1/27/2026 FGSD School Board Meeting

001All right. >> The January 27th, 2026 Force Grove School District Board of Directors work session is called to order at 5:30 p.m. We are going to start right off with Dr. West and talk about our the superintendent midyear reflection. and we'll follow that with some time for the school board to do a little work on a reflection of our own. So with that, I'm gonna >> Great. Thank you. Um I'm going to start by orienting us to what we hope to accomplish today. Um as Chair Cocky said, I'm going to share a little bit of information about how the year has gone so far, but then we will transition to a board year reflection as well. And just to remind everyone, we have a hard stop at 6:30 because we do have a very short

002business meeting that we will conduct after this work session because we have some business items that we need to take care of. So before I really dive into the content I want to share today, I want to orient the board to something that is a little bit different than for the two of you who experienced this last year. Um last year as we were figuring out what does the superintendent evaluation look like, we were using the OSBA and KOSA rubric and we had landed on three different domains and in order to provide a reflection of those domains. I had accumulated a lot of artifacts throughout the year, artifacts that could be reviewed. What is different this year as a reminder is that we decided the work sessions would be the artifact. So in that first

003work session we may met for about two hours a little bit longer than that I think and we reviewed a great amount of data. Um those data are in your packet. So you have a copy of the presentation from that I believe it was October 2018 meeting that you can go back and review. Then for this work session, there's some additional information that I'm going to share with you here shortly um that we committed to bring in January and that also informs a portion of the superintendent evaluation. Um before I move on to the next slide, I do want to emphasize we are in the middle of our year and we've talked about this before. The cycle feels weird because we're having a conversation about an evaluation that you're going to start writing as a

004school board in about two months and you will still have several months of the school year in front of you. So that feels a little out of sync and I just want to acknowledge that. But we're going to do the best that we can with the timeline that we have in front of us based on what the state requires. Okay. So, as we go through this, please make this a conversation. Um, if you have questions, just ask them in the moment. This is a work session. So, while we still need to adhere public meeting rules, um, it is a little less formal than what we would expect in a regular business. So, one of the items that I committed to bring to this work session was a recap of where we're at with professional learning

005for the school year. When we met in October, we shared with you uh survey data based on the professional learning that we had done so far, which was just a couple of things. Since then, we've actually done quite a bit and you can see that on the screen behind me or on the monitor there if that's easier for you to see. These professional learning experiences fall either in pre-ervice, which we've talked about before, schedule of professional learning days. We have instructional leadership learning that we ask our school leaders and our district leaders to participate in once a month. We also have leadership clinics that we hold with our leaders once a month. And then there are additional trainings that occur some on an as needed basis but also based on a specialty of a particular

006employee group. For example, the biiteracy dual language programming professional learning is specifically targeted towards those instructional staff that are supporting our dual language program. And so these are all the efforts that either have already been completed or are underway and will continue throughout the school year. One of the things that we are learning how to do as an organization and also as a leadership team is do a better job with AI. So we asked for these next couple of slides for our AI tool to help us conceptualize what what do all of these trainings tell you about the school district. And this is what they came up with which is not leaving. Thank you, Enrique. There you go. Um, so I thought this was pretty snazzy. [laughter] Um, this was made with a tool called

007Notebook LM. And again, we are learning how to use AI like a lot of people right now around the world. Um, but what I found that is fascinating about this is the prompt that was put into the system. take a look at all of these different professional learnings that we've done throughout the year and the purpose of those different professional learnings and how would you visually conceptualize this? And what was returned was this tree with these interwoven trunks and branches that all seem to be coalesing around leadership development and specialized support. And I think that's a fair way to characterize the work of the first half the school year. Um, with this you can get a little bit of the context for what we put into the tool. The neat thing about notebook LM if

008they're interested is that it doesn't hallucinate. It only uses the tools that you put in the references that you actually put into the document. And so these are the descriptions that we put in for these different types of trainings that we were focused on. So this will continue throughout the year. It's really important. Um, as I have learned more about the district in the past, well, I guess it's been 19 months now, um, the one thing that has become abundantly clear to me is that we need a real deep dive on professional learning in this district. um we need to dig deep into instruction and reset some instructional practices. You saw in the table that we had that we've started some of that work. But we also need to focus on the learning that our

009leaders need to be successful leaders of their schools or their departments. Um we have also surfaced I have surfaced over the past 19 months and with this team have helped to understand that um everybody's working hard and doing what they absolutely believe is right for kids but that effort has not been supported with the kind of professional learning that allows us to accelerate change through the system. So we're going to we're going to focus on that. We're going to make some changes over the next couple of years to really ensure that our leaders have the support that they need to lead well. So before I move on to the next slide, what questions do we have? Okay, we can go back as well. Thank you. I don't think this is going to do it for

010tonight. So I just call out next slide please. Uh I'm gonna orient you to this and then David do you mind saying a few words about engagement? >> Okay. So similar to the other slide, we committed to bring you some engagement information for the first half of the year. And as we started to think about what are the different ways that we've engaged our families, we realize we engage our families in a lot of different ways. And it's not limited just to the people you see about the table here. Engagement happens almost every day in all of our schools in an informal way and then in a more formal way pretty regularly as well. So I will turn it over to David for some conversation about this. >> Yeah. So Dr. was asked me if

011I could do a little uh data exercise. And so I um started off just kind of revisiting people's calendars um to find the events that were um on school calendars, our individual cabinet calendars, other staff in the district on what um events and opportunities that were going on in the community. Um, so I was able to coalesce I don't know I didn't count those but quite a few opportunities starting from July one when we started this new school year up through you know a couple of days ago and so as we're seeing on this little chart here we tried to break them out into some categories uh from student and parent listening to arts and athletics uh school engagements cultural outreach and civic alignment. So there's some stuffy categories for you, but I think the

012the learning is is there are a lot of activities like Dr. West said that our [clears throat] staff, our CAD members have the opportunity to engage with our community both in, you know, very serious um important ways from our student listening sessions at the high school to parent uh trainings at the various elementary schools to arts and um athletic events that are a little bit more light and fun but are no less important. important than to being in the community to interact with our our community members and be there present um to show that we we care about our community. Um just a little bit of a a caveat on this arts and athletics one. I did not include the literally hundreds of opportunities there are from our middle school and our high school athletic

013events um in there. So that's kind of a truncated uh category but you know from our music concerts, mariachi performances, uh theater performances, unified sports and unified theater um opportunities there there is almost innumerable opportunities for us to be out in the community um being present, showing that we care about our students, care about our community members, to be there to have the you know the informal conversations uh to, you know, be asked questions to inform our families and parents and students of what's going on in the district. What's important to ask answer questions that they might have um you know, across the board from um um you know, our extracurricular activities to our instructional activities and goals. So, across the board. So, this was just a little bit of a a little option for

014to show you what's going on out there just in the first half of our our school year. And again, the next slide, similarly, we threw it through AI. And if you are more of a visual learner, then this this give you a little bit more creativity to see the different categories kind of broken off into community and civic partnerships and school uh and student connections. and they kind of ramped up obviously as we went through the year opport so yeah >> thank you David and what I'll add to that is um we had a lot of conversations last year about engagement because in my early months and a couple of you will probably remember this we set up some meet and greets with the new superintendent and we advertised some engagement opportunities and in All

015of those we might have had five people show up and asking ourselves the questions why would have thought people would have been curious to me being a superintendent to have some conversation. Where I think we landed is that people are busy and if we want to hear from our families, from our students, from our community, we have to be in the spaces where they are rather than expecting them to come to us. So, we've made an effort to find those spaces. As David articulated, some of them are really natural. If I'm sitting in the football stands, people talk to me. If I'm in the bleachers at the high school or at hands, people talk to me and I say, "Hey, that that may seem small, but that is a way to engage in two-way conversation

016with our community. But then we also have had a booth at the farmers markets so that we can interact with people who just want to stop by and ask us some questions. We have the bond oversight committee. We have the district equity committee. Now, we have conversations that we have at conferences. There are many different ways that we are engaging directly with our community to try to learn what their education experience is like for their students and what they hope for from our schools. In a regular year, I think I would have a lot to share with you about parents aspirations for students who have graduated and what they're learning in schools. And I still do hear some of that. I will tell you that this year what I am hearing most frequently from our

017families is concern about student safety. And so that has been a primary point of conversation for me around the community is talking to our families, talking to our neighbors, and talking directly to students about what are the things that we're doing to ensure that students are safe while they're in school. Before I move any further, what questions can I answer? I'm trying to frame one about this our deep concern over student safety and I keep on circling back to Maslo and trying to figure out how we can get across that not just to our our students, our clients, but also to parents and other members of the public. And cast that net even broader back to people who should who are or should be partners with us and how to remove some of those concerns

018about safety. so that we could get down to the business of education. And I include uh the community at large in that and the federal government, state government, county government, city government, all of that as to what kind of coordination can we do to make damn sure that when a kid goes out the door, He's going to be safely escorted or guided to a safe environment to learn where he can concentrate on that and not concentrate on whether or not his world is going to be turned upside down when he goes home or when she goes home. And I did a very poor job there of trying to shorten that question. But that just that's one of the last things I think about when I go to bed at night is what kinds of educational

019system, what kind of safe educational system are we going to leave when we go off someplace else, when our job here is done, if it ever is. And I want to leave this school district in a safe place. Safe place for kids, safe place for teachers, safe place for u all of our employees and for all of our patrons. I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but and then it goes back to Maslo and when you have all of these safety concerns, you really don't give a really don't care a lot about parsing sentences or quadratic equations. Not that I ever could do quadratic weight, but >> and that's that's why that's why I threw Maslo in there. Two reasons. One, that always concerns me. And two, it makes me sound smarter.

020I >> think you're right, Director Truax, that we kids need to feel safe. Students need to feel safe psychologically as well as physically safe in order for them to learn. Those two things must be present. And so that is something that we have top of mind right now as a school district and that we're working hard to achieve. Your point about others stepping forward to support this. Uh one of the engagements on there is civic and legislative alignment. I think in this early part of the 26 27 school year. No 25 26 what year are we in? 2026. >> So 25 26 school year. Uh I will tell you I have spent more time talking to elected officials in these early months um than in any other school year. the our elected officials are engaging.

021They're asking questions and locally they know that Western Washington County is one of the areas that has been most significantly impacted by immigration enforcement. So, they are asking how they can help. There are some bills that I haven't taken a look at that have been proposed in this short session at the state legislature that people are attempting to address some of the concerns. I don't know how those bills will play out, but I I do know the concerns about immigration and the impact to students and to schools is top of mind for many people around the state. Other questions before I move on? I I have questions. So with the monthly engagement August, October, November, when you evaluate like the I thought the Saturday market where you know staff and board members participated, I thought

022that was a great idea. Have you evaluated how effective these these different activities through these three months have been? >> Not in the same way we do for professional learning. uh mostly because it's challenging to do so. A lot of these engagements like at the farmers market just based on anecdotes and for the cabinet members who were present at that please feel free to jump in. I think over the course of five or six engagements including at Cornelius we saw maybe a couple hundred people that stopped by. Does that seem right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So somewhere in that ballpark or a little bit lower. And we didn't issue a survey when we were talking to people. We just answered their questions about the school year that's coming up or talk to them about their

023students experience being in the theater. Um so that in and of itself has some value, but we didn't measure that. >> Yeah. >> Because I thought that was a great opportunity to say that's going where the people are. >> Yeah. It's an informal and casual environment and uh it gives the people, you know, way to come up and approach you in a very, you know, friendly friendly manner. Will you continue this? >> Of course. >> Yeah. The other thing that's not on here that I think is important to point out is that we send home regular communication to our families. And I'll use the Bond newspaper as an example. Um, we've done that twice since I've been superintendent here where everyone within the Forest Grove School District boundary gets a newspaper copy in their mailbox

024of the progress with the bond promise. and the number of people that stop me and first of all appreciate the updates, but they're just tickled to get a newspaper in their mailbox and really appreciate that that is a method of communication that the school district is engaged in. And so, while that is not the same as having a conversation on Main Street with a family and their students, um there's value in that too. our our community is at least expressing that they >> think we've we Oh, go ahead. >> Um [clears throat] I wanted to talk a little bit more about expanding engagement and some ideas regarding families who don't feel comfortable and or safe going to these events. >> Um alternatives to engagement. Uh what that potentially look like or any any ideas? Yeah,

025one of the things I've been considering, um, I had a conversation with other superintendents in the area a couple months ago and two of those superintendent have transitioned their engagements to an online format and that is something that may be beneficial for us to consider as well. If we open up that engagement opportunity, I want to make sure it's meaningful, that we have a purpose for inviting families into that space, even if it's a virtual space. So, I don't quite have that sorted out yet what that could look like, but they expressed that they had really fluid participation. And so, that is something that I think we should look at. Does that answer your question? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I'm going to try to rock and roll through a few of these here. Um, moving

026to the next slide. This was not something I promised to bring you, but I'm so excited about this that I had to throw it in there. So, one of one of the things that you have come to know about me is that I really appreciate data as a way to inform what we know about our district that we know about the impacts of our effort and informing our decisions so that we're using real information to help make the best decision. And to that end, about a year ago, we invited into our district a true data analyst. And she has been um throughout this past year learning about us, but also learning how to help us have our systems make sense to us and how to turn data into information. You have seen some of that

027play out in the different reports we've brought forward like the literacy data and app data recently. I've excuse me shared with the board that we've had quite a few withdrawals for this year and some of the reasons why we think students are withdrawing. The slides that I'm going to run through here um briefly are a way to visualize that information. And it makes much more sense looking at it this way than just in a table. There are it's easier to make some inferences regarding why students are leaving our district when you see it laid out this way. Um so just briefly this particular slide um has both table information similar to what we shared before just raw numbers but it also breaks it down by the reason for the student withdrawal and then it includes

028external transfers as well. So students who have left our district for other districts and we know about it and then students that are moving within our district. And then the next couple slides, similar information, but it breaks down by demographics. One move back, please. There you go. Breaks it down by demographics, grade level, status, for example, as well as by race. And then if you move to that third slide, then we can see the distribution across all schools. Um, and so I brought this forward because one of the things that I think is really important for us as a cabinet, for me as a superintendent, is that when I'm saying things like we need to focus on improvement of instruction, I want to make sure that I have data that actually backs that up, that

029I can point to some information to say, I know this is an area we need to focus on because these data tell us that it's a gap for us. Um, so I'm excited about the way our data systems are developing and the way we'll be able to use these tools in the future. Any questions before I move past the commitments for this work session and dive right into a little reflection? >> Um, I can't read the print on this code. >> We'll get you the picture on that. Sorry, my eyes can't too. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. In fact, we'll send you a link so you can play around with it because you can select the boxes that you see there and look at a smaller data set. Okay. All right. So, getting

030into my reflection. I'm not going to read all these slides to you. And I do want to share with you, you have a narrative in your packet. I'm also not going to read that to you. You can go back and read that on your own. But I'm going to run through this quickly and share with you some of what I've learned over the past um several months of this school year. Starting with I started with moving beyond relationship building to grounding understanding of the district strengths strengths, constraints and urgent needs. Um, relationship building still matters, but last year was a lot of just meeting people and figuring out who are the players in the district, who are the players in the community, being close to people, getting out and about. Um, that still matters and

031that will still continue. But for this year, really focusing on now that I think I have a better understanding of the district, where are urgent needs? And I've already brought up one. I think the improvement of instruction is an urgent need for us. And then what are our strengths and our constraints? Strengths include things like the incredible staff in this district. I am blown away by the commitment of our educators, our administrators, our support staff, our families and their commitment to their kids' education. It's remarkable. So that is definitely an asset that we can build on. And then there are some constraints. We have federal constraints and we have state constraints and trying to work within that can be very challenging but I feel like that we are ready to undertake that work and really

032accelerate our efforts in these areas in terms of the external landscape. Thank you, Enrique, for keeping that. Um, even though I'm not calling it out loud as of this point, um, immigration enforcement has significantly impacted us. As you saw from with our withdrawal data, we've had a lot of students leave. Um, and for context, in all of the prior school year, we only hit 300. So, it was just under 300 if I remember correctly. So, we're on track to surpass that for this year. Uh, immigration enforcement has impacted our attendance rates. We're several percentage points higher in our absence rates than we were for the same period of time last year. And even more than that, the fear and the stress and the anxiety that this is causing in our community, it does have an

033impact on students and staff in our schools. And one of the things we've done to address that, and I want to thank Kim and her team, they were great about putting together some resources that we were able to share recently with our school leaders and our department leaders because they're on the front lines working directly with students, working directly with staff, and we really needed to give them the tools to continue to provide that support. So, we are responding as rapidly as we can to these efforts to make sure that students are safe in our schools, psychologically safe, physically safe. Same goes for staff who are impacted by this enforcement. There's also a ripple effect that I want to address. Absences are rooted in disruption often. Um, and those disruptions at home, they have an

034impact when students aren't at school and when students are at school. Staff carry the emotional weight. I have stood in a classroom where the teacher was talking to a room full of littles about the emotion fear. And if you haven't experienced that, it is it is really heart rendering to have a teacher with a bunch of littles telling their teacher, "I'm afraid for my parents' sake." That's a lot of emotional weight for staff to carry. And so that ripple effect we are feeling and as a community, I would suspect we will be feeling it for a generation. I don't think this is going to end soon. I think we're in it for the long haul. And the long-term effects of what staff and students are feeling, um, we won't know the full effect of that

035for many years. our data realities. I've already shared some of that with you, so I won't spend too much time here, but I do want to point out that because of the absences, we are experiencing the increase in absences because students are not at school as much, we are starting to see that impact in our data and that will ultimately show up in our longitudinal performance growth targets. Maybe not all of them, but we will see it in some of them. So those metrics that the state expects of us, I I've already psychologically prepared myself that we're not going to get all of that as hard as everyone is working. So the main thing is instructional focus. I've already said this. Um I as I have observed in classrooms I've noticed inconsistency in instructional quality,

036inconsistency and alignment and inconsistency on the use of data across our schools. That's on us. That's that's a leadership problem. That is not a teacher problem. So that is something that we need to fix. That said, we are seeing pockets of growth. So, over the past year and a half, um, in the conversations that we've been having with staff, with the tools that we've been implementing, especially the new assessment tools that were implemented a couple years ago, we are starting to see SE growth, but it's going to take a while for the shifts in practice that we require of our colleagues to really take root. I will tell you as somebody who wants that change to happen right now, I am impatient. But I also understand that change takes time. New habits take take time.

037Practices take time and we have to all move together in order to see the instructions that we want to see. So, while I'm feeling a sense of urgency, um I'm also well aware that this is a multi-year process that we have undertaken in terms of the systems supporting our schools and operational health. Um we're in a pretty good place and we have work to do. Our district office systems, they need some attention. uh they have not kept pace with not all of them have kept pace with the changes at the state level and that are required in our school district. Um we have some processes in HR that are outdated and need to be modernized. Um curriculum has not always provided the level of support that our school district needs. So again that's on us

038that that's an us issue and we're we're working on it. The folks that you see at the table here and even those who are not with us here today, I can tell you are absolutely committed to this work, they are in it and working hard to make sure that we are providing to to our schools, but we've got some catchup to do. In terms of the goal, um we're working on the structures that let principles need and let teachers teach. We owe that to that. So, we're working hard on that. So, the literacy shift, and this shouldn't be new to anyone in this room. Uh, Senate Bill 141 imposed new requirements without corresponding resources, and it changed accountability for us. We have yet to realize the full impact of that, but just a couple of

039the things to point out. We are going to have to make a decision about MAP and STAR. We will no longer be able to use MCLASS as our elementary benchmark assessment tool. So, that's going to be a cost to the district. Um, negotiating a new contract with either MAP or STAR to expand services. We may end up in a situation where we have to buy out the MClass contract. I don't know that yet. We haven't gotten that far. We will have to train staff. We're going to have to build crosswalks so that the MClass data correlates to whatever data system we land on for our new benchmark. Um, we're going to have to develop some new intervention plans because MClass actually provides our staff with intervention groups based on student performance and with lessons to

040support those groups. That pool is not going to be available to us in the near future. So, there's quite a cost to our district based on this legislation. Real cost to our district based on this legislation. One of the most difficult calls to navigate is the faucet of chain. So, we once again are going to have to go to our teachers and say, "We need you to do something different." We'll have to navigate that. It's a long one. There's nothing we can do about it. But I'm really mindful of that. And I am trying with this team that you see here to lay the groundwork so that when it comes time for us to introduce this change, we have everything in place that we need and our schools are ready to Where does this building?

041>> Uh it's already in effect. So the department of education right now is working through the rule making related to this. That's when it was the rule making recently that we learned that MCL class is not one of the improved benchmarks anymore. And for those of you who have some experience in MC classes Dibble Dibbles has been around forever. It was designed by the University of Oregon. So that is not an approved tool for us going forward for our batches. So we have a little bit of a window. It doesn't go into effect today. uh that we don't have very long to figure out. >> Will we have to fire additional staff to support this accountability? >> Um maybe some of it. That is to be determined. I don't think we'll have to for this

042transition. My understanding is that this district has used STAR at all levels previously and many of our teachers have used that. It's just not used K12 right now and it's been a while for some of our teachers since they've been in schools. So, there will be some relearning. The one positive to this change is every tool that was approved has a Spanish literacy component and that was a heavy lift for us. Um, many of us advocated for months to ensure that that was the case. Um, also as I pointed out, we are midyear and we are just wrapping up our testing window. So, I don't have new literacy or math data for you, but we will bring that to you as soon as it's ready. The testing window closes this month. I want to pause

043for just a minute and talk about the district equity committee. Thank you. and we're getting um as a smaller school district with less than 10,000 students, we were required to start the district equity this year. So, we've done that. Um I want to thank Maya for ensuring that we got some students on the group. Thank you. Um they've been really helpful. The purpose of the district equity committee, as outlined in statute, is to advise the superintendent on policy improvements that will improve equitable outcomes for kids. So, pulling this team together and what I'm referring to as phase one of our work, I felt like we needed to anchor to something so that we could practice and develop our equity muscles. So, we started with our district discipline data and we looked at those data through

044an equity lens. If students, regardless of their race or ethnicity, regardless of their special education status, are they experiencing similar discipline outcomes across our district? And the short answer is no, they're not. We definitely have disparities in our discipline data. And the team that I'm working with, which is comprised of community members, students, and staff, they were very quick to point out that we have some work to do with the way we are exercising discipline in our schools. You can see there, particularly at the middle school level and particularly for our Latino students, um, students receiving special education services have significant disproportionality in our discipline data. What I'm excited about with this team is they're up to the task. So, where we're at right now is that this team is going to continue to dig

045into where we're at as a district, but a small subset of the team is going to work with me and probably assistant superintendo ly superintendo. Did I say that? I did. So I tend to normally leave >> changes business that [laughter] um to uh come up with some recommendations for our discipline policies that point us towards those outcomes that we're hoping to achieve. So I'm really excited about that work. The next level of work with this team is we're going to dig into what we generally refer to as opportunity data, which is looking at, for example, at the high school, who is accessing our AP classes, who is accessing our CS classes, who's being successful in those spaces. So, so although this um particular committee was mandated by the state, it's kind of an awesome

046team. I'm really excited about the work that they're doing and happy to be a part of it. >> A question for you. So the discipline data you said there's some community members. Yes. >> We try to involve any parents you know kids. >> Yeah. There are a couple of parents on the team as well. Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. >> Yeah. And a couple of also parents. >> Yeah. Okay. um collective bargaining agreement. This is something else I wanted to pause and reflect on. Um we completed our bargaining with FGA at spring of last year, but our bargaining with OCA really has progressed all the way until this month. In our last meetings with OCA, we reached a tenative agreement on every article. That does not mean the contract is approved yet. Um,

047for those of you who have been on the school board before, you know that we still need the association to do their work and vote and then we need to bring the contract to the school board ratification. So, we're not quite done yet. Uh, but it was it was really nice to have every article T8 at the conclusion of our last game. Um, and many of the people in this room were part of that. I think they would agree. I I as I reflected on that process, it was longer than I think it has been in the past. We were presented with every article by the association for the bargain. And I think that is not typical of the way OCA has engaged this district in the past. So, we had to go through every

048single article. And thank you, Director Truax, for hanging in there through all of that. And while those conversations at times were challenging, u what I think came out of that is that it reinforced the values on both sides to listen, to understand, to make sure that we were bargaining in good faith with our colleagues and to honor what I think of as the essential role of classified staff in our district. So I think we ended in a really good place. feel very good about the tenative agreement that we have with the association right now and I'm looking forward to bringing that contract to you after the association does their work to take vote. I'm going to go quickly through these next couple. Um the budget reality, we've talked about this in the boardroom before. We

049have revenue lost. We have forecasted reductions at the state level. It's unclear what the federal government is going to do at this point. and we have a structural deficit. Our costs are rising greater than the revenue that the state is giving us. This leaves us to the point where we likely are going to have to make some staff reductions. We will do everything we can to not impact people, but at this point given the projections, I don't know how we will get away with not reducing positions. So, we will of course keep the board and our staff and the public apprised as we get closer to that and we have a better idea reduction, but it seems inevitable at this point. I've been involved in reduction processes before and as I've reflected on my time

050in this district. What I note here is that I think what's really matters in processes like this is the commitment that leadership including the superintendent makes to our community to our state community and we have to balance that fiscal responsibility with our future stability. So we those two things have to be in balance with each other and that that can be tense as we enter into these conversations. We have to treat everyone with respect and care. Um regardless of what decisions we make, there is an impact to people. Even if it's just asking them to move to another building because of a decision they made somewhere else in the organization, we need to be thoughtful as we enter into these decisions. And then we have to be transparent. We have to be steady. And we

051have to maintain that long-term perspective in these reduction scenarios. There's a tendency to look at the immediate situation and the immediate impact and that matters. What also matters is whether or not we are setting ourselves up for what comes tomorrow and what comes the year after that. Again, those things have to be in balance. In terms of advocacy and external relationships, talked quite a bit about this too. I think for the remainder of the year, continuing to maintain regular contact with both state and federal elected officials could be really important. As I said, I think we're in it for the long haul with the decisions that are being made at a federal level. and our state advocates and our federal advocates are important people to us right now. So maintaining those relationships, maintaining relationships with

052community leaders who are working really hard to support our schools, super important. Um I am still learning where the district's voice is more most effective. I've figured some of that out. Um but 19 months is not a lot of time in um so that is still TBD and I'm very open to that learning experience. And then in terms of the goal, keeping students at the center I think is vital. When we make decisions, when we advocate, we have to remember that we are doing this for children first and foremost and make sure that we are speaking on behalf of our students who may not be able to speak directly for themselves. So looking ahead, um progress sometimes feels slow and it's sometimes very fragile. But as I look around the district, I see it. I

053see teachers refining their practice. I see leaders asking better questions. I see students who are pulling aside the superintendent to say, "Hey, you need to take care of this." I love that. Um, we're committed to staying the course with our strategic plan. We're committed to continue this improvement and as long as we stay focused and we continue to support, we're going to make it. We're going to give our students everything that we need because they deserve our steadiness. They deserve our clarity and they deserve our persistence. That wraps it up for me. What questions may I answer? >> Before questions, I'm going to uh make a couple adjustments here. I I do want to allow for some questions. I have a couple questions. I also know we're going to break at maybe 6 to move.

054What I'd like to look for is for an amendment to the existing agenda um board when we get there. I would like we need to honor I want to honor that people are here uh for presentations at 6:40. I will look for an amendment to add our midyear reflection to the end of this agenda tonight. I think it's essential that we have that time. um especially for Alma and I have leadership tomorrow and really wanted to use some of the thoughts that we gathered tonight to inform our conversation to tomorrow. So I'll look for that which will allow a few minutes now for questions and also keep us on time for Thank you for that. Okay, sure. So let me open it up to questions um about what we heard. I really appreciate the thoroughess

055of the report and the honesty in where we need to improve, but really Dr. West how you frame this whole thing um and you can really feel that it's a collaborative effort of and owing who who owns that pieces of the effort. So I really appreciated that um questions from the board. >> What is going to happen to um the preschool oriented for them next year? >> We don't know yet. I mean, that's been such a really successful program. I'm just watching over the last few years seeing I mean, I'm in the classroom right now where um kids are really they know their letters. The majority of them know that letters, these three and four year olds and that'd be a tremendous loss for our district. >> I agree. question for you. On all these

056withdrawals that we're seeing, all these students, do we know where they're going or do we have no data of that? >> In some cases, we do. Uh, Enrique, would you go all the way back to the first data slide? Absolutely. So, this is impossible to read right now for me. Yeah. Well, for many of us, um, what I want to draw your attention to is where you see the code. So, it's code by school. Each one of those codes denotes a specific reason for it being. So, if you look, for example, And it might be hard to read this really itty bitty. >> Yeah, it's it's going to be tough to read this in your packet, but if you look for example at 1A, um that code is same school and it says something else

057there that I can't read. It's too small. And then 1B is different school within the same district. And then it goes on from there. There are codes like left state, left country and we have a few students that are coded that way. We also have a substantial number of students at my last count more than half of them. We don't know why they left more than more than half. So we don't we we don't know where they are or why they've left our district. And that is really concerning. I will tell you that our principles, Beck, I was talking with the principal about these data today. He has asked his office staff to start reaching out to families for the students that we have lost track of to see if we can track them down

058somehow. Um, for a couple of reasons. One, we report these data to the state. So at a very transactional level, we want the data to be accurate and reflect what we know. But two, I wonder and I have several principles wondering, are these students still here? And they're just afraid to come to school. And if that is the case, we want to know that because there is likely something that we can do to support them. Welcome. I am going to throw out a question. We won't have time to really dig into it, but I know that as a board we'll have a time to talk about this and it builds off of um Alma's question about with engagement and just even professional learning is how are we how are we evaluating the outcomes? How are

059we measuring the outcomes for those? And I think you you talked about it a little bit like for professional learning you all able to see we did this learning and now we're able to see this playing out in our classrooms. I do um agree with directors around engagements of when we're doing the engagements what how do we know that people are feeling like that's the level of engagement they need? And to your point about the markets, what's really interesting is that everybody defines what they want from engagement differently. So some people it was just knowing we were at the market was enough. They were just happy to see we were there. Other people wanted a few minutes to answer a question. Other people wanted to meet for coffee. So when you talk to people about

060do you feel like the level of engagement is is appropriate or giving you what you need, how do we capture the different needs and what does that look like from and that's again more time than we're going to have tonight to discuss, but I know as a board we've talked quite a bit individually around really thinking deeply about the impact of these and are we providing enough different types of engagement so people can feel like they have a way to connect. But well, I know that I see more engagement about schools in social media than I do engagement in in person in any of the events that are hosted by um by the school district. >> I think that's true >> very much. And so there a lot of the community is asking the community

061these questions versus coming to the school and ask it directly or asking a principal or asking you know you directly. Um, so I've seen a lot of that, a lot of engagement online, not enough engagement >> in person. So what what platforms do we have online to be able to direct? >> That's a great question. And I think we might we might pause here so we can but I think let's cap that. This is a conversation we will come back to as a board and probably it will come up in our piece today. Um, may I say one more thing before? >> Of course. >> Um, what I want the board to hear is that this is an incredible district. Those who were here at the time I started heard me say this. There were

062only a couple of districts that I would work in at the state and Forest Grove is one of them. As hard as some of these things have been over the last 19 months, it is truly astonishing how the community and the staff have rallied. They are coming out to support our schools. They care about our youth. Um, our staff work their tail off. Everybody is working really, really hard. And I've said this before and I think it's really important that the board understands the superintendent doesn't do this job alone. It's the people who are sitting at this table that are working hard every single day to create the structures and the support that our schools need. Um that really deserve some I think some accolades not from the board necessarily but from others because it

063is a herculean lift to keep things going under conditions like this. So, thank you to my team who is sitting here at the table and doing this work every single day and one who's sitting out in the audience. Um, it matters. I see it. Um, and I know that our students are benefiting. So, thank you for that perfect closing. We're going to this meeting at 5:28 6:28. Um, take a couple minutes reopening. Yep. And then we'll try to get started as quickly to 6:30 as we can. Thank you. I'd like to call to order the January 27th, 2026 Forceville School District Board Director's meeting at 6:35 p.m. We'll start with roll call. Board members present. Alma Lozano >> here. >> Bring >> here. >> Kate Randeski >> present. >> Pete Trux >> here. >> Maya

064Andrade here. >> And Christy Cocky I am here. We're going to rise for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I'd like to amend the agenda and have the board self-reflection after action item. >> Discussion. All in favor say I. >> I. All right, we'll 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 separately? Seeing none, I'll look for a motion. >> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second >> discussion. All in favor say

065I. >> I. >> And we're going to move on to presentations. Two minutes ahead of the 640. Our first one is financial audit report with David Flexo and take keys with Paulie Rogers and co almost >> is going to ceue it up for us. >> Hi. >> Good evening. Can y'all hear us? >> Yes. Welcome. We're just getting some audio. Can you >> uh We can no longer hear you. >> We're just waiting for a couple adjustments here. >> Okay. >> David, do you want to try it again? >> Yeah. Can y'all hear us? Yes, we can. Yes, welcome. >> Wonderful. Thank you for having us this evening. Uh please do let me know if at some point the audio starts being a little tricky on us. I think it is not going to be

066uh at our camp this evening. But I appreciate the board for having us. My name is David Bledson, one of the audit managers here with Paul Rogers Company. And I've had the pleasure of working with the district now for several years on the annual financial audits. I'm joined by Keys who did a lot of the work as the lead auditor this year. Um, I would like to take a moment to uh thank the board as well as the fine staff over at FGSD for u working with us again this year to complete the audit. As a reminder to everyone, the financial audit we're discussing is an requirement under state and federal law. It's not because it did anything wrong like an IRS audit, just a matter of state law that we get an annual financial

067audit done on an annual basis. Uh we're discussing the financial audit over the period June uh period ended June 30, 2025. So this information is a bit laggered in that way. So the budget information you've likely been receiving from the district for the past several months is reflective of a period after a report date. So it is helpful to conceptualize the period in which we're going over. Uh during the fiscal year ended June 3025. We did implement a new accounting rule this year. Those are referred to as gazsb um or statements issued by the governmental accounting standards board. This year we implemented statement 101 covering compensated absences. Uh a brief on that it changed the framework by which the district occurs for um certain kinds of leave to expand beyond uh vacation to also include

068sick time as well as some calculations surrounding that about the expected uh uses of sick time. Uh outside of that as you are well aware the district also um finalized its series 2023 bond sale. So, an additional almost $32 million was drawn down from that debt package. As part of our audit, we do u review those transactions to make sure that they land on the balance sheet or the listing of assets and liabilities correctly. Uh if members of the board have a copy of the governing board letter available, I like to direct your attention to that as kind of a synthesis of our audit work. Um numbered page two of eight. if uh to give everyone a moment to turn. Can someone give me like a heads up once y'all there? >> Should be packed

069inside. Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. We're set. >> Perfect. Um out of the results of the audit section, it's numbered one, two, three, and four. That's perhaps the best synthesis of the work that we did as well as the results of that to kind of walk you through that. The first one um is the audit opinion letter notes that we issued an unmodified opinion. That is the one you want. That means the books were prepared consistent with GAP or the generally accepted accounting practices. You follow the accounting rules. The books made sense. They were cogent. Uh books are balanced. So on so forth. Um our audit has three thematic parts. The first one is what I just discussed. It goes over the accounting rules. do the financial reports that we're looking at um accurately

070reflect the district's activity as well as follow the rules. Second one goes over state requirements. That's things like um reporting of teacher experience as well as adherence to bid quote rules. You know, if you're spending more than the all amounts, are you getting those contractor quotes? Uh we did have one note there that references page 68 of the financial report. on page 68 of the financial report. Yeah, that's numbered page 68 of the separate document. Uh we do note two items. The first one does reference back to a different page in the financial report, page 17 to go over budget items. Um the second one was over teacher experience reporting. Uh as a reminder of the board of how this works, these are things that we have an obligation to report on a binary basis.

071A dollar over on appropriations is reported the same way as $10 million over on appropriations. Um so there there were uh as noted on page 17 instances where the budget exceeded its authorized appropriation level. The third item on the board letter page two refers to federal awards. That is your federal grants that you spend. The district regularly spends in excess of the threshold to meet what we refer to as a single audit requirement. That means we do kind of a mini audit just over federal program awards this year. In addition to um looking at the bond sale, we did two different single audits, we did a single audit over the remaining dollars from back in COVID of the ESER program. The other single audit we did was over migrant education. Uh happy to report that

072in both of those instances, uh there were no comments, no findings, district pass uh without exception. The fourth item on the list just says we did not issue a management letter. A management letter is a way that we formally communicate a significant deficiency or material weakness. That is things that may lead to or did lead to a deviation of numbers that we consider to be impactful or a failure in the design or operation of controls. And we didn't find either one of those. The only comment we have for the board as a recommendation is located on page eight of the board letter. It is nearly the same comment that has been there every year since I can remember. Uh regarding the volume of bank accounts that the district maintains. Um it's just a recommendation to

073consider downsizing that. I will note that the district has drastically reduced the amount of bank statements that it has over the past three years and they are endeavoring upon further reducing that to uh make simplify that process within the business office. Um, outside of that, uh, as far as the financial reports goes, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about, um, the design of the audit, the results of it, or how the numbers kind of flow around. On a general basis, I often advise boards to, um, while pay attention to net position activities to understand what they do and do not convey. Well, by that I mean, uh, these are numbered pages one and two of the financial report document. Uh, net position is a governmentwide balance sheet. That means that as things like

074the district's portion of the state's PERS indebtedness, that is the state does not have a fully funded pension retirement plan for its employees. So, a portion of that is expressed to every participatory government in Oregon. That does make you look financially worse off than you otherwise may be since you do have a portion of the state's indebtedness on your books. In a similar way, you have long-term debt obligations. Conversely, you also have the capital assets that are often purchased with those long-term obligations. That reflects more of a long-term perspective. You know, that's pages one and two. As never, pages three and five are what we refer to as a fund level balance sheet and a fund level income statement. That is perhaps a better reflection of day-to-day operations. that shows exactly how much money you

075have tangibly, what what resources are flowing into the government, whether it be property taxes or state general support. Conversely, that is what your appropriations reflect. That is the spending your business office can actually control. Um, things of that nature. Happy to answer any questions uh anyone may have. I know got thrown a lot at you all. I mean, first of all, I really appreciate the work that you both do. I remember when I was first on the board and then the next year on the board and I got this packet and I went to Eileen and was like, what what should a board person be looking at, right? So, I understand now in year three a little bit. I understand more of the work that you are doing. I appreciate the heads up to this

076is where a board should be paying attention. Um, and this is a question we ask often, like we don't know what we don't know. So, I think the layout in the opening piece of the letter is something that went into my brain and could stick. Um, we have a very strong team here where I can ask questions and plenty of questions. I guess the only question I have is is this audit similar to is the state audited in a way that is similar to this where you make recommendations like the recommendation at the end is is what we might consider but you don't necessarily recommend how we might do it or is does is that a conversation that you have with districts and then is it also something that happens for the state? >> Yeah,

077so I think there uh to think address I think there was kind of three questions baked in. The first one is what kind of an audit happens at a state level. That's kind of the first question. Uh the second one was kind of >> uh what do you do with that recommendation for bank accounts? >> And then the third one is kind of I think more just a thematic takeaway is kind of what I got of that. So that's the first one. Uh the state is audited in a different fashion. Um we operate under rules for municipalities that is local governments, school districts, cities, counties, things of that nature. The state of Oregon plays um by a slightly different set of accounting rules. via that is a state um their uh audit report is different

078in that it encompasses so much more activity right um you for instance the pension liability I brought up earlier you have a slice of this state's entire pie there right um their pie the whole kitten kaboodleoodle so the reporting is a bit different um the state's single audit report I will highlight that is also very different the Oregon department of education acts as the passrough entity and for some districts what's referred to as a cognizant oversight agency in that they have certain obligations as an intermediary between the federal dispersements that is the federal department of education gives you a grant it ends up in your banking account via myriad of agencies at both the federal and state level before it ends up in your bank account. Um so they do have an audit performed. Uh

079it is a little bit different in scope just based on the rule book that they have as well as the legal requirements. Uh the second one is the bank account. um that's what to do with that. That is a conversation uh we uh we have with the district office uh usually twice a year. Um they have been doing good work reducing that. Um uh to not misspeak that um from what I recall a lot of the side accounts include things that are by nature placed there uh due to gifting requirements um from the individuals. So there are some nominal bank accounts and some CDs that as a nature of the gift were just told to put in a separate bank account for custodial purposes. That has increased the volume. Uh the district office has reduced

080the volume of bank accounts as they've tried to rightsize that activity over the past several years. >> Add to that um they're down to 21 bank accounts as of current. Cynthia has been updating me as she closes them. So, we've [clears throat] been keeping track of that. They are down to 21 currently. >> Yeah. So, I guess we've reduced it from 30 to 21 in the past few months since the report date. Again, this uh the report reflects June 30, 25. So, um the delta between that and this evening as the 27th of January. As for your third question, a kind of big takeaway is to your point. Um we encourage the board to kind of read the whole report um to the extent that they're interested. um governmentwide numbers as I referred to earlier

081in net position activities um that can be a bit unwieldy in that trying to understand how exactly does the state's pension obligation affect me what are the inputs and exports that affect net position as opposed to my fund basis activity right um there are limited things the district can do to influence their portion of the state's PERS indebtedness pers bonds are one but that's kind of a big undertaking um outside said that it is really a reflection of a few inputs. Um the numbers are confusingly laggered a year. So we're actually reporting what the pension obligation looked like as of June 3024 since it takes so long for that state evaluation to be performed. Information sent out it's reported library year consistent with the Gazby governmental accounting standards board uh standard that we're working under.

082Uh common inputs that influence that is the return on assets held in trust to pay that liability, changes in inflation expectations, changes in uh longevity assumptions and health care trends. That is how long people will live, how costly will their um needs be over a period of time. Uh the actuaries are far better at math than I am. So they they have a bit of fluency with those rather complex calculations that result in those liabilities being expressed. >> Okay. Thank you. And I'm going to add one more and then I'll open it up to the board. >> Not not in this district because I feel like and we've already actually had great information about how those accounts have been consolidated. We've had those discussions as the board. So we have follow followed forget we get

083that information from director clue and her team for I've asked this maybe in the previous years for districts that we hear of who where boards are taken by surprise about the finances >> and the audits are happening every year. Do you and this is just asking you to editorialize a little bit. What do you think the what should a board look for to make sure that that doesn't happen? Because ideally, if you're having the audit and your auditing team is letting the board know, keep your eye on this and you're asking the right questions, but yet we hear of districts who the boards didn't know about the situation or is that a lack of auditing or do you have insight into what that would be? >> Sure. On a general basis, I don't think that's

084necessarily reflection about a poor quality of an audit deliverable, but more so just a misalignment of expectations about what the audit is supposed to convey. uh we report retroactively that is what happened during the period July 1 of 24 through June 30 of 25 we're not necessarily uh opining on or expressing an opinion via the audit process of things that boards also commonly take stock in that is month-to-month reporting budget actuals on month-to-month basis. Um other items that are outside of the actual printed pages that go on um common areas that we see kind of sneak up on folks kind of thematically is um this Oregon State school fund that is the general support right by the state. There's a very complex formula that goes into balancing that as far as payments go. You know,

085in short, the more property tax dollars you bring in, the less state general support you should expect to receive as the state tries to balance equity across um all the districts. And that way um budget as well as uh revenue projections about um property tax dollars as opposed to state school fund can sneak up on folks. as one of the big inputs for state school fund as well as ADM or your average daily membership. You know, having a good thumb on that is that within some breathing room of an expectation. Um, outside of that is uh just contingent liabilities. What I mean by that, there are certain expenses that you can't really do much about. You have to pay your staff. If people are sick, you have to get a sub, right? If your school

086bus breaks down, you need to buy a school bus. Those expenses can be expected to a to a point. However, you know, if your car suddenly breaks down, you need a new transmission. That can be unexpected, but by the same token, if you have a 15-y old vehicle, maybe um you know, that was on the horizon. Those are some areas where uh financial impacts happen that I guess kind of take folks by surprise. But in general, looking at the district's holistic financial health is important. That is um you know, looking at cash flows on a monthly basis or quarterly basis. you know, what is coming in and out. Uh projections about assumptions of expenses and revenue are kind of the two big ones that end up um could give people by surprise if they go

087arry. Um I will also throw out the uh I do not envy the fine folks in your business office nor anyone trying to um uh do mission forward work trying to balance a budget with uh increases in pur contribution rates over the next few years. It is getting increasingly difficult to stretch dollars uh since funding is not necessarily keeping up with the increased costs of staff which are by far and away the largest portion of your and any other district's budget. Uh well above 70% is going to payroll at this point. So there's only so much you can do and the state's pension obligations are um rising to the point where you have to contribute more and more for each employee. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Oh, did you want to add tape? Other

088questions, comments? >> Okay. Director Clude, any comments? >> I did just want to make a couple of comments about um the notes that are in the letter on the recommend. Every year we have conversations with our audit team on what those are, how we can fix them. Um some and we're trying to narrow that down smaller and smaller each year. And our our list is actually quite small um as far as the number of bank accounts that we have out there. We have two more that we're working on and we're targeting eight more. that's part of that scholarship um approval that we brought to you guys a few months ago to a lot of our scholarship accounts to the debt foundation. So hopefully that comment will be gone next time. >> Um sorry question. What's

089a feasible amount of accounts? >> David, what would you say would be an appropriate amount of accounts for us as the district? >> Uh that is a wonderfully amorphic question. Um it kind of depends on circumstances. Uh to the extent that you also have bond proceeds um that you're spending down, I can assure you that those folks will want those housed in a separately numbered account. So that is kind of an externality you do have to contend with. As far as a general operation bases for districts in and around kind of the greater Portland region that you all are on the edges of somewhere in the neighborhood of like low teens dozenish plus somewhere in that range if that's uh nondescriptive enough for y'all. A lot of districts I work with have anywhere between as

090far as operating checking accounts some of them maintain one checking account, one payroll account. Uh LGIP some folks like to have different accounts. They find it useful from board reporting to not to get in the weeds with accounting, but uh the chart of accounts that the school maintains is mandated by the state of Oregon. It includes a few bits of uh delineation in the chart of accounts. You can identify items. So, you could theoretically use some of those extra digits in the numbering scheme to say that a [clears throat] portion of one account is for this purpose versus that purpose. Some folks just like having a different account if that makes sense. Um versus having to use those extra digits to break that out. But um to wind back on a broad basis somewhere in

091the neighborhood of 15ish is what we often see other districts have. Notwithstanding requirements from outside entities preventing reduction. Right. So again the bond money you should house that separately. Can almost assure you that the the bond folks want to see that housed in a separate account. Okay. Um so our hope is to get there in the next year or two. It does take time to go through and restructure things. Um as we are learning with the scholarship accounts this year. Um the other things that we've done in the spring each year we bring a action item or a discussion item for you which is our fidelity insurance conversation. Uh what level of insurance is appropriate for the district? That was on the letter a couple years ago. that is now on this letter because we

092have the conversation with our board each year. Um and then the other piece is our um board financial oversight. So we meet with a couple of board members a couple of times a year to talk just more in detail about the audit, the financials, um any nutrition services audits or any grant audits or any other items that we want you to be more aware of. Um, so that also helps with our audit and our internal controls. Um, so all of those things have helped with bringing some of the comments down and are just examples of how we're working with the audit firm on um, working through their recommendations. Dr. West comments >> just appreciation for director our team. They do a great job. >> All right. Thank you so much for the presentation and the

093extended Q&A options tonight. We appreciate the information and the work that you've done. And again, also thanks to the financial team. And I think we're any any last anything else that you need to share? >> Uh no, I just appreciate the board having us this evening. Look forward to chatting with you all uh probably like November, December next year about the results of the fiscal 26 audit. And hope everyone has a good rain of their evening. Yeah, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> We are gonna move on to um action items. Comcast data service within our technology manager. >> Uh thank you, Cher. Uh the first action item before you today is a request to uh extend uh the funds that we have allocated for Tomcast data service. As some of you may

094remember uh as part of our bond project, we were building out our own dark fiber. Um the construction uh ran into delays, not unexpected, but ran a little longer than we expected. So we did uh budget for Comcast for the whole year expecting some level of uh kind of delay. Uh but the original PO that we put in was only for half the year uh because we expected maybe around Christmas time we'd be done. Uh so we did go a little over in terms of the time of the construction. So our plan right now is to cut over in February. So this next month uh so in order to do that we just need to make sure that our PO is funded to the point to kind of carry us over and uh fund service

095over the next couple of months. Uh our Comcast service is still right now fully reimburseable. Uh so for those of you familiar that the federal program we get 80% reimbursement on our Comcast service. So even with these extended months we still get 80% back uh as part of our that rate reimbursement. Uh so the recommendation is for the board to approve the extension of the data transmission fiber service with Comcast uh on a month-to-month basis because our contract officially expired but then we continued on a month-to-month basis as part of the contract u school year to extend that for an additional amount not to exceed $75,000. >> So can I ask monthtomonth but the complete amount needed be able to do that at the end of the year should will not ex exceed 70%. >>

096Correct. Yeah. not to exceed that. So, >> any questions from the board? >> Director TX. >> Madam Chairman, thank you. Um, what department of the federal government are we getting that e >> the -ray program is through the FCC? >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> that doesn't make me feel any better. I was afraid you were going to say Department of Education Fish was going to close around my heart, but FCC is not much better. >> Other questions? Look for a motion. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the extension of the data transmission fiber service with Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC on a month-to-month basis for the 2526 school year for additional amount not to exceed 75,000. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I posted. All right, thank you Enrique and

097Falso Ziply phone service. Next, >> another one with a with a contract extension. Um, so similar to with the with the Comcast service. Um, recently we converted over from uh kind of a more analog phone service to digital uh moving from Ziply to Comcast on our overall kind of voiceover IP service for our like day-to-day phone service on like desk phones, things like that. Uh but we still have the old analog copper phone lines which are used for things like fax machines, elevators, HVAC, alarm systems, things like that. Uh we had been planning this year to kind of transition because there are technologies that allow you to basically translate from an analog to a digital to kind of reduce that cost, see which phone lines we could maybe transition. Um we're needing some more time

098with that because we found with some elevator services also with some security concerns that we have with making sure that we have a communications device that is will still function even if the power goes out. Uh so kind of balancing the cost with also the benefits of maintaining those kind of copper lines. So with that, uh, we are wanting to kind of, um, add to the PO that was already approved for the year, uh, to carry us over at least through the end of the year. Hopefully maybe weaning off some of those lines before the end of the year. Uh, we'll see. Uh, this is still within the overall budget that the board approved, so we're just adding to the PO from that budget to just carry us through the end of the year. Uh,

099the recommendation of the board is to approve the increase of the amount allocated uh to the Ziply phone service for an additional $45,000. That'll bring the total amount allocated for uh that service to 90,000 for the year. Uh and again that'll cover us for our costs for the remainder of the 2526 school year with the hope again if we can reduce some of those lines we will >> questions. a move to approve the increase of the amount allocated for Ziply phone service for an additional $45,000 to bring the total amount allocated to $90,000 which will cover the Ziply phone service costs for the remainder of the 2025 school year. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right, motion passes. Thank you. And action item number three, our

100local service plan with Northwest Regional. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Le. >> Yes, thank you. This is an action item. It's the second read actually in last board meeting we shared with you what that plan was. Approval of this plan is for the core services that the Northwest Regional ESD will provide to all of the districts within the um it is not the cost of those services. So, just as a reminder for those of you new to ESD funding, the ESD does receive some funding from the state. Um, the way our EST works is that a portion of that funding is dedicated to core services that every school district within the region has access to. Um, an example of that for us is that the ESD hosts our student information system. And

101in order to do that, they do need some resources, some financial resources. So that is a for they also provides some opt-in services with we as a district at some point may decide that that is a service that is of benefit to us. And then with the flow through dollars, with those dollars that are allocated to the ESD for Forest Road School District that are not directly being utilized for or services, we can use that excess amount to purchase optional services if we chose to. So approval tonight is not for the cost of those services because I think that still remains to be seen given what's taking place at the state but for the actual items that were listed as core services >> question that [clears throat] I move to approve the Northwest Regional Education

102Service District and Forest School District local service plan for the 2026 2027 school year as presented. discussion >> discussion I would like to pass on thanks to Superintendent Goldman for the the part of that I I thought the presentation that they provide the slides um were very helpful but I appreciated really the the part where they broke it down to forest grow and were able to say these these are the kids that are impacted with these different programs and I would love to see us have an opportunity to elevate that also out to the parents and community just so that I don't think I really fully again understood what the ESD does and how they interface with school districts. I still don't have a complete understanding, you know, and I think most people probably wouldn't

103know how they support schools and that's some of the work they're doing too to try to get out and advocate for what they're doing and why. And um so I really appreciated their efforts to help at least a board understand the impact on those pages. The rest of the pages so those were my favorite pages. Um any other discussion? Yeah, Pete. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um being somewhat of a veteran of the education in the state of Oregon in Washington County, I always thought the ESD was the one that got me the films. I know. >> And so that shows how ancient I am. But um they they provide a service that uh allows us to deliver instruction without duplication of services across school districts and that's I think a wise expenditure of development.

104We I may have other complaints about the ESD but that surely is >> okay. So I will move to approve the Northwest Regional Education Service District and Forest Grove School District Local Service Plan for the 2026 27 school year is presented. Is that right? It is 27. Okay. >> And it it has been moved and seconded and we've had discussion. All in favor say I. >> I opposed. All right. Thank you everybody. Um, we are going to move into just a little bit of time for the board to talk about how we've been doing, what what where we want to be headed and doing a little just of we have reserved a little bit of time tonight to start this conversation. Um, and just a little bit of context and appreciation for the board who

105has been three new board members to our board. And we have had because of quorum and the lovely state public meeting rules, we really have to do our communication carefully and intentionally and one-on-one in leadership. Um it's a bit fragmented and we do the best we can to tie those pieces together. But I've really appreciated the time of our individual board members who have been reaching out and responsive to questions and communication in helping um Alma and I sort of draft what we think is hopefully some action pieces going forward. So appreciation for that. I also want to um put on the table tonight that when we talk about some of these action pieces that we're going to bring up, we recognize that this is really just within the capacity that each board director um

106is is wanting to do. And so we we all are acting in the best capacity that we can um with what's going on. So there isn't an expectation just because we're talking about these things that we are going to have to dedicate time that we don't have to this. But I think what I've been really excited about with this board is the willingness to do the work to set some some expectations for what we want to do and how we want to do it. So um I am going to have this first slide come up and back in the summer when we had our retreat we did sort of throw our we we did literally we tore up all the goals that we make every year this big list we felt like we didn't really

107revisit and we really just got down to two. what do we want to really focus on? And this board um wanted to really dig deep on listening and engaging with the community. You heard questions tonight from Director Franco and also Director Lozano about what that looks like and continuing to explore if if we are being effective in that. And then the second piece of advocating at the local, state, and national levels on behalf of our students and families. We really have done a good work in doing that work as we have been able to so far. But I think with both of these goals, it is now almost February and this board has not had a chance to really talk together about how we're doing the work. And I think tonight was another example of

108where we tried to build it in to the early work session. And we just have been I what I have been hearing from every board member is we really just need time as a board to talk and the only time we can do that is in a public meeting and so and then following up in leadership. So what we did to sort of save a little bit of time is we did ask Dr. West to help us create a list of we want to be mindful that we want to do work that's going to support existing work of the district and not be additional work that now people need to be helping the board do. And I think this board really understands that. Um we asked Dr. was to provide a list of things at

109this point in time taking into account where we are in this district and the needs of our families and students and priorities um and fears and needing to feel safe. Where could we plug in um and thank you for building that list. I did share that list out. We shared it with all of the board and we asked the board to come tonight with an idea of one of these items that they feel them they can really plug into for the next few months. Um, we also asked them to come with additional items that we'd like to add to the list. And so, in the interest of time tonight, what I want to start with is asking the board, are there additional pieces to this list in front of us? Um, and I'm just going

110to read a couple of the things. None of these are a surprise to anyone. um because these are things that have been on our goal list before. But things like attending the town halls um help going out to our Rotary Club Lions Kuanas and sharing information about the schools. Uh encourage well share district strategic goals broadly with civic groups across the city. Highlight successes aligned to strategic goals. Um support equity board focused resource allocation. So, there's a list of options and I'm going to stop here and ask the board if they would like to suggest things we add to this. Madam Chair, >> yeah, >> this is me again. >> I know. Uh, I would hope that it would also be a commitment that we listen intently and engage not just with the community and

111just as a word quotes there, but also with students and staff to support the strategic plan. If we think this is going to be bottom uh you know top down leadership uh I think we're sadly mistaken. >> Okay. >> I added um I have three. Was there additional >> uh I think that's I've got enough damage. >> Okay. I did I would like to add um a board recruiting. We've talked about how to talk with the community about being on the board and what that looks like and that could be something we could focus on. We could add that. Um, we've talked about this in leadership and I know that Bethany is already working on it especially with our new board members, but working on a really what do we need to know packet for

112new board members officially and actually that potentially could be used as a recruiting tool I think. And the third one speaks a little bit to what was mentioned tonight. Um, explore ways to improve two-way communications with with the public. Again, Pete, to your point, students and staff, but we've talked quite a bit individually about the role of the board within social media and also what what is what do we mean by engagement? And so are we able to do something as a board that provides a two-way space to open up some potential to support the district in just messaging answering questions that need to be answered and building trust. >> Yeah, I think that's a failure. >> Okay, those were the those were the three that I wanted to add to the list. I I

113didn't have an issue with anything else on list, but no, my >> Okay. Okay. Anything else to add that came to mind? Let me make sure. Okay. So then what I'd like to do is go around and hear from each person where and it might just it might be more than one but where what is your one thoughts you have around that questions around that and um who would like to start? I respect. Okay, Kate. Um well I um I am on the bond committee and I am on the policy committee but I have been ever since I've been on the board um volunteering in the schools um once a week I I read to the fifth beginners kinders and first graders um to support literacy and to enrich them because I think if you

114you have kids at a very young age um engaged in really good literature and and I have this huge collection of pop-up books and you know so I've been the last I think the last five or six years at uh Cornelius but I've been at Joseph Gale I've been in Echo Shaw I've been at Philly I've been everywhere and so I will continue that um the children love that I've also put up and encouraged um literacy libraries little library you know where you put books in free for kids and I also um once a month and Gails Creek, we have a community meeting and so I always have a slot to share with community what's really important. Um, so those are the areas that I will continue to focus on and I I you know

115if I can I will go to you know town hall meetings and other meetings but I I really think you know for me personally um instruction is really important and reading is really important and that's my way of supporting the district. >> Okay. So for myself, um there's there's kind of two things. I'd like to um engage like in with like secondary level schools, so like middle school, high school, and uh and kind of do that career readiness and some sort of collaboration with uh local businesses or, you know, any anywhere where we can connect um our students that are, you know, looking to graduate here soon. um that would be a focus that I would love to um be a part of. So um entering uh middle school, high school, kind of get engage

116with students or get a little bit of feedback from teachers as to what are they hearing that they're looking for in in a career, you know, if they are talking about it. And your second >> uh collaborating with uh local organizations or business owners so that we can create some sort of either mentorship program or uh connections with them. you want to speak about this at all >> like go well or what well let's let's we'll have Pete and go and then I'm gonna have to give some comments about maybe where >> go ahead >> I tried pulling up I can't find it in all the emails but um I would like to reconnect with the Aspire program um at the high school um I did it once last year and it was a great

117experience and I'd like to continue doing that. I think it's a great opportunity to connect with our students, but also kind of give my somewhat limited knowledge and going to higher education or going into a career right after high school and kind of navigating that and being able to answer any questions. Um, so I think I can offer that perspective to students. Um, I think I'd also like to engage more and I think it's on the list or I made it up. um coffee with is that something that's in there like coffee connections or something I don't know if the wrong list but something where I'm offering an ability for anyone in the community or even students to reach out and say hey I'd love to meet coffee or hey like we'd love to talk

118to you about whatever it is just kind of making myself more available um and offering that and being able to plug in that way. So, I'm looking at the small commitment, the general commitment list up on the screen. Um, I would like to think that I would have some sort of cache with local, state, and national government and that I would be able to carry the water for education in general and Forest Grove School District in particular. But at all three of those levels, um, be able to make my presence known. >> Yeah. >> Um, get more basketball games. >> I didn't tell. >> All right. Uh Maya, I'm curious about your thoughts of where your impression of the board engagement and where we involve just help. >> Yeah, I think um almost idea of

119kind of reaching out to like those um middle school and high schools and seeing really uh what kids want to do in terms of like jobs and kind of like opportunities is extremely important. I think um we we have a couple programs and opportunities that are good for some kids but don't work for all. So, I think really hearing um what teachers have to say, what students have to say about what they want to do um would be really great. I think that also goes with the Aspire program, which I get it to start up. Um again, we have the Aspire program. It's just not many people know about it. It's not really doing much other than adding a little symbol to your name um at the end of the day since I'm involved in

120that, but I've never been in like a meeting and never had anything like that. So, I think those two areas are pretty good. Um, another thing I had mentioned to Dr. Wes is kind of getting the opinions of those students that aren't visually represented. And I'm not talking about like minority groups or necessarily um I guess people taking AP classes or honor classes, but those people that don't like showing up to school, right? That don't really have motivation, that don't really find um much in school other than like I guess a tedious everyday kind of thing. Um, I think it's really important to understand where they're coming from and kind of see where as a district we can support them as well and kind of get them excited. So, I think all all the goals

121and we apply ourselves very um I I'm deeply involved with the advocacy work, but I would love to shift that to find a way that we have time as a team to get aligned around what we should do. We have Clinton here from Gails Creek. Um I'm Gail Creek. Yeah. Gaston. Gosh, I've said that before. Gaston board chair who is now LPC rep um for our region. And thank you for coming by the way. But that the connections with our neighboring boards. We do have board chairs that are meeting on a regular basis now. Um our next meeting will be next week. and Becky Timchuk was just assigned or or signed up to be the liazison for Forest Grove um at the LBC this weekend. They had each um this they're trying something different for

122the region and really being intentional about how the regional group is going to be connecting with boards, but I think that starts with our board being very clear on what we want to do and not just what we do individually. So, um that's a helpful start. I think Alma and I have talked about next steps. We've talked individually with the board members. I believe there's a strong consensus that we we need time as a board. Um and I think what we what has been brought up and we'll talk more leadership tomorrow is building a time like this into the next board meetings for the next few months for the board. I know this um board is not used to having the meetings run longer, but I think with new board members and really being able

123to establish a system that we use for these different pieces, engagement and advocacy doesn't mean we'll need that time as a board every time. But I it's there seems to be a strong feeling like we have to be able to talk together about how we do this work. Advocacy, for instance, we could easily spend an hour. We don't need to suck up cabinet time with that, but I mean, we could easily spend an hour as a board really going through the nuances of what that looks like, who's going to communicate, who's going to what, when we're going, what should we be saying, how are we going to track all that. That's a conversation that I feel like we have all been having separately or with Dr. West or in leadership, but the board has not

124felt like we can have it together. And so again, just kind of closing that loop. Um, but I'm curious about thoughts about that commitment of time going forward. We are headed into budget season um with multiple meetings. We have everything that's happening this week legislatively and town halls. There's plenty on people's calendars. But I also what I've heard from this board is that we need we need to spend time um and maybe on the front end and set some set some expectations for ourselves and then have some freedom to just go and and do. But thoughts on that and then we'll close. >> Well, I think it's great. I I think I would limit it to one or two things and I'd limit the time um considering that you know people have jobs and people

125work and people get tired at the end of the day but wouldn't have it go over an hour and I'm picking it one that's my thought. Yeah, I agree. I agree with But I do think that we do need the time or the space to be able to have those conversations. If not, we're just checking off boxes if that's all we're doing versus actually diving into what we can do as a board to help our schools. >> Well, I'm going to come at this a little bit differently. Uh we mean we get the job done. Um, I hate to be cranky and irritable about that, but uh if that clock on the wall is going to mandate the length and the depth of these meetings and we're I think we're engaged now I won't say

126in a pool but it's the second cousin to it. uh because there is an opportunity, we have the opportunity twice a month to do the deep dive that we talk about. And if we're going to do the deep dive, you have to decompress coming up. You have to put all of that information and let it fit and make some sort of sense of it. Um, you know that I come from another public agency that I uh worked with for 22 years and if we had a meeting that was under two hours, we frankly felt we weren't doing our job. Um, and there were a lot of good things at discuss. We never went to midnight. Make no mistake about that. We didn't we didn't have a marathon meeting, but uh we made every effort to

127start at 7 and get done by 9:30. That's 2 and 1/2 hours then. We never thought that that was unfort. Um, I never thought that was unfortun um, so I feel that my obligation to the public is to be able to sit here and ruminate and to legislate uh, during during our meetings. and not worry about about the clock. Um, democracy is under attack in this country and if we think that we can speed it up and make it graceful, we're sadly mistaken. Winston Churchill said, you know, democracy is the worst forest in form of government except for every other kind on this planet. And I think there's a a point to be made there. Yeah, democracy is messy. We will be engaged in a lot of conversations. Will have to take time, but we

128are doing the work truly doing the work of the people and of our kids. And it's going to take time. to unravel. If all the problems were needed, it would be cool, but they all look like spaghetti and we have to unravel. Now, there's a word picture that I want to close. Well, I just like to push back a little bit because I think if you come to the table prepared that um that we can move through, but there we can always say we want to extend the time. But if people come and they're not prepared, then then it can go on and on and on. And um one of the things I've seen in the last couple years, people have come prepared and we can get things done. Um, but I've also been in

129meetings and I know you have be that people come and they're not prepared. And sometimes people, and I don't see it on this board, but sometimes people just like to take up a lot of oxygen. And um, I think if you're prepared, um, you can, um, get things done very efficiently. But I also know that you and I are retired. [laughter] >> Well, these other people. >> Yeah. I think I think what we're talking about here is is not having a meeting for meeting sake or having more time for just no reason at all. I think what we've all recognized is we have not had a single time since the summer to sit together and have a conversation about the work we're doing. So, we're looking for a way and I think we're being pretty

130efficient. I think in leadership we really can knock out a lot of what you're talking about Kate like synthesizing what we're hearing and then getting ready but then still having some opportunity for the board to just hear about for instance you know what's coming up this week with advocacy and we are going to be in front of elected leaders some of us on Thursday what should we be talking about now for me to have that conversation I do have to call and I do every board member individually have the same conversation about strategy. I can't share what anyone else is saying and then magically we have to try to accomplish this goal. So that is not efficient for anyone on this board but really not for a chair. And so what you see on school

131boards is people unable to do the work because the time is not there. So, I think what we've all been asking for is everybody has wanted time, recognizing the capacity, recognizing making sure it's going to be intentional, but also certainly recognizing it's not going to be for the end of eternity. We're talking about committing some time at each of the next meetings until we feel like we have these pieces in place. And I think I can do that reasonably. Dr. question. Do you have thoughts? >> Okay. All right, Resa, any closing thoughts? >> I know that was a lot. Um, I think my closing thought is I think having that space and time to have a conversation is important. I feel like you having to call each and one of us I think we're losing

132out on that conversation and ability to think off of other people's ideas and other people's questions. Um, and I think now more than ever with all of the changes that are happening and things that are going to continue happening that are going to impact our district and the students especially, I think it's important that we allocate some time to have those conversations and really flesh it out and to have transparency with the rest of the individuals who I hope watch these videos. Um, but for the rest of our community just so that they know that we're thinking about this, that we're just not approving items and going from there. Okay, I think that is that kind of accomplishes what we were hoping to gather tonight. We'll meet again tomorrow and be able to take some

133of this and and we'll get back to this. I think with that we're going