001Hey, there she is. Oh, and you, the rest of you, are already starting to get a wonderful board experience when we can't end up making it in person and we got to end up doing it in Zoom. So congratulations. I anticipate a few more are going to be joining. So, we've got four. Let's see. I think we're expecting two more. And to add to the panic, I just got dumped and had to come back on. Oh, no. It's It can get it out of its system now. It's not allowed to do it anymore. Depending on if you're far enough away from a wireless access point, sometimes that can end up making it a little difficult to be able to maintain a cohesion. So, I'd probably switch to cellular if you haven't already. Yeah, I have.
002I got I just switched over my hotspot that I got with me. I think it'll be okay now. Good. Thank you. [Music] Okay, we've got another joining. One, two, three, four, five. All right, we've got everyone. Thank you all for joining us. Glad you could make it before your other event. Appreciate that. Um, okay, Michelle, if you can hear me, uh, we could probably go ahead and start the stream and then we can start the meeting exactly on time. Yeah, we're good to go. We're streaming. We've been streaming. Oh, okay. Perfect. All right, then. I will just wait here for one second and Okay, it is 4:45. We're going to go ahead and get started. Good evening, candidates, and everyone who's able to join us tonight for the St. Helens School District Board Candidate Forum.
003We appreciate you taking the time to join us tonight. And for those of you who are able to watch at home on live streams, my name is Jen Nelson. I am with the Oregon School Boards Association. I'm a board development specialist as well as an executive search consultant here at OSBA. And we are joining tonight and moderating for you just to help ensure that we have a fair, neutral, and respectful forum for where voters can hear directly from you, the candidates. I'm just going to go over a couple of items. We're going to first acknowledge the question contributors. I want to say thank you to the individuals and the students and the groups that submitted these thoughtful questions that we're going to be going through tonight. Uh the Columbia City parent uh PTO organization, the
004principal action committee, and the superintendent advisory council. We had some great a great list of questions. Because we have so many candidates, we may not get to them all, but we're going to get to as many as we possibly can. Um I'd like to just briefly go over the format and expectations for the forum. Uh, each candidate is going to have 90 seconds for an opening statement and then we'll go through the questions. You'll each have 60 seconds to respond to each question. If the timer works, it works. If not, we might have to just go ahead and let you know when those 60 seconds are up and then we'll follow up at the end with the 60-second closing statement. Um, we just have some things that we're kindly asking everyone to just respect each
005other's time. If there is a question that comes up that you um feel that you don't have anything new that you want to add or you've already covered it in a previous answer, you're welcome to go ahead and allow the next person to go for their 60 seconds. Um but we are going to make sure that each person is given an opportunity to take that time if they like for each question. So it's fair. Um, when timing is up, we'll go ahead and if the music doesn't prompt you, then we'll go ahead and I'll just prompt you to let you know that the time is up and we'll kindly ask that we go ahead and move on to the next candidate to answer. So, with that, do we have any questions initially? If not, we're
006going to go ahead and start with opening statements. I am going to alternate who I start with first and I'll keep track of that so it's fair that you don't always have to be the first one starting as we go along. So the first thing I'm going to go ahead I'm going to start with uh Christine and allow you to go ahead and o uh turn on your mic and provide an opening statement. The opening statement I'd like you to introduce yourself and then the first question is to share why you're running for the seat on the St. Helen School Board and how your values align with the responsibilities of that role. Hi, thank you. Um, I have been a volunteer in this community for over 15 years. I am married to a high school
007teacher here in town. I also have three daughters, two of which are still in the St. Helen School District. I think that I believe in fighting for children to have a safe environment well that where they can learn and where educators can have a safe environment where they can teach. And there are a lot of other really important issues right now. That's the biggest one for me is just the safety and comfort. And I also love working on a team. So I think I'd be a real asset. Thank you. Uh, Matthew, I'm Matthew Douglas. Um, I am also married to a St. Helen's teacher, just FYI. Um, but that's not primarily why I ran. I ran because, uh, she ended up telling me about some of the troubles that had ended up happening and realized
008just how bad things were getting. And so when I had found out that the board chair had ended up resigning, I ended up going up in order to be able to offer to be an interim school board member until such time as the election could happen. And out of the three candidates, they end up ended up picking me. And I've had a very busy last three months, let me tell you. Um, but it I we're making serious progress. There's still a lot to that needs to be done, don't get me wrong, but a lot of structural issues that need to be done, but I think it's possible with the people that we have. Thank you, Reed. Hi, thanks. My name is Reed York. Um I uh am a father of four. My two youngest sons
009both graduated from uh the St. Helens High School. Uh my youngest one did it wintertime uh this year. Um, we're foster parents, so we have kiddos popping in and out quite a bit. They'll come to school for a little while in and out. Um, the reason I'm running for the school board is I hear, you know, I heard the troubles going on with the school with everything and, uh, I thought maybe I could get in there and offer some help, some support, you know, uh, work on some stability and get the get the community behind the school board and the school district. Again, that'll be short. Thank you. Um, Nathan. Hi, my name is Nathan Tomkins. Um, I went to these schools. I we moved here whenever I was uh 12 years old. I went
010to sixth grade on up to um through high school. Um, so I remember how bad the schools were then. And it hasn't changed. and and as like everyone else, I was outraged by the occurrences of, you know, last year and still outraged that certain people were allowed to resign instead of being fired. Um, especially since their own daughter works at goes to that school and she did nothing to protect her. Um I also work with um special needs kids and there have been a lot of things going on um that have concerned me. Um teachers being moved to other schools um all to sort all sorts of other things to basically play a numbers game and um that's why I decided to run. Thank you very much, Michelle. Hi. Thank you. My name is Michelle
011Russell and I'm running because we were witnessing firsthand what was going on in our schools with bullying and the inability for admin to keep these kids safe. Um after working with them for an entire school year and having to remove our child um we thought we were the only ones dealing with this and years later found out that there were many dealing with it. While we were dealing with this they said hey let's let's put your daughter with a safe person. And they chose to put that person as Mr. Sterns with our child. and it just compounded the issue of what we were already experiencing. And so we just saw a huge lack of um admin followrough or ability to do their jobs accurately. And when this all came out last year, um how many
012more there were, we just felt like if we're going to be loud about this, then we need to be able to step up. I need to be able to step up and help make a change. Great. Thank you so much. Um, Renie, am I saying that right? Hello, Renie. Are you able to um turn on your microphone and answer your opening statement? There you go. There we go. Technology. Thank you. My name is Reie Noling and I'm running because what happened at St. Helens High School was atrocious and should never have happened. I stand with the students who had the courage enough to open up our eyes and we need to support them. Our schools are the heart of our community. And as our schools deteriorate, so does our community. And it's important not only
013for business reasons, if businesses move out because they can't find qualified individuals, then they move out, which increases the tax burden on all of us that are remaining. And I believe that if we have a board that is concerned about the kids, their safety at most, and have a little of thinking outside the box to keep them in school, that we can turn this around and make it a productive. We should not be number 47 on a list of 50 best schools, you know, and I'm running for that reason. Thank you so much. All right, now that we've all got a chance to see who's here with us today, we're going to move on to the second question and that should be right here up on the screen. So, what is your number one priority
014for improving student achievement? And what are your plans to support and enhance that student experience across the district? Can we start with Matthew? Sure. Um so the number one priority for improving student achievement is be basically making sure that the teachers can connect with the students because that seems to be always what ends up what ends up driving student achievement when it comes to the studies that have ended up showing what's happening. So it we have to be able to end up allowing the teachers to be able to properly teach and to connect with their students appropriately. And we're trying to be able to implement plans at this point to be able to take what the T teachers have already put together in terms of PLC and be able to end up getting that information
015to us so that we can then end up getting information back down and get the support and the oversight that has been necessary for quite some time. Thank you, Ree. Well, I think we need to uh uh empower the teachers to work with the students. Um we we the school board needs to get involved with what's going on in the day stuff. We need to show the teachers that we're there to support them and support the students that are here going to school currently. We we need to listen to their concerns, make them feel valued. And I think if we get started that way, then we can get things rolling a little bit better and then we can course correct as we need to, you know, versus and and we need to listen to the
016student body. Um they provide valuable feedback and the teachers do too. So I think that would work out the best to get started with first and I'll be sorry. Sorry, didn't mean to cut you off there. Um, are you finished? Okay, perfect. Uh, Nathan, well, um, my answer to that question is make it so that students actually want to be there and participate. um when you focus on pure academics and just drive them into, you know, taking tests, you know, and test scores and test scores and test scores. That's a political buzz word that means nothing and test scores mean nothing on what a student knows. Um but you know there we need to enact programs of course lowcost programs because of all the shortfalls um that would um encourage them to participate. Um we
017can you know there do lowcost um art workshops, writing workshops, anything to increase creativity. That's all I got right now. Thank you, Greenie. Okay. I think we should have more out of the box thinking. I was uh asked to make a survey of the businesses here in town. Ironically, they are that's the number one concern of our businesses here, getting the youth and everything into jobs and a lot of them were willing to do a mentorship where the student could earn and learn. I think we need to take some of these uh and possibly if we can integrate that so that a student sees that he has a path. He doesn't just stop when he's out of school. and also to get more help from PCC in training some of these students who may not
018want to go on to college. Maybe they want to go into trade school. And I think that and in listening to the students, what would their concerns be and the teachers as well? I think that goes hand in hand and I think we can we can provide a better education when kids know that there's something waiting for them at the end of graduation and especially those that do not want to go go to college or do not have the money to go to college. Thank you so much. Sorry, I'll have to cut you off. The time is off for that question. Okay. Uh Michelle, I think in order for student achievements to um for in order for student achievements to um happen, we need to have a few things. Curriculum uh right now, our curriculum
019is really outdated. We're using workbooks from 5 years ago, some of them 10 years ago, and we're just hoping that page 13 isn't used. Um students need to feel heard and safe. Uh teachers need to they need to feel like they can go to the teachers and that they are going to be trusted to help them in a time of need. But teachers also need in-class supports and they are not getting that. Um if anything those in-classroom supports have been pulled. Um we have six uh teaching and learning staff that we could be utilizing in classrooms to help those in-class supports happen. Then we also need to keep kids accountable um so that they know they can't be running the a muck and run the classrooms with bullying. Thank you. Like our little music timer.
020Uh up next, Christine, can you please answer that question number two? Sure. Um I actually agree a lot with what Michelle said. I would also like to add that a safe environment for both staff and students is incredibly important. I think that it's really important to make sure that our staff is getting ongoing professional development and that students are heard, they're supported by strong leadership and that includes our administration which we're having some problems. So that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. All right, we will move on to the next question. And the question is, how can the district or how sorry that's a miss typo there. How can the district better recognize learning disabilities early providing timely support and expand access to afterchool tutoring for struggling students, including those receiving special
021education services? and we'll go ahead and start with Reed. That's a good question. That's a loaded one, too. Um, uh, I think I think determining, uh, teaching very, very young, uh, you have to start picking up on issues where children might be having a hard time learning things and spending the extra time working with them, uh, all the way through school. if you're having somebody struggling. Uh when I was in school, I'd have a teacher take me aside and work with me after school to make sure I understood the material. Um and then the special needs folks, we need to do the best we can for them. I I I know money is a big issue, but we have to do better than what we're doing currently. Um those kiddos need to be taken care
022of. They need to learn. They have the right to learn and have an education. Um, and we need to do everything we can possibly can to support them and make sure that happens. I probably didn't answer all the questions, but I think I'm about done. I think you did. Thank you very much, Nathan. Uh well, basically um teachers and staff need to know what to look for so they can recognize signs for like um autism, uh hearing difficulties, other types of learning disabilities. Um and so they can possibly advise the parents and see what they can do and do to help get them tested. Um because that's really important to get that done as soon as possible. it'll make the kids' life a lot easier. Um, basically and um and yeah and uh and basically
023to expand access to after school t tutoring um there again I would you know volunteers to help you know help you know do a study hall or you know you know something to help foster creativity. Um, that's how I stayed in school because I had teachers that fostered creativity and and helped let me work in. [Laughter] You have no control over the music. I do apologize, but thank you. The time is up. Thank you. Um, reie. Yes. Um, I think I'm pulling from my own experience. I had a medically fragile child and she was not able to go to the school her sister went to due to the issue that we had and I had to put her in a public school. Uh and I wanted to know a little bit about it. Uh essentially
024they told me well if she comes to school x amount of days even if she just puts her head on the table that she would graduate with a modified degree. And that was that was not an option for me. She wanted to be as normal as everybody else. And so I met with the teacher once a month. We went over the curriculum for the month and how she did and uh what was expected of her. Both the teacher and I worked together. And this child that they were going to give up on made honor role quite a few times. And although she missed it by a smidgen in her final quarter of her senior year, she she was treated like everybody else. And I think the teachers, we need to have those that are spot
025on that can identify these problems. And also, we need the commitment of the parents. That is so helpful. Thank you. Um Michelle, so I definitely think it's important for us to do universal screening, um schoolwide screenings starting in preschool and head start. Um work on just attendance. Um just reliable academic behavior assessments. Um we have to remember that even if we are sharing our concerns with parents, it is their choice whether to go forward and act out on what we've advised. Um but you know those behavioral assessments can flag students that will need um further evaluations and then just teacher observations and referrals and keeping an open line of communication with parents and inviting them in for a discussion. Okay, great. Thank you, Christine. Um, boy, when you get later, it's a lot of the
026good answers have already been taken. Um um but I also think that teacher training and educating our teachers on how to recognize in all students, not just students that tend to exhibit um signs of like dyslexia or autism or ADHD or something, but having our staff recognize signs of these things will be really helpful. and just strong family engagement, I think. Thank you very much, Matthew. Oh, yeah. There were definitely a lot of other good answers to hear and I'm grateful that the um people that are running for the board are thinking on this kind of level because that's exactly what we need. Um, I would definitely end up focusing not just on the abilities to be able to do training for teachers in the early uh in the early K through three in order
027to be able to identify certain patterns of behavior to be able to identify when there's issues at hand. But one of the biggest difficulties that we have is that right now in Oregon there is an 11% cap on the the bonus money that we have in order to be able to end up helping people um people that need special education services. And in general like even in our particular district it's like 15 to 17%. And so there's not enough funding in order to be able to end up getting the kind of real support that they need things like to be able to see happen in the future. Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to I believe I got everyone. We're going to move on to the next question number four, which is how can
028the school board help reduce bullying and violent incidents in schools and ensure student safety is a top priority? Nathan, we're going to go ahead and start with you. Uh oh, there again would be a would need to do a lot of training um to recognize that. But um basically we would make need to make it um mandatory to have you know see something say something. Um you see somebody be bowling tell somebody. um and give avenue give different avenues besides maybe teacher or administration because we have we as we have seen that doesn't always work um you know like in maybe an anonymous tip um you know on the school portal or something um and uh you know just we've been basically keep an eye out have everyone keep an eye out make sure it
029doesn't happen I know a lot of people want to go straight for the police answer. Um but I don't think that you know police is always the um correct way to go. Um too many um emotions can you know get involved and um thank you very much Nathan. Um Remy, yes. Um I think we need to have a no tolerance. I know that that word is slung out there and to the point where it practically means nothing because parents have given up. Some of them have given up on their children. They don't know what to do with them and they figure send them to school, let it be the teacher's problem. Like the teacher has to solve every issue that the child has. That's not fair to the teacher and that's not fair to the
030child. Um however, in order to keep the others safe, we do have to have some strict guidelines and um thinking outside the box. Uh it will probably take uh a little help from our juvenile system or court system to think outside the box. Uh and also the parents themselves. There are groups that that they can assist with these habits that these kids have, the bullying, the the truency and all of that. We need to have that available to parents so that they can intervene because I think they've got to the point where this is the way the kid is. Nothing I can do about it. Thank you. Michelle, you're next. So, this one's really important to me as we had our daughter who was extremely bullied. And what what we do at the beginning of
031each year is you get sent home a pamphlet that says here's the rules. Parents sign this, students sign this, and it talks about um if you what it takes to get suspended and um how many opportunities you get before that happens and it's just not being followed. So, the policies are there, but they're just not being acted on by admin. Um, and then if you as a parent voice concern, um, you seem like a an an a parent that just doesn't want others to learn because we don't want those kids there. And that's not the case. Um, but we want them to follow through on the policies. And right there's there's no checks and balances for admin to follow through on those policies to make sure that our kids can show up, go to school,
032feel safe, not feel like they are going to be attacked in a bathroom. Um, you know, and if they can't follow through on that, then there need to be better policies. Thank you, Michelle. Christine. Hi. Sorry, technical difficulties. Um, I also I love Relle. Um, but I also think that it's really vital that we clarify and specify what qualifies as bullying because in this generation, cyber bullying um and harassment for people looking different, dress wrestling different um being different is incredibly incredibly rampant in our schools and within our adults. So just a clear guideline of what is and is not going to be tolerated and then yes following through think that that's vital. Thank you Matthew. So there's a few things that the school board could end up being involved in in order to be
033able to reduce it. We actually had implemented not when I was on the board but just before I was on the board um a intervention policy to be able to end up designating when a kid is having issues and they're str and they're there's violence or bullying or something like that. They're supposed to end up having another tier of intervention that basically tries to figure out how to be able to deal with the problems at hand with the student and, you know, working with the student in order to be able to find out what's going on. And only when it ends up getting worse at that point does it end up coming up to the next tier in which there is much more intervention that has to happen. The student is still involved, mind you,
034as is the parents, but they end up having to end up having a considerable more threshold at that point. And only after that point do we start to talk about the sort of things that end up getting students suspended. Thank you, Matthew Reed. Well, I'm going to pile on Roelle and Christine's answer. I really like that. Um, every student that goes to school here has the right to have a safe place to go to school and learn. No bullying, no nothing. Um, it it's it's, you know, it's terrible. Um, I think the way we're going about it currently just isn't working. So, I I think we need to go back and look a little harder. um you know, some extra extra training, you know, to rec recognize really what the definition of bullying is and
035what what you see. Um and you're going to it's going to be painful, but you got to take action. You know, you have to report stuff. Um you got to bump it up to the next level um fast. You know, if you get a student that is assaulted at school, you know, that should be an automatic report going straight up to the board. Um, we need to get involved in that and hear all about everything that's going on. I know it's going to cause some hate for the board members, but we have to start somewhere and that's the only way we're going to start. Sorry. You're fine. Thank you so much. Okay, we've got everyone for that question. Moving on to question five. Question five is, how will you gain the community's trust after the
036events of this past fall? And how will you respond to negative social media campaigns if they arise while maintaining focus on student outcomes and respectful governance? And we'll go ahead and start with Reie, please. Well, I think uh like I mentioned earlier, having a policy of no tolerance and really standing by that because we've become kind of well, maybe it applies, maybe it doesn't apply, you know, and it's more I think it's more political in sometimes. Um it it it's gone out of hand. It needs one one thing, no tolerance. And it's got to be that way across the board. I think if they see that they I think the community will start building a trust. It's hard to build trust when people keep changing their mind, you know, or at least maybe not changing
037their mind, but bending the rules. And I think that would that would definitely help not only in in getting uh the community support, but also the parents the parents of those that that do the wrong know they're going to have to pay for it somewhere down the line if they continue. It's not maybe they will. Thank you, Michelle. Oh, I feel like this is a there's a few questions in here. So, the community's trust is going to start with following through with what we tell them as a board that we're going to do. So, there's multiple things that this board has continued not to follow through on. Um, they kept Scott Stockwell. Um, they chose not to release an investigative report that they promised us all along. Um, and I don't think that every thing
038you see calling out a district on the so on social media is a negative social media campaign. I think it can be used well and taken as a call to action. Um, and a way to listen to a community that is not feeling heard. And I think that's if there's these negative campaigns going on and you're a board is feeling targeted, I think that's the moment that we need to ask ourselves why and what we need to do to hear these voices why they feel like they're not being heard. Thank you, Christine. Hi. Um, I think that rebuilding trust is going to start with listening, actively listening and letting our community know that we're hearing them as well as being able to explain why we're making decisions and if we do something and it doesn't
039work, being willing to say this is not working. This is why it's not working and we are going to pivot. And that's just That's part of transparency. I know that's a trigger word for everybody. Um, but addressing social media, I think that if you see misinformation, correct it. That that's important. Um, but when criticism is valid, address it and and then you can address the situation moving forward. And that's also going to play into building back your community's trust. Great. Thank you. Uh, Matthew, trust can't be built immediately. It always has to be little step by step by step. One little action here, one little listening session here, one little act action that you end up doing towards some what somebody needs. Uh it's it's it's a slow build and sometimes it there's a lot
040of people rightfully so that can end up distrusting how the board is going to end up um doing things or whether they're going to be doing things. And there's nothing wrong necessarily with when people post negative things on the camp like on social media like that should be addressed. Like at the very least it the only way that you can end up doing that is go here's some evidence that we happen to have. These are the things that we're doing. If you think that there are some things that you would like to be able to see, please let us know. Like that's part of active listening is not just being able to end up taking in what they're saying, but to digest it to be able to end up going, "Okay, I think I know
041where you're coming from." Thank you very much, Reed. rebuilding trust. We need to start listening to the community, the staff, the teachers, and the students. Um, I don't think showing up for a board meeting and getting three minutes to talk is a very good way of opening dialogue. We need to start having regular meetings around the school district, around different schools at night, accommodating the parents so they can come. We need to encourage people to come to the board meetings. We need to start having listening sessions. Um, and it takes baby steps and we got to get everybody involved because, you know, it's kind of troubling. You go to a board meeting and there's probably maybe six or seven people that show up and I understand people's uh life is busy, but we're talking about
042kids and we we're all out to do the best we can for them. So, I think if we start doing that, um, that's a start. And then transparency comes, tell the truth. I mean, you you you say you're resigned, a principal resigned, and then we come to find out, well, you're paying her out through the end of the contract. That's the truth. I call that a halftruth. I was raised that's a lie. So, we got to stop doing that. We got to prove ourselves that we can talk. Sorry, you're fine. Thank you, Nathan. Yes. And pretty much what Reed was saying, we need to be transparent. Um we need um better communication um between you know between the board and the and the community at large. Um and like he was saying we need more
043in better input from the students and the staff because they're the ones who are directly affected by everything that they do that the board does. Um, and you know, and as far as negative social media campaigns, well, anytime I say something on concerned parents, um, I get dogpiled on, um, and such. And, you know, which is fine. There is different there's a big difference between calling out somebody, you know, for being stupid and then calling them a Um so and the latter one needs could go on a wall of shame as far as I'm concerned and you know be public and this you know say this look at this um intellectual and thank you very much. All right we're going to go ahead and move on to question six and Michelle you're going to start
044us off. Um, how will you collaborate with other board members, even those with different values or viewpoints, and what is your approach to resolving conflict on the board? So, I talked about this on the radio uh a few weeks back. So, I really believe in collaborative problem solving. It's something I used um when I was doing therapeutic foster care. And, you know, we are all going to have different opinions. And I think that's the beauty of a board. We want everyone's opinion and I don't want them all to be the same because then we're not hearing the public loud enough. Um there should be different opinions and we need to really come together, hear them out, see what works best for our community and how we can implement them the plan um and what approach
045is going to um help everyone move forward. And sometimes it's not going to be what I have in mind. Um, and it's going to be someone else. And there's there's grace to be had and recognizing that we don't always have the perfect answer and someone else might or often will. Thank you, Christine. I'm so sorry. I don't use computers very often. Um, I think that understanding that as long as we all have a common ground, it doesn't matter if we agree. Again, we are a board of collective personalities, collective inputs, and you don't have to be right to be doing the right thing. And we all have different ideas for a reason. And as long as we can listen respectfully to each other and understand that we are all trying to achieve the same goal.
046Um problem solving, you know, being adults and rem remain open to the possibility that you're wrong and that someone else's idea might just serve the public and the students better. And that's very important. Thank you, Matthew. So, I get to do a little bit of teaching here. Um, so there's a lot of laws that end up having to do with transparency. In particular, how meetings end up taking place with board members. like there really isn't a lot of collaboration you can end up doing because as soon as you have three people that are talking about the same subject oh up board meeting at that point and all of a sudden it has to be public at that point. So a lot of the times you have to collaborate in front of the public and it's
047necessary in a lot of cases um because those different values and viewpoints is absolutely absolutely necessary. Like if you've ever been on a jury, it's a very similar si circumstance where you've got people from all across that you never thought that you could have things in common with, but you listen to them, you think about their point of view, you end up talking about things and that eventually can end up reaching something at least similar to a consensus and you can get things done. Thank you, Reed. Can I get the first part of the question real quick? I'm kind of Sure. How will you collaborate with with other board members, even those with different values or viewpoints? Thank you. Um, collaboration comes with respect and understanding. It's nothing personal. Um, on a board, I've served
048on many different ones, work, hustle, whatever you want to call them. Um, you have to respect the people that you're on the board with and discussing things. You have to understand that people are not going to have the same opinions um and different viewpoints. We have to all come to a to an agreement that we always have to remember the ultimate goal is for the students of the district and uh we have to put our you know our passions aside. I guarantee you I will speak my peace and make my case known and when the vote is done I'm done and then you know I will support the decision that's been made. Um, but you'll know the reasons why. And there is a way to get around the the the rule. You just announce that
049you're having an event and post it and then you're not taking any questions. That's how you get around the meeting notice. Thank you, Nathan. Well, you know, I've worked with, you know, all sort, you know, people from all sorts of different walks in life, walks of life and political backgrounds. Um, I know that's hard to believe in this for people in this community. Um, but um, and I, you know, and I've done a ton of group projects and there's a lot communication that is needed, you know, for everybody to, you know, figure out what needs to be done and get it done. One person follows a doesn't do the job. We all know what happens. Um, and that's basically what would need to be done here. Everybody would need to communicate with each other and
050um I believe in democracy you know a majority wins I would stand by it even if I did not agree with it. Thank you Reie. I think from listening to people here I think we have one common goal and that's respect for each other's opinion and that goes a long way. I believe also that that our teachers should have some input. Uh so if when anything's presented to the board that we get input from some of these teachers that have come forward with issues and get their get their take on it and consider that as well. Uh because they see the kids, you know, better than six hours a day. And some of us that are on the board don't even see these kids. I mean, unless they're their own. And so, um, it's very
051important that I think that we have trust and transparency, not only for the parents, but for the community and just overall to keep a smooth running board. Thank you. All right, next question. And we're going to go ahead and start with Christine this time. And this may be the last question we have a chance to get to before your closing remarks. Um, we have a lot of great list questions, but we're going to be running out of time. Um, so question number seven, Christine, if you disagree with a board policy or decision, how would you approach the situation? Um, well, I think I would just say I disagree. Is that not something that we can do? Can we just say I disagree and does anyone else? and can we talk about a different solution or
052something that's like really we're all just humans here and we're going to have different opinions and if I disagree I'm just going to say so thank you Matthew I've disagreed with board policies and decisions before but nonetheless when there's where there's decisions that need to be made, it needs to be made as a whole and whatever the board ends up deciding is what we end up going with. So when I disagree with the board policy or decision, I end up stating what my concerns are out front and if there are issues that need to be addressed that it's not bad idea to be able to have a fallback position in case that board policy or decision doesn't end up being the right path. and then we automatically have something that we can fall back to
053in order to be able to find a different way of looking at it. Thank you, Reed. I guarantee you there's going to be disagreements, you know, and I'm probably going to be one that disagrees a lot, but we have to be adults. Um, we have to, again, it's for the t it's for the kids. We have to work through them. Um, hear my opinion, I'll hear your opinion, you know. Um, it's nothing hostile. It's nothing personal. You know, at the end of the night, we shake hands. And you just got to remember, we're trying to do this for the kids. Um, the best policies we can push forward to help the students grow um, and achieve their goals and make them better human beings and get them prepared for future, you know, endeavors as they
054get older. Thank you, Nathan. Well, this feels like a same question as the last one to me. Um, but basically again, I would state why I disagreed and state that I disagreed and why. Um, but you know, if it passed, it passed. I mean, then I would stand with the rest. What else could I do? Thank you very much, Rainey. I think I I was brought up to believe that if you have a a situation where you disagree with somebody, then alter offer an alternative so that they can see where you're coming from and that you you do have some possible solution. And just simply saying I disagree or you know um I'm just going to vote against it is is not helping. it doesn't move us forward. And I think also that with the
055parents there, they want to see a little bit of dust up, so to say. Uh because that's out of the dustup comes new ideas and you know, maybe we'll find the better one than what we had previously. And so, um I do believe at all means we need to respect each other. We need to respect our our our community that come to these meetings and allow them their chance to speak and also um be able to shake hands at the end of the night like people say and go home and say okay. And when you see them on the street, you know, you treat them with the same respect that they're giving you. Thank you, Michelle. I think that when we disagree with something, it's important to start a dialogue and to try and understand
056why someone else has a different avenue or a different way that works best for them or what they see. I think it's important also that to hold on to if like if if your opinion doesn't get changed through collaboration or discussion that it's important to vote the way you still believe so that the community sees that you have fought for another another avenue if it didn't come together all as one and I think that's important um but yeah I think it's collaboration it really is the question before it's about opening a dialogue and hearing hearing what someone else has to say. Thank you. And since we do want to allow enough time to end early so that you all can make it to your next event, I'm going to go ahead and say that's the
057last question. So, we're going to move to um closing statements and if we have time, we can throw in something else at the end. But go ahead and please share any closing remarks that you have. Um let's go ahead and start with uh Matthew, please. Well, I wanted to just say thank you to everyone that ended up participating here. Not just the uh potential board members that we have here, but also the people that are listening because in the end, you are what ends up mattering. Your opinions end up mattering. And the more you end up coming to the board meetings in the future, the more voices that you will end up having and the more influence that you will have on the decisions that end up being. So, I implore you to end up
058visiting whenever you can because it w it matters more than you think. Thank you. Thank you, Reed. Sorry, trying to find the unmute button. I just want to thank everybody for taking the time to listen. Um, want to thank the district for agreeing to put this on and host it. That was pretty darn good. Um, thank you for all the people that uh attend the school district and have put in questions. Um, your opinion matters. Um, you know, uh, I'm going to stumble along the way if elected into the office. I've got a lot of learning to do. I am big enough to admit when I'm wrong and publicly say I'm wrong. I made a mistake. Um, I think we need to start, you know, taking care of students and get the get the community
059listening again. Get them engaged. Get them get opinions going. Um, it's the only way we can get any better. Um, I was a police officer for a number of years. I investigated these sexual assault cases. They are horrible. And you know, and the trauma isn't done yet for the for the people. They've got to go through it again with the cases going on when they go to court. And you know, we have to be there to support them. So, I just hope we open up communication and can talk better. Thank you. Thank you, Nathan. Uh yeah. Um, thank you um, everyone for doing this, showing up and uh, having me here. Um, and um, basically like Reed was saying, those poor kids will have to live with this for the rest of their lives. Um,
060I know that from experience and um, and you know they you can this needs to stop happening. It's been happening forever. I mean, even when I was in high school, there was uh, what was his name? Bob Williams or whatever his name is. Everybody was warned about him. Don't wear a short skirt in the front of the class. Um, but anyway, if you like what I have to say, vote for me. If you don't, vote for Reed. He's a great guy. He has an open mind just like I do. And um, you know, not nobody's perfect. I know I sure am not. And um, I'm always willing to learn and admit when I'm wrong. Thank you. Thank you, Rainey. Yes, I agree with Reed's last statement and I think also that I too am not
061always right and I'm willing to say that. And when I've looked around and saw the statistics for this school board, I mean, I I had to run and um it it hurts me because I see that we're throwing our generation away and because they're they're going to they're not going to be able to have the quality of life that they normally would have. So, I indeed am not perfect. I'm willing to admit when I make a mistake. All I can do is offer my my suggestions and that I've gained through my experience in raising my kids and um hopefully make this community a little better. Thank you very much, Michelle. I think it's important to Well, first of all, thank you. Thank you for everyone who's watching and who plans on voting. I think it's
062really important to know who you are going to vote for and what they their visions are for um moving forward in our district and um what they will bring to the board. And I've really tried to put myself out there, but um you know those things that I believe in on my campaign page and open myself up for questions and some of them have been tough and have challenged me and I just have done everything I can to make sure that I put everything out there so that you know who I am. And I feel like it is something that is so important when we need to replace a current board for you to know who you're voting for and know what they stand for and what you will be getting. And I think the
063honesty, the transparency, and just the willingness to really um help you get to know who you're voting for is important. And so, please vote. I thank you for all um being here. Thank you. and Christine finish. Um, yeah, thank you for having us and thank you for all the voters who are watching. I appreciate all of you. I was one of these victims and I don't ever want my children to know what that's like. I will always be involved in the schools. That will not end here. and that is so that I can always protect my own children. So I appreciate just the opportunity to be here. Also, it takes a lot of courage to stand up and speak up and put yourselves in front of a community that is riddled with crisis. And we
064are all brave, brave soldiers for doing that. And any one of us would be a great candidate. Thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you so much. I believe we got everyone there. I want to thank you all candidates for your time and thoughtfulness and commitment to the St. Helens community. Um, I also want to thank the Colombia City PTO, the principal action committee, and the Superintendent Advisory Council for providing tonight's questions. Although we didn't get to all of them, they were very thoughtful and um I'm glad that we were able to get the ones that we did. Um, everyone who's watching, please remember to vote on or before election day on May 20th and have a great evening. Thank you. If I may ask, um, is there any chance we could get the additional
065questions that were not asked because I think those would be very useful. Sure, I can provide those, um, and and see that they get to everyone. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much everybody.