SKPS Special School Board Meeting (Work Session/Retreat) 9-26-2020

001look like it just said live on custom live streaming service yes it did meeting is now streaming live okay perfect okay then can you make me the host yes I will pass over the host to you right thank you of course Jord everybody all right good morning good morning every body okay and today is September 26th 2020 this is the Salem Kaiser School Board special meeting for retreat it's a work session there will not be any public comments and this meeting is being broadcast on Salam Kaiser public school YouTube channel via live stream only we are not going to be telecasting via Capital uh media CCTV I want to welcome uh our board superintendent Perry and your leadership and and good morning to our community who are joining us in this very important special meeting

002the board retreat a lot of people have put lot of ours behind this planning and it's a very important meeting for our community it's a very important meeting for our board and the purpose we hope to achieve by this meeting is to move forward and focus on our students ensuring that all the students have high academic achievement and have a thriving life trajectory moving forward there have been a lot of events which really was very stressful very difficult for all of us including the board directors including the board and the school leadership and the community in general so this is an opportunity for us to move forward together and essentially hit the reset button as we were going through several difficult challenging experiences I must say there have been very there have been many many

003people who have been really kind and supportive and have reached out and supported us in this journey Oregon School Board Association has been one such organization that really reached out and without the helping hand from so many it would have been very very difficult this was very unprecedented never in the history at least in recent time we have had such backtack disasters that affected our community and it did take a toll it took a toll on all of us but Oregon School Board Association the color caucus from Oregon School Board Association and many such leaders and organizations did not forsake us they walked with us and today we have two trainers from Oregon School Board Association who would be helping us hit the recet button I'm so privileged and honored to work with wonderful leaders

004superintendent Perry was recently named as the super intendent of the year and I'm confident that she will be the national superintendent of the year as well this has been a herculan task in keeping the what I call changing the direction and keeping the ship floating it's a huge ship we have 49,000 lives served in our building on a given day it's more than some of the small cities in this country and we have such wonderful through all this I had to remain focused and look at such amazing wonderful uh board directors who stuck around and helps keep the ship floating through all these backtack disasters what I call my quadruple disasters that hit our nation and our community in particular so I want to say it's been a blessing for me to work with such

005wonderful board directors fellow directors and the school district leadership so without taking much time I would like to personally thank Mr Vincent Adams and Miss Kristen miles from Oregon School Board associations who are here to help us uh guide us in how we can be even better and we can build back better as high functioning board I'm going to ask them to give a few words and introduce so that that makes much more important for me rather than me trying to describe their resume so welcome let the board uh meeting is called to order I'll start with the procedure of taking the board attendance and then we will proceed so I'll call out the name please uh as we recognize you director kylo you're on mute director kylo here C oh okay now you're mute

006yeah present thank you Dr Le present Vice chair Bal here director hyen here director blasi here and I am also present here as the chair SAA chandrai thank you I'll leave to our trainers thank you very much go ahead so chair Shandra giri super Perry thank you so much uh for having us here this morning thank you for taking time out of your weekend to to spend this time uh so like you said um um I'm Vince Adams from Oregon school boards Association I am a board trainer and I have with me helping me in this session Kristen miles who is a senior uh board development specialist and um also on the call I have uh the board the uh uh director of board development with uh the Oregon school boards Association so we brought

007a lot of assets here because we care about kids and we care about this school board so as I Was preparing for this I was reminded of a learning that I got from one of my mentors um he's now the superintendent of the Northbend school district U Kevin bogon and he uh shared with me this idea of Sova it's a a twe word from from Ghana and it means go back and get it um and the idea behind it is to to go back into history and and pull out that learning that that we can use today and so to as I Was preparing for this session um I realized that the conversation that we need to have is really something that school boards rarely get to do and we get to just stop and

008talk very deeply about the work of school boards and what it means to be on a school board um so I'm very much looking forward to this conversation and I hope you are too because I think people who are on school boards um really care about uh schools and children and we often we usually like talking about that so um krisen do you have anything you want to share I just want to say thank you for having us um we love doing this work with boards um prior to coming to osba I've been there for about four years I was h a central office administrator at Portland Public Schools so when you talk about like steering a big ship I understand what that what that is like and I am a Salem Kaiser Alum go

009Scots so thanks for having us looking forward to this day thanks Kon so um so my background is U for the last 10 years uh I was just hired with osba I've been on the corval school board since 2013 um I've worked at Oregon State I had previously worked at Oregon State University since 2010 where I did social demography and I worked with local government all over the state doing uh uh strategic planning and situational analysis um but I got the Schoolboard bug and uh osba poached me from OSU but I my background is is in the extension service so this is a workshop so for members of the board you're going to be interacting feel free to just unmik un unmute your mics and we're going to have a uh a nice conversation feel

010free to interrupt me at any point the session is for you and this is a conversation that you get to have um of course any time through here feel free to stop and take care of yourself you can go ahead and shut off your videos step away if you need to but we've also planned in three breaks into this three 10- minute breaks into this this session we might shorten those because we we got a little bit of a late start so um just feel free to interrupt this is an informal session for you and then my one last reminder before we get started is be sure to have something to write with and write on because you are going to be reflecting that we're going to be taking time to reflect during this session

011so are there any questions at this point before I I go any further great then I'm going to go ahead and share my screen is everybody seeing that okay I'm seeing nodding heads which is also yes good okay so that was all the content so this is our agenda for the day so we're going to dive into the why do we have school boards why are we on a school board um we're going to do some nuts and bolts work um where we're going to talk about board roles and responsibilities this is fairly basic but there's some some scenarios we're going to be quizzing you so it'll be a little fun and then we're going to go over norms and expectations you're going to talk about uh the Norms that you expect and or Norms

012that you have for your behavior and and the way you want things to proceed and then uh in the last hour we're going to talk deeply about how how this board can move forward but the first thing I want to do is I just want to step back and and just get acquainted and so let's go around with members of the board and um and all participate as well you know and just let's get acquainted and talk about um who we are and where we're from so geographical place of birth for me is I was born in chicao California and I'm an only child and uh um shortly after I was born my my parents moved to Los Angeles until I was 10 years old um um I lived there in Los Angeles but my

013mother remarried and uh she met a man and they they got this idea that they wanted to sell everything and build a boat and go cruise to the South Pacific and so that's exact they they sold everything and uh moved to Winchester Bay Oregon uh does anybody know where reeport is yes yeah out on the coast so that's then that's where I grew up from 10 years and I grew up on a sailboat so that's my interesting and challenging thing from my childhood who'd like to go next I'll go can you hear me all right yeah we can hear you okay this is Kathy gos born in Salem Memorial hospital and I was one of two children and my brother passed away probably 10 years ago um I've done a lot of different things I

014ran the mo restaurant Chan for some years and I raised oysters and I've uh taught for a number of years I taught from everything from first grade through high school and I had a a master's degree in guidance and counseling and a doctorate in um education Administration been around a long time uh interesting or challenging thing from your childhood so right now the challenging thing for me is that we lost our family home on the North Fork it burned to the ground and I going to go up and look at that tomorrow I'm not looking forward to that but needs to be done so um very much interested in education have been for a long time started out in education and moved to business and frankly I enjoyed both of them any questions oh that's

015where I am great who's next I'll go next uh this is Paul kylo uh I was born at Portland osteopathic hospital which is no longer in existence uh lived there for 10 days and then moved to cambi Oregon where I spent the rest of my life as I was growing up I'm the oldest of three my brother's sister and I currently ly up and birthdays uh 62 61 and 60 and that will last for another four weeks and then um I have a birthday um interesting or challenging thing probably a younger brother and younger sister um they're both musically inclined I am an audience inclined person we always had a competition to see who could be the best and do the best so that's it I like that Paul I'll go next I was uh

016born in the Pacific Northwest I am the oldest of two and we moved a lot around a lot when I was very young that's it I'll go Danielle bethl I was born in Eugene Oregon I'm um the second of four only raised with one and something interesting for my youth um let's see I got the chickenpox I think in the first grade and it was during a presidential election and we didn't have cable so we were miserable with only watching presidential debate so my mom let me go out in the snowstorm to be more comfortable because I had a fever and I itched who's next uh that's me hey guys Jesse um Geographic place of birth I was born in the big Metropolis of Salem Morgan uh my birth name was Jessie peon uh but

017then it got changed to Peter Olson and then I changed it back well then I got adopted again which is Jesse Leo but now eventually I'm gonna change it back to Jessie Pon so interesting Circle there but uh yeah birth order I don't know what that means me and my siblings I got three fames technically and so like out of my birth family I'm the oldest my dad had me when he was 16 um and then out of my first adoptive family I was a middle child and my second adoptive family I'm the youngest uh interesting thing about my childhood uh one challenging thing was I didn't know how to talk until I was four so I struggled with a speech impediment for a long time um and then the other thing is I used

018to always get like shirts and I tied it around my neck and then as a cape because I thought I was Superman and so I would jump off of things and I got hurt often from doing things like that thanks for that Jesse Yeah I can't see everybody but uh here I can I'm I'm going to go next uh this is I don't know if you can see me yes yeah I was born in South India a state called Kerala uh and uh I'm the second of three siblings and this is back in India and uh you know my father worked in Air Force so he was kind of stationed everywhere we were in the city of Agra which is the place where you have the Taj Mahal you know so I liveed through the

019second Indo Park War I remember distinctly our homes were painted black and I saw a plane burn in up in Fr you know right on top and a piece of it came and fell near my school this was during the President Nixon and Henry Kissinger's time where Pakistan got divided into East and West and East became the Bangladesh father was in theost he was on duty in the night first night when the bomb fell and all our carts moved from one end of the bed room to another and we didn't know what was going on so we had to kind of go and sit in the trench that we had dug behind that was a year soon after that my mother went missing for almost a year and we didn't know what happened uh those

020days we didn't have communication other than what is called Telegram and uh you know I kind of learned how to cook and things like that then we moved South because North India the medium of instruction was Hindi and so when moved South every kid spoke English and I didn't know how to speak English when I was in fifth grade so it was tough I could understand but I didn't know how to speak and gradually we had literally learn and uh those interesting lessons uh I still remember distinctly and can of help me I have no idea from where to where but I'm here now thank you thank you SAA hi this is shiron I I'm not sure if you can see me now again but at all see you okay great so uh I was

021born in Nashville Tennessee uh grew up in De Mo Iowa um which is interesting because I meet a lot of people in this region who also lived in Iowa um it was just my mom and I uh and so when I graduated from high school um I didn't uh really have a lot of opportunities so I joined the Navy right out of high school and spent uh about 14 years in the Navy and I think that was certainly a lifechanging experience uh gave me an opportunity for an education but also learned um you know a lot about uh other other people other cultures um and I was in the Navy at a time time when women didn't uh didn't go to Sea didn't uh do a lot of the traditional Navy roles but while I

022was suring that that changed um they repealed the combat exclusion law and so I um was one of the first women to go to see in the Navy which was certainly an eye opener um and after that I ended up uh here in Salem Oregon almost 20 years ago so thank you say that again Jesse oh I was I was asking sh like after seeing everything why' you move to Salem Morgan what's that after see Duty what well just after all the places that you've been why' you move to saem Morgan uh at that time for [Laughter] love well thank you thank you all for those those responses so I'm G to share screen again and we'll move on um so the next is really is and oh I'm not sharing oh no I did

023the wrong thing hold on see technology is conspiring against us this morning there so in this next piece um I want you to go back this is part of the the sanova journey I was talking about and what I want you to do is I want you to go back and I want to tell want you to tell about the moment that each of you decided to run for the school board I want to think you I want you to think about what was it that made that that helped you make that choice um what were the feelings that you had at that time and what did you hope for then maybe talk about what you ran on so who would like to go first on that going back to that moment in time I'll

024go first uh so um being on a school board or doing political things really wasn't what I wanted to do when I grew up uh at the time uh my husband was very involved with things and and uh there was one conservative on the board who was not going to run again and uh so you know we actively looking for a conservative from my zone to run and you know we didn't find anybody so so I did it um I ran mostly because uh as a parent when I dealt with the district it was very very un uh unset astis Factory um what I was dealing with uh very bureaucratic they didn't really listen to parents didn't really seem to care would get the runaround um it just was bad and so uh I I

025ran to be a voice for parents because I wanted them to have somebody who was a fellow parent with a child in the district who would listen and do something to help them unfortunately I quickly found out I couldn't do much of anything but uh I've always been a listening ear uh when they want to talk and and sometimes that's the most important thing for people is just to be heard thanks party I'll go next uh this is Paul um my there I don't know that there is a golden moment when I decided for 25 years I worked representing School teachers and uh so I saw school boards up close and personal and my mother was on a school board budget committee and my grandfather and Grand uncles were on school boards in little rural

026districts out near Malala so being around schools and on school boards uh was always part of my life my brother was a school administrator and my sister was a school administrator and still is a school teacher so being a part of schools was always there um I I retired at the age of 55 unwillingly and frankly was on November 1st and was bored on November 3rd and uh schools being part of my life I decided it was time to run for a school board and do something in the community uh I did have an opponent the first time I ran and he pulled out of the race so in essence it was non-contested race although he received 3,000 votes to my 8,000 votes so it's like okay but I ran as a to be a

027voice for the employees that I'd been representing for all those years because I had actually represented the employees in Salem and um I know know and knew where a lot of the skeletons were and are buried so that was what caused me to do a a sense of helping represent thanks Paul your your education born and Brad oh yeah big time who'd like to go next I'll go this is Kathy gos and I spent a lot of time in education when I got out of Oregon State and taught from a number of years and then I went into business with Mo's restaurants and got that bug I absolutely loved it I loved business and I never went back to education and I thought gosh I spent a lot of time going to school to get

028my doctorate and I was wasting it on oysters it was time I got back to people and what I was first intended to do so so I decided that was the the best way for me to go right then and so um I've been on the board for three years now this is my fourth year and I've enjoyed it it is hard to move an an uh air carrier ship and that's what we are I mean everybody we all jump in and we think we're going to make immediate big changes and that's why we ran and moving this size district is not easy so I've learned that and it's time I calm down and try to gentler technique maybe that will help me that's all thank you Kathy great lesson on patience patience it requires

029to be a board I don't have that who else would like to go or go next we have more time I'll go thank you SAA yeah so when I was in uh fifth grade we were going through a lot of hardship with Mom and move me moving from one language speaking to another most of my fifth grade I didn't even go to school and uh you know this is what children typically do when there's challenges at home with Mom's not well we didn't even recognize that there's one teacher who was starting her career for the first time I don't know what she saw in me I certainly didn't see in myself somehow she helped and moved us moved me to sixth grade because in India if you fail twice you out of the education system

030there's nothing like No Child Left Behind in IND and fast forward I became a phys psychiatrist and that helped me bring my mom back get her back treated and she lived with us till the end we got our family back if that teacher had not taken interest in me I won't be here today talking to you all this one person can change the trajectory in my case that was the story in 2004 I went with my family to meet her that was the last year of her service she retired after that when I was working in the VA there were a lot of Young Veterans who were ending their life to suicide and I would cancel the clinic go and try to testify nobody would listen they'll give me two minutes in public testimony literally

031nothing made a difference he had veterans taking a shuttle going to Portland for a simple procedure and nobody would listen that's when I decided I have to do something I can't simply sit and complain I realized there is nobody a psychiatrist in the legislature not anywhere so but I didn't know what to do I I'm an immigrant I just got naturalization they give you 200 question that's pretty much what you know about the citizenship so I decided to run for an office with the simple idea that I'll be the voice but I didn't know that I had to quit that VA job halftime VA job because of a lawal Hatch Act 1500 veterans were without a psychiatrist because of that decision yet those are the veterans who said no we're going to you go ahead

032you will be our voice and they became my campaign team I lost the primary but I kept working networking and in 2018 I believe he lost 16 youth to suicide in Maran County six or five or six were from our school district rest from other School District Two died of suicide within 17 days from the same high school then I said you know a psychiatrist 31 years this is what I've known I don't know anything else at that time our school district along with the 195 School District didn't even have a suicide prevention policy I said I have no moral authority to complain if I'm not willing to roll up my sleeve and show up with that I decided to run I had to go through Secretary of States that how to campaign whatever literally

033I had to learn from bit by bit stood in the street first poster was was made a shower curtain we just put tapes and made our curtain we you know stood there I had no idea as an immigrant you don't know anything about the political process What It Takes how to talk how to communicate you talk of agen it's like shackles that hold you back when you're in this country you know some of our community members asked me what are you doing you're kind of instead of sitting and practicing you were standing in the roadside that that's what I did anyway fast forward and we did I had no idea that our community would be so inclusive that they would believe in a person like me with a funny sounding name and you know half

034the time I people can't even pronounce my name I had to shorten everything that they would trust give their little trust and allow me to be the voice of those who don't who are not here to speak and the first time I had I launched it in spra high school where my daughter went and that's the school we had some and mother of one came said I want to come and speak in your thing said even if I don't win this election or at least it'll be an opportunity for me to be the voice and work towards reducing stigma now we are talking about mental health and mental illness it becomes so part of the lingo but before that the stigma had killed more people than guns knives sticks or anything else so that is

035what drew me here and uh that continues to give me the strength that I can be the voice of those who are marginalized invisible forgotten and discarded in the system because of the stigma and the shame that comes with it in the face of all our children children I see the future of our planet literally just like I that teacher saw something in me I didn't see in myself I keep asking what is that that made a difference I said if as a school board director if we can create the conditions that will essentially nurture the best in all our children so that they can have a flourishing life trajectory and build a peaceful and Harmon society and educational achievement becomes the Game Changer in my opinion I started looking at myself I said I'm

036a physician I'm not an educationist how can I go forward then it dawned on me that academic outcome is nothing but Health outcome unless children are safe unless they are well healthwise you really cannot achieve an educational outcome they are nothing different and then it started looking at further deep down you know we talk about racial equities and racial challenges to me they are the generations of intersectionality of serious adverse childhood experience which is what I have been working in my trauma affects every generation every historically cross-sectionally then I started thinking you know you talk about trauma informed Hospital trauma informed system can also dream of trauma informed Community where we can start thinking in terms of how pervasive it is which is what we do in healthcare so I said for me school and

037community and community and school are not separate they are all part of the same Continuum and that really formed my interest and it still sustains me I did not expect that I'll be sitting today like this in the intersection of four huge disaster backto back and they're all kind of affecting this was not part of my plan to be honest none of us expected this will happen so fast but here I am so I don't know if I answered the question thank you for your confidence in me that's what I want to say for trusting somebody like me who total unknown total unknown and to in this historic moment in the nation's history in our community's history to fi a totally unknown person in this role and and to support to be the chair is

038like taking a huge chance whether we when I look back it really kind of gives me goosebumps because my our board has taken a huge dis first of all our community and second thing our board has taken such a huge risk and challenge that you know when superintendent Perry you mentioned about it's high time that we start disant in structural racism I believe the first important step has been taken by this board by trusting some an immigrant like this with no background in this country to put in this position it's not that you put me in this position as a chair you have actually sent a very strong message that for generations to come every child every immigrant every diverse Community a person of color can really start dreaming of this possibility and that is

039it's almost like a huge spell in our Salem Kaiser schools District's history has been broken because what but in the process of fellow directors and the community has to go through a lot of angst and that's what it'll take we'll get misunderstood be like all kinds of people opinions will be thrown but it's such you know the the courage that the board displayed in taking the necessary step after all dismantling structural racism is changing policies changing practices it's not about individual it is about making sure that these kind of tough decisions in that way I think our board for me it's amazing that our board has been the most courageous uh in taking such very very difficult decision historic thank you do you do you mind if I go y okay thank you so um

040I I ran I made the decision in October of 2018 to run for the school board uh when I learned that another board director who was the only parent at the time was going to step off and I have been a very unsatisfied parent in the district for many years and felt that if I stepped forward I could bring other parents alongside and we could work towards um the hope of satisfaction and education of our children um I've quickly learned that there's a lot of barriers to um of like Kathy said moving this big ship um and the platform that I ran on was um to be present active and engaged in my community and that has also proven to be quite defeat there's a lot of people in this community that would like to

041have access um and share thoughts opinions and feelings and I believe a lot of our board members do their best to be present for all of them as as often as we can um but in this last year with um covid and lack of people access I think that barrier has increased itself even though folks would think that technology would be um maybe an opportunity I think it removes the emotional element of connecting um with our our individual parents and children um to create change thanks Danielle I think we have a couple more board members talking about you know that moment when you decided to to run for the school board what did you hope for what were you thinking at that moment uh well for me I don't think it was just a moment

042I think it was go over time uh there was uh there's definitely a catalyst though but uh you know growing up I had uh I felt like I was kind of drugged through the mud and in regards to uh School uh there was a most of my life I I never thought I was going to graduate so you know when I was able to walk across that stage uh uh thing I don't really tell a lot of people um was actually I was a super senior because I wasn't I wasn't said to graduate and so they told me that I should go get my GB um uh but I said no I got to do it right and so uh so I re en R to school and uh it was a lot of my

043my teachers and my principal luckily had a good relationship uh with them because I mean nine years ago when I was 16 uh you wouldn't recognize me you know I was I was drinking partying you know statistically saying I shouldn't be you know dead and in jail you know there's a lot of times when I was homeless uh and uh you know often I would think about you know I was in a dark place mentally you know and so uh I never thought I'd graduate high high school let alone make something of myself you know so uh every the way I view it I'm I'm on house money so that's why I was like I'll take the risk um and so and so for me you know I saw as a kid uh Mee and

044all my people around me you know my my friends my siblings you know people I grew up with you know the systems failed us our school system the Foster system um and so I just was used to seeing time and time again uh kids falling the cracks you know and felt like um I wanted to be a voice for them and I wanted to uh to fight for for kids who have been homeless like I was as a kid you know kids who went through abuse uh even kids who had family that looked perfect but in really in reality you know there's a lot of the stuff in the background that people don't see um you know and I wanted to fight for kids who um didn't think didn't see graduation in their future or

045uh or even have hope you know because luckily uh you know I had a couple teachers in my second adop family you know who helped show me that I could make some I I had I could live life a different way you know that that there was a shot for me so uh once I saw my shot I took it you know and I have it looked accents U but that the moment you know the exact moment when I decided to school school board itself uh because for me I thought it was just going to be business and then I started nonprofit um my plan is and has been uh starting orphanage about kids uh to most situations it's kind of my game plan after I built my business Empire I'm going to fund it

046all myself that way I don't want to take orders from people but uh uh I was working at a gym epic Fitness and uh this guy came in every morning to compling about the towels every single morning and so every morning like I I'd get that like 5: am he'd get there like five like 510 5:15 and so I would have to have all the towels perfectly rolled and ready and ready to give to it because if there wasn't towels it was a big deal and uh I didn't really know what a school board was very much before that because if you go to any High School what kid actually knows what a school board is now they're starting to but uh luckily just because they students have been more active but uh and I

047think that's important for us to do but there was H Paul kylo was telling me a little bit about what the school board itself was and what that role is and I was like that kind of fits what I want him to do and so um you know then then eventually I just ran into other people who also were running so uh I met Marty and then Marty was tell me more about the dve was too and so uh and then I started meeting other people like eventually I met Kathy and then but I it was crazy and so I just decided to run and I figured uh nobody thought I was gonna win anyways so what do I have to lose but you know the main thing was uh fighting for kids who have

048fallen through the CS you know don't aren't normally represented thanks Jesse thanks for that truth Shon I think you're the last one yeah that's uh thank you Jesse for sharing that um so for me um like others I didn't you know never planned on running for anything let alone the school board um but I I did a lot of work uh before going to work with veterans um I was at Secretary of State and did a lot of uh K12 performance Audits and developed a pretty in-depth understanding about our you know our education system and always had a lot of respect for Salem Kaiser schools um but for me the pivotal point I think was after the last um national election hearing a lot of the talk about um the administration looking to shift uh

049K12 education privatize it and um you know and there I I remember three years ago so much of the campaigns for school boards were around keeping um Schools public and not not you know uh privatizing and and that was kind of a turning point for me um because like you know like Jesse and others education you know that's that's where as as a child growing up that's where I got my meals I mean I I would have gone hungry every single day if it hadn't been for uh for school so hearing that uh there was potentially going to be a big shift uh just wanting to get involved um and then after getting on the school board um learning more and more about what was happening in our state and in our community um what

050was happening to our students of color who uh were afraid to go to school um and so my my I think my passion and my focus on the board had has shifted um because of you know what's what's been happening in the world and what's been happening in our community and and that just unfortunately you know has continued to escalate and um you know I'm oftentimes referred to as the the the the sole um progress or um but I I don't look at it that way I don't think that school board should be about politics but unfortunately you know that's that's what happened uh but for me the focus really needs to be on making sure that all of our students receive um an education an equitable education and and quite frankly that's that's been

051a challenge um I think uh for this community and this uh in particular I'll just be frank It's been a challenge for this board um especially recently so I will continue to be that that voice I don't like being um in that position but if I if that's what I need to do uh because like so many other board members said they they started doing this they got into this because they wanted to be a voice for um either parents or students or um and for me right now it's it's just important to be a voice for um our students and families of color thank you Chiron and that was a great segue so you're probably wondering why the heck did I make you do this and it's because you're a group of people and

052you need to be able to work as a team you need to understand where each of you is coming from and to do that you need to understand your motivations what's driv desing you why are you showing up um and so that was that was the purpose of this um it's that whole idea of going back and and getting keeping in touch with those values that that drive us that sustain us as we go through conflict and whether that's politics or a crisis or whatever that is we need to be we need to know our why and so that was the purpose of of this exercise for you to share with each other while you're showing up at each of your meetings and doing what you do so we are running late um and I

053with this is a long morning so I want to I want to give the board a five minute break so I want you to just you can go ahead and shut off your video I want you to stand up um take care of yourself and come back at N9 o'clock five minutes is a short break in a virtual meeting still a break got to do it you got to do it made us move so so PA do they roll the towels as well as I did no not at all not at all now they just fling them at me Paul Paul kylo yes you you had written something in the chat would you like to no I just all I put down was that Kathleen hannam and had died and I didn't know if Christie

054was aware of that and if the district was going to put anything out about it yeah she she was a longtime employee yeah yeah um I've been um I'd let uh the administrative team know when I was struggling how public to make it because they were a little bit private about it yeah it was in I mean it was in today's Statesman Journal okay yeah that's why that's how I knew yeah that's was because I hadn't heard from anybody else so that was all yeah that was sad G young yeah too young M oh thank you for uh director kylo and superintendent Perry thank you for sharing that yeah yeah I appreciate yeah Mr Adams thank you oh I'm sorry to hear that news um so next hour is uh more of a sit and

055get Style thank you all for uh what you shared in the last hour um that was important and so in this next portion we're going to talk about really the nuts and bolts and while this is fairly fundamental uh information I don't want you to I don't want you to feel like I'm talking down to you I know this is an experienced board um but I want again this is all all in the idea of going back and reviewing uh the foundation of our work as as board members so that I will share my screen again so the purpose of this of this slide is to to Really drive home the message that what you do matters what you do as individual board members the knowledge values and beliefs that you bring into the boardroom

056uh that what you just shared over the last hour that matters that it oh technology here we go that it affects the board the work of the board how you operate with each other and how you practice and that Finds Its way into the district and how they work as the saying goes if the board makes a mistake that night the next day that affects classrooms and that affects children so the work that you do matters and ultimately what we're driving at here is that it's all about student outcomes that the work of boards has a direct connection with student outcomes so how you operate how you treat each other how you interact with the district how you interact with the superintendent how you interact with the community has an impact on student outcomes and

057Christian's going to talk in in more detail about that later in in the program but I want you to hold on to this idea as we go through these slides and talk about practice so when we we think about the work of boards um evidence shows that there are are five roles that the board plays that is linked with student outcomes and the first one of those is learn you're working and learning together and that's that's what you're doing today that's what you're doing right now is that you've come together as a team you have your administrative team in the room with you virtually um and you've brought assets to support you in the work that you're doing because you're doing really hard work right now um like SAA said you have four perturbing factors

058acting on this board it's not like you're you're this you're playing on hard mode if we to use a gamer reference um you're you're playing very very hard in a hard space um you have a lot of challenges so it's important that you come together and work together so you know when we say learning as a PLC a professional Learning Community when I say that I mean you as a board you as a board and your superintendent and even you as a board and and the whole leadership team working together and learning together as you move forward if you take nothing else away from our talk today this is probably one of the most important Concepts that you need to know as a board board is to set clear expectations and to speak with a

059oneboard voice saying you know to communicate clearly what your priorities are and if you able to do this you're able to provide Focus for your staff you're able to provide Focus for your community and ultimately that Focus Finds Its way into classrooms and for students um and so I mean examples of this you're able to create a focus for improved student instruction uh in you know around student learning needs um you know develop policies that clearly communicate expectations uh that directly impact learning you know establish clearly you know targets for specific levels of of improvement understanding and uh in just having that commitment to student achievement and you know you know setting expectations for evidence-based strategies and I could keep going on and on with with expectations that we that we ask uh of the

060district but you need to be clear you need to be targeted when you're when you're voicing those those expectations can I weigh in sorry Vince yeah please do I raised my hand but I don't know if you can see me so with I'm sorry I can't see everybody no it's fine I just wanted to give an example it's it's we don't often actually have boards weigh in on like percentage increase in student achievement or percentage growth or anything like that that is the work of your superintendent and her leadership team but as an example that that I give and one day this this board's going to hear this because I tell this all around the state um that's all right they like me um I was working with a board and I was doing some

061some visioning work with them and some goal setting and I said well let's see let's see where you start let's see what your current vision is and I am paraphrasing but the vision essentially came down to something like everybody has a good time and I was okay that's great but how do you measure that how do you like how will you know when everyone has sufficiently had a good time to say to say that you know that that's done that your vision is achieved and so when we talk about clear expectations it's not about numbers it's not about scores it is about what do you expect your students to leave the system with can you articulate it can your superintendent articulate it can your staff articulate it and even parents and kids they have to

062be bought into so when we talk about those clear expectations we're we're talking about those building blocks of what you would otherwise you know call a strategic plan those pillars those that kind of thing thanks thanks CHR thanks Christian in organizational Theory parli we call that vertical alignment you know from the top of top of the organ oranization to the bottom so I you know sometimes I I think about board work it's kind of like gardening so you know in gardening we prepare our soil we plant seeds we fertilize and water them we weed the garden and then we celebrate the Harvest and and you know this idea of creating conditions for Success it's exactly the same thing that you know we have to establish that those expectations that clear vert alignment um we need

063to you know establish a districtwide leadership team to you know and share that decision making we need to reallocate resources to to align with our priorities uh we have to make sure that staff members have the time and the resources to achieve those clear expectations that that that the board is articulated and of course we have to celebrate you know the success of the district because your your District does have success your district is doing great work and so we as as boards we need to celebrate the success of of of our districts and you know examples of these things of the budget you know Prof professional development time you know U you know making sure that you have a quality leader and you have you have superintendent of the year my goodness um and

064that sort of thing you know and Kristen was touching on this holding the the the system accountable so this is where we get more into into the numbers but um I would say that the Cornerstone for the board the Cornerstone of of this idea of this role is the superintendent valuation it's the the point where that is the system where you are able to Foster and maintain your relationship with your administrator and set those expectations for performance and then of course there's this the things that immediately come to mind when we think about system accountability things like student data of course that data should always be disaggregated you know and we get Finance reports you get your financials every month uh whatever progress reports on whatever initiatives that you're getting um but it's important that

065the board choose the evidence that it uses and be strategic in choosing that making sure that it's aligned with with those expectations that vertical alignment that that the board has set up with the administration I'll just add one thing to this too when we talk about holding the system accountable this is the area when we do and I know Vince is going to talk about board self assessment yep but when we go around the state and walk boards through um a self assessment the area my experience and I think I share this with my colleagues too the area that I see most boards needing Improvement is in this area is in the accountability piece and when we talk about this we're talking about following up and monitoring we're looking at if you've got a strategic

066plan or even if you don't you've got District goals whether it's District goals strategic plan whatever you're working from how often and did did you work collaboratively with your superintendent and her leadership team to determine how you check in on those things when when does she and her team bring you information and what kind of information will let you know what progress has been made on on these goals and during what time periods so you know we look at have you built that into your system is that on your agenda um I I do strategic planning with boards and the the first thing I say is like this could turn into a poster so fast if you don't have a monitoring plan to back that up and you don't embed that monitoring which is beyond

067just reporting right it it is about the discussion about uh course correction if needed about following up on on initiatives and goals so when we talk about accountability too it's it's about the system thanks Vince no thank you may I ask a question Vince yes please so going back to uh how do we hold system account the previous slide you talked about uh measuring success and so miss miles you mentioned that uh it's not about a number or it's about a measurable thing but I'm getting a little I'll probably need a little bit of help to understand that concept so for example I see the school climate you know feeling safe or uh every child feeling they belong as like the foundational it's like the soil condition what is the when you kind of drill

068down why are we needing a school climate that is positive so that the child can get the maximum out of the educational experience so that there is an academic success because that's the ultimate purpose of an institution is so that you can have successful trajectory for these students when they eventually leave the school right so at every step so whether it is baseline or what process we have in school which is essentially teaching children or teaching them how to regulate their emotion Behavior Etc and eventually we have to show that they're producing the result whether it is Academy achievement or postsecondary education but as a system how do we articulate that to the families or Community or amongst ourselves if if at every level has to be there because simply telling a teacher you should

069produce good result and everybody should graduate but if you are not paying attention to the school climate or you know the children don't feel safe teachers don't feel safe it's like trying to build a highrise Building without a foundation and everything can in some whether it can't be left so vague it has to be a little bit measurable so that we can talk across systems we know the amount of resources we are investing is actually accountable to the community that you know we are $1.2 billion organization so what are we doing with our resources so could you kind of explain a little bit more so that I'm not yes going home thinking that we can't measure anything at all no no in fact I I'm the the absolute opposite um it if if something's not

070measurable it doesn't get done right that that before and there's no way to monitor it if you can't measure it what I what I meant by that and thank you for asking for the clarification on this because this is important is that it's not the board necessarily that sets those individual metrics for learning goals or percentage increase you know you you've hired a superintendent and she hires a team that are educational experts and working with them they will they will recommend like you know we expect to see a 7% increase or this percent change that there should be some sort of expectation there but it's not the board's job to say to to Define what that percent increase is so when you talk about like you know changing in data you've got experts in your

071in your leading your Departments of teaching and learning and other you know and and schools who will say you know if we are really invested and and you know implementing our initiatives effectively here's what we expect and then the board talks you know you work with the superintendent and your District leadership team to say Yep this this meets or doesn't meet what we were hoping for and then you monitor lost what's up I I lost a l part of it do you mind repeating the last sentence I didn't hear maybe others heard sure um you as a board setting the the Visionary expectations and when your superintendent and her leadership team come to you and say okay so if we are implementing effectively here are the percentage increases just as an example that we expect

072to see then the board either says that meets our expectations of what we were wanting or it doesn't and that's what you that's what you monitor all right thank you yeah absolutely should be measurable you can't you can't monitor a general statement I have a question maybe for the superintendent because she's here so is it your thoughts that are measurable ination is your executive limitation reports that we receive at monthly board meetings yeah no yeah sorry I went off and on um no um I believe the U measurables are our key performance metrics that we are our key performance indicators that we um have presented and we kind of developed the um results policy that you have does um set some um performance metrics so that is your policy but we for a long time

073have felt that didn't go far enough which is why we came up with the key performance indicators um document and um we've also talked um recently about what does that mean um in times of uh covid and how things have changed and how do we add U maybe like a social emotional or discipline measures as those key performance indicators as well thank you yeah and I would just reflect that that where I've seen this work the best is that you have the board and the district having documents that align so you have board goals that align with the district strategic plan and there are metrics that that link those together and so you can hold the system accountable and show progress on those and it's totally reasonable that you could you could measure and track

074social emotional learning um you know climate and I'm sure that you probably have metrics for that I mean healthy teen survey is just one of possible measures that you could have to track that longitudinally any other questions on this Vincent this is Shan quick question yeah do you have examples I don't know from your District or other districts about um board measurable goals like that that align with District goals um are there examples out there good examples that show that alignment so I can tell you that so this is this is me talking as Vince Adams member of the core ofala School Board unless osba I can share that example is that uh three years ago we said a priority for um improving mental health we looked at our data we looked at healthy teen

075survey data and found some startling results for our district that was very disquieting for the board and for our staff um we felt that that measure that was provided by by the state didn't give us the high enough resolution that we needed across particularly temporally so the healthy teen survey is done every two years uh we wanted data every year it also didn't do it across student groups so we wanted to be able to go across race ethnicity and by gender identity and so to get at that the district developed uh the metrics for us so the we as a board set the priority we need to improve uh social emotional learning and mental health for our students and for our staff and then we purchased a product it's called the youth truth survey and

076that has been deployed two years now in in our district to capture that information and so now we get reports on that from our from the district so that's how on that particular one that's how we did that Sak yeah I have an example it's a shared with superintendent can I can I ask a follow-up question sure so yeah uh please um so so it sounds like you identified a priority like that um do you recommend identifying priorities such as that instead of trying to look across the entire universe of um possibilities so that boards can actually chunk off a piece that they feel is a a priority so you as a board are going to have to decide what what you are going to prioritize and I strongly suggest that you do that in

077collaboration with your with your superintendent I mean the district your District already has a strategic plan so I mean as this board moves towards a visioning process I mean that's a conversation that that's going to happen between the board and and the district and but and it will I can tell you that if you if you go through that work you will find it immensely beneficial because it will allow you to focus your attention as a board and it will allow you to have aligned conversations with with the district so I think I have SAA and then Daniel yeah two two things Gan Barlo school has used Panorama and to kind of use that as a way for social emotional and uh direct lepold and I attended a workshop in osba last year believe which

078the whole Workshop was on measurable goal setting by board and they did a very good job I think our uh EST Salem what that Maran estd yeah the doctor who does the data I forget her name she gave a beautiful presentation along with others so that's an example and they did showed us so I don't mind if have the slide I don't mind sharing it with the rest of the board well SAA I mean that's we're going down to Rabbit if we if we get on a on metrics conversation we'll be here we'll be here until the sun goes down so uh Danielle you had a question I do I guess I'm just a little confused by what shiron said and and you and I feel like you supported that so so it's my understanding

079that we as a board are representatives of our community and we should be setting the the the goals and the district should be working with us to meet those goals but what I heard you say was kind of the reverse of that so um can you clarify a little for me on what that conversation just looked like I mean I absolutely think that there has to be a very collaborative transparent partnership with our superintendent and our Administration but I just want to be clear that we are the ones doing that work with our community and then setting that platform um to support the district through success to meet that is that right so yes and then you're absolutely right the distinction that that I'm making here is that that we as board members we're community

080members I'm not an education professional I have a master's degree but it's in public policy it's not in education so the district is staffed with with experts and so as a board when we when we're working on education we are students of our staff so it's we need to learn from them the the detail and the the underlying theory of Education I don't have a grounding in in the theory of education but the superintendent has staffed your district with experts on education so that's that's where that's coming from so when we when we approach our our staff I'm saying that that you're absolutely right we were elected by by the community to represent them and to govern the district and so you're absolutely right and we we are responsible for holding the system accountable and

081setting expectations but when we the way we go about setting those expectations we need to approach the district with some humility when we do that because we have hired and if you're doing your job right and you have you have an outstanding superintendent that you need to work with collaboratively and learn from as you develop those does that make sense does that help it does I guess where I struggle with it in in in my current role and I've only been on the board a year is maybe it's that relationship piece that's missing for me in the communication and transparency with the district on that learning there's you know a lot of work to be done and the goal here is for us to have a high functioning board but I consistently feel like this

082board has a lack of um maybe understanding in a lot of the systems and we get peppered with challenges and our own frustrations from the community to try to help move this ship forward um and so maybe through today's uh opportunity being together we can create um you know some learning points for us to really de invest in individually or as a group so we can be better partners and better learners but I I think we struggle with that today which you know maybe we'll fix going through this so educating the board is is one of the one of the jobs that that of the superintendent it's important that that that information is Flowing upward through the the organization to the board because we are we are lay members of the of the community sometimes

083people uh are Educators or have a background in education and they end up on school boards but uh most Schoolboard members are come from all walks of life and your board is no exception as you revealed in the first hour so so I wasn't laugh laughing at Jess's cat just so we're clear so Sakia a quick clarification so you bring up a good point and this is a particularly challenging time because we are so tied down with daytoday disaster crisis this that we are not able to articulate very clearly that deep down all parents want their children or students to have a good outcome academic outcome so that they can be successful in life right so how do we kind of reconcile with taking care of day-to-day kind of challenges and emotions and all those

084upheavals and not lose sight of that academic achievement or narrowing the disparity in the outcome because we are so caught up in the process that we are to never lose sight of the outcome come and because that is what most parents are scared of will my child be able to graduate Will child be able to stand on its own two legs at the end of the day when we are no longer a there so I think what I'm hearing from this uh conversation is there is a tension and we as a board have to right now of course I understandably we are so caught up in this day-to-day turmoil that we need to quickly get to a point where we need to start saying what is this school schol supposed to be academic achievement narrowing

085the dispari so that every generation you know children can really break the cycle of all kinds of adversities they are going through so I from listening to Daniel who said it so beautifully that we have a responsibility to convey that aspiration of the community and the families to say I want the school to be a place where my child can have a successful life including a MC achievements future so that the next generation is better than the others and then what would it look like maybe they graduate high school or they find a job or find a technical course or postsecondary or they are safe in the school or they show up in school and not get into trouble with the law so we have a responsibility to convey those broad outcome so don't wait

086don't be I'm just yes of of course yes yes that that is the that is the setting the expectation I can flip back to it the the first slide and I said the the the one slide that I wanted you to remember was setting clear expectations with voice and that's exactly what what you're talking about so absolutely one of the key roles of the board and that's why we're going over the this content these five roles of the board and so let me let me get through a couple more slides and I'll bring this together and it make a little more sense thank you so this is and this is I'm hearing this from this board and it's also embedded in your policies that that your board is very much um has tasked itself with

087representing the community and and um community communicating hearing the community and and trying to develop this this public will to succeed um board members are are you know eminently qualified in positioned to to communicate uh with the community uh communicate the commitment of of the goals of the organization communicate that progress because you're holding the system accountable you're receiving that information that is aligned with your with your priorities your expectations that you've articulated um you engage the community um your your partners because the reality is is that school districts cannot create Student Success alone we have to do it in partnership with with organizations across the community you know and and you know you need to consistently communicate the importance and moral imperative of improving you know student outcomes that is your role in the

088community so I hear a lot about representing uh the the interests of the community but it's also representing the district the priorities of of the leadership team which and when I say that I'm talking about the board and the superintendent communicating those priorities out into the community as well and explaining the rationale for them and the progress towards those goals and then getting that that reflected um feedback from the [Music] community so to bring this all together this is a tool that that we uh promote it's one that I use in Coralis it's the the focus framework and this is an interrogation tool kind of like your Equity lens in a similar way it's a way to look at initiatives topics these are longlasting topics so uh projects that the board is working on and

089it's so when you and it's these five roles learning together as a board team what information does the board need to ensure the right decisions are made so what in what are your information deficits what is the expectation of the board in this situation what are the conditions that we need to create for this initiative or whatever work that we're doing to be successful how are we going to hold the system accountable how are we going to make sure what does success look like and how are we going to measure the progress towards that and then what are we how are we going to communicate with the with the community so and we can share this document it's that we can share this with the board U but it's a very effective tool for in

090interrogating and ensuring that the board is staying in their Lane we're going to talk about that in just a littleit staying in their Lane and focusing on their role in that governance uh structure for the for the district so this is another way to look at it so I shared um Kristen and I shared an article with you um the from the center of public education the eight characteristics of effective school boards if you had a chance to look over that article you will see alignment you're going to see the five roles of the board in here and you're also going to see those those eight qualities so it's critically important that the board have unified leadership and this is what you were talking about earlier sadya having visions goals that are clearly communicated communicating

091those those expectations working together the board and the superintendent working together as a leadership team team having effective Partnerships that's that Community engagement piece where you're bringing stakeholders to to support the district and student outcomes and communicating out what the priorities of the district are this is crucially important in high functioning boards is having having a systems View and I understand that this board is in a difficult situation right now but this speaks to the frustration that you're having that you're having trouble having a broader View and a system view because you have these these things perturbing the board uh making it it difficult for you to do your work having a shared focus on student outcomes um the core mission of public education is producing children that are that are career and college ready

092that's what you do that is what the district is tasked to do uh so the Board needs to have shared focus on student outcomes to work together this this one bullet point in blue um governance there are two currencies in governance one is power and the other is trust and uh Power can be ugly so we we the the currency that school boards need to work with to to build a relationship with their superintendent and their staff is to always preserve and cultivate trust um and it works both ways superintendents need to do the same thing so and we do that through Clarity of roles I mentioned superintendent evaluation earlier this is a great tool for ensuring that you have a solid and and consistent relationship with your superintendent and then of course you know

093mutual respect but also communication ensuring that lines of communication sharing those progress metrics making sure that that that vertical alignment in the organization is there that's how we we maintain trust with our organizations of course that learning together it's the work that you're doing today um it's needs to be a rhythmic uh practice of the board to be learning as a board and with its the leadership team and then you know Collective Academy decision- making is Shar is a shared process in accountability is reciprocal so any questions and you will get all these slides at the end so please don't you don't have to take notes on this or any of that you'll get all of this information um um in just probably a few hours so this is the classic um Administration policy divide

094it's true in all local governance um and on one side we see the board the we see the superintendent so policy and administration and we see the roles of the board are what we've been discussing you know goals you know your advocates in the community you're you're developing policies big probably one of the most biggest practices of the board is is working on policy and then we have the superintendent superintendent is in in charge of the operations regulations and you'll notice that there's these little red arrows because the superintendent I earlier I mentioned that that it's important that the superintendent and staff educate and support the board and this is Danielle this is the speaks to the conversation that we had just a little bit ago is that the superintendent can step into the board

095space the reality is that board members don't have the technical expertise to necessarily navigate the law um education Theory and so the the superintendent and staff need to support the board in their decision making so the superintendent gets to step across into the board's space but the it's important that the board respect the superintendent's boundaries so but in when the board is in a situation like you are things can get muddy and sometimes it's hard to see that line and that's why you know I chose to include this this these this talk on you know roles and responsibilities because these fundamentals are are important all the time but they're especially important when a board is in a crisis situation or in a situation of Serial crises so it's important to know our role know what

096we're supposed to be doing and what we're not supposed to do so I want you to think of your your school district like a ship and you are a big school district so this is a big ship um and the superintendent is the captain of the ship they are in charge of of steering it they're in charge of ensuring that the engines run and that there is U that there's food for everyone and that there's janitorial service and that there's instruction and that everyone is safe so they're in charge of all the operation of the ship and that's management they're managing the operation the board is on the governance side so you get to choose the journey you get to say superintendent Perry we want to go to the island of Student Success Paradise take

097us there and you even get to choose uh some of the stops along the way but it's going to be superintendent Perry that is going to steer the ship to get you there you get to choose the journey you get to choose the direction that you go and you also you're the one that's looking at the map you are the team that is taking that Long View you're the one that's having the conversations in the community you're the ones that are that are meeting and listening to the situation um in the state and nationally trying to understand and make sense providing situational awareness and providing guidance for the superintendent that governance role so we all know that there's three branches of government but I really wish there was this fourth one where it was the

098super super branch and it would be great if school districts had had fire poles but really in governance we we operate in the upper half of this image you know we have executive functions we have legislative functions we have judicial functions so this is you know we act legislatively most of the time so policy is one of is one of the biggest components of the work that we do we also know negotiate contracts and we do that that expectations piece we're developing goals and having and providing guidance to the district on where we need to be where where we need to be going these are actions that are rooted in process if you're doing something where you're in a meeting and you're working on it and over time it's process and you're probably exercising your

099your legislative power judicial is uh rarely exercised this is your part of your complaint process um and because it's rarely exercised this is where boards have the least amount of practice and there is the highest degree of risk um so this is a when you're acting in your judicial capacity if you're hearing complaints this is a time for the board to be very very careful and have lots of support uh at hand to ensure that you're navigating that in a skillful way so you can make a decision and then we have this executive these executive functions that we do where we're adopting policies we take a vote and we adopt it particularly when the superintendent brings us policy for for adoption approving contracts those adopting goals um and doing anything where you're doing a final

100approval checking off something that's that's the board exercising its executive capacity so when we we look at these roles side by side this is what it looks like so the board hires the superintendent and the superintendent hires the staff so the superintendent is accountable to the board so the board approves the con contracts but but the superintendent does the negotiations and does the employee relations does the HR the board sets the vision and goals you're setting the expectations you're charting that trip and but it's the superintendent that turns it into action and steers the ship towards that goal the board adopts the policy but the superintendent is operationalizes that that policy through regulations so rules rule making of course the board sets the budget but it's the superintendent and their team that develops the expenditures

101they figure out how the money is going to be spent but the board is the one that checks off on it and then it's the the progress tracking piece so the board is monitoring progress towards the goals that Journey that we're on and the superintendent reports the progress so I want to pause there and take questions if there are any I know that this was this is review because this is a fairly experienced board Danielle you're new to this but any questions at all Vincent can you show us uh not others I can't see anyone else when you are in this presenter mode yeah oh there you are yeah I I just have a I need some help in this okay you know sometimes issues come up in the community which are very difficult and

102very unprecedented right sometime there is very challenging issues whether it's polarized issues or Communities going through a lot of suffering and hurt and so then you know time is of essence uh you know we need to come to an arrive at a decision how do you suggest we go about when we have different perspectives as a board we are looking at an issue in one way how the policy or implementation of that should happen and maybe or within the board we are looking at the same issues in different way or the community has a different expectation of how the process of implementation should be nobody's disagreeing on the outcome outcome can be the same good achievement safety or whatever it is the process in which to implement it can lead to two different Pathways how

103do you think we should negotiate those kind of dilemma so your question's a little abstract but well I can be I can try to make it very simple let's say we all agree that Stu safety of all students should be not compromised right so how do one can have a process of achieving this by say we should have X type of policies in place or so we need to have certain contracts in place whereas the community may have a different approach to the same outcome that we all want our students to be safe but they want a different process to be followed how do we reconcile these two different approaches when superintendent and the board and are in the thing it is a very important and uh a current topic for us so I think

104it depends on if if it is within the realm of the board so if we're talking if the solution is policy then it's well within the realm of the board and then I would ask you to return to those five roles so and use the focus framework so I I don't know what the what the issue is but I the first thing that I would I would ask is what does the board need to know what is the information that that that the Board needs to make a decision that would be the first question and then you've already I mean all students are safe is a is a very broad is a very broad expectation so I mean there's probably context to that but what are the expectations under the particular conditions under which this

105issue is arising um so and the board would need to come come to consensus because you need to speak as with a oneboard voice and so if this is a a if this is truly within the realm of of the board and and it's their role to to make a choice here then it's something that this board is going to have to negotiate you will have as seven individuals will have to figure out your direction Mr um this is Paul theopolis I I'd like to uh just insert myself just for a brief moment you're aware that this is a policy governance board um and so we have EXE itive limitations um that constrain the superintendent uh to not fail to do certain things and so that would be uh this board's starting point is to

106to see what decisions has have already been delegated to the superintendent um and that that would be our our own starting point because we have this policy governance structure right in which this board has already delegated a number of decisions so I think that's how we would start to untangle U the the more abstract question that the board chair has asked thank you thank you thank you so then that actually it it relieves the board of of some some power or or need to insert itself I think that that what the board would need to do is learn first first see what action has been taken what are the outcomes and how does that align with the expectations of the board as it is historically expressed and if there needs to be a recalibration of

107those expectations and it would be a deliberative process that the board would take and of course the the community needs to be included in that process so there needs to be efficient ways to receive in uh information and input from the from the the community and I know that this board has has struggled with that but that would that would be my response to that and I mean since you're a policy governance board it does it makes your job a bit easier that it's more about setting clear expectations for what the outcomes are going to be and allowing the the superintendent to go ahead and execute on those on those expectations yeah it it's a complex problem to be honest I just don't want to make it sound like it's just a simple bumper sticker

108solution it's a very complex problem we are dealing with and with all humility I want to say to the community and to rest of us that it's going to it has got so many ways in which it will entangle itself into different thing and uh you know so we are really going through this a very difficult moment in trying to process all the ramifications and we will have to we will get through this we will it's just a how we going to be open honest and process this and there is no one right answer but we will get through this but this is an example which I wanted to exam bring it up same thing with you know that way there are others we have we will get through the same this will make us

109better in processing other outcome sorry the vagueness is really confusing me I'm not sure entirely what we're talking about we just talking about X General policy or is this specific to some of the stuff that we're dealing with so we're just saying the the the question is about a complex and controversial issue and how does the how does the the board navigate that space and in particularly this board because you're a policy governance board how do you navigate that space and what I I would add to to you know what I said earlier is that you're probably going to need to engage in an iterative process and allow yourselves the time and space to come to consensus and speak as a as and provide guidance as a as a unified board and when I say

110Unified board I'm not saying that you're all going to vote the same way I'm saying that you're going to have a a complete conversation about the topic surface all all the information and your values and then come to a vote that a successful vote if that's the form that it takes to give guidance to to Administration to execute on and I'll just add um because I totally understand a lot of this can sound like well what does that actually mean what does that look like practically um I think the the the first thing and this sounds pretty simple but if you can answer this question I think it gets you to what you need to do in any situation you can ask yourselves what is the board's role and as a policy governance board you

111may be able to answer that pretty quickly because if your policy has has delegated authority to the superintendant in a certain role or in a certain situation then your role might be to just be informed or your role might be just to listen if you have like actual you know involvement in something your your policies your guidance will probably let you know or could it be you know our role in this is community engagement or our role in this maybe addressing this in the budgeting process but we can answer the question what is the board's role that can often really crystallize for you what what your action steps are and sometimes boards will say what is our role and find that like oh it's it's really not as involved as we thought it was we

112may maybe a little more back here to be aware and informed and certainly part of the conversation but it's not always going to be action and that can be kind of freeing sometimes is that you don't you know you don't get in the weeds with everything so it depends on the situation but I would just say like have that question in your head what is the board's role in this and um if you if you end up talking about goal setting like I will return to that question too because when you look at District goals or what you might call board goals I see a lot of board set goals like you know 100% of students will graduate in four years and I and I asked them like what is the board's role in that

113how do you hold yourselves accountable to that so even when you're goal setting when you're you know planning for things returning to that question can really help like illuminate a path Christen yeah that made it a lot more clear thank you Christen you know but you by your statement it puts me in a very ethical dilemma am I answerable to the community or am I answerable to the policy because you know policy is to guide us but at the end of the day I need to do what is the ethically correct for the students and our community I report to my community so so I'm really kind of lost here are if I'm just reporting to a set of policies return policies then I agree with you then I can go home and sleep peacefully

114but I have to ask this fundamental question what is ethically the right thing to do as each one of us as seven board elected members who are we serving who are we supposed to be ethically responsible to and that decision of our seven of us or eight of us or all of us should perhaps May last even beyond our lifetime so I'm kind of ethically I'm kind of unsettled do you mind helping me walk through ultimately what is that just a set of policy if the policy says XYZ then we should all be happy with it we can go home and sleep but the policy also was adopted by us so maybe we are also people with flaws I understand what you're asking and I think um I mean ultimately you're accountable to your students

115right I mean that's that's why you're here you are accountable to the kids that that you overse if you are following policy because you should you should follow policy but policies get Rewritten and they get reopt it they are not perfect and and they and they get revised laws change you know the circumstances in which you govern those change too and so I would say if there's a if if you have an ethic if you have as a board have an ethical conflict between policy and what you should be doing then what's then what's going on with the policy right because because your policy should be legal and it should probably be ethically upstanding as well so if you find that there's a conflict there then I'm never going to tell you to disregard your

116policy because I that would get me in trouble but but I would say look at that at that policy what say that that may not be that may not match what you feel like you should be doing and I and I do feel like I don't want to give you the answer to like who do you report to I mean the the electors elect you you partner with your superintendent you represent the community and you are there to serve kids and so each of you has to answer that for yourselves but while policy it should also be reflective of not just law but ethics as well thank you I I'd like to insert myself once more Mr Adams if I mind do um so so when the board developed policy governance we always uh many

117years ago we always knew that there was going to be a push and poll on this very issue um and that the board ultimately has control of the policies which include the executive limitations uh that govern the superintendent and so U as long as the superintendent is within the executive limitations super gets to decide whatever the the issue might be now it was always recognized that uh if the board felt strongly that it wanted to be the one who decides a certain issue um that the board could write an executive limitation to carve out that issue uh and the the the only repercussion was if the board decided to carve out issue number X whatever X is that now the board's completely responsible for x and you can't evaluate the superintendent U on X uh

118whatever that might be and so you're in a you have a governance system when we talk about policies you have board governance policies results policies and executive limitation policies uh and it's all part of the the whole structure so if there is an issue that uh you couldn't sleep over uh that you felt strongly should be only a board issue um that currently lives in an executive limitation the board should have a conversation about uh about whatever that issue is um and that has to be a uh uh ultimately a board decision um but if it lives in the executive limitation right now then it's the superintendent's decision thank you thank you can I I have a question oh go ahead Marty or I'm sorry yeah Marty then I have a question too um so

119you know I understand we're a policy board and we've given superintendent uh certain Authority and whatever um what happens when the board as a whole or the majority of the board don't agree with something that was done is that where we carve out things I mean I wouldn't want to be carving out little pieces here and there I think that will get um I don't think that would be a good long range uh way to go but how how does the board deal with that because we're supposed to support our superintendent and so what if you know something were to happen you know in the future that we totally didn't agree with how does a board handle [Music] that so I don't know how this District handles its evaluation cycle it's superintendent eval ation cycle

120but osba recommends um of course an annual evaluation also three check-in meetings throughout the year if the board is clearing its expectations and that the superintendent does something that is not aligned with those expectations that should be surfacing in the the uh iterative or the the check-ins that you're having with your superintendent that's a conversation ation that that should be happening between the board and and and the administration or the administrator so I would say that because of your policy governance structure and you you have vested um more latitude to your administrator that communication that process of communication of expectations and tracking of progress and performance is even more important um than than would be in I would say a traditional governance structure so I would say that it would start with communication is is

121where that would be and then it would probably be if there needs to be um recalibration where uh the board says that's not in alignment with our expectations the superintendent can take that and and recalibrate or there may be a corrective measure that needs to to be needs to be done there but I think that that's probably the channel where that needs to happen is the is that it's happening through uh lines of communication that are regularly happening between the superintendent and and the board Kristen do you have any thoughts there um no and you know I would invite Christy to way in on this too because I think it would be great to hear um to hear from her about that partnership because this is that partnership piece and and you often you know

122find yourself checking in with your superintendent like we're not sure about this and she's going to describe the process she went through so I'm just gonna I'm gonna ask Christy to weigh in yeah I would say it is about that communication but it's also about the clarity of the board as a whole in having um a United set of expectations it gets hardest when you're uh trying to serve individual board member expectations rather than a collective uh set of um goals and so when you're really clear with your superintendent collectively as one board about what it is you want it's way easier to be calibrated and when you get off a little bit it's way easier for one or the other to help get each other back on um because that happens um on both

123sides of it not intentionally but sometimes you get a little miscalibrated and so again your ability to speak as one makes the calibration of the expectations for the superintendent uh way easier um when you get to be seven different people then the superintendent is always feeling like they're um trying to figure out what the expectations are and puts it on um some unequal footing but it mostly it's just miscalibrated and at the end of the day that also then is calibrated for the organization and that's the important part and as you think about the students in the organization and that's why you hear um you'll hear at least at obba we use the term one board voice is that that single voice communicating with with the superintendent so I'm sorry this is seon can I

124have yes opportunity um so I was thinking about the question about what what happens when something occurs in the community and we get we get input from the community and I was thinking about the last time that I remember that really really happening it's it's actually been a couple years ago there was um an issue that came up and um um there was some guidance put out and Christy jump in if I get this wrong but it was around the issue of mandatory reporting and um you know when when that whole thing uh came up and I think part of the challenge and a reason I bring it up is because uh I I I saw that recalibration there was information put out and um the communication to the district and the community and to

125the board I will I will say was just a little lacking and um but I think that we felt comfortable going to the superintendent and saying you know this really just didn't quite work out well we understand where you're coming from now but now that it's been explained to us now the community has had a better understanding uh but but that's where I think um to get at that question is that communication uh something happened we didn't really understand the community didn't understand there was a big um there was quite a bit of uproar around it and uh but I think we were able to reset and I think the board at that time learned a lesson I I think the superintendent learned that you know there needed to be improved Communications to the board

126to the community um and I think that that's happened but back to the question about what if something happens that um we don't necessarily agree with I think it does go back to that communication that uh we need to be able to go to the superintendent and maybe she doesn't need seven different phone calls and texts and everything but um but from what I've seen uh our superintendent is very willing to to listen and um adjust if if the community and the board feels that that's needed uh but I think that this kind of goes back the other point I wanted to make was going back to what is the role of the board and that obviously is one uh but I really really want us to think more about um you know what are

127board priorities where do we want to better align with the role of uh you know the Salem Kaiser School District serving 42,000 students um I think and I and I know we I we had this conversation a year ago and I see that Salam is on the line we had this conversation with Dr No a year ago and we're still having the same conversation about what is our role we're still struggling with what is our role and and I think we've had we've had input from osba we've had input from a former superintendent of public education for the state of Oregon our role is to help set those expectations based Bas on that feedback that we get from the community about priorities our role isn't necessarily to get into the Weeds on a day-to-day basis

128we we pay a heck of a lot of money to a lot of really really really smart people to do that that's not our job but if if the superintendent and the district aren't living up to those expectations but it doesn't mean that every single day we need to get into the Weeds on that just I really think you know Vincent to your point about what are the board's priorities and I I don't want to get into that conversation today that's not the point of today but what are our priorities you know if we have some priorities around uh Behavioral Health if we have priorities around Suicide Prevention awareness if we have priorities around graduation rates um you know the board doing some work to set some priorities and then making sure that you know

129it it aligns with and that the district's policies align with that but I just I I just wish this board could move beyond what is what is our role well I I think you know very very smart people have tried to tell us what our role is and we're still struggling with what is our role so thank you thanks for those well thanks for those comments Shan yeah Jesse oh yeah well I just wanted to um say one just answer one thing that seon was saying real quick was just uh if I recall just from about a year ago when we were having those conversations our plan was to have board goals and a lot of stuff knocked out in June uh during the board retreat but of course things have happened since then uh

130so I was just just a question for board leadership uh are we do we have a meeting plan to set board goals because I remember that that was a pretty big topic and we talked about it quite often I was just wondering do we have a set plan uh Set time uh right now to set board goals and have that conversation let me answer that you know I was discussing with my mentors Dr n and uh Vice chair bethl we were thinking about how this will be fashioned our plan initially was to kind of think of it as a whole day half day would have been for this the kind of meeting we are having Retreat and the other half day would have thought of having for exactly what you said director hold is how

131to come up with goals how does it align with the district goal but for variety of reasons we just couldn't accomplish that whole day thing but I really love your idea we need to come back again maybe like a car out a time where we can just start saying okay let's talk about some broad areas in three you know the climate and outcome and things like that and start talking about board goals and measurable goals we still have to revisit that because I know you so invested on measurable goals as a way to kind of at least guide us whether we are going in the right direction so because of these constraints we couldn't have a full day Retreat so we will get there perhaps we'll go through this part of very important part of

132this Retreat and start working on our relationships and get all of us aligned and then we will set aside some time and we'll try to talk about board goal hopefully some of this uh you know this waves will settle down by then so that we can really get some clarity we you know getting the kids back to school and which model and keeping kids alive keeping our staff safe and there are so many things came up so we will have another one it's really important I just want to ask a quick question is there any other model besides this policy governance that our school districts or anywhere in the country follow or this is the only one we to live with Kristen you're more qualified to answer that I know the answer is yes but

133you can give us more detail well so so interestingly um I mean there's I don't know any other District in Oregon right now that calls them themselves a policy government board you know capital P capital G the program piece but um aside from the way that your policies look and read it's really it's not all that different from the way other boards govern govern you're still in a governance role there are distinctions between you and your superintendent those are largely the same your policies read differently and you have fewer of them for the board and more of them for the district but they all kind of say the same things because you're legally required to have certain policies which you do then for the district um so you know I I think while the the

134model is different the outcome is is is pretty similar in that you know you each have your roles and they're not that different I love Carver I just love his reading it's too complex for me to understand half the time because to you know it goes on and on but get some gist of it but if there is any other model that we can get some learn some insight so that we can we the conditions today are different from what conditions Carver faced during his days go ahead so Jesse very quickly but I I want to say we need to take a break I'm getting calls for a break and and I need to take a break so so Jesse very quickly oh okay yeah um sorry we just I wanted to bring us back

135to sorry what we were talking about and I think that's a great discussion I just wanted to because we were just talking how we need to speak with one voice and maybe when we come back from the break uh we could talk a little bit more about that because one of my big uh thing is I think this something for each boy remember right is we each have things that are uh that we value right things that we think are are important um and then so Bas what I would like to know and learn a little bit more about and think Wonder our other board members think as well is how can we speak with one voice right because my concern right often is um you know how can I make sure I'm students are

136being heard you know how can I make sure that uh you know students of color or uh you know kids who are homeless so like how can I make sure each of these how can make sure kids are getting listened to and I'm sure each board member has their own thing we're like how can I make sure this happens So speaking with one voice that's one thing where I feel like we're not the best at and uh not just mean any of us all I don't think we've been that way for a long time so uh it's so that's something I think we have a real opportunity to um I think that would make a big difference for us and so I think it'd be to work on that I'm not sure what it looks

137like though so Jesse that's a great segue we're GNA talk more about um you know get more into you know expectations in your board culture the next uh next section but right now I know that there are people that need to take a break so let's go ahead and pause for uh I want to take a full 10-minute break so let's go ahead and go to 10:25 so thank you all okay it is 10:25 and we're coming back I'm going to go ahead like we got Christie can I also get a background like what you have it looks so beautiful you're muted there you go I'll find it and send it to you thank you and you just set it up in your background I had to hang hang it in the background or is

138it nope it's it's a PCT it's a picture and you just use on when you log into Zoom you oh that would be beautiful it looks so nice yeah you look Angelic that's it okay I think uh we're waiting on Danielle and Chiron it looks like that's the problem with the long break is that sometimes it's hard to come back oh my God think of our little kids who have to sit in front of the computer and the teacher can't chase them also oh my goodness it's an empathy training for both directors I'm also being a mom Saturday morning and cartoons don't entertain my kids so we have everybody well and shiron can can catch up and and all explain so thank you all for that for that great conversation around role of the board

139and how that applies to your District um it actually was a really good setup for uh the next uh exercise that we're going to do and really this is to kind of collect some information from you uh try and lift out some information so I'm going to share my screen and so this is really just a continuation of that conversation it's about the work that the board does and so what I'm what I'm asking you to do is think back to a time when this board had a productive and successful meeting where you felt satisfied at the end um I want to want you to think about and I mean if that's hard to think about because I know this board has been struggling with multiple you know uh controversial and uh issues and crises

140so it may be hard to think back to that so if you can't think of of it or that's hard to think of just imagine what a meeting like that would be and I want you to think about you know what are the characteristics of that meeting you know and maybe really focus on what was the content because that's what we've been talking about is what is the role of the board what is the work of the board so what was the content in that meeting what were you doing and why did it matter then how did that meeting proceed and how did you as board members um interact as you were doing that so how did you conduct that work and so I'm just trying to get a feel and and have you think

141about what it's like to be a really effective board because I know there are times when this board has been effective and so I want I want you to reflect on that so we will take five minutes this is that part where you're going to need something to write on so go ahead and and write about that and then we'll come back and I will collect that information from you I'm setting a timer Shon are you back I am did you hear the hear the prompt did I hear the assignment yeah yes thank you yeah just making sure thank you for so we're coming up on one minute for so we'll take a few more seconds I still see some folks writing okay great looks like everybody about everybody's ready so why don't we why

142don't we start with characteristics what did you write for for characteristics for a meeting that where you were this this board was was very productive and I'm I'm just going to record what you share with me uh what you share here with right here in in the PowerPoint and then I'll output this and share this back to the board so this will be part of what you get from me who'd like to go go first I can go okay thank you um and I didn't think about it in those though that context but if so do I just describe it to you and then you can identify what the characteristics were sure go ahead and I'll okay do well and actually content so the one uh the one that comes to mind for me is

143goodness and it's it was a series of board meetings that the board uh focused its meetings on uh behavioral health for students and so the yeah the content of the different meetings was uh in part to help uh educate board members and the community about what are the behavioral health challenges facing students today and why and that you know it's not just a Salem Kaiser issue but it was um to me those were really good board meetings because we were board members were hearing lots and lots of concerns from parents um about what was happening um in the schools you know whether was in the kindergarten uh classroom or whether it was in 11th grade uh there was a big focus in the community around Behavioral Health and but going back to uh what was

144really good about those board meetings was I think our board was in a place where we were willing to be Learners um we were willing to listen and we didn't uh you know we didn't um we didn't approach it from we had all of the answers um because like you said we are not we're not Educators and but I thought the meetings were very productive because we learned a lot um we learned a lot about what the district was doing what the district's uh short-term and long-term plans were you know around PBIS and um so we could see we we got to listen we got to learn we got to hear more about what the plans were to address we got a better understanding of what the resources were needed um we learned that you

145know there wasn't a a magic wand that the superintendent could wave and just immediately fix social emotional um issues um so to me it was it was a series of board meetings where we had uh we had a focus and I think that kind of goes back to what you know what are our priorities for a board um so great thank you for that I want to add one one thing to that too it also led into some decision making within the budget process um and so exactly right it came to the budget time you already had all the background kind of knowledge and I can't remember if that was the year we added additional counselors to when we got it was yeah yeah yeah and and the other thing thank you Christie for that

146the other thing that we did or the district did was um they also shared and invited the members of our budget committee to those meetings shared uh the information so that our budget committee understood the issues and what the district was doing and what the goals were so yes thank you I'd like to piggyback on that because and maybe you can't see my notes but at the top it says David Fender and his work session team so I wasn't on the board uh to kind of go through all those series of meetings that Shan's talking about but earlier this year we had what I felt was probably the most productive work session since I've been a board member where we had multiple members of the school district in different departments but particularly in David's program

147come and talk about this Hot Topic in the community which was a very contentious point for a lot of parents was this behavior management and classroom disruption and for me the things that came of that and I um it's almost like I'm repeating what she said but we were Learners um we were listening we were engaging in the work together via conversation with each other as board members and the superintendent and that staff component and then um we had requested on-site observation the concept um I don't know if other board members participated but I went and did an observation at elementary school and watched this particular project be deployed um and then we also learned about the barriers there was a lot of transparency in that particular work session that the district shared with us

148on the barriers they were facing and then potential steps that they were going to take to overcome that and what I what I took away from it is is that the district was working hard to collaborate with parents um and Community Partners on those with those specific students in that particular program so um I really I mean that's the one meeting I can go back to and say I walked out of that with feeling uh maybe settled is the right word um to know what we were Hearing in the community that disruption and that emotion was being addressed and I didn't feel that I had to weigh in on any of it I felt informed and for me the when I'm informed I think the community is informed because it's in a public setting so

149thank you for showing for pointing that out great thank you vinc kle yes please please yeah for me what comes to my mind is when we went when we were going through this recent difficulties with covid and we had to go online and digital or not sure this is before this break I thought our board did a fantastic job of heading towards the problem approaching it in such a beautiful way they really pushed themselves to address it and the question that comes to my mind is in the beginning we were not sure whether to do like a comprehensive distance learning or just email them the content so one of issue was how using Equity lens and one of the ways our board argued it if you look at it from an equity lens just emailing

150them is not Equitable because we were not even sure how many of our children don't even have digital access so from that was our starting point the the board looked at it differently and said having digital access is an equity issue because then we are not letting the academic outcome fall further behind for those disadvantage children they can access health care they can keep in touch with their peers and so many possibly find a job so that was a starting point and we kind of flipped it the other way around and said digital ACC divide is an equity issue and let's distribute our Chromebook I believe we were sitting on 52,000 Chromebooks at that time and we ended up Distributing 30,000 Chromebooks we thought about 133% didn't have internet access we ended up having to

151get 10,000 Hotspots for the community and you know in a few weeks close to 122,000 phone calls were made by the teachers all because we kind of looked at digital access as an equity issue and flip the whole thing I thought our board worked very well on that was very decisive we took a quick decision and the district and board were very nicely aligned around this issue eventually as a legislative and policy Committee Member I took this concept back and it is now one of the three top bargaining issues for osba in our LPC you know so and we also got to manage to get a workshop on this topic approved for November osba meeting to me that was a good example of a measurable goal a Clarity of vision superintendent and the board and

152the District administration all worked together at such a quick Pace that they could turn the whole thing around and similarly like they made sure the food was distributed to 20,000 students uh every day during that time I have perhaps our district was the only disaster management system that was kind of functioning in our community I really felt our board and the district did a phen phenomenal job in our community to support our community that is where I saw the best Peak Performance of our board uh members working in alignment pretty much what you taught us in the first half we were functioning at that level of Peak Performance as a team you know it was had to be approached in a warfront approach nobody abandon anybody nobody forsake anybody everybody was kind of glued to

153that so that's an example that comes to my mind I don't know if this answers your question um I'll go next if that's right please do uh so well I've been on the board for five years and uh my brain works a little different so I don't remember a specific meeting I'm just kind of taking some things that um I think are are important for a um successful board meeting and uh and I have a whole page see good good uh so uh all board members need to speak for themselves and and be respectful to each other I know we've had meetings where that's happened and it was really good uh I'd like to make sure everybody is heard and if their opinion is different maybe from the others they're still um you know respected

154for their opinion you know we're all different people um I I like meetings where we stay on track and comments are uh kept to what is relative to the discussion at hand as you can tell maybe I used to be a computer person so I'm very it's kind of anal political in my thinking um and you know we don't need to always uh you know just to keep it pertinent to the discussion at hand and keep things moving along that doesn't mean rushing things but um we we don't need to uh maybe some things don't need to be belabored for a long time um uh the content of the meeting directly related to our our role as a board and uh a board member shouldn't be afraid of what other board members might say during

155the meeting we should be able to come to this meeting and feel confident that we aren't going to be embarrassed or insulted or any kind of thing like that um otherwise we'll never be a highly functioning board thank you Marty I can go next it's Paul um I I have to I confess in my seven and a half years on the board I could not remember one meeting that I left the meeting that was productive and successful and that I felt satisfied about um so I had to again like Marty I had to piece together various things I did put together characteristics from meetings from other places I was at where I had those feelings but I can't say as that's happened here and because I'm not big on repeating what other people have already

156said um the only things I would add and they would basically be processed would be the successful meeting there weren't uh any side conversations um the decisions made were they were discussed and the points made were civil and without hidden agendas um nobody cried at the meeting which I um and it was okay not to share and um I would agree with Danielle it's and Chiron it's the best meetings are the ones when you come to learn and listen and I je to the fact that sometimes when we get materials ahead they get read to us um I could read for myself thank you um so that could be part of my dissatisfaction but so that would tie into being in a positive way to say that is coming to the meetings prepared with all

157of the materials having been read great I've heard so Jesse or Kathy Kathy looks like she's trying to get go ahead I had trouble coming up with one particular meeting that I thought was successful and um settled well on all sides of an issue and I finally went back to the first time um we had problems that came up with SRO frankly and it was back in 2018 and we progressed into a meeting that had a great variety of minority individuals and we talked it over and we ended up sitting on a policy that that um the SRO still remained we no longer really thought of them in the same way or had the same title to them but they were still in the schools and they were helping Keep Kids Safe I think in

158our board right now we have a great deal of trouble voting as one voice and I honestly don't know how to solve that but it seems to be a bur in the saddle each time um it's difficult so we have some strong feelings uh about what will help children and what will not or what will harm children instead of being The Helpful thing we want and it all comes down if you're sitting there I'm not sure how you handle everyone on the board being of one one frame of mind and speaking as one we always have strong individuals on the other side and I've been on that other side many times and I have trouble throwing out my opinion or what I feel so strongly about to say I vot vote for the board and

159I know other people on the board have felt the same way so it would be helpful to me if we talk about how you resolve that one vote in your mind when it truly is not something you feel comfortable living with so Kathy if you'll trust me we're going to have that conversation in just a little bit good I hope so was there anything where you felt that there were characteristics or content in a meeting that could go on here the where the board was effective well I know that's what you asked for but I had trouble coming up with one where I looked around around the board and I thought everyone had honestly come to a similar conclusion that we could live with that's okay that's fine Jesse uh yeah well I was thinking

160about it and I mean I think that we've had a lot of productive meetings in the meeting because I don't think we've had much of a problem except I mean I guess recently but for the most part I would say in the boardroom typically we're pretty productive I mean is it a 10 out of out of 10 every time probably not uh but I would say for the most part I believe that our board has done a good job me in the meeting of being good um a lot of the stuff that I've seen a lot of times will happen you know outside of the meeting like like for example like uh social media personal conversations you know emails to each other things like that um but as far as like in the meetings go

161the last meeting that I felt like um in fact there may have been times before this but this is the one that really has stuck out to me um is I I think it was it was either January or was like late last year when we had um it felt very honest like it was very like open people were being vulnerable with each other and and it was when we had a bunch of teachers or staff or just Community people but I remember some were teachers um come in that were from different um cultural groups like for example we had um you know someone there to talk about like hey what what is it like being a student or what's it like being in the black community in stuer or uh someone from the lgbtq

162community coming to talk about that you know it was uh um I it was just really cool because I felt like each of our board members we sat down you know and we got to sit down and have like a oneone conversation with someone and as they were telling us uh from their perspective how things what it was like living in not just our community but also you know in our schools you know being who they are and it was it was really cool because I remember during the meeting each of our board members we would take a moment to reflect and I would hear each board member talk about you know what they what they thought in their takeaways from it and so it was just we weren't doing we didn't do any action

163at them so as far as like productiveness we didn't like if if you're trying to measure it I guess maybe you can't but what you can do right is you can see um us seeing each other as people and we were seeing other people as people and I think that was um that was a huge takeaway thank you all for going through that so oh and then for process if you could put um yeah uh open and honest discussions happy to do it so you've just described what essentially your expectations are for how you want to proceed um how you want to do your work the the type of work that you want to do uh what when you are able to work together this is the type of work that you do this is

164what it looks like when you work well together so these this is a start on what your norms and expectations are as a board as a group as a team uh working together and that was the the purpose of this exercise was to surface from you what your expectations are I want to take just a few minutes I I had highlighted some some pieces of your of some policies that you have we don't have a lot of time but I think uh particularly to uh Kathy's question around how do we speak with one board voice that's embedded in your policies and I want to I want to go ahead and take a look at that and I have your policies up [Music] here and so you can see I have a bunch of things highlighted

165that I I wanted to wanted to discuss with you today there's lots there's lots of of great policy here that describes how this board is going to operate you've done a very good job of of laying out what your expectations are for yourselves and I would I would suggest that you go back and take a close look at these and and see what that says but Kathy this is the point you were talking about right here is make Collective rather than individual decisions and how do we do that how do we do that as a board and it's a very relevant question because the reality is is that you a group of individuals a group of elected people that cast votes that's how you make decisions and so it's not reasonable to expect that you

166are going to be in agreement all the time it's nice to strive for consensus but the reality is that's not how democracy works and so to achieve that one board voice to do that we have to commit as board members to uphold the will of the board even when we're in the minority it's it's appropriate to descent it's important that we don't always agree because it if we all agreed then we would it would be an echo chamber and so it's important that we have descending views and that those dissenting views are are appreciated and heard and considered and we work through that but ultimately the board has to come to a decision and when the board as a body makes that choice it's critically important when you're in the minority to uphold that decision

167that is the Bedrock of what democracy is and when we erode when we when we when we speak critically of the decision of the board when we erode that decision we break the trust of of our fellow board members and we break the trust with the community and we break our trust with our with our staff so Kathy that for me as a board member in this trainer that's that's my answer and I would I would invite Christian to to speak to that as well thank you um as I sit here and listen to you today I hear you asking for really specific things and I think that this this helps um planning for the work that comes after this because uh if today is a one shot it won't matter like this doesn't it's

168like it's like when we talk about equity training right you don't just go to a workshop and call it good you embed an equity lens into the work that you do into what you bring to the board table Etc and so this work that you're engaged in today starting to surface some issues and focus on how you communicate in your relationship that this this is just the beginning this needs to be built on and carried forward um what I hear you asking for very specifically maybe not in so many words but you want to know what that what that one voice means if you all come to the table with different perspectives which is great because if you if we if any board or any District only needed one perspective then they would only need

169one board member there is a reason that there are you know five to seven board members on every District it's so you can inform each other and and as Vince said descent and encourage each other and and bring your own perspectives and as Vince said what you do with a decision after that is what's key you know if if you're in the grocery store and you have been a minority vote on something and somebody asks you how you voted you can say you voted a certain way of course you can if they had been at the meeting or watched it on Zoom they would have seen that there is a difference between you know I stated my feelings they were this and I voted that way and then following that up with but I you

170know I trust the will of the board I'm I'm gonna you know try to try to make this initiative successful and actively undermining that by you know like like going out into the community and and and get I'm not saying you're doing this but I have seen boards do this you know rallying folks to actively attack the board for a decision so I mean you can always disagree you register your disagreement when you vote but then what do you do with that and that's the one voice piece it's not how you vote at the table it's what you do collectively afterwards that matters so and and that's where we need to to get to the issues that underly that are are usually about trust and when people say communication they're usually talking about trust I

171sense that there is respect on this board for each other um and but I I think that there are that you're getting at other issues about about trust and about your standing on the board like H how do others see me is my is my perspective important am I allowed to voice that and doing that in a way that that um that operates within the agreements that you have for each other like you know Vince pulled up some of these about um you know group responsibility there's probably some there's stuff here on focusing on issues rather than personalities there's probably some like respectful language that kind of thing that each of you are going to do that even as you disagree will get you to that place and I guess my question to you is

172do you know that you will all do that even as you disagree and I I'm not asking anybody to answer that right now I'm asking you to keep that question in your head as we move forward Christan can I say something of course now what you are just described and what this policy when I look deeply it talks about accountability to myself as a board member accountability to each other as board directors so it this is like inward looking accountability if you can take this as a measurable thing if I were to do a self assessment my own performance assessment how do I rate in these areas and if I were to do a 360 degree performance surprisal how would my fellow board members rate me on this area mhm how would the superintendent give

173me the ratings in this area how will the community rate me in this area so I really think this on a daily every board meeting we can make this as a yard stick to measure ourselves and say did I say something in a way that embarrassed somebody did I act in such a way that looked like I was not uh you know my body language so did I disagree but I couldn't understand the other person's perspective did I privately bring it up with them and discuss that so what you're referring to is very very critical for building trust is internal accountability both towards myself and within each other and my hope is just like we have accountable performance apprisal at some stage board self assessment if it kind of ways helps us measure these things

174that would be one way we can kind of keep ourselves accountable that's my thought it does and I think I think has got that to talk about that's a that's a all right all right exting no no I'm not trying to cut you off I'm just saying like it does and that's a it's it's a very we are excited about the tool that we have and it's a really good place to start for identifying specific needs so um so we'll make sure to talk about that thank you we definitely have slides for that yeah could I jump in and just give one example too um of really uh the the Bond the boundary change and um the implementation of the Bond as a group you don't collectively come to that with all the same opinion

175and even like in the boundary change vote you had people who voted against it but on the other side of that there wasn't ever a wavering from this was the board's decision that I ever sensed anywhere including some additional investments in bus and things like that so um and in the bond process when we were building up to the bond there were people that didn't think we should go out for the bond and stood in that learning stance for a number of months month after month after month until they knew for sure that it was the right decision and then voted for it so both of those and people came at it with totally different perspectives which also made the outcome better and you stuck with it over time thank you Christie and all the

176comments around this um we're running short on time so I'm going to jump forward in the in the discussion I had a whole thing around norms and working agreements that is work that the board can do down the road but I I I want to stay on time and I want to we have some critical things that we want to touch on and this board is definitely interested in tangible things uh to talk about so I'm going to go ahead and move on and Kristen this is going to be you oh PowerPoint is not playing nice with me again here we go so christien can you can you just just briefly touch on the research yeah ground and I'll be brief but um the reason that that uh that we go through this and that

177I bring this up is just so you know osba is not making any of this up and it's important for boards to know that it's important for boards to know that there is a book of research out there on why School boards matter and um and you've probably heard of the lighthouse study I mean talk about that for a minute but um but that has been a question over time are School boards too distant from the classroom to really make a difference the answer is no you do make a difference um if you can go ahead and advance that Vince thanks so I'm borrowing this from Ivan Lorenson and and Bill maau who are two to researchers at the University of Montana this is their slide but it shows that you know in the past

17830 years there have been there's been some good research on on boards and the difference that they make and on governance and how you impact student achievement through um the relationship with your leader the superintendent and and and all the way through the classroom all the way through to students you can go ahead in advance and just for what I'm going to show you I just want to show you so so so I I'm in a doctorate program right now so this is my work and I am studying boards in that doctorate program and so like this is my reference slide just for what I'm about to show you so this is a tiny fraction segment of of what is out there on boards but I compiled some pieces and I wanted to show them

179to you and I just wanted to give credit where credit is due so these are my references and go ahead and move forward vids so so just some general findings and then I want to talk about the traits and characteristics of boards that have been shown to make a difference this is in order of um chronology obviously that when boards get politically motivated and there's turnover because of political motivation either in the superintendent realm or the board realm that impacts student achievement when there is board bonding both internally and externally there's been some research on how do you collaborate as a team and then how do you externally collaborate and reach out to your community those pieces impact student achievement you knowing your roles you engaging in professional development and the Personal Agenda that you

180bring to the table that impacts student achievement and I mean I think it's this is pretty intuitive but conflict on the board that leads to dis that that unhealthy conflict that leads to dysfunction I'm not talking about disagreement I'm talking about actual conflict that leads to that leads to dysfunction is negatively correlated with District performance and particularly on Urban boards and you are one of those and go ahead Vince so what I did here is there there are there's a there's a lot of big studies that have concluded you know what are the important Realms that a board has to function well in in order to positively impact student outcomes and so I took a lot of a bunch of that literature and just and put it together because you could look at different lists

181and it be like well which one what does this mean but um lighthouse being one of the seminal research pieces here that was um that was done that came out around the year 2000 there have been follow-ups to that um there was another list that came out of some research in 2013 and then the article that you read that I think Vince sent you came 2016 so some recent stuff but really the areas that are shown if boards do well in these areas and focus on their Improvement and operations in these areas they positively impact student outcomes that's vision and goals so it's about those clear expectations and having a a Clear Vision for the district that you understand that you're you're brought in to create and committing to those high expectations for students then

182there's climate and resources that's about creating conditions for Success so that is how do you fund your expectations how do you provide professional development um or the funding for professional development and the time for your staff that need to you know do their own development in order to bring to kids what what the research shows will work for students too so that alignment and sustaining of those resources then data and monitoring which is about that holding the system accountable piece that we talked about earlier so monitoring that progress knowing when corrective action is needed being data Savvy knowing what is it that how do you know that kids are doing okay how do your how do your teachers measure that we're not just talking about the standardized test here right because I don't think there's

183any school or District out there that would define themselves by what the esac says and so you know we we look at some obvious things like you know graduation but also like some of the the non-academic things like exclusionary discipline and attendance and you know Etc but but have you asked your superintendent and staff how do you measure how kids are doing and knowing what those things are learning together as a board team that cohesive teaming piece and that is not just you as a board but that is with your superintendent as well and sharing a strong belief and values about the system and all students there is research that shows that just having a belief that all students can and will learn impacts student achievement which means that when boards or board members don't

184believe that that also negatively impacts student achievement building that public will that stakeholder and Community engagement piece that's engaging the community a collaborative relationship with your community and your staff and then policy and accountability how do how does this how does this how do you hold yourselves accountable and what are you doing in the real of policy so there's all kinds of research that shows that you know you can boil it down to these six areas of positive and and um you know good performance will positively impact student achievement and then one more on this piece and I don't like to focus on the negative but but it's important to also know so what are the characteristics of low performing boards too and there are a couple of lines of research on this that just

185in recent years that I wanted to bring up that uh I didn't put into the same kind of table but what does it look like when a board is performing in a way that might negatively impact the system so that's disorderly meetings not sticking to board roles and spending less time talking about student achievement lack of respect less meaningful engagement less Reliance on the superintendent so when boards like put their superintendent aside and do not see that person as their organizational and academic leader that can negatively impact students and less focus on policy a vague awareness of what's going on in the system and then here are some things and I'll bundle all these into one but boards that refer to external pressures as the reason that things are going poorly tend to have more

186negative student outcomes so well we can't control you know families we can't control this we can't control that like all of this is there and yes there are certain things you know a Schoolboard cannot do all and be all for everyone but but putting blame on other systems tends to negatively impact student outcomes and and then we know this about the about laws too like we always say like laws are made by anecdotes so when board members legislate and govern through anecdote and their own personal experiences instead of thinking systemwide that that also tends to negatively impact students so I just wanted to give you a brief history if you ever want to if you ever want to talk research about school boards I'm your person give me a call but um I just wanted

187to give you that brief overview to show you that when we talk to you about you know certain characteristics and behaviors and things that we recommend that you do it is coming from this place of the evidence shows how you can positively impact students which is why you are all here so hand it back over to EV thank you so much Kristen one of the things that I really appre appreciate about this content is it really illustrates how the the five roles of the board and that idea is really just the entry point and that as we grow as board as board members and as cohesive board teams um we can move higher in in higher order thinking around the work that we do and so there's plenty of support around that and and I

188just I'm I'm on that Continuum as well so we're always in a state of learning and pursuant to that um in your policy bg7 you have item six says the board will monitor its Pro its process and performance on an annual basis and that is very relevant and chrisen you said it earlier if you you know Lord Kelvin and Peter Ducker speak to this if you can't measure it you can't improve or manage you know what you're doing so we are very proud of our board self assessment tool it's very powerful my board uses it and it's been very effective for us um it is based on the research and it's U very illustrative of of strengths and weaknesses that you that you may have it's deployed online so it's very easy to use we

189use Survey Monkey just go online and and fill it out it takes a little bit um you get a day to report that that you know looks like this where green is good and red is bad and black is I don't know um and if the board uses the uses this device over time you can show progress in your skill growth and your growth in practices um and it really allows you to see if you're meeting your expectations allows you to answers these these questions it allows you to identify the strength this board has strengths and you should be leveraging those strengths for for children and it it you know clearly shows where your opportunities for growth are at these are the domains so this should this should resonate with what you've seen before so

190you see these these five five standards that's divided into five standards that that roughly that correspond to the five roles of the board there are 22 benchmarks that are listed here these are all topics that we have discussed today and then in under these are 69 individual indicator questions that feed upward and get get rolled up into summary summary statistics that help you target what your needs are and so when we deploy this there we do this two ways there is the basic report that will give you give you data under the the five roles of the board the five standards but then we also provideed detailed service where um we go ahead and do an analysis of the data and then we do a facilitated discussion with you that includes goal setting for the

191board's development I put a slide in to remind myself to to pause for any questions about board self assessment or any questions for Christian and the research uh said could you give us that uh where we can see everybody that way I am a little hard of hearing when someone talks they can't see their face it's hard for me to understand sorry about my so I have a question if that's okay if no one else has please you know we are already uh what roughly third month into this year right MH what are your thoughts of doing a baseline board self assessment now and perhaps just before the next year turn over so that at least we have some direction to go with would that be something like that you would uh recommend yes or

192will it cost us a lot of money if you do it more than once um so if we want to talk money it's $500 is the is the each person each of us no no no okay so we try to make it very very approachable for for districts both large and small so so yeah it's it's a very it's a modest cost when you think about the time so I think we should do it okay so you'll you'll see that I've laid out a a a development pathway a set of of content for you at the end end that the board can consider and board self assessment is part of that so but we're at a point where we need to start thinking about where the board the Board needs to start thinking about what

193it's going to do and you're already pivoting to that and so I want to to move to this NE next exercise if I can share my screen here and it's like $500 for one time or that includes first and the next one or just like package bu it's each time we deploy the the survey and then do the facilitated uh session that's a $500 service thank you so I want this is the the perspective view that the board should have and I I so I need you to get out pencil and paper and we're going to take 10 minutes and what I want you to do is is again write about you know what your end goal is on in each of these areas you the progress that you'd like to see the board have

194uh in six months and in a year and so that's you know your relationship with each other so the board-to-board relationship and your function as a board U your board superintendent relationship we've we've highlighted that today that and the evidence shows it's very important and then your board Community relationship and just to give you a sneak preview of how we're going to collect the information to help you here I'll just Advance the slide this is how we're going to collect the the data just like I did earlier I'm I'm actually going to key your responses right into the into PowerPoint and then what I'll do is I will I will share the the file with with the board so you can have this information from yourselves so I'm going to step back and I'm Gonna

195Leave The Prompt up and I'm going to start a timer so for each of these your greatest goal progress in six months progress in a year and I'm going to go for five minutes if we need more time then we can come back and we can go a little bit longer but I so time starting [Music] now stop f for so we're coming up on five minutes I see that people are still writing so I'm happy to add a little more time so I'm just GNA have let you go one more minute and then we'll come on back just a few more seconds and why don't we come on back and I will advance the slide here and pop out so who would who would like to share first I will so this is the

196relationship within the board um greatest hope okay uh that we would be respectful towards one another okay and in six months that we would have on it what I refer to us honest chatting chatting would be in quotes Okay not necessarily discussion but we could just talk to each other yeah and then progress in a year would be safe disrespect or safe disagreement I really like that term Paul safe disagreement I may borrow that you you may I it it fits with my opinion ofba people so it's okay you you can just flat out steal it okay forget what I used to do so you want the next you want the I we do the soup next or we gonna do them different what why don't we just stay well yeah let's let's go ahead

197and do one one one at a time so I'm not going between slides so who else Bard board relationship who else would like to I'll go because uh Paul said different words but EX exactly um what I wanted to say um our board meetings are not a safe place and I would like them to be a safe place so that we can focus on our our reason for being there which is our kids and our families great progress in six months um I think Paul's idea of honest chatting is good you know if we can uh talk to one another uh see each other as people not somebody to poke fun at or whatever then I think that would be a good thing I'm not sure what that looks like exactly and uh safe dis

198agreement absolutely great thank you Paul you did a great job okay I'll go I would say is why I put two of them do we supposed to just have one I'm I'm no you can have I you can have multiple goals that's fine okay one of them was one voice is that your kind of greatest that seems like a a final goal or an end state is that true well I mean we could start that tomorrow but I think uh making sure that we're always to it's kind of like being respectful like you can be respectful today it's just you know something it takes uh you know time to get there and the next one I would say um uh would be actually know this would be like progress of six months I would say

199like transparency with each other uh which I guess could go under honest but um and then making decisions as a board um as a unit instead of individually under the six months and then uh under six months I put open discussions about hard topics so like not U it's really easy for us to have vague conversations about vague non-existent things but to actually talk about what the issue is I think is something that would be healthy for us staff so yeah that final gold what you what you said previously making decisions as a I didn't capture the I didn't capture that oh as as a board I put that under six months because that that goes under one board voice okay and then one year I would assume that would mean that um we would

200know a little bit better about what our roles are and um and what how to act how to respond and act with each other I don't know how to put that yeah rules are roles as individual board members understanding of uh individually and as a board like we don't we wouldn't have to have this conversation again well I mean this depth I'm butchering this but stay with me there we go understanding of roles as as individual board members and as a body that ises that capture it awesome thank you who would like to go next go um I so for the board function I'd like to uh have established clear priorities goals and procedures great six months in the six months I'd like yep in the six months I hopeful that we could have a

201few meetings to outline that yeah and then in a year I hope that we're implementing those things and then I also have one more when you're finish typing okay I'm ready I'd like for uh board members in the relationship aspect to be listening with intent to hear and not intent to assume or manifest something that's not being said okay so in in the six months I hope I'm hopeful for relationship building that establishes and understanding of each other and in six months have effective relationships so we can be real partners and that's in a year yeah I mean it I feel like we could probably do this all much sooner but there's a lot going on in the world it's important to set realistic expectations and I'm sorry I your words on that last one

202just left my head have relationships that that are real like honest have honest relationships how's that great who else oh sorry direct blasy go ahead please oh no go ahead can I yeah my goal for each other would be we should learn to I mean eventual goal is to learn to quit you know learn to appreciate Humanity within each other without uh forgetting that because we all here for a good reason and quit you know saying bad things or uh indicating that way or dehumanizing especially in with everything going going on in the community it's very hard but it is necessary to stay focused on that s six six months sorry in six in six months we should really feel comfortable to have courageous conversation amongst each other about contentious issues and listen to each

203other and let each one of us tell their own story rather than as kind of assuming the story of others and in a year how can we be mindful of how we communicate to the each other and how we words we use so that it does not erode the trust of the public or Community towards public institutions because ultimately it's about serving the community students in the community and our students have to have trust in our public institution go ahead sorry great okay so Kathy or Chiron um so so this is Shon um I really like what Danielle said about you know priorities and goals and I think if we were in a different place as a board right now my my input would be more focused on that but I do think right now

204we're we're in a very challenging place as a board and so I think right now for me my greatest hope and goal for board relationships is that um and I I'll I'll be frank and I know that's why some of these other comments are coming up is about that frankness but um My Hope Is that board members would recognize that their words and their actions reflect Bo and the district and um that I and that board members would think about the impact to our students before they say and they do things they post things they uh do things in board meetings um and I think the the progress in six months is uh board members and myself included because I'm I'm hearing the feedback about what gets said in board meetings is that we are

205um self analyzing our our words and our actions um and but I would also say that when we don't that uh board leadership or board members have uh have a responsibility or a space to to provide feedback um I don't know if that's very coherent but I guess the six month part would be that that we each become more mindful what's that I well I just I think the space to have that feedback is uh not present I think it doesn't necessarily always seem to happen in the boardroom and so how do we get there maybe you want it to be but I just want you to know that I agree even though I don't know how to word it or create it either yeah yeah I think yeah so the progress in six months

206would be the space um to have those conversations um when if we're feeling as though uh individual board board members are are not behaving in a way that we would like collectively to be reflected so that that six of progress would be creating that space to have the conversations so it doesn't get to the point where it has to happen in the boardroom because there isn't isn't a space to do that year I I would I would hope that we we would some of um I guess some of some of the things that have plagued us the last several months um are no longer a common place on our board oh okay that we're um that in that a year from now we're we're not doing and saying things that reflect poorly on the board

207as a whole in the district so Sheron I want to check in and just make sure that I have I've captured this authentically so this first one is members recognize that their discourse represents the board and the district and has impacts on children the district and the community that does that capture what your sentiment yes that's good thank you and then in six months that there is space for feedback between board members so you're able to have those corrective U conversations yes and then that members and then in a year that members aren't saying things that reflect negatively on on the board in the institution correct got it thank you um and then I have uh director Goss Kathy Goss I'm getting there so as usual I looked at this a little bit differently and

208um I did concentrate on respect and I took the the First Column that that we show respect for each other about half the time and that's lower than it allows on a functioning board it's just unacceptable and my thoughts on the second column is if we concentrated on that particular thing we should easily be able to get it up to at least 75% of the time bearing in mind that occasionally there'll be slips because we haven't made that a rule or made that a solid accomplishment and progress in the year that isn't a difficult thing to get to to respect each other and by the end of the year I would hope that we could uphold that 100% of the time and we wouldn't be dealing in a disrespectful manner got it I can wonderful

209so in the interest of time we had three channels here but we're coming up on time I would I would actually skip this if it wasn't so important um so I I think it's important that that the board and the superintendent have this this discussion here and and just so can I get feedback from from board members on the board and superintendent relationship and then what I'm going to do is I will um I will ask you I will reach out to each of you and you can send me your input on on these and I will populate it in this and then send it back out to the board because we're coming up on time but for now let's focus on the board superintendent relationship who would like to go first I can go

210first um it'll be short confidence restored trust would verify trust without thought great thank you Paul who would like to go next oh I'll go next um one is that um she's given clear clear expectations I guess would be it so just clear expectations well for and for her to us that that goes both ways oh okay yeah I will they and then um in six months i' would put um like check-ins like you were saying either quarterly or I don't know what we would do but um checkin so that way um we have clear expectations of what she wants from us what we could do to support and then right she has clear expectations of what we as a board want from her in the district awesome any in a year and then in

211a year I would say um I didn't really put in for a year on that one yet but I would it would just it would be uh I guess trust would be what is given then uh or actually transparency I think would be it between the great wonderful okay who would like to go next I can Goin thank you SAA yeah so the the ultimate goal would be I the goal and hope is uh alignment of vision and and six months so that there is mutual understanding so that I don't assume what our superintendent is thinking nor I want superintendent to assume what I'm thinking so that feel free to clarify and how will it how how will it look like in a year we we both can be the messenger for communicating to the

212community or within the district the same aligned Vision so that we are able to communicate preferably in one line what the vision is and that could be one place where we all can help vertically horizontally every other way does that capture it aligned communication of vision with the community and District yeah with the community and District so that we all are head pushing the car in the same direction in other words exactly all right who's next hey can you can you get rid of transparency I think that is not what I was intending to say but what I was intending to say is kind of in between what Paul and sakya said so there's no need for it I can just omit it I mean if you don't have anything if it doesn't fit in

213there that's fine there's no obligation to well it's between the two they already kind of said it so yeah and I you saw I was putting asterisks on the on the other page I can do that as well so if you're seeing something that resonates with what what you're seeing I'm happy to put asterisks on that to indicate that there is broader support for it who else would like can you hear me yes I can hear you good my computer so all I see is well myself so um for and I don't EX in brief so I'm just gonna say what then help me I've heard superintendent share a lot that basically pepper her is seven and we need to figure out how to do one and I believe leaderships one on one relationship from

214the board to her and so what I wrote is um superintendent you can't hear Danielle I I I'm sorry I can't I can't hear what you're saying it sounds like you're you're having connectivity issues so let's Danielle once you figure out your technology and will come back to you so who else would like to go um I can go thank you Kathy so um my greatest hope or goal is that some of us on our board have great communication with the superintendent and great trust has been built and do well others do not and my greatest hope is is that we could bring that up to 100% of the board being very supportive of the superintendent and feeling strong about that progress in six months I would hope we get much farther over the the

21550% maybe 75% and by the end of the year we will have a solid foundation to move forward a more accurate percentage would be 71.42% that's thank and I will finish mine by saying we don't need to correct everyone in our I'm just embarrassed now okay that's fair I I appreciate the math humor though H okay thank you Jesse and we heard from Marty no you didn't I I'm sorry no I'm getting mixed up I raised my hand a few times but I know you can't see everybody I can't see you because I'm sharing screen go ahead yeah so I don't have the three different areas like a lot of people do but and that is fine um no surprises in the boardroom and the other thing is uh when the district takes a stance

216on something controversial I think it would be good to have a conversation with the board because we are kind of I'm trying to think of the words it's not like we're the first line of defense but you know when something controversial um if there's a controversial stance taken by the district we're the ones that get you know I'm sorry my brain's not working but you know we're answering to these people who are like why are we doing this why you know and and it would I think it' be really good to have an honest uh open conversation with with the between the board and the superintendent on stances and and whether they're good bad or indifferent and and how we approach that with the public I hope that made sense so I mean I think

217no surprises in the boardroom really is captured captures that so yeah making sure that you know something's coming down the pike yeah that's okay I want to rotate back to Danielle do we can you hear me I think I can hear you okay sent Mar Tex can it oh yes I I I did get it do you want me to read it for you Danielle yes I'm sorry have a bad weather thing happening at my it's okay technology happens okay so first she'd say said I'd like to work on a process or I'd like to work a process out with the superintendent so board leadership is support ing the board in communication and access to the superintendent in a way that she's comfortable with so we're not overwhelming her as seven but as one okay

218so that's more like streamline uh board communication with superintendent yeah and I think that's probably what kind of like what I tried to do do with the queue when uh I was chair last year was to have the conversations directly with her myself bringing all the questions concerns and information people want together and and then we prioritized and sent it out through board leadership and then uh six months she's got clear procedure defined and active and one year acting through [Music] procedure Bo suit procedure oh my goodness I'm trying to go too fast here active and then you want me read the last one again and then yes please it's something related to this though guess right one uh one year acting through procedure got it and that would be it thank you Shon did

219we hear from you no not yet but I have one okay thank you um and I think it kind of goes to what Danielle was saying about uh the superintendent being inundated with seven voices um I think my know is the goal with uh the board and the superintendent relationship is that uh the board develops a better understanding and listens to the superintendent when she tells us that uh she and I'm sorry you may have to paraphrase this but she has a lot on her plate and she needs our help in keeping her work focused on the work that needs to be done and again this this one is kind of situational in our point in time in the world um so the board helps uh the superintendent stay focused on the work that she

220needs to do by not uh being a distraction to the superintendent and then I think progress in six months would be that we could do a self-reflection um and maybe get feedback from the superintendent on how we're how we're whether or not we're better supporting her um in the work that she needs to stay focused on yep and then I guess in a year that we would just be able to self-regulate that and the superintendent would have to remind us that that she needs to focus on some very very very big issues and I suspect we'll still be a year from now you know we might still be in you know whether returning to school or whatever it might be um but we'll be able to self-regulate that a year from now so thank you

221all sorry yeah sorry to interrupt um I have to go now uh I apologize and um hopefully you can continue if you have more to do I'm sorry we are overtime so with that thank you for your patience I'm going to move on to this next slide which is the pathway that a recom recommended pathway is I thought thought about um potential development needs for the Salem Kaiser board um I thought of products that we have at osba that that would support you in your growth um and so I laid out this this diagram so on the 9th next month uh you will be uh engaging in a training with with Bryant Dr Bryant marks um which is I've seen him speak a few times and he's he's very good and I'm glad I just

222feel privileged that I'll be able to be in that session so I think that that will be a great place to start around the board engaging uh with equity and impli implicit bias um as sa you suggested uh starting with a board self- assessment um straight away and I would say that I think this is probably the first step that this Board needs to do um the work that you have done today will scaffold that and so you'll be able to engage with that that survey very effectively and get some really good information there would be I'm assuming that we would do a facilitated discussion around that if we were to do it um and then do create some board development goals uh where do you want to grow and what are the strengths that

223this board has that that we can leverage um I would suggest that this board consider taking up operating agreements uh you have some internal conflict um and uh so a little bit of friction so it would be nice to have an operating agreement operating agreements um illuminate and um expand on what's in policy and it also allows you to focus on your areas of need um and so it's a document that you could have at hand and um and use to guide your your operations and your behavior I would suggest doing that that also with the superintendent as well so having a board superintendent operating agreement and osba we have example documents and we also do facilitated processes in going through that we would continue on with the with the discussions uh similar to what

224we've had today uh but more tangible because we' be developing a document beyond that uh doing um um some governance additional governance training so you got a taste of basic rol and responsibilities um I know that that was probably u a little bit below this board but we have um intermediate and advanced roles and responsibilities and we're also developing Kristen miles is taking the lead on um on developing uh Equity governance content we are getting a lot of calls from school districts on how do they how do they operationalize their Equity work uh from a governance standpoint and so we're developing that programming right now and then embedded in that is what this board has been I've been hearing it for the last four hours is that we need to set priorities we need to

225set a vision and Direction uh for the district that is something that you need to do in collaboration with your superintendent and and your um in your District Le uh your team um so that's a long process and it takes time and it will take uh a strong relationship and cohesion to make it go but I think that at the end I think this board can definitely can definitely do that um any thoughts or Reflections on this plan is there some what is missing here can we go back to all the uh non that way we can see this or no no no I want to see all the faces because sometimes I miss out if someone is not seeing no they're hearing it I look at their lips as well just sorry I let

226out a secret um I I do have a I don't know if you can see me this yes I can one thought on the visioning at the end um I guess my only feedback on that um I think where we've gotten bogged down in the past is we get we get stuck on the visioning maybe instead of you know this Utopia of what we'd like to see versus um what we talked about today which I really appreciate the the concrete discussion about establishing some board goals and priorities so visioning is great but I think this Board needs to needs to focus in on some shared agreed upon goals and priorities because I think we'll just if we just if we stay with visioning we'll be all over the map um so I I think some

227more focused work and I think that that visioning can come out in a discussion about goals and priorities so Shon I I appreciate your comment and I want to really differentiate between board board development goals and and visioning those are those are really two different pieces two different types of work one is internal to the board and how you are going to grow as a team and the other is visioning that is how you are going to cut how you are going to collaborate and set a vision for where the district is going to head and that is higher order work and you're absolutely right it's and it's easy to get bogged down in it yes SATA yeah I I really appreciate uh you know this is a beautiful uh Retreat we had you know

228we have to move forward and not keep getting pulled back into thing we need to move forward together as a group group because ultimately the focus is not about seven of us or 7 plus one it's about the students and the students cannot wait and the community cannot wait we'll end up losing an entire generation so while we this is really important don't get me wrong this is absolutely important and I really appreciate the steps you laid out and I hope as a board we agreed to go through all the steps parall it's like changing oil while you're driving your car and not forget the students and the achievement and the things like that we have to really start doing both we cannot do sequentially one after the other that we get perfect and then

229we go to the student goal so my hope is like change your oil we do this work parall while not losing sight of the students objective of academic achievement which is the purpose of public education because for a lot of immigrants and people from different parts there's only one chance education is the only passport we have no other home hope so please uh let's do both and I think we are all people go ahead hey hey uh I was just gonna say in the chat Danielle says she just has bad connection right now uh but she's saying that she said I I think we need to find a pathway to expectations with the superintendent or and she said maybe that's a focus on the review process so as like one of the first priorities there

230so I can embed if if the board chooses to go ahead and do a self assessment with osba um I can embed a presentation on superintendent evaluation and that that will allow give you a framework for setting expectations and starting that dialogue and that rhythmic process of of meeting and checking in with your superintendent and having that communication thank you then and then um do you guys have um set I was just looking at the chat with shiron and did Danielle and I was we were talking but do you have one models already set with osba for how to check in with the superintendent regularly yes we do is that something you could send to us yes it is I will definitely send it to you thank you all right is there anything else anybody

231else uh because we need to wind this meeting down and we need to close so yeah I just want to say go ahead Vincent well I was just going to say on behalf of of Christian and myself and the rest of the board development team at osba I just want to express my my appreciation uh for the opportunity to work with your board and for the hard work that you folks have done today this was not an easy program to get through there was there was a lot reflection so thank you very much for this time I think we kind of run out of time Jessie go ahead you want to say something real quick yeah Danielle was asking um how we can expedite the making the review happen um does it take an action

232item at the board meeting um what do we need to do to get it started just to make sure it's it's quick that way we can get it done sooner than later Christie uh do you want to say does it need a new contract with ospa or it can be part of yeah we can we can figure that out easily on the side and you're talking about board self assessment is that yeah the board self assessment yeah so we can move very swiftly on that yeah I I really want to say thank you guys I mean you know I really appreciate suon Perry all our board to and the leadership who stayed with this this is beautiful all of you are wonderful people all of you I mean you I learned so much about each

233one of you today never I had even imagined that I'm so lucky to be with all of you you guys have taught me so much and we are going to learn from each other and we're going to do beautiful jobs we're going to build back and make it much better let's move forward together I see no reason why anyone is not committed to that goal that's the bottom line doesn't matter what hurricanes we are in the middle of all of us are keeping our eyes on the our entire focus is student and Student Success and uh I really appreciate all of you thank you very much and one word just show up thank you one word I want everyone to note this is the first time ever I haven't gotten thrown off the system and

234haven't just completely dissolved so thank you very much for that I'm becoming a Hightech expert job Kathy way to go Kathy go the meeting is at Jun bye thank you everyone bye-bye