001e like up e the February 11 2025 horse gr School District Board of Directors meeting is called to order at 5:31 p.m. we'll start with a roll call of board members president uh Val here Brad yes Mark yes Kate yes I am here and is currently not here she may be coming in a little bit she'll be she will be absent tonight all right we could all rise to the FL I to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and J looking for approval of tonight's agenda I'll second I favor and no student representative report so we'll start with the board report um anything from the board tonight anything okay I'm just going to ask if I'm on the uh I'm on the
002Recreation Commission we're in the process right now looking at uh fees for for space so we're having those discussions and around Youth Sports and how it how it works it's going to work in in the future so probably in the next couple weeks we'll be making a recommendation to the the council so that's kind of where we are right now that people are not very happy so by the time we get done with it all everybody yeah yeah good luck almost every okay all right um were you going to mention the funder tonight at all okay there is a fundraiser well there's a fundraiser happening tonight that the mayor is participating in it's in downtown Forest but I just wanted to mention that and our chief of police was the guest at one of the
003previous fundraisers that this establishment had and they get to choose where half of the funds go and so her choice is um to UniFi UniFi Sports so I just wanted to give that a shout out so hopefully there ra lots of money and specifically more money than the chief bre it's the goal yeah that's never a competition but a totally a competition right um so I do have a few things I'd like to say I wanted to start by highlighting a couple of local events that honor Black History Month my good friend a direct descendant of Carter G Woodson described this month as a time to focus on the Collective Strength resilience Pride contribution contributions and culture through her I learned that Carter G Woodson was a scholar whose dedication to celebrating the historic contributions
004of black people led to the establishment of Black History Month marked every February since 1976 we have so many opportunities in our schools and in our community to learn about black history which is American history one of those currently is in downtown Portland you may have seen it on KGW News um the free pop-up Museum and it I was able to visit this weekend with my dad and it does a wonderful job of highlighting stories of black Americans in Oregon um but locally I wanted to highlight a discussion that was posted by the Forest Grove Library in 2021 and it's up on the screen if you don't know our Forest Grove Library has a local treasure in Bob Abby he is the Adult Services librarian and Bob brought author and assistant professor at Portland State
005University wiita Amaria in for a discussion about black history in Oregon it's a talk that's been viewed over 78,000 times and it's available on the Forest Grove library's YouTube channel along with all of the other adult programming that they do at the library which is phenomenal I I think I learned more about black history in this talk than I did in my entire 16 years of schooling our library and our public life all public libraries do an outstanding job of highlighting and curating a diverse collection of opportunities to learn um and finally I was inspired by the words of Alicia Keys last week as she accepted the Dr Dre impact award at the Grammys she spoke about the value that every single person brings to the world and mentioned one impactful line that resonated with
006me she said de is not a threat it's a gift I'm so proud that our forest gr community and and district and city council celebrates and Embraces the values of diversity equity and inclusion and I just wanted to highlight a couple things um what I think and what I think we think Dei really looks like to make sure we aren't allowing it to be redefined in our community Dei looks like our Police Department attending microaggression and bias awareness training designed by our very own police Chief Henry Ryman it is the parks and recck Department actually Brad reviewing policy for fees so that everyone can access Services Dei is a local parent group volunteering their time so that girls who earning club sports still have access to play softball it is our public works department making
007sure our sidewalks are Ada accessible it is a thoughtful mural in Forest Glenn Park painted by students and commissioned by the city council that welcomes everyone but in our schools Dei looks like teachers providing reading instruction with materials that students see themselves represented in it is the space for clubs at the high school like FFA Unified sports Lia hunos period club and the gay straight Alliance and so many more so that all students have a place they belong and can Thrive it looks like students like my son with disabilities playing sports and acting on stage alongside their peers it is ensuring our policies prevent discriminatory practices so that our schoolid communities and kids feel safe our schools are places where everyone is not only Val valued but celebrated and it's also recognizing that in a
008town where the majority of residents are people of color we need to improve representation on our school board and of our Council and let me remind you that Schoolboard elections are coming up and if anyone has needs information about that I think we posted information on how how to submit applications and and happy to talk more about that with anybody um and finally town halls I did attend the town hall with Senator solman and Rhett mlan and Nathan Susa a week and a half ago I think in Hillsboro and there were several people from forest bro that came um but it was a pretty full room and the majority of the questions and concerns were really about schools and students in our community feeling safe um there were also conversations about policy and and it
009was really well attended but it was kind of nice to get a for where people are with how they're thinking about what's going on in the world and what we can do to work together um to make sure that you know we're still moving forward um the upcoming ones I want to highlight Janine soulman doeses so many Town Halls she's so available she's in force grob quite a bit she is at BJ she's at Starbucks she's virtual tomorrow nights is a virtual Town Hall you do have to register and they'll send the link but it's a great chance to ask she does take questions and just hear about what's going on share your concerns and then Saturday at poiner Middle School um Senator Liden is going to be there at noon and then we just
010received and and Bethany actually was at 5:23 I sent her the email we just received from representative bonami and she managed to plug it into the slides so she's she's awesome um that town hall was just announced it's going to be Monday at 6:00 p.m. at Century and if you've never been to a town hall it's especially um Ron wien's town calls pretty much every it's just a Q&A he does a little on the top talking and then he lets the audience just ask their questions and um it was really well attended the last one I think was at for GR high school so anyway I'm I'm going to pass it over at this point there's plenty of legislative stuff to talk about but I know that uh Dr West is going to be speaking
011to some of that so I'll stop with that stop there that's great thank you so much chair um I have several things to share tonight I'm going to start by um pinch hitting for our student adviser who normally shares a lot that's going on at the high school um we have girls and boys basketball away games at Liberty and Glenco tonight as well as on Friday so if you're a basketball fan worth going to see we also have on 14th and 15th the Pacific Conference district for girls and boys swim team that's being held in m mville so um they're doing quite well this year the 14th and 15th of February nams has their annual music shut in this is a ton of fun they'll be performing at 11:00 a.m. on the 15th um and
012demonstrating what they learned through that overnight experience um quick reminder for those of us who either work in the district or have students in the district Monday is a holiday please don't come to work please don't send your students to school um the 20th of February we have another Mariachi concert if you have not seen the mariachi band it's worth your time they are outstanding and then on the 21st of February through the 2nd of March there are several performances from Forest Road High School theater there presenting HG wells's the island of Dr Maro so if you go to the website you can find the exact dates and times and you can buy tickets in advance and then the last um date that I want to share which is near and dear to my heart
013is that on the 6th of March we will be hosting a belonging Summit AT NE Armstrong Middle School and that will be in the evening um there will be details sent out here very soon to the entire Community Forest gr School District Community the belonging Summit is open to families um who want to learn more about pro-social behaviors they can support their students with how to help their students remain safe online um what to look for in their students online or phone behaviors that parents may want to lean into um what to look for to ensure that they are having the conversations and interrupting behaviors that may lead to unhealthy habits like baking or alcohol drinking or uh drug abuse so um it'll be an outstanding event um and it's really important to have these
014conversations within our community so and now I'm going to move on to a couple of other things I feel like I need to once again address the executive orders that have come down since we last met um the most recent ones were specific about transgender students and how transgender students are treated in school environments um I want to be clear that in Forest Grove School District we have three values that we live by care deeply and stand strong and we adapt and grow for us these are not just words on a poster these are our Compass points every student matters and every student deserves an education in our school system and in order to fulfill that awesome responsibility that we have fors children when they walk through our door we accept them as they are
015we meet them as they are we do not judge we educate and that's what we will continue to do um the most recent executive orders create a conflict with the state of Oregon because in Oregon gender identity is a protected class um so there are lawyers people much smarter than me who will work that out over the coming months and maybe even years but all of that takes place at a state and National level locally we take care of the kids that come to us so I wanted to be clear about that before moving on to more local um information here as I have been doing since the beginning of the year I've been bringing a monthly enrollment report report into the boardroom this is February's and you can see that for February we've had
016a little bit of shift since the last time I put this up the last time we were at 129 students so we're just a few students off from that this time but it still is not where we want to be in terms of our enrollment compar to our projected um student County so if this continues which it seems like it likely will through the end of the year this almost certainly will impact our finances for the upcoming budget season as well as banum we will have to make reductions to account for this loss enrollment and then you can see right there the impact for school as well High School is experiencing the most significant decline in enrollment compared to our forecast which would be expected given that they have the largest student body in the
017district um moving on from there one of the things I committed to do this year once the legislative session started is to bring you some updates so our legislative priorities included the state school fund high cost Disability and Special Education funding cap as well as ecsc services and and then just the adequacy in general of the funding that we need to support students we also had on there some information about unfunded mandates and I'll get to that in just a few minutes there are several House and Senate bills up there that are worth noting all of these are in process um for those of you who are not familiar with the legislative process you'll see for example at the special education funding cap there's actually three different house bills listed there bills have sponsors when
018they are originally introduced and sponsors can write their own bill or select a bill that an advocacy group for example would like to see Advanced if these bills proceed through the legislative process at some point um there will be a directive to combine these bills into one to reconcile them and then there will be just one bill that advances for an eventual floor vote but we're not quite there yet right now all of these bills are in the Ways and Means Committee so they're in the process of being evaluated for financial impact the Ways and Means Committee are asking questions about the bills trying to inform themselves about which of these will move forward in which one are there any questions that these bills before I move on okay next up um in reference to
019the Ways and Means Committee um in the Ways and Means Committee there's there's a ton of work that's actually done the Ways and Means Committee evaluates just about every bill that hits the um Senate and the house there are subcommittees that look at specific bills the ones that we of course care most about are the education subcommittee for the Ways and Means Committee um our own Senator solman is a co-chair for that committee which is nice because we have a pretty direct conduit to somebody who cares deeply about schools and and who listens to us um when we call there was a recent ways and means committee meeting in which Ed genomics which is a division of Georgetown University made a presentation regarding Oregon state school funding and Oregon State School outstate school outcomes and
020we need a relationship a correlation between those two things the gist of the presentation I'm oversimplifying this the gist of the presentation was that we're spending more money than we ever have and outcomes are lower than they've ever been that has led to several press releases like the one that you see here this is from the Republican caucus and in so many words the Republican caucus raises questions about whether or not the monies that are being spent for schools are effective many news picked that up and there's been quite a curfuffle over the last week and a half or so related to this conversation what I hope to do here in the next few minutes is Orient us to a few things because I think this is an important conversation for us in terms of
021how schools are funded and what outcomes mean in relationship to the effectiveness of schools if you're interested you can snap those QR codes that will take you to the ways in committee that we're referencing last week I shared this slide this is a history of the state school fund going back a decade so the 23 2015 bym and you can see there that state school Fund in terms of just dollar value has increased each bium since 2013 2015 um as we pointed out last time the bium right there in the midst of the pandemic the increase was PR small and that 3.3% increase did not account for the increase in cost that we were all seeing we were able to weather that because we had federal funds Esser funds that helped us get through that
022but in terms of state school funding we are still in a recovery state from that 3.3% increase because we haven't caught up yet if you look at the state school fund another way you can see that since the 20 20 3 2005 by NM the amount of monies dedicated to the state school fund relative to the state general fund has continued to decrease if we were today still receiving 45% of the state general fund schools would be receiving $15.8 billion and what is being proposed right now is 11.36 billion so that's quite difference now as I said last time there are some people who look at this and say this is great we're spending money on other things but there has been an impact schools in terms of the resources that we've received over the
023last decade or so this is the graph that has caused the curule it's a complex graph there's a lot of lines on there so I want to spend just a minute talking about what we're looking at the green line is the the expenditure per pupil it's a cumulative change since 2013 you can see that there and it's accurate the expenditures per pupil have increased since 2013 so there's no dispute in the fact that expenditures per people have continue to go up the dotted black line is the inflation line for that same period of time and I'll get to that inflation measure in just a minute here but that was one of the lines that was used to draw a a contrast between the increase in State School fund and how it may be out of
024proportion compared to increases in costs in the state and the nation and then all of the other lines show us academic performance relative to different student groups and that academic performance was measured based on Oregon test scores so a couple things I want to point out about this graph again I don't dispute any of the numbers I think they're accurate I think where the conversation needs to take place is how we interpret this graph for example the inflation line inflation never includes measurements such as increase in wages so as we're looking at that line it doesn't account for the 13 14 15% % increases that we've seen in wages over the last handful of years year over year the expenditure per pupil does not parse out how much of that never makes it to the
025classroom for example it doesn't account for how much of that is funding the increase in curves it doesn't account for that how much of that is being utilized for paid Orgain has a benefit over the last handful of years that everyone in the state has had access to it doesn't account for example all of the unfunded mandates that we've had conversations about in the last several months the million dollars that we're going to need to spend to change out all of our lights so that they're LED that's that's not extracted from that expenditure P per pupil line and I'm bringing this up because well that number is entirely accurate it doesn't accurately reflect how much of that is actually an investment in direct instruction to children and I think that matters when we talk about
026outcomes so let me pause there before I go any further any questions about this graph okay the other thing I want to point out um before I move on here is the test score metric itself it is my professional opinion that the system of testing here in oron is sad and it's time to completely reboot it I do think that the test score in and of itself for its intended purpose tells us something I don't think it should be thrown out wholesale but the way it's currently administered in this state there are flaws that have to be overcome and remedy before we can go back to using that as a reliable indicator of anything and I I'll give you an example about what forms my opinion last year according to OD data across the whole
027state only about 88% of our students actually took the assessment to make any kind of meaningful inference from it we have to be up at about 95% for 11th graders that percentage drops to 70% so it's it's nearly impossible to make any reasonable inference from data that don't accurately represent your student body in addition to that a student is considered to have participated in the assessment if they complete five questions and I wonder I don't have the answer to this but I wonder how many assessment results are included in data like these that are incomplete students didn't actually complete the test but because they completed at least five questions they're considered to have participated so I have a lot of questions about how these data are used to inform the state conversation around the effectiveness
028of schools again any questions before I move on to the ways in me conversation no but I just want to add in on the test it also States at the top that these scores do not affect your grade so when my husband was going to school they gave him the test and he read that line and he said I'm not going to you know I'm just going to fill in the bubbles that's how he did it and I think that's true for lots of people I mean he probably drew some nice things with his bubbles but I don't think his test scores were very good and also to reiterate my KS opted out of taking those tests and a lot of kids do so it's not really an accurate assessment of everybody yeah thank you
029for that um just a couple more slides here and then I'll open it up for discussion um speaking about funded mandates there's a lot being introduced right now at the state level new Bills new ideas um those bills are moving through the legislative process um I've looked at a couple of bills that introduce new content areas so a required content area K12 so this would apply to all students um and what I wonder about this is an example of an unpl funded mandate what I wonder about is if while the bills are moving through our legislature if there are conversations that are taking place related to all of these things the idea of a new bill and a new content area that is exciting and maybe meaningful for us as a state I think that's
030an important conversation to have in addition we need to think about when we introduce a new content area at most Elementary levels now we have to shift instructional minutes from other content areas to make room for the new one is that literacy do we reduce the literacy content area to make room for something like computer science you have to purchase curriculum we have to purchase software we have to purchase Hardware there's training for all staff involved if this new content area requires a specific license we have to move full-time equivalent classroom instruction to a new area like computer science which is the bill that I'm referencing at the second theory level we see some of those same shifts and FTE the impact to curriculum could be that we have to reduce elective offerings in one
031area to make room for this new offering that moves through the legislature we don't want to do that we know that Career Technical education for example yields greater outcomes in graduation than many other programs that students could be involved in but it's it's a tradeoff again we have to purchase curriculum software Hardware we'd have to train new or existing staff we'd have to do a lot of updating to grab requirements mtss processing forecasting course offerings Master scheduling Etc and that doesn't even take into account what you see in the blue there which is a list of the many things that the Department of Education would have to undertake with the implementation of a new course so I'm using this as an example I think computer science is great I love a lot of kids to
032take computer science science courses but the implications for schools when there is a new content area that has introduced a new requirement um is pretty Broad and I don't think at the legislative level there's conversations around this kind of impact when they move new legislation through I've talked before about how important it is to need at we see improved outcomes for students um that is a goal of mine we know from science that there are just a few things that do that this is from the Carnegie Foundation um normally I would put up here a graph from the Institutes of educational science but um that's a federal agency that apparently doesn't exist anymore so I turned to the carneg foundation and we can see here are six principles of improvement um we have to make
033the work problem specific and user Center if we're going to improve outcomes for kids we have got to take this work into the classroom and we have to involve Educators in the process we know through Decades of research that variation in performance is the core problem to address there's really good research that shows that the greatest variance and outcomes for students is not between schools it's between teachers in the same schools we have to reduce variance we have to see the entire system that produces the outcomes context matters we cannot improve its scale but we cannot measure so going back to the previous slide where we were talking about State assessment results we can't use that to inform improvements we have to use our local measures to do that we have to Anchor practice Improvement
034in disciplined inquiry we have these PESA Cycles right now in our schools plan do study act it's built into our PLC process which is what you see in number six there the greatest learning the efficacy that we need to move instruction comes from a collective of dedicated smart professionals working towards the same goal which is improving outcomes for kids this is how we improve outcomes for young people in our system and what I would hope that we can get back to um for any legislators that might be out there walking watching I'm appealing to you right now that we get down to this kind of business and the last thing that I want to leave the barded with is that there is a limit to what schools can do there seems to be no limit
035to what schools as are asked to do and every time we are asked to do something new tend to a new Grant Implement a new requirement take care of a new core course area or content area respond on to something that comes to us from the state level we have to turn our attention from the instruction to that new thing so that's pulling us away from the work that we should be doing and with that I will stop and open it up for discussion I have a couple comments um I I I listened to the ways and means um discussion last week and they were talking about Mississippi and the outcomes of Mississippi and and I was I just wondering I mean may have been at the bottom but they are climbing and I wanted
036to um understand you know what kind of mandates was the legislation requiring in in Mississippi and then I was looking at an article that was um it's called the psda Special Report school districts mandates their impact on public education so I I'm going to read a couple things if State policy makers are serious about addressing the needs of our students and reading a math they need to address the unfunded mandates and fund only the essential mandates that relate to student academic needs and one of the things that I found just unbelievable um it was related to what's required in the business department what's required in maintenance department what's required um um in constru ruction but what when you build a new school there are just so many hoops and requirements and even also bidding none
037of those are directly related to what is happening in our classroom the essentials some unfunded mandates and or outdated programs need to be dropped because they are outdated they do not meet the needs of students and they are ineffective the question I have who will address this and make the decision to evaluate and terminate these unfunded mandates is it at the state level or would it be more effective at the local level it should be noted that the unfunded mandates are imposed on districts and they impact each School District's budget with little or no input by the school districts thus the school districts are not allowed to D to direct funds toward instruction and this creates an undue hardship toward meeting the unique needs of our schools the size of the school district the type
038of student population a district serves the projects within the school which they're involved in right now we have quinas elementary school and they have all kinds of mandate mandates and requirements that they must um abide by and I'm not saying that we shouldn't have rules and regulations safety measures but sometimes people have a good idea and then they go overboard the location of a school district you know in eastern Oregon Joseph Cole um you know uh on the coast rural urban Suburban uh school districts are just examples of the type of characteristics that influence any particular mandate the mandates in some cases cause challenges of school districts in terms of financial burden and in additional require more staff and time which detrimentally impact students needs and academic progress it should be noted that school funds
039pay for expenses with these mandates which comes primarily from local sources and that would be our property taxes as well as state allocations the cost for school districts to meet these demands each year the state's allocation have greatly greatly fail to keep Pace thus as state policy makers add new unfunded mandates the challenge to school districts to do more with less State funding the frustration and absolutely the rug felt by local school districts and the tax paper taxpayers is very real because districts are left with limited options to pay for them as local tax increases and or we have educational Cuts so what happens taxpayers and registrators see that the dollar amount given each bium goes up and they want naturally out accountability and they do not understand why they should increase the dollar amount
040they are justified in question our math and reading scores and feel that the districts are not effective and do not realize that the unfunded mandates have made it extremely difficult to make the gains we need while the legislators do not own that these unfunded mandates are imposing part of the problem I would like to state that policy makers have very good intentions and wanting what we all want that the students have a strong academic program we need to narrow our focus on what is CR critical and essential if we have strong readers and strong mathematicians that should be our number one priority I believe that we can add and enhance the students's academic experience with two things evaluate the effectivness or ineffectiveness of these mandates and second for example if we really feel coding is
041essential for all students to learn then industry and business need to provide the monies for these um so so that was my thoughts about these mandates and a little bit of research and trying to compare each state from Oregon to Mississippi to Pennsylvania to New York um they all have mandates and um it's a it's a huge huge challenge to try to meet the needs of the kids with all these mandates EXC other comments well I I uh I So lately I I watched the same Ways and Means uh hearing I guess it was and um in Ed genomics presented on uh I think what superintendent mentioned was the link between money and test results basically and so you know it's been in the Press quite a bit lately it's if you if you read
042or live or you all you have to do is open a newspaper and it's in so I I just want I think there's some context that some of the Articles miss when you when you read or you read about this and so I found something on OPB and um I'm not going to read the whole thing either but I'm going to read bits and pieces of it and so um so every two years Americans get a snapshot of the health of the country schools education Advocates hope the 2024 scores would show a promising rebound from the covid-19 pandemic but the latest latest results released Wednesday and said show a sobering reality as reading and math skills continue to decline Nationwide not just in Oregon right um the nation's report guard again shows the country schools
043schools country schools continuing to fall short with the Pacific Northwest largely following suit in both Oregon and Washington SC felt on three out of four tests amid a national downward Trend just in order um on the on the N is what it's called National assessment of educational projects the NP tests are different from State assessments required by the federal government government and they're required by the federal government for accountability purposes State tests rely on participation from um as many students as POS possible but their results are difficult to compare across state lines because different states have different tests nape is a common test that assesses the performance of a representative sample of students in every state for the basis of a national compar Nate has four exams that are watched most closely reading and math
044at the fourth grade level and um and at the eth grade level so those work education Advocates had hoped that after rough results in 2022 largely blamed on distance learning and other instructional instructions there would be a post pandemic turnaround but that's not what the 2024 scores reading scor scores were flat or down across the country without a single state showing an increase at either the fourth or eth grade level eight grade levels and math scores were left less uniformly that um um so in Oregon um of the four Oregon's results uh all of them declined except one the biggest drop was in fourth grade reading which fell three points below 2022 levels oron Oregon fourth grade reading scores were seven points below the national average average continuing a disparity dating back almost two decades
045so I think that's important because it's not if you read a paper it would make you think that it happened overnight um this has been 20 years these SC both reading MTH scores prior eth graders fell by two points the eth grade MTH decrease continues a 5year trend of Oregon performing below the national average in reading the below average TR dates back to the pandemic and the one bre spot was in the fourth grade map which rose a point but the n n scor show org fourth graders remain below the national average as the assessment has shown for nearly 20 years um and I and I say that because that there's some context to that it's not as if five years ago we were at the national average or above we have been you know
046unfortunately below the national average 4 long time um and so um and the trend there there's something about Washington is similar and then and this gets to what the Ed genomics was talking about in your presentation super the stagnant results come despite Investments That outpace inflation in many States including Oregon Washington um and according to the analysis by Ed edunom Labs it shows that Oregon was spending his spending has gone up by 80 80% since 2013 while reading m spores have continue to go the other way um in Washington they have spent 110% more than there sports are playing as well so um so it's the Ed genomics was talking about sort of a return on investment we're spending this money and education and where are the test scores going and and I don't know
047the answer to where the test scores are goinging I I don't have an answer on that but I do know know that if you look and I looked at the the graph for the N for nationally and for Oregon and since about 2013 or 2012 our graph has been going down and so has the nation's gra been going down for those deaths and so I don't know the answer I don't know why that's going down even though states are spending more money I do know that that one of the things having been in schools and been a principal at a couple of different levels um I do know that students um take tests um seriously to different degrees some students try and do their best always some students don't try and do their best and
048on these tests I just don't know if we're testing too much I don't know if they don't see a connection between the test and what it means I I don't know but I would just say that I don't I don't all of the all to talk about what this means has been sort of to me sort of blown out of proportion and that's what I would say I I don't think that we're seeing something that we have the spending for the last 10 years has been increased and that's kind of that's quite a bit but speaking about the things that unfunded mandates and salaries going up and those kinds of things um uh so I don't I don't know the answer to that but I just think there's some context that's often left out when
049you read a new newspaper article or you listen to Somebody speak about it there's more there there's always more there if you just kind of look at it so that's that's what I think I can I like I can build off of your point mark and even here's Kate because I so I'm on the osba board and that meeting happened and I've been on phone calls with board members from different from our region from the rural caucus since that meeting and I think it was a two eyebrow raise for me when I got about five minutes in and I right away was like wait what's this presentation my first question was why this presentation it actually gets a little bit to your point mark is like what is the work what what was the outcome
050by by kind of parsing the data versus the money versus the the kids and and because I feel like I think we're hoping there's going to be a broader conversation um but what I really appreciate about the committee because who the claim is on that committee as well and Suzanne Weber um I mean it's a it's a bipartisan committee and and that committee you could tell if you listen to the discussion at the end they also recognize right away the missing context and you could tell by the questions they were asking they were asking really clear questions about the presentation my question and it gets back to katees is I think and actually Bethany would you be able to go back to the slide with the six Carnegie oh my gosh oh is it in
051do that was magic I think this is I think what I'm what I'm starting to hear there's a lot of questions on Schoolboard members is where is the dis where does the disconnect happen here because schools are pretty clear that we know what we need to not get a test score but to give kids a really good education and that number to there I haven't seen it worded like that the varant variation in performance um my husband's been teaching a long time and teaches at Evergreen Middle School this year they're going through these coaching Cycles this has not really been effectively done I think in the whole time he's been there not not because it hasn't been attempted but this is finally there's a chance for them to do this well and he he and
052another friend of mine who teach there um have gone been able to watch other teachers teach it's a PLC model it's pretty much what you're describing but to hear them talk about the value of being able to just get that coaching so they can level up to where they know they want to be that has been they're like that's what we need we we don't necessarily need to be looking at more data in the Wednesday morning meeting we don't need to now incorporate um even if you're giving us curriculum you know another thing in my classroom we just need the time to teach and we need we need someone to be able to give us the feedback that we're looking for and so I think that piece schools know how to do that what I'm
053wondering at the state level is is the state's role to really not dictate what schools should be doing and what data we should be looking at but it's the state's role to really clear the way Clear the Way by setting up a larger system so that we can provide what we need if we're going to grow CTE programs do we need an expanded seat time do we need flexible seat time so high schools can be more flexible with where kids are do we need to talk about year round schools and my question is where are those conversations happening and are these bills being brought forward that's that's the wondering I've heard board members that asked the same question is who is setting the vision for the state so that we can like you said Mark
054re kind of rebuild the system rethink it and we hear that now it's what we need to be doing because the world has changed so those were my questions and I'm just I'm wondering we don't have the answer there on who is having that conversation but you heard in the end of the ways and means someone said this is the first time they talked for maybe 15 minutes and he said this is the first time we've been able to talk this long about anything and so we know time is limited time is limited everywhere um time is limited tonight and are people waiting to present are probably like come on but but this is a huge I mean this is a that one meeting and that conversation has ricocheted around the state and is is
055kind of all Landing back on what what can our legislators be doing for us and making sure that it's what we know we need and I think the answer to who knows what we need Mark when you say we don't know I could be wrong I think superintendants might have a pretty good idea of what their schools need and that's where we're just trying to get the communication lines flowing in in the reverse Direction so instead of waiting to see what are the bills that are coming our way that we have to deal with and then maybe some of them work with what we have instead having the state think about building bills that fill in the gas for what we want and and so I'll stop there I just stop there it's been' covered
056I don't B okay I'll add two quick statements to that and then maybe if we're done we can move on um one is that I learned a long time ago early on as an educator and especially when I entered into leadership roles in education that for every ounce of accountability that I was asking of the people I supervise I needed to provide and equal and how to support and so to your point if we want things to be different in the state and we want to hold schools and school districts accountable for certain outcomes there has to be an equal measure of support along with that and then related we've heard this expression before the system is yielding exactly the outcome it was designed to yield so going back to what you said chair Ki
057is that if we want different outcomes if we want to if we want education to look different we need to think about changing the system and it hasn't been changed in decades maybe hundreds of so that is the work of schools and school districts and we need our legislators to help us with that all right thanks for the presentation and the comments and the discussion and for the patience of our people out there just waiting to be recognized and thinking maybe we could have gone before that discussion but we are happy to have um a spotlight a very special Spotlight plus family here tonight each month we will be taking time to recognize individuals or oh yeah oh fgaa also special our Force grow Education Association equally a special I forgot I'll make it easy
058there's nothing to um really are you just are you saying okay okay sorry about that well I usually make a couple mistakes so that was a big one uh but Spotlight I was looking over at Rio each month we will be taking time to recognize individuals or groups who have exhibited excellence in the district or in our community today we we have an example of excellence in action superintendent Dr Suzanne West will now present our February Spotlight award yeah I am actually going to ask for Halo to come on up here and I'm going to step down here for this [Applause] presentation y we're going to do this so each year the Oregon Association of Latino administrators honors an exceptional educator with the distinguished Latino educator Award of its annual winter conference this year we
059are proud to celebrate our very own Martinez principal of fill Elementary as the recipient of this prestigious honor the distinguished Latino educator award recognizes a Latino educator who demonstrates outstanding leadership and educational Administration and actively advances strategies that align with aa's mission to support and Elevate the students and communities across the district institution or state in the short time that I've known ra it's only been s months um I've witnessed firsthand his deep commitment to his students to his staff and our district he asks hard questions of himself of the system sometimes of his superintendent um not to challenge but because he really cares he's tireless in his advocacy for change he pushes on systems he uplifts and celebrates the diversity of our students and I believe that roio recognizes the inherent value of every
060child and every adult in our school system most importantly ralio makes us better as Educators as a district and as a community Because he believes in the power of public education and he holds high expectations for all students congratulations roio thank you for your dedication leadership and impact you make every day at Fern Hill Elementary and [Applause] than I want to show you all real quick this is what we got and I didn't break it yet you ready Val one two there you go [Applause] yeah I know it's okay one two three perfect thank you I was lucky enough to be neighbors witho and his family when Cruz was just little little Cruz and I've really appreciated not only you as a friendly neighbor but whenever I've been in the building the energy that you
061bring and you're out in the halls and interacting with the kids and the staff and always positive and that um that is really infectious and I really appreciated your commitment to always being on I know as a principal Sometimes some days you maybe have to fake it to make it but like that leadership thank you can I say something and so you know this has been great and I was able to listen to uh some words that you shared at a previous school board and just the stance that you have and I think it's beautiful um one thing I would Ohana such an amazing organization um it's not just for Latinos it's not just for administrators it's for it's for everybody right and so um one thing I would love is for you all to
062experience a conference they have it every single year in the winter time they already have a date set for next year it'd be great to see our school board uh there one I think it allows people to see us in numbers and so they realize that we are the norm we're not the exception you know what I'm saying and and there's been a lot of times where people will say BR H you're you're so good for Latino students and I say I am and I'm good for all students right so again I I think that's important for to to to see that and and and so going to OA really helps see that that again we are the global majority people of color a global majority and often times we're thought it was the minority
063right and so just changing that not saying that you have it but I'm saying changing that mindset things like this help with that and so especially with a district that is over 50% Lao right going to workshops going to conferences that focus on Latinos would be good for for you all um and so but thank you for the stance that you have chosen to take um with this attack on uh and I'm not going to say on diversity equity and inclusion right if de it's easy for people to say that but when you start saying I'm against diversity I'm against Equity I'm against inclusion that really spells it out when people say that so anyways thank you for your stance um here for for thank you and Bethany I'm going to backtrack again to ask
064if there's any uh public comment for tonight okay all right on can I make a motion that we approve should I just this second I'll second all in favor um presentation all right it's finally here it's finally here [Music] we're welcoming brillin Marino her family is here with her tonight uh she is part of the forest grow Future Farmers of America chapter president and she's going to talk to us about the presentation she's giving and why she's give me that thank you welcome all right good evening everyone my name is Bray Lin and I am part of the Forest Grove FFA chapter and I'm presenting to you tonight on behalf of my state FFA degree just before I get started I wanted to go over what FFA is and what a state degree is just
065for a little bit of background FFA is a National Organization focused on agriculture and developing leadership skills in students through agricultural education a state degree is the second highest degree that can earn within our organization and showcases the involvement of the student within our organization in a chapter district and state level moving into some of the chapter activities that I have participated in within the last two and a half years the first is the is that I have had the opportunity to be a chapter officer last year and this year last year I was elected our chapter vice president and this year I was chapter president along with this leadership goal I've had the responsibility to host and facilitate all of our chapter meetings planning with my officer team ahead of time what activities we
066want what what our agenda looks like and helping to make the meeting run smoothly um I have also had the opportunity to partake in various fundraisers for our chapter helping to boost our funds so that we can keep doing the fun activities that we are so fortunate to be able to participate in our two main fundraisers are tree recycling in the winter time which was just last month and then plant sale in the spring last month actually I was able to have the opportunity interviewed by KGW News um to promote our fundraiser and our organization as a whole which was a great opportunity for both myself and our chapter um something that we strive to do within our chapter is many community service opportunities we have a goal set for this year to have one
067community service opportunity every single month just trying to get connected within our community and get the name of FSA out there while serving others which is something that's a part of our national model um one of the big or organizations that we are are kind of partnered with is Rotary we help out at a ton of their dinners and we're super close with them and very fortunate to be to be so um I also have had the opportunity to help at various school events whether it's our annual trick- or- treat and event for kids in our community um during Halloween or the holiday event that was hosted about a year or two years ago um I love to kind of get connected with students in that way and kind of it helps to get the
068name out to Young kids so that they may want to join in the future I've also helped it various back to school night booths or recruiting opportunities again just to kind of get the name of FFA out there annually we also help out at the Veterans Day assembly pitting on boers as the veterans enter and welcoming them in for the day um and then finally for community service we had the opportunity to partner with our local Wilco last year and help them with their Community Day helping them to pop plants for customers um just kind of getting again more Community engagement um as a member within Forest gr FFA we have a spring banquet to commemorate our members for all their awards and achievements throughout the year but my freshman year before I was an
069officer um that was my first banquet and it was such a great experience just highlighting the amazing work we did throughout the year and I earned my greenhand degree that year which is the degree that certifies your first year within the FFA last year as an officer I was able to have a more in-depth role within that banquet planning everything out ahead of time what decorations who wanted writing the manuscript and even delivering the manuscript at that big way um I earned my chapter degree there as well as receiv received star chapter Farmer for that year and then this last year I had the opportunity to show at the county fair for my first time which I will talk about a little bit more in a couple of slides and last month I had the
070opportunity to go on the State Legislative CP tour to talk about our FFA program as well as our agricultural CCU classes this was a great opportunity for me to network with other people throughout the state like the legislators and really get the name of FFA out there and inform them of what our agricultural classes look like without which we wouldn't be able to have our FFA program moving into my District's level activities um I have had the opportunity to be a district officer for the past I last year and then moving into this year last year I was the district reporter and I am the newly elected 2526 District vice president my freshman year before I was a district officer I was a district delegate following the methods of parliamentary procedure in order to elect
071and install our new District officers along with being a district officer I able to facilitate and attend the Northwest District Leadership Camp working with my officer team um which is people who are not from my school they're from different schools around the area to plan the camp coming up with a theme and different activities making sure that members are having a great time while also being able to connect and expand on their leadership skills while there I was able to attend various workshops to help enhance my own leadership skills and come up with ideas and things I can Implement into my own chapter I'm another District level activity which is one of the major ones throughout the year is our district convention this is where a lot of our competitions take place some of which
072I have competed in my freshman year I competed in Creed speaking which I placed third in at the district level as well as the greenhand knowledge quiz which is just general information about the FFA in general which I placed first in moving on to State and also placing first um my sophomore year I competed in sophomore prepared public speaking which is a 4 to6 minute prepared speech about an agricultural topic and I placed second in that speech moving on to sectionals last um or this month actually the beginning of it I competed an advanced prepared public speaking which is a 6 to8 minute long speech about an agricultural topic and then some more distri competitions called cdes These are Career Development events which are more agriculturally like a specific ultural field or topic Center I
073have competed in agricultural sales where I sell an Agricultural Product to a panel of Judges it was my first time competing this last November and I placed second High individual last spring I also competed in culture evaluation and floor culture for the first time placing second with my team in both of those events and then moving on to my state level activities the first and probably major one is State Convention this is an opportunity for members across the state to get together and r in Oregon for about 4 days just networking attending the career Expo listening to Keynote speeches and working on our leadership skills while there I had the opportunity to sit on various proficiency committees judging other members supervised agricultural experiences this didn't only help me to gain information about the interview process
074but I also learned about the diverse Agriculture and opportunities that are offered to members across the state the last two years that I have attended I've also served as a state level delegate again following the methods of parliamentary procedure to elect and install our new state officers as a district officer I've had the opportunity to attend Oregon district Officers Training which is similar to our Northwest District leadership camp but this is with members from across the state giving me the opportunity to network and meet so many new people that I never would have been able to meet or talk to otherwise um and we attend various workshops throughout the three days that were there working on our individual leadership skills but also coming up with ideas that we could Implement within our district dist and
075within our own chapters and then some State CDE events which are the same events that I competed at the district level just at a larger level with more people were Flor culture and poultry evaluation this past spring okay and I've talked a little bit about these in the previous slides but saes or supervised agricultural experiences I currently have two and these are just projects that I do outside of school that connect me back to agriculture my first and most major SAE is Suburban seasonal backyard gardening I don't come from a farm I don't live on a farm so I had to get a little bit creative with how I tied myself to agriculture but I came up with having a small backyard garden I've upgraded from four race vents to six race Vents and I
076try out different crops seasonally kind of altering with and determining what factors make them grow best I strive to have my plants produce the utmost and maximum produce that they can so that I can take that in for my family I grow currently spring summer and fall crops from what I harvest in my garden I take it in to my house and process it into things that my family can use throughout the year whether it's things like pickles pasta sauce or salsa during the summer months these things are all things that go back into my family ultimately and help to serve my family and my household throughout the year um I also learned through this sa that our area is lacking in pollinators so I have learned the methods to raise both Mason be and
077leaf cutter bees implementing both of those into my operation so that I don't have to hand pollinate things myself which is very convenient um through this SE I have learned many new skills about plan production and food processing which I can take with me into my future and possibly a career my second SE is a little bit newer to me but something that I have fallen in love with is raising a market turkey for the county fair to sell at the auction this last year was my first year in doing so um and I had to work with him a lot to get him ready for Showmanship as well as myself I had to gain so much much knowledge about the C Tre industry um but It ultimately paid off as I placed first in
078my Showmanship class um had to work with him immensely spending hours a week just getting him ready getting him comfortable building that connection and it was a definite learning curve as it was something I have had never done before and was totally with but through this SE I was able to learn so much about animal systems and how to raise a market animal in general both of these combined I've spent over 500 hours total and invested over $1,500 and then I would be a Miss if I didn't end this presentation without acknowledging some of the reasons why I personally love FFA and I know that other members can attest as well the first is that I've been able to meet and connect with members from across the state of Oregon people that I would never
079have had the chance to talk to and just really make connections with them and learn about how diverse the agricultural industry is across the state there's so many Commodities that I was unaware that Oregon was like actually producing I guess um and it's just so incredible how many people are involved within this organization and how many different few points there are I've also gained essential public speaking skills that I know I can use later on in my career as a freshman I came in I was totally terrified of public speaking but now it's something that I actually truly enjoy so I know I will cherish those skills forever and I've also been able to network with many people and be exposed to agricultural businesses colleges or organizations that I can pursue after After High School
080um as things I want to do or go into or just really things that kind of help me to emphasize that passion When I grow out of FFA um and then the last one I've been able to partake in opportunities that I wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for FFA whether that's competing in a new competition and learning those skills or traveling to Redmond to go to State Convention or meeting new members from across the state at leadership camps these things are things that I'll be able to cherish forever and I know that without FFA I wouldn't have had this opportunity so thank you all so much for your time I truly appreciate it are there any questions I can answer I have questions question I'll just start because she could take a
081while so like it's fin so impressed I fore a first place in the public speaking at the next day competition for sure we're really proud of you and happy for you and I have questions too but I don't really need to know what you are selling for the egg panel that's one of my questions was christe will probably be asking it in the next few minutes but congratulations thank you so much I appreciate it all right okay okay just a couple just a couple so one um I have so many most success these are the quick ones and then I've got a long one most successful crop from all of your all of your produce that you grow probably either Tomatoes or zucchini neither of which I like tomato last last year was a rough
082last year was a rough year we had a lot of pest last year so challes um most nervous moment when you're at competitions can you remember what their time when you were just like uh probably my first speaking competition I commended to Mrs shuford she made me do it I was scared I was falling my eyes out you can ask my parents I didn't want to go I almost quit but I did it and I st in front of that competition room I was so nervous but I walked in and it all went great even though I messed it up it still went great so was worth it um and then my I guess my last one well I want to compliment your teacher and your parents I I guess I'm wondering when you when
083how did this happened like when did you get interested in FFA and say this is it and then you it sounds like you know you had great support um was there was that something you always were going to go into or someone recruited you or how did that start my mom you go to the first Mee actually I was like I don't want to go but then a couple of my friends were going and my mom's like you should just go try it out and so I'm like okay and then I immediately got hooked I don't even know what hooked me but I just kept going back I think it was probably the community and how encouraging everybody is within the organization as soon as you join it's like you join this immense family united
084by our Blue Jackets that's awesome well that's moms and dads and teachers that's what we talk about getting people getting kids out of their comfort zone so they can grow but you're that's a phenomenal example I mean I was just really impressed by the whole presentation so thank you so much thank you very very much I have a question do you live in town and did you have to get approval to be at your home to have these yeah I do live in town I live up in for scale Heights and we did not have to get approval yeah both the Mason bees and Lea cutter bees they live in little tubes I know so you just need like a beat house it's not like a huge beat box or anything like that they're very
085easy to what about the turkey the neighbors are okay with the turkey no we can't have a turkey because we live in an HOA um so we have a program at the school we are able to have Market tures there okay I was wondering that up I was like well maybe maybe they got neighbor approv yeah I forgot last one what what's your what are your future aspirations is there anything you're thinking about um I don't have a solid plan as of yet but I know that I want to pursue something in the animal science here okay okay awesome all right thank you so much [Applause] she's a winner [Music] wow the parents Andy just a picture of you guys yeah yeah can zoom in as much as I can there and not cut mark
086off okay one two 3 okay thank Youk you [Applause] all right second presentation tonight is uh about graduation dayses you guys also don't have to take yeah you can you can there's G to be more and it's be I just didn't want you to feel like you had to okay just being polite thank you thank all right thank you I'm have a quick presentation on graduation rates these data are already public but want to orient us to just a few things within Forest Grove data specifically so I have a few graphs and slides for you um graduation is reported in two different categories fouryear graduation and then fiveyear computer um you have should be familiar with the fact that every school district in the state of Oregon um co-created longitudal performance growth targets with the
087Department of Education about three years ago the purpose of which is to help encourage Improvement in the five common metrics the state evaluates Us in what you see here are four-year graduation rates and this is the table in the graph that we use to evaluate our progress in this particular longitudal performance Road tget and you'll see just to orient you to this one that the top line is our stretch goal where we would like to be at the conclusion of this particular cycle which ends in 2930 um the blue line is our Baseline goal and then the green line is what's known as a gap closing goal and the Gap closing goal is what we strive for in order to see um student focal groups close that achieve M Gap and reach at least the
088Baseline this um entire program related to longitudinal performance growth targets is intended to take at least 10 years to realize the level of improvement that the state is looking for um we'll be bringing some more information to the board related to the integrated plan and longitudinal performance both targets here soon it's an annual approval process so um we'll be back in just a couple months with updated goals and more information but for right here what I want to point out is that for us as a district um we saw quite a bit of improvement in our fouryear graduation rate at Forest gr High School for the 23 24 school year um for the 23 24 school year Forest gr High School um achieved an 80 oops I have that wrong it's an 84% graduation rate
089um which was pretty good for the district you'll see it's at 82 .9 the reason for that is this is the first year 23 24 where um we reported Cal as an independent high school so instead of the students at Cal being rolled up into that overall Forest Ro High School number which they had been in previous years those students are now reported separately which means the two high schools are average and that is the reason why we have a different score there for this year so it establishes new basine for us um but in terms of our longitudinal performance growth targets um we track them together we don't separate them out this is overall District performance and this is the same graph but it's for fiveyear graduation for our computer and you can see
090that for that red line there we are making progress here as well so our our high schools are doing a great job of helping students achieve graduation um either in four years or in five years they've SE tremendous improvement over the last couple of years so congratulations to all of our high school staff for that effort um the other thing that I want to point out here um these graphs look a little bit different they're produced for us by um the Consortium um the Oregon Data suite and these are projection lines so these projection lines show us over a period of time what can we expect given our past data and our current data in terms of overall performance and what I want to point out here is that we we do expect given the
091recent Improvement in graduation to continue if if that Trend continues we will eventually reach 88 89 90% graduation as a district it's going to take a few more years but that's the path one of the student groups that we pay particular attention to is our students who are emerging by students so these are English Learners and this is an important group for us to pay attention to in our district again 60% of our student bu is Latino we educate many of our students in Spanish because that is the language spoken in the home of their Heritage language and what you can see here in the blue line is that our students who are emerging bilingual are increasing their graduation rates at rates based on this trend line even greater than what we see in the
092overall student body so that is a student focal group where we are starting to close gaps and we're really excited to see that in our graduation data with our Dropout rates you can see similar Trends um the dropout rate for all students is interesting it's a wavy line so these are regression lines if anybody pays attention to statistics or is interested in that um regression lines typically are straight but our data are wavy because if you look at those individual data points they're all over the place which means there's been a lot of variance in our Dropout rates over the last few years and that's what leads to that wavy line there but if you look at the blue line again on the right and these are again our emerging bilingual students you can see
093that Dropout rates um are continuing to decline and that's good we have more students who are emerging bilingual graduating than ever and that's exciting for us means they're not done now and that's it for my very brief presentation if you have any questions about our graduation or Dropout rates see none thank you and we are going to move on to action items number one n class technology upgrade contractor in welcome [Music] uh the action item before you tonight uh is for the approval of the uh contractor to install the new a equipment at thear middle middle school as part of the broader Bond project who upgrade all the old equipment across the district that is over 10 years old in the last Bond uh you already approved actually the purchase of the physical equipment this
094is the approval of the contractor so the decision went through an RP process and uh selected uh forland electrical construction PCI as the contractor after the RP process so the action for tonight is to approve theci as the contractor toall the project at n and the way that we're doing this is we're doing it kind of by school so this is the approval tonight just for the alarm project questions do I have a motion to approve peci as a classroom technology upgrade contractor and the first project of installing new classroom audio video equipment at Neil middle school for $1 13226 utiliz on funds second any discussion all in favor all right thank you uh next up is John able hi John welome sorry no [Music] problem okay the uh second item for you tonight is
095uh for architectural services for Fernhill Elementary School um for maem Architects they were previously selected through an R RFP process um what this project is is a four classroom edition of the east side of burill elementary school um current plan is to have one three classroom and three standard classrooms um and so we uh there questions let me know but they're here to get going and plan to start construction this summer questions I can make the motion I move that the board approves the bond procurement for M for the thir elementary school classroom expansion and PK renovation project at [Music] $92,800 ruction contract at echos sha Elementary School uh we took this one out to bid uh and got four bids uh inline construction was the low bid and uh these were our pre-qualified General
096Contractors that um we put that list together also through an RP process so um we're confident with all the firms we've pre-selected um we've worked with inline before and so the work there includes U seismic replacing most all the sighting on the building placing the windows uh and then some interior uh repairs and deferred maintenance so let me know if you have any questions John you say we've worked with inline before as a district or just you guys um trying to remember I've worked with them a number of times in Hillsboro okay um I just don't remember see it usually five I think like a $100,000 difference yeah we uh cornerstones worked with a number of times worked with them they're based in ALA than so that was going to be my next question yeah
097they're pretty much local um and um have done a lot of work with hillsb school district so confident with thank you I can a move that the board Awards eal Elementary School construction project to inline commercial construction for 151 discussion all in favor thank you go uh Northwest Regional local service plan is back with yes thank you back for Action um so last board meeting was a first read um as a reminder Regional superintendent viewed the plan and approved it in November um the Northwest Regional ESD board of directors has also approved this plan um included in the packet for review was the service plan slide deck the proposed resolution for this service plan and then the timeline so we are bringing it back for Action tonight questions d a motion to approve the 2025
09826 loal service plan as presented so move second discussion favor all first read first first read all right first read just briefly in your board packet for review and for Action when we come back together next time is the proposed transfer timeline and number of recommended opening slots for the 2526 school year we are required by Statute to um have a window a period of time at which students May apply for entry into our district and leave our district without restrictions so it is these timelines and open slots that we are bringing to the board for approval in a few weeks here so that we can begin that process any questions about that all right thank you and I just want to note for the record that says 710 it says 715 a Jour despite
099my best attempts to do this be let's give chrisy a shout out for 10 minutes early we're at 657 yeah come back ask more questions for