001The October 28, 2025 Force Grove School District board of directors work session is called to order at 5:30 p.m. Roll call of board members present. Alma Lozano >> here. >> Kate Grandoski >> here. >> Pete Truax >> here. >> Christy Cotkey is here. And Briea Franco and Maya Andrade are absent tonight. and we're going to move to advancing district goals, instruction engagement, and operations with Superintendent Dr. West. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Um really excited for tonight. It's our first work session of the school year and we have a lot to share. Um, if you remember during our retreat, we said that one of the things that we do a little bit differently with the work session this year is that we would align what we share in the work session to the superintendent
002goals which are aligned to the district goals. Um, so we want to bring you regular updates on how we're progressing on those district goals and we're going to do that tonight. The other thing I want to start with is Kate and Christie have heard me say this before that a superintendent doesn't do this work alone. And one of the most important things I can do is create the conditions for my team to be successful. So I will not be the only one talking tonight because I am not the only one doing this for. So, you're going to hear from several different people around the table as we share with you our early progress for this particular school year. So, with that, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Um, you'll see on the screen
003up there the things that we intend to cover tonight. We'll show you some examples of a new tool that we are rolling out in our schools. We'll cover fall grade three ELA and SLA data as well as grade 8 math. We have Panorama data to share with you specifically in teacher student relationships and what that is looking like so far for the year. I shared with you last year that the Department of Education rolled out a new teacher survey called Elevating Voices in Education, the EVE survey. So, we have some results from that to share with you. We'll have a staffing update and then we'll end with our quarterly financial update. So, let's go ahead and get started. Um, I want to make it clear that where we're at right now is establishing a baseline.
004For a lot of folks in this room, that's the first time that you've seen this information. So, as we go through the slides, and there'll be a lot of data, a lot of information shared with you. Um, we're hoping for a conversation. We're hoping that you ask questions, that you pause us. We have points built into the presentation where we will pause and make sure there's space for questions, but as we go along, if something needs clarification, please ask. And then from here, we will build on this throughout this year. So, as a reminder, these are the goals that we laid out during the retreat and which the board approved at the last business session. There is a copy of these in your packet if you want to reference them. Um, the goals in your
005packet are more built out than the summary statements that you see up here, but the summary captures the highlevel um aim of each of those buildings, all four of them. So let's go ahead and get started with Iwa observation. Um I had shared with you during the summer retreat that as a school district we were looking at a school that would allow us to provide some really discreet information and feedback to our teachers based on specific realms. And one of the things that I shared as an example was I look for around how much teacher talk is taking place in the classroom versus who we talk and to be able to buy to provide very specific feedback to our teachers on that particular look for. And the reason that we were looking for these tools
006is that while our evaluation system has built into it a couple of points of observation and each evaluation cycle, it doesn't allow us to capture those 10 or 15 minute dropins in the classroom that we might see some really good things happening that we want to highlight, but also some quick tweaks that we can make that can really help teachers. Those observation tools also don't provide the level of specificity that you're about to see in these examples. So, the way the iWalk tool works, it's device agnostic. You could do it on your laptop, you could do it on an iPad, you could even do it on your phone if you wanted to. You walk into a classroom, you open up the tool that you want to use, you select the teacher that you are observing,
007and then you take data, and when you're done, you click submit, and it's automatically emailed to the teacher. So, here's an example of what that tool looks like. This one is called keeping time. And for this particular tool, the way it works, you can see there are three different levels there. teacher student talk time instructional grouping and then different types of grouping can be full group, small group or independent work and then instructional release and it says I do we do you do for those of us who have been teachers we know that Anita Archer I do you do we do structured so this is built around that and then there's a space for us to take comments in here as you observe in the classroom you start the timer Those are timers. So I
008don't need to manage the watch. I don't need to manage my phone. I just start the observation. And when the class moves on or when the observation is done, I stop the timer and it's captured all that. And in the meantime, I can take some notes. This is an example of some really specific feedback that we can provide teachers so that they can see, wow, I didn't realize that in that 15 minute period I talked for 14 of those minutes. Um that is one of the things that we are working on spent a lot of time last year focused on is this idea of opportunities to respond with students. In order for students to have opportunities to respond we as teachers need to stop talking. And so this is a way for us to provide
009that feedback to our educators. Another example is this tool right here on task. And you can see right there, it's very faint, the little red dot, but I actually did a practice with this one in one of our schools and Mdan Puliano were very instrumental in helping us with that where we went into one of our schools and all of the leaders have changed to practice. For this one right here, you walk in the classroom, how many students are in the classroom, and you can take either one minute or up to 10 minute intervals, and at each of those intervals, you track who's on task and who's not, and you record that. And when you're done, you end up with this. Well, you can't see it. Right down there in the lower right hand corner,
010you get to see how many students are on task over the course of your observation. So total on task 53%, 59%, 84%, 87%. So this observation then becomes a point of conversation with a teacher. Um I will tell you as a teacher, it was really difficult to keep track of all of the kids in the class at any given time. When you have a class of in my case at the secondary levels 32 36 was pretty common. I know I didn't have eyes on every student at every minute in the classroom. Data like this would have been really helpful to me to have a better understanding of while I was working with students over here, were the other students on task. And if the answer to that question is no, then I know I need
011to change my practice and I can work with my coach to do that. So this is an example of another tool with great specificity. And then the third example I'm going to show you is this high level of questioning. I love this tool because it allows our teachers to receive feedback in three different areas of questioning. What you see here is the Blooms taxonomy. Again, those of us who are educators knows Bloom, you know, Blooms. It's a longstanding taxonomy for how to organize lessons and thinking within classrooms. But we also have here the costas which are AVID. I believe they were created by Abid. Is that correct? I think so. >> So it's a similar type of framework around higher order thinking and how you organize your lessons. And then we have depth of knowledge
012which was introduced about a decade ago and that's another way to organize lessons and organize higher order thinking within the classroom. So, this tool allows us to provide feedback in one or more of these areas to a teacher at a given time. We're looking at higher level questioning. As a school leader and an observer, for me, I've used this tool before when I was a principal and I absolutely loved it because it allowed me to get very narrow. What I learned as a principal when I was first taking observational data is that there was so much to watch and I was trying to capture everything that was taking place that my notes and my feedback were too broad. [clears throat] This way I can hone in on a very discreet skill set that I want
013to support a teacher with and we can get specific about what worked and what we can improve and then we can have some conversations about that. I'm going to open it up to questions here in just a minute, but first I want to go back to this slide right here. So our colleagues in the association have previewed this tool and we've had some conversation about using this as an informal observation in our evaluation set and there is some support for that. We haven't started using this in our schools yet. We'll do so soon. But first, we are asking all of our principles to spend time with teachers going through the tool so that teachers understand what the tools are that will be used, what it looks like, what the feedback looks like when it comes
014to them in an email form that can have their questions answered. And then we will all start with the same tool, all of us as a district. And we're going to do that for a couple of reasons. one, so there's some consistent expectations across all of our schools, but then two, so when we come back as leaders, we can do some calibrating and comparing. How did it work for you? What do we need to shift? It gives us a a point of contrast and comparison that I think will be really important since this is a new tool for us. The ultimate goal is we want to improve instruction and we want better outcomes for kids. And this is a way for us to get really narrow in those sometimes very small tweaks that need to
015take place in a classroom to make just those one little tiny improvement that makes a difference to a kid. So let me stop talking. What questions do you have about the introduction of this new tool? Right. I think this is terrific. [laughter] I think when were we doing this 20 years ago, right? Yeah. >> So, when do you think you'll roll this out? Like in January? >> Oh, no. It's starting. >> Oh, it's starting now. Oh, okay. >> Yeah. We We're trying to be very intentional about stairstepping this so a teacher doesn't get an email suddenly with feedback and they have no idea what it is. So, we're going slow enough that teachers have an opportunity to preview the tool with their school leader, ask some questions, and then we're going live with it. >>
016And the union is okay. They're they're on board. >> They were some of the first to have access to it. In fact, our Turo gave a couple of our union leaders their own accounts so they could get in and play with it. >> Good. Yeah. >> Juliana Magda, you've had some time with the tool. Would you like to add anything to that? >> Um, there are a lot more resources available in the website, but we are trying to be really specific so that we get really good at a few before we experiment with even more. And um, we are calibrating every time we meet. We're going to review some together to make sure that we're using the tool similarly. And it it just kind of helps with feedback, giving feedback. There's about a dozen pre-built
017tools and we have the capability of custom customizing tools as well. So for example, I mentioned that we worked on opportunities to respond last year. We could build a tool specific to opportunities to respond and then provide feedback on that. >> Who will be able to use the this tool? administrators take the observations and then the observational feedback is emailed directly to teachers and then in a best case scenario teachers and administrators can have follow-up conversations about that observational data. That was my experience is that it led to some very rich conversations about again sometimes just the smallest tweak makes a huge difference for a group of kids. So very rich conversations about how to improve instruction. Does that answer your question? >> It does. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thanks. >> Oh, thank you,
018Madam Chair. Um, keeping time. I can understand hopefully understand the three tools you have. what was the rationale for arriving at using this as a I guess quote introductory tool? >> Yeah, it's a really good question. One is ease of use. Um most teachers coming straight out of teacher school whether they are new or experienced understand teacher taught versus student taught. So it's a pretty easy entry point um this particular tool. The other uh thing that we did is when we did the practice that I showed you, the second tool there, um after that practice, Magda and Juliana surveyed our leaders to ask based on what's going on in your school and your use of these different tools, which one do you think we should start with? So leaders inform the selection of keeping time
019as the first tool that we would use. >> Is this a hierarchy? keeping time and what follows that higher level questing and on task is that sort of a I don't want to say introductory level but it seems to me that when you had teacher talk and student talk you are looking at one of the basic parts of education >> getting the student more engaged. Um, so are the other ones a little bit built on the keeping time or is there any connection between the the three of them? >> Not the way I think you're um trying to link them. So there isn't necessarily a hierarchy in that we start with keeping time and then we move on to the next thing and then the next thing. I I do think there's levels of complexity
020within each tool that are more or less complex both for the observer. So for example, if you're using the higher order high higher level questioning tool, I need to understand what that is. I have to have some understanding of depth of knowledge and how to apply it in a classroom if that's what I'm using as the observer. And then the educator also needs to have that understanding of depth of knowledge and have had some training in that. and I know that they're applying it. So there there are levels of complexity that I think increase with each tool, but I didn't necessarily organize them in level of complexity. I honestly I just picked three tools um and wanted to make sure one of them was the one that we are starting. But does that answer your
021question? >> Thank you. Thank you. So when you look and and do this in all our schools elementary I'm going to focus on at third grade level when you get the data can you see and compare like maybe Cornelius verse Joseph Kale or Harvey Clark or Philly and see where the strengths and weaknesses are and then help mentor that teacher you know to to improve. Yeah, there is an admin dashboard which I love because when I first used this tool 15 years ago, um it was in FileMaker, those of us who remember FileMaker. >> Um and there wasn't an admin dashboard. It was basically just a text file that we had to work with. So that admin dashboard allows either the school leader to see all of the staff that they have completed observations for
022or for us as district leaders to see the whole district. And we can look at things like patterns over time. We can look at the number of observations that are completed and when those are completed. So we have some insight into what the observational data tell us. That that is helpful. More helpful are the conversations that Magda and Juliana are going to lead us through. Whereas leaders, we come back together and we say, "Okay, what are we learning about our schools? >> What are we learning about what's taking place in our classrooms?" And then how do we as leaders adjust what we're doing to support the next step? It will allow to piggy back on that, it will allow principles to analyze data and make choices about what professional development they want to offer to
023their staff as well as when we look at the data, we can see is there a higher level or a district level professional development that we need to apply to more people. So, I'm really excited about having access to that to that data. What other questions may I answer for you about this tool? >> I have a question about the comments. Um, so Juliana, if you come into my classroom and you take the data and I get the report at the end of the day, probably when I check and I look and go, oh geez, it's like whoa, you know, no talk time in my In the comment section, are there next steps that a principal would suggest or levels of support should a teacher want to? because I would guess some teachers would say,
024"Oh, I I see that. I know what to do to tweak that with my PLC team." Or there might be teachers that say, "I would love to have conversation with a principal or a coach to get some more feedback." Um, can you talk about that and then also how PD might be aligning with that across schools? >> Um, that's a great question. um something that we worked on, we've had a couple of instructional learning leadership sessions with admin and the most recent one we talked about actionable feedback and what does that look like when we are giving feedback to teachers um and how are we providing feedback that has those action items um with a new tool. Part of the reason why we pick a simple one to start with is it's it takes a
025little bit of getting used to. Um, but once we get in a flow and we can have those calibration conversations, um, we can go more in depth of what that looks like. Um, but I think that's a really good point, having a whole bunch of comments without here's here are next steps like Suzanne, Dr. West was saying. Um, what are those conversations look like? And then in terms of PD, are you asking about staff PD? Yeah, just are schools then having common PD aligned around some of the themes that might be happening or is that happening probably before during and after right as >> yeah I think there is a lot we can do with this data like Magda was saying if we can see like any district-wide trends um and also highlighting what's going
026really well in our schools um and where are those like lowhanging fruit where can we help just tweak a couple things to increase student engagement. For example, uh Dr. West talked about the opportunities to respond. That's one we can track pretty well with keeping time and it's one we've done district PD on all year last year and this year we're doing a lot of district PD on what is language support look like um and giving feedback on that and seeing what trends we see across the district and within schools and differentiating that way. And then my final question would be and you've talked about the all the things that this can do. If I as a teacher wanted I I'm getting my talk time data. I'm getting my levels but but maybe I'm doing a
027particular lesson and I want to see like I learned when I was teaching that I was only calling on the right side of the room. I mean really random things that someone would bring to my attention. If I wanted that particular data point, could I say to my principal, hey, are you able to use this tool to give me this type of feedback? >> I don't see why not. >> Yeah. Again, we can build custom tools. >> Okay. And to your point, that's a great one. Like always calling on the right side. I gave observational data to teachers in the past where they called on girls more than boys or boys more than girls. Um, so there are lots of ways we can configure the tools to provide feedback for a specific educator based on
028what they are asking for or need or based on what my particular school may need and what we are working on as a team. And is the purchase this is a tool that we have as a subscription or if you want to have it be a bigger tool do you have to you know is it kind of a all super afford affordable a little bit of background the individual who designed this tool again 15 plus years ago on his FileMaker um was a former educator teacher is he you've talked to Kevin is he still a principal? No, >> no. So he >> this is his full-time business now. Um but he designed this tool to help him with his own observations and other his colleagues asked for it said hey this is really useful can
029we use it too and that was how it began. So it is now available as I said device agnostic available to anyone who wants to purchase it and really affordable compared to other software prescriptions. Uh, you have to fact check me, but I think for our entire district to use it each year, it's $6,000. For sure. >> Yeah, it's very affordable compared to the other software that we are using districtwide. >> Yeah, you're welcome. Other questions? >> Oh, I got them. I can't articulate them right now. >> Yeah, come back. I'll >> Okay. see if I can do a vocabulary test. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so more on this as the year goes on. Um, one of the commitments that I shared early on in our conversations around goals is that we're going to continue
030to look for ways to become more effective in the feedback that leaders are providing and to be really specific about those things that we're working on and this is one of the ways that we are going to do that. Okay. So, moving on, uh, we're going to get into some of our outline data, specifically looking at English language arts, Spanish language arts, and eighth grade math. We're honing in on that because English language arts and eighth grade math are the metrics that the state has told us that they are going to monitor. And as we have discussed as district leaders and a school board for our district, Spanish language arts is as important. We educate a sizable number of students in Spanish. We measure their literacy development in Spanish. So we feel that it is
031really important to report both of those things um side by side when we talk about our data. So, I'm going to ask Juliana and Magda to help quite a bit with this since this is their work. They're immersed in it. So, there'll probably be quite a bit of pinging back and forth as we go through this. We're going to start with some definitions. We have a lot of new board members um this year, so we wanted to make sure that we had some common language. For those of us who have been educators, you know these terms most likely. But just a couple to point out here that might be new to some of us in the room. Math, MClass, MClass, Lorra. These are the measurements that we use when we are assessing progress in English
032language arts or Spanish language arts. And then for eighth grade math as well. And then in this district, we use the um moniker ESBA. You'll hear people say ESBA quite a bit. That is short for the Smarter Balance Assessment. The state of Oregon uses the um state test designed by the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium as our annual assessment of knowledge and skills. Any questions about these terms before we go on? Okay, we're going to just dive right in. You're going to see some new graphs. I'm so excited about these new graphs. All right, let's go ahead and get started with where we're at with third grade. Um, so this is our ELA performance compared to the state. Um, this is actually third through 11. Um, for those of us new to assessment, you'll notice that
033there's a gap between 8th grade and 11th grade. The state of Oregon tests all students in grades 3 through 8 and then also assessed in grade 11. So students in grades 9, 10, and 12 do not take an end with assessment. So you can see here the state versus our school district. the state in the peachy color and our school district in blue. And this is for last year. These are data that we receive in the fall every single year for the prior year because the assessment is taken in the spring. You can see how we match up. One of the things that I want to point out here, then I'm going to pitch it over to Mogen to add additional comments. We've had some conversations as a school board in the year that I've
034been with the district about how there is something about that multilingual brain that over time shows that students actually perform better by the time they reach high school when they develop proficiency in two languages. And you can see that here. Our third graders only 25% of them assess proficient. As a reminder, about a third of our third graders are taking all of their instruction in Spanish and English. They're learning in two languages simultaneously. And for those third graders for whom English is truly a second language, it takes five to seven years for them to develop English proficiency, academic proficiency. We're assessing them in English before they have an opportunity to develop academic proficiency. That's a third grade. But when we get to 11th grade, our 11th graders last year performed above the state. They exceeded
035the state average. Many of those 11th graders were the third graders that you see here that didn't pass the state assessment when they were in primary student. So, there's a lot that we need to improve here. I'm not making any excuses for these data. We want better outcomes. We want better averages, but I think it's really important that we look at the continuum of the education for our students and not just the grade level outcomes. Ma, what would you like to add to that? >> The brain fascinates me and um I was able to attend a conference not too long ago where a neuroscientist was talking about a bilingual brain and the different components that they're using when they're reading. And yes, you don't see it in third grade, but their little brains are working
036really hard. And then you see that so much growth into in in 11th grade, and that's what's really exciting. [clears throat] Um, I wish we had the ESPA in their main language, but that doesn't exist. So, and I love that you said look at it as a as a whole. And I think that's something that we're going to be watching as a district is this trajectory. And um the next few slides you will see some um comparison data with English and Spanish and we'll we'll see the >> Juliana. Would you like to add anything for secondary? >> Um not at this time. >> Yeah. >> I s question I'm not sure which it is. When I was taking my graduate work in speech, I took a class called language acquisition. And at Dr. Max and
037Noral School, they talked about the young people, uh, the ones that I would never want to teach. I'd probably get hives being in elementary class. But um they had in their brain something called a language acquisition device. We don't know where it is. We then we didn't know where it was. Uh and it ages out at about six or seven years of age. So kids who learn bilingually at that grade level are doing it a whole lot easier than the poor kid such as me that was trying to learn Spanish or French as a sophomore in high school. And I just that stuff seems to support I think it's a a theory or whatever you want to call that younger people, you know, very the the elementary kid learns language in a different way than
038the sophomore, junior, senior in high school. And we think it might we think it should be the other way, but we get truly informed that we are and we have it backwards. Um that those kids if we were to teach those kids in dual languages in first, second, third grade like we do, their acquisition is much easier and much more permanent. >> I think >> I guess it wasn't a question. I guess it was just trying to impress you that I actually listened when I was taking >> Well, it's a good argument for um teaching Spanish and English to all students in our district. >> Yeah. Yeah. My goal is to expand dual language offerings. Um I think we're facing a couple of pretty rough financial years in front of us given the state revenue
039forecast and the uncertainty at the federal level. But once we get through what's in front of us, that is a priority for me. It's figuring out how to provide more opportunities to the students of Forest Grove School District. >> Yeah. Because if you see abroad Europe and other countries, they're learning they they have their native language, but they also learn English, you know, and it's it's sort of embarrassing to go to Europe. [laughter] You know, Americans, you know, they can't talk. I mean they some people can speak French, Spanish, but the majority of Americans don't. >> You're absolutely right. And Pete, to add to what you're saying about the multilingual brain, I think it's important for us to remember that the research is really conclusive now that we do have a language center in our
040brain. We do not have a reading center in our brain. So to learn to read, we are actually rewiring the brain to develop a skill that is not hardwired there. And the assessment is reading. It's not language. And so that takes time for students, especially when they are learning in two languages to develop the skill of reading. And in our district, we see that pay off by the time they're in high school, but it takes a while. Well, one of the things I'd like to mention around this topic is this this board is aware that the technical advisory committee that the state has put together to talk about what the accountability measures are going to look like for schools has been meeting and has requested boards to submit feedback on drafts of some of those
041accountability measures. And one of the ones, and I might ask Dr. West to talk about it because I know she's been elevating that conversation. I've been elevating that at the state levels with legislators around that third grade metric and why some of the things you just mentioned, you know, are and oppo are really opposed to what they're trying to use that third grade metric for. So some of this information here I think that we're hearing as board members. We have legislators that have not quite heard that in that capacity and even members of this technical advisory committee that haven't had that maybe uh in-depth conversation about how those accountability measures might change. I don't know if you want to talk just a little bit about that third grade metric in particular because your point you're
042making is that's that's not the metric that is the accurate description really of how our kids are growing over time. Not for our district or many other districts. Um in fact what's really interesting is that if you look at our data as a district and I believe I sent this to the school board in an update several weeks ago and this these data were first released. But if you look at our third graders last year who were fourth graders, let me rewind that. Third graders from 23 24 who were fourth graders in 2425. That is the correct way to say it. You see that those third grade those third graders actually improved as fourth graders. the number of students who were proficient as fourth graders increased quite a bit over their third grade proficiency levels.
043So we are seeing in our district in particular that that metriculation leads to greater proficiency almost every single year after year. We're just not seeing it in third grade because for us a third grade English assessment is an invalid measure of the health of our elementary students. >> Yeah. And our state is struggling to understand that we are not unique in this though. There are many districts like us in the state. We are not the only. Hillsboro, Woodburn, Salem, Kaiser, Hermiston, Jervis. we could identify many districts around the state that are have have a similar demographic to us. So I I would think as a board having this kind of data but also getting really confident as board members to be able to somehow say what was just said here because we we are being
044asked as board members at the state level for suggestions and we keep saying please ask our superintendents but those conversations um don't they happen in real time so I think we'll be at the children's institute lunch with legislators uh across the state on Thursday at different tables. And so for board members, that's, you know, we need to really lean into this presentation today and practice with each other sort of our messaging around that because that third grade metric is comes up quite a bit. Legislators saying, well, what about what about these scores? What about these scores? And so for board members to be able to say, well, actually, yeah, let me tell you about these scores. You know, that's where I think we want to get um so I appreciate I really appreciate the in-depth
045kind of primer on us here. Well, let's keep going. >> Yeah. Okay. So now we disagregate that overall score at the third grade level by demographic. So you can see at both the state level and almost in the forest school district as well our multi-racial students are one of the highest performing groups followed by white students then our Latino students students with disabilities and English learners. And so again, we have some work to do to improve outcomes for our different student groups and outcomes overall, but the progress that we are seeing and that you're about to see as we break this down even further, I think is something that we should celebrate. So here's our literacy local benchmarks. And for this, I'm going to turn it over to our colleagues in the teaching and learning
046department to walk us through how this is laid out and how to interpret the bar graphs that we see. >> Yes, thank you. This one's really exciting for me. On the left hand side, you'll see this is our um ELA benchmark. So, in the fall, what is happening to our students and in the right hand side, what's happening with our students who speak Spanish. So what I love about this data is it starts at the very bottom in 22 23 you see this group of students who were in first grade 70% of them were well below um where we wanted them to be nine what is that 21 of them were meeting benchmark or above but every year that same group of students that benchmark is increasing. So the next one up, they're now in
047second grade in 23 24. You could see how the red has decreased. So that's great news. The following year, they're in third grade. Now, this is our um end class data. So it's a screener that we apply three times a year. And then this year at the start of the year 2526 these students are in fourth grade. So you could see I'm going to quickly do that math 48% of them are meeting benchmark or above at the start of the year. So what do we predict for fifth grade? It's going to be even better. That's what that is what makes our hearts really happy. Then we look on the right hand side you see um that same group of students. However, these are students who are learning or taking the test in Spanish. They start
048in first grade. The majority of their time was in Spanish. They moved into second grade. that red decrease. That's what I want to see, that the red continues to decrease. In third grade, 2425, that number decreased again. And then in fourth grade, I don't know what happened there, but that's something to look at over over um all all in the district. So, that's very promising data. >> Yeah, we have questions about the fourth grade data that you see here. Um, one working theory, I talked to a couple of teachers about this in our schools and English increases in fourth grade. So, there's some wondering about we are in the process right now of restructuring our dual language model and how much time is spent in each language. So, one question that we have is with
049that new framework that we plan to introduce here in a year, I think, correct? Um, will we see the fourth grade not be so um troublesome for students as they're switching back and forth between English and Spanish? It might be a more supportive model for our fourth grade students and then as they enter town hall. Those are questions. We won't know that until we actually implement and take data, but people are already thinking about that. So that's that for me is really encouraging that we're looking forward that way. >> Are there any questions? Yes. >> So what is what's the difference between below and well below? >> There's a significant difference between two of those. Then it would seem to me that below could also sort of be nudged into that. They're meeting success in
050some areas. Not as many as we would like, but they're they're they're meeting the requirements in in some areas. I I would just like to know what the difference is between below and well below. >> I don't know the percentile ranks off the top of my head. I can get that for you. What I like about analyzing the data this way is just what you were thinking. When I when I have a class that 72% of them are in red, that tells me I need to apply instructional practices for the whole for the majority of the group, right? Whereas, if it's just 30% that that might be a pull out group. So, I know that doesn't quite answer your question. I I can get to the percentile piece, but I like to look at it
051kind of in that way of how am I going to apply instruction. And to your point, Keith, um this is where our teachers are really skilled. So, we're looking at district-wide data here, but at the classroom level, we have teachers looking at student level data. >> And so, they know exactly which students are in that below category. And to your point, some of them are this close to bumping over to being at grade level. And we are still learning as a system, but we are learning how to support those students at each level of their progression. And the interventions that are being implemented at the schools are able to identify those students, give them what they need to move just to the next level so that they are proficient. And evidence of that is this
052cohort trajectory. So it was at about the time those first graders were in school that we first piloted Amplify for new elementary literacy curriculum. And I believe that first year, not all students had access to it, but by the time they were second graders, everyone had access to it. And you can see that year over year, we're continuing to make gains. So that's really encouraging. Yeah, just a comment. [clears throat] You know, being at Cornelius and reading to the prek kinders, by the time they go to kindergarten, the majority of those kids know their numbers and their ABCs. And it's unfortunate that we're cutting, you know, the programs. We really need prekinder for all our schools. And u because that really that that goes with what people saying, you know, the the brain development from
053birth to age six is is just huge and the language acquisitions and vocabulary. So I wish we had a lot of money for thinking. >> I wish we had a lot of money period. >> Yeah, me too. I'll go with that one. [laughter] I'll second it. >> All right. Next up, so here we disagregate it by students who identify as Latino or English learners and then students in special education. Again, this is beginning of year. We would expect to see this change over the course of the year. We'll have two more opportunities to assess progress during the year and we'll bring that into the boardroom. Okay, math. So, similar graphs again. Um, here you can see Oregon versus Forest Grove School District. We are green. Oregon is still peachy. And overall, our math scores are
054not as encouraging as our language arts scores. We have some work to do here. Um, again, I'm going to pitch this over to our colleagues in teaching and learning in just a minute here. As I've talked to teachers about math and what that has looked like in the district for the last few years, one of the things that I've heard is the need for a curriculum, which we have recently addressed. And then also some need for some attention in regards to math pedigogy, especially at the secondary level. And then I've talked to a few people, including some parents, about math pathways and what do our math pathways look? so that students continue to be engaged at the appropriate level of math based on their skill and their aptitude. So those are all things that we've
055been working on just in the short time that I've been here. The team's done a lot of work on it and I know that work began before I started here in Forest Grove. Um so I start with that to acknowledge we've got some work to do with Matt. So with that, let me pitch it over to our colleagues on teaching. >> Yeah, I get to talk about the lesson. Um but uh there are some there is a lot of hope so I will stick with that. It is interesting to see uh this downward slide happening in the state as well. Obviously we're much lower um than the state. Um but it is interesting to see that that trend is statewide. Um some of the things that I am excited about with our district are the
056math adoption is huge. We went through a thorough adoption process that was really solid and then the training that has gone with that. So grades fifth through 8th or fifth through 12th started um with the new math adoption last year. Um so there was a lot of learning that came with that curriculums are very big and so trying to figure out the best scope and sequence and which pieces work really well um is challenging and um is going really well. What I what I hear from teachers who've been doing this and some of the early adopters who started last year in the younger grades is that um kids are talking about math more than they've seen. Um and we know if the kids do the talking they're doing the learning. Um and the other piece
057is we have focused on this year we're focusing on language supports across all areas because everybody is a language learner and have intentionally embedded this uh fall um some language supports within the adoption um training that happened for K through 4. So exactly where do you put in those sentence frames? ity put in anchor charts um so that it's um more bite-size um because it is overwhelming to to adopt a new curriculum and with those supports because our math curriculum is extremely literacyheavy. Uh there's a lot of text um within the workbooks. Um I I think that we're going to see a lot of growth um with that as well and especially we've had amplify in front of us. The science of reading is going to support all that math literacy as well. Mhm. Would
058you like that? Anthony, >> no. I was trying to see if I could find Pete's answer. It's [laughter] not right. The answer to his question. >> My comment on this was the entire state's got some work to do. >> Yes. I mean, we we are obviously we have nothing to brag about, but virtually every other school district has its word cut out for um 40% at third grade level and 20% at the 11th grade level. That's not that's not by any stretch of the imagination. even using mirrors and smoke. It's not good news. >> Now, something that we need to work on, um, the other wondering that I have in terms of how we interpret these data is that the high school is where we have the lowest participation rates for our state assessment. And
059there comes a there there is a point at which the results um may be called into question. Are they valid and reliable once you reach a certain threshold? Um the state will tell you anything over 70% interpret with caution. Anything over 90 95% interpretation you're or 95% participation you're pretty solid with your interpretations. Um we're not there. we have some work to do. Then we disagregated these data as well so that you can see the different demographics and how that breaks down. And as we've discussed, we have a lot of English learners that are taking these assessments who may not be proficient yet. Just as a point of um interest for those of you who are new to these type of data, the state does allow an English learner a one-year exemption from taking the
060test when they are new to the country, but only one year. And I go back to it takes five to seven years to develop academic proficiency, but we start assessing students in English almost right away after they arrive in the country as students. So not an excuse. There is work to do here, but there are also some interpretations that we need to be cautious about with these data. Okay, here's our map data for um you want you want to take that? >> Yeah. Um you'll see there are only three years here um which M plus had another one that is because before the 23 24 year we were still using the AP um which is a a different uh benchmark assessment and we found the MAP to be um a much better tool. um we
061can really disagregate data like see what skills our students are missing so that we can fill in um any skill gaps that we find. So um similar to the MClass like tuda um the state data we're looking at on the previous slides was that eighth grade row right there who are now ninth graders. So this is fall to fall to fall. So when they were in the fall of 8th grade, that's where they were. And now in the fall of 9th grade, where they are now. Um, so we do see even though it's not a steep improvement, there is improvement between 8th and 9th grade with this cohort of students. And although this um would probably be disputed by the assessment makers, I I wonder about where kids are at in middle school and their
062readiness for these kinds of assessments. Um it been in education enough years and at different levels to know that when our students get to middle school, even some of the best students go through a rocky patch. So, I have questions about what happens in eighth grade here because this is a pretty consistent trend in our district that our eighth graders perform worse in eighth grade than they did in previous grade levels and I'm wondering what's happening there. Um, there may be something to look at at NAMS itself, but I also have some wonderings just about developmentally. Where are kids at? And then again, disagregated by Latino, ELLL, and then special education. We expect these to improve as the year advances as well. >> Which grade level is this, or is this all? >> This is
063all. >> Okay. >> Yeah. because I'd like to see what the eighth grade scores look like. Does that get if that's possible again? >> We can share that with >> um >> because it always seemed to me and I was 15 years at Neil Armstrong both as a junior high and as a middle school. Eighth grade was by far by far the toughest grade for teachers and for kids as everything was happening. >> That was my point. >> Yeah. >> Agreed. Yeah, >> that's a great time. So, >> yeah, >> I do love a good graph. And we >> This a good one. This is a good one. We we have now a data analyst working with us who is helping us see data differently. So this is our historical proficiency by subject with three
064subjects that the state assesses which is language arts, math and science. Um as a reminder science only assesses three times fifth grade, eighth grade, 11th grade. So we have different data points in there. uh we have marked where amplify was introduced and then where the SAS math implementation was as well which was just last year so that you can see those points and we'll continue to track them over time so that we can also see whether or not that implementation is having the outcome that we expect. You can also see here the cut off for the COVID years. Um there was one year where the state dropped all testing. That was the spring of 2020. And then the following year, although there was assessment, it was not counted. And I honestly don't know how many
065students across the state actually participated in that. So we cut out those years. But the point here is that you can see the change over time. So the science net change from 201617 to where we're at today is negative one percentage points. ELA negative4 percentage points and then math negative 15 percentage points. Our colleagues in teaching and learning Juliana and Lamba did a nice job talking about math ELA is finally leveling out which is great. We expect that to start climbing again here soon. And then science is on the uptick. So, we're excited about that. What questions do you have about this graph? >> Science has just started the new twig at the middle level. Correct. Nles. Yeah. Yeah. It's 5 through 12. 5 through 12. >> Yeah. 5 through eight is twig. Thank you.
066And then high school is doing a McGra Hill. >> Okay. That's right. Okay. K4s will start next year. And then here you can see proficiency by class cohort for ELA and math. So we have two different colors there. Math and green, ELA and blue. And you can see again by class, so current 12th graders all the way down to current seventh graders and what their pathway has been for the last four years of assessment. You'll note that only our 12th, 11th, and 10th graders have COVID locked up because they were in a school at that time where our current seventh graders weren't quite being assessed during those co groups. What questions do you have about this? Again, some celebrations. We're back on the uptick in some areas and some work to do in that in
067particular. >> Okay, moving on. I'm really excited about these graphs, but I >> You need to get out more. >> That may be true. >> I do feel like we've leveled up with the graph. I Right. I know. I'm like, whoa. Yeah. So as we're talking about our internal data, so our benchmark data as well as our state data, we wanted to bring this next topic into the conversation because I think it's really important for us to understand so we can help others understand why it is so hard to move outcomes for an entire group of students in a content area. And I'm not going to take credit for these graphs. Lyanna Magda, you get credit for this. Alison Samuel gets credit for these. >> Okay. Well, Alison Samuel gets credit for this. She's the
068one who built the graphs, but I'm going to pitch it over to you two to have some conversation about what these graphs are telling us. >> You want to start? You can do it. I got about graphs. >> We'll start and then you will help me. We are excited about this graph because we we came to a conversation that said but we're seeing our kids grow and we needed for that for those in the in the conversation to see that it's not enough growth. And so we came, Suzanne talked to us, we talked with Suzanne and we said, I mean to Allison and we said we need to show the data so that staff can see how a student is growing and yet not growing enough. That's the piece I'm going to contribute. And I'm
069going to let Juliana jump in next with the color code. >> Yeah. So the color coding here matches pretty closely. We got hex codes to figure out color coding on the other one. So that's all fancy from data analyst. So but similar um we have case studies here these are real students in our district who started at different points um in their early years and it's very hard to read but that top graph that data point starts in grade six and it goes fall winter spring fall winter spring fall. Um and this is a student who we see started um in this red zone and it is really excited like Magda said to get excited like that growth is like oh it's so beautiful but if you follow that trajectory the line that you see
070vertically on the side that says Oregon ESPA level one. So even with that growth this student when they get to this coming spring is going to be at a level one on ESPA. Um, the next one shows a student who's a little bit higher and maybe made it up into the green, which we're like, sweet, that looks like maybe they're on track even. So, level two, which to have proficiency on the ESBA, you have to have a three or four. So, they're still not quite making it even though they're in the green. So, it's sneaky. Um, do you want to flip to the next slide? >> Yeah. Um, so a couple of other examples. Um, I wanted to be uh Alison provided me like dozens of these. Um, and it was fantastic, but this one
071is really interesting to me to see a student who's starting in the blue, which we would think maybe above grade level, they kind of end up flat. And so there's growth there. Um, but it's a little bit flat. And just reminds us, we need to be growing all of our kids no matter where they start. Um, and this student might make it to a level three, not even a four. Um, and I would have thought before seeing this that the student would for sure be at a four. Um, and then this last one here shows a student who has a dip and then flattens um, and ends up at a at a ESPA level two. So in the bottom slide, the student started the fall of 23 in what we would say grade level, but
072after a couple years, that student was at a level two in ESPA, right? And so what that tells us is the growth we're making is just not enough. And it opens the door for us to talk with teachers and staff like what are the moves that we have to make that we should be making to not just make rope but make rope in order to catch to close that gap. >> What grade level is this? They started in sixth grade. >> Okay. >> And then this is eighth grade in there. So it's very tiny. >> And I'll add a couple of things here. >> First, you can never intervene your way out of the core instructional issue. So these students that we are profiling here, I am sure that if Allison were to tell us
073who the students are, most of them we could go to their schools and find out that they are receiving highquality interventions. >> That's great. And in order to really move scores for a school district, you have to move all students. It's not enough to move just the one student. That is super important. But the interventions are not going to impact the overall ESPA scores for a school district. That's going to come from improvement in core instruction, which takes us all the way back to tools like the IWOK observation and high quality conversations between school leaders and teachers and collaboration between school leaders and teachers to improve instruction. We have to raise outcomes for all students to improve overall scores for a given district while at the same time making sure that we don't contribute to
074the Matthew effect. The Matthew effect is um you've probably heard the expression the rich get richer the poor get poorer. That Matthew effect exists in education too. So what we sometimes see in educational data is that if you have students start at two different levels in their academic pathway, those students who are already successful continue to be successful and those students who are struggling continue to struggle and that gap sometimes gets wider and wider. So we need to intervene for the individual students. We also need to work on the whole system. What questions do you have? Thank you. Okay, we got one more to show you. I'm excited about this one, too. It's not a graphic. [laughter] >> Yeah. Um, so BOY beginning of year, just to orient you. So, we're comparing the beginning of
075last year with the beginning of this year. Um, this is an assessment called FlashFlight 360 that we um administer just with our English learners and it allows us to assess where they're at with their developmental progress with the four domains that the ELPA assesses for the state, which are speaking, reading, writing, and listening. And so what you can see here is that for all students in their average speaking score we see an increase of 0.29 points and then in the writing score.2 and then the change from the beginning of last year to this year is about double that. Um so we are making great strides in the support that we are providing to English learners in our classrooms. again, opportunities to respond, the good work that teachers are doing, learning how to scaffold language, use
076anchor charts, some of those really uses are starting to make a difference. Now, there's a number I don't remember related to flashlight. Um, these numbers correlate to a year's growth in some way, right? >> It's.3. >> Yeah. And one quick little thing I wanted to mention about this chart where it says all students, it's all ELLs who are who've been in our system. >> Um whereas the the one that's the boy to boy is any student who took it in the fall who then took it again in the spring. So that wouldn't include last year's seniors and it wouldn't include this year's kindergarten students or any students who are new to our system. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, but 3 is a year's worth of growth. So 045 is celebration. It is a celebration. So
077we wanted to highlight these data with you to one look at the things we need to continue doing hoop in. There are areas where we need to do better and we are working on that. We're not shying away from that. That is our work. But there are also many things that we can celebrate as a school district. There's been a lot of work over the last couple of years in this district to improve instruction. Our teachers have really dug into that. our teachers on special assignment where they have embraced this. They are rock stars and really leaning into how do we improve curriculum? How do we improve instruction in the classroom? And we are starting to see that pay off. What questions can we answer for? >> Well, I would just like to make a
078comment. It would be nice if we had a couple of our legislators here seeing this data and and I think when we have our next work session invite our legislators because I think these kind of graphs and and the information um it's really helpful for them to understand and go back to their colleagues and so that would be a suggestion that I think >> that's a great idea. I'll invite them. >> Good. I'll call him up and remind him. >> Yeah. My Thank you, man. My question would be >> how do you test listening? I have been I again full exposure and I taught speech both at the college level and here in Forest Grove at at the high school and middle school and teaching reading, teaching writing, teaching speaking. I won't say it was
079no problem, but there was a curriculum that you could use. I I in the 28 years that I did that, I could not find a curriculum that effectively helps you teach listening. I still don't know how to do that. And I I don't know how you learn that. You just do what you pick it up. We have flashlight. We're using that tool. students are able to put headphones on and actually listen and then it prompts them to do something. And so that's right now how they're measuring if they're if they're following the prompt appropriately. [clears throat] >> And alpha has a listening component again headphone with a microphone. So they are listening and they need to respond to a prompt and that assesses their listening comprehension and then they speak into the microphone based on
080a prompt and that assesses their speaking skill. I can see what you're not saying. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> It's not natural to speak into a headphone. >> Yeah. Yeah. And he measured that way. >> Artificial that to me that's an artificial arena. >> And stuff you learn in an artificial arena, you have a tendency to forget when you walk out the door or maybe when you even get within walking distance of the door. Um, I think it's I think evaluating listening is a tough thing to do because it's a tough thing to teach. And I think if you ask 90 teachers how they teach it, you're going to get 90 different lesson plans. >> And of the four domains, students actually score higher in listening. And I've seen that across different districts, not just our
081district. So, what that tells me is they're doing a they're doing a lot of listening and they need more opportunities to talk. >> We teach them to talk. Well, God forgive us. Uh we teach them to read, we teach them to write, we try to teach them to listen. They do that more than they do the other three combined. I do know that and I think it's a miracle sometimes that we the kids get get the idea for listening skills. I worked on it and worked on it worked on it. Some some got it, some didn't. But we do it more than we do anything else. We're really excited about Flashlight as a resource, not just to measure, but for students to practice so that when they do go and take the ALPA test, that
082one test one time a year, that's very unnatural, they've had multiple opportunities to practice in the same format. So, we're hopeful that it we will see increase in results. >> Do we need both? I that was just I was just going to say why don't we just take three minutes. Does anybody need a break? >> I'm good either way. >> We're all good. We just keep going. >> Okay. Well, I'm going to use a question, but we'll just You got to continue. Okay. Yeah, keep going. >> I'm gonna keep going since I've been given instructions. So, we're going to talk about teacher student relationships. This is just one of the domains that is included in the SEAL panorama survey that is given a couple times per year to our students um up to grade 8.
083The high school has a separate survey that um I need to dig into more. So those data are not included here. It's their own self-developed survey. So it doesn't quite have a onetoone match. These are the questions that make up the teacher student relationship domain. It's these four questions. So, when we look at the next several slides, you'll see what is informing the um metrics that we're going to review. So, if you were upset when you came into your class, how concerned would your teachers be when teachers ask how are you? How often do you feel they really want to know your answer? How excited would you be if you could have your same teachers in the next grade, too? And then, how respect are your teachers towards you? This domain was selected because it's
084very highly correlated to sense of belonging and that is really important to our students. So, we're going to start with grade three. Um, this is information that spans back to the fall of 2022. And you could see back then our students rated this question um 81% favorably. Um, let me pause here for just a minute and explain that. So, when students are asked to respond to Panorama SEAL survey, it's not a yes or no question. It's a question that is framed more along the lines of how do you feel about this question? And then they rate it on a scale. And that's where we get these favorability scores. Um, it's not the percentage of students necessarily that said, "Yes, my teacher does this." It's the percentage of students that rated that overall question domain favorably.
085You can see that we took a at the beginning of the last school year, 2425. We're in the exact same place at the beginning of this school year. Um, if this trend is similar to last year, we'll see that overall percentage climb. That's what we would expect to see. What we hope for over time though is that we return to the steady progression that we started in the fall of 2022 and see that stabilize and level out and start to increase incre incrementally over time. So there's something in there for us to do some work around. But another way to look at these data is where are we nationally with this response. So for our third grade um you'll see over here on the left hand side that I have selected some things. I wanted
086to make sure we were comparing ourselves to non- urban schools because we're not an urban school that we're looking just at elementary schools and for our percentage of students that qualify for free or reduced meals, we're right there in that middle, that 30 to 70%. So our 72% favorability rating at the third grade puts us right about the 70th percentile nationally. So again, there's some work that we can do there, but it's also not terrible. Skipping to fourth grade, you can see that that favorability rating is a little bit higher and also a little more stable. And then for our fourth grade students, that's at the 99th percentile. So that's really good. Go fourth grade teachers. they're doing something right at the fifth grade. 76% favorability rating and that's quite a bit higher than where
087we have been and that's rated at the 90th percentile nationally. sixth grade 63% favorability rating and that is at the 30th percentile nationally. Now I want to pause here for just a minute because our sixth grade in this district is in an upper elementary school. That is an unusual model. There are K6 schools. There are middle schools that are six through eight. But it is unusual to have an upper elementary school. Look at what happens when I shift from elementary to middle school. We're at the 90th percentile. So I think I I don't know what that means really. I have questions about the implications of that for this upper elementary school model and what it might mean as we think about how we're supporting students compared to other districts around the nation. But there's something
088in there to take a look at which is why I wanted to see these data this way. >> Yeah. >> Could you go back two slides? >> So you know in the fall the kids do not know their teachers or new teachers. So, you would think that that number in the spring would increase. So, it went from 61%. Uh, oh, I'm looking at fall 23. I saw I think I was thinking there should be more of a >> increase towards >> increase in the spring because they know their teacher now and they have they know their classmates and there should be more of a sense of belonging, wouldn't you think? I think that's a fair hypothesis. I've also worked with sixth graders. Oh. Oh, okay. All right. I have >> Bless you, Mar. [laughter] >>
089So, okay. All right. I I was just that was just an observation, a quick observations. >> No, and we would like to see that increase over time as well. >> Yeah. So, there's there are some questions to ask here and some work to do here. Um, and what really piqued my curiosity was this difference switching from elementary to middle school and how that changed the overall percentile. I thought that was fascinating. >> So, it wasn't us. It was everybody else. [laughter] >> That's the conclusion I draw. >> No, I'm there's a a German seriousness in there in that This upper elementary is that mixture. It's neither fish nor foul. >> Right. That's exactly it. >> And using those two those two barometers, we end up with with different results. Because, and I'm hypothesizing here, is
090that there is no other animal for us to be compared to other than the elementary school or the middle school. There is no category nationwide for upper elementary. There's not. >> You're exactly right. and most elementary schools that include a sixth grader K6. So those students have been in that school with typically a relatively stable group of teachers for seven years. So very different than the model that we have. And when we were six, seven, eight at middle school, when both McCall and Armstrong were were middle schools, we had the sixth grader instead of being at the top of the academic rung in an elementary school. They were coming in and they were the ones who were the new kids on the block. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And that I'm sure impacted in fact I
091know it impacted some of their how they reacted to to education course. Okay. Uh so seventh grade again that 53% favorability rating puts us at the 70th percentile nationally. And then eighth grade 53% favorability and that puts us at the 70th percentile nationally. So going back to where I started, this is an important metric for us to pay attention to this domain because it tells us something about sense of belonging. It's very highly correlated to how students feel they fit in their school space. So we're going to continue to monitor this um over time. Um, the good thing about Panorama is that we're looking at data in this way. Our schools are able to disagregate even further than what you see here and build some of their SEAL lessons around what they learn through their
092panorama survey. In fact, we do some MTSS work around that as a system. Um, so I know that our teachers and our school leaders are very into these metrics and trying to improve that sense of belonging for kids. What questions can I answer for you? Are these evaluations or substance questions given to the students all in English? Are they translated in Spanish for any of the book? >> I believe they are all in English. I can ask. No, they are taught in Spanish. >> Okay, great. >> Super. Thank you. It's been a long time since I administered myself. All right, we're going to move on. Still doing good. Okay. All right. So, elevating voices in education. This was a new survey last year. Um, as I shared, it replaces previous surveys that were administered at
093the state level. And these surveys are listed up there. For Forest Grove School District, um, we had between 1% and 25% of our staff take this survey. For me, that's really not helpful to return a range like that, but that's how the state returned the range. But I point that out because that means we should interpret these results with caution. That's not a significant number of our staff. We're going to do some work with our school leaders this year to encourage more staff to take this survey because the questions are really good and you're going to see that here in just a few minutes. Um, so we're going to dig into this so that you have at least a baseline to develop an understanding of um, what these questions are asking of our colleagues and
094what we might do with them. So this is a summary document. It shows all employees in our district, just teachers, um, staff refers to classified staff. Everybody has an opportunity to take this. It's not just teachers like the TEL survey was. administrators could take it too. It is um blanked out like that because it was such a small sample size that the state could return results for us. It's similar to the SBAC in that way. The blue score that you see here on the left hand side by the different domains, that's the state score for all employees. So you can see how we compare. Now, I'm not going to get into all of these data. I'd be happy to share the link to the um survey results if you want to dig into all of
095these different domains. I'm going to quickly highlight six different domains and I chose the top three and the bottom three scored domains. So starting with meaningful work, the statements down below are the statements that feed into that domain. And you can see that based on responses of the 1 to 25% of our staff who responded um overall the one that received the highest ratings was here. The climate and my workplace is safe. Um that's important for us to monitor because psychological safety is really important for people to be able to do their best work. Again, it's not perfect. We we can have some room for improvement certainly. Um but that was encouraging to see there where we have obviously some work to do. My work values my perspective. I was disappointed to see that being
096the lowest rated in this particular domain. Um what that tells me is that we need to do some work as a district around creating the space to ask questions and listen and make sure that we have collaborative processes in place in our school spaces. So, let me pause before I go on. What questions do you have about this domain? It was our highest rated domain at 87. >> Are these swing by like a scale on defend or how to how to just get right? Yeah, there is an algorithm. So, they were rated by everybody on a scale and then that scale was multiplied by the number of questions divided by 100. There is a formula that I can send you for how they came up with this score if you'd like to see it. Um,
097it's not a straight 87% of the responses were positive. It it's a more nuanced algorithm than that. Yes, it's hard to have questions yet because of the low percentage of turnout. I I think for next year I would be interested to know for the people that did take it how they what that question meant to them. >> Yeah. My my immediate reaction would think I would think that they might be referring to administration, >> right, saying things and not feeling like you're maybe some sort of tension there, but I don't know if there's a way to tease out in this survey what it is. Otherwise, you're just getting this next year, but you're guessing. Is that for a principal to discuss with their staff to say, "Wow, let's look at this. What do we think
098about that?" and see where do you >> Well, that's 100% what it is. Okay. So, if [laughter] >> 100%. Um, so I'm thinking back to the days when I was a principal and we administered the tell survey and I'm sure it was different in different buildings. But what we did with this as a staff with that information is when we got it back, they actually took a look at it and asked ourselves, okay, if this rating is the lowest, why? and we created space for some conversations around that. Now again, you have to have some psychological safety to have that conversation, right? Um and for your staff to be honest with you, but we really tried to work on, okay, how do we create a workplace where we can feel good about these things and
099where we can feel valued and where, you know, that the work you're doing is contributing to a positive atmosphere for your co-workers and for students and their families. Um, those are important conversations for us to have. >> Is that Oh. So, do you tease out classified versus certified first district? >> Well, that's what you saw. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> So, you can see the difference between teachers and staff encompasses everybody other than a teacher. >> Okay. >> Or an administrator. And I can share with the board if you're interested. There's a link to a dashboard where the you can drill into this a little bit more and see all the other domains. Again, I'm just highlighting six of them here to give you an overview of where we did really well and where
100we have certain room for improvement. And then I guess I would be interested to see maybe the value even though there were only 1 to 25% that took it is that it then allows now this conversation. I would like to see some followup to say to see like so what what did happen from those conversations which which buildings had those and what came up and then what was the next you know what were some um changes that were being made and that's that's usually what we ask in general of what we'd like to see as a board. But yeah >> well and you're getting a first preview. These are new data so our school leaders haven't had a ton of time to immerse themselves in this but that will come. >> Other questions? >> Yeah,
101there is one more and it's goes back to uh number the third one from the left. Climate of my workplace is safe. I I'm getting concerned about that because of the overall environment. The idea if we have reports of students and students families um facing attacks or arrests or whatever you want to call them. Um, how does that does that translate to teachers and and and staff also sharing that unease not only for their students and their students families, but for themselves because Vasquez Berdomo gives the the Supreme court has said they people can be arrested or stopped or interrogated based on >> what they look like, >> skin color and the language they're speaking. And I find that not only appalling, I find it uh something that would make a great number of people
102in this country very very nervous with no reason at all. >> So I would like to see if if this test goes on, if we if [clears throat] we continue with this, maybe we are rigging the results. But we preface it by saying it's more important now than ever that you participate in this because this is going beyond our classroom doors and our schoolhouse doors to a national question. We need to play a role in that. >> Yeah, I appreciate that, Pete. Um, this assessment was last spring, so before ICE was in our area. And to affirm what you're saying, I have talked to staff and families across the district who are scared. They're really frightened right now. So many of us are not feeling safe. And I wouldn't want teachers and staff to look
103at that and say,"Well, this is a good place to teach. This is a good place to work." So on and so forth. I believe it is a good place to teach and a good place to work. But that belief we need to pass on, we need to inculcate into our school population. Also, if it's if they're nervous about coming to school, we've got to work very very hard at making sure that once you come in the doors, you're safe because this is a safe place for me and it'll be a safe place for you. >> And we have done that work to continue to do that. Yeah, thank you for that >> and I appreciate the comments you've been putting out on all that. I neglected to say that, but it's uh you do a
104very good job with that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, moving on to the next one. Sense belonging. Our second highest rated at 82. I'll let you weave the statements down there. Again, this was a I was interested in this in that the responses are very stable across this full domain. There weren't a lot of highs. There weren't a lot of lows. Certainly some room for improvement. Really heartened to see that people feel that their co-workers care about them. That's what we hope for in all of our work environments and areas that we'll continue to take a look at. >> Grade level, sorry, work grade level teachers took the uh the survey. >> One to 25% of our teachers took the survey. That is all we know. >> All we know. >> That's all
105we know. >> And that level of anonymity is really important so that staff can be honest. >> Yeah. Okay. workplace safety. So, I'll let you read those domains there. Some good feedback here about health and safety trainings. Even with a small survey sample, that is clearly an area that we could add. So these are our three highest. I I will send out to the school board the link so that you can dig into all the others. But there's some interesting information here that I think will be good conversation starters with our school leaders and then school leaders with their staff. Now there were some areas where we didn't do as well. wrong button. So, workplace leadership, this is one of our lower domains. I'll let you to the statements down below each of these. If
106you look at this last one here, ask for feedback. I think there's a certainly a connection there to being valued and their opinions being valued that were there's some consistency in these responses that I we need to learn from and respond to. And there's a couple of other low ones that I certainly flagged like to believe that our leaders don't understand the work that is taking place that I have questions about that and I have questions about not believing that our leaders positively influence the workshop is being done. Again, I'm interpreting these results with caution, but I I have questions. workplace safety. Oops, I went the wrong way. Satisfaction. Uh, so a lot of statements here within the satisfaction domain. So the way this was phrased is a little bit different than the other area.
107So it says up at the top indicate the degree to which you are satisfied with the following area. So instead of agree with the statement, it's agree agreement with different areas, which is why you see something here. A lot of takeaways there and again a lot of questions. I have questions for example about opportunities to work from home. >> Yeah, that was interesting to me too. >> Yeah, I mean our students are in our classroom so there aren't too many opportunities to work from home. I don't know how we can really influence that. Um voice and decision- making again I'm seeing some consistency in responses here. There's certainly some something we need to look into there. Workload is something we talk about a lot. So I'm not surprised to see that. And then the last
108domain was professional learning activities. And this question is if you've participated in professional learning activities, how do you describe them? and it's valuable, relevant, innovative, equity focused, excessive. I'm not surprised by these results. The survey that was given out previously asked some questions about professional learning and there was quite a bit of critique related to that. So, these responses align with what I saw in the previous surveys that this district could use. But this is I believe our lowest domain out of those that were included in the survey. What is interesting about this response and what I want to acknowledge we are working on because that feedback that we received in those previous surveys and the feedback that we have received after every professional learning opportunity we do look at. And so we just had
109an opportunity um Friday with our colleagues and asked them following that professional learning opportunity what they thought. We're asking the same questions as the EVE survey frame it the same way. And you can see that overall when the EVE survey was completed in the spring, um, lots of opportunity there, still not perfect, but Friday's professional learning was certainly rated much better than what we saw in the spring. So, this is an area that we're paying close attention to and working on. >> So, what percent on the right participated? uh the end size in the survey >> 280 teachers. >> 280. >> What percentage did you say? >> I don't actually know. >> Almost 50 isn't it? >> Uh we have about 380 teachers if you're going to tell us Janet. >> I don't know that
110I do have that number. >> That's a good idea. >> I I was curious because um it looks much better. >> Yeah, this these are much better outcomes. of course they were very specific to a day of professional learning and not um more ubiquitous over the course of the encompassing of the entire year. Um so that that is one contrast that I think is important to keep in mind but it's something that we're working on something that we'll continue to improve in. So the EVE survey I as I started with I really like what is being asked in these questions and these statements because they're specific. It allows for us to ask questions of ourselves and then have some conversation with our staff around how we can improve in these areas. And I also really
111liked I I pointed out in several of these graphs the consistency that we saw in just that one area of my voice matters. Now the statements were slightly different in the different domains, but it was a consistent theme and seeing that tells us that's an area that we really need to work on. So this survey has some real benefits for us as a district. It it can help us identify where each of us. hard thing I think about it being that anonymous but maybe the silver lining is you might think that the group that was motivated to take it the 1 to 25% sometimes those are staff that like yeah I'll take that survey you know like they have something to say right I mean that's I would say with any organization that might be
112who is very motivated what I'm interested to know in those discussions as more people consistently take the survey you you might generally see what we see on the right which still includes the voices of that small in the right but they maybe get a little bit lost. So, what I kind of like about the fact that it was so small is it does maybe acknowledge for those people that feel like, wait, I they're not that looks here, but I'm still, you know, it gives them a chance to maybe see that, oh, yeah, we oh, we we saw that. But I think with the anonymous piece, just creating, like you said, the challenge is creating the space where people do feel like they can get into the detail of what they're really getting out there. >>
113The one on the right actually wasn't anonymous. ours that we do with our district has collective emails so that we can follow up folks. >> Okay. I mean, I like I think it's nice to Yeah, that's what I'm curious about with the anonymous piece. There's value in that, but then you you hope that that those people saying that feel that's what we hear is what's the point of the survey. Well, I I really like what people I think can be hearing today is how much we value all of it. Whether it's a little turnout or a big turnout, you can still get some takeaways from it that drives discussion for change. So, I really appreciate the indepth display of all of the pieces. >> Yeah, I'm excited to see this over time and to do
114some work in some of these domains and and evaluate what impact that has. >> I I think the community of our staff will I think the scores will go up. I think previously before your time we did surveys and then there was no followup or feedback back to the staff and I think they just got fatigued on taking surveys. Um and um if they see a survey that they're a participant in in trying to improve the relationships within the building and the relationships with instruction, I think more people will take it. But in the past um there was no followth through on on the results. I hear that. And it's easy for surveys to get lost, especially if there's too many of them. >> Right. Right. >> The benefit of a survey is that unfortunately
115I can't talk to every single employee in the district about all of these different areas, but they can indicate how they're feeling and thinking through a survey and we can get a sense of where the district is at. Well, I think also if if the teachers or the staff within each building um have a sense of belonging with the administrator and the community there. I think that's really essential. >> Yeah, 100% agree with that. >> We still doing okay. All right. Uh, so this is just one other aspect of the professional learning rate of quality. Um, so, okay, I'm really curious about this. I'm just going to point this out and then move on because I know we're going long here. I don't know what another curriculum and instructional professional learning activity is that apparently
116a lot of people are really interested in. So, again, this was in the spring. It's hard for me to assess why that would have been selected, but it was clearly on the minds of those who responded. And then it is interesting to me to see what else was rated high, the top three priority areas. So, community and family engagement. I I love seeing that there. That is something that we need to work on. Support for students with IEPs and 504s. And then mental health and wellness. seeing those as additional priorities. I think that aligns with what we hear often from our teachers. So data to validate that and it gives us something concrete to anchor to so that we can work to improve offerings in those areas. Okay, you ready to roll? All right, I'm
117going to turn it over to Sarah for the staffing update. You can do it. >> For the staffing update, we have a couple of goals from our a goal from our strategic plan and a couple of objectives that are applicable to um our team and the work that we do in in HR. Um, goal four, objective one is to recruit, develop, and retain staff who are connected and committed to the success of our diverse student populations. We've had some discussions here this even already about those and I will explain those. An objective to cultivate equitable, healthy, and resilient systems that encourage shared ownership. So, we're going to first look in um look at our race and ethnicity data. Um, this slide is showing how our student population race and ethnicity compares to our licensed educator
118race and ethnicity. Um, years of research highlights the positive impact um that happens when an educator diversity reflects the diversity of student populations um both on academic achievement and um emotional development. And so as we dig into this, you'll see that come up. Um this first slide here that compares students and licensed educators shows that we do have a bit of a gap um or an imbalance in the percentage of Hispanic students um Hispanic or Latino students and Hispanic and Latino um educators. And so that is something that we uh we will notice here on licensed educators. And then as we move to classified staff that imbalance uh does um well I guess uh it's less of an imbalance here. These numbers are reflective of the state of Oregon. um across the state of Oregon
119um there is also an imbalance in that way. So Hispanic and Latino students make up about 25% of students across the state of Oregon and only about 11% of teachers are Hispanic and Latino. Um and so there is an imbalance there as well or a gap there. Um we have a higher percentage here in our district of students that are Hispanic and Latino. Um but we do still see that uh same um those same numbers play out. Many of our classified staff do work very closely with our students. Um so this is an encouraging network that era and then our administrators again there is a bit of an accuracy. So, when we look at race and ethnicity over time, we um in the Hispanic and Latino line specifically, we do see some positive um or
120or some increases over time, which is a wonderful thing to see. We hope to continue that um continue the the increase in that diversity even though it is slow at this point. um recruiting from within our community is a great way to be able to um help have a positive impact in that way. And working with universities whose student populations um reflect the uh demographics of our students is another way in which we continue to make progress toward um minimizing that gap. Moving on to our retention rate. um looking at our retention rate over the last few years. Uh during COVID, the retention rates plummeted all across the US. Um and so we're going to focus tonight on the retention rate since CO. This graph shows the retention rate from the 2223 school year to
1212324. Um 232 2425 and then this again this year. So for the retention rate, we're looking at the number of staff who were employed on October 1st of the first year. So October 1st of 2223 of those staff who were retained on October 1st 23 in 2023 24. Um so this is showing that for licensed educators um we had 87.44% of our staff um from 2223 were still on staff in 2320. So this is a wonderful increase that we've seen over the last few years. Um there is a lot of data um on retention rates and and sometimes it's conflicting um but the general sense that I got as I was researching for um the presentation tonight is that teacher retention rates of about 85 to 87% are typical um so this is uh wonderful
122to see that our retention rates are higher than that and increasing still >> does this include the fact that we we um we had to reduce by not I try and say like by not hiring or filling positions and the reductions we've had to make and continue to make and probably are going to continue to have to make is that factored into the retention rate so it's or is it not factored? >> It wouldn't be factored in because those individuals if we were doing that through attrition which is my understanding so jump in if there's something else those individuals would have left anyway and would not have been retained. >> Okay. So, the one thing I will say about this is um we do some hiring for long-term leaves of absences which we have seen
123increase over the last few years is my understanding. And so, um, as another layer to this, I would like to begin looking into that and tracking that data and see if there's a way that we can kind of tease that out or or, um, or kind of look at that as another layer deeper of this to see how um, that is impacting these retention rates. >> And when we have to go out um, Kim like for SLPs and things, is that also part of retention rate? Is that those those own separate little contracts we have to do with >> Contract employees. >> Uh I mean our SLPs that are our employees would be counted in this if they work if they were retained or they do back. Um so yeah they would not the agency
124folks. No. >> Okay. The contract staff were not counted in this though. So if an SLP left in one of these years they would not be retained. So they would not be in this percentage. But if we hired an agency staff member and that staff member turned over, they're not included in this graph. >> Okay, thank you. >> So an overall retention rate hovering around 90% is um it's wonderful. >> So we have a couple of programs um for grow your own right now. Um as we think about uh retention rates and recruitment and re and hiring um one of the ways in which we um recruit staff is through these grow your own programs um and retain staff. Some of these individuals who participate in the grow your own programs are staff members. Um
125the grow your own programs also support um high school students or community members as well. So the point of these is the this particular grow your own program is to create opportunities to support Oregon's future bipok educators um on their path to becoming a teacher. So the program helps to support staff me or support individuals in the community who are interested in becoming teachers but may not know the path to get there or may need some um support in order to make that next step. It is not just teacher a teacher pathway that the diverse educator pathway supports. Um this pathway can also support individuals in becoming school psychologists, SLP speech language pathologists, um occupational therapists, school nurses, librarians and social workers, which is really helpful because sometimes those are the hardest to fill positions
126that we um have available. So, in addition to the 17 high school participants and seven community members who participate in this program who are working toward a degree um in education of some kind, we do also have three connectors who um are district staff who support and help the participants walk through the steps to get to the place where they are enrolled in a program and are working toward a degree in education. Um they support the participants by helping them complete the FAFSA which we uh is a very arduous process. Um they help apply for scholarships um and then make it through the admissions process for the university in which they do have a second grow your own program called the teacher connect program. This one is through the Portland Community College. Um this program
127has two participants and uh participants can remain in the program even after they have their teaching degree and have their um their license certificate. And so as and I think in that way they u move through like licensed or I'm sorry master's degree programs. So, we do have two current Forest Grove School District teachers who have moved through this program, obtained their license, taken positions with us, and then they're continuing their education through the program, which is really awesome. The future of Grow Your Own um is uncertain. The Grow Your Own grants that help fund these programs um are only um available through 2027. I believe the 26 27 school year um and our we don't see any extensions in sight at this point. So this will be a gap that we may want to
128be creative in how we fill going forward so that we can continue to keep um our high school participants who are interested in education engaged in that and help create um pathways and support for them to be able to move into um an education track university. To add to that, there's a lot of conversation about this because the diverse educators is really important for the state and with diversity, I want to add certainly having bilingual educators, bipok educators is a priority and it is really hard to find SLPs. So that is a group that is included within the diverse educator pathways as well as school psychologists. So there is a lot of conversation taking place right now around how do we retain this because unfortunately somebody said at the legislative level in the last session
129we have enough teachers and that's why the grant was identified for expiration and that decision was made before people came alongside to say wait a minute uh we actually don't and here's all the data to support this. Um so we're trying to undo a decision that was made in the long session. We might be able to make some progress in the short session. There's some conversation around that maybe along with everything else. >> I will also share that um as I was looking at data it appears that diverse educators are more likely to attend a community college. So the program that allows them to start at community college and work through that pathway first um is is really helpful. So we see a lot of um use in these programs and hopefully there will be
130ways to be able to continue the funding for them. I >> I I'll add too at the school board level at least our other school boards in the region. I mean there is quite a bit of buzz about the shakiness of the funding for this and everybody agreeing like whoa wait a second but it is it feels like each week there's a different well where is that fun it's just really it is really rough right now to we we're hearing that people want this program but our legislators have now not provided funding and so trying to sort of move some pieces it's but there's I mean we there's no question that people value that but >> yeah they value it but they want us to do it for free >> right it's yeah but that
131is one of the things >> okay thank you >> yeah so on the topic of recruitment um I am so new to the district I'm still learning all the recruitment opportunities haven't been through a recruitment season yet but a couple of things I wanted to highlight here in this um as I continue to learn about them is we have a good number of student teachers placed. Um we already have 18 student teachers who are um in our schools so far this year and those are wonderful opportunities to um recruit future teachers for our district. Um from what I've seen a good number of those are local uh community members, which is awesome. Um that goes back to recruiting from within our community. Um and we have uh student teachers from five different universities at this
132point. Um I did just get an email today from um PCU and we are working to place another eight for the spring semester. So those are additional. Those will keep continue to come in over the next few weeks and months I'm sure um to be able to increase our total student teacher count for the year. And then we will be attending some regional recruitment fairs. Um, my hope, I don't know, um, what all was involved in uh, recruitment fairs in the past, but my hope is to be able to work with some um, staff across the district to have a team of representatives to be able to attend recruitment fairs. Um, that would be a great support. It gets our principles and maybe even teachers out there to be able to um, to represent our
133district well. Um, and so I've heard of a couple. Louis and Clark is one of the uh universities that I already have an invite from. Um I've heard there's one in Salem and so I'm looking for those opportunities um for to attend recruitment fairs and and coming up with a team putting together a team of staff to be able to represent forest grow. We received some um information from EDG staff this about a a week ago I guess uh that I wanted to be able to share and highlight. Um our fill rate for certified staff, so this is going to be for our licensed um educator absences at 98.62% which is uh high as you'll see on the graph on the right. It's higher than the state average. Um it is also higher than our
134neighboring district average. Um that was shared with me last week when we met. And then our classified although our classified fill rate is lower than our licensed fill rate, it is again still higher than the state average. Um I So then here is our fill rate over the last few years. Um this is just a look at the month of September. So September 23, September 24, and September 25 just to kind of give a snapshot of how our fill rates have increased over time. Um, I have heard feedback from principles that it is tough when the classified uh, positions go unfilled in the building from day to day. And so, Destiny, our representative from EDG staff and I have been working together to try to come up with ideas for how we continue to recruit
135classified um, substitutes. Um, she has already putting ads on social media, including Indeed. Um, and then she attends local job fairs when she can. Um, so I've been thinking about other ideas that um, you know, sometimes our um, our group that we want to recruit from is right in front of us. And so was thinking maybe flyers in schools for parents that may want to have a similar schedule as their students um, and messaging in school newsletters. So, we are we're trying to think about different ways that we could incorporate um recruitment opportunities for our classified substitutes as just quickly for those who may not know, EDUS staff is our third party contractor who uh we work with to fill vacancies. So then let's talk about the future of HR. Um so first I want
136to recognize the hard work that our HR team has done. This is the busy season for HR. We're just coming off of that and so um all of the new hires that we have uh worked with and all the paperwork we've processed and um I just want to recognize them and their hard work. We really appreciate them um for the the current HR team. Um, we do have a new position, the HR specialist for leaves and benefits. Um, before I was even hired, it was identified that this would be a helpful position um, to help support and serve our staff. The leaves process here in Oregon is complicated. Um, it's complex and tricky and there's a lot of paperwork and a lot of details. Um, especially at a time when staff are already um, you
137know, when you're going on leave, there's already a lot going on in your life. And so um for us to have the opportunity to better support our staff in that situation is really exciting for us. We have um a lot of room to grow in um I think in our benefits communication. That's one area where I think we could um increase our opportunity to uh be a touch point for and a resource for our staff. So um we're looking forward to having that positions have a couple of uh areas of specialty. We do also see some opportunity in creating um innovative and accessible um processes in HR. Uh this could include increasing um the utility of our website and how staff navigate that and the resources we have available on our website. Um, I think
138it's also um just our our communication, the amount of communication that we put out for staff to be able to consume either in a newsletter or um making staff aware of our processes so that they know um where to go for what information and who to contact. Um we have also been creating some efficiencies. So the forms um moving from paper forms to electronic forms is a really simple example, but that is one area that we are we've already taken some strides since I've been here and we're interested in continuing that work. Um and not just with that example, but with um all of our processes through HR. So trying to figure out how we can streamline and and create efficiencies where we can because that will allow us to be um better resources for
139our staff and and have the um the time and the ease of processes for our staff to be able to. So >> what questions do you have? really just appreciate that Sarah just landed here or maybe drove here and just hit the ground hit [laughter] the ground running and um really have appreciated the hard work you've done to get some of these things in place and your communication and just go get itness. It's a word. Thank you. >> Go get it. >> Well, I don't it's not time's a wasting. We don't need Okay, [laughter] anyone else? >> Yeah, you've done a good job jumping in and thank you. Okay. Um, and speaking of great jobs, I think we're Oh, sorry. She's back to No. Oh, deposit to director of finance. I'm include. >> All right.
140So, tonight we have for you uh the first uh financial report of the year. And in the packet is um some attachments. And we are looking at changing our financial reporting this year. We've been working over the last couple of months on just redesigning it. So, it's not just three or four slides um every few months in this presentation. It's more of a reoccurring regular report to you that has both graphs of charts and text to help explain things um just to be able to try to increase the transparency uh the readability and oversight um as the year goes on. And so in that you'll have a monthly, a quarterly, and an annual report. Um the annual report is the one we will start with. And this one is there's more detail in the report.
141I'm going to highlight a few things um in the slides, but this is closing out the 25 school year. So last school year, we've completed our interim audit. So this is almost final. Um once our audit gets completed then they'll become final numbers. Um I don't see any changes but ultimately this is the gen not the general fund this is districtwide resources expenditures and ending fund balance resources. We had $296 million of total resources last year. 40% was beginning fund balance rolled forward from the prior year. 16% local, 27% state, and then 12% other. The beginning fund balance is such a large chunk of that. Primarily because of our bond, we're still expending all of those resources. So, we still have um beginning fund balance was 118 million of that total $296 million. Uh but
142as our bond funds start to go down, then that will also decrease in the total percent resources. Uh looking at expenditures, we had $190.9 million of instruct of expenditures, 35% instruction, 21% support services, and then that's where you'll see the 32% facilities acquisition and construction. So that's our bond work that we've been doing. Our ending fund balance on the left um shows where all of the major funds ended last year. The general fund is 14% of the total ending fund balance for the district. But that is our only unrestricted resources. So 15 million of that 105 million is unrestricted. The rest is held for a specific purpose. held for bond, held for um debt service payments, held for our nutrition services or our grants. Um so that 15.1 million is where our ending fund balance
143for the general fund landed. >> May I embellish that just a bit? Um again, for those who don't spend a lot of time in financials, think of that ending fund balance as your savings account. So when the car breaks down and it $2,500 repair bill, you go to your savings to pay for that. Hopefully you have some savings. That's what this is for us. So when a boiler needs to be replaced, when a roof collapses, when a tree falls down and damages a building, we have resources that we can go to. They're one-time expenditures that we can cover that are unexpected, keeps the lights on for us. And the ending event balance also helps since um property taxes don't come in until November and we frontload a lot of expenditures at the start of the
144school year. So it allows us to have that um cash flow to be able to cover the initial start of the school year before our um property taxes come in in late fall. So >> and I asked what has been in the past prior to 24 25 uh on the top right hand corner the purple what's been the federal share in the past that has been around 3.6 or >> well it would look differently in the past as a percentage just because the beginning fund balance is so large right now from the capital projects it's skewing the whole chart. So when we look at federal resources over time, we would probably need to look at total dollars year-over-year rather than percentage of the pie. >> Yeah. >> I just wondered how much that's changed, if
145it has. >> Yeah. For a ballpark in many districts, federal funds account for between 8 and 10%. um that fluctuates in a district with demographics where maybe they receive a lot of migrant dollars, a lot of tit dollars, maybe one dollars versus a district that doesn't but somewhere in the eight. >> Just one second. I have a first magic. >> So if we look at um the next report is the September monthly report, but on the very last page it has our federal budgeted resources of $10 million as compared to our total resources budgeted of 136 million. So that's 8% of our total budget for this current fiscal year in starting in federal resources. Yeah. >> Okay. Um okay. So as far as um the close out of the 2025 school year, the first page
146is about the districtwide as a whole. The other things on here are just some good facts. So, um, information about the state's school fund, what our bond tax rate was, FTE, where our major grant resources came from, and then our historical trends. So, the first page is really about the district as a whole, and then the back of it is general fund specifically because general fund is where we have the most flexibility in our resources. The general fund is what staffs our buildings every day, provides the lights and the custodial services and the transportation and does most all of our operating expenditures. So that's what we look at mostly. Um looking at 2025, this is the two years historical data 2025 budget actual change to budget and then change to the prior year. But what
147I wanted to point out is that our actual ending fund balance of $15 million is greater than where we budgeted. We budgeted at $8.6 million. So, we saved um or received additional resources throughout the year of $6.4 million. However, when we look at where it is compared to the same time prior year, our utilization is still almost $2.2 2 million. So we used $2.2 million of our reserves in the 2025 school year. So yes, the fund balance is still there and it's grow. It it was higher than what we budgeted, but it is still in deficit spending. Um the other graph in the middle of the report is general fund building expenditures by student. So this is the expenditures for each building that are charged to that building specifically. So our instruction, our EL, our
148student services, uh our counselors, our administrators. Um this is all of direct building expenditures. It does not include like custodial or maintenance um or district office related items. Um but it just shows the variation in expenditures by building and how that changes depending on the demographics of the building, the needs of the building, the specific programs in a building, um and then the size of the building. So, um, Joseph Gail is an example that's well above the average, but we have some really strong, um, specific programs in that building. Plus, we have a lot of high demographics in the building. Um, whereas Dilly, we don't have a lot of strong programs. We don't have a lot of demographic changes in that building, but it is a small building. So one administrator over 200 kids versus
149one administrator over 500 kids can make a significant difference in that cost per building. So it just kind of shows the costs per student in each building. The next graph we have is budget control utilization for 2025. This is every building and every department has their budget out of the general fund over the course of the year and so it shows what percentage of budget they utilized uh last year. We do have a couple that popped up over uh their budget allocation and those we knew about fairly early in the year. Um and then overall districtwide we were about 98% expended last year. uh payroll and FTE is the biggest dollar impact on it. So that's why the payroll and FTE line almost matches the 12th district for last. Any questions on that? Okay, that
150is the prior year summary of how we landed with last year. Now, um, the next report I was going to go over is the 2026 September budget report. This is going to be the monthly report that is in the board packet each month going forward. So, we won't have an actual um presentation every month, but it will be in place of what's been in as financial data in the back of the packet every month. Um this first graph is the same budget control utilization that was on the last slide but just switched uh angles. Um but what this shows is what every budget control code is as of this point in time. So this is through September 30th. The dark green is actual expenditures incurred. The light green is what is encumbered. So that's open
151POS that we haven't paid or labor costs that are out there. Um but that is incumbrances. The total of them is what's committed for the year. And then that black line is where they were at the same point in time last year. So this gives us a something to look at. So we know Cornelius, for example, the first one was over budget last year and they're already trending higher than where they were the same period last year. So that would indicate that we would need to have to start having conversations earlier than where we did last year. So this is just it's a planning tool for us to be able to see where we are with each one, where they landed last year, how are they trending this year. Um the FTE and labor budget
152as a whole is lower than where we were at the same time last year. Again, this is our biggest dollar bucket line item. Um, but the reason why that one is trending less is because we don't have the impact of OCA negotiations in here yet. So once that is finalized and applied, then that will become much more in alignment or we'll see where that ends. Um, but that one's lower. Overall, we are really close to being in alignment with where we were at the same time last year of total expenditures committed. Any questions on this one? Okay. Um I am going to hold right there for a second. The second half of this budget report is um the appropriations report that's typically in the board packet every month. This is changed now. It's still um
153appropriations compared to budget by major fund and major function. So general fund, nutrition services, grants, debt services. But one of the things that we added this year is resources. So we can see what our fund balance is. Not only where we are in our committed our appropriation spend, but where our fund balance is at September 30th. Um so we're looking at general fund. We have as of September 30th $22 million in resources, $15 million expended added to our beginning fund balance. We have an ending fund balance of $21.7 million at this point in time, but that doesn't include anything that we've committed for the rest of the year. So, we still have $65 million or I'm sorry, $80 million committed, which leaves us with a negative ending fund balance if we get no additional resources.
154Now, we know that's not happening, but it gives us something to look at. Um, and then when we do our cash flow, we incorporate all of this together. Um, the big key is looking at the ending fund balance at the year-to- date column, making sure that that is positive. So, I know that was a lot and I can walk through this individually with you guys if we need to. Um, >> can I pause there for just a minute? So, I've been asked before by a board director, how do we know that things are working the way they're supposed to be working and how do we have oversight over the operations of the district? This report is a good way to do that. reviewing this as Eileen said, taking a look at where are we at
155with our year-to- date ind fund balance. Are we committed? Have we committed more resources than we actually have in our cash flow right now? But at what point in the view are we? And is that okay? Um, so those are the kinds of questions that as a board director, if you're interested in that oversight over where we're at fiscally, uh, you would be looking at and asking questions about, and we'd be happy to sit down and have that conversation with you. There's been a lot of lot in the news over the last few years about districts midyear that realize or announce suddenly that oh he's got to lay off ADFT and we have to have 10 furlow days and we have to end the school two weeks early. We don't want to be that district.
156We are lucky, fortunate to have director in this role because she's outstanding in financial management. And as board directors, this is something that you should be looking at. I mean, are there um other versions of this? I know there are that are like what if what if, as we're hearing each day, this could happen financially. You may not now get this. you need to prepare and chase this is that then you can just be boop boop boop and say here I know it's not that easy but um will this be the same format that you can essentially plug in like if we have been cautioned like the governor has had us look at budgets and think about you know reducing by a certain percentage yes so um that is taking the September report to the
157quarterly report with the cash flow and then taking it one more step further So this September report along with the quarterly report are the two tools that we would use to really look at um health of the district. Um and then there's another tool that I used um in the budget planning last year. There was a slide where we looked at um the last couple of years ending fund balance and then what our projection was with this budget and then there was some what if scenarios and so we can see what that does with our ending fund balance and how that changes the trajectory. So all of this stuff is linked. It's it's all in Excel. It's all manual. Um but it is all linked. So if the state school fund's going to increase then
158I can change that and it'll automatically adjust the graph so we can kind of see that and track it. Yes. >> Yeah. As is likely that. >> Yeah. I think to your point and I know that Christie and I and some of us have been deeply involved in these conversations. The state is projecting a loss of um revenue for school districts. They have told us you should expect to see your budgets contract. And so we don't yet know what that means. Um, we don't have a number that we can anchor to, but we are scenario planning ourselves. And the types of spreadsheets that Eileen works with allows us to do some of that scenario planning and and run the whatif scenarios. I'm just wondering about that being able to show to a legislator some level
159of detail of here's where our budget is here when you when you are proposing this or the governor's proposing this which is likely to happen. This is what it looks like in an actual budget. I know this district's been very good about bringing real stuff to legislators to say this is the impact. Um, and I know this is like very very detailed, but I sort of love it because I think eventually it will show like clearly for districts that is that are you going to put that line up? >> This is in a different slide deck, but I can copy it. >> This was my most impactful visual from the last budget that I think is a starting point with conversations with legislators that shows you guys remember like we basically are not the lines
160intersecting, right? We're in deficit spending, deficit spending and and many districts are dealing with that right now. But being able to then show them in real numbers and actual Can you refresh the slide? Can you push the slide back then? [laughter] >> Good security protocols. Must have a good tech manager. What is our reserve right now? What percent? >> So, let's move on to the next report, which is the quarterly report. And while that's happening, we can kind of look at it. Um so our general fund cash forecast right now um with September actuals is showing us with a $11 million ending fund balance $10.9 million which is um 1.1 million greater than what we had budgeted. It's primarily because of our beginning fund balance rollover. Um really that's the increase. Um the fund balance
161rollover and then vacancy savings from the first month of school. Um otherwise I'm really just projecting um you know all of the staffing comes in. We still have a lot of var variability in this cash flow just because we haven't finalized OCA negotiations. Um but what this does is it takes this cash flow and does a future projection. So what if next bianium state school fund is um 8% higher than this bianium state school fund. Um it maintains today's enrollment. It estimates a moderate increase in the PERS rates because our rates are going to be going up. It um estimates salary increases and step increases. It does not include any legislative changes that happen between now and then. Um but it it allows us to start what if planning and then we can take and
162add more or less scenarios here. Right here I only have two scenarios. One is this current cash forecast. We'll forward into the next three years. And then the green line above it is what happens if we budget conservatively, save every year. Um and so the second line is is if we save 5% every year. So the first year we save 5% then the next year we save 5%. And how it changes that trajectory. So in this model we can reduce the state school fund, we can reduce enrollment and it will automatically change where that line hits the zero. But our goal, I mean we're never we're not going to save enough in one year to not hit that. But if we can do small adjustments first year and then small adjustments the next year and
163then small adjustments the next year, then we're not in this constant reactionary mode and we're we can intentionally plan over time. Um because there's a balance definitely about spending today's dollars on today's kids but also making sure that we are resilient for tomorrow's students. Uh so >> thank you for that slide again. >> Okay. So this cash flow um you can see on this is our ending fund balance is going from the 15.1 million that you seen in the uh 2025 closeout of the year and it is utilizing $4.1 million of our ending fund balance. So it's bringing that ending fund balance down to $11 million. Um, however, it is still saving that $1.1 million from the budget. So, the budget had anticipated $9.8 million. We're actually looking at $11 million annual fund balance. Um,
164however, we still have to be very cautious that our ending fund balance is onetime funds and it's still $4 million utilization. So, that doesn't last very long. Um, and so that's where you see that trajectory kind of. every year you're taking off more of the time. Um, so I mean it's been we we've been there's been conversation that the CSL that we won't even be able to fully fund with CSL current service level for next year. Now even though this year with the current service level that's still underfunding our school. So >> yeah. >> Okay. And CSL is probably new to you. Although we'd be happy to sit down and spend some time talking about how the state uses CSL to determine the starting point for the state school fund and what that means to
165us as a school district. >> All these acronyms that were thrown around today, just write them down. >> I wrote them down. >> Um the next few slides I have are really to go over some big ticket items that we're watching right now. and that will impact our future cash flows um and our f future funding. So we will start with I think we just went over that and then enrollment enrollment is the number one impact to our revenue forecast. Um our revenue in our state school fund is the primary driver of state school fund and our enrollment is the primary driver. Um anyhow the dark green bar is October 1st enrollment over time. You can see we are losing 94 students from 2025 to 2026 for October 1st. If we add the weights associated
166to our student demograph our student demographic weights for our state school fund it brings it up to 7,043 weights. That is 126 weight loss from the prior year. The state school fund has a hold harmless clause in it. So if you're in declining enrollment that you there's a floor for the current year, but it means the next year the floor drops. So this year we won't get impacted for that loss of enrollment because we budget based on that floor. However, next year that shift in weights, that loss of 126 weights to our state school fund, we will see in next year's budget cycle that's equivalent to $1.5 million. So >> is there an analysis of we know nationwide that um there's a decline in birth rates but is there analysis of what's happening to our
167students like what percentage are going to private school, what percentage are being homeschooled? >> Um I don't have that. I do have one other slide I can add in here on birth rates specifically. And is the state addressing that because it's across the state, isn't it? That >> it is. Our decline is consistent with other districts. There are a couple of exceptions, but only a couple of exceptions and the nation is declining overall as well. >> So, this is not a trend unique to Oregon necessarily. In terms of private schools and homeschools, we saw an increase in that certainly during the pandemic, especially homeschools as families and community set up pods. If you all remember the little pod movement, um that has transformed into what people are calling micro schools. Um, so there is this
168new movement for micro schools and that certainly is drawing away some of our students. Where I think I have seen the most requests for transfers out of the district come in is to online charters. And we could really get into this. I I have a lot of thoughts about this. Um, most of those that I have seen in the year I've been here have been to online charters for students who are homeschooled and the family is seeking support for their homeschooling, but the online charter is actually a part of another school district. It's not so it would require a transfer to that school district. Um, and the online charter is offering some sort of incentive like there's one called open ed that is trying to incentivize people to join by saying they will provide families
169the ADM the cost per pupil if they sign up for this online charter and then they'll give them a computer and they'll give them a bunch of other stuff. So there's quite the push to draw people into these online school communities. Um there's a lot of variable research about whether they're effective or not and for whom those online spaces are effective. What I am monitoring more closely right now online school is something we need to pay attention to. But what I'm monitoring more closely are the number of students that are just disappearing from our district and when that is occurring. So, just since the beginning of the school year, we just pulled the data. We have roughly about 40 students that have left our school district. And close to a half of those, we we
170don't know where they went. They're just gone. We don't have a withdrawal code that says they went to another district or they're now being homeschooled or they went to another state. So that there's and I'm sure that's related to the current activity that's taking place in our community at least some of those. We're monitoring that as well. >> Is the federal government um offering grants to charter schools? >> Not not fair. >> Not yet. I believe that is some of the legislation that is being proposed right now at the federal level is to incentivize people to leave public school to go to private school or charter school. >> Does that have to be approved in the state or is or not? That is the first iteration as I understand in HR1 um the bill that
171was passed by our federal Congress is that states have to agree to that option for reimbursing families. It's a reimbursement model reimbursing families if they choose private school or charter school. There's another iteration moving through right now that would tie any federal funding that a state receives to allowing that reimbursement to private and charter schools. So, we don't know where that's going to end up, but it seems to be the next iteration of the charter school private school, the school choice. So this um slide I just added it's not in your packet but what it's showing is the top line is the birth rate or the births in our community. So that's our Gills Creek for strobe and Cornelia zip codes uh over time. The next line down is our actual kinder enrollment six years
172later. Um, and then the bottom line is the percentage of births from that year that actually enrolled as kinder six years later. So, you can see how that kind of they kind of flow together. Um, we don't get 100% of the births into our district for u kinder enrollment because we do have private schools, we have charter schools, um there's there's just all kinds of >> gender is also not required in the state of Oregon. do not have to legally enroll your child until age six. >> So, um the gap between the actual births and the enrollment is fairly consistent over time. Um but if we look at the last five years percentage, the 75, 73, 68, and 74 we average those future, that's our 72%. And if we apply that to the live births
173over the last couple of years, it can project what our incoming kinders are going to be over the next 3 years. Um, looking at the next three years, this year was kind of a low at 331 students. However, our bump up to 350, 382, 363 is not enough in comparison to the 10 years prior, which those are our like exiting senior class or juniors. And so you can see on the enrollment report, the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, those are well into the 400s, almost hitting 500 in the 9th grade, whereas our incoming kinder is only 331. and our projected kinders are only 382 363. So we have this trend that's going to happen where we're going to be losing these large exiting secondary classes over the next few years and only having small incoming
174kinders um coming through the system. So it's a trend that we're going to be seeing the impact for the next several years. >> I'd say at least a decade. It's going to take at least a decade for this trend to level out and maybe reverse. We don't know that it will reverse. >> Um I'm working with Charles Rerson. He's done our demographic study um over the last oh he's done the last five or six demographic studies with us and um so we should have a new demographic study projecting our 10-year uh enrollment by February. So he does a pretty good job at projecting that for us. Um we've maintained within his medium uh projections the last several times. So um look forward to that. So is there any discussion in Salem about um a different
175format and you know how they're funing our schools if everyone is on a peak log? Um no they're just going to continue with what they're doing right now. Kate, I just um did some public testimony for the Oregon Department of Ed meeting. I might have shared it with you, but that and essentially we're there's many people asking the question of the state who who is pulling the strings like to make things happen who who is having these larger discussions that need to be have and where is that happening because it's not happening at the OD level. It's not happening at the OSBA and KOSA are asking those questions. But beyond that, what what entity, what educational body in this state is setting some visionary goals for the kinds of things that we need to be
176talking about? And we can't, nobody seems to know the answer to that question. So that there are a lot of different groups, Children's Institute, all these different educational >> groups that are also asking, you know, or suggesting, hey, we could do this piece, but as far as pulling it together, um, these are the questions that we need to be pushing on to get someone to answer. Here I go. But but I mean, right, right, it's all of these pieces and who do we ask to be able to make some change? So we think more broadly about what this state is going to do for education >> and that's really why legislation legislators need to be at meetings like this to really look at the budgets of individual school districts and seeing you know the the
177challenges that we're facing. Um I I mean when you look at the numbers it's just really obvious but we need to do something. Well, people I I would think most people seem to think, including legislators, we need to do something. And then the response again on my soap box from the governor was this accountability bill, which we have I have really said and said again in that testimony that was not what the state needs. Um, so yeah, it's an ongoing struggle and conversation, but this kind of information is helpful for us when we have those conversations and we'll continue to do so. I needs to be said I need to con >> I'm sorry I keep getting >> Oh, that's two sorry Kate. You and I two sorry for the sorry jar like [laughter] I
178don't I don't want to >> sorry jar. I talked in the last meeting about the habit especially of women to always apologize before they have something to say and I feel like I never usually do it and now I've done it a couple [laughter] so have a sorry John to encourage you anyway >> we're going Whoa way off way off I know >> okay >> all right it back >> so the next thing we have that we are keeping close eye on and uh looking at is our purse rates Our purse rates have been skyrocketing over the last few bianiums. Um, if we think of a 1% increase in our PERS rates, that's equal to about $468,000 for the district per year. And so in 2007, our 2005 site account that we created will expire.
179Right now, it has a 6.06% 06% rate credit. So our 21.9% pers rates, 18.7% observe rates are reduced by that 6% rate credit right now. That rate credit will expire and so we are looking at ways to offset the total cost. Um this next bianium we do expect our pers rates to increase pretty significantly because of that rate credit expiration. However, we won't have the debt service payment associated to it. So, it's not going to be a 6% increase in PERS rates, but it will be somewhere in between. Um, but what we did is we've been building our PERS reserve over the last few years to be able to help offset this influx that's going to happen. Um, also the state has a employer incentive fund that they opened up applications for. um in July
180and the employer incentive fund um was $39 million total. 36 employers, public employers, so cities, counties, governments, uh local governments, school districts, all were able to apply for it. Um but you have to have the cash available to be able to get this match and it's a 25% match to any investment that you're willing to put in for an additional site account. And so we applied for that match with a $5 million deposit using our um using our PERS reserve account that we have. And so we were one of the nine school districts that were awarded this match. Um so I will be coming to the board in the next board meeting to ask for appropriations to be able to send that over and get the 25% match. Uh this will help reduce those rates.
181Um, the $5 million deposit plus the 25% match is estimated to reduce our total expense or our total rate by about 1%. But what that does is it gives us a 10-year payback over that $5 million and the rig credit that we'll get for it will last 20 years. So it's not only going to help us for the next 10 years, but it will help us all the way through the next 20 years for site account, reducing our purse cost long term. So it's a really great investment and it will significantly deplete our PERS reserve, but it is doing what it's intended to do. >> Way to go. Um, but I do want to make sure everybody knows that FERS rates are going to increase in the next bianium and it's going to impact us
182very significantly. So the other thing that I have on this is just our bond tax rate. We committed through the bond campaign that we were going to increase the taxes by $1.50 over the 202122 tax year. Um, and this is assessed it. It's a tax per thousand of assessed value on our property taxes. And if we look at 23 24, 2425, and 2526, these are our three years since the bond has been implemented. And we have been just underneath that um commitment. So, our goal is to stay under that commitment. It's a challenge because when we send uh to the county, we send them a dollar amount. we need this dollar amount to be able to pay our debt and then it depends on assessed values. It depends on growth in the community. So it's
183not fixed every year because it's based on a value to us and the change in the property values across the community. So um our goal is to maintain under that $150 commitment. Um and we are 16 cents underneath right now. So [clears throat] >> those property values can be assessed with 3% increase every year, right? >> And then the last slide I have is the legislative updates. Um Dr. West started talking about this a little bit um earlier. The September revenue forecast came out indicating a 2.4% reduction in the statewide general fund and lottery resources. uh most of it is because of the implementation of HR1 and Oregon taxes tied to the federal formulas. So that um is going to impact or will potentially have impacts on our early intervention, our rate and our community
184eligibility program. Our community eligibility program or C is what allows us to offer free meals to students, all students at all schools districtwide. So that is a 4-year eligibility election. And so we are in the middle of the four years right now, but we are starting to look at where we are with our community eligibility program to maybe re-up that earlier so that we can take today's data and extend for four years out. That gives us a little bit of flexibility to see how this plays out um to provide the free meals for students long term. Um Oregon uh like Dr. West talked about is already signaling that there's probably going to be midbian reductions. The impact is unknown yet. In November and again in February, there will be new economic forecasts out at the
185state level and those will drive the short session. Um, and that's when we'll probably know more. I think we'll know more in December um with the December forecast and then we'll know final after the short session on how that will impact their bianium funding. Um but they are indicating and signaling that there will probably be reductions to schools. What that looks like we don't know. Um it is time to start looking start planning start preparing um but not panic yet. So I do have between the ending fund balance utilization, the enrollment, the PERS rates and this economic situation that we're in. Um you know we do have some challenges in our future. So we have a good healthy ending fund balance. Um that won't cover everything. So I I I am again very grateful that
186we have the cost event business manager Eileen is incredible. Thank you, Director Blues. And we are fortunate to have um good fiscal stewardship that this district's been able to rely on for many years. The next few years are going to be rocky. They're going to be rocky for a couple reasons. One, reduced revenues. I think that's a near certainty that we should expect if for no other reason than the reduced enrollment, but certainly because the state is receiving less in tax revenue, which means less money for his. But two, what we've already seen from the federal government is this incredibly high variability and you have money, you don't have money, you have this much money, nope, we're going to keep it all. And so that level of uncertainty um for a school district like us
187where we have to feed children, we have to keep the lights on, we need paper in classrooms, it creates a level of uncertainty where it's necessary for us to be really conservative with where we choose to spend our resources. It's not that we're not going to spend. There are things we need to invest in, but we also have to be responsible for what we don't know is coming because the one thing that seems certain right now is uncertainty. Anything else? Nope. I think that was it. Other questions? >> I'd like to say thank you for everybody. This is really good. So, thank you. >> Yeah. No, thank you. This is the longest board meeting I've been in since being in Forest Rice. [laughter] >> It's good enough. >> This is not the usual. >> Oh,
188yeah. This is not the usual, but it was it was a way for us to establish a baseline. Again, um based on the goals that were established for this year, we needed a starting point. We won't have this much at our next work session. Um, but this is really comprehensive and I hope you give a good overview of where we're at as a district for the start of the year. As you dig into these materials and you have questions, send them to Bethany. She'll make sure that they get routed to the right person. And we have noted what you need us to follow up on. We will get you that information. And I really appreciate the thoroughess because we will be able to use multiple pieces of what was said here in our conversations. I
189also know tonight um it was the city engagement community open town hall that ended at 8:30 and we were going to really try to pop over there and make sure we we showed up. I did talk with them about next year trying to schedule it on a night where there wasn't school board so we could participate and help them with that. But congratulations to the city for trying a different format. And I do need the board after here to sign a couple things.