4/14/2026 FGSD School Board Meeting

001April 14th meeting, 2026, Sports Broke School District Budget Committee meeting is called to order at 5:30. Let's do the flag salute, please. Mr. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stand for one nation under God, indivisible and for going to go ahead and do the roll call. David Anderson present. Melinda Fisher here. >> Nicholas Hafes here. Jordan Miller here. Make it there. Risa Franco. Christian >> here. >> Peter Trux >> here. Susan Field >> here. >> Kandasti >> here. >> Maya Andra. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda as presented? >> So move. >> Second. >> Do I have a second? All in favor of roll. Please signify by I. >> I do post approval of the 24th 26 meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve

002the February 246 meeting minutes as presented? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor on roll say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Motion carry. That's good. Eileen. Would you like to go ahead and start your presentation? >> Thank you. Um so tonight we have budget 102. Um, and we'll go over a little followup. We'll start with a um, general fund cash flow update, kind of where we are today, what we're looking forward to next year, and then we'll follow up with some of the discussion points that we were talking about at budget committee 101. Um, and then have discussions around and review the community engagement feedback that we went through. Just as a reminder, this is the budget committee calendar. This year we are in the second

003of our preliminary meetings. Uh our first actual official meeting will be on May 14th and that's when the budget will be proposed and presented to you and the community uh that evening. And then from there we have the two additional meetings to discuss and deliberate and have conversations uh ultimately approving a budget so that it can go to the board for adoption on June 9th. Looking at just a quick reminder of the budget committee's uh responsibilities and roles. The budget committee receives and reviews the budget. The budget committee uh considers public comment, discusses and deliberates the budget document and its information and then ultimately approves a budget. The school board and administration are who sets the district goals and policies, sets staff salaries and placement, uh adopts the budget, and then um after we propose

004the budget, we serve as just an advisory role to the budget committee as a whole. to go into just an update on our budget for this current fiscal year. In your packet, you have uh the Q3 financial report. And so I'll highlight a couple of the things that are in there in the upcoming slides. The first slide shows our general fund um budget compared to forecast. The first roof is the budget and it shows the 15 million as our beginning fund balance. the revenue of the 89 million, expenditures of 97 million, and then our ending fund balance is 7.3 million. If you look at that compared to where we are today and what we're looking at forecasting for the end of this fiscal year, we have a $10.5 million ending fund balance, which is due

005to general fund savings, additional revenue in a couple of places, but primarily um savings from labor and benefit staffing vacancies or turnover through the year. Um so overall, we've saved $3.1 million. However, at the same time that we're saving the 3.1 million, we are still in deficit spending. Oops, sorry, I'm changing it on my screen and not for you guys. Um, so we are still in deficit spending. Our ending fund balance is lower than our beginning fund balance for this fiscal year. And this is one of the challenges that we are facing this coming year. um where our ending fund balance is now down to that 11%. And we can't keep bringing that down. Um we have to stay placed. We have been intentionally bringing that down over the last few years, but now we

006need to make sure that we're not drawing from our savings every year. And we discussed this quite a bit at the last meeting. Um this is the same information as the last slide, just in numbers. Some people are visual learners and some people are numbers. Um, ultimately it shows that $10.5 million ending fund balance at 11% with $3.1 million savings throughout the year. Some of the major changes for our forecast to budget. There's three big factors that are impacting that increase of our ending fund balance. The first one is local revenue. We do have $282,000 more in interest this year than what we budgeted. We've been working really hard this year on investing in um Treasury bonds and or the LGIP, whichever one makes the most sense so that we can maximize those resources through

007the year. Um so that's one benefit that we've got this year. The offsetting for the uh revenue is the teacher experience rate. our teacher experience uh has plays a factor in the state school fund and how our allocation to the district goes. And so our teacher experience ratio went from I think a 1.2 down to a 0.2. So it dropped significantly uh which had about a $350,000 reduction in our state funding this year. >> Um just to remind the group, please jump in with questions. We really want this to be a conversation. Can you tell say a little bit more about the experience ratio and what causes the change and whether we can forecast that reliably or not? >> The change has to do with our staffing. So as we have more experienced staff in

008the district uh exit and we have new staff coming on board coming in our ratio will drop. But the challenge with the state school fund is it's all in relation to every other district in the state. So if we're changing at a greater rate than others or the average across the state, then we'll see a bigger impact than others. And so it's this along with um our ADM along with our um enrollment, our poverty, all of that stuff has to do with um how we relate across the state. So we can project as good as we can, but until we file that report the following December, we don't know how we're going to play out against every other district of the state. So we project as good as we can and we win in places

009and we lose in places a little bit across the formula. Um but it it is challenging. It is challenging to forecast. >> Have we had a significantly larger outflow of more seasoned uh personnel than is typical? I didn't see a big difference this year over last year or the year prior. Um we had more exits during the pandemic than we had in the last couple of years I believe. Um so again it's really around how we relate to the average. >> And if I could add to that just a little bit I can jump in if I misspeak in any way. Every district is estimating and I think Eileen is one of the better business officers I've worked with in terms of estimating. But if a district overestimates, underestimates by a significant value, that offsets

010the entire state as they go through their adjustment process. And the state is not only adjusting for the current year we're in, we're often getting adjustments for past years. And then that those two years of adjustments influence our projections into the future. So the process that Eileen and her team are constantly undertaking is where are where is the state making adjustments past year, current year, and how does that impact our projections into the future. Um and it is regular tweaking. It's every month. Every time we get an adjustment from the state in some area, we need to adjust our assumptions and our estimates. >> How often do they do that? >> Right now, we're getting them regularly uh for all three years. So, >> monthly, quarterly, >> it depends. As OD gets additional information or

011um deadlines finish or new poverty information comes out, then they start updating it. But it's really about the schedule of when the data is released to when they can update it. Um, and right now it's more frequent than other times of the year just because we are looking at three years worth of. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Are there um what are the conversations maybe with OASPO or or other groups about looking at that challenge and finding a way to stabilize or have more predictable funding around this area in particular? Uh there are a few of us at the superintendent level who are having some conversations around reaching out to the state and offering to be a partner and trying to stabilize the frequency of adjustments that we're seeing and and maybe even propose a cut

012off for the year because the these adjustments in a district like ours where we've had a budget committee that has supported an ending fund balance that allows us to be fiscally healthy. We can absorb a $300,000 adjustment. We don't like it, but we can absorb it. in a district that is operating razor thin margins when those adjustments come frequently like they are right now and it's a negative adjustment. That's why we it's one of the reasons not the only reason but one of the reasons that we see districts making mid-year reductions or looking for furlow days because they don't have the cash reserves to offset those types of adjustments. So there is a group of us having a conversation about how we can come alongside the state and offer some support in developing a a

013system that helps the state actually help districts be financially stable. So when we talk about our savings that we're trying to stay 11, 12, even higher, I think we talked about at the last budget meeting for emergency, you know, for all the unexpected pieces. Is this one of those pieces? >> Yes. >> That that does, you know, potentially know that savings will be able to cover. >> Correct. >> Okay. And I'm looking at the um OD's website right now and we've had six updates in the last two months between the three years. >> Wow. And so this time of year, and we will have at least one more update for both the 2526 school year and the 2425 school year before we're done budgeting. >> So what's causing the six? Why the six? >> It's

014just new information. Um districts, the 2024 25 data is updated as districts turn in their financial audits. They have actuals from last year. Um the 2526 is updated. there was a December collection where we as business managers can update our information through OD uh in December. So we typically get one after that. Um then there's updates in poverty rates that'll submit or push out a new update. Um, but it's just it's constantly as information I mean on one hand it's nice so as information is coming out we get updates but on the other hand it can feel like it's you know >> you're constant it's a roller coaster um and it could be changes in calculation like I shared um with a couple of you the change to the high-cost disability calculation impacted our cash

015flow by about $450,000. So, it could be for a variety of reasons like director outlined. The key is that we need to pay attention and we need to adjust our cash flow assumptions based on the information that the state is sharing with us as rapidly as it comes so that we make sure that we're making sound financial decisions based on that information. And then again, we have about $3 million in labor and benefit cost savings throughout the school year. We budget assuming our positions are going to be filled. And as there's turnover or there's vacancies, we generally see um vacancy savings here. Um and that we count on through the budget process each year. So >> legislative update. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things. It was the short session this year, so

016it went very fast. Concluded on March 6th this year. Um overall, we are really happy and thankful that the legislators did preserve Oregon school funding this year. So we did not get negatively impacted for the second year of the bienium. whereas a few months ago we were pretty nervous about that but we were hearing in December. Um so that was really good information for us. It allows us to continue going into next year without further reductions. Um yeah. All right. looking into next school year and this budget cycle that you'll have the proposed budget at the next budget meeting. We This is one slide that we gave to all of the community engagement meetings, uh our staff meetings, our community meetings, the online information, and really we talked about a lot of this stuff at

017the last budget 101 meeting, but we're in this space where we have several factors hitting us at the same time. We have declining enrollment. Our expenditures are outpacing our revenue. So the costs of services, the cost of FTE are increasing at a greater rate than our increase in revenue per student. Then we are in that deficit spending trend where we have been for a couple of years and we do have increased staffing. We have more FTE and more bodies across our system than what we've had in historically. And so we have all of these things coming together this school year. With that being said, with our deficit spending trends, we really need to stop and level that out this next year. We have our enrollment loss, which is drives our revenue. 94% of strokes revenue

018of our general fund is driven solely by enrollment. With declining enrollment, that means less revenue. Um, and then just the state funding is not keeping pace with the cost of increases, the PERS, the salaries, the uh utilities, implementing Oregon paid family medical leave. Um, there's all kinds of factors that are happening and the funding overall is not keeping pace with um with that. That being said, in order for us to stop that deficit spending and level out, it's going to require about 4.6 6 million or reductions going into this budget season in next budget year. Um and we will see reductions in grants. So the 4.6 million is just general fund whereas many of our grants are flat funded going into next year and a couple of them have already we've been notified they're reduced.

019So we will have to see reductions from those places too. Um a lot of our grant funds are they're dedicated for specific purposes but because of that they're heavily weighted in FTE funding or reduced funding increase in costs is not sustainable. So we have a couple of things happening um both the general fund reductions that we need to do and grant reductions. Um those reductions are going to be done in a few different ways. reduction in force. Since over 80% of our expenditures are FTE, there is not a way to get through this without impacting staff. Um it we are looking at 51 FTE reduction or about a 6.9% reduction in our total districtwide FTE. Gosh, I'm just going to pause there. I have a few more slides to go in. Um, but that's what

020we're looking at right now. >> And adding to that, before we go through these other slides, I want to remind the budget committee that this time last year, we proposed a $2 million reduction that the budget committee approved. So, we for this school year that we're currently in, we're already operating at $2 million less than we did for the previous school year. In order to lift us out of deficit spending, we need to reduce by an additional 4.6 million. The $2 million we reduced for this school year was largely unfelt because we reduced in the areas as far away from our schools as we possibly could. Going into this next year, we can't keep the reductions out of our school buildings. They're just too deep. Yes, >> couple questions. One, I presume that as um

021midyear attritions and people that leave and we don't backfill has already been factored into that. >> So the 51 FTE is the difference between what last this current year's budget to the proposed budget that we're looking at going into next year. We hope so that's what is going to be seen across the system. We hope the actual reduction in force and then staff impact is going to be much less because of that attrition and that >> second question if I might um has this number of 51 FTE or 7% been communicated very broadly yet amongst the stakeholders and support >> we I sent out a message to all staff on Friday with that information ahead of the board packet. Uh after this meeting, we will propose this reduction to the school board. They have not

022taken action on it yet. So this is currently a proposal. Um but it was communicated to the organization on Friday. After action, then we will communicate it to the broader community as well. and we have spent the last two months going through and trying to get as much community feedback and telling the story um over the last couple of months. What is new is the number and so that's what's recently making. And one more thing before we advance. Um, again as a reminder through my messages, through the board meeting, through other conversations we've been having, we've been forecasting now for about a year and a half that this is coming. Um, the actual reduction proposal, we didn't know until just recently when we went through and did our calculations and looked at operations and staffing

023around your district. But the fact that we're here has been communicated broadly for about a year and a half now. >> And is the timing of this riff as soon as possible or beginning next fiscal year or we know yet? >> We need to reduce these positions by June 30th so that when we start on July 1st, um we are starting without these particular positions on our in our budget. Going back to what director said, um I think it's important. It's it's hard to hold these two things simultaneously, but a 51 FTE proposal of a reduction in positions does not necessarily equate to 51 layoffs. We will do everything we can to place people in vacancies first and minimize our layoffs through that process. And oh, can I I'm going to add to that from

024the board perspective, David. Um I will go back even farther than this particular year, but on this board, we've been talking about we've been talking about what's happening with the state and the budgets well before this. I think we make sure in our meetings we are very transparent about where we are. I think the other thing that's been different with this board is we've been very involved in advocacy and we've shared that advocacy at our meetings with everybody who will listen um in Salem. And a part of this too is there was a lot of wait and see to see what ends up actually happening, what the governor's doing, what our legislators are going to decide to do. So I think as much as we can it this should not come this where we are

025should not come as a surprise in the sense that I think we've all been watching in the news. The questions I will ask Eileen a lot are when we see a district that suddenly is in real danger. They their reserves got too low and now we we've all seen the different stories. That's been a unfortunate but good opportunity oh for me to be able to ask um and we I think we've even surfaced that in a couple meetings. Why is it that districts did get in trouble? What are they failing to see or think ahead about? Um we've always prided oursel I think on having a team that is very visionary in what we need to do. But um I think in every way possible this this train has been coming and we've been communicating

026as much as we can. I think I talked about it um in a town hall on Saturday. I feel like there's a real disconnect between what Salem thinks they're doing and then how much maybe districts won't be impacted. And I think what we're going to see in the next couple months is a real time realization of what what these decisions are really meaning. So, as much as we can, we're trying to be very upfront and honest and and just so people know, this board is really doing their due diligence in Salem to ask the right questions and try to get get people to really understand what what this is going to be, what this is going to turn out to be. I do appreciate I appreciate the one of the things I think that we

027also asked about was making the um the reports that Eileen puts in our meeting more visually uh palatable for people to be able to and she's added reports with explanations about what does this mean and I've really appreciated the clarity and the explanation. So, I'll add that in case I know for budget meeting people, you might not have been attending every single board meeting, but I would encourage people listening to make sure that they are listening to all the board meetings and budget meetings and watching maybe the previous meetings and making sure we're all getting the full context of where we are. That will help us all, I think, advocate when we're talking to our legislators and see them. >> Our legislators should be looking at our videos, too. >> Agreed. >> Quick question. Oh,

028go ahead. Go ahead. >> If if we don't accept this, what could happen to our district? What are we what would we be facing in the future? >> So, I have that in another slide later on. Um, one of the things we have a decision to make through this budget process is to maintain our ending fund balance to increase it or decrease it. And we'll look at that a little bit later. But for every million we don't save today, that's twice as much next year that we have to reduce. Because if we look at reducing 10 FTE this year, if we maintain that loss next year, that's a million dollar this year and a million dollars next year. So we just save $2 million. Whereas if next year we are at the same place and

029now we have to save 2 million because we fold that ending fund balance down so low. Now we have to reduce 20 FTE. And so the impact um is a lot less the earlier that you react. And so if we hold that and we keep building down that ending fund balance and decreasing it, we're just going to be in a worse place and the impact is going to be significantly greater. >> And more directly, we'll run out of resources. eventually we won't have savings and that is not a position for a school district to be in. I've shared a couple of times that the policy requires an 8% floor in our ending fund balance that 8% covers expenses for one month. So if we don't receive cash flow from the state for some reason, that's

030one month of payroll, one month of keeping the lights on, one month of feeding kids. Um, so we run on a pretty thin margin just at policy level. Um, and that will go pretty quickly if we don't make the structural changes that we need to make this year. >> Thank you. Um, I wanted to make a comment that um, our legislators have a disconnect because they're not coming to budget meetings and they are over a hundred unfunded mandates and those unfunded mandates mean that the school district has to take the money to implement them out of their general fund. And so the recent one was the accountability bill that was passed and that affects our school district because we need to have staff and we need to, you know, um take the accountability bill and

031implement it within our district. and very few legislators um came and really sat and talked and listened to the board members or came to the budget meetings to understand that we are already assessing our students. We already have accountability. And so somehow the legislators Salem and our school boards have have to realize that we're in this for the children and we have to work together. You can't be working in silos separate. And so right now, no one is evaluating the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these mandates. How long have these mandates been on the books? Are they doing what they were supposed to do? And so there's no one that I see being accountable to looking at should we still be doing these unfunded mandates and do not give any more mandates without funding. Our school

032districts can't manage it with such low low um reserves. And this is about the students. It's not about whether you get elected or not. It's not about um your position in Salem. It's about we are in this together to work to solve problems to help our kids. And that's what we really need to do is come together and really sit down and say, "Look, let's get down to some planning ahead and also reviewing these unfunded mandates because it's it's killing our school districts. I mean, it's it's not fair to our students." I think another thing, David, that we we've talked about this in the board meeting is the January legislator dinner that we had and that was after a long session where multiple other mandates were again layered on and we tried to make clear

033please do not please not only stop but these are not what we need. And we specifically in that meeting at the end of the meeting stood up and said to all the legislators in the room, if you do nothing else before you work on a single another education bill, we want you to check in first with our superintendents. Do we need it? How is it impacting your district? And then the short session happened and we got the accountability bill. We got House Bill 4154 addressing absenteeism. There was not I I can't think of a school district that asked for that that doesn't already have data that does that. We lobbyed for that. We sent letters. We asked people please to listen. They did not and went ahead and passed now additional bills in a short

034session that are additional unfunded mandates. So the question becomes, we're doing almost everything we can do. I talked to a board member in Portland and she said, you know, we did everything. We we went down. We took parents down. We went to the lobby days. We met with our legislators. We built the relationships and and this short session resulted in the opposite of what schools were asking for. So that's I think that's a reality where we can to Kate's point really need to come together and somehow find a way for people to really see what's right here in front of them and understand the impact. And I' I think this team does a really good job. We've had other districts use um some of our examples to help their legislators see, but um very rarely

035do I see those examples when I watch the ed committees in Salem. I will give Senator Soulman a huge shout out there because she does bring bring these bills to our superintendent after feedback and then I've watched meetings where she shares the feedback about horse in these meetings in advocacy even against some of these bills. So, we're that's the type of legislative communication and connections we need to build and continue to build, but it certainly is not for lack of trying. If I may for a time check uh return us back to the presentation since some of what we're talking about, I think we might touch on some other areas as well. Um, okay. So, the next couple slides I was going to go into what that 51 FTE looks like. Not into great deal

036detail, but at least to show where that is and what it looks like. Um, overall it's 27 licensed FTE, 21 classified, one confidential, and two administrators. And when we look at these numbers individually, it does look disproportionate. However, when we look at what the percent of reductions is as compared to the group, our overall reduction is about 6.9%. Whereas the license group is the proposal is to see a 6.7% reduction, classified a little bit more at 7.2%. confidential at 6.3% and administrators 7.7% reduction of their total IT. Um so as we went through these reductions and we were looking at our staffing models and allocations, we really wanted to make sure that we were conscious about where the reductions were, making sure that they weren't impacting one group significantly greater than another group. Um, and

037just to make sure that we were looking at more of a balanced approach. Um, questions on this. >> So, I have a question. What um, who are confidential employees? >> Yeah. Um, confidential employees are really everybody that doesn't fit in the other three. >> Okay. >> It's me. I'm not a licensed staff member. I'm not in the classified group. um our HR specialists or our bookkeeper or um our payroll specialists. So, they just don't fit in those other buckets. >> Nice. There are some specific criteria associated with that. To add just a little bit um because most of our staff we want either in the classified or the licensed marketing unit. That's how we should design our positions. But there are some positions like director flutes for example where she has access to confidential information

038related to each of the different bargaining units and should not be a member of those bargaining units. And so we have several positions like that like a payroll specialist um like for example an administrative assistant who supports bargaining. Um there there are very specific criteria under bully for who would qualify in a confidential position. It's our smallest employee group for that reason because we do want most of our staff if they are not an administrator to fit within the license for the classified bargaining. >> Thank you. >> Just a comment kind of question. I think it's very helpful to see the stacked charts so you can see that the percentage of impact is pretty similar across the different categories. But to me, it's also really important that making everything equal in terms of which categories

039get impacted isn't the most important criteria. And it has to be where do we have more people than we can afford and if that means that we have to be somewhat disproportionate then we need to do that. Right. >> Right. And when we were looking at the budget for this upcoming year we really looked at our staffing allocations, our staffing models, our programs and the return on investment on certain things. Um, so we looked at all of those, decided and looked at where the reductions can be based on other criteria and then we looked at it on this perspective on how does it look. >> It's fortuitous that it looks equal, but that's not how we got there. >> That's not how we got there. >> Thank you. >> Right. It but it is a

040a cross check that we want to balance. >> Yeah. >> But it's really comforting to know that's not how we got there. >> No. And and I'll add as well for those individuals who don't spend all of their time looking at staffing classifications that when we look at a classification like license that is not just a classroom teacher. There are many different roles in an organization that may be part of the licensed bargaining unit but they are not actually in a classroom teaching students. That's true for classified as well. example. >> For example, we have teachers on special assignment. And teachers on special assignment are teachers who they're a licensed educator who do not have a classroom that they are teaching. So, a group of kids or at the secondary level, multiple groups of kids.

041They may work in curriculum and instruction focused on supporting math. They may work in a school environment focused on supporting literacy. Um they may work in a school environment focused on supporting English language development. So we have many different types of teachers on special assignment. That is one example. Counselors are part of our license group. That's another example. So this licensed category is more broad than just a classroom teacher. >> So another thing that we looked at again after the distribution just to again crossch check our thinking um is FTE by assignment. And when we're looking at assignment, we're looking at is the FTE assigned to a building or is the FTE assigned to the district. Um, and that could be anybody at the district office. It could be somebody that floats between buildings pretty

042significantly. Um, our facility staff from Taylor Way. And so when we look at school assigned FTE which is our instructional teachers, it's our instructional aids, it's the administrator at the building level. Um all of that encompass um 91% of our current budget is at the building level assigned FTE of building level. 9% is assigned at the district or other placements. Um, so when we're looking at what the school assigned up to eat at 91% there is no way we can get through this budget without impacting the schools. We know and we heard this was a huge priority. Um, so we did have that in the back of our minds when we were going through the budget process. Um, but with such a significant portion of our FTE actually assigned to the building level. Um, Yeah.

043Um, so when we look at that 51 FTE reduction, proposed reduction, 87% of that reduction is at the building level compared to 91% of our current staffing at the building level. Where when we look at all of the other FTE, the district or other, um, we're looking at 13% reduction in that group, whereas they account for only 9% of our total FTE. So it is um more weighted on the other FTE or district level FTE than it is on the building level. And then the last piece on this topic um just for perspective a little history on force grow over the last decade we will be down 728 students by next fall. However, if we look at our staffing levels today we're up 97 FTE. Even after this reduction, we will still have 46 FTE

044more in our system today than we had 10 years ago, but 700 students less. That is our structural data set. >> So, is there a two sentence explanation that you like the last meeting we said in two two sentences? Why not describe our financial situation? In two sentences, how would you describe why we have this disparity of a declining enrollment and increased FTE? >> Why did we do that over the past 10 years? >> Over the past 10 years, >> yes, >> we're I mean 97 more FTE from 10 years ago. If we look at where the FTE has been added, I think I shared a slide either in the last at one of the last meetings um or but it's primarily um counseling. In the last 10 years, we've gone down to 250 to1,

045even lower right now uh for our counseling ratios. We've added health IAS across the district. We've added some specialists. Um, we've added that was in >> Yeah, it was in the budget 101 presentation. Um, we can get this >> mostly on >> it's it's as a result of the pandemic and following the pandemic. And I if I could say more broadly, we can get the spec specifics if you'd like that. But more broadly in general, I I want to say a couple things. I don't think anyone who works in a school system feels like we're overstaffed. Yeah. >> So, I I just want to acknowledge that. Um, for those of us who spend time in schools, I think we can agree with that statement. Our funding model is not structured to allow for the amount

046of staff that we currently have in our schools. And the amount of staff that we currently have in our schools were added starting with the pandemic. And in Forest Grove, it began a little bit before the pandemic, but we really saw the spike during the pandemic and then following the pandemic, like almost every other school district in Oregon. And there were a couple of reasons for that. During the pandemic, we prioritized care and connection with all of our kids. We were delivering meals directly to homes, running buses around to make sure that kids had Chromebooks. When they returned, we maintained that increase in service across our system. And I don't think anyone would look back and say that wasn't the right thing to do. And we benefited from ESSER funds for a period of time.

047And those were federal funds that were available to school districts to help offset the costs associated with the pandemic. And like most districts, the Forest Grove School District did use those funds to offset costs and build up an ending fund balance over time. that has allowed the district over the course of the last six years as we've exited from the pandemic to be able to maintain the level of staffing that we have maintained up to this point. But those funds don't exist anymore and we again are not funded in a way that allows us to maintain the staffing structures that we currently have in place now. So would it be accurate to say over the last 10 years we saw and worked to meet a whole bunch of needs that our students had especially during

048the pandemic that a lot of money came in during the pandemic which we used to do that money is not available anymore. We just can't afford to staff the level we were at to try and continue to meet the needs that we've recognized. >> That is a perfect. >> Yes. Um, looking at my notes from budget 101, um, it was we significantly decreased the average class sizes districtwide, we have added six prek classrooms across the district. Uh, we've increased our ELV FTE, both licensed and classified. Migrant services have increased. District counseling ratios have decreased significantly. And we've added mental health specialists. We've added health IAS uh increased FTE and school sites, speech and other treatments. Uh added district building supports are TOSAs for literacy, math, EL and science. And then we added technology IIA supports

049for each of the buildings. So that is it all adds up. Y >> yeah. son. Okay, now to switch gears a little bit, wanted to wrap back around from our conversation at the last budget meeting, budget 101, when we had discussion around any fund balance and what the priorities was of the budget committee. And at that meeting, what we heard is the budget committee values the resiliency and um providing an ending fund balance between 11 to 16%. It kind of varied depending on the group that was talking. And so with that said, we wanted to further the conversation a little bit around the ending fund balance and kind of get an understanding of where we want to go in to this budget season for an ending fund balance before the proposed budget. Um, with us

050maintaining the current 11% ending fund balance, it does equal that $4.6 $6 million and it's going to take that 51 FTE. Um that 51 FTE is both general fund and grants. So it's not just for that 4.6 million. However, when we're looking at that ending fund balance, every 1% increase or decrease to that percentage is about $930,000. So if we want to increase it to a 12% or decrease it to a 10% it's going to be about that $930,000 and then when we are looking at that decreasing of the 1% uh I talked earlier about the impact of delaying that. So if we do decrease it to 10% and then decrease it the following year, it's just going to compound the issue because we know today we are in declining enrollment. Next year we're going

051to see even less enrollment. The following year we're going to see even less. Um at budget 101 we shared the presentation showing we have I think five more years of declining enrollment. This is not a one-time issue and we do need to structurally stabilize. So that looking at our ending fund balance over time, um, a lot of this is what you've seen at budget 101 where we budget and then we saved throughout the year and we have those pandemic years where we were able to use those federal stimulus resources and other grants and we were shut down and so our ending fund balance grew during those years. So the light gray bar is where we budgeted each year. The green bar is where we actually ended each year. If I look at history and take

052out those few years of pandemic resources, we saved between three and 6% um each year historically from budget to actual each year. So there is a way to stabilize and stop deficit spending. And if we're looking at a 10 or 11% ending fund balance this year and then we budget to that and budget no deficit spending and then save a little bit during the year and then budget to that point and then save a little bit, we do have a natural opportunity to gradually build that ending fund balance while we are structurally stabilizing. So does that make sense? >> It does. >> Yeah. It would be helpful to maybe characterize it another way is for every percent that we increase our ending fund balance, what impact might that have on our FTE reductions that we

053have to make? And that's another way to look at it. Right. >> Right. And every $930,000 depending on which um employee group you're looking at 8 to 10 to 12 individuals 12. >> And even with the trits not getting back filled with things we're actually talking about real people now. >> So we do have a discussion conversation for you guys. Yeah, thank you. Um, so given the information that we shared and reflecting on the conversation that we had last time, again, we heard from the budget committee and interest in a 11 to 16% ending fund balance. The highest number we heard was 16%. So given that conversation and what you've heard, where should we be? because now is the time to change our projection for the ending fund balance if we're going to make a

054change. So just like last time uh we'll have some paired conversation around the questions that we have here and then we'll do a little bit of reporting out. So the question is does the budget committee feel that 11% is the right level and as I do director flute laid out that we can increase that over time through incremental savings and if so what is our goal is it 13% is it 14% is it 16% which was the highest number that was thrown out last time so if you turn to an elbow partner and have some conversation I'm going to set a timer for about 3 minutes and then we will share out what that conversation looked like. And yes, I'm really cold, too. So, I'm going to get up. >> All right. Three minutes. Thank

055you. I can see will not give you a point feel like I should do a hand raise if I can hear you. Right. >> That's right. >> All right. So, let's start with the first question. How does what is what what is the sentiment of the budget committee related to the proposal from director of clue that really we could plan for an 11% ending fund balance that will lift us out of deficit spending and then through careful savings where we can realize and incrementally increase our ending fund balance over time. What are the thoughts of the budget? We support that. >> Yeah. We can start from 11 and see when we get to 30. >> Okay. >> Right. And and we support that that um one of our um members here would like to even

056see it go higher. Yeah. >> Continuing to build more comfortable with that. >> With our group over here, we felt very uncomfortable going above 11, frankly. building up a little bit over time, that'll be okay. But I certainly wouldn't target any higher immediately. >> And I wouldn't recommend that either. What we're about to propose to the school board in the board meeting is going to be challenging for our organization. Um, I wouldn't recommend we make it more so. Okay. So it sounds like there's some consensus to stick to 11% and then realize incremental savings over time as we can. Then the second question is what do we think the goal is? What is the ultimate target for our district? >> No greater than 11%. >> Just right around 11, maybe 12, but I don't think

057we need to go up higher than that. I think we can be fiscally responsible and I'm not really excited about 12. We can pay the bills and absorb some unforeseen things and 10 11%. >> Yeah. I I think we're reaching out to our state to our leaders up above, you know, at this point. If we're trying to go any higher, I say we find a different target, >> one that's actually going to help. What are the other thoughts? >> I think we have we still have uncertainty about what the state will commit to. We don't know what's coming our way. We've seen cuts this year we didn't anticipate. I think I think I'm comfortable trusting Eileene with 11. But if she's able to save as she's saying she's saving, I would be fine with moving

058that up incrementally as we can while protecting the whole organization. I just think that based on what I've seen in the instability of our funds and no commitment to funding education in in any kind of way right now, if we if we are saving and savings are there, I I would be fine for growing that. If we did it responsibly and it makes sense. But >> other thoughts? >> We were we were discussing a little bit of the two there's two problems that feel like we're facing. one the co funding then I guess responding the lack thereof what's continued forward and then also the declining attendance or enrollment and I think that the percentages could certainly should be re-evaluated once we get to back to bas from our adjustments made for the co funding and

059then it appeared really it's a ratio of about approximately 10 to1 to where if we didn't have the co funding problem in this budget we'd be looking at a loss of 70 students which essentially if it was a exact balancing that would be seven FTE is that somewhat I try to do rough math here like FTE was about 104,000 per year and the students I don't know exactly number that we get because there's all the ratio ratios involved >> but I guess 10,000 is a is a round number but >> a little bit more than that but that's >> it was like 115 to 125 >> so yeah I guess yeah summary it was breaking the two separate >> so what I'm hearing I oh I'm sorry we didn't hear from >> oh we think

060sticking to 11% and then review in a year on a yearly basis to see if we need to adjust just that um because there might be a miracle that we would get but I don't think so but um and and I know that you would do that anyway. So we're we're comfortable with 11%. Okay. So what I'm hearing is a general consensus that 11% is a good target. Don't want to go any higher than that certainly right now. Reestablish a baseline. I appreciate that framing. Thank you Jordan. And then we assess each year from that point forward and determine what the correct ending balance is for us. Is that a fair summary of what everybody's saying? I know there's some desire to grow. >> No, I completely agree. Grow if recommended and and we're able

061to do so. >> Thank you. I mean the growth bringing back these kids back 200 kids that we lose every year. What can the school district do for the families who do not have the kids in the school district? >> Excellent question. Um, if you're able, we are actually going to have a presentation during the board meeting from Flow Analytics, which is a consultant group that just recently conducted a demographic and enrollment study for us. And they're going to share some interesting information about projected enrollment for the next few years. Um, I think this is a slide in our board meeting. It's not a slide in our budget meeting, but one of the things that I think we can do to try to encourage students to come back to our district. One is make sure

062that people know this is a fantastic district. We have incredible staff. They work hard. The narrative out there that our schools are failing is false. I reject that. That is not an accurate narrative for our school district. The metrics that a lot of people point to to determine whether this is a good school or a bad school, again, they're not valid for our district for a lot of reasons, especially that third grade reading score. And I can get in I I will get a little bit into that in the board meeting. I'm not sure that we have the time to do that now, but there is a narrative out there. And I know this because I talk to people in the community that public schools are not good anymore. And so I think helping to

063shift that narrative is one way that we can help recapture some of the enrollment we've lost. We are looking at some other things as well. We have lost students to online programming. Um there are many students who didn't return from online programming that we all stood up during the pandemic. So we're trying to determine are there ways that we can recapture students through our own online programming or some some length thereof. That is one option that we are looking at. Um don't have an answer to that yet but we're looking at it. And then what's interesting about the flow analytics study um they present to us what they call a capture rate for kindergarteners. And our capture rate is.77. And what that means is that for every 100 students that could be a kindergartener in

064our school, only 77 are enrolling. And so there's something in there that I think we could look at too because what we know through our own internal data as well as years of research is that if a student starts with us in kindergarten, they almost certainly finish with us in 12th grade. So there's something there Nicholas has to look at as well to see if if we can recapture some development at that level. So there's no one answer. There's a lot of things we need to look at. >> Could you could you mention too if if the state were to do something like completely lift the sped caps for instance, what immediate impact would a would a move like that be able to have on districts? Not >> slide. Oh, am I ahead of it?

065Okay. Okay. Um, I'll just go into it now since we're on that topic. Um, in looking at what we're funded versus our actual IEP counts that have left the district, we have 895 students on an IEP in our district where we're only funded at 711. If the state actually funded all of the weights and didn't just redistribute the current state school fund for us, it would mean a little over $2 million. And then our last topic today is just to review the community engagement um and feedback that we received over the last couple of months as we've been out. As a reminder, our process for receiving community engagement to help guide our budget development process this year was in three phases. We had our initial digital survey that went out to families, community, and all

066secondary students. And then we had our building engagement that was all in person at both staff meetings and community meetings. And then we had a community leaders uh engagement session here at the district. And uh Dr. West is going to go through some of the feedback and results that we received through that. What we see up here are the survey results. Um, if you went to our in-person engagement, this is a little bit different than what we presented at the Inerson engagement. This is a summary of the top three responses for each of the different groups that we received surveys from. A couple things I want to point out. In four of the five groups, safety and security were in the top three categories. And then we have a couple of other high categories as

067well. And and in three of the five um respondent groups, counseling and mental health services emerged as a priority. And in the same three of five groups, instructional supports emerged as a priority. And then we have twos and I I think a one in there as well among students with afterchool activities. So you can see the distribution there among the different respondent groups. Um, I do want to point out again our students by far were the largest respondent group. So, you can see the end size next to each of those group categories there. Um, and we were thrilled to have our students respond and share with us their opinions about their school experience and what those priorities were and it was equally important else. So we took these results and we shared them with um

068folks that would come in person to engagement. Some of those engagements were at the school level. Every principal hosted an engagement and then we also hosted engagements at each school for parents to attend. We did do a couple above and beyond that. Um we had for example an engagement with our migrant parent group. um that is a group of parents from around the district not local to anyone school. All of those data are synthesized here. And what emerged from the qualitative data that we received because all of the data we received through these in-person engagements was in written form is that we heard please minimize impacts to direct studentf facing roles. Mental health is important and it's an academic prerequisite that aligns well with the survey data. Extracurricular activities mattered. Many parents commented on how

069important it was to their students that they had access to those extracurricular activities. There was a mention of CTE as well. And then our largest engagement group among families was our migrant path. We had that evening probably a couple hundred people in attendance. about half of those individuals, maybe a little bit more than that. You were there, Jordan, so you can add to this, a little more, about half were were adults who actually participated in feeding the the process that we built out. And so I captured some of what we've heard directly, but the key themes that emerged through that primary engagement was the emotional well-being of students, the importance parents placed on students getting extra attention when they needed it, small group instruction, and then a lot of appreciation for the family resources that

070we make available to our community. Um, and then in terms of strategic goal alignment, we had many parents speak out about how they appreciated the SEAL focus that we have in our schools. Um, the equity focus that we're very open about our equity stance and that we make it a priority to empower diverse perspectives. So that migrant meeting in conjunction with all of the other feedback helped to inform the qualitative information that you see here. I do want to acknowledge that we didn't get the engagement levels that we hoped for. Um I would have liked to have seen three or four or five times as many people participate in those in-person sessions. We had a couple with good participation. Um and we had a couple where no one showed up. And so that is still

071a challenge for us in terms of how do we engage our families in a way that they feel comfortable participating with us. Um so with that the question we have two questions that we actually want to ask. Um Bethany what time are we done? >> Right at seven. Okay so we've got enough time for these two questions. Um, so the first question, and this is a roundt discussion, is for those of you who were able to attend our in-person listening sessions and community sessions, what reflections do you want to share with the budget committee about either what you observed or what you'd heard? Please jump in. I went to the one at the port. Well, I went to the one at NMS and I was the only one and I said, "Oh, you know, I'll

072go to another one." So, I went to the one at the high school and you know, help me un remember if I'm offkilter here, but um discussions from our small group centered around um the legislator um the legislature and their decisions like a kicker. Why are you why is the state supporting a kicker and returning that to residents um rather than using it. And then um the PERS situation um how that uh impacts not only school districts but other governmental organizations and how that needs to be addressed. Um and so that I mean there were others but that's what I remember kind of. Okay. Yeah. So they were not like problems with the district implementation. It was outside of the district. >> That's insightful. Thank you. >> And I was at Dilly. Arturo was there

073and compliments to the principles too who gave those presentations. The two uh parents who were there were PTA parents of new kinders. And I think the slide that I noticed that they commented on the most was the one with the with seessaw with the teeter totter that actually showed here is all the things we we have to do. Again, maybe to Susan's point, like here is what districts are required to do and we those are things we cannot and that was kind of a eye openener and I appreciated that slide to tell that story. I was at the district office and it was um community leaders. Um it was a really a wonderful wonderful discussion and they were really engaged and understood a lot more about budgets and understood what we're up against. But what

074really um just made me warmed my heart was how much each person young and old what can we do? How can we help? and um and very appreciative of the district and supportive in whatever way that they could help. Um but they really liked seeing those numbers and it I always say it's like throwing a pebble into a pond and the rippling effect. Those people will go and share the budget presentation and and help us as a community try to solve it. So I thought it was an outstanding group the people that came to that. Thank you. >> I for certain three there might have been to four of them. They sort of milled together, but there was a lot of contrast on at the pack. There was hundreds >> of attendees like cumitively and

075all the other ones I attended there was three or four parents combined. And at the mack it was it was all done in Spanish. So I wasn't privy to the entire conversation of what was going on, but I got to observe the family, the community, the kids were there. Ample amounts of parents were there and they worked really well together at the tables with the tasks and the worksheets and get providing feedback. And if we could take what whatever was done there and apply it to the other schools, I don't know what exactly is missing, but clearly there's something of where the parents at the other schools are not attending that presentation. And I don't know what the difference was per se, but it was really amazing going to that going to the micro my

076group pack uh event and just seeing the community that was there. Something was being done right. And I will speak um for the several school sessions that I went to. I I saw the same thing that you're describing in the finder pack at every one of the school sessions I attended and I wasn't able to make it to all of them. But what I observe is staff who really engaged thoughtfully around the data we had collected through the survey and provided some really insightful context for what that data tells us about the student experience and what we need to prioritize. Before we move off this first question, are there any other observations that the budget committee would like to share? I just get exasperated because we try to separate, we try to silo this stuff

077so that we can deal with education or deal with transportation or we can deal with housing affordability or we can deal with child care. And yet when you get into these discussions, when you get into budgeting for a school district, for a city, for a state, it all blends together because any impact you have on child care will have an impact on education. Any any impact on transportation will have an impact on housing affordability. And to silo that and to say this is a housing problem, I think is to short change all of us. And I don't know the answer, but I'm pretty damn sure right now that siloing this stuff and saying we'll deal with this, then we'll do with this, and then do with this is not getting us what we want and

078not getting us what we need. Um, and I would I would in my wildest dreams, and this is going to be, I guess, the wildeyed radical in me, I would hope someday that the Oregon State Legislature would say, "We're going to meet all the time. We're going to have a full-time legislature because these problems are full-time problem, and they can't be solved six weeks in one year." and 15 weeks in another year. >> Well, with that, >> I'll shut up. >> I've said too much already. >> That's a great segue into question two, which is this is a nut that we're continuing to try to crack. Um, we we had some success with the engagements that we planned for this year, but as I said, not enough. So we are interested as we continue this

079process and look at other processes into the future if there's any learnings or suggestions that this committee has that we can take away and work on improving. also keep the communication to the family from right from the first day of school as as much as communication with the families and with the community would have a child more than just having the last two months of the year to three months of the year bringing everything to the families was from the first month tell them what's going on and what's for what we think from the school district what do we think is going to be projected for next year That's the suggestion there. >> I would say just on the contrast of the the different meetings the at the micro pack people were having fun. It

080was there were smiles on faces. They were talking to neighbors. It was it was a fun engaging event. I don't know. I can't remember if there was actually music playing or not, but it it was people were so engaged it felt like maybe in the gym they were okay. There was music playing and and the other was okay. It's it's silent and quiet. And it's not that okay, if we put music on and have pizza, all the events, parents will come out. But it's still having if we can get one parent to go and have them invite a couple of their friends that are parents and go as a group of, hey, you you'll have your own assigned table. if you can get six of you and your friend you and your kids friends parents

081to also go something I don't know what what that looks like and it also seemed like the problem solving that was done at that event seemed like there was more hope in people's eyes versus the other ones it was like we've been dealing with this problem forever don't really know what the solution is kind of felt more same saying >> interesting observations >> and I don't know if that's an introduction of new programs that you know like the elective opportunities both the students and the parents that was on their top three for the digital circle >> maybe that's something on even if it can't come to fruition exactly how they want maybe there's something to engage the parents that are not that are not coming or some way to provide some hope of saying this

082is where we want to go and we actually will hear input because it community input matters so much more in those meetings because that's what we talk about in this meeting and what we talk about in this meeting is taken to the schoolboard meeting by the time I feel like we get our budget well a bunch of decisions have already been made and then that's when a lot of comments come in it's like well we need the comments >> on the front end yeah that thing >> can I add to that really quickly I think you know we ask for accountability on our leadership team. As parents, as a a parent myself, we need the same from as parents. We need to show up. It's it's a freedom. It's there. So, it's a matter of

083inviting and advocating for for our students, for our school districts. Um, so a lot of is is us too, not just our leadership. I mean, we're all a leadership. depending on who depends the teachers or something. So, >> thank you for that. >> You know, one of the things I think about is um the kindergarten, the prekinder and kindergarten teachers, they make home visits and so the relationship that prek kinder and kinder is really positive because the teacher has gone into the home and they have a relationship. They feel comfortable offering all kinds of things, pine cones, all kinds of things. And I wonder if just randomly um that at the from you know prek kinder all the way to 12th grade is if each teacher just randomly picked up say three people three families

084and just called up and said you know you know some basic questions you know how's the year how's something and then in January and then a followup at the end of the year and it doesn't have to be the smartest student or it doesn't It's just randomly checking in. And I I think that that personal communication is so important, that relationship, that connection. And we've done all kinds of different things, you know, I mean, since I've been on the board, you know, inviting and that, but I think just picking up the phone and um and I mean it's also nice to pick up the phone and and say, you know, your kids have just did this really nice thing, you know, you know, but I just think and I know our teachers are terribly busy,

085but I think I think everyone in the district I'm, you know, I just think that we need to connect with our families and just not saying they're kids, but I'm just saying like two or three. Um I think that speaks volumes when someone just calls up and I just want to check in and how's your student doing? How are you feeling? Do you have any concerns? And um and then they can pass them on to, you know, to the district office and principles and that. But I don't know. It's just another idea. >> It's a great idea. Thank you. And I would like to to piggyback on that a bit from the parent teacher conferences I attended last year. I got consistent feedback from parents because I was asking them to answer a couple questions

086for me in person and I had multiple parents go it's another survey. We don't ever hear anything back. >> A survey is not going to >> so I would say that on that it's exactly the right side. But the followup too of the parent, if the parent does give insight or suggestion or there's positive or negative, the followup phone call could be just as if not more impactful. A thank you phone call. Thank you for this information. Even if it's we can't do anything about it right now. I think that goes a long way versus they're just keep giving advice, keep giving advice and they don't hear anything. that that's a real it's a good point. >> Well, thank you for this conversation and discussion. If you have additional ideas, we do want to hear

087them. Um, I'm going to pull us together because we're just about out of time and need to transition to our board meeting. We do have one or two more slides that we want to show quickly and then we'll wrap things up. So, this last slide that we have is just key points. Last time we heard from you that you would like more of those oneliners, um, statements, quick, easy things to remember. And so, we put together this slide. It has a few of the key points that we talked about earlier. Um, before I send this out to you all in an email, I'll go ahead and add that one additional one. Um, the oneliner about why we're here returning from COVID pandemic. the savings, enrollment loss, and uh increasing costs. I'll include that one in

088there so when you get that in email and PDF, it'll be there. Uh is there any other information you want in this slide for future? Know it's a lot. And if you don't have an answer now, you can always reach out to us and we will share that information after you ask the question and then share it broadly with the entire budget committee as well. >> Yes, sir. >> Um bullet the third bullet, we expect continued declining enrollment for several known years. I hope it wasn't my imagination, but I think I saw an article in the New York Times today or yesterday that indicated that that's beginning to turn around, that several more years there is that this decline is not going to go away, but it's going to decrease. and we are looking at

089a at an upward trend of the curve. >> Not for us yet. That's actually part of our board meeting. Um again, we'll have a presentation from Flow Analytics that will share >> specific for our school district what the forecasted enrollment is for the next several years. >> All right. Well, thank you so much for being here. state to family members, community, if there's no further business, this meeting is going to be adjourned at 7 p.m. >> Thank you everyone. >> Thank you so much. >> See you in May. Correct. I'd like to call to order the April 14th, 2026 Forsville School District Board of Directors meeting at 71 p.m. We'll start with a roll call of board members present. Paul Rosano >> Resa Franco is absent. Kate Randeski >> Pete Truax >> here. >> Maya

090Andrade here. >> And Christie Cox is here. Uh before we move on to approval of tonight's agenda, I want to take just a a minute to offer a special thanks and recognition to director Truax for being here tonight. For those in the audience who may not know uh his, as he called it, it's much better have Pat Thruax passed away Saturday evening. I had asked this morning if it was appropriate and with his permission to say a few words, not knowing if he wasn't here tonight. He did say that. Mayor talked last night as well about her impact. I am not going to talk in depth about her impact because as we all know eventually we'll hear from director Truax in his eloquent way about the impact that this woman has had on all of

091us in this community and so many of us in this room her service as a teacher of Cornelius her impact lately especially I am just going to say this one piece in the work that she's done to lift up women in leadership and empowering women to take positions of leadership and that's also a caus Boy, did she do that. >> That's also a cause that director Trux holds dear uh and true. And I think I can say for sure that she would be uh so impressed and thrilled to know that Pete is up here with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and then probably 10, 12 more, even more than that in the audience. And of course on the cabinet, strong women in leadership using their voice and we will continue to honor her

092memory. We'll hear much more about the ways that she's impacted this community, but I appreciate your presence tonight. This community is is just rallying around your family and and I'm going to leave it there for now. >> Good. >> All right, we're going to look for approval of tonight's agenda. So, move. Second. All in favor say I. I. And next we have our student rep report, board report, and forcerove education association reports from Erica and for the board. These are regular reports we have at each meeting. During these reports, the board listens quietly and respectfully, and we expect the same from the audience. We ask that everyone refrain from clapping, cheering, booing, snapping, or any other audible reactions. Uh, silent head nods or headshakes are fine. I do want to let everyone know and this

093is a standard thing we've talked about before. If I do hear a response in the audience, I will gabble once. If it happens again, even if it is a single person, I will gabble a second time and I will close public comment for the night and accept responses in writing for the record. At that point, the board will recess and we will excuse the audience and then the board will continue back to the boardroom to continue the meeting. And I just want to be clear with those expectations again. This community has done a phenomenal job of showing how we can express our opinions but we can do so respectfully. We also um we remind ourselves that we are setting examples for our students um who one is at the table but many especially in the

094leadership group are watching. And I think we can all say uh we can all think about the the the viral moments that maybe have happened in different meetings in different cities and different towns. And the culture we're building here and I think we've been pretty successful so far is to continue to listen to each other and respect each other. So with that, I am going to start with the student rep uh report from Maya. And Maya, for people that haven't been to the board meeting, would you tell just a little bit about yourself first? Thank you. >> Yeah, of course. Uh, firstly, my best condolences. Uh, Mr. Seriously, I really appreciate you being here. Uh, my name is Maya. I am the ASB president and the Latino student president at first high school. Uh, giving

095my job this time to give a report on the student side uh, and really give our point of view uh, since it's students who are usually impacted by the decision we made here. Um, I'll go ahead and just start my student report to get things moving. Um, April is in full swing and since Tom just wrapped up, a lot of the seniors and juniors are working are working on focusing on uh our AP exams and the end of the school year and throughout the school year uh for most of March and April as well we've been working hard to bring uh to life um our school culture um and we are starting that with kind of beautifying the school loader again. Uh so we have been bringing life to our previously plain walls uh which

096are all like us responding to requests from the student body. We've added uh decorated boards, posters, photo displays and faces with weekly updated schedules along with multiple art pieces to showcase the talent of our art classes. Um we've also finally began to work on our two murals that represent both student culture and Oregonian culture um around our school. Uh in addition, we've uh started preparing for our upcoming school school year and transitioning from my executive board to the next year's executive board and kind of moving along the process with ASD as well as with Latinos in action. Uh speaking of Latinos in action, they're currently organizing their largest community events. Uh we're doing this by planning game, reaching out to local vendors and gathering donations from across the community. Spring sports have been doing very

097well with strong performances from our tennis, golf, softball, and track and field teams. Uh we're hopeful for a very successful season. Um and our choir students are continuing to rehearse as they wrap up their state competitions. Uh that's what I have for our kind of big uh report there. I also wanted to talk about a digital survey that we took um as students, parents, community, staff, and administrators. Um really I was asked to focus on our top three uh choices uh for things that students found the most um important. I believe it was uh it was elective opportunity, safety and security and after school activities. Um I talked with a bunch of different groups throughout uh my ASV classes, LA classes, and just students um that aren't involved in leadership at all. And for many

098students, electives are a major source of motivation and engagement at school. That's kind of what I heard all around. everybody. Uh they're the primary reason students choose to attend as these classes are the ones that provide opportunities to explore personal interests, develop creative skills, and experience hands-on learning that may not be available in a core academic subject. Um I also heard that because of this, students place a strong emphasis on staying class and ensuring that they can continue participating um in these courses above and fall. And additionally, students express a desire for a greater variety of access within within the art elective offerings. Um, many of them kind of advocate for the introduction of new courses that align with a wider range of career paths. Um, as well as more advanced or rigid options for

099those looking to challenge themselves. Um, there was also a clear interest in expanding opportunities for culturally relevant and diverse classes, um, including ethnic studies and programs that better reflect the backgrounds and identities of our student body. I think that overall electives reflect both students immediate engagement in school and their long-term goals as they seek opportunities that are meaningful, inclusive, and aligned with their future aspirations. Um, the other thing I heard I thought was really interesting is that a lot of students kind of set elective opportunities as their top choice because they reflected a desire for change within our standard curriculum. Um, I believe that elective tends to offer more flexibilities and the assessments go beyond simply just test and exam taking. Um, and the lessons are usually a lot more engaging with the sitting down

100and listening to teachers teach. Um, and I think for me that kind of signals how to rethink our mandatory classes and how they're taught and read overall. Um, and that's that's all I could gather into my time. >> Okay. >> I really appreciate it. For those who have been watching and paying attention to our meetings and been hear from Mina's reports, um they're very detailed, but they're very heartfelt. And she also speaks so well on the fly and I feel like represents a wide range of students at the high school. I appreciate that. She's also just running in from tennis practice, yeah, tennis tennis practice president and juggling all those pieces. So, we appreciate our student rep time. >> One question before we move on. Yes. >> I think I might have missed the date

101for Diaz. Could you share that? >> Um, I did April. I believe it's April 2030. >> April 23rd. All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. And we're going to move on to board report. Um, we each are going to be, I think, talking a little bit tonight. I'm definitely going to be saying quite a bit just because there's a lot to say. Um, I do want to piggyback on the activities that Maya mentioned around the Dia de los Minimos. And I guess I'll go backwards. We are um we are in the midst of the pasta pilot with uh the culinary arts teacher at the high school who has been so innovative in creating what we hope will be a delivery system. Um, and we're we're piloting it through Rotary. Pete took it to Morning

102Rotary at first and we realized we needed to expand our outreach. And so Andrea's been creating a slideshow about the different pastas that the kids make and what that looks like. We're actually going to take it to Noon Rotary and I appreciate the participation of Evelyn helping us get connected there. Noon Rotary with the idea that they also will be I believe at Dia De Los selling pasta. So we're going to try to piggyback on that and support and get the word out in the community. and it's a great way for conversations for us to happen about what's happening in the schools with people that maybe no longer have students in the schools. So, we're kind of excited to level up there and support that work. Um, I did I was able to attend the

103career for the high school. Henry had to go with me. So I was, it was an amazing amount of kids in a small space and every single every single student that we walked by was engaged in some conversation either with someone at the tables or with their peers or looking at materials. And um if teachers know or people that parents know too, organizing an event like that and having it come off so seamlessly with so many people is quite a feat. But the impact for the again a chance for community members to come into the school and talk with kids and and understand what they're interested in studying. I think it's a win-win. So I appreciate all the work that goes into that. Um, I did attend also the Harvey CL Clark third grade concert

104and that's a different kind of particip that's a different kind of intensity. And um, what I really watched during that concert was the the teachers and staff who were on the sidelines watching but also quietly running interference, making sure that the kids were maybe uh, wandering, you know, weren't wandering, helping them stay on track. But just the interaction between the staff, the parents, the the joy of watching the kids wave to their parents and trying to get on camera and just getting a feel for the community. And I think when when we are in events like that, each school does have a little bit of its own vibe, but you really get a pretty quick sense of what that feels like and who the kids are. And I was able to talk with a couple

105parents and again about opportunities like choir and extras um and how how much of a difference. the dad next to me, her his daughter was uh going a little crazy in the front and I said, "Wow." And he said, "Yeah, she's a character." And I said, "Well, have you thought about drama?" He's like, "Well, yeah, we're thinking about it." So, we were able to kind of have some good interaction there. Um and then an upcoming visit to NAS with Art Turo hopefully next week to get into some classrooms and see the new science curriculum, which we're hearing really great things about, especially from the kids. And this this um this Friday at 7, the unified performers are putting on their their second version of play. So those are upcoming things. I I think there's a

106lot to say about what we just saw in the budget meeting. Hopefully those of you in the audience that weren't here for that piece will have a chance to make sure that you see that presentation. We're going to repeat a lot of that information, I think, tonight. Um, but I've been on a little bit of a journey as as chair for the last couple years. And anyone who's watched any of our meetings, and hopefully you have, know that we've talked to almost everyone about our our legislative advocacy and trying to explain to our legislature the the decisions they're making and the impacts they have. And the one question I keep asking is what is the state's plan for education in the state? And the state does not have a current plan for education. And that's

107a question that's coming up everywhere. Um, it's important question to ask, but I think we need to start answering it. And one of the other questions I asked as a good Democrat is, well, we've had a Democratic supermajority for 20 years, and how's that been working for us? And I think those are conversations I'm hearing on the doors. I'm hearing from people just really starting to dig into what what what are the barriers here? what what is preventing our state from getting schools where we need to be and how can we communicate that in any different way? Um, and I feel like at this point there's been enough information provided to legislators where it feels like it's almost an intentional denial at this point. This is just my perspective. But when I bring numbers or

108I show the impacts in our districts, I'm I'm told things like we're working on it. We have a plan for that. Oregon Department of Ed will support with that and that's and it doesn't match up with our experience. And so just so this community knows, we continue to further our narrative and our needs. Um but what's really interesting is despite the defun dysfunction that I see almost at every level in the state right now around education, I feel completely the opposite about the Forest Grove School District right now. And I'll talk about that in a minute. When I think about I'm 50, gonna be 56 and we've all been in a lot of different jobs, a lot of different systems, some of them teaching the whole time, some of them business. It's rare to find

109a system where you get all the components together and they can start making change. And I think we're here. I think we've got it here and we're at the beginning stages of that. But I'm going to end with that. I'm going to start with a couple things that are going on at the state that we need everybody to be paying attention to. One is the Oregon Board of Education. We have a school board member, Becky Timchuk, who sits on that and a superintendent, George Mendoza. They are not voting members. The rest of the board of education are appointed by the governor. Well-intended people who are not directly connected to our school districts. Those people this Thursday will be hearing uh even more proposals about things they need to do that they are hearing schools need.

110that that is a meeting that people need to be paying attention to and we need to figure out a way collectively as a district to make sure we're getting um our voices heard. Jackie Timuk is doing her darnest to advocate for schools in those meetings. But that's just one piece. And I've heard people say, "Oh, it's does isn't there a board of ed? Aren't they setting the vision?" No, they're not. So then there's the Department of Education. And that's the department where we pass the bills like the accountability bill and the department of ed is tasked with helping districts do that and there's promises that there will be help but the promises aren't coming to fruition and districts now are still expected to do some of these things. So that's another layer. Um the governor

111the governor in this state which is which is different than other states is the head of education. I get the governor's progress report, many of you might get Tina's progress report that comes to your box and that progress report around schools this year again is not a narrative that matches what we're experiencing at this level. You can be assured that everything I'm saying tonight are things that I have said in almost every level and avenue that I can reach. But when a when a governor uses an executive order to be able to have a giant impact on a state that has an immense immediate need and the choice is to to make an executive order about cell phones in classrooms, that is a fa that is a that is a failure of leadership. What an

112executive order could be would be freezing implementation of existing unfunded mandates, more of which were just passed in the short session. also in the existing session before an executive order could direct OD to inventory the actual costs of these mandates to districts. So legislators believe that legislators are being told by the legislative fiscal office that there may not be an impact. Districts are saying we can show you an impact. We have this we've and we've shown that impact. So getting our legislators to connect to what's actually happening has been our biggest challenge. And finally, legislators. We had a January dinner. I've talked about it in our meetings. Hopefully, you've seen it. At that January dinner, all the school boards from our region, Washington County, we're kind of held up as the big the great region.

113We're doing this really innovative dinner. And all the legislators come to the dinner. And at that dinner, Dr. West, Mike Scoffield from Beaverton, they got up and they broke it down. And if we're just here for the budget meeting, it was just what Eileen put up. Here's what we're spending. here's what's coming in. Could not have been more clear. We had legislators last year that said that that was the first time they were seeing that information collectively. This year, we built on that. Thank you very much. Again, time that administrators are spending on top of the job they're asked to do here to be able to educate. And we stood up at the end of that meeting and said the conversation at the table was why aren't we why aren't we connected? Rhett Mlan was

114at our table and our group. We we talked about what is the disconnect. We I don't know yet what the answer to that is, but I think everybody in this room and in the state recognizes that it's there. So, at the end of that meeting, we had one ask in this short session, please do not write another education bill unless you have talked to the superintendent in the district and understood the impact and if we even need the bill. And then the short session happened. I just went to a town hall. Where is it? My notes. All kinds of like question marks. What the heck? Because here are the bills that we just passed in the short session now that are another layer of unfunded mandates. We have the chronic absenteeism that now the state

115is going to ask us to report which we already report and have data for. We have the accountability act where the state is asking for accountability in a way that we don't measure accountability. We measure accountability in growth. And this district despite all the craziness going on these teachers this year goosebumps. Growth is happening in our classrooms. We are seeing kids move levels in reading. We are see teachers learning new curriculum. And it is it is happening. But that is what we need the state to measure, not a target if we can get to way up here for a grad disconnect. And I don't say this because we, you know, we learn the term we have to be solution focused, right? I'm passionate. I'm not I'm frustrated, but this in order to be solution focused,

116we all have to have an understanding of what's happening. And when I was teaching and actually my husband's teaching, he's like, I'm not paying attention to any of that. And I'm like, I know. I'm going to tell you what's going on cuz he's teaching, right? So, my job, I need to get better at making sure we're explaining the whole picture so you understand where we are. But then I'm going to bring it all the way back and then I'm going to toss it over because this is the best part. Locally, Forest Grove, we have now the elements that we need to be able to make change and we've already seen that we're doing it. We have a superintendent that we hired, a superintendent that has what I call the trifecta, a deep understanding of budgets.

117We already have a CFO that knows that, but when you put two people together that have that same understanding, they get it. A really good understanding of all the systems, the state systems, a district system, a school system, and even a family system. and understanding right away in year one what we needed to do immediately to adjust to to fill gaps. We identified where we need to improve in the system and we admit it very transparent about where we need to grow not afraid to admit it also very happy to show when we see that movement happening. We have constant I feel like we overcommunicate with this board but like you heard earlier the struggle is still we have been saying this in the board meetings we have been trying to say it to people

118we but you know we know that not everybody's going to come to every board meeting and sit but I I really am encouraging a way if you can think of ways that we can communicate better to more people in a way that can resonate we welcome that feedback but we have sent newslet the newsletters that come out from the superintendent have been building building the story for two years. In every board meeting, we talk about legislatively what we're doing and the struggles we're having. We show the financial report which Eileen has re done to be very e more easily digestible. I feel like we have a board that's paying attention. All of our board is asking the right questions. We don't have the drama that you see in the other boards. Not that I know

119of, but let's not let's not go there now. and we put that on display at our meetings, but I think there's a comfort in knowing that we are together in this and we all I think really understand what's happening here. Um, we will call or respond to emails. I got one email. I've had one email in the last month. I mean, I'm I'm begging people to email. I had a mom email yesterday and I called her right away and she's like, "I can't believe you called me back." I'm like, "Yeah." and we talked for 40 minutes and she had some really critical questions about the cuts we're going to make and I sat in the Costco parking lot in my car and I listened and I I agreed. She made some really good points and

120I said, "And here's some of the here's some of the things I can tell you." And by the end of that, she said, "Okay." Okay, I did not know that. I get it. And and I think it's those we talked about in the budget meeting. It's those onetoone conversations. It's the conversations at the doorway. It's the conversations with the community that don't have kids in the school that we need to continue to do. But again, as we all know, we can all only do so much. Um, we do have a legislator that went out on a limb this year. Uh, Janine Sullman. I did tell her I was going to tell her this story, but a year ago, maybe she introduced a computer science bill. We didn't know about it. We found out that she

121introduced a bill to have computer science be taught in every classroom. Okay, we all agreed this would be great. But I had to call her and say, "Janine," and I know Janine from my Hillsboro teaching news. like Janine, how do you think are are you how is that going to work in a district like ours? Who's going to teach all those classes? Who's going to provide the information? What's the curriculum? Who's going to train for the curriculum? Who's going to pay us for all this? And she had kind of a light bulb moment and she said, "Well, there's going to they're all going to allocate $10,000." And I'm like, "Okay." So, but you know, but she doesn't know because no one is helping her see. So to her credit and some elevated conversation by me

122and her, she she has totally shifted how she approaches the work. She sends bills to our superintendent and copies me, but let's be honest, I'm not the expert. And asks for critique on the bill language, asks if it's going to impact our different district, ask if we actually even need the bill. that kind of partnership with the legislature and because I'm home with my son Henry I do watch the education meetings that happen at the capital and I watch those conversations on the dis and she is one of the only ones that's able to elevate those points from our district. We need more legislators to have that kind of information and be doing the job that way. And let's just talk for a minute about the local union because I know there's going to be

123some public comment. I welcome it. I'm ready. I I know many of you already. I've had a really nice landing spot in year one because Sarah Ogle and uh Serena reached out and we built sort of an understanding of what a what a union is really doing here and how we work together. Um but the the leadership that our union leadership shows in partnering and having the conversations with us I was able to experience through bargaining. I had to call today to ask like can I talk about some things I said in bargaining and I learned that no because bargaining is in the internet. I don't know how that all works but I can't tell the story but those of you in bargaining um I was in there and I learned a lot. I learned

124about why the asks are there. I saw a marketing team that actually understood the district's perspective, but I also saw the district that understood the other side and we ended in a place that I think that's contract that honors in despite deficit spending a contract that honors the work that they're doing. That's the work we're trying to do. Um I see that continue with Elizabeth and she's new in the position. I think of those of you again that I'm sure you all saw our board meeting in a couple weeks, but our board one of our board goals was to strengthen that relationship between the board and union. So, we're going to we're going to continue to work on that, but I feel like our union participates well really participates in board meetings and I feel

125confident that we're trying to work as partners. Um, almost done. As a board chair, I'm not on social media. But I do get people that call and say, "You got to hear about this thing that was on social media." And I want to mention this tonight because I've talked about this in a previous week. There was a post from I don't know how it works. It's like an anonymous platypus or something. And the post encouraged, you know, the district is doing this. I encourage everybody to come to the meeting. And and I I appreciated knowing about that post. But I think one of the things we really have been improving and working on in general is encouraging our community when they do have a question instead of going on social media right away to actually

126or go on social media and then anyone in here could say hey anonymous platus platus whatever you know Christy Pocky's phone number is this you know please call her and at least let's start with a conversation start with a conversation just Like this parent that I talked to yesterday, she helped us. Her questions helped inform how we were going to message what we needed to message today. And she was she had some critical feedback and it was fair. And that's fine. I would rather do that in person than have some sort of social media happening. That's not productive. It's not what we teach our kids. It's not how we resolve conflict. And so I want to just encourage that person if someone knows who that person is to encourage them to reach out. I would

127I would love to connect. Um and I think I'm going to end by saying this is a perfect example of this is a really this is a year we've been saying is going to be really challenging in a way that education's not seen and maybe Forest Grove has not seen in a long time. And this district has an opportunity to do this in one of two ways. We can do it together and we can try to learn from each other just like we did in bargaining. We can try to appreciate the challenges. We can believe our CFO who's trying to protect what we have. We can understand that in this situation there are certain choices that need to be made or we can do it in a divisive way where we we come at each

128other. And I think the vibe from our budget meeting even before this, you could feel it's it's collaborative. It's positive. And I just want to challenge us here to think about how that looks and how it looks to others and the example we can continue to set in this district. I want to thank our staff and our teachers and our administrators, um, which are a little tiny slice of our pie, which will so but strong but mighty. But a parent said to me yesterday, she said, "You know, Christy, the in this district, the kids in the classroom all the way up to the superintendent, we all matter. People at the district office doing the work right there, we matter. People driving our buses matter." I think we all know that and we are all trying

129to get to a solution. So, I'm going to stop there. That's all the things. But, you know, it's hard again. How do you communicate all that to our community? How do you get that message across? And I guess one of the benefits of being a volunteer at the school board is when you do have a chance, you just speak your truth and then you invite the the invite the conversation afterwards. So, I'm going to pivot there. I'm going to ask other directors if they want to chime in. Um, and then I'm going to toss it to Dr. Wetsz to talk a little bit more. I asked if she would speak about the impact of the couple of the bills that I talked about. She does it a little bit better. But that's it. >> Kate

130on my Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I get the feeling of being on a phone call with Cherky. Just say hello and your job is done. Um, >> he's not wrong. He's not wrong. I had a couple of uh opportunities to meet with students uh during the past uh couple of months and I apologize March was I was awol but I did take part in a competition or a culinary competition at Forest Grove High School and had a chance to meet with students and to uh take part in their efforts to uh put more weight on me and they did a fine fine job. I also have had uh opportunity to go to the and I realize this is dated but I did get a chance to go to the Veterans Day assembly and again

131um that assembly is something that uh makes us again think that uh we need to honor those people who put their lives on the line for us 24 hours a day here and overseas. Uh and then I just and I will be involved this week uh at the in the biscuit competition also uh with the there's a food thing coming out here uh at Forest Grove High School and I did participate in the day of reading at Dilly Elementary School. I read the classic Greek poem Casey at the Bat uh by Ernest Lawrence there and that was to I believe it was a first grade class and they didn't fall asleep. So I consider that to be a part of my partly successful. Couple of things to piggyback and not too much on what uh

132Cherky said. I would had the pleasure and I will say pleasure. I had the pleasure of participating in the negotiations in the classified uh contract negotiations. I found those to be polite. I found them to be direct. uh we were honest with each other and in the end I think we we had a positive contract not only for uh the uh classified uh employees but also for school district 15 um and that dates me I guess the difficult questions in that contract were dealt with over a period of time some uh I I don't want to say dragged out but they did take take a time but we made sure that all all the eyes were dotted and all the tees were crossed and for that I'm grateful. Again I want to thank the the

133bargaining staff representatives for uh classified and I want to thank uh the the bargaining representatives from the uh administration for again I felt an honest and productive session. Um, I too share a little bit of angst about what is going on here in the state of Oregon. If you were at the budget meeting earlier, you heard me go way off the reservation when I said we need to uh get rid of this short session, long session crap and move towards annual sessions and maybe a full-time legislature because these problems are full-time problems. They aren't going to be solved in six weeks. They aren't going to be solved in 15 weeks. They have to be solved by people taking it seriously uh down in that building with the bowling trophy on top of it in Salem.

134And we need to we need to work work harder not smarter not excuse me work smarter not harder at at doing the job for everybody in the state of Oregon. I also said we're siloing too much. We talk about this is an education problem. This is a transportation problem. This is a housing problem. This is a child care problem. Well, when you talk about child care, you're talking about education. When you're talking about transportation, you're talking about child care. When you're talking about housing, you're talking about education. You're doing all of those things. Why do we separate them out be and then wonder why when they don't agree with each other that we're almost right back where we started. So, we have to we have to change how we view government from the state of

135Oregon, we have to change how we'll do things. And I know that that's not going to happen in my lifetime. But if we're going to have a viable education area, we're going to have a viable state and all of those other things, if we're ever going to get a bridge built across Colombia, we're going to have to work together and we're going to have to get out of those silos and walk hand in hand into the future. And the other thing I wanted to talk about was that when we had this survey about what is important, students came up with electives being very very important electives and other activities. That's the other half education. I coached middle school baseball, football, basketball. Not very well, but I coached it. I also coached high school speech. I

136coached drama. I did all of those things and the students were grateful for that. They had an opportunity to learn about stuff in something other than sitting in a classroom and reading it out of a book. And I'm not saying that that's not the answer either. But I'm saying multifaceted students learn in multifaceted ways. And I'm not telling you anything new. I'm preaching to the choir here. But if we listen to a recommendation that came down from the uh state board of educ from the state department of education, one of the recommendations on how to deal with the deficit statewide was to eliminate reduce the first year and eliminate the second year some of those electives. Most the one that stuck out in my mind was FFA. That would be criminal in the in Forest

137Grove. That would be criminal in Hillsboro. And I dare say that would be criminal in Portland. You can't have that kind of thinking. We need to reexamine what our priorities are, where we move, and we need to keep the heat on. You need to keep the heat on me. I need to keep the heat on Cherakei. And Chair Taki needs to keep the heat on the Oregon State Legends. I'll shut up. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Um well, I've been on the board for 11 years now and um and I taught in the district and one of the things that I have really really valued is the staff in this in this community. um such caring, such wonderful, such hardworking people and over the years even when I worked here is I saw how negotiations

138went and very respectful and I think maybe once in my tenure there was a strike that didn't last very long. But we're in this together. And as this board is all volunteered, we're all passionate about education as all of you guys are. And um each one of us in our own way tries to do the best that we can to help in the classroom, go to meetings, advocate in Salem. And there's no one person that can try to solve this. We need you in and you need us. And we need to collectively try to really push and to advocate to our legislators of our needs because it affects the biggest biggest piece is our students. It really affects our students and their future. And we've been going around this yo-yo or ring around the rosie

139or whatever it is that we're not getting anywhere. And we really need each of you to look at candidates running for office. you know, contact them and and push on them. Also, um these unfunded mandates are just really really killing our district and we have no no re recourse except to um implement them at a cost that's taking the cost out of our classroom. Um, I think that, um, you know, I'm not going to go on. I Christy and and Pee and, uh, Alma and Risa, we and we've all worked really, really hard to try to do the best we can, but we really can't do it alone. Um, and I think, you know, this this deficit spending that we're looking at, um, it breaks our hearts because we do not want to we want

140to keep adding for for our kids. We want our kids to have everything, but it's very very difficult um to do so when the state is there's a real disconnect of what actually we need in the classroom and their lack of understanding of of our monies. And um I just want you to know that if there was any way that we could not have to continue doing deficit spending, we would do it. But this board and this community um very very much appreciates our teachers and our staff and this school district. It's a very very valuable uh um institution in our in our cities. And I just want to say thank you for all that you have done. And um I'm not going to talk anymore, but since we run out of time, but um

141we have been really working hard to try to help um find monies and to do what's best for our students. >> Thanks, Kate. >> Yeah, I mean, just to piggy back on everything that everyone has said here, um it's it's a hard time as a parent myself when I saw these numbers. I I was like, "Wait a second." So, it had to be broken down into so many different levels for me to really understand the bigger picture. And I don't know how many state legislators do we have here. >> None. That's really important. We need we need them in place in order to, you know, back us up and they're not here and we need to advocate for them. Yeah. Okay. >> Dr. West. >> Uh, well, you had asked if I would expand a

142little bit on the unfunded landing vision, one of the biggest from the short session. And I'll I'll try to be brief um, but also pull the curtain back a little bit on the impact of some of these bills. So if you think about just the attendance bill, what the attendance bill requires of the department of education is to work multiple times during the year the chronic ability rate for every school district. And to break it out a little bit, K2 and some other categories. The way the state is currently structured, that's a collection. And when I say that's a collection, what that means to us is there is someone at the district office who has to pull the data, make sure that the data that we pull matches the format that the state wants those

143data in, verify those data before we submit them, send them to the state. The state typically sends it back and has us reverify what they just verified. We go through this process a couple of times until finding the collection is accepted. And in this case, they're talking about I think quarterly posting. So that would be four times a year. We currently do have a an attendance collection, but we're not doing it four times a year. So for us, that's staff time. The state is going to have to create some new collection mechanism. They're going to need to have someone on their staff verify those collections. Somebody's going to have to post it to the website. By sharing this, I'm not saying these data are not important. The need to monitor the attendance of our students

144and we'll improve our attendance. That really matters. But this is another example where a bill was passed and the financial office said there's no financial impact to school districts for this. There absolutely is a financial impact to school districts for this. There's also a financial impact to the state. So I think to your point um when these bills are being proposed for people who don't work in a school system they don't they don't know what this looks like from our side. It is really important for us to be able to have some conversations around what is the impact of this bill from a school perspective so that we can be real about how to accomplish our mutual goals. Does that help just by peing the curtain back a little bit? It does. It does. >>

145Yeah. And that's one of multiple bills. And each of those other unfunded mandates require time, require money that districts will have to spend. Um, and I think having having an awareness in the community about the level of impact that those bills have on our budget. One one other example of that disconnect where I think we can make progress is at Rep. Mlan's town hall this weekend. Um someone in the on the in the in the group asked what are school districts doing to help teachers with best practice. Their their their question was was about how are teachers sharing best practices and keep you know how are we improving instruction in the classroom or how are we working together? And Rhett Mlan brought up the example during the immigration when immigration was really, you know, impacting

146our district a few months ago and we we had to make the decision to provide online school through Hillsboro for multiple kids in our district that were too afraid to leave the house. And and many people might not know, but the board in a meeting we had to approve I I don't know the exact number. was over $100,000. The cost to our district to be able to support those kids which we absolutely said in that meeting we are doing that was money that we pulled from a budget from a savings. Luckily when we talk about why do we need to maintain savings we we had that available. What I said in that meeting what Susan Mlan said is um that was a great example and I said well that is what we did. we pull

147money from our general fund? And I think she was surprised because she said, "Well, the state provided resources for that." And I said, "No, they did not." Now, I checked myself. I had to um check in with our superintendent later that night, but no, they did not. So, there's a legislator thinking that that was a great solution and not understanding that that was money the district had to pull. Now, I would imagine there's people in the classrooms that also don't know that that's happening in multiple ways on a daily basis where we are having to shift funds and we have funds available. And so, just kind of again us doing as good of a job as we can to give those examples and help people trust us when we say, you know, we do need

148some savings and we we do need the state to step up. So, I think I really appreciate actually this is one of the rare times we've been able to have the time to get deep and I don't apologize. um for going long. All of the mayor gives me a bad time all the time and I can take it uh because I know secretly he likes the conversation. But I I think it's important I think it's important for us to to continue to say the things that need to be said. So I'm going to stop there with board report and we are going to move on to Forest Grove Education Association. Erica who I just met tonight is going to be reporting for the association tonight. Terry Jones is the liaison that comes to all of

149our meetings usually. Yes, she's very new, but she is the liaison now that attends each meeting and then reports back to the association. But Erica, welcome. Um, and I think how this works, we just come up and the mic should be good to go. >> Sure. Is this on already? >> It should be on. Yeah. >> You can move it if you want to. And I don't usually speak my That's okay. Okay. Good evening, Chair Cot Key, Superintendent West, and members of the board. >> Okay. Makes sense actually. >> Okay. Are we better? Is that better? >> Good evening. Um, my name is Erica Essen and I teach kindergarten at Harvey Clark Elementary. I'm speaking tonight as the vice president of the Forest Growth Education Association, speaking proudly. We recognize that the district is facing

150difficult financial decisions. However, we are deeply concerned about the proposed reductions of up to 27 licensed and 21 classified positions. These cuts will have a direct and lasting impact on our students and our schools. While enrollment may be declining, the needs of our students are not. I'm happy to provide many examples if needed. In fact, they are increasing in both intensity and complexity. Across our schools, we are seeing more and more students with significant academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs than in previous years. At my elementary school, for example, we are anticipating almost 23 incoming kindergarten students next year for three classroom teachers who are already identified um for special education services and there are always more as new kids come to kindergarten. This is not an isolated situation. It reflects a broader trend across

151the district. At the same time, these staffing reductions may lead to more blended or split classrooms. These are not simple adjustments. A blended classroom requires a teacher to effectively manage multiple grade level standards, a wide range of developmental needs, excuse me, and increasingly complex student needs all within a single learning environment. And our curriculum is really focused on one grade level at a time. This has profound implications for the quality of instruction and the level of support each student will receive. We are also concerned about the imper apparent imbalance in where these reductions are being made. The majority of proposed cuts fall on licensed and classified staff who work directly with students while significantly fewer reductions are being made at the administrative and district office level. This raises important questions about priorities and whether resources

152are being allocated in ways that best support student learning. In addition, we want to speak to the process. This school year, FTEA has met regularly with district leadership and asked directly for clarity about the scope and direction of potential reductions. We were consistently told that decisions would be based on program needs, but we were not given a clear picture of the depth of these proposed cuts until the general announcement to all staff on Friday. We have engaged in these conversations in good faith with the goal of being collaborative partners in navigating a very difficult situation. Transparency is essential to that process. Without it, it becomes much harder to build trust and work towards solutions together. We urge the board to take a closer look at these decisions. Staffing should not be based on enrollment numbers

153alone, but on the actual needs of the students in our classrooms. Reducing the number of educators and support staff at a time when student needs are increasing risk, excuse me, risks undermining the very outcome we all want for our students. Our educators are committed to this district and to the success of every student we serve. We're asking for decisions that reflect the same commitment. Decisions that prioritize students, support educators, and strengthen our schools for the long term. In light of the seriousness of the situation, the number of people potentially impacted, and the number number of people present tonight, I would like to ask on behalf of FGA that everyone who is present and signed up to speak is given a chance. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you, Erica. Would you be

154able to email a copy of that? >> Sorry. >> Could you email a copy of those comments? >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And we are going to move to unscheduled public appearance. Uh I'll start by reading our standard script before public comment. And after that, I'm going to share a few quick reminders. 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 three minutes as is the protocol for board meetings. Board members will not comment or respond with questions. Public criticism or complaints about school district personnel are not allowed. First, a reminder that public comment is always welcome in writing as at

155any time. You can use the form on our website, email me directly, or contact the district office if you have questions. Written comments do also become part of the public record just like the ones made here tonight. Speaking at our meetings is an additional courtesy. Not everyone will have their name drawn. So, I encourage you to submit your full comments in writing if you are not called to speak. This board has been really available. I've talked about this already. I don't need to retalk, but um retalk. I hope we're building a culture where people reach out first for a conversation. Talking about issues in person and having hard conversations is something we welcome and encourage. We will draw speakers randomly. Each person will have three minutes. I won't shorten that time tonight since people may

156have prepared prepared full remarks. And anything additional may be submitted in writing. And again, a reminder during comments, we are all going to hopefully listen quietly and respectfully and we expect the same from the audience. If we do hear any kind of response, I'll gavvel once. If it happens again, I'll gavvel a second time and close public comment. Excuse the audience, and the board will go into recess for a short time. This standard helps us model and hopefully build a culture of respectful discourse, especially important with student leaders in the room who are learning how public meetings work. With that, we're ready to begin. And I'll ask Bethany. I think we do. We still have five in any Zooms. So, we do have five. We allow 15 minutes for three minutes. So, everyone will have

157a chance to speak signed up tonight. So, >> Megan Fitzgerald. Hey, Megan. And I think we just we just have people introduce name and Yeah. You can introduce say your name. >> Um, good evening. My name is Megan Fitzgerald. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Echoshaw Elementary. Um I am speaking this evening on behalf of my colleagues, students and families regarding proposed reductions in staff. But um I want to specifically focus on our school counselors. Um as we are all aware, our budget reality this coming school year will result in difficult decisions and reductions in services we are able to provide. I was disappointed to see that um the level of licensed staff that are proposed to be cut and among those not only educators but as well um counselors. I'm here to advocate for

158prioritizing maintaining our present levels of counseling services at all buildings as this is a critical service. Um, there have been discussions of potentially requiring 250 students per counselor and in instances where there's more than 250 students at a school, dividing a counselor between multiple buildings. Our counselors are at the very core of what we do each day in our schools and um what it means when we say that we care deeply. I cannot imagine what our schools would look like without them. They provide support for our students. In addition to giving social emotional lessons to all students, checking in daily with our most highly impacted students. They take the time to get to know each of our students and their families, getting them involved in the school, and working with them, giving them the tools

159to solve conflicts, manage emotions, process trauma, and navigate complicated life circumstances. Our counselors connect our students and families with social services, outside counseling, food assistance, support in accessing health care, rent assistance, classes. They develop and support 504 plans, behavior plans for students with extreme behaviors, and supporting our TAG students. They are critical for ensuring our students experiencing houselessness, are able to attend school, and have their basic needs met. and they are life-saving to our students experiencing unsafe home situations, mental health emergencies, or even suicidality. These are services that our teachers are not necessarily trained to provide and do not have the time or resources resources to always provide. In short, our counselors are critical. This year in particular, this was shown as more and more of our families are experiencing food and housing insecurity and

160many of our students are still dealing with a great deal of trauma due to the presence of immigration enforcement in our community. Our counselors are critical. A reduction in our counseling services would directly result in our students and families receiving less support and would in turn result in extreme behaviors, interruptions to instruction time, and will impact everything we all work for from attendance to test scores. Reducing our counseling services and dividing counselors between multiple buildings will result in students falling through the cracks and we and our students deserve better. I urge you in your decision making over the coming months to pri prioritize maintaining our current levels of counseling services. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you Megan. Next person >> Lauren Lewis. >> Hi. Good to see you. >> Yeah. Uh Laura Lewis,

161I teach at For High School. >> Okay. Awesome. >> And the audio is better. Can you guys hear from >> Good evening. Um first, Mr. Tax, I'd like to offer my condolences as well. I've been thinking a lot about you and your family and John especially. So, my heart goes out to you and your family. And good evening members of the board. My name is Laura and I have spent 21 years teaching in this district. I student taught here and I attended K through2 here. In total, 34 of my 45 years of life have been connected to this district. Additionally, I'm in the middle of coaching my 18th sport season for the high school. Turned out a few D1 athletes even. I teach AP courses and currently serve as department chair. In two years, my

162own son will be entering our district at the middle school level. I share this not as a testament to how busy I am, although that's true, but to convey that this district is not just where I work. It's literally my past, my present, and my family's future. This is why I am deeply concerned about the proposed cuts that would eliminate 48 teacher and support staff positions. These cuts fall almost entirely on the people who work directly with students every day, which raises real questions about whether the burden of these cuts is being shared equitably. For example, secondary social studies is currently engaged in a very time-consuming and costly curriculum adoption process mandated by the district office. I understand the desire to improve instructional materials, but it is very difficult to reconcile the scale and cost

163of this work in conjunction with the narrative there is not enough funding to keep educators in the classrooms. It's a contradiction that is extremely difficult for me to ignore and that's why I'm here this evening. My concern is not with individuals but with priorities. If students truly come first, then reductions must be shared responsibly across our organization. Before we invest in new costly initiatives, we must ensure that we can maintain the staffing necessary to support students dayto-day in our buildings. In language acquisition, specialized services, mental health, behavioral support, just to name a few. Part of our district maximum is that we care deeply. And as a responsible and ethical district, our decisions should reflect that commitment. This district has truly shaped nearly my entire life. And I want both my students and soon my own

164son to learn in schools that invest in the people who show up for the students every single day. I ask you both as an educator, a parent, a coach, and a community member to make the choice over the next few weeks and months that retains the hearts of our schools, the values of our district, and the integrity of this board. Thank you guys. >> Thank you, Laura. Thank you, audience. also in it CV. >> Thank you board for your service. Can you hear me? Okay. And everyone else in the micilation. >> All right. Uh my name is Eric C. I'm a school counselor um at Joseph Gale Elementary School. I also um coach um sports and I'm also a parent of three students here in our district as well. Um I just wanted to start

165off very tough conversations and very very hard and critical for everybody but I'm so concerned about the cuts to like many other folks have spoken about uh staff that are being are going to be cut that see students every day and families and work every day. As a school counselor, um as a school counselor, we strive to be the bridge to help families and kids um every day in the school. Um we do many many things from picking up students um making sure that we remove barriers so they can have education, make sure that students are getting the basic needs they need, which has increased the most I've ever seen in my 21 years as an educator in multiple districts and all in Oregon. um our students that we see every day and our families.

166If we have a reduction with these staff that are critical not only to counselors but all educators, um we're going to see a higher increase in absenteeism rate and school climate. You know, one thing that we really do and work really hard is build outside partnerships. Um I build partnerships with Civic and the Hops and many other organizations to build a great climate in our school. I'm afraid all those are going to go away because we're not going to have the people power to provide those kind of programs and the quality education that students deserve. I'm wondering why the district is not looking at some things that have happened before when there's budget crisis in Oregon. Unfortunately, some of us who have been around enough are familiar with those. Um why we're not looking at

167the table of um you know eliminating our late starts. I know Portland public schools did that about seven or eight years ago to save some some money while also eliminating some of our PB days. these kind of things outside the box. The worst reduction is when we reduce staff and I know that there's a a deficit and I know that it's a real number but there's got to be some outside the way box ways that we can look at without affecting directly student staff every day you know and in addition also I would agree that at the administrative level um I know they have so many tasks but that should be an equitable equitable balance if it is with our with our students and or with our um teacher teachers and staff and support staff

168that work every single day with our families and set. Um, people are doing more than they ever have and we do it with a smile every day. Um, but with that reduction, it's just going to put the so high and it's going to hurt our most impoverished students the most. I will tell you that for sure, unfortunately. And under reppresented students because they don't always have just something for us to consider. >> Thank you, Eric. >> Thank you. Brian gamble with respect to adoption. >> So my name is Brian Gamble. I'm first and foremost a parent but also a teacher here at Tom McCall upper elementary school. Good evening board members and Dr. West. I want to first start by thanking you for your service to our district. I believe you often have a thankless

169volunteer job and you are not in a the spotlight until something big and controversial comes to the board. As I shared, I have I teach at Tomall, but I am a lifelong Grover. I graduated from Forest Grove High School and now raise my family here. Both my kids attend school here and my wife and I also teach in the district. This is my 20th year as a teacher and though I've presented at multiple board meetings, this is the first time making a public comment. I'm speaking tonight as a parent of a current fourth and eighth grader. The cuts that need to take place are are a reality. I believe every person speaking and presenting tonight presents their information what with what they believe is in the best interest of our communities. With that in mind,

170I ask the board not rush any decisions and a and ask good questions on what cuts are being proposed. I am worried for my kids. What will their education experience be when we talk about cutting nearly 50 licensed and classified staff? I have taught a class of 38 students in sixth grade at Tom McCall in 2012. I know that there is no way for a teacher to reasonably provide meaningful instruction in a class that big. My son this year in fourth grade at Harvey Clark is in a class of 32 students. I have seen in almost every board packet where the district reports average attendance that the average class size is 28 in fourth grade. But this is definitely not the reality in his class. And this is the first year where I can see

171a negative impact on his learning directly connected to class size. If cutting staff means upping class sizes and eliminating support, I worry about both of my kids' experiences in the years to come. Please ask the tough questions. Ask what class size will be in every classroom at every school, not just the average. Also look at every position in the district. We've added many positions in many places across our district, especially since CO. These additions have come as TOSAs, district office administrators, principles, deans of students, teachers, and classified staff. Many of these positions are absolutely needed, but I've seen our district operate without many. Also, I ask that we make every attempt to keep staff in positions that have direct day-to-day contact with students. This includes teachers, classified staff, intervention specialists, and staff providing enrichment opportunities

172for our kids. Kids, my kids and the rest of the kids in our district are counting on this. I can't advise anyone on what positions to cut. I know that it cannot be an easy easy or fun task for district and building administrators, but I hope the board will ask very specific and difficult qu questions before eliminating each position. Thank you. Glory. Hi. Make sure this thing can hear me. Uh, I'm Hillary Barza and I fourth grade at Burnham Hill Elementary. Good evening. Um, I'm here to speak about the proposal to reduce 27 teachers and 21 classified staff in our district. Our students today have greater needs than we have ever seen academically, behaviorally, and emotionally. In many classroom, staff are managing significant behaviors while also trying to deliver instruction and support students who are

173far below grade level. This work already requires more people, not fewer. Right now, educators and classified staff are stretched to their limits. We are doing everything we can to support students, but there simply aren't enough of us to meet the level of need in front of us every day. And I can speak to that personally at my school. Cutting 48 staff members will not just increase workload, it will directly impact student safety, consistency, and access to support. It means fewer adults available to deescalate situations, fewer relationships built, and fewer opportunities for students to succeed. It also tells me that district administrators have absolutely no idea what it is like to be a teacher or instructional assistant right now in a public school. In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of

174administrative staff, especially the district office in relation to other staff. The data from the school state fund regarding the general fund shows that between the academic years 19 and 20 and 23 24 so that's five school years expenditures for licensed salaries increased by 12.89% 89% expenditures for admin salaries increased by 23% almost double. Um and then just last year two administrative positions were added to the district office. Yet the proposed recommendation for reductions to licensed staff is 13 times greater than admin. This does not support the needs of our students. Based on publicly available um audit information, the district's ending fund balance from 1920 and 2425 increased by almost 18. Yeah, sorry, by almost 18%. This is not a time to save money. It is a time to invest. The district's ending fund balance exceeds

175many other districts in the state. For example, Hillsboro School District claims an ending fund balance of around 5%. I urge you to reconsider how these reductions are being structured and to make decisions that reflect the reality in our classrooms and the needs of our students. Please work with both unions to figure out a better solution. And school board members, I am begging you to ask questions and look deeper than the surface to figure out a more sustainable way to balance the budget. You cannot reduce staff and expect increased outcomes. Those two things cannot coexist. Our student needs growing this plan moves us in the opposite direction. Thank you. >> Thank you everybody. Thank you. Um thank you for the silent hands. Thank you audience so much for just doing this together. the critical suggestions, the

176solution focused. Um, and I did mention if we can make sure that people are emailing those or copy those comments to us, be appreciated. I'm hoping that everybody um can see people with kids are planning to stay through some of the presentations we're about to see and I think actually will speak to some of what you brought up tonight. Um, and we're going to move on to consent agenda. Uh, 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'll look for a motion. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> Opposed. All right. Motion

177passes. We're going to move on to presentations. Our first presentation was the flow analytics of horse stroke demographic study within pool and we're going to cue that up right now. >> Hi everybody. >> I'm unsure if anyone can hear me. >> Am I uh coming through over there? Hi Nathan. >> Hi. Let me see. Hi there. Are you able to hear me? >> Oh, >> are you are uh might not be getting through right now. I believe we can hear you. Are you able to hear us? >> I am. Sorry. Okay, good. I was not able to confirm that I could hear you guys. All right. Um, well, let me uh share my screen or we can go through with the presentation. I'm unsure if I will be sharing my screen or if uh somebody

178else will be for me. Ah, hello. There I am right on the big screen. Okay. Um All right. Share my screen. Okay. Thanks everyone for having me. I'm going to be running through um an enrollment forecast that we've prepared um for a 10-year period uh covering 2026 to 2020 uh 2035 uh 36 school year. Um just a quick little bit about us at Flow Analytics. We're a consulting firm of um demographers uh and geographers and GIS analysts. Um we work with school districts across the state and uh nationally and our enrollment forecast process uh is influenced by a variety of factors uh which can be organized into three main categories. The first is an assessment of historical enrollment. Um so that's analyzing headcount enrollment uh geographic distribution of student residents and transfer rates. Um second

179is demographic characteristics of the region. uh trends of population change over time, including the number of births, women of childbearing age, uh total fertility rates, and lastly, we review current land use, uh anticipated residential development, and the average number of students generated by single family and multif family dwelling types. Taking a look at um population ch uh trends from 2000 to 2025, we can see overall growth throughout the area. Um the city of Forest Grove has experienced uh the largest growth within this chart here uh in the last decade. Um and Forest Growth School District has also uh experienced growth uh in both uh the first decade of the second of the study period and the second decade. However, there has been a slight decrease of uh children under the age of five um in

180the last decade. Um there was a small increase between 2000 and 2010, but there was a decrease between 2010 and 2020. Um there was also an increase uh in the growth rate of the population over 18. And we see also that the share of under 18 uh population total has decreased uh from 20% in the first decade uh to about 18%. Student generation rates uh help us figure out how many students can be anticipated uh from upcoming development. Um we take a look at uh housing units that have been built within the last 10 years. Uh and then we analyze how many students uh in this current school year are residing in those uh recently built uh units. Uh we can derive uh student generation rates pretty simply. Um if we take a look at

181multif family for example we can see that in the last 10 years there were 732 multif family units constructed uh currently there are 177 uh K12 students residing in those um 732 multif family units which gives us uh a student generation rate for K12 multif family of 0.25 or 0.24. So that's roughly about one student for every four multif family units that is constructed. Working with the uh or in coordination with city of Cornelius and Forest Grove, we developed a list of um upcoming planned developments. Um this helps us to allocate growth um across the district uh depending on where the development is occurring in which uh attendance areas. So looking at this table here we can see that we would anticipate that most of this development would fall within the Harvey Clark attendance area.

182Historical enrollment assessment. Um we looked at uh historical enrollment going back to 201920. Um and we can see that within that study period uh there's been a decline of uh 451 students. Uh those declines occurred mostly during the co years uh 2020 and um and within the two most recent years. So that's 2024 25 and 2025 26. If we break that down by uh grade group, so that would be dividing this into K6, 7, 8, and 912. We can see that a majority of that loss or largest loss was in the K6 uh grade group where uh enrollment fell by 478 students uh between 201920 and 202526. Uh there was a decrease uh in the 78 grade group. uh and a small increase in the uh high school grade groups 912. Uh analyzing enrollment patterns

183uh throughout the district uh we can see that uh the district enrolled 139 students from out of the district. Uh and uh which gives you a transfer rate from out of the district of 2.5%. Um and then within the district we can see that there were 823 students who were attending their school of uh attending a school that was not the school in which they uh resided in the attendance area. So that gives you an intradist transfer rate of 12.6. So this kind of helps us look at some of the pushpull factors of um enrollment and attendance at each school. Um this is a matrix that's designed to look at that for the K6 level. Um it kind of works both across and down. Um so across is going to give us our capture rate

184for the attendance area. If we look at the first line, we'll see that there are 399 students residing in the Cornelius uh attendance area. And then uh there are who are attending Cornelius uh attend uh uh from the Cornelius uh attendance area giving us a capture rate for that attendance area of 85.7. Um going down we can see that the capture rates for all of the Ksix schools range from um mid 70% to uh about 88 pursuit a little 88% at Tomal Upper Elementary School. Um if we look down on this table we can see transferin rates. So that's the number of students who are transferring into a school. We can see that there were 342 students enrolled at Cornelius Elementary School from Cornelius Elementary School attendance area. Um, and there were two from Dilly,

185five from Echosshaw and so on. That gives us a transferin rate of 9.3 capture rates, just to mention on that, capture rates fairly even across the schools. So there's no one school that's drawing more students than others which is helpful in our analysis. Our methodology uses a cohort component method. Um so that basically is looking at the in factors which are broader components of population change. So got birth rates, population age structure, rates of net migration and residential development. And then we're looking at you know out factors. So that's going to be graduation metriculation through uh the grades and out migration. So change of year-over-year in cohorts. Um comparing births to kindergarten uh enrollment historically gives us um an analysis of what we call a K to birth ratio. Um K to birth ratios uh

186can be explained as the ratio of kindergarten to birth. Um for example, if we look in this most current year um in orange on the second line, we have 331 kindergarteners enrolled uh 202526. 5 years ago in uh 2019 2020 uh within the district there were 423 or 28 births rather. So if we divide those numbers we get a um K to birth ratio of 70 of uh.77. Um I uh will call attention to the top uh top bar top row there um which is the historic number of births and then the forecasted number of births starting in um 202526. Currently uh we're kind of in a period of low births 5 years ago. We can see that uh in the year prior 2018 2019 that was the uh lowest number of births within this

187historic period um they've come up to 428 for this year but um then 2020 there was another low year of births. Um but if you look kind of to the far or to the right there um we'll see that the last two years of observed um births are quite high. Um so we've got 486 births in 2023 24 and 495 births in um 202425 and those correspond with the um 202930 school year and 203031 school year. Um so we can see increases in kindergarten class size uh uh corresponding with those large um birth cohorts. the birth forecast continues some of that trend. Um so we see births remaining high compared to what they were five years ago now. So we can then uh also look at three different scenarios for kindergarten enrollment. We have a

188low scenario, a middle scenario and a high scenario. And these are basically different uh scenarios of K to birth ratios. So low scenario, we see the K to birth ratio staying relatively similar to what it is right now um and only rising a little bit um 5 years or 6 years out. Um our middle scenario uh anticipates a kid to birth ratio that would increase up to8 um relatively um quickly. And then our high scenario actually in anticipates a uh K to birth ratio rising kind of quickly to 84 and then settling back at um82 and we can see that um charted out in the chart below. So once students are enrolled in uh in the district uh then we start applying grade progression ratios as they metriculate through grades. um a grade progression ratio

189of uh 1.0 means that there's no change between uh grades. Um so if you think about it, if there were 100 kindergarteners in uh one year and then the next year there were 102 first graders, that would be a grade progression ratio of 1.02. Um typically grade progression ratios are highest in the first grade and in 9th grade. Those are years um that we see that maybe somebody will not have their child attend kindergarten um but they will enroll for first grade. Um and then also with uh 9th grade um oftentimes students who are homeschooled um will then be enrolled uh in the nth grade. was especially prevalent um maybe before COVID when um 9th grade was where sports were uh participated for students who were uh homeschooled. Uh the grade progression ratios are based

190on an average, a three-year average. Um sometimes if there's outliers, uh we'll look at um uh some further years back. We can see that obviously during co um years there were much lower um grade progression ratios. So overall grade progression ratios are at or above um 1.0 which indicates growth um between grades. This then yields us with our district-wide forecast for our three scenarios. We have again our low, middle, and high. Um, our low uh forecast anticipates a decrease uh in enrollment overall from uh 500 or 5,582 in the 202526 school year to 4,933. Um the middle uh scenario anticipates a drop to 400 or 5,492 and the high scenario in uh sees an overall increase um to 6,011. Um we can see also that uh that kind of low kindergarten class size um or

191those low classes are um anticipated in the first couple years of the forecast. Um and then there's a little bit of either growth or stabilization um in the decreases. Looking we can break that out by grade groups. Um this gives us our historic uh perspective as well as our um forecasted um enrollment scenarios for the K6 uh gray groups. within our middle forecast, we see relatively flat uh enrollment for the first couple years of the forecast period. Um and then as those large birth cohorts start entering into the district, we see slight increases. Um kind of oppositely uh with 9th uh through 12th grade, we see the small kindergarten or the small uh K6 uh class sizes that were that are currently being experienced metriculating through and entering into high school. Um 78 because it

192has just the two grades remains relatively stable um compared to the other two. So it's a bit more level. Um and then we can look at the uh individual grades um in the middle scenario um presented here. Um this is kind of most interesting to look at in terms of trends sort of like what I was talking about where we have the lighter shades are lower class sizes and darker shades are larger class sizes. So we can kind of see how those will move through the district and affect enrollment down the line. So currently we have relatively small kindergarten, first grade, second grade class sizes. Um as those metriculate through they're going to lead to relatively smaller um uh middle and and high school grades. Uh then starting at about 2029 2030, we start seeing

193kindergarten and um other grade class sizes increasing a little bit um from what they had fallen to. Um and then with uh in the middle scenario a decrease of of 90 students um but uh with the high scenario a possible increase and the low scenario a even further decrease. That was a lot. uh really kind of breeze through that, but um absolutely have time for questions. So, want to make sure that um I hold those um for you all. >> Thank you, Ethan. Thank you so much for all the detail and orienting as to where where we're looking and what we're seeing. I think we were able to get a pretty good feel for what you're anticipating there. um questions from the board >> like drinking from the fire >> and I might say yeah

194may maybe let's cut it a different way. Uh Dr. West and perhaps uh director Clue can we we would you like to expand on what you your interpretation of what you see here is regards to what we're talking about the district. Not that we all don't have a complete understanding of what we just saw, but we have a general understanding of what we saw, but >> yeah, I'll have to use my teacher voice and then ask director to this one. >> Yeah, thank you. Here we go. Um, so I think the simplest summary is that we're looking at several more years of declining enrollment to different degrees, but we do have hope that there is going to be a gradual increase about four or five years ahead of us and that could be the turnaround

195point for us. Uh, one of the things that I always look at when I'm examining demographic studies like this is what is our capture rate? I made a reference to that during the budget meeting, budget committee meeting. A capture rate of 77.8 is pretty typical what I've seen in most districts I've worked in. And then we uh see more students start in first grade as Ethan mentioned. So we do see some of those students come to us a little bit later at age six. Um, but we always want to work on how do we capture all of our students within our boundary area. So that is an opportunity for us. Director Clute, what would you like to add? I think that's the best summary. We have a few more years. Um, and that's if we

196maintain the medium, that mid-range. Um I do want to note that the last two demographic studies granted there's lots of things that have happened over the last four to six years um we haven't trended on the low trend for the last two demographic studies looking at what the study said versus what we actually seen. So um we're budgeting based on that midpoint but we still do have some risk there. Can you talk about where where does the state how does the state look at enrollment in districts or do they or do they have >> not like this? Yeah, the state does some of their own demographic studies, but they don't do this district level breakdown. That that's our responsibility. So that we need to forecast response, but other questions. >> There's we have one for

197the Yeah, there is, Madam Chair. Um, and I maybe I'm putting the onus on Dr. West here. >> Um, it's more not so much the figures but the process. How different is the states analysis and their practice, their metrics, their measurement tools, or is there a difference between their measurement tools and flow analytics? If I can to further expand on that, I mean, if we're going to if there's a difference, a significant difference between the two, we begin to compare apples to oranges, if that makes any sense. And I get a little concerned over that that the state might be using one set of measurement tools and we're using another one. Now, I'm not saying we're wrong. Fact, I like the deep dive on this stuff. But if the deep dive is not taking place

198in other school districts or is independent of us, then the coordination seems to me to lack a little bit. Any of that make any sense? I got a little sense from that because I can add and then see I I think because the state provides money per pupil but that's weighted money. So what's not represented here even though it's less students which equals less money that we'll be receiving it might the money we receive might be compounded if those students have extra needs and would have been weighed. This is going to be really someone could break this down but I I feel excited. I I understand this. I'm not excited about the topic, but the state because you know what? You know where I'm going with this. The state is is providing us funds based

199on the student. We forecast based on what we think we will get per student, in addition to the fact that we don't know yet what are the needs of these kids coming in. So even though we're forecasting for a a decline in a certain amount of kids coming in, that equals this amount of money. if those kids had certain needs, we would have actually been allocated even more money for those kids, which puts us at even greater deficit. And then I'm wondering how you how you budget for that ahead of time. I'm going to take a shot at this and then ask that you jump in at any point. All right. So, so let's start with what the state does. This the state makes its own forecast about the population of Oregon. That forecast looks

200at population over age 60 65, population under age 17. Um, where are Oregonians settling across the state? So, the state does its own analysis similar to what Flo does. I don't know who the state uses to do this work for them or if they have people in house, but they do something similar. That information is not used to forecast the state school fund. The state school fund is calculated based on the current service level calculation which a couple years ago at the state level we went through a pretty significant process of trying to make small tweaks to that current service level and we were successful in making some small tweaks and and that was great. The state is not looking at their own forecast to say we expect to have 500,000 students and so we

201are going to plan for 500,000 students. They look at what did we allocate to the state school fund the last bianium? What is the current service level calculation and then additional legislation that may impact allocations to school districts are added to that. Um there's a lot of talk around the QAnon but that is that is calculated but it is not utilized to actually determine the state school fund. Then for us as a school district we get a portion of it based on the number of students that we have in our school district compared to every other school district across the state. And yes, those monies are weighted based on student characteristics such as whether they receive special education services, whether they qualify under the poverty calculation. And so there are additional monies allocated for those

202reasons. Director Cl, what did I leave out? >> The only thing I would add is for us, we are currently budgeting based on floor funding. So the way that the state school formula is is that you can project the greater of the current year's enrollment demographics or the prior year. So this next budget cycle we're using today's enrollment demographics as the floor because we know next year is going to decrease. And so we do have a little bit of a net there that we can project what next year's medium to not with you know complete certainty but we can project it based on what we're seeing today as that's our floor for next year. Um and then we can keep doing that as we're in declining environment. So it does give us kind of a

203year to work with and adapt to. questions. I was wondering like maybe like students >> grab somebody's microphone. >> I was kind of just noticing how um we talk a lot about the the bin students and stuff like coming in. Um, obviously if there's less students in kindergarten, there will be less students in first and second. But I was kind of wondering if this also takes an account of like those uh students that are coming in with like migrant working families and also those like seasonal workers since I know that there's a rise certain years for seasonal workers. So I wonder if those students are also taken like accountability of, but I wasn't sure if that was like something to ask or if I'm in like the wrong direction. Always something to ask. Ethan, can

204you do you want to speak to that? >> Yeah. um uh if I understand questions just um how the study takes into account migrant workers or migrant families. Um and I think that the place that that would probably be the most reflected in is um looking at there's a separate um SGR student generation rate that is calculated for affordable housing. Um, so I know that there were a couple of um specific farmworker housing that was um developed in the last couple years um in uh in Forest Grove or Cornelius. Um there currently isn't any that we were tracking that um will be applied or that that will be applicable to this uh current enrollment forecast as um so but in the past we you know in the past we have looked at what the affordable

205housing SGR is and that generally well not even generally that is higher um as a rule of thumb than any other uh SGR is anything that is incomerestricted is going to um net more families for sure. >> Does that answer your question? >> Great. All right. Thank you so much Ethan for the presentation and thank you board for the questions and we are I think going to close this out. Have a good night. >> Thank you for having me. >> Thank you. Thank you for your work. >> Have a good night everyone. Thank you. Bye. >> And we are going to move on to authorization of reduction for superintendent. Dr. West. Are we okay? Do we take a quick break? Are we all good today? Okay, good. It'll take just a minute for the presentation

206to queue up. So, I plan to share some information and then move us into potential action. Thank you for advancing us. Great game. Much of the information that you don't see in this presentation is similar to what you saw in the budget committee presentation. There is a little bit different information which I'll try to remember to highlight for you. What I want to start with is that we are facing a situation where we need to reduce $4.6 million in our expenditures. This is in addition to the $2 million that we've reduced for this year. So, I think it's an important reminder. I I reminded the budget committee of this that at this same time last year, we were talking about how do we reduce $2 million in expenditures and we were able to largely do

207that without feeling that across the district because we looked at all the stuff and things and services that we could possibly eliminate uh before we started looking at positions. This year, we're not in a position where we cannot look at positions. You've seen this before. I won't spend a great deal of time here, but we are facing a confluence of events. We have declining enrollment. We have increasing expenditures. We are spending our savings. And over many years, we have increased staff as enrollment has gone down. And then as we just saw, we we are projecting several years of declining enrollment still before we start to see an upward trend. Before I make the recommendations I want to review quickly here again, these are slides that we reviewed during the budget committee meeting. We talked to

208our community. We talked to students. We talked to staff. We asked questions about what is most important regarding this experience. This graph here is a little bit different than what we showed in our in-person meetings. It highlights the top three responses for each of the different respondent groups. I'll call attention to just a couple of them. Four of the five groups rated safety and security as one of their top three priorities, followed by instructional supports and counseling mental health services. Three of the groups rated those two within their top three. And then average class size and elective opportunities were the next highest in two of the groups top three. And our students also prioritized after school activities. We felt like the survey wasn't enough. So we hosted some in-person conversations. All of the data we

209collected through those in-person conversations were qualitative. And this slide here summarizes those data. What we heard is minimize impact to student facing staff, prioritize mental health. And we heard loudly that the folks we visited with feel that that is an academic prerequisite and that extracurriculars drive attendance. As we discussed in our budget committee meeting, the largest family room participation is with our migrant pack. We had hundreds of people show up. That was fantastic. And so there's a specific call out there to some of the information that we heard through that Spanish language engagement. The feedback prioritized emotional well-being, small group instruction, and especially our family resource support. a lot of appreciation for that. And then we also called out some alignment with our strategic goals related to the SEAL supports that families feel their students

210are receiving, equity focus, and empowering diverse perspectives and engagement. All of these data, whether they be quantitative or qualitative, will inform our reduction process. And let us summarize the data in these ways. We need to continue to prioritize fidelity to evidence-based practices and mandates. As much as I would like to not do some of the things that we are asked to do, that is really not an option for us. So we must continue to do those things and we know things like the science of reading and to two-way dual immersion work for kids. So we will continue to do those things. We will preserve student facing staff and maintain a reasonable ratio of teachers to students and instructional assistance. Same for our instructional infrastructure. We do need some support staff to help us with the

211work of instruction. sustain counseling and mental health support and then safeguards student engagement. In terms of the reduction in force itself, again, this is information I've shared a couple of times now. Over the course of the bianium, we are reducing $6.6 million. That's a significant amount for a district of our size. We shared this slide during our in-person engagement processes. On the left side are examples of some of the expenditures. We don't have great flexibility around or have no flexibility around. We have to pay our utilities. We have to process payroll and ensure people are paid for the work they're doing. We transport students. We need to make sure that we're operating safe buses and that we have the staff to do that and good partners to support us with that. Student safety is not

212optional. We have instructional hour minimums that we have to meet. All of these are things that restrict our ability to reduce expenditures. Where we do have flexibility is in staffing, operational efficiencies, discretionary funding, and in looking at all of our programs to ask the question, are these programs that given the current conditions we want to or can continue? I question that. >> Back to the um the curricular resources because we did hear a question about that. I do know we've talked and again we've talked about this in meetings and made decisions as a board to have we don't have flexibility in curriculum that we need to adopt for the state. We are we need to do that. That's something we have to do that is was mentioned why can't we not do this adoption right

213what our I mean I'm checking myself what our board has had flexibility to do is be able to delay an an adoption. I I believe we're doing that for in some cases because we need more input from teachers about it, but in other cases because the state does allow it allow sometimes a district to do that for one year for only one year. So again, I think it comes back to talking to people about I think just getting the answers to some of these questions. Why can't we just not adopt this or why are we implementing this? and being really clear about why we are. Some some of it's because we have to do it as a district, but then maybe sharing here's the cost of this when we do this and here's where this

214money is coming from and this is again when we talk about why we're putting money away. Yeah. >> Yeah. A great example is we'll go back to the accountability bill that was referenced earlier. The accountability bill limits school districts to four different benchmark assessment tools. And we are fortunate that in grades K through 12, we already have the math tool, one of the math tools that is approved of the four. In 7 through 12, we have one of the literacy tools that is approved for use. In K through six, we do not. So, we will have to purchase per state mandate a new benchmark assessment in order to be compliant with the accountability bill. Now, we worked with a team of educators to analyze, do we want to delay adoption of the new benchmark assessment?

215Do we want to move to one of the other tools this fall? So we we brought in some educators to help inform that process. And in grades K through six, we can delay for up to one year. It's it's only one year, but that's an example of where state action is forcing an expenditure for the school district. And then in terms of the other regular curricular adoptions, every content area is on a sevenyear cycle. And the state does that. So they expect each district to adopt new curriculum in a content area every year and then the next year you're in a new content area and it you continue that cycle until you come back every seven years to refresh. Does does that answer your question? >> Well, it does and it and it gets to

216the point people ask a really valid question of why why are we prioritizing a savings? Why are we keeping our savings at a certain level? And I think it's these expenses too that come as a as a new mandate that we can't predict and suddenly we will be taking money through our budget. Where is that money going to come from? And so when the board is looking at all this, we we're kind of planning for the unpredictable piece of that. That is why we are advocating so hard for legislators to please not do those things without understanding our budgets. But we also have to be physically responsible. Um knowing that we we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared. Um the other question I've asked I've asked this both is for districts that

217we are seeing that weren't prepared. You know what is happening? Is it surprised by the mandates? Is it not predicting or saving enough? Right? And then being caught off guard by an enrollment. Is it multiple different things? I think we've all seen that in the news and I think we're very aware of making sure that our district is is not in a position um to do that. Is it those things and more? Are there? Yes. And director may want to jump in as well since she has close ties to other fiscal officers around the state. There are many reasons why a district finds themselves in a position where they need to make the year reductions or fur days or end the school year early. Any number of things but all of the things you mentioned

218and maybe some would you like to add to that would you make sense? Um, I think we've seen a lot of turnover in the finance and just leadership in districts. Um, the state school fund adjustments and the swings that are happening and not having reserves for to support any of those swings or multiple swings compounding. Um, there's it's a lot. I mean, we just learned we had a a four is it a $4 million reimbursement that hadn't been paid back. Are you talking high cost disability? Yeah. The budget? No. What we learned is the high cost disability calculation changed and that will have a $457,000 impact to our district in terms of expected revenues. Okay. get the picture. Any other questions on this nice slide? Okay, we've seen this before. In this enrollment decline, we

219were adding staff. I'll repeat something I said during the budget meeting. I don't think anybody working in the school feels like their school is overstaffed. Um, every one of the individuals that is represented by this graph who is working in our schools is doing important work for our students. But this is not how the state plans us. 94% of our funding is driven strictly by enrollment. So declining enrollment means that we have less revenue. I also want to remind us before we move into the next few slides that when we were talking about a reduction of force, we are talking about real. We do not make these recommendations lightly. And as a district, if the board authorizes us to move forward, we are going to do everything that we can to minimize layoffs. I have

220spoken about this before that authorizing a reduction in positions does not equate to necessarily an equal number of layoffs because it is our hope that we will be able to place people into vacancies um before we have to reach the limits of what we are asking for in terms of the reduction in force. Are there questions about that before I go forward? And also within that the retirement package options and waiting as well to see if that period is still open. So we are hoping that the maximum number of people that could take advantage of that opportunity to do so. So as we've seen the recommendation from the school district is to reduce up to these are maximums up to two administrative FTE one confidential 27 license and 21 classified. This is an approximate 6.9%

221reduction in staff. Um this we brought this up in the budget committee meeting as well. this level is still higher than the 201819 school year. It will not feel that way when you reduce staff even if it were 100 200 staff higher than 201819. It'll still feel like a loss but we are above prepandemic levels even with the reduction that we are bringing to the board for action. And then also to add here the last five years we've seen approximately I can't see the word past 17 the way this is set up um but we see approximately 17 licensed exits and about 25 classified exits per year that's what you often refer to as attrition and so in addition to the retirement incentive that we're offering to the licensed employment group we we do know

222that we will see some attrition and that will allow us to prevent layoffs as well. Again, if there is a vacancy that we could place people into, that is our preference rather than laying people off. Some information about how our groups are distributed and how the layoffs impact those groups differently. Almost six almost 56% of our staff are licensed. Um again as we talked about in the budget committee meeting license encompasses many different classifications it's counselors it's a classroom teacher it's an ELD teacher it's a TOSA it's not limited to a classroom teacher 38.5% of our staff are classified staff they're within a classified bargaining unit again many classifications within that group. 2.2% are considered confidential staff. Those are staff who do not sit in either classified or licensed bargaining group. May include non-licensed supervisors.

223And then we have our licensed supervisors, which is the administrator group. That's 3.6% of our population across the district. And a confidential is a person like that is a confidential employer. That's correct. There's specific criteria is a is considered confidential because she is a non-licensed supervisor. The way the proposal play out for the 51 FTE, these bar charts here represent 100% of 404 licensed staff. 100% of 279 lessons staff, 100% of 16 confidential, and then 26 administrators. We laid it out this way so that the board could see the distributions of reductions for each of the different employee groups. So within our licensed staff, the 27 proposed reductions represent 6.7% decrease from that 404 number. And then if you look across the top, you'll see 7.2% for classified, 6.3% for confidential, and then administrators, we're

224proposing a 7.7% reduction in the administrator group. So the group that is having the highest percentage reduction will be administrative. That is correct. And with the license and classified, the license actually is the lowest percentage proposed of FTE reduced. >> Uh, confidential. >> Oh, confidential is the lowest and then license. Now, I'm guessing based on what you said with people that are retiring, you know, this is a threshold. So, that that number of that percentage could get smaller should people move into positions. with attrition. We may not have 27 licensed we may not have 27 layoffs within the license group. We are proposing a reduction of positions and and that's the distinction that I'm trying to draw is we need to reduce our budget and that means less positions within the budget. We don't want

225to lay off any of the people in those positions. The way we avoid layoffs is by being able to place people into vacancies. So the more vacancies we have, the less layoffs we can expect. Okay. >> Does that answer your question? >> Yes. >> So this I mean these are positions, but the percentage of people will will be less. I mean, we're assuming there's going to be some returns. There's going to be some movement, some attrition. >> Correct. So, we're we're in just a minute, I'm going to ask the board to take action on an up to value, and we are hoping it will be less. >> Another way to look at the proposed reductions, again, the board has already seen this, but a review for those who haven't, the way FTE is current, Thank

226you, Andre. The way FTE is currently assigned in our school district, 91% of all staff in our school district work in schools. 9% of our staff work somewhere else. And some of that is at the district office, which is where we're here tonight, but we also have a maintenance facility at Taylor Way as an example. So there are people who are not working in schools that are distributed around the district, but that comprises only 9% of all of our staff. Within the 51 FTE reductions that we are proposing tonight, 13% of those reductions will come from those not working in schools. 87% of the reductions will come from those working in schools. If you look back to the left hand side of this graph, with 91% of our staff working in schools and with a

227$4.6 million reduction in front of us, there is no way to do this without impacting schools. None of us want that, but the math simply doesn't work out. What questions do you have about this slide before I adapt? >> I think we I think we got to it. I know we answered this question in the budget meeting, but I know some people weren't here for that and this question was asked again in public comment. I think you've just at least from our perspective answered why why these cuts, why these particular cuts. Um and but the why now I think that's a question we get why now and I think we've tried to explain some of the but what happens this was that was this was happen in the budget someone asked what happens if we

228don't make these cuts and I mean you talked about it in budget meeting but the why this why now question I think is a good one and it opens up a potential to explain make sure people are understanding Well, to repeat that is a good question and so to repeat it and please again jump in at any point. If we do not make these reductions now or if we make less reductions now, what we're creating is essentially a double impact situation because it doesn't solve our structural deficit if we kick this down the road to next year. And so we will enter next year at the time we go through a budget reduction process, not only with a structural deficit that we still need to address, but then the structural deficit we're not addressing this

229year. So it compounds over time. That is a decision the budget committee can make um and it will have impacts down the road. The other thing that we shared during the budget committee meeting is that we will run out of money if we continue to spend our savings to buy the people that are in our system right now. We will eventually hit zero and that is not a responsible way for a school district. And that is essentially what is happening to districts that don't make the decisions when they need to be made. And then we're seeing midyear districts making massive cuts or layoffs or there's all kinds of different factors that now play this. >> That's that's part of the reason. Director Clue, would you like to add anything to that? >> What other questions

230may I answer? Well, I just like to say we we had to do that in 2010. So, in January of 2010, we had to reduce um staff because we were you know, we were going to go into deficit. >> And this this reduction does not take us out of deficit spending. >> It does just get us to the it take it lifts us right above deficit spending. We're right at the line. And that's why we are making this recommendation to correct our structural deficit. As we discussed in the budget meeting and a couple of people pointed out, if we can correct our structural deficit this year, then we have a new baseline from which we can work from in future years. But right now, we're in a situation where we're drawing down our savings, drawing

231down our savings, and that will eventually reach a point where it is dangerously low. It's irresponsible for us as a school district to operate that way. And right now with this state, with no guarantee from the state of stable funding to plan for we we are essentially layering and also planning for we're not sure, you know, we don't know what we can be guaranteed for getting. So, we're we're we're kind of trying to do two things. This reduction only takes into account deficit spending for this year. We will still have reductions next year. Just with the declining enrollment, the updated legislative session, uh it doesn't get us out of reductions long term. It's just announced benefit share. >> What is the federal what percentage of money gets from the federal government? about 8%. >> 8%.

232So the majority is coming from the state. The vast majority is coming from the state. What other questions may I answer? Can we move on? May I have questions? How am I able to move on? Um so again we are at a point where there are multiple factors coming to a head that is part of what is driving this. Um again the defining enrollment is the primary driver. We've been asked a couple of times well what do we do about this? Is there any way we can impact funding? Um so as I said enrollment is the top driver. More kids eventually means more revenue. In addition, the state school fund does not provide adequate resources for the education that we want for all of our students. It doesn't keep pace with FERS and these are

233just a few examples. It's not keeping pace with services, salaries, wages, benefits, utilities, and so on. And we can have a conversation about whether the state school fund is funding us equitably or not. I think we saw in a budget committee meeting that if they lifted the cap, we'd actually be receiving an additional $2 million. So, I I think we can say safely that we are not being funded equitably to serve our most vulnerable students. So, all of those things together don't help the fact that we are experiencing declining enrollment right now. So what we are bringing to the school board as a recommendation for action is to authorize a reduction in force up to these would be our maximums of two administrator FTE one confidential 27 licensed and 21 classified. And with this last

234slide that does move us into action items before I pitch it back to you, Chair Cotky, I just want to say no one wants this. If we could avoid this, we would have to budget responsibly. That is our charge as public servants. And so we are at a point right now where we have to face the structural deficit of this school district and this is the will we fix it. >> All right. Thank you for the presentation and board for the questions. We have the question. Have we been working with the union to you support this decision with the between what is the communication look like with Yeah, I'll ask our director of human resources to share some information. She's been in regular communication with the association. Would you like to elaborate? We've been meeting

235um regularly with the GPA um it was weekly there for a while and then spring break happened to sort of put that back up um to talk about contract language and the fact that these reductions were coming um and work through some questions that had of each other. Do you feel like there's that support from from them to us and the decisions ultimately were you? >> Yeah. And I can I ask a clarifying question. When you say is there support, you're asking if there's support from the association for where we're at. >> Yes. I guess the communication that's being, you know, delivered to us, the our teachers, our staff. Oh, if I may, and then I'll feel free to jump in. Um, I think our relationships with the associations have been very strong and I

236don't know if it's a fair question to ask if they support this. They're these are their members. Um, these are their co-workers, their friends. Um, and so do they support the reductions? I think >> well no one supports the reductions. I'm just meeting in communication. >> I have found them to be very collaborative in communication. Um and I would say that's true of both of our associations. These conversations are really really hard. Um and there are a lot of details that we've had to work through. Some of which I think we are still working through. You can correct me if I'm wrong on that. because we have to agree on a lot of technical details related to a reduction in force and that's still being worked out. Thank you. Any other questions? I have a

237comment. Um that even though whether we vote yes or no on this reduction, uh this board and also our superintendent have worked really hard this year to collaborate with other legislators and and especially with superintendent and also across the the state. And that that's going to continue to happen because um what were the three things that we did early on? It was PERS and um where we wrote and everyone in the state supported us. Um you know those three um I'm getting I'm getting >> it was or was it our legislative priorities? >> Right. our legislative priorities and that was the first time we've had that kind of collaboration instead of every um the issues in in at the coast and the issues at in Eastern Oregon are some of them are the same and

238some of them are different but these three across the state we could support and one of the things that happens at the legislation is that these legislators can in the past can to bring up 200 bills and it's overwhelming because they have to process each one of those and so the collaboration that I have seen the board and also our superintendent within Washington County and the state has for the first time been very very effective and I know that that we will continue to do that going forward and I think I think sometimes when you're in a crisis like every school district is that This is the time I'm hoping for some creative um decision making and pressure on Sam. So, um I know that you know the reductions are nobody wants them, but I

239also know that for the first time I'm really seeing a collaborative spirit going forward to try to address um what every district is facing now. >> All right, I think we're going to move into action items. May I I'm sorry. Can I interrupt? No, but can I go back to what your question was, Vice Chair? Um, and I apologize for misunderstanding your question. I want to give you an example of how one of our associations was really proactive and collaborative. FGA approached us with a recommendation for retirement incentive. So I again these conversations are sometimes a little tense because we're working through contract language and laws and technical details and we have all have feelings about how to navigate that. But I I do think that generally speaking we all want to preserve the dignity

240of anyone who will be impacted by this and that requires collaboration. And I feel strongly that our association colleagues believe that too. Sarah, would you like to add anything to that? >> Yeah, sorry for the interruption. No. >> Okay, we are going to move to action items. Authorization of reduction fors. Um, I'll look for a motion. I move that the Forest Grove School District Board of Directors authorize the superintendent to implement a reduction in force effective June 30th, 2026. Up to two administrators, full-time equivalent FTE positions, one confidential FTE position, 27 licensed FTE position, and 21 classified FTE physicians. I'll second >> discussion. >> That is not an enthusiastic setting. Make no mistake on that. Um this this I' I've been through this on the other side. I don't I hate saying that but there

241is a there is a history in this district where we have done this kind of reduction. We have looked at a reduction in force and as ownorous as this may be, it is being handled light years better than the previous reductions that I saw in this district. That was that was many years ago. That was back in the 80s. And the cavalier attitude of the administration towards teachers at that time is not something I see here tonight. I and my my vote in favor of this is again not enthusiastic. It is not in any way meant to be derogatory towards any bargaining unit or any uh unit of employment in this district. If it is anything, it is an indictment of our public school funding in the state of Oregon. And voting yes on this,

242I hope sends the message to our representatives to par senators that what they are doing is not getting us what we want. And if they continue to do it, we all know what Einstein said. Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We if we do this we are getting the same results we got 25 30 40 years ago and to expect anything different is to be on a fool's errand but this does two things it one it gives or school district an opportunity to regain or gain some financial footing. And it also, I think, sends a distinct message to our friends in Salem and hopefully other school districts that are in the same vice crunching um situation that we are. um send the same message. >> Okay.

243Anyone else? >> I have other things but I can't say them in life company. I'll say that I'll say that I really am thankful for the incredible detailed uh layout of financials that we've been seeing. We're not just the this year but last. Um we've heard in meetings I believe it was meetings this spring that we would be doing a reduction in force. I think at the time we we even maybe mentioned an idea of members. So the you know I I think we are trying to communicate as clearly as possible. I think the presentations tonight lay that out pretty well. Um, and I've watched enough districts and I'm connected with enough school boards who didn't understand the facts in front of them and the numbers in front of them and maybe didn't have the

244the courage, I guess, to make the decision that's going to be unpopular. And again, I agree with Pete in no way um a statement on who we are or what we're doing. But I said this during bargaining as well. It got to a point where I understood what our district was facing and I understood the level and I've seen other districts not making that decision. And I just this is a decision I will vote yes on and I will continue to advocate as as much as we've been doing. We will continue to get that message across and we will be bringing this result to our legislators. And we've all heard education is now going to be top of mind in the next session. That's what that's what we're that's what we're hearing now. But but

245I said we we've had to get to this point for now that to be that to be um top of mind. We've we've we've dropped the ball in the state years ago. But today, yeah, it will be a yes vote. And seeing no other comments, I'm going to call for a roll call vote. Um, Alma Lozano, >> Gandoski, >> yes. >> Petrix, >> yes. >> And Christy Kaki, I'm a yes. Thank you everybody. We're going to move on to Forest Grove High School new course recommendations with our general lonely assistant superintendent. Madam Chair here, >> they have been lighted up tonight. Thank you. All right. Um the board >> Thank you. Um I will try to be be uh concise with these three action items. The first, if you recall, um last last board meeting

246on March 10th, Principal Burke came to the board to present um three new courses for consideration. Tonight, we're looking for the board's approval. Um all three are highinterest courses as we heard today from students, electives, mindful studies, racket sports for PE and health credit, and beginning mariachi for fine and performing arts music. There will be no financial impact. um for these new courses, they are FTE neutral, assuming students um enough students enroll for the classes. And so we're coming to the board today for approval for those new courses. >> Question five. >> Yes. >> Thank you for the presentation not only tonight but u during the last board meeting. My question based on the shifting landscape or the earth turning a little bit on us uh earlier this evening is when we say it's revenue

247neutral. We're adding a course. We're adding three courses and yet we are engaged in a reduction in force. and we were looking at a reduction in force. How is that revenue neutral? >> Yeah, I'll give you an example with uh racket sports. We have x number of PE teachers who are certified to teach PE in X number of classes, some of which um are required credit courses that we we have to offer to students. So, it just might be a matter of changing a basketball section to racket sports and really it's dependent on students uh interest and what they enroll to to be in. So, it's a matter of just uh switching an existing course into that instead. That's how that works. Um yes and there's also new courses that we we heard the new

248course of mindfulness that was one of the ones presented as well >> to replace the I can't sorry it yeah it again it's it's options for c for courses to be offered and then forecasting happens >> whether or not they they make meaning whether not there's enough students to take the course >> is um >> TVD >> TV so they we may be approving the courses but may not offering it. We won't offer um mindful studies for five students when we have when we have class sizes that we need to fill in other areas for um we've got to maximize our resources. So >> or if that teacher was already teaching six sessions sections of health but one section forecast enough for mindfulness then it's five sections of health she's teaching in one mind class

249>> or I >> just wanted that articulated >> I okay >> absolutely fair thank you for that >> um motion to approve move for motion move to approve the proposed 2026 6 2027 new courses and plan course statements as extension. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> All right. And then social studies curriculum. >> Yes. So, as we discussed earlier today, we are on a seven-year cycle for um curriculum approval adoptions. Um this year social studies is up for consideration for the beginning of fall of next year. A committee of teachers came together and the recommendation is to postpone that adoption for another year. So we are able to do that for one year through the state. This will allow us to dive a little bit deeper

250on the um in the curriculum to see what's most appropriate for our teachers and to also um analyze potential costs right over time. And so we are uh coming today asking for the board's approval to postpone the adoption for one year. >> Questions? >> I'll make a motion. Uh I move to postpone selection and use of adopted instructional materials and social studies for the 26 20 2027 school year. >> I'll second that. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> Opposed. All right. >> Health adoption. >> All right. Last but not least is um we have last year we did um come to the board and ask for a postponement of the health adoption. This year we are now asking the board for approval. Um the for K6 we are going to move forward.

251We like to move forward with the great body shop um which is existing curriculum that we have in our system. So that would not be a change. That would just be re-upping that curriculum. We have some work to do around implementation but no change um on that curriculum. The second is live well and we would be adopting that at the middle school level. Um they have gone through a thorough review. What we're asking for the board to to approve tonight is a subscription for live well which is startup costs for one year. There's a typo. It says 6 years. It's actually one year uh at $75,000. Um $75,960. Um those would be startup costs for this year. Um the high school has decided is taking a little bit more time. I hope to bring that

252to that recommendation to you at our next meeting. They were still looking at curriculum as late as last week and we didn't want to rush into today's meeting for that. I will tell you um based on funding and those types of things, we are shying away from long a six-year um investment or or those types of um requests at this point because we're taking it yeartoear based on um you know kind of analyzing the curriculum. A good example is we invested in the middle school curriculum. Now that they're in it for a year, they're saying we don't need refills on this or that. And so this by not engaging in a six-year commitment, we're able to look at that more purposefully yeartoear on what we need in terms of refills or additional resources. So trying

253to be very um very cognizant of of what our investments are each year. >> And again, this is just kind of streamlining and making curriculum consistent in health. >> Yeah. So for K6, it would be continuing what we do. um for 712. Um right now it's leaning the high school is leaning towards live well. So we would have that consistency 7 through 12. >> And this is this we've extended now we we do need to adopt. >> Correct. Okay. >> I was hoping we could have some more of that. So guess we already did. >> All right. Motion. Uh, Madame Chair, I move to approve the Great Body Shop Health Curriculum for grades K6 at the annual cost of $24,315 and live well middle school health curriculum for grades 7 8 for a total cost

254of $75,960 with full implementation in the fall of 2026 for grades K8. Eight. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. Thank you, Harold. >> Thank you. >> Welcome Enrique. Wireless AC access point purchase. Kind of miss the dark fiber. >> Yeah. >> Conversation, but welcome. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um the next item before you is another one of our bond projects to uh to replace older uh network infrastructure. This one in particular is to replace older wireless access points in part of the district. Again, this is all part of the bond. This is also part of the -ray program. Uh again, just as a reminder, the -ray program is run by the FCC that gives reimbursements to school districts for network infrastructure as well as uh like internet

255service, things like that. So this falls under one of those. So, we actually submitted an rate application and got bids uh from several companies and the company that had the the lowest bid uh and the bid that was in the best interest of the district was CDE technologies uh for $86,851. Uh so the recommendation of the board is to approve the purchase of the wild access points from CBE technologies utilizing bond funds um under the rate program uh for a total cost of $86,85110 >> questions. >> Well, I think we need to make sure that everybody knows that this money is not from the general fund and cannot be used for staffing. It's uh it's bond money. So this is these are bond funds we allocated for uh for network infrastructure and again it is

256through the -ray program. So we have do potentially potentially because we have to apply for it and then hope for an 80% reimbursement of these funds back into the bond. So if we're successful we get 80% back into the bond. Well, Madam Chair, if I may, I move to approve the purchase for wireless access points from CBE Technologies utilizing bond funds. Total cost of $86,851 and a dime. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Did I hear opposed? Okay. All right. Okay. Say I. Sorry. Okay. We all said I. All right. And then we'll just keep going. >> Uh and the next one before you again is another uh bond infrastructure uh project. Uh so again, these are funds uh through the bond that cannot be used for any

257other purpose. Uh and also through the - program. So again, this is money uh through that FCC program that does potentially provide an 80% reimbursement of these funds back into the bond. Uh so for this uh particular action item is to approve the replacement of uh UPS battery backup devices. So basically these are the battery backup devices that live in network closets to help uh maintain equipment power and whenever we lose city power u and this again was through an application. So we got uh bids from uh multiple vendors and at the end uh it was decided to be in the best interest of the district to go with data center warehouses proposal uh for $159,75263. Uh so the recommendation of the board is to approve the purchase of the eats uh devices from data

258center warehouse utilizing bond funds uh for a total cost of $159,75263. questions. Motion. >> I'll move to approve the purchase of the Eaton UPS devices data center warehouse utilizing bond funds for a total cost of 159,75263. >> Thank you. >> Discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. And director. Thank you Andrew Gay. Dr. Cloot's middle school stays at her event. >> Thank you. Um I did want to just start with acknowledging I do it is really difficult to come and ask for these purchases um especially considering the things that are happening right now. Um, but at the same time, these are resources that are set aside and dedicated specifically towards capital improvements and we can only use them for those items that were laid out in the 22 bond measure. Um, and

259so the next few things I have are to be um spent under those resources. The first one is the Neil Armstrong Middle School stage curtain and we seek bids from three different vendors. Stagecraft was the only one to provide us a bid and it's $68,170 >> questions. >> I move to approve the replacement stage C curtain purchase through stage craft Industries utilizing the 2022 bond resources for $68,170. >> Okay. >> Discussion. All in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. >> All right. >> The next one we have tonight is actually the only one that is funded from the general fund. Um this is the resurface of the Horse Grove High School Viking gym. That flooring is starting to diminish and we need to resurface it either this year or next year. We've held out um

260the last few summers and um I don't believe we'll make it through another year without resurfacing this floor. So, we are using remaining general fund dollars this year that um we're just repurposing other facility improvements. Um and this is 71,400 using quarts. What is the uh lifespan of the new floor? >> In looking back at our records, this floor was installed in 1983. >> Wow. And the new floor, is it a pre-tapered floor or >> It's not a full new floor. It's just a resurface. >> Just a resurface. >> So, they'll grind it down and then recode it. >> Okay. And how how long should that last before we service again? >> It should last several years. Um, I don't know what the um what the lifespan is. >> 1983 so old. We >> have

261to look >> when we built the high school and opened it in ' 83 and resurfaced that floor next in 1996 or 97. >> Okay. >> Could you have used bond money for this? >> We can. Um, but we've already gone through all of our excess bond funds and our interest and identified projects for those resources. Um, and we're trying to focus more on additional building needs, ADA improvements, um, restroom improvements and other things with the rest of the bond funds. So, this is something that facilities was able to look at their budget this current year and identify things that they can push off or other things that could then be covered under bond funds. Uh, so yes, and I understand. Yeah. Thank you. I move to approve the Viking gym floor refinish procurement with

262court floors for $71,400 utilizing general maintenance funds. >> Second any discussion all in favor say I. >> I post right. So the next one is Echo summer 26 architectural contract. That is the architecture contract that we are starting right now. Um, but it's actually summer of 27 construction work. And after the Egosshaw job was completed, we looked at the remaining budget balance for that one. And we also have the state ADA assessment. And so we're using both communication that we received through Echo Shaw's construction work and the ADA assessment and looking at renovating some of the restrooms in that building to be able to make them ADA accessible. um also to make some improvements in just the overall restrooms themselves. Um and then the other piece of this project is enclosing the library so it

263can be used as a real instructional space. >> Okay. >> What are they going to do in the library? Library. Library. Okay. It's just going to have walls now. That's it. Yeah, >> I'm trying to visualize it. Okay, thank you. Okay, >> move to approve the VBL amendment to their master agreement for 71,770 utilizing the 2022 bond funds. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I posted. >> All right. The next one we have is the district office bond renovation. There are a couple of deferred maintenance items from the bond that are included in this. And then we do have two um two spaces here that we're looking at renovating. One is the tech space downstairs to make it bigger so that all of the uh tech support can be in

264one space. Um and they can do all of their work in one space instead of being spread out so far. Um, and then the other one is uh an office upstairs and taking a larger office and making it into a couple of smaller offices. So, we had three biders on this project and we would recommend uh awarding it to Five Star Construction for $254,593. >> And Five Stars uh contracts on many projects. >> They have they did the seismic improvements at Dilly. They've been on Harvey Clark for the last two summers. Um Neil Armstrong for two summers in a row. They've done quite a bit of work with us over the last >> They've been giving us some discounts for all that. >> They have been they've been adding a lot of scope into it

265and they have been very reasonable and responsive. So, we've enjoyed actually working with them. I move to approve the five-star construction contracts for $254,593 utilizing the 2022 bond funds. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> And so the next one we have tonight is the Neil Armstrong Middle School cafeteria renovation. This one is a great opportunity that we have um with utilizing both excess nutrition services funds. So our nutrition services account can't have more than 25% of the annual expenditures in that fund. So once it goes over that, we have to bring it back down. And so we're using a combination of excess service excess uh funds for nutrition services account with bond interest revenue for this project. And it's really about making the alarm front cafeteria a place

266where students want to be. It's adding some light and some windows. Um there's limited windows that we can add just because of the way the building is built in the structure. Um but it would add additional windows and some lights and a refresh. It adds an additional serving line to get students through quicker. Um, yeah, just a general refresh of the whole space. So, between this and the uh stage curtain and the work that we've done in the past couple of years, we're hoping that it'll It's hard to make a space. We're hoping it'll make it better. >> A welcoming middle lunchroom. >> Yes, that's >> not just It's not just a lunch, >> right? Oh, no. I know. It's it's well it was the welcoming spot when I first started at for school district

267or school district. It was it was at that cafeteria. That was my first impression of the school. >> Oh yeah. >> Um all of this work is done before the school year starts or what's the timeline? >> This is all going to be done summer of 26. So this summer. Um and then again fivestar construction was the low bid. We for both this one and the last one we did hard bids. So low bid gets it regardless. Um and then FiveStar Construction is who we would like to award it uh to for 579,575. Okay. >> Move to approve five. Start over again. Move to approve the five-star construction contract for $579,575 utilizing a combination of the 2022 bond funds and nutrition services excess balance funds. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >>

268I opposed. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. So, the last one I found tonight is the Force Bro High School lighting uh auditorium lighting controls. And this one was not part of the original bond work, but it qualifies as under our bond construction work based on the language that we have. Um, and it's an opportunity that came up after the whole bond campaign and all of um the pre-planning work that we did. This came up afterwards as a a pretty significant need in the in the district. the auditorium lighting, um making sure that we have the emergency lighting, the house lighting, all of it, and so that it's operable and easily controllable. Um so this would upgrade it to all LED throughout and it's $551,696.87 and it would be through a cooperative purchasing agreement with Bloom. Any

269questions? I still want to move to approve the contract with Bloom for $551,696 and 87 with 2022 bond funds. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Okay. Thank you. All right, everybody. Uh we're we're we're almost there. Policy revisions first read. Dr. West. Yeah, super quick. Uh there are a few policies in the packet there look at. I do want to draw attention to a couple of policies that are not there, especially for director Ganduski. Um, the policies that the district equity committee had worked on, which director Vandeski and director uh, Franco had an opportunity to review recently, we sent to OSBA for a quick glance before we brought it to the board and they found a couple of changes that they recommend that we make um, just to make sure

270it meets all the compliance issues. So, we will make those changes and then bring those policies back to um Director Gandeski and Director Franco for a quick review before we bring it back to the board. There being no further business, the um the meeting is adjourned at 10:00.