0019, 2025 horse school district board of directors meeting is called to order at 5:42 p.m. We'll start tonight with the roll call of board members present. Alma Lozano >> here. Resa Franco >> here, >> Maya Andrade >> here, >> and Kate Grandeski and Pete Trux are excused tonight and absent. And I am here. If we can all rise for the flight salute. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag, United States of America, and to the republic for it stands nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right. So, first thing we do is I'm looking for approval of tonight's agenda, which actually does require a motion to approve. >> I motion to approve. >> I sign up. >> All in favor say I. >> I. All right. And we'll start tonight with a student representative
002report from Maya Andrade. And Maya, if you would just take a minute to because this is the first one, right? Welcome. And tell a little bit about yourself if you don't mind. I'm kind of throwing that off. It's okay. Okay. Hello everybody. Hey, good afternoon. Um, my name is Maya Brad. I am a senior at the high school. Uh, let's see what else. What about me? Um, I'm this year's ASB president as well as LA's president. Uh, sports ball. Okay. For for high school, we kicked off the year pretty strong. Sports are in session. We have football, cheer, house crunchy, and a couple more sports beginning their season. Um, in terms of leadership, we're doing very well as as well. Uh ASB has started preparing for homecoming and our September rally as well with Hispanic
003Heritage Month. Uh this year we are 117 students strong and we are more than excited to start off the year um and see what the year has in store for us. LA has also just released their theme. Um this year their theme which they work around with is you belong. So all of our projects and team events will be based on that theme. Um the atmosphere is great. Freshman class um are fitting in perfectly and comfortably. As I said, this year I heard we have almost 500 questions. So, it's pretty big class. Um, pretty full. But, yeah, we're we're doing great. Of course, it's the first week, so there's not much to report on yet, but um can't wait for you to listen to September. >> All right. Thank you. Um, for the fifth one
004is typically the board report. I think when Kate and Peter are back, I'd like this board to have a discussion about how we want to approach the board report, what we want to share at that time, and if we want to tie some of the things we talk about directly to kind of our purpose and action plan, which we're actually going to talk about later. Um, for tonight, I I would like to open it up to other board directors to share anything they they have experienced or wanted to share about um so far being on the board. And I'm not going to put you on the spot for that, but I will say for um one thing that's happened, and Dr. West might talk about this as well, is we were able to meet with
005uh Chair Pendosia from HSD and Senator Sman's chief of staff, um Rep. Mlean's chief of staff and I were able to meet because we're trying to rethink how we have conversations with our legislators. In the past that uh Rep. clean would reach out and come and visit individually and have conversations and then we do that with Senator Sullman and then they would do the same thing with Hillsboro and different districts and we've really been trying to rethink those conversations so that we can um work work together and maximize kind of the information we're sharing and also align some of the things that our that our legislators are seeing across the districts. So, we did we were able to meet our first initial meeting was to talk about what that looks like and um Dr. West
006probably has additional thoughts about where they're taking that. But I'm really excited about maybe shifting how we think about doing that. I do also want to let the board know I did submit my resignation for the OSBA. Um it was accepted and it will be final on September 30th. It's a really tough decision for me because I have been so deeply involved with my work there at the state and but I think one of the reasons that I decided to do that is because we have been really building that locally what our advoc advocacy is looking like and really spending much more time building what that looks like. And so I I wanted my focus to remain local and my energy to be there first. And I think what we're doing here in this district
007and our neighboring districts is becoming a model for boards across the state about how to rethink how we work. So it will open up um an opportunity for appointment and I would again I'm going to I'll talk to people on this board about what that um involves. I talked with Pete about it already. They will be able to appoint a person that represents this district. We still have two local representatives for our Washington County area, but we have a really strong contingent in Washington County that's kind of planning for um our big January legislative dinner. So, anything would you like to add? Is anything coming to mind? I want to give some opportunity. Oh, I did I was able to visit a couple schools very briefly with David Warner um and Dr. West. I was
008able to go to um Witch Hazel and then to Oak Grove and I had Henry was with me but it was a short visit but quick walkthroughs and I actually commented to Dr. West I was really oh witch hazel. Did I say witch hazel? Yeah, >> I said witch hazel. I mean Harvey Clark. I don't know how that I don't but Oh my gosh. See this is going to make you guys feel better up here. um Herby Clark and I uh I was I was really surprised because at the first of the school you you anticipate a lot of energy but what I was really excited to see is every single room we walked by and this was the first week of school were students were 100% engaged in the classroom learning working and it
009was the the vibe in the school was one of kind of intent but also organization and focus and that was the same um even over at over rope and they were having to go to a different gym, but you know, everybody you felt like there people knew what they were supposed to be doing and using every day with purpose. That was really great to see and thank you to the directors for also allowing the board to jump in and participate in some of those visits. >> Yeah, I guess just to piggyback on on that as well, is it not on? >> It's on. Yeah, because it's on. >> Good. Um, I also did some some uh walks at the school with David Gorder and Dr. West. Um, and it was it was great. It was
010really fun to I I did the high school and I also did um the elementary school village. It was um it was really interesting to see obviously that dynamic between the little ones and and the older crowd. But like you shared, we did see the same thing. We saw students engage uh teachers I mean for being such you know two two days first and second day uh they were very much paying attention doing what they were supposed to listening it it was beautiful to to be out there have that chance um I'm hopeful there'll be more opportunities in the future I unfortunately was not able to make um an appearance but I am happy to hear that students are engaged um and I'm excited for what we're going to do this year and I'm excited
011to talk about our very last portion of the agenda. All right, so we're going to move on to the superintendent report with Dr. West. Speaking directly to what Chair Cocky referenced about our efforts for legislative advocacy that aligns with our neighboring districts. Um, right now we're in the very early stages of conversation, so I don't have much to report. I will forecast that we will set up a date where we will have our elected officials in district visiting a couple of our schools and we'll certainly let the board know when that is. We're excited about that opportunity. We'd love to show off our schools. Um as important, we love to help our legislators understand education and how they can support us in our work. So, more to come there. Couple of other things. We do
012have a lot going on with athletics as our student advisor shared. So I won't cover that same information. A few other things. Tomorrow night we have our first bond oversight committee meeting for the school year that is at Echoaw at 5:30 p.m. We also have this weekend the Mariachi Mariachi Tricion. Um they were playing at Portland Center Stage from 7 to 9 on the 13th. That is Saturday. They are part of a uh story being told the immigrant story. So those of you that are looking for something to do on Saturday night, that should be a good time. On the 16th of September, so this is next week, NAMS and Forest Grove High School both have their back to school nights. For the parents that are watching, if you're unaware of that, that is something
013that you should attend. And then on the 18th of September, Cornelius and Echo Shaw have their back to back to school nights as well. And then the following week, the 22nd through the 26, Harvey Clark is going to have a book fair. So if you're interested in supporting Harvey Clark, stop by. There'll be books to purchase. Um, in terms of the opening of the school district, a few things that I want to highlight. Maybe one of the most exciting things is that we open a new school. We opened Cornelius Elementary School and it is fantastic. Um hopefully those of you here had an opportunity to stop by and see what the school looks like. Um as we went through this process of completing construction and preparing to open the doors. um being still new to
014the district, there were some things that I learned that I want to share because I think this is um pretty incredible that there has been a school on that site supporting the city of Cornelius and the students of Cornelius unbroken for 175 years. >> That's remarkable. Now, it started as a single schoolhouse room and that's all that students attended and it was just a couple of students. But look at how it's grown. Cornius is one of our largest elementary schools. Um, and they provide a tremendous service to the youth in that community. Um, it is 100% dual language school, so all of the students that attend that school are learning in two languages. It is a majority Latino school and we are proud of that. really proud of that diversity. Um, so it was a
015a really remarkable effort that was undertaken. I want to thank Principal Angela Graves for shephering that with her staff through this whole process and for a good close last year and an excellent opening this year. And we also have director Cl here who is uh really instrumental in all of the bond work but especially her work with cornerstone and pants construction to make sure that everything went smoothly there. So, thank you, Director Clue. Um, lastly, for those who are watching and for the people sitting here today, those of you who are residents of our school district, thank you for voting for that. Um, you can see firsthand if you had a chance to attend the grand opening what an incredible opportunity it is for the students that will be attending there for years to come
016and what an incredible benefit for the community um to be able to enjoy that space. So, thank you for that. Um, as was already alluded to, spent almost all of last week in schools and it's tremendous to have youth in our classrooms again. A school is not complete without young people. So, really excited to have our students back. Lots of energy in those spaces. Lots of learning started right away. Um, I think what really struck me is listening to the educators in all of our different schools. What I heard very consistently is how our educators feel like generally students settled more quickly. And I heard several educators say this feels more normal than it has been for years. For those of us that experienced the pandemic, we know what that period afterwards was like. and
017it it suggests that we may be returning to more of the type of school opening and school behaviors that are more typical of what we would expect. So that was exciting to hear. Um also want to acknowledge for our neighbors, for our staff, um we are still finishing up some bond projects across the district and there is still construction dust out and about. Um, but we are rapidly working through that. So, thank you for your patience with that. And then lastly, as we look at the school year that's in front of us, I'm excited to share that we work is going to focus us on some common strategies anchored in four domains. Focus us on some common strategies anchored in four domains. Um, environment and culture, intentional lesson planning, teaching and delivery. And then that
018process of assessment, reflection, and adjusting. And as I said, the journey of the graduate attributes in this instructional framework are intentionally woven together to strengthen um what instruction looks like in our classroom. So I'm really excited about what that's going to do for us for the coming years. And we'll continue to bring information about those two different frameworks into the boardroom as we share our progress throughout the school year. And that's it for me. All right. I don't believe we have a scheduled public appearance. Do not. And so we're going to move on to the consent agenda. >> Oh my gosh. >> We do have the education association. >> Please come up. Do you want to come up to the mic and speak? I think you have to. Yeah, >> I should introduce myself. So,
019my name is Diana Smith and I'm with FGPA. And so, the first thing we'd like to do is welcome our new board members. Uh, thank you for taking this position, you know, volunteering to serve our school district. And then the second um part of our message is um by an overwhelming majority and with an outstanding number of members um we FGA members um have voted to ratify our contract with the forest broker district. >> All right. I asked Diana before we do you have something she said yes and then I just went right by her on the agenda. So I I apologize again. I especially because that is a really significant announcement. This was my first time um participating in the bargaining session from the district side and I learned so much but it was
020such a positive experience even through some tense some tension but even like the kind of healthy tension that you want and it really reinforced what when I started on the board the union reached out immediately and they kept saying this is a special relationship this is a special district we do a great job partnering but you really did see that in the bargain training sessions and I know those were streamed live but most people probably aren't watching the 8 hour bargaining but compliments to union leadership who I think also just did a really good job of coming to the table it in partnership and it's just it was a good it's nice to be a part of something like that especially in these times so we really appreciate that you report uh we definitely do
021still not have unscheduled public appearance so we now will move to the consent agenda for real it is made up of routine non-controversial items to be voted on under one motion. Are there any items within the consent agenda a board member or the superintendent wishes to discuss separately? Seeing none, I will ask for a motion to approve those consent agend. All right. All in favor say I. I opposed. All right. Motion passes and we're going to move on to action items. Um our first we we welcome assistant superintendent director of teaching and learning Arturo. >> Good evening. Okay, mine works just fine. Um I am here to bring forth uh the approval for consideration of Odysseyware software for Forest Grove High School, Taling Plains High School, Neil Armstrong's Middle School and Oak Grove Academy. Um,
022Odyssey Wear is a software that we use to support um, recovered credit that needs to happen outside of the classroom and on occasion original credit mostly for some health classes that that students may not be able to access because of variety of other challenges they have in their schedule. Um, but mostly it's for recovered credit. We also use it during the summer. Whenever we have a a tag a price tag that's over $50,000, we bring it to the board. And so this is something we've used over the years. Um we have developed our teachers have developed um proficiency standards to go along with many of the Odysseyware software. So it's not just computer-based when possible. And so we're bringing that to you today for consideration for approval. We can move forward with this school year.
023All right. Motion to approve the RC software subscription that just got to 67,000. 67,500 after that. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. Thank you. Item number two is welcome or go ahead. >> No, no, thank you. Thank you. Sorry to catch you out there. Um, bringing forward Alante Mueres, uh, a contract for this year. We have a wonderful partnership with Alante. Uh, they provide summer services for us, but during the school year, they provide an afterchool program, uh, called Alante, uh, I'm sorry, Chas, the Chica Youth Development Program at um, our six Title One elementary schools as well as um, Neil Armstrong Middle School and Forest Grove High School. And so we're bringing that forward. We'd like to continue that partnership and um then the $70,000 to continue to have
024that running for this school year. >> Questions? >> Um sorry. Um is this open to everyone in school or is it just >> It's open to our Latina students. Um up to about 25 students per school. Um and they meet 60 to 90 minutes a week and they also perform a variety of community service. They have weekly programming as well as community service opportunities, enrichment opportunities. There's a curriculum that they that they've developed over the years um with a little bit of a STEM focus um and supporting our our loved ones. >> And to add to that, um I I meet with an Alan parents every year multiple times per year and they've never turned away a student. >> So regardless of race or ethnicity, they have welcomed students into the program. the majority of
025students that access the program are Latino um Latina, excuse me. Um but because um we have a number of students especially at Cornelius Elementary School in Echo Shaw who are not Latina um but they are learning in Spanish, they will often access this program alongside other students. >> Thank you. kind of bouncing off of that. It says here, so no off it says 20 to 25 students at each school is there like what's to have like how was the process choosing or like selecting is there an application process and if so have they ever reached the max and needed to turn away students? >> Uh I'm unaware of students ever being turned away. Um the application process typically begins in kindergarten. Um what's really unique about the Chica program is once the students are in
026the program at all Harris and their staff work with those students as they metriculate all the way up to 12th grade. So it is typically these same students that for all 13 years participate in the program as they move through our different school systems and different levels. Um there are students that occasionally join later than kindergarten but kindergarten first grade is about when they build up that cohort of about 25 students. Um it is at about 25 students because there is a limit to what they can support well with the resources that the district provides for them. Any other questions? Um motion to approve. I'm so sorry the moment is contract and $7,000. Second any discussion. All in favor say I. Opposed. All right. Thank you. And item number three, special school contracted services with
027Dr. Clim Sheer, director of student services. >> Hi. uh student services requesting from the board to approve a contracted services for special school placement at serendipity center for up to 117,74760 um for this school year. This is actually continuation um for a contract that was approved by the last board in December for the same student and this is a continuation for this school year. This is to meet the individual education needs um as identified on the student site questions. Um I have one sorry the agenda item said that the agency was selected due to the unavailability of the current local service plan. So do we have a previous service plan that we went with? So our local um ESD does have special school placements and um students have to meet certain criteria. So sometimes our
028students don't meet that criteria and we have to seek out additional placements. So that's what happened in this circumstance. >> I Okay, thank you. Um, I'll look for a motion. Motion to approve the contracted services for special school placement at Sam Bay Center60. They're August 28th and then June 30th. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> All right. Good. Thank you. and we're gonna move on to first read policy updates with Dr. West. Yes, it is our practice to bring policies to the school board for approval or the policies are brought to the school board for approval. We do meet with two board members in what we refer to as policy committee. Thank you for participating in that Frankle. Um, so those two board members have an opportunity to review the policy revisions,
029ask questions, make recommendations. Um, and we do that to go through a vetting process before we bring the policies forward for a first read. So they are in the board packet as a first read, which means that you have an opportunity now to review those policy revisions before we come back for the September 23rd board meeting. 23rd, is that correct? September 23rd board meeting at which time um we will ask for your approval through the consent agenda so that we make those new policy revisions in place. What questions may I answer or would you like to add anything about your experience since you've gone through it once now? Um no I mean they were pretty straightforward. Um, a lot of it was just updating terminology and then deleting a lot of what was recommended to
030delete. Um, I found them pretty straightforward. Okay. And then our last item tonight is we're going to spend a few minutes and talk about the schoolboard purpose statement. Um, schoolboard has developed a purpose statement to clarify its role in creating the conditions and providing oversight of the successful implementation of the district's strategic plan. The statement outlines the board's responsibility to monitor academic growth, align the budget to district priorities, ensure fiscal accountability and transparency, support the superintendent's goals, and conduct a rigorous superintendent evaluation. In addition, the board commits to advocating for students and families at all levels and engaging authentically with the community to advance a strategic plan and improve student experiences. The board is to review the purpose statement and discuss board commitments for future action and adoption on September 23rd, 2025th. None of that
031sounds like me, but that's important to read because that is a nice overview. Um, I do want to say before we start this discussion and our board members here and actually Kate and Pete also weighed in a little bit early and and Maya all know tonight that we're going to ask for some feedback. I think one of the things we talked about at the retreat and really appreciate all of the directors who attended and participated in that conversation and at least viewing some of that conversation is trying to really flip the script on what it means for a board to be effective and also what is the role of a board. And I think we had some really good questions from especially our new board members and comment from our new student rep about what
032are we doing up here and how do we do this work that supports what the dis what the district what our district is trying to do as opposed to what you see in some school boards um across the nation really where there's kind of this tension and this battle of school boards coming in and every person has their own idea of what should be happening and then you know the schools are actually running separately and we're all trying to do that. We really want to think about maybe the role of a board that's effective in of course the hiring you know hiring of a superintendent overseeing of the policy work but just what can we as a board do to support the work that's ongoing and I think that's where our conversation started. So we
033did talk about not even we don't really need school board goals because we really want the school board or hope the school board to be supporting the goals of the district which are really aligned with the strategic plan which really came from the community. It's kind of a whole different way of thinking about it and I don't know is it possible to put that with the statement on the screen up there. We have it in front of us. I mean believe me nobody wants us Yeah, >> it's the very last page of the packet. Oh yeah, there we go. So where we landed at the end of the retreat after that discussion was to kind of think about maybe a purpose statement instead of our schoolboard goals that we write every year. We also talked
034about the fact that those goals that we put up, we've really actively monitoring ourselves and evaluating ourselves on how we achieved or didn't achieve those goals. And we really, I don't think talked specifically about what it looks like to achieve those goals at all. So, we we're we're trying to start again from a purpose statement for any school board. And we talk a lot about if none of us are up here, are we creating a system for this district that's sustainable and that any school board member could participate in and could be supportive of the district? The two commitments we landed on, and that's what I'm going to ask for feedback today. Um, as part of our dedication to students and families of Forest Growth School District, we as a board also commit to advocate
035at the local, state, and national levels on behalf of Forest Growth students and families and listen intently and engage with the community to support the strategic plan and improve the experiences of students and families within Forest Grove School District. Uh my question to this board as we kind of build out is this something that we even feel like captures what we were trying to talk about at the retreat and if so what are the ideas that this board and I'm also going to ask Dr. West. How do we know that we're doing those things? Well, so by June, if we were to look back, would we be able to say that we were successful at those two bullet points at the bottom? And are those even the right two bullet points? And that was that's
036a lot. But I I know we I did sort of prep them to know that this is coming, but I I do want to open it up for some thoughts and then I'll share Pete also shared a couple pieces of feedback. Um, and they were brief, so maybe I'll mention first. He did say the bullet up above supporting the superintendent's goals. He liked the idea of changing that to the the district goals or our strategic plan goals. Um and so it's not it's not focused on just one person's goals. I thought that was good a good piece of feedback. And he also said for the action plan for advocacy, he he would like us to think outside of the district boundaries, the school district boundaries within the city and even the county of where as
037a school board we could um advocate for other policy, whether it's parks and wreck with the city, whether it's um funding that the county is giving, you know, how where does our role fall with those types of things. So those those were his two pieces that he wanted to just put out for tonight's consideration and I said we'll just hear from everybody and then we'll kind of synthesize after the meeting and maybe come back with a summary of what everybody's ideas were. I like what has been put down in the last two bullet points. Um I think I especially like engaging with the community to support the strategic plan but also the experiences of students and families. Um, I would say like maybe it should go first because I think it's important to build a
038relationship and if they don't have a good relationship with our community and with our students, we wouldn't be able to achieve or work towards achieving those uh local, state, national levels of school district. That's just my thought. And Bisa, what what kinds of things would you think we would a board would do to show that we are engaging and we are improving experience? Like as a board, do you envision what that could look like? Um we I I think a lot of it is just communication like not only here at these meetings but also sending out like things are happening in the world things are changing a lot and that can cause a lot of fear and I think it's important to remain communicative with students and with families not only through um newsletters that
039are sent out but also communicate like at the assemblies or meetings or parent teacher conferences of being engaged in in those kinds of events as well. Um so if you know we as board members are able to be there or just have more of an interaction with individuals so if they know who we are they can reach out to us and and become more approachable so that they feel comfortable to come up to us whatever it is that they need to come up to us with. what has been done previously to track the or to follow up and as you're doing them or not for these for these specific goals nothing this is a new way of framing the work of the school board what I have what I witnessed last year is that the
040goal setting process we narrowed the number of goals stood forward wanted to focus on and there was not a great deal of followup past that to ask ourselves are we doing what we said we would do and to me is a I would use an education have we met our success criteria then how do we know so I there wasn't much done whatever this looks like in terms of how we hold ourselves accountable to these commitments I think we're going to be making that up as we go and we need to be thoughtful and intentional about holding ourselves to whatever we agree to. >> So we are we are looking for us to hold ourselves accountable. Are we bringing this out to the community as well and asking for do this for us? I guess
041it could. We could and that that could be part of holding ourselves accountable. >> Okay. >> And I think that is part of what Cher Kati is trying to determine tonight is if we were to say we know we are successful when what what follows that when the community tells us that we're meeting these commitments when we have data that shows we've engaged in so many different events that has to be defined. Am I capturing it correctly? Yeah, I think that that's that's the big million-dollar question is some of it as you as you go through the year opportunities arise where we do go in we are finding ourselves advocating sort of reactively not I would say not I think we've been pretty proactive but generally I think how boards operate across the state is
042reacting a policy change happens and now we change a policy parents bring us something and then we you know we we elevate it and and some of that is natural. That's the communication flow that happens in a good functioning system where you're sharing information. To your point, Brieza, you're able to get people to the right place and then we're able to find, you know, find solutions. The board's role in all of that is really not any of those pieces, but I think it is people do see the board as a place where this is where we need to go to accomplish things. So, as that happens, those advocacy pieces, we felt like, oh, this is great. We're jumping into these available town halls. We're but we weren't I would say I'm just we weren't intentional
043with it. We didn't have we're going to these town halls and these are the pieces that we'd like to share. And I think that's what we're getting at with reworking this Rep. Mlan and Senator Soulman meeting is we don't want people just coming to the district and then we're showing some things and they can say they've been in schools. We want them coming to the district with an intent of what we need them to see so that when they write policy, it's what we need and they also can see that this policy they were writing has has no need. So proactively getting in front of that to help everybody work better, I think is what could happen. I don't know. I don't know the answer to engaging with the community and engagement and what that
044looks like because I and I've talked I've talked to new board members coming on about the experience of not being on a board and being a parent or student and you talked about it. heard you talk about it where you were like we you know you you don't oh your family members were asking you what what do you even do on the board and I don't know that boards are very confident in saying what it is they are doing and I think part of that's because frankly people get onto a board with their own idea of what it should be so I do feel like this whole way we're going to flip it might in it of itself drive us to have to say how how will we know in June if we not how
045will we know, but what should we do between now and June? It's almost like what is our plan for engagement? If we want to be at events and we want to be in schools now, how do we operationalize that as a board? Do we and are we making sure we're seeing all the events? And then the why to your point, Dr. West, like if we do those things, is that what community members would feel they're needing? And we do hear from community members like we need you to feel like you understand what's going on. And yet we're in a position where we're not supposed to really be in the we. So it's all this fun stuff finally coming up to a conversation which I think is important. But I'm we're not going to answer those
046things tonight but we're getting to the meat of it. Don't you think? Yes, absolutely. I think these are important questions to answer. What I'm curious about from our students perspective, if you don't mind opening to the conversation, what do you want from your school? >> Um, well, I can talk about kind of what I was had in mind with um what someone else about. I really agree with you so much when she said that the second bullet um bullet point should be the first one before we navigate the thing in our national level. We should really educate with our community um in firsthand. Um and I kind of said that as well how we should focus on the community first because that's really where it all starts. Um and the whole engagement part like you
047said that we can see at schools or we can schools and work all those events. But really I think what people need to see or to hear from their school board was successful is kind of knowing that we do take the criticism and we do take um and acknowledge um what needs to be done kind of work alongside with our district plan. Um but to meet those requirements and those things that need to be changed I think that's when we start realizing that um it has worked out. we are working and our school board is the school board is um continuing to move along with what we need to do. I guess in my own I don't like a view like what I would want to see if I want to move really like engagement.
048I guess it's kind of hard to explain how right but um I think a lot of times especially before I was here like I've only hear about school board um in conversations like this but I wasn't sure what what we doing um what we stood for what we represented. I kind of just knew like oh well they come and they talk about important things but it's that like seeing right seeing you in the community and how you can empathize with a lot of like students and parents and family I think for most that shows where you are as a person as well and as a school board that you're willing to um just be a community within you know and kind of stand with people. It's just kind of hard to say or I guess
049explain what that looks like saying. I hope I answered that correct. Well, and from the student perspective, it's from leadership, you guys must have similar conversations about how like ASB and LIA reach and communicate with your whole school community, right? What does that look like? Like how do you know when you guys are doing that engagement? You're getting people to join. I think we measure things like that for at least for students just through again like how many people we have participating, how many people we have talking about us and not only us but what we do and what we have done um in the school year that's how we measure our success. I know one of those actions for um when we hear people um talking about new traditions we're starting or um just
050new clients we have in general like hearing our our students you know being hyped about wanting to join in and helping out and asking when their next event is back to us is what measure success um a lot a lot of our events seeing seeing one people show up we're going from 30 people to 200 people are the other that's how we measure for our success as well. Um, and it's a bit harder to do that communitywise because I guess I know it's kind of hard to hear what people say at the same time, but that's how we measure it on on school level. Just hearing how far um we've gotten through the community and the school. Um, also just kind of uh what we didn't have to say all the time. I think that's
051that's where we success as well. Um, if students are are happy with what we're doing and they think we're on the right track, we know that we're not doing just enough for our group, but we're doing enough for who we're repres who we're representing and who we're doing and looking forward to. And then in terms of ASV, I think just I guess I guess we can kind of just measure success through um yeah, I mean how many students participate? How many students are willing to come to school and say that we have a great student body that's ready to represent all of us and just being being comfortable with letting us lead and knowing that students think that they're in good hands or know that they're in good hands. That's how we measure our success.
052If I may, I I think I can pull a few things out of what Maya shared and what I heard here for some discussion. One of the things that you said that really struck me, it's this idea of standing with us. So it sounds to me like one aspect of engagement is that the board has a deep enough understanding of our student body that you feel they not just that they support the schools but that they support students and they will stand the students if that's necessary and represent students and I think I heard that's what you were applying for is that correct for one aspect. Yeah, that's that's exactly kind of what I was looking for. Cuz it's one thing to say that you stand with the school, but to say that you stand
053with the students is on a whole different level of like understanding what we need as students, not just a school as a whole. I think there's a lot of perspectives within the school. So knowing that we understand what we want as students and not just as our whole is is really important. And I think, you know, that's ultimately the thank you for that. I get really nervous. It's like I pick this corner. But you did great. You did great and really appreciate you sharing all those perspectives because I think you also shared some ideas for measurement that we may be able to come back to. The other thing that I heard around this idea of what does it look like for engagement? There's a couple of different ways we can maybe define that. One way
054that I think was touched on is being in spaces where our families are and listening to them, being available to hear their stories. Um, and to be able to do something with that. Sometimes we will hear people say, "I've had a bad experience and there are appropriate ways to address that." And oftent times, at least in my experience in this district, a lot of families tell me how wonderful their experience has been and how much their kids enjoy going to school. And that's part of knowing if we're being effective with these things as well. The other aspect of engagement I think I heard is telling our story. So being able to communicate whether it be to elected officials or to the community. These are the things that are going on in our school. this is
055what we need you to know about what's going on in our school district and these are the ways that you can support us in this school district and spread the message about how amazing it is. So, I heard several uh touches on definitions that we might be able to anchor to in terms of what it means to engage and then maybe we could come back to what Maya shared in terms of well, how do we know if we're successful at that point? >> No, I I I think I I support and I agree on that. um just as a parent myself and having a child as a school district myself um when it comes to you know just understanding um just going down to the basics understanding what a school board is what that ladder
056looks like um I don't think a lot of parents understand that quite well and they always tend to hop on the higher highest even though there is you know a ladder to go through for um clients so I think just a very basic um understanding. A lot of our parents don't understand what a school board do. They don't. Um well, I was in the process of you know getting on the ballot and you know all that stuff. Um having conversations with my neighbors, with parents, with um even the students, you know, my daughter's friends no idea what the word. So it's those basic stuff that are important that we not only share with our community but our students as well. Um I think it's really important. So getting down to the basics and everything else
057I'm sure we can figure out. I don't think that that would be um a problem. It's just a matter of what do we do to engage and all that. Um our biggest community um or a lot of our parents also speak Spanish. you know, how do we help how do we help them understand what is this and how we are here to support um these students and their community? I think expanding upon just the conversation you've been having about engagement, I really liked the farmers market um kind of being there and and being accessible meeting the community where they're at and I'm trying to think of how we can expand that into the rest of the farmers market. I really don't know like where would that be a good fit, but that's something I'd like
058to explore and see if we can reach more in the community where they are um outside of the farmer's market coming to an end as they um I also really liked what um Chaki said about being proactive. I think that's very important. um kind of tying that into measuring our success and and whether or not we've advocated at the local and state national levels and whether or not we've listened int with intention and engaged the community to support our community and students. I think it's important to not only like evaluate ourselves at the end of each year, but also have a midpoint um in the school year to check in to see if whether or not we've made any progress and whether or not we need to re-evaluate what we've set um and what our
059goals are. Um I I don't know what our midpoint would be in our academic school year, but I thought that was something that would need to be implemented to just kind of make sure that the whole year doesn't go by and we are having to like reward back and think of all the different things that we did or haven't done. Um, oh, and then I had a question on um, May you just brought up about like how you measure our success and how you guys receive feedback on the school level. How do do we currently have a process and how we receive feedback from our community or from parents? Like is that at the school level? like is that per school or per day or is like there way or should there be a way
060for them to communicate with us like a board? Like I'm not quite sure their role is in that. >> Uh it's above them. Okay. >> Um so several schools do their own parent surveys and do so multiple times a year. Those surveys tend to be very localized to the context and things that are taking place specific at that school. Um and then we also as a district global hy families um surveys are helpful but they don't tell the full story either. So as we think about how do we know if we've been successful and we're doing the rankings that we say we're going to do um I recommend to the board to consider a measurement other than a survey. maybe a couple of different measures that we might look at. And those measures can be
061quantitative like survey where people click one, two, three, four, and get some measurements back from that. But it could also be qualitative where it is more about the storytelling, the feelings that people have because there's something to that as well to measure the success of a school system. >> Thank you. Sorry, I'm abortion trying to write anything. Um, oh, and then again tying it back to engagement. I Maya, do you think students at all would be interested in coming to be a person? Um, I thought about that too. I think that is also like that explains almost like not not but it's just um you think that's right but um it's like like you said there's a letter and a lot of students think that the school board has been talked about on YouTube almost
062and so most of the time when you're hearing things it's it's kind of like well students do not have anything to do with school, you know what I mean? And obviously that's not true because that would be exactly what I would do, right? To help out students and our community. Um, but it it's it has never been a talk at school like, hey, you can show up to this, you can be a part of this. Um, and honestly, this was just last year, right, before election. So, it's I'm sure the students that really are engaged, I want to teach community would love to talk here. It's just it's not ever presented as an opportunity to a bunch of us. So that's that's where the line kind of. >> Well, I think that would be great.
063I don't like you can talk to the students who go around and see if any ideas that you think would make it a little less intimidating, but I totally get it. Um and then we as a board can figure out how we can make that accessible and create a welcoming environment for those students to feel comfortable to come to the facilities. >> Yeah. We have um the MPF group, the mayor's studies advisory council. Um all the students are really really excited and really want opportunity to work alongside their community just like they work with Mayor Winsel. So students are there. It's just like getting rid of that superstition, right? Um or that I guess negative idea that were included. >> I think there might be a way too to blend the three of these >>
064ideas. All you're talking about parents not really, you know, knowing what's what we're doing and >> and not engaging because of that >> and not engaging. And I'm thinking about the cell phone policy last year when Paula Pala brought that comment from the student body about and now that's an easy one because we all are aware of what cell phone policy is. The um the example though of like Teresa your point of when there is something on our agenda. I we will we will admit that some of our agenda to a student would be kind of a snoozer as it is even for me as a chair at times and no offense to anyone but I think there are elements of a schoolboard agenda or a conversation where we could proactively say hey we we
065would like students to come to this so that we can get some feedback on the discussion that we have and what are your thoughts I mean I think there's ways to build that communication and even helping parents understand policy work. I mean, we we do the policy work and it gets posted on the site, but we nobody is going to the schoolboard site and looking at policy until they need to look at the policy. And that's just the nature of of everything. But I think there's maybe a way to teach all of us process and in that process, we are engaged in a way that's meaningful and maybe helps us all kind of get to a more cohesive end point. But I think I don't know if if there were students that were interested in
066a certain topic that we're covering and you were sharing that and I don't know I mean those are just just would there be a way of breaking that up at that is it back to school night that's called like both parents and students that go to that I'm not quite sure what the schedule looks like for a back to school night but I think that would be a great way of meeting the like meeting families and meeting students and introducing ourselves as board members and kind of introducing what our role kids and inviting them to our next board meeting. Kate and I had a table a couple It might have been pre we did a table at the high school for one of the back to schools. And that's when all the trees disappeared, all
067the swag that we had, but we a lot of parents came over to that table and asked we had multiple parents that said they had considered running for school board. And we had parents come over and ask questions about the school district. And also speaking of the market, um, Arturo was there and and the Lauras and Dave, I mean, there were so many people that asked all kinds of questions about the school district and some about the city because we just happened to be there. And so I I do think there's opportunity with this idea of being somewhere just to be potentially with intention at times, but maybe first like you said, building relationship, having people feel like it's approachable and I don't know. So, I mean, these are all Mhm. Yeah. And once we
068land on a strategy, we can certainly plug you into the different events. Um, if the board is considering engaging directly with students um that we could organize a work session for that or we could uh bring stu bring you into the high school for those opportunities. Um then it's something that I did several times last year to visit directly with students and super power. I learned so much. I I strongly advise that if the board wants to hear directly from students that we organize something like that because students will tell you they didn't hold back. Okay. Any what other thoughts? Any other thoughts for now? It feels like we've sort of I'm I'm feeling like there might be consensus to think about the commitments and reorder um with with the idea of maybe focusing more
069heavily on making sure we are engaging first and building that relationship and and then as that as we build that out that helps us be better advocates locally. And um I don't know next steps would maybe we need to hear from Kate. she's going to share information with me separately and maybe just we'll synthesize this conversation and in leadership and then maybe put out some next steps for consideration for the board. We can put out a revised draft based on what we've heard. I've taken some notes here and then some potential next steps. We have tenatively a proposal to adopt on the 23rd of September, but if more time is needed for discussion, the timeline is our home. So, we can certainly push that. How are you feeling that this is something we can move
070forward with with consensus with a few changes and the action plan that this will be something we'll work on beyond the 23rd. I feel comfortable in a couple weeks with what's here. with the revision. Okay. So, we can bring this back on the 23rd with success and comments from director and then build an action plan. Thank you. Super right. Thank you. And I think there being no further business, we're going to adjourn. Am I right? I have to double check myself every time. We are adjourned at 641.