in those sections, that'll take that'll basically add us another 6 to 7% of cost um to add to to add six You all just say 7 to 8 more days. 6 to 7% of additional cost. And that's associated payroll, that's PERS um rate growth increases, that's other state and federal taxes, FICA, and social security that we have to pay for. That to me, in my quick calculations, 60 hours is about $700 million that the state would have to pay so that we could add back 60 hours of additional work time. Hey, and so when we don't count professional development and parent-teacher conferences anymore, that is a significant issue for schools. Schools have been historically, before my time as a superintendent, been able to count those 60 hours. So, guess
088what? They do. And when they do, to unravel this thing, to claw back this thing, will be a lot, not a little, a lot for school districts. Hey, so changing this requirement um will have a lot of I'll just say second-order and third-order issues that needs to be fully baked in for us to really do it well. Having class sizes of 30 or 35 without parapro support, without small group or individual or safety or supervision, that's not worth gaining back five or seven days. It's not worth it if you're going to have class sizes that are untenable and safety and work environments that are not good for students as well. Student learning is the constant, right? Student learning is the constant. We want growth. Time is a variable. Student learning is the constant, time is
089a variable. Instruction, quality instruction, which was mentioned quite a bit in the executive order, is another variable. Take away the staff, take away the support for instruction, increase your increase the class sizes, decrease the safety, have poor basically poor learning environment, I become ineffective. Do we need to have safe and conducive learning environments and high-quality instruction as paramount things for student learning growth? So, implementing this executive order will create more challenges than solutions without the resources. Right now, we spend about 85% of our budgets on staffing. Um so, to add more days or add more time, we have to reopen our contracts. We have to ask our classified staff, "Hey, will you work another 7 or 8 days?" And teachers, "Will you work another 7 or 8 days?" Or "Hey, let's just add another 30
090minutes to the day. Will you work an extra 30 minutes? Or will you work an extra whatever?" That's That's not easy. And then, at the same time, I'll tell them, "Hey, I'm going to cut 10% of you more or or 15% of you more. And now, you're going to have this, too." So, it's it's it it needs a lot of time. It needs a lot of communication. It needs a lot of funding. Um and I would just say this, I cannot cut another 8 to 10% of my staff and then tell you that I can in good faith ensure that my students will thrive. And my staff will thrive. I I I reduced us by 14 positions this year. So, I'm and I'm planning to reduce us by another 6 to 7 positions next year.
091Let alone, George, uh let's reduce another 8 to 10% of my staff. That That doesn't work. So, I don't mind I don't mind the free time. I don't I don't mind collaborating on it, but it needs to be collective, and it needs state support state funding support, not more layoffs. Not More layoffs is probably not going to create this. It's going to create this. More time is going to create this with the resource and the support. Um so, I'll just stop right there and maybe I'll add more comments here and there, but thank you. So, that was just That was just a piece of response, and that again There's a whole second part where he addresses ODE who said there is no support. And there was some laughter actually after that, but there was no
092support, and then Superintendent Mendoza asked how how they will be able how we how we are expected to do this without the support from the state. And then they took the vote, and it was a unanimous yes across the board. Uh this morning, and this will be the last one. Five days later they had an uh a surprise meeting that was that was posted because today that same board came back to to set the instructional targets that districts are going to be asked to meet. So, today they announced instructional targets that districts will have to meet for their kids. And this last one we're going to watch again this morning is Superintendent um Mendoza's response to that. Okay. Um let's go to uh Superintendent Mendoza. Thank you, Chair Skurla. Um that's a great update right
093there. I'll just say I'm I'm very thankful to see that adjustment. >> Um We can skip it. >> Collectively I would say I will leave that in that we can address that later, but it's the next slide. I'm sorry. There we go. Thank you. That was just this morning. I I mentioned this earlier about eighth grade math. So, I'm going to stick to that for I'm very concerned about annual effect size of um 0.10 0.10. It's It's double the annual what we're doing for third grade. Um I think it's ambitious for us to do it. But, I don't think that we even have heard or know of a clear statewide plan yet to support. And I think for for me, it's going to be a lot of funding or a lot of professional development, a
094lot of instructional coaching. Um and the reality is it's going to take, you know, staff. If you're going to do interventions, it takes you know, small group instruction, individual support. It's going to take a lot of staff with training to that staff. And so, it's like we need a clear statewide plan uh with significant funding to do these types of things. Um I wish or I would love for our board to think of it as like if third grade reading has a 0.5 effect size, I would love for it to be the same. Um that to me is is probably proportionate. Um I think if we don't do very well with this uh effect size, it's going to be seen as we failed. And that was a poor return on our investment. And that it'll
095be used like as a tool to keep hammering and saying that schools don't do good enough job with teaching math. Um and I like to me, that's I'll just say that's that's depressing or it's a it hurts morale, etc. And when we talk about smart goals, strategic, measurable, attainable, um relevant, time bound, but attainable. To me, uh um, when you have an opt-out at the same time, and in our school district, we now have about we have about 15% taking the state test at at the high school. Just 15%. And then when we have now 70 or 75% taking the state test in the middle school, and they're and they can opt out, and then you're counting counting basically their eighth-grade achievement, um, I think and I think it's going to keep more students are
096going to opt out, not not more are going to start taking the test. It's just more crumble over time. So, when you have less students participating, less students taking the test, and then you still have these results like this, you're not going to get that result. You're just going to keep seeing things crumble. So, and I I for me it's like, what is and I I wish the state board would know, what is the plan or what is the framework? How much support are students going to get? Uh, how much support are staff, you know, is our staff is staff going to get? What is that going to look like? What is, you know, what is this framework? And who's partnering with our school districts right now to create this framework? And are they getting
097feedback from our teachers? Is this are these state associations also involved? So, those are things that I'm just like feeling that we should know about. You know, what how is our instruction going to change? Um, what what will professional development look like? How will we support staffing? How will you help us with schedules for intervention? All of that to me. So, my question to you would just be, how will the framework improve math instruction and raise achievement in eighth-grade math, while at the same time we have opt-out? Impossible. Okay. So, I I want to thank again Superintendent Mendoza, Becky Timchuk. Once again, this framework passed unanimously today. Um with no changes and and no pause to address some of these things that he's brought up consistently over time. So, I I'm going to ask Dr.
098West for some thoughts on this. Um but I also want to compliment all of the superintendents and and that are doing this work. Um and I think it's important for the community and the teachers and the parents to see the message that you hear from our superintendent is a message that has been echoed with superintendents across the state on behalf of teachers, on behalf of students, on behalf of classroom learning environments. So, Director Lozano, when you say like we are all in this together, we are. And I'm very thankful for the superintendent voice and I want people to hear what that voice is on a state level. And it is still not landing. So, I'm going to see, Dr. West, what um you probably are obviously just seeing that from this morning. That was just
099this morning. And again, who in this state is watching this? Nobody. And what is the headline that we see from the governor? We're increasing instructional time. And all of a sudden, parents, yeah, great, instructional time. So, there's there's a real danger here in not having the context behind this. And again, locally, we're lucky in that I think we are providing the context to counter that narrative. Um but it's important. I think it's more important that we start bringing in that higher level so people can see what it is that boards are trying to work with here. Well, there are a couple of different issues discussed in the videos. Um I'll start with the instructional time video. I don't I'm not going to spend a lot of time there, but to illustrate for our school district
100the real impact if we cannot include, for example, conferences and professional learning in our instructional time if we were required to add 6 days. For us, that's about another $3 million. Um with the 4.6 million that we're reducing right now, we are in a really tough spot. We are looking at reducing 51 FTE across our district. Add $3 million to that. So, when Superintendent Mendoza says there are real costs to these policies, he's not wrong. The other thing I want to illustrate with the instructional time conversation is that he was absolutely right that the most important thing that we can do to improve outcomes for kids is make sure that we have the absolute best instruction taking place in our classrooms. That is where our focus needs to be. In fact, the study that Stanford
101Children published with Education Northwest related to instructional time um I want to I pulled up a footnote here that really struck me as I read this study because this is the study that is driving the conversation right now around instructional time. And on page eight, there's a footnote number 18 in reference to studies that show that lower chronic absenteeism is associated with higher ELA proficiencies um and more instructional time is associated with higher ELA proficiencies. The footnote number 18 says, "These associations are suggestive, but not proof proof of causation." For example, a simple regression of third grade ELA proficiency on instructional time, chronic absentee rates, student characteristics such as poverty, race, and ethnicity yields statistically significant coefficients for instructional time and chronic absenteeism, but they are only about half as strong as the simple correlations
102described above. What that means is that the correlations that are referenced here within this study, those correlations are true and accurate for those statistical analysis that was done, but when you control for variables such as student demographics, those correlations are significantly weakened. So, we are pointing to data to say, "See, we've got to go and increase instructional time." Where if you actually dig into the data, what you see is that, once again, we are ignoring the real cause and the real problem in our school system, which which is that we are not equitably educating students across the state. And we've had some conversations in this space about the state school fund formula and whether it equitably funds students. We've had some conversations about the third grade reading measure and how for our school district, that
103is not an accurate reflection of what students know and can do in terms of their literacy development because we educate so many students in Spanish. So, I think there's more underneath the hood of this conversation than the conversation that's actually taking place in public. And that is, I think, part of the problem that we have as a state is we look for the simple solution. We look for the clickbait. What's going to get the attention? What is going to make it look like we are doing something instead of actually lifting up the hood and figuring out what is the real problem here. What is it going to take to address the real problem that we have concerns about? Okay, now let's reverse engineer that. Let's finance that and let's commit sustained to political will to
104address those issues. I can't fix that at a state level. We can't fix that at a state level. We can advocate and we'll continue to do that. We can point out like Superintendent Mendoza when there are errors in thinking. But we can't change what the Board of Education is doing. What we can do is lift up the hood here in Forest Grove School District and look at what are the things that we have purview and control over. What are the things that we can work on and devote our energy, our resources, and sustained attention to improving those things. And that is why in this space and in other spaces I talk so frequently about instruction. I I come back to that over and over again. That is the single most important thing that we can
105focus on as a school district to see better outcomes for our students. World-class, evidence-based instruction. And that is our effort. That is what we are focused on. Thank you. Comments from the board? Yeah, I I watched the board meeting where the governor made her announcement. And And the of education reacted to that was a lot like the mayor in Carter Country, if you remember that old comedy on television where he would say, "Handle it. Handle it. Handle it." And let the let the police chief bear the brunt of the decision-making. And that that camps with me because that's what the state board of education did. They kicked the ball down the street. Or kicked the can. Or whatever the hell it is that they kicked. Uh they did not do their job. And they did
106not do their job unanimously. That's what gets me. Is that every one of them every one of them said "Yeah, this is probably not the best idea in the world, but I'm voting yes anyway." And to my mind, that is no way to run a railroad. Yeah, so I think I mean I think that gives us a little context. Maybe the community context from some of the things that we're pushing up against as a board when we're asking to support what Dr. West is saying, what we know we can do here. And eventually continue our advocacy maybe locally with our community and our parents to help them see what where we are headed, what we are doing. But also just an awareness for that the community to see these are the things still that we
107are trying to I don't know what we're trying to do. We're trying to scream like please stop and also do these things over here and I think so I yeah I I just that gives us a good starting point I think we don't I'm not going to show those in every meeting but I think those were key just to just to show the struggle. And just know that when you see those news headlines about education again we want to get people reoriented to here cuz I think what we share is real on the ground what's happening what we need where we're going and it's we're headed in the right direction. And so it's battling the narrative that's coming from everywhere outside. I think also I mean we we our number one goal is to focus
108on our students and do the very best and instruction has to be our priority absolutely top priority but on the other hand or simultaneously we really need to become more engaged as community and who we elect and we need to ask some real hard questions of people running for office that represent we represent us. You know how engaged are you going to be in the in your district in your school? How are you going to advocate? What do you know about these you know you know the the different groups that are making these decisions in Salem and we need to have people that are really going to be committed towards you know challenging what's happening in Salem and it can't be just Forest Grove Washington County it has to be statewide but this isn't fair
109to our students. This isn't fair to our teachers and we should be doing a better job and we can't cuz we have people in there that make a unanimous decision based on what? I mean, how many of them are in the school districts? How many are in the classrooms? How many are talking on that board to superintendents, to teachers, to parents? So, we must simultaneously really challenge people running for office, and we have to have a very very good educated populace, because they will become the workers, and companies don't come to Oregon unless they have um you know, talented staff, skilled staff, and they don't bring their families here if there's not good viable school districts. So, um you know, that's my two cents, but um I think anybody in the community or anybody watching
110this, you need to go out and really question people running for office. And I mean, there's a lot of issues. There's environmental issues, there's all kinds of issues, but our children are our future, and we need to elect people that are really going to support our school districts, and really ask the questions and really challenge. Anything else? I I think we'll we'll see everybody on the 12th for our next board meeting on the 14th the 14th, and I think that's right, it's 7:05 p.m.