001March 10th, 2026, Force Grove School District Board of Directors meeting is called to order at 5:30 p.m. We'll start with the roll call of board members present. Alzano >> here. >> Resa Franco >> here. >> Kate Grandoski >> here. >> Pete Truax >> here. >> Christy Cocky is here and my Andrade is excused for tonight and absent. If we could ask everyone to please rise for the flag of the Ice to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, looking for approval of tonight's agenda. to >> second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. And we're going to move right into board reports tonight. I wanted to ask board members
002if they did have reports. I know Director Truax has one and uh Director Franklin, would you have a report tonight? >> Okay. We'll start with let's start with Kate and then we'll go to >> So there are two things I'd like to comment on. One is that I had the pleasure this morning of addressing my colleagues in Forest Grove Daybreak Rotary Club about the pasta class at Forest Grove High School and how they can use the QR code uh to order on that and there was uh some enthusiasm on that not only for uh the desire to uh help out Forest Grove High School. Lack of a better name, Pasta Club. Consider the possibilities and good. >> We got you. We got you. >> Okay. Been here all week. and also had enough for the
003uh Rotary Club to see what what is going on at the high school and the kind of student service that is taking place. The other thing is tomorrow morning I believe there's a monthly meeting of the um city of Forest Grove Park and Recreation Board and if there is anything my colleagues here wish me to car it forward to that board. Uh feel free to share the information between now and the ungodly hour of 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. Um I think that's it. Frankles. Um, I had the pleasure to read to second graders and kindergarteners last week for the past America week. Uh, it was a very humbling experience. I was very nervous to read in front of others. Um, I don't think I've ever converted myself so much and like trying to show pictures
004and also read the words like somewhat crooked and upside down. So, it was a blast. Um, everyone got to wear pajamas. That was really fun and it was just great to see all the students really excited about reading and we kind of learned some of reading and I got to make some really fun noises um reading to to the students. So it was a it was a great experience. I hope to do it again um in the future. But >> thank you for that. >> I would like that that I also uh read in front of a fourth grade class at school. I did not use a picture book. I've tried that in the past. Same thing. I end up throwing the book halfway across the room. This time I read the deep and poignant
005poem Casey at the bat. Not only is it a poem that is one of my favorites considering my love for baseball, uh, but it's also one that allows me to act out a little bit, much as I don't want to do that. But it was a it was fun time. Kids kids had a good time with it, I think. Especially when they jump when I call strike one, strike the Google strike three. >> All right. Thank you. Um I wanted to start my report tonight with a text that my dad sent me just before the meeting. I said I was getting ready to go for school board and he texted, "Tell the board how extraordinary the cast of Anne Frank was." It was even more moving the second time. I am so grateful for their
006choice of Anne Frank. And I said, "You got it, Dad." And I wanted to start my thanks tonight to highlight the work that was put on by the Horsope High School Theater program. Um the actors and director John Anderberg for the work and portrayal of this significant part of our history. And thank you to so many community members who came out. I think people who had never come to the theater or known that there was a little theater showed up and showed up the second weekend as well. And I was talking to my sister about it that my dad who was very emotional, very emotional guy. Um, but my sister and I I think in 86 years have never remembered a time where we actually saw my dad in tears and it was sitting next
007to him at that play. and he was so moved and as were most of us in the audience. But for student actors to be able to evoke that kind of emotion and do do that in such a powerful way was really appreciated and impressive. I did also want to mention things that the technicians on the lighting and the set design were also really key points of how that was portrayed, the audio technicians. So all of that work was just greatly appreciated and resonated throughout the community. Um I also wanted to thank you echo Pete's thanks of a culinary arts teacher Andrea Laughler. She I had been down at the high school to pick up some pasta and we got into a long conversation. This is when school was not kids were not in school. she
008was down there working and stocking things up and she talked about how she approaches her program and is constantly innovating and thinking about what she can do next with the with what she's teaching kids. And we've talked about people in the community starting to learn about the things that our high school students are learning and that our teachers are doing. And so we called this the pasta pilot. she is created this sheet and we said well the board the board doesn't know this yet because Pete's piloting it but we said let's let's give it a go in Rotary and see what happens. So this is our the official first attempt at seeing how they can run this distribution program with pasta. I also told our superintendent I can guarantee no other superintendent in the state
009is getting a text message from the board chair asking saying that I have questions about a potential pasta pilot. And so I just love that this is how this community rolls. We we can, you know, Andrea dropped flyers off at Pete's house. We had to kind of coordinate that. And it's just really great to see teachers innovating and continuing to want to push and involve the community and that maybe there's a way the board can support in that. We'll see. We'll see. I told we're setting a bar bar high for Pete's order, so we'll see how many he can get. Um, we also met with board chairs. I this is our third meeting and the question at this meeting was is this meeting necessary? So we want to make sure that if we are going
010to commit to monthly meetings with board chairs what are we going to do with this meeting and what's the value and every board chair went around and said so far the value was just having an awareness of what other boards are doing um building the relationship because now board chairs are reaching out to other board chairs with questions. But the best part that came out of this meeting was at the end Becky Timshuk brought up the chart of accounts. And the chart of accounts is something that most board members in the state and probably some on this board might not really know yet what that is. We've talked about it a little bit. But what Becky highlighted again for us, she sits on the board of education chart of accounts. We'll get into the weeds
011just a tiny bit here because we can. Eileen has explained this through the budget committee a little bit. is how we code all the different pieces of the budget. And when I say we, I don't mean we, I mean the people doing the work. And the state is now asking uh business managers to be able to code those things differently and in a much more complex fashion with the goal of trying to have alignment. And what's happened, how this process works is that feedback has been given. Feedback has been given from districts. Please do not do this. do not do it in this way. But feedback has been offered up to say we do think we can within the system we have make some adjustments together as business managers to meet both goals. But where
012that is now and our understanding in the CARES meeting is that that feedback that's been very clearly communicated has fallen flat and is not getting to the people who are going to actually take the vote on this in April, which is the board of education. So what Becky's ask was we need to elevate that information that's been coming up loud and clear and we need boards to be able to call their board director on those board of education and say here is our here's what we need the changes we need to happen with the chart of accounts and there's a huge gap there. So there's a gap because most boards wouldn't even know what short what chart of accounts are. And when you watch the board of education meeting those directors are saying well we
013asked we've asked the districts we've gotten feedback and I'm watching those meetings like have on like have you asked the districts so we're going to try to close this gap before April. Um and that was the ask of the chairs. We do think there's consensus in the regional chairs group to elevate those points about changes that we would like to see and have board chairs maybe now send the same letter and connect with those board of directors at board of ed before the April meeting to say please come and talk to us and that's a long story for nobody really out there but just this is a chance for me to talk to the board about what's happening there and I think the strength of what can happen when board chairs are now talking. There
014were a couple board chairs that said, "I don't know what the chart of accounts is." And so Becky's like, "Ask your business manager." So now we're getting board chairs asking questions and being able to have conversations with people that maybe will listen. So that's a lot. Um, and before I move on, I did want to say I know we're also not supposed to have surprises. That's one of the things you're told when you get on the board is no surprises. Let's just make sure everybody knows what's coming. But this board also does not know the Oscars is coming up pretty soon. And we don't have this yet, but we are going to have a little informal our own Oscars this week called the boardies. And we'll talk about this later, but there was our first
015nomination for the first board ever in Force Grove School District for best editing. Best editing. and that is Briea Franco. And Briea Franco this week came through with some editing on our legislative candidate questions and the quality of edits that she sent in were worthy of the very first board nomination and we'll talk about that during board discussion. But Brieza, congratulations. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. West. >> Well, I just wanted to Oh, yes. I forgot that um I also read on Friday that did leave them to the kinders and um I had my classic popup books and the kids were practicing yawning in one of the books I had. So I had three and they're just beautiful, beautiful artistic books and you know they have all kinds of
016art in that and we had a great time. But then I walked out to check out and here was the in principle and I I saw his book and I said, "Oh, it's gonna be a hard follow." [laughter] So it was a great time and um Annie um I taught with her there and she's just great and the kids were kids were just fabulous. It was very very interactive and I as always had a good time and ones to meet. So yeah, it was a fun fun Friday. Thanks, Kate. And thanks to John Allen for organizing that and getting that to us to be able to have the invite. So, >> all right, Dr. West. >> Great. Thank you. Um, I want to start by saying I appreciate your comments related to the TBAM staying
017tuned in to what has taken place at a legislative level and advocating for things that make sense. School districts are really important. Um, it takes a team to do this, so I appreciate that. Um, in terms of what I want to share, um, I'm going to be brief this evening. We are neck deep in budget season and so a lot of our efforts are focused on preparing for the budget meetings that we have coming up in May during which we will present the school district's budget. Starting later this week and into next week, we have several engagement sessions that we have with families and staff and school leaders that out to their community. So, we're looking forward to visiting with our stakeholders around the district and hearing from them what's important and h and having
018them help us shape uh the priorities that we've already asked our community around about through the survey. So, that's forthcoming. And then there's a couple of things that I want to share on the screen here if uh thank you. We bring these forward at the beginning of every month. We've seen these reports before, so I won't spend time orienting us to what's on these reports, but we are still below our budgeted enrollment, 51 students so far for the month of March. And as we have been discussing, combined with last year's decline in enrollment and the previous year's decline in enrollment, this will result in about a million half dollars less funding for us. just based on the enrollment decline. Um, so that is something as I've said previously, we monitor closely. We look at this
019every single month to see where we stand. The district, the state does do some smoothing for the district. So that if there is a decline in enrollment, you don't realize that all at once. We don't take a super large hit. But we've been declining for some time. And so we will realize um a reduction in funding next year as a result of declining enrollment. And then the next slide shows the same data but organized by specific schools and specific job classifications. I also want to share one more thing with the school board. We've talked a lot about instruction throughout the year and a half that I've been with the district so far. Um, this morning I had an opportunity to be at Burnhill Elementary School and I was in a kindergarten classroom and I hope
020this works. So, Enrique, if you go to the next slide, please. Yes. So, I had an opportunity to observe a small group of kindergarten students learning their phonics and what really struck me is how incredibly engaged they were. um engage to the point where one of the students will call out. You'll hear her as we watch this video. She calls out because she notices the teacher made a change to the phonics part. Um so the kids were really tuned in, but they super super good at their sounds. I was impressed at their ability to actually associate the symbol that they're seeing on the sound bar with the right sound. and and this process, it's a game to them. You'll see that they're having a good time. They're enjoying themselves. But this process of associating sounds,
021symbols so early in their academic career is going to set them up well for reading as they metriculate into later grades. >> Remember the diaper You remember he's wearing a diaper. Okay, next one. That's what I read. >> So, it it's just a small portion of the entire lesson, but I love that you could see right in the foreground there, the little girl distracting the boy, and he was so into it. He didn't stop the Spotx practice. So, again, this is happening in classrooms all across the school district. It's phenomenal to see kids develop those early literacy skills in a way that we know science and evidence supports. So I thought the board might like actually seeing that in practice this evening. And yes sir. >> Yeah. I'm just glad that that boy is getting
022training for later. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> That's also a joke. Yeah. Yeah. >> You know, I see that also with the prek kinder three and four and and Cornelius is just fascinating. The kids are coming up to need a three and four year old up to 20 in English. >> And um I I'm just so amazed. And I asked the teacher um the other day, I said, "Well, um how many can count to to 10 or?" And she said, "Well, most of them not count. In fact, they're going to 20." And there's one little boy that's three that is he must be gifted because he she said he'll count forever. I mean, he just, you know, but they know the routine. Um, and you know, they dance to them to the I mean, there's there's
023movement and dance and I mean, you're using all your senses and what they're doing and the foundation is incredible. I mean, I'm just so impressed. I wish that all our preenders could have that in our district because it is just phenomenal. >> It's a great foundation. You didn't see me dancing with a group of kindergarters or count because I did that this morning, too. But I 100% agree. The foundation is phenomenal. Um, as I've said, it takes a while before the instructional foundation that we're laying today will actually show up in any kind of summitative assessment. that takes time to show up. Um, but it is so encouraging and inspiring to see what our teachers are doing with our youngest students. >> Thank you. Uh, we do not have a report tonight from FGA and
024unscheduled public appearance is none. So, we're going to move on to consent agenda. The consent agenda is made up of routine non-controversial items to be voted on under one motion. Are there any items within the consent agenda a board member or the superintendent wishes to discuss? Sever. >> Madam chair, I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I opposed. All right. And we're going to move on to presentations. Our first presentation tonight is from FFA student Ray Marino, Horso High School student and uh just all around fantastic person. Welcome. >> Thank you so much. And as you stated, I'm Brillin. I'm a senior at Forest Grove High School this year as well as serving as the president of the Forest Grove FFA chapter. On behalf of FFA,
025I compete in public speaking contests. That said, I placed first at the district level for my speech this year and first at the sectional level. That said, I'm moving on to state next week where I will compete on Friday. For this contest specifically, it's called advanced prepared public speaking. I prepare a 6 to 8 minute speech about a current agricultural topic. After delivering that speech to a panel of judges, I am then asked questions for five minutes about my topic or my speech. This what I'm presenting tonight is my speech titled Growing the Future: The Need for Agriculture Education. At our local grocery store, aisle 5 is the dairy aisle. It never fails to be packed with shoppers browsing the seemingly endless variety of cheeses, yogurt, and of course, milk. One Saturday morning after parking
026my cart, I tune in to the conversation between a mom and her elementary age son taking place next to me. "Hey mom, guess what? Chocolate milk comes from brown cows," the boy says proudly. She jokingly replies with, "Yep, just like strawberry milk comes from pink cows." Gesturing to a carton on the shelf. They both laugh, but my stomach drops as I realize this isn't just a harmless joke. Instead, it served as a reminder of how disconnected many people are from the production of their food. Agriculture is more than cows, plows, and sows. It's a vital part of our economy and future, which is why a education at all age levels is necessary, especially within a growing society. The knowledge of basic agricultural practices can be referred to as a literacy. In full, the American Farm
027Bureau defines a literacy as the knowledge of the industries and practices involved in the production and delivery of food, fiber, and fuel that humans need to survive and thrive. General information regarding how the industry functions was once prevalent in the minds of a majority of the population, but has declined rapidly over past decades. The disconnect between farmers and consumers is primarily due to a growing American population population in conjunction with a declining population of farmers and ranchers. This can be seen by the fact that the number of individuals directly employed in agricultural operations currently stands at less than 2% of the US population. As a result, the 98% of those who are disconnected from agriculture hold power at the polls for policies that impact farmers in addition to younger generations that are further removed from
028agriculture than ever before. It is essential that a practices and knowledge of agriculture are enhanced for individuals from elementary school to high school to adulthood. Because not only do we depend on the diligent work of farmers, but the choices consumers make ultimately impact the livelihood of their operations. In order to prevent situations like what I observed in the grocery store dairy aisle, it is vital that a programs are enhanced beginning as early as grade school. Through the implementation of a centered curriculum at a young and impressionable age, elementary students are likely to retain more information and carry it into their futures. On top of incorporating a topics into existing curriculum, a in the classroom programs can also be beneficial for all elementary age groups. These lessons promote the use of agriculture to teach science, math,
029history, nutrition, and other subjects, perfectly showcasing how agriculture affects various aspects of everyday life. Another area that can be capitalized on for this particular age group is field trips. Whether it's visiting a pumpkin patch in the fall or traveling to a local family farm come spring to see chicks and pick the first strawberries of the season, these experiences help students understand where their food comes from. By establishing the concept of agriculture while kids are still young, it helps to create a strong foundation that they will possess in secondary education and beyond. It is just as important, however, to continue building off of this foundation as students enter junior high in high school. Across the US, only 22% of high schools incorporate a into their curriculum, whether through a programs or otherwise. While students may not
030view these numbers as an issue, they directly correlate with the rapid decline of a literacy across the nation. Since fewer students come from agriculture backgrounds now compared to previous generations, it is essential that a programs within secondary education institutions are enhanced to educate students about the source of our food, fiber, and fuel. Adding a related electives is a step that can be taken to combat this issue. The learning by doing concepts in a programs are unique compared to regular core classes in that students gain hands-on experience that they can use outside of the classroom through engaging labs and field trips. Along with a programs comes the FFA organization which doesn't just develop future leaders but teaches students about agriculture and the importance of the industry. Finally, AD courses offer learning opportunities while employing industry standard
031practices such as customer relations at a school plant sale or working with a team on a project. Through the implementation of a programs, students are able to learn and experience how the industry functions, developing the next generation of leaders in agriculture. On top of educating students, it is also important to educate adult consumers about agriculture. Even among adult populations, a vast number of people have little to no understanding of where food comes from before it reaches the grocery store. This is a major concern considering that these same individuals often vote on policies that can drastically impact the production of farmers operations. Thus, there must be systems in place to better educate such consumers. One beneficial implementation would be increased visibility of breed royalty and dairy princess ambassadors at public events like fairs and rodeos. Having
032a designated booth to speak with the public regarding agriculture would have a greater impact than simply a smiling face. Campaigns such as the Got Milk campaign launched in the mid90s also serve as educators. Consumers who are unsure of the meaning behind a catchy slogan are likely to do some research and learn something about the industry in the process. Working to educate this large group of Americans will ultimately cause them to make informed choices as consumers benefiting farmers and the industry as a whole. The issue of aggie literacy doesn't just affect one person but causes a chain reaction that impacts farmers and the agriculture industry. By educating through exposure and tangible experience, we can better combat the current disconnect between consumers and agriculture, increasing appreciation for farmers. It is my hope that through the education of
033kids and adults alike, both will know that chocolate milk doesn't come from brown cows. Instead of explaining simple facts, we can discuss current issues facing the agriculture industry. But until then, we must continue to educate ourselves and work to increase the knowledge of those around us. By writing letters, giving presentations, and speaking with school boards and state representatives, we all have the ability to advocate for a education, doing our part to support the industry that America depends on. Thank you. >> Questions or comments from the board? I I loved your use of alliteration in in your presentation um and your voice inflections and some hand gestures to kind of um use an exclamation in your presentation. I thought that was great and your destination was amazing. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Absolutely. Everything
034she said in your eye contact too. I felt that you were really speaking to us. So, >> thank you. And can I ask about um this particular competition that you're in >> and when you are no longer in the FTHs FFA, are you is there recruiting happening for this club where people are going to be because isn't it true that there's not always someone enters the speech competition to the levels that you do or is that a is that always going to be happening or how do you guys work that within your club who's going to do what? >> That's a great question. Well, fun fact, public speaking is the number one fear in America. So, it is pretty difficult to get people to do this contest. But this year, we had three freshmen try
035out speaking for the first time. We have a contest in FFA called Creed Speaking, which is designed primarily for first years. It's um where they recite five simple paragraphs of the FFA creed to a panel of judges. It takes about two to three minutes. So that's just a great introduction for them to really get involved within the speaking contest. So it is my hope that after I graduate these freshmen and we even have um some juniors and sophomores who are involved in speaking that these individuals will go on to continue speaking and that was my goal this year was really to focus on recruitment. Um and I'm just glad that these individuals decided to try out speaking because I ultimately found my passion for it through through FFA. And what is what do you think
036is for you personally the most challenging about this particular competition? >> That's a good question. I'm not as good with on the-fly stuff. I'm really good with memorization and uh that's kind of my strong suit, but the five minutes of questions is always up in the air. I never know if it's going to be more of fact-based like what sorts of uh political initiatives are being voted on by voters that are impacting the agriculture industry or if it's more of opinion based such as questions like what do you think is the most um important age group to start teaching a literacy to. So, it's just being well-rounded and well-versed in all the areas of a education and agriculture in general because a education and the lack thereof ultimately is the number one driving force behind
037a lot of our agricultural issues that we see in society today. So, to answer your question, I think just the the questions that they ask afterward and being prepared for any aspect or facets they ask about. Um so when you're um in your classes and that do you talk about organic versus you know chemical um fertilization fertilizer your thoughts about that? >> Yeah. So at our high school um we did talk about I took an intro to a class my freshman year and we did watch a couple of informational films about the whole GMO versus non GMO and organic versus conventional produce. Um, at our high school specifically, we don't have this class, but I know other high schools offer a course called A issues where in that class they go over so many of
038uh the topics like you mentioned that organic versus conventional and those highly debated topics. Um, in fact, I did do a speech my sophomore year about GMOs and talking about chemical fertilizers versus organic farming. um but we don't necessarily dive deep into that within our high school classes just because it is um so highly debated right now. However, if we did implement an a issues class, I can totally see that being one of the main issues that we focus on since it is so relevant today. >> Um out in Gails Creek, we have a couple uh organic farms, flower farms, and food. And um if your group Well, you're you're going to graduate. Um, it is a it's it's really interesting on how people are growing organically and the food does taste really different. I
039mean, it tastes much better if it's organic. I also want to say, um, your enthusiasm and joy, um, it's really contagious. So, um, keep going what you're doing. It's wonderful. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And I'll add I first met Brillin about a year ago on my first CT visit to the high school and was instantly impressed and still impressed. The fact that you memorized all that, that's excellent. Well, I think what I'm most excited about is I don't think you'll lose this passion. I suspect that [clears throat] in future years we're going to read about you advocating for agriculture and agriculture education and I'm really excited about that. I'm looking forward to seeing what you're gonna do with this. >> Thank you. I appreciate all your time and your feedback. It really is
040helpful and I appreciate it. >> They're out of breath now. [laughter] >> I am a number of things. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. The u recovering speech teacher. Um it's important that you speak, you know, verbal communication's important, but non-verbal emphasizing that message. the gestures is used, the eye contact that was spoken of earlier, those are all methods that we use to speak and that's wanting to communicate. And that's one of the reasons why I get so furious with Zoom because we can't see all of those non-verbal cues which is so very very important. That's one thing. But wait, there's more. Um, we just got finished with a legislative session in which an effort was made to take some 1,700 acres out of exclusive farm use, move it into urban use in this around the city
041of Hillsburg. And that measure was highly debated in Salem and was ultimately withdrawn much to the happiness of the farming community, the agricultural community and to those that uh are opposed to what they see as unbounded urban growth. Those two categories, the rural and the urban, have to learn to live with each other. Um the problem that we're facing with a growing population, school attendance notwithstanding, is something that we have to meet with a number a number of ways. And one of those ways, probably the easiest of all, is to grab some of that uh land on the edge of the cities so that they can be developed. That takes away some of the richest farmland in the not only in Oregon, but in the United States. So there's a good deal of opposition, wellfounded
042opposition. has to be discussions on that because that raises a wider issue of what we call that rural urban split or eastern Oregon and metropolitan Portland. We have to learn to communicate with each other. We just can't keep throwing uh stuff to the wall and see what sticks. Uh we have to work together because there is a finite amount of land. there is and we need to make the wisest use of it. You are doing things in agriculture that allow us to make that land more productive so we can grow more and more on less and less land. But that is still no excuse to say the first reaction to population growth is to take land on the edges of cities. There's a better way to do it. We have to work together to find
043that way. I'm charging you that resp because guys like people like us um our time is gone. So I just wanted to pass that on to you and I sincerely glad that chocolate cows don't give chocolate milk. It does raise the concern, how do we get Neapolitan ice cream? >> Oh, [laughter] that is true. you know, that bad joke, I'll shut up. Thank you very much. >> That's probably not a followup you're going to hear in competence. >> Might lighten the mood a little bit. >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the time. Congratulations and we look forward to what's coming in your future. So, thank you. >> Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. >> All right. Following that is winter benchmark data with our pearl. No pressure. Yeah, >>
044we're looking for the eye contact and the handers. >> This is not fair at all. At all. >> Well, I actually um competed FFA in high school, too. So, >> this is what you got. Yeah. >> Yes. Oh, speech. >> Well, hello everybody. Um, unmute this. Is that what we need to do? >> Does that work, Bethany? >> Okay, good. I think pass this week. >> All right. Good evening board. Um Aruro Lomelius is superintendent director of teaching and learning here with um my amazing team. Um we have Juliana Kelly who oversees secondary education as well as Magda Romero who oversees elementary education. And we're here tonight to give you an update on our winter benchmark data. So a little bit of of background. Um, if you recall, we came to you in the fall
045during a work session where we talked about data and some of the things that we use to help measure our progress over time. Um, that could be statewide data or SBACK data that is given once per year um at the in the springtime and that appears on our state report card right from OD um to to measure district progress um achievement. And we also talked quite extensively about our local benchmarks. Um that is where we really put our weight behind as a system. Um we believe that local benchmarks are um are more productive for our students and for our staff because they give us real time data to tell us how student are achieving achieving based on national norms and also how they're growing which to us is the most important measure. So just recently
046and this fall Senate Bill um 141 um passed uh around and it it's centered around a variety of concepts around accountability. One of the pieces to it is that um districts are now expected to do these benchmark assessments three times a year. they are required to discuss that data within their schoolhouse um the school buildings with principles and staff three times a year and also present in public meetings um to the board three times a year. Fortunately for us, we do those things already. Um we this has been a common practice for us for for since I've been here and prior to that. And so this isn't this isn't anything new for us. But today we are here to present um some data in terms of our progress with our we just completed our winter
047benchmarks and are going to share some of that data with you today. Sound good? All right, I'm going to turn it over to Magda who's going to get us started with some elementary overview. >> All right, so we're going to look at English literacy, Spanish literacy, and math uh benchmark data. And the the ones we're I'm going to start with are I have to manage this as well. There we go. MC class and MClass Actura. That's the benchmark that we use from Amplify currently and it measures K through six reading and then I'll review some math data. We use MAP to measure K8 K >> K12 mathematics. Thank you. Okay. >> Can we do this for you? >> Yes, please. Thank you. >> All right. So, we're going to start off with our MClass reading.
048This is English reading and I ask that you focus on the far left two columns. This represents kindergarten. The red on or the left hand side of those first two bars are is the fall benchmark and the right hand side is the winter benchmark. Red is well below, the orang-ish color is below grade level, green is at, and blue is above. So what we're seeing here across the data now across the chart is a midyear shift towards benchmark. It's um driven mostly by growth in the areas of above and well below. Well, well below remains the largest group at this time at the district level at or above moved from 39% at the start of the year to 43% um this last winter or this winter. And over the same window, below and well below
049decreased from 61% to 57%. The b the biggest district-wide movement is students moving above benchmark. So we had an increase from 16% to 21%. That's five points. That's um an overview of all grades. Right now, our instructional focus is moving to the well below group because they're the largest group right now that um needs to make growth. Our district-wide below is still 40% 43% at this point of the year. And so this group requires that we strengthen our tier one instruction, that we pro protect intervention time, and that we also are progress monitoring their um their growth. In upper elementary, the gains are a little bit more uneven as you will notice and this suggests that there might need to be some tighter alignment with the core instruction and interventions, but we will be working
050on that. So our next slide uh this is our MClass lectura and this the Spanish results show a district-wide improvement from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year with an at or above increase of about six points and well below is decreasing about six points. So note um the far [snorts] right side sixth grade is an area of concern with a midyear decline in at at or above and an increase in well below. um the opposite end of the graph, the left hand side, we want to protect what's happening in kindergarten and in first grade because we can see the biggest movement out of well below. The highest leverage u move is to keep the structures that are in place in those grades stable and scale their practices. So they have
051tight foundational skills as you saw in uh the classes that you observed today, Dr. West. Um they have daily decoding and encoding. They have a high response to instruction and there's frequent checks on their mastery. So if those grade teams are doing something noticeably different, then we want to use them as model classrooms specifically for our Spanish literacy in this group. Okay, the next slide there. Um, is it is the same data source? Would you click it? I think it's at least one more time. You can do one more click because I did something kind of cool and then Oh, no. It didn't work for me. Oh, bummer. Okay. Um, left hand side and the right hand side are the same data points. You will see a difference where the red is on top and
052the blue is on the bottom. So, I wanted to talk a little bit about the why behind that swi switch. The triangle below is therefore a reference point. It's used as a visual for a school's multi-tered system of supports. Um, and it's used for academic social emotional learning behavior. In this case, we're looking at it uh for um third grade uh reading growth over time. The green which should represent about 80% of our students is what tier instruction addresses. The yellow is targeted small groupoup interventions that should be about 15% of our population and the red in the triangle represents tier three uh 5% of our students. So that would be a healthy system. The colors should be uh the green should represent about 80% of our students. So I flipped the data for you
053to look on the right hand side. This is a group of third grade students that started in kindergarten and over the following four years have made growth. So you can see that they went from uh 15% in tier 1 meeting expectation to 48%. So there has been lots of growth in this third grade group. However, what we see is that we're not quite at 80% yet. So we're working on that tier one instruction. Before I move on to the next slide, are there any questions about that? So, I want to reiterate that third grade, so spring of this year, these third graders will be will be given the SBA back. So, they'll be taking the state test. And these are the kids that you we will see on our report card. What you won't see
054is the progress that they've made since kindergarten. on the the graph on the right shows that progression, that growth that they've made on our local benchmark assessments over time in English. Remember that many of our students are also learning Spanish at the same time in our in our in our bilingual classrooms. >> Can I can I uh ask is this the cohort that started with Amplify? >> It is. >> Okay. >> Thank you for clarifying. Yes, we did talk about that. It is. That's Could you talk just a second about that for the board for new board members which >> because is that part of what we're seeing in the instructional change too right is the structure around that particular curriculum. >> Absolutely. Um so these students have had the amplified curriculum since kindergarten. So
055they've had that continuity. Um these students are have had the benefit of many teachers as you as we present you uh investment in science of reading. So the professional learning associated with that and the assessment tools that amplify present brings as well as that we've adopted they've had that that entire experience um and as as a cohort. Before I move forward this, I want to emphasize what assistant superintendent Lomaly pointed out in that the state data tell us exactly one thing. How a student performed on a state test is connected from just about everything related to instructional decisions at a moment in time. It's not that the data tell us nothing. There is a purpose to the state tests. I believe um how do I say this? It is my opinion that the purpose for
056those state tests has been corrupted. We are having conversations about the state tests as a measure of the health of a school system and they don't do that anymore especially for a district like ours where a significant number of our students are English learners. They don't tell the whole story of a student's trajectory through our system K12 or in our case preK12. Um again there is some information to glean from these tests. I don't think that they should be completely disregarded. But in the state of Oregon, the state, not school districts, the state has made decisions about these tests that have rendered them nearly useless. And so I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the state level for these t tests to return to any kind of semblance of
057feasibility for school school districts. Um that's going to take a lot of years to undertake. In the meantime, it is really important for us to look at these growth data because the growth data really tell us whether or not our system is working. And as we've discussed, we could extend this all the way to the high school level. And we can see that our high schoolers generally perform as well as the state or better in these same measurements, especially in the language arts. and our students who develop English proficiency before they enter high school who are English learners are graduating at rates far higher than the state and higher than almost every other student within that district. So there's a lot that is working in our school district that we have to be proud of.
058We wouldn't know that in the absence of measurements like these. >> Thank you Dr. Weston. I w want to add one piece in regards to this type of assessment. What I'm seeing in classrooms is that teachers are taking the information and sharing it with families, sharing it with students, making goals, whereas the end of the year test is not returned to them fast enough to do the same thing. So there's feedback given to teachers, there's feedback given to parents, there's feedback given to students that can be acted upon much sooner. And that's the benefit of having these assessments as well. So in this um slide, the comparison on the left hand side to the right hand side is English language and Spanish language. So again, we still want to see a healthy 80% in tier
0591. Um, but the point I want to I want to point out here is that although the Spanish in kindergarten was a lot lower, they made some really big chain um growth over time. So 82% were at risk and it's gone down to 37%. So that's something to be really proud of as a district. So um the what was I going to say uh okay so if I look at the English side the blue and green are 15% of our students meeting bench excuse me meeting benchmark 23 24 those students were kindergarten and it look where they are now 25 26 and English are now 48% of them meeting benchmark so that's a a big gains as well yes >> sorry to interrupt um I question. You had mentioned that these reports are shared with
060parents as as well. Do you guys share the >> I guess the information of like I know when I got state testing at least when I was in it my mom was just like why aren't you doing better? Why aren't you at or exceeding? And again like when we look at those numbers it's just you're not meeting whatever it is that the state is requiring you to meet. But yet there is growth happening. So is that also >> communicated to parents and is that usually formally in person or is that just a piece of paper that's sent out? >> The this exact graph is not shared that way. It would be their individual score that um or their results that parents would receive and the hope is and the um teachers are meeting with parents
061in the fall and in the spring to review this data. Unfortunately, sometimes all parents cannot make those. So it is sent home, but I've seen principles write out letters to help parents understand how to read the data. That's the most important piece, right? How do you take that information and and learn to support your students? So that's promising as well. Yeah. In addition, these new assessment tools provide um very uh familyfriendly letters that go home with how to interpret the data and also in some cases what you can do to help fill in any gaps. >> And is this you shared I think this with me last year. I had a similar thing and you shared a sample. Is that the same? >> Yes. structure that would be helpful too to share with the board
062an example of that because I remember it did have it was a familyfriendly >> um if I'm remembering what I'm looking >> the data and the visuals and and again at the end you know here's three things you can do um to help >> yeah okay >> is this just K to six so the the math um letters look a little bit different but the but the K6 is is elementary focus the M class and >> is there like high school level. Yeah. >> The letters exist for both. Yeah. And that's is that being shared to parents in the same way that >> they should be at least. >> Yeah. I mean that that's the intent. Um uh I Yeah, absolutely. The tools are there. Um I know it's something that we've talked about over
063the last few years. I would need to follow up with our secondary schools just to confirm that when and how it happening. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, absolutely. Are are these kids um when they were in kinder were they part of the co group of kids that lost instruction at home or >> 21? These are these are students who came back full-time and were able to jump into amplify. Yeah, >> they may have missed free school miss early learning opportunities because of the pandemic. But in school year 2022, we were in person. >> I mean the the difference between 82% and 37 is, you know, pretty pretty substantial. So I was curious, >> we're trending in the right direction. We still have a lot of work to do, >> right? committed to that, but um we'd
064love to see that trajectory begin to change. >> Are you seeing parent involvement um a little more when you're sharing this over to the parents or do we feel like maybe parent involvement needs to be a little more >> Yeah, it's something I'd have to I I think it varies. Um and that's something I probably want to talk to principles about about what they're seeing. I haven't done that yet. I will say from a teacher perspective, I've done listening sessions at all of our schools, uh, elementary schools so far, and there's just really positive. It was hard. The new curriculum was hard, especially in year one. It was very different. Um, it took a year to for everybody to kind of go through it and to understand it and to learn it. Um, but I'm
065not hearing the same struggles as I did two years ago. As a matter of fact, I hear lots of appreciation for it. And now it's okay, I know my kids need this, so how can I adjust um for our students. Um but there's a commit. They feel like there's so many effective elements to it that are really working for us. And so that feels great. And I'm hearing the same in kind of the math side, which we'll get to here in a second as well. the ELL and or ESL intervention tools that were added is that that's this group after just a year with those or what's that? >> We have that data for you uh later in the presentation as well. No, I appreciate that. I'm glad it's on the radar, Christie. Thank you.
066Yes. >> Hey, >> and the last piece was for elementary. >> So, this last piece of data is um I think where we got really excited when we were preparing to share this with you. It is our math growth data or achievement data. Uh far left is all K through 12. The dark blue represents this year's fall achievement where the light blue represents where we are in the winter. And then the green shows fall to winter growth last year and then compared to this year's fall to winter growth. So ideally you want to see all four of those continue to rise. Um in order to close that uh gap that we have, we want to see a lot more growth. So I want to highlight what third grade is doing and what sixth grade is
067doing there. You'll see um that uh third grade um they started multiplication. So, um, sticking to the curriculum [clears throat] has really, you can see how it's made a big impact on our students. Um, the curriculum is aligned to brain research around math and how you use vocabulary and discourse and manipulatives, concrete representations, explain your thinking. Teachers are using um, uh, release of responsibility and using the formative assessments to inform their practices. uh to guide their instruction. In addition, the information that the teachers have um from the from these reports in is impacting um how they prepare for instruction. Um they're able to plan for interventions and differentiation throughout the day. So, MAP measures kindergarten to 12th grade. On my scale here, I have kindergarten through sixth grade. Um, what else? What else? Oh, the
068highlight I wanted to share with you is Joseph Gale. It's not in this slide deck, but Joseph Gale, last year their um proficiency was at a 39% and this year they're at the 64th percentile. So, a national that number is 50%. So, they're at 64%. So, um I just met with Marella yesterday. She's constantly telling me about what they're doing in math and they have strong tier one instruction. They talk about math in their 100% meetings and intervention. Math interventions are really important to her in her building and I obviously we I can see that in the growth. So that's something to be proud of. Again going back to this is the first year first full year of the K five K4 math adoption. So, um, adoptions are hard, right? This is another place where
069in its first year, it's like it's a struggle. You're learning a whole new new way of of delivering content, all new resources. It takes a lot of extra time. Thankfully, what I'm hearing from teachers and in buildings is that it's the right work. It's the right tools. We're doing the right work. It's just going to take us some time. But you can see what this what staff is doing is really making a positive difference. And so kudos to our teachers for making it all work. >> Pass the microphone. >> Yep. >> All right. Secondary. Um so in our school district, secondary is 7 through 12. Um and I am going through the same categories of literacy, Spanish literacy and math. Um in our secondary schools, we use star and star lectura for our reading. um
070both in English and in Spanish. And then we also use the map um as Magda had mentioned that goes K through 12. So this chart looks like the one that Magda um had for for MAP. This is star reading achievement and growth. So similar or uh pretty much the same here. So the fall achievement, winter achievement, and then you have fall to winter growth in last year and then fall to winter growth for this year. Um, and you'll notice, uh, there a couple things that are important about, uh, the secondary schools. 12th grade drops off because, um, when students hit a certain Lexile, um, reading level, they no longer have to take the STAR test. So, what that looked like from fall to winter is that in the winter only 20 students had to take
071it. And so, that was not So, I just took 12th grade off of this. For 11th grade, it's important to know that there are about a 100 fewer students who took the test. So they would be in that light blue. So you see that the light blue kind goes down. If they were included in this data, you would see that light blue go much higher for 11th grade. Um 7th through 10th grade, all students have taken the star there. So um we are seeing some trends in the right direction. Um and we for sure would like to see a little bit more growth this year with the seventh grade there, but you can see that there's still some growth happening there. Um this is lectura. This is only one grade level. So we um as
072our uh the dual language from the elementaryaries are starting to roll up and look a little different through our secondaries. We have a seventh grade cohort that is taking Spanish language arts this year. Um and they took the lectura this year and so this is their fall to winter achievement. And there is no data from last year um for them. So they just have this current year's growth there in the dark green. And so it's it's pretty uh stable, but this is our first year with this measure in that grade level. This is our map 7th through 11th grade. So students in the high school um math tapers off over time. So again, 12th grade didn't make sense to have on here. We see core math um 7th through 10th grade. And there are enough
073students in the 11th grade here that I included data there as well. Again, we see trends going in the right direction. We still see kind of a dip going on in seventh grade, similar to our star star data here. Anything else on that one? Okay. And then this is eighth grade math. This is our um this is uh we look at eighth grade math as one of our um accountability groups for the state. And so this graph looks similar to um the MClass Lectura slides that you saw early on. And so if you orient yourself all the way to the left on this one, you can see all of our eighth graders in um the fall. And this is achievement data. And this is flipped with the red on top to match that triangle there
074on the right. Um and that is followed by their winter scores. And you can see um trending in the right direction there. followed by um our different cohorts here. So our Hispanic group, our ELLL group, and our um sped group as well. So um and you can see in each category where that growth is mostly happening. We have um an interesting um an interesting pattern with our spad data where um we have u the red is shrinking which we like but we also want to see the green and blue growing which our blue is growing but the green is not. It's a little bit a little bit of work to do there as well. Um, and I do not have the trend data that Magda had for third grade reading that she took all the
075way back to kinder because the map assessment we've only been doing it since uh 2023 and so it would have only been two full years of data for that. So we can't see the historical on that piece. Any questions on this slide? you know, we wanted to hone in a little bit on third and eighth grade because those are two groups that are reported to the state and so we wanted to make sure that we we bring that to you uh as updates. >> Now, we're going to talk about the ELD data and we use Flashlight 360 not only as um a tool to measure what they're able to do, but also students are practicing um using the tools in Flashlight 360. So this measures speaking and writing which we know are productive domains and
076they actually take longer to develop because they require students to uh generate language independently rather than just recognize it or interpret it. So um we have a strong sample size here. I think this is uh something that we're really proud of um compared to other districts and this comes from the flashlight representative. He's really impressed that our staff and students, we have more students taking this test than other districts. So, that's really going to not just give us good data, but really going to help our students. So, this slide here, you can see on the far left an average um speaking score for all grade levels. And we want to see growth between the fall and the winter, which is what you see in the two different colors from all students to 12th grade. and
077this is their speaking from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year. Our I want to point out that as a district our focus has been on student discourse opportunities to respond using sentence stems and sentence um language frames and so uh we can see that we're getting good results from that. Before you switch it, I just wanted to say one thing. We had updated something on the slides that's not showing here. Just wanted to explain BOI is beginning of year and MOI is middle of year. So we're looking at fall of 2025 and middle of the year which is winter 2026. >> I was going to ask for that. >> Boy. Yeah. [laughter] Fall to winter. Yes. So could be better slides. And the next slide we already Okay. This one
078is the one's writing. Absolutely. Um this is question is coming out of left field comparison and connection with the speech we heard earlier. Um Brillan indicated that public speaking is probably the biggest fear that Americans have. you know, they'll walk into a burning building before they'll give a speech in front of a large audience and there's a good deal of seriousness to that. >> Um, do we take into consideration that innate nervousness of >> of public speaking even if it's in class answering questions >> uh that the teacher tosses out, there's still some nervousness there that take into consideration. >> Okay. Um, yeah. So what's great about flashlight is it's adding practice um regularly on speaking because we do see that and so when students were taking the ELPA once a year and they were
079having to speak on a test once a year there are a lot of nerves there and so now they have this opportunity they can do the benchmark multiple times a year three times a year but they can also do progress monitoring it so they get lots more practice with it than they did before because speaking into a microphone is a whole different level of nervousness. Um, and so in that with our student discourse practice, kids are talking all the time. >> Um, and there's a lot of warm calling that happens. So kids have an opportunity to practice on a low level before they're called on in class time. Um, so yeah, that is taken into account for sure. And then on top of that, we have a great relationship with our with the people who
080run Flashlight and they have looked at our data to see how many students just aren't speaking or get nervous and and um and make errors because they're nervous. And so we have that data and we're able to coach our students like if you could just u if you expand this by this many words or if you try with this small sentence to start and we can do that individually with kids and give them feedback. go next. >> Uh so this slide is their um fall to winter. So beginning of year to midyear writing and you'll see very similar as well. There's progress from the beginning to the middle of the year. What I wanted to I wish I had more time to explain the different um levels of proficiency. it will be really difficult for
081us to see level four on here because once students are level four, they're just not going to take the ELPA anymore. So, I want to point that out. Um, the 3.38 that's up there is ideal. Anything much further beyond that, they're just not going to be part of the data anymore. So as as much as we want to reach to the top, it's just not going to happen because they are no longer, you know, needing to take the test. >> In other words, the students who are still uh learning English are taking the test, but if you've tested out, you're not in the data, >> right? So we're not capturing that progress. >> And we can see that a little bit more on this next slide. So this um the next two slides are really
082interesting that um Flashlight pulled for us. Um, this is cohort data. So, students who were with us at the beginning of last school year who took the test in the fall and are still currently with us in the winter. So, these are same students um who took at those times. And you can see their growth in about a year and a half. So, this does not include kindergarteners because they they were in preschool last year. It doesn't include anybody who graduated and it doesn't include anybody who passed the ELPA last year. So this is uh truly cohort students and the growth that they are making across the board in speaking and then the next slide shows the same trends for writing [clears throat] and you can see that all students growth is looking really nice
083and after this year we will have two full years worth of data and we'll be able to look at how that's comparing to our ELA scores and see how much it is um it is matching the same um growth and exit rates. So, we'll be able to share that hopefully in the spring, maybe in the fall. >> Any additional questions in the board? >> What are your challenges? [laughter] >> The scores look really good as I've seen. Well, the progress is is good. Um I there there's a lot to celebrate. No, no doubt about it. Right. Um and having been here now my third year, I can feel that the um level of commitment to curriculum instruction and assessment um with the district level and the building level has only strengthened >> over that time.
084Um but we still have variability, right? We still have until we get to a point where we feel like I can walk into this second grade classroom and the neighboring second grade classroom and a classroom in another building that we have that alignment that we have that shared u vision and commitment to curriculum instruction and assessment. That's still a challenge for us. We've gotten we made progress. It's getting better. Um I would also just say, you know, tier one instruction in general, right? that is we know that we're not going to intervene our way out of um the red. The way we're going to do that is through solid core instruction, >> right? And so reducing that variability across our system, I think, is is our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity. >> Are you
085thinking of more professional development for the staff? I I don't know if it's it's more but deeper and and stronger right how do we differentiate for our staff because every we we have staff at different um parts of their own journey right and I think what we've really want to be able to do moving forward is is differentiate for pe for staff needs just as as we ask them to differentiate for student needs. I think core instruction I see that being a strength. What is a challenge is implementing interventions because they're very different in kindergarten as compared to sixth grade. >> And so what I found is sometimes sixth grade teachers don't know how to apply the phonics that kids did not get in the primary grade. So that's where it starts to get a
086little bit difficult. And um then and also when in their time do they do that because they're by that age they should be reading to learn not learning to read. So that's something that we um are working on as well >> and I would say that exists at our secondary schools too because we have students who are still below benchmark many many years in their reading levels. It's challenging for our secondary schools to be able to teach some of those >> foundational >> those foundational skills that are needed along with the content. >> Yep. >> But what's the percentage of that of those students? Is it a pretty high percentage that still require them? Well, if you go back to some of the data in the in the red, when they um like the RTI
087triangle, when we look at who is in that red, we start to dig down to find out exactly how deep is that cavity and where do we need to go? So, sometimes it does go as far as the phenemic awareness level, sometimes it's a fluency level. So, schools are working to figure that out for each student. Will you go back to the uh star slide? >> So for secondary this one um if you look at the winter achievement that light blue you can kind of see those percentages. So seventh grade is a little bit above 30% of students who are achieving at grade level. So that's a pretty significant number of students who are not at the seventh grade um level midway through 7th grade. So that gives you an idea. But um same with
088what Magda is saying, being able to drill down to figure out what are those um lagging skills or missing pieces if it's fluency or if it's phonics. Um that that takes more digging than what this simple graph would show. >> You asked about professional learning for educators and that is something um as we heard we'll continue to work on. There's also an element of improved feedback. Any of us who have been a coach, you know that a very small improvement in the way you hold a bat, in the way we pick a soccer ball, it can be minute to someone who is not educated in that sport and huge difference in performance. Being the same way with our educators. So if we are providing good coaching, good feedback and identifying those small moves that teachers
089can make to improve their performance in the classroom as educators, we could see some accelerated results that come out of that. And that's some work that we need to continue to do with our leaders. that lead us principles or just across the district, school leaders, district leaders, we we all have the opportunity to lead into coaching and feedback and so that is something that we are continually working on. >> Thank you so much for that detailed presentation. >> Um I think we'll just talk to you. >> I'm going to stick around a little while. I think I think this Yeah, I think this chair is going to stay warm. >> Oh, and Elizabeth, >> you got a couple other and Brenda and Sarah. >> Oh, I guess I >> Yep. brought a team with with
090me. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you for allowing us to join you and talk about our process. So, we met as a calendar committee. Um, and we brought a couple of representatives here with us. Um, we've done this work since the beginning of January. And so, we're going to allow them to tell you a little bit about the process that we went through. I'm going to have them introduce themselves first. >> Hi, I'm sorry. >> There you go. >> Hi, I'm Elizabeth Moore. Um, I'm the president of FGEA, but I am also a sixth grade teacher at Tomacall, and I was on the committee as a teacher representative. I'm Brenda Hower. I work at Fernhill Elementary as an instructional assistant um and reading specialty. I help with um small reading groups and I was on on
091the committee obviously as an instructional assistant. So the purpose of our committee was to develop recommendations to inform the academic calendar for the 2627 school year. At the beginning we were hopeful that we might be able to develop a 2-year calendar. That ultimately was not what we ended up with, but that was discussed at the beginning of our process as well. One of the goals of the committee this year was to make it more inclusive. Um, in the past it had been kind of a closed-d dooror process with a small group of people who looked at the calendar and I think Arturo had a great idea of expanding the committee and getting more voices involved. So we had five classified staff members, five licensed staff and then five administrators or um people from the district
092office and this really broadened the views of the committee and the perspectives. Um, we had lots of representation of different schools, different grade levels. Um, we had instructional assistants who brought their voice and so that was excellent. And the process was really transparent. People were able to ask questions. Um, lots of people on the committee were able to talk with stakeholders in their buildings or in their work groups. And so that made the process really um, visible to a lot of people. And finally, our timeline. Like Sarah um explained, we started meeting in January and we met, which is kind of unusual for a Forest Grove school district committee. We met weekly. Um so we met and first we learned about what are our legal and contractual obligations. So we dug into the contract. Um
093we were provided with a lot of really good information about what we legally have to do. Um, we compared some other school district calendars for some ideas of maybe what ours could look like if we wanted to or if we wanted to align. Um, and then we looked at feedback that we had received from students, from staff, and from parents. We had over 3,000 responses to the calendar feedback form, which gave us so much data to go through. That was an entire meeting and really informative. Um and then we all had a chance to develop different calendars. Um so everyone kind of had some homework and they made up their like ideal calendar and then presented it. Um and then we went through some revisions and then finally evaluated I think we ended up presenting
094two which were evaluated and then we've come up with the one that we are presenting to you tonight. >> [snorts] >> So the committee priorities were one to focus on protecting instructional and instruction time and learning. Secondly to the alignment across K through 12 systems. So to make everything align through all of our schools and improve attendance. So [snorts] there were some things that this calendar will do. This calendar will maintain student contact days the same as it did this this particular year. It will create uh K through 12 semester grading calendar. So we were previously on a trimester and now we're all beyond the same semester. It's going to reduce the sibling misalignment days from 8 to 4, which is really important. Working in a grade school, it's really nice that the students will
095now be with their siblings so that they'll miss less days from school. it will maintain a soft start. So the younger grades, the beginning of each of the schools that they walk into, they're going to start the school without the other students coming in. And to me, that was a big priority for students because it does create a lot of social and emotional fears for them. Uh in the grade school it will lose one professional learning days day but in the secondary schools there will be no loss of professional learning days for uh licensed staff. And so our next steps um we're we plan to implement the calendar for this year assuming it gets approved by the board. Um this committee is going to stay active. We're going to reconvene in January of next year
096to determine what went well, what are some potential challenges that we've had in the fall, and our hope is to bring forward um a recommendation in February of next year where we are presenting a two-year calendar because we we feel as a committee that that will help bring stability for our families and for our staff um to know what to expect for for two years ahead. We just didn't feel with the changes that we have are proposing, we didn't feel right bringing a two-year two years of calendar knowing that there's some changes we wanted to to learn from it first. Um, so yeah, that is you. Anybody have anything to add? I >> think it went really well. >> Any questions? >> Questions? >> I'd like to make a comment. Yeah, >> this is the
097best presentation yet for a challenger. [laughter] I over the years it's I I love it that you had all this input and 3,000 you know community people. >> Um thank you. I mean I think this reflects the whole organization and not a top down self. >> Yeah, thank you for that. I'm super thankful for all of our community members and for our presenters here today. It really felt good um the feedback we had across the board that it felt like it was very collaborative that we all were able to share our folks were able to share their voices and um you know maintaining student contact days for example I mean we know how important that is um especially in the state of Oregon across our country um we know that that is central to the
098outcomes that we talked about earlier right we cannot achieve those outcomes if we don't make these investments while also balancing um attendance and how do we align and how do we make things easier for families because right now with the trimester and a semester we have eight days where siblings may not be going to school at the same time um and that's confusing and that has an impact and so the fact that we're able to go from 8 to 4 and really the four are the slow starts that happen and conferences those are really the only two times where siblings may not be going that's we we we cut that in half and that felt really good to the committee. Um, so I again want to want to give kudos to all the committee members
099because I would say that they came in with really a servant's heart to do what's best for our district and our kiddos and our staff. So, thank you again. >> All right, I think with that we might just have you stay there for action item because it's action item number one unless there were other comments from the board. Thank you to everyone. >> Yes, thank you. >> It's a lot of time. Weekly meetings. Um, very much appreciated. >> So, I think we'll just do we need to for action item. You guys are list here again, but I'm >> Go right ahead and then we'll go. >> Okay. Well, then um I look for a motion for our first action item. >> Motion to approve the voice of school districts academic calendars of the 2006 207
100school year that has presented. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Pete, >> I was going to just say what everybody said that this is a hell of a job. Thanks very much. It's not It's not fun. It's kind of fun. You get test [laughter] screaming at you. You get teachers screaming at you about things that think you did it right. So when your partner's in it, you can't complain all that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. We'll do an all in favor say I. >> Post. Passes. Thank you everybody. Congratulations. >> Um and next we are going to talk with Director Cl about Office. Oh, thank you. That was >> Hi. So, tonight we have the district office roof replacement. We did go out for bid. We received three quotes. One
101from Northern Pacific, one from West Coast Roofing, and one from Solid Roofing Northwest. We would like to award the bid to North Northern Pacific roofing for $396,254 through the Garland DVS contract. This would be out of remaining bond funds. >> Questions? Question. Are any of these local businesses just like in our community? Are these big organizations like big companies? >> I think several of them are regional. Madam Chair, I move to approve the district roofing contracts with Garland/DBS Incorporated for $396,24 utilizing bond fund. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right, passes. Thank you. Um, Enrique Pinñon, network server and storage replacement. Guys, >> thank you. >> Uh, this is a continuation of our uh technology infrastructure bond projects. Uh, this is the next one that we
102have in front of us. Uh, so as part of this project, we're replacing some of the older server and storage units in the district um that are either no longer supported or just resources needed uh for the servers that we have right now. So, uh, the request is, uh, to approve, uh, purchasing new servers, the Dell Power Store and Power Edge servers and storage units from SHI International underneath the ONM pricing agreement um, utilizing bond funds. Uh, and the recommendation is to uh, purchase the network and storage equipment at a cost of $130,000 $130,146.84 utilizing bonds. questions. >> Move to approve the purchase of the network server and storage equipment upgraded from SHI International utilizing bond funds for a total cost of 130,136.84. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I opposed.
103>> All right. Motion passes. Thank you. And Dr. West um is going to talk to us about the inner district transfer process. >> Yes, thank you. Um we are legally required to um offer transfers both into and out of the district. Um we have over the past several years aligned our timeline for these transfers with our neighboring districts for our familyship transfers for example. So we are bringing forward a proposed transfer timeline for April 1st, 2026 through May 15, 2026. As we have been discussing, our enrollment is declining. In consultation with our school leaders, our principles around the district, we believe that we can open up 165 spots and accommodate students um in our district if they'd like to join us. A new practice is that we are not opening up any slots or leaving
104the district outside of a hardship request. So we are recommending zero slots be opened for transfers out of the fourth district. Let me bring this to the board for consideration and action. Questions from a board. May I ask what our partnership would be? >> Yeah, that's an excellent question. I'll give you a couple of examples. Um, one would be if a family has child care um, next to a school in the Hillsboro School District, for example. Um, that may qualify for a hardship transfer. We wouldn't want the family to have to navigate bringing their child and finals back to us with their child care somewhere else. Um, another example is that we have had situations where um, students within a school don't get along. Uh there might be some instances of bullying and we work
105really hard to resolve those at the school level. But sometimes families decide that they don't want to continue to work with the school to resolve those issues or they feel like the issues are not resolving quickly enough um and they request to move to another school in a different district to support their child. That's an example where we would want to support the family if they felt like that was in the best interest of the child. So it's not like black and white. You would hear cure out the parent and then you'd make a decision whether that's also under the merchant category. Well, the criteria are pretty clear. Um so there there is some subjectivity and it does have to go to the board of superintendent and Google before the family can just transfer. Not
106just mine but it would be any other district as well. It's a part of the process. So um they may request a transfer out of our district but the other district doesn't have to accept them that. So that is something that the family would need to navigate. So there is some level of subjectivity embedded within that but the criteria are pretty clear. For example in the case of childare that makes a lot of sense for a family to be granted the transfer. Other questions? >> Make a motion. >> I move to approve the timeline and recommended slots for the 2026 2027 school year as presented. >> Second discussion. >> Yes, there is >> a question or comment. Um, this has always been difficult for me because I've had students in the classroom say they're getting
107out of the class and they're leaving fourth world high school and spitting on Mr. Durex's grave when they go out the door. And I've always had the concern that um there are and I'm going to vote yes on this, but I just get a little stomach acid over the process of people moving from district to district. School shopping is what I sometimes have called it. And sometimes they have disguised the real reason for transferring. And I have found in my career as athletic director that athletics was one of the major reasons for transferring and something that is as important as a public free and appro appropriate public education. that train ought not to be driven by the caboose of athletics and it has happened more than once. Um, I have been guilty of accepting students
108from other school districts who transferred and primarily for athletic reasons and that never sat well with me. Um, and I've also seen students leave forest pro. I'm glad OSA started tightening up on that. uh in the latter years of my service as an AD, but it was it's still I get like I say a little bit of stomach acid on transfers between school districts uh for that reason just call me a suspicious but like I said I will I will vote yes. Yeah, and I I agree with you, Pete, because uh when I was at the high school, um I made the phone visits for all my IEP students and then when I checked the transcript of these students, they were only there for one semester, then went back to the other school. So, they
109never had never took their grades in January finals. So they lost the semester um on academics and it happened year after year and um I the only way I found out about was because I made a home visit and it was the address of the coach. So I would hope that when we look at these should look at their transcript too especially at high school for athletics. you know, we can't um the law actually prohibits us from making decisions about transfers based on some criteria. Um so it's it's really been tightened up quite a bit in terms of what we can improve. Um so to your earlier question, um there is a little bit of latitude and subjectivity, but not a great deal any longer. It used to be much more liberal in terms of
110students going in and out and that's to the benefit of students because we had some districts that were making decisions that were in some cases the children because of behaviors and other things. And so the state I think rightly so in this case has tightened that down quite a bit. And there are still unfortunately families that are dishonest in the way they approach transfers. And sometimes we learn about that and sometimes we don't. For us, and this applies also with students who are homeless. We we educate anyone who walks in the door. We don't dig too deeply. If we find out that there was deception, we address it when we find out about it. But when somebody knocks on our door and says we want to be educated, we educate them. Yeah, that's why I
111asked. I mean at the I mean the students are still our children too. So we should have some sort of decision making as to obviously where we want them to do their education. And that's the reason why I asked if there was um any flexibility in sharing perhaps the why and and seeing if there's a opportunity of still happening. But yeah, dishonesty still happens. It'll be hard to take away. >> It is. >> Yeah. >> And that's a conversation I think we can continue to have like when we have our Zoom meeting too. That's a space where we can kind of hear more works that happens and so answer some of those questions but your comments tonight. I think it's been moved and seconded and I think I will do an all in favor say
112I. >> I post. >> All right. Motion passes. We're going to move on to first read which usually we don't have um presentations for first read but tonight we do have Brandon Burgess here just in case there are questions and you back >> all received in the packet um summaries of the classes that are going to they're going to talk a little bit about and it's an opportunity for them to talk about that briefly and ask if the board has questions or needs clarification about courses that are going to ask the approval. >> Yeah, thank you. So, we um the board in policy the board approves and um removes uh courses um from our course catalog. And so um typically once a year our secondary schools go through a process of identifying any potential new
113courses. We bring them to the board. Typically principles are here to answer any questions associated with it. And then the subsequent meeting would be approval of those courses. We know we have many new board members. So we wanted to um just share some of those the three new courses that we have um to bring to you for approval. And um Mr. Burke, principal uh at Forest Bro High School. We'll we'll do that. Our trail covered that and our trail covered that. [laughter] Okay. I my voice is a little shaky. I'm not 100% so I apologize for that. Our trail will probably get sick. So, uh we usually have about 8 to 10 courses uh proposed each year. Um we we stressed with our staff that we needed FTE neutral uh proposals. So these are the
114three courses that came through our system. So the first one is mindful studies is it is an elective that uh Terry Jones, one of our language arts social studies teachers was pretty passionate about offering. She came to me two years ago in fact about offering the course. She felt like her own um her own children and the students she's taught would benefit from it. It is uh she's working with a group called peace and schools and so she's been trained over the last year to provide that course. Um and next year would be the the year we would offer it uh pending forecasting. And so the reason is that Miss Jones's passion for wanting to offer this. It also meets meets the transformative social emotional learning standards that we need to have in our school.
115Um we do feel like a lot of students will benefit from it. It it teaches how to deal with anxiety, conflict resolution, stress. Um and it's geared for 10th through 12th graders. It's it would be FT neutral in the fact that we have um in the department that Miss Jones teaches that we have some study skills classes that are offered. They don't always forecast at full level, but we offer them because we know that a lot of kids will be looking for electives and study skills is one that they tend to go towards. So, it would replace a section of study skills. Um again, the forecasting would drive how many sections, but I anticipate we'd have one one section each semester uh based on our availability. The second sports is or the second course is
116probably the most controversial. Not really. Um it is racket sports. So we've had we've had uh we've had net games and we've had tennis, but the weather does not allow us to do. So net games is pickle ball, bad mitten, mostly indoor. Tennis is outdoors. The weather does not always cooperate with us. So a lot of times the tennis class turns into bad mitten and pickle ball. So the P department decided to take the two classes and combine them into one. So it's actually going to help our scheduling. Sometimes net games can be a singleton and you have to schedule it back to back because taking down the nets and all that good stuff. So that will actually help our schedule. We will not offer tennis. We will not offer net games, but we'll offer
117racket sports. I did check the spelling of racket sports. That doesn't seem right, but it is right. I guess seems like it should be qu. But I guess that's raet ball. >> The third one is beginning mariachi. Um, Miss Nunees is looking at her numbers at NAMS and the interest she has at the high school. She tried to float a beginning strings class this past year. It was approved by the board, but it didn't forecast as well. So, we did not offer it. So, she'd like to try to maybe offer a beginning mariachi. She has a advanced mariachi, intermediate. This would provide a beginning an entry point for people who want to try it. um or people who is it is it is a fairly competitive widely celebrated and successful program and this would offer
118a a course for students who are interested in trying mariachi. Um it it is FT neutral in the fact that it would replace a section of guitar. So guitar is a class that again we we have five sections of it right now. It doesn't feed into any um program like mariachi or orchestra or band or choir. Um, so we would we would not offer two sections of guitar if we had enough kids to offer forecast for biggy mariachi. So again these three these three courses are all driven by or forecasting. If kids if we don't have enough kids who sign up for these classes then we would not offer them. So questions >> I just have one and that's on the um rack sports. There is a PE requirement for graduation by school, right? >>
119Yes. >> Would this meet that? >> This does meet it. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Is there any cost to parents or students to participate in any of these? >> That is a great question. The beginning mariachi sometimes um has a cost in terms of like a t-shirt they the the intermediate one wears. And so Miss Miss Nunes came to me for the uh intermediate mariachi class with that same problem when we were looking at fundraising options or trying to pay for that. for the performances. The advanced mariachi as have you seen is it's very expensive for the costumes but but adding that program would they would probably wear the mariachi t-shirts at >> you come to us for approval of adding practice. Does that also work the same way course options?
120>> Yes, the board policy also uh says that we we come to you for removal. We rarely do that. Um usually what happens is the classes are on the books as approved but um maybe do not make or fill so they don't offer them. Um, we had talked actually earlier today this conversation come came up about it's probably time for us to review all of our course offerings and see if there's something that needs to be removed, but we haven't done that um that I know of any any >> No, and one of the reasons is because they may come back. >> Personal finance is a good example. We we passed personal personal finance probably 10 years ago >> and then we stopped offering it and it became a state requirement. And so since it
121was since it was already in in the course catalog, we didn't have to bring it back. But >> [clears throat] >> um AP environmental science is a good example. We haven't offered that the last three years, but we still forecast for it in case kids are interested in it. It just hasn't drawn the numbers lately. We have a lot of AP science class offerings. So >> So we can have many courses that are approved by the board but just don't make because we don't have the numbers. There are other like title changes but they don't change the course um standards or >> policy yeah sorry policy says that if they're drastically change we bring them to the board subtle changes we we can navigate those kind of things. >> So what you'll see is you'll
122see personal finance um offered as a bilingual class it's already been approved by the board but now we'll teach it in English but support in Spanish. And so we're offering more classes and uh with bilingual support want kids to the a lot of it's students who either want to develop their English um while at like ALD 3 or four level intermediate level or it's kids who want to continue their Spanish um but still learning English. So we're trying to honor both and so we have some classes that have added that bilit or bilingual option to it. >> Any questions? All right. Thank you for coming to do the presentation. Helpful to hear in person about the classes and first reads for us. >> Thank you. >> Um for the board, we are going to not
123need a whole bunch of time on board discussion tonight, but it'll be just a little bit. We're going to move that. Um if you thinking, we do have a slide of the questions for legislative candidates. I mean, it's real tiny there, but we've all got a copy here. And the reason we're documenting a lot of time tonight is thanks to the board for giving individual feedback um to me based on an initial list and why we're talking about it tonight is I've made some adjustments. Um I talked about Reese's in-depth editing uh which was amazing because she did point out the types of questions that were being asked and providing some balance. Several people also mentioned this will crack you up that some of the questions seemed tiny be a tiny bit confrontational and [laughter]
124I don't know whose those would have been and so I was able to make some adjustments and add in a question that Kate had added. I believe you also might want to add a question potentially to this tonight but our goal tonight is to just make sure with this list there's nothing that we want to take off for sure. Um, and if there's anything we might want to add, um, that's our first task. The second task is just I'm going to talk to you about Thursday's conversation about where we go with these questions. Tonight was the deadline for candidates to file. And I believe um, Rep. Mlan has a ch has will have two challengers. I believe Senator Sman actually after this morning has more than several um, challenggers for her position. So there will
125be plenty of candidates who we potentially could send questions to, share questions with, or just use these questions as a guide. But let's just start to make sure that there's nothing on this list um that anybody would like to consider taking off list because there has been some consolidations, but mostly it should be what I found when we had most two sets of silver. I guess number or me number five raises a couple my intent get a little sensitive on that one. the description of how you respond if educators in this district told you a policy passed to Salem was harming students locally. I would hope that we would be able to talk to the legislators down in Salem a lot sooner about the harm that we see that our educators in this district would
126see. Uh just seems to me that not only in Forest Grove but around the state teachers will be able to say no that legislation is going to make a my job tougher and b students lives harder and there's no there there's no upside to this or at least not an upside that I can see and that that would become part of the testimony on that bill before it became law. I just call me a wildeyed radical or looking at the world through rosecolored glasses, but if something was that destructive that we would have figured it out long before all in favor say I all opposed no eyes have it. didn't pass and go to the governor for their signature would seem to me that we'd be able to get to that before. But again, if
127we really want to answer this question, I'm not opposed to it. just thinking that it's not as necessary is I mean maybe I'm >> I think >> at the lunch but >> when I talked to board chairs about the options their their response was can can we make questions that will not require that will I I think the word might have been for help uh legislators not give a politician's answer. So they they said could these questions need to be specific enough so that they can't give the canned answer. I mean maybe I might agree with you on that one therapy but I'm not sure if he just saw the short session but there were multiple there that would pass that he could argue are not great for his. We'll we'll get to that later
128but okay I'm putting a little question mark by five. Any other questions that we that we don't need to see on this list? Okay. Anything missing from this list that we'd like to add? I would like to add uh just like housing affordability that just makes I mean that's that's a very impactful um for our community and our school and I mean that's also like supporting local businesses and and job as well. >> I think we captured that in the work session. So yeah, so >> I'd like to pay you back on that one. I I've used the word siloing in the past. Housing is a problem across this state. Horrible house housing period. Child care is a problem across the state. They may not directly be in the education silo, but they do impact
129education uh food availability. Um, I don't know much about teaching, but I do know that a kid who's hungry doesn't give a rat's ass about parson sentences. I mean, excuse me, doesn't care a great deal about parts and sentences. Please change my language. Um so those are that's I think we also need to focus on the student life and when we focus on the student life focusing on the life staff >> well I'd like to add on to that about child care. I listened last night to NPR about child care and 70% of the um parents with children that have disabilities cannot find child care and I think that's a huge huge issue. Um and it's nationwide. So somehow address that um you know child care is you know it's a problem but those individuals
130that are providing child care they do not have the adequate resources to also support children with disabilities and so I think that's an important piece. Is this the time to bring up the other thing I wrote to you or not? >> Yeah it's in here. Oh. Oh, it is. I think I add it. I don't see it. Okay. But go ahead. So, okay. I'm always I'm always in left field or right field or no field. But I just I'm I'm looking and I I would like to ask legislators um if you're in a deficit spending and there is no increased money for our schools in the foreseeable future. Would you support um would you support curtailing or freezing all mandates and along with that with the freeze of the mandates review if these are effective
131for for our school districts relevantly right now? And that's what I'd like to ask them because I don't see where we're going to get any more money. And I think nobody is challenging the mandates. But the mandates, if there's over a hundred of them, it is really affecting each district because they've got to try to meet those mandates and they're unfunded. So that's my question to legislators. >> I think I captured it in number two. It's not exactly the wording. Yes. Yes. >> Did you say anything? >> Um, I did. I did. All right. I see it. I see it. Okay. >> It's there. And anything? I think one thing that I've been looking a lot paper on it is there currently is no right to education. of right to access education, but I have
132not seen and this comes up with immigration enforcement around or near schools and how that's preventing some families from sending their students to school and kind of seeing what what protections we have for students and what we can do and what that would look like. Yeah, I would support that under the under the free and appropriate education act or concept in our constitution. Maybe not in Oregon, but since that's big, but in the US Constitution, it's there. We all know that. Um, maybe we just need to make people more aware that that's a right that everybody has because it's their right. It's our responsibility to make sure that it's there in spite of what the federal education department wants us to believe. >> Okay. >> All set up. So, what I'm going to do is
133make those adjustments and then uh before we go tonight for Thursday, we have a couple things to consider for that conversation. One is what we want to do with these, you know, in what capacity. And there's things we can think about. Do we want to just email questions to the candidates so that they have the questions so they're aware of types of things we're wondering? Do we want to email that with an invitation to candidates for individual conversations? Do we want to email questions on behalf of the board and ask a response? Do we want to whittle this down to two or three? I mean, there's a lot of different ways we can go about how we could do it. Or we simply use it as a guide personally as we go out and talk
134with people. All of those options are on the table for Thursday's conversation. And the goal there is to kind of reach consensus on where we think we're going with next steps. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. All right. I think that's it. We're going to adjourn at 7:29 p.m.