001All right. Good evening everyone and welcome to this regular session of the Tiger Tolton School Board. I will call this meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Um, first of all, I want to let us you know that we um convened executive session prior to this meeting under OS192.6602B. Um, and so we'll be voting on that matter later in the evening. Um, and also our chair is not here tonight, so I will be filling in for her, but she will be back. um after her travels. Um so with that, is there any changes to the agenda? >> Yes, we have one change to the agenda. We need an add an action items on section 10B. Um it's uh so the board can uh take action on matters related to uh the exe executive session that occurred
002earlier today. >> All right. >> I move that we approve the agenda as amended. I'll second. >> Motion was made by Director Heime and seconded by Director Weston. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, I'll move to a coral vote. Bless you. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. And with that, we will move into recognition and good news with Lisa Burton. All right. This um good evening, Vice Chair Irvin, board members Dr. Udo, and student representative Moss. Um this evening, we are joined by Creekide students, and I'll let them introduce themselves. Um but they are part of um the Care Foundations Program. It's a structure that um encourages or allows CTC students to um learn about the needs of their community um through
003service and grant making. And then um they'll be sharing a little bit about what their plans are for this year. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us. My name is Luna Vanderin. I am a student at Creekide Community High School and a participant in Schnitzer Cares, a youth grantmaking program. Yeah, I am a student at Creekide Community High School and a participant in Schnitzer Cares, a youth grantmaking program of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation. In Schnitzer Cares, the student groups act as many foundations and they begin the school year by selecting a community issue they are passionate about. Groups are guaranteed $7,500 from the care foundation for their grant making and can double those funds by raising an additional $750 in the winter months, which care matches 10 to one up
004to a total of $15,000. Students then spend the rest of the school year completing the grant making process, evaluating grant applications from local nonprofits, meeting with some of those organizations, and deciding which nonprofits to fund. Students can also grant up to 25% of their funds to the programs at their school. Schnitzer cares it takes place at four schools in the Tiger Towitan School District including Creekide Community High School, Tiger High School, Toatin High School, and Towality Middle School. We are here to offer a recap of the incredible work grant makers across the district last year and to give you a glimpse into what the grant making process looked like at Creekide. Next slide, please. >> Hi, my name is Fiona Balo. Last year, our service area was performing arts programs for youth. This was our
005mission statement last year. The all the worlds a stage performing art class of Creekide Community High School will be granting money to organizations that support access to performing arts for marginalized school-aged people in the Portland metro area. We believe the arts are an important outlet for people that gives them a space to share their thoughts and feelings. We have learned that children who take part in the arts are at least five times more likely to graduate high school regardless of socioeconomic status. We will focus on organizations that provide art services and/or experiences to K through 12 school age students. We would like to see people flourish socially and academically and also build confidence in themselves. This year our service area is improving lives through art. Our mission statement for this year is the performing arts
006community action class at Creekide Community High School will be granting money to organizations that use the arts as a means of increasing wellness and decreasing suffering in the lives of people in the Portland metropolitan area. We believe the arts are a vital way to give space and process difficult events and emotions. The arts should be accessible to anyone regardless of age, gender, sexuality, class, or race. We will focus on organizations that advance their mission by using art as a means of serving client needs. We hope to see our community heal, grow, overcome obstacles, and connect with others through art as an outlet for transformation. >> Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Okay, cool. Hi, my name is Era Sharing House. Last year, in order to fund raise, we ran a hot cocoa stand twice
007for the kids at Durham Elementary. It was so cold and difficult to staff, but we got to interact with the kids from our community and strengthen the bond between our schools. We also held a talent show, letting our students share a bit of themselves with the community. We built a stage, ran sounding concessions, and performed for our school. This fundraiser was legit the best. We had a huge turnout of staff, students, and families. We only had five empty seats. A challenging part was finalizing the set list and a lack of rehearsal time. Even with that, it was still really entertaining, and everyone did a great job. It was our most successful fundraiser, and we plan on doing another one this year. Hi everyone, my name is Jason Breen recall. Um, last year we reviewed applicants
008applications from 14 nonprofits and interviewed four of them. We chose the following recipients. Our first grant was for Bridging Voices for $5,000. Our second grant was for My Voice Music for $2,500. And our final grant was for Bravo Youth Orchestras for $5,000. We chose these organizations because they matched our criteria the best and they were going to use the money in a way that aligned with our values. They all had a ton of enthusiasm about their goals and programs. We also granted an additional $3,271 to programs at our school, including funds for our yearbook club and new student organizations. Next slide, please. Hi, my name is Vivian Worther. I'm totally going to stutter through this. I'm so sorry. Uh last year service areas from other groups entireson school district included support for survivors of domestic
009violence, services for refugees and immigrants and gun vi violence prevention. Altogether, grant makers across the district last year granted 72,750 uh $35 to 18 nonprofits and $15,754 to school programs for a total of $88,489. Schnitzer is a great experience because we've learned how to work together uh to solve problems and make pretty difficult decisions. We had a really good time running our group fundraisers last year and celebrating at the end of the year. Being a part of the group for roughly three years, we've done a bunch of stuff together and overall it feels really rewarding. The process might be a little challenging at first, but seeing everything we did come together definitely makes us feel like we did something important and we did. We are excited for another fantastic year of Schnitzer Cares within the
010Twelton Tiger School District and the grant makers are going to make another huge impact. Thank you for your support and have a great evening. You got to stay right there for just a just another minute. You got to come sit down just for a minute. We won't let you get away quite that fast. Now you get to hear all kinds of wonderful things from board members up here. So, who would like to start us off or if there's any questions? >> I don't have any questions, but you know, just thank you so much for all the work that you put into this and I know sometimes it could be nerve-wracking to kind of sit there and and talk to to us about it, but uh we really appreciate it and um you know, like you
011said, have a great night. No, just kidding. Dr. Michaels, >> $88,000. This is an enormous amount of money. Um, and what leadership that that you have shown and you said collaboration and fun. What is uh what's the most rewarding thing you think that you've gotten out of this or given? What would you say? Uh for me personally and maybe the entire group, I would say the talent show. I mean like sure it was for fundraising, but it was really really fun. We most of us got to participate in it. There was a couple of downs about it like our curtain falling. But we got it together and there was a person in the crowd which was one of the parents who helped put it back up. But other than that, I think it was the
012most rewarding thing. It was so much fun and I think we got most of our money from that. >> Awesome. >> It was It was awesome. >> Thank you, Jack. Oh, I would also say um knowing that there are other people out in our community that um also want to see the world become a better place and getting to work with them was extremely rewarding and an incredible experience. >> Thank you. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for presenting to the board tonight. Director Weston. >> Yeah, just wanted to say thank you. It's a um it's a really beautiful thing when people um help each other and that kind of mutual aid is really important and um so thank you for all your work and for making sure it align with your values. I
013really like that part of uh the presentation and you all did amazing work. So, thank you so much. And I'll just plus one what everyone has said. And I really love that improving lives through art um focus. And as someone that was the the musician sort of person in high school, well, all growing up, I really appreciate um just that lens and kind of thinking about how that will how that changes lives, how the like you're talking about the confidence and the mental health piece and all of that has really driven a lot of us through different avenues of art. I also had a quick question um which was were there any new skills and this could be because I know you did a talent show it could be event planning it could be whatever
014but were there any new skills or perspectives that you gained through this program? >> Well, uh me and our darling Luna over here ran the talent show pretty much. Uh finding like managing through events was definitely new uh cuz we had to direct a bunch of people and uh set up our area. Uh that was definitely fun and rewarding in the end. Going back to her uh question uh guys like to say anything of the night of a talent show. Let's do a little story time. No, not really. But I will say there was a um last minute plan because there was a little miscommunication with it and so there was like a big conversation that was made. I was not a part of it but I was aware of it. I saw it happen
015but it was like um a plan B situation and so that was like put together the last minute and as I've said before the talent show went great >> which is so great because now you have that like that flexibility that I talked to my third graders like flexible like a palm tree, right? like we have to be able to kind of like move and groove with whatever happens and the show will always go on and it sounds like it was amazing. So it's very cool. >> I would say like all the things that we put on was like super duper fun and even then at Creek Side we have this thing that goes on every year called Summerfest. Yes. >> And even then that helps us around there. It gets so busy. There's there's
016so much going on. You're running away like everywhere around the campus. It is so just mindboggling but we were able to get it done. >> Oh that's fantastic. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Before you scurry away one more time, we're going to have you come up here for a picture, then you can go sit down. So, everybody can just come right up here and we'll get a picture. >> Um I also wanted to just recognize um Andrea and Kelly that are here with the CARES Foundation um and their support students throughout the year with the programming. You're fine. Thank you guys. All right, we have one more presentation this evening. Um we have um representatives from Portland State um who partner with have been partnering with Mezer for the last few years um facilitating a program
017for mentor mentoring teachers and they get to actually work in the classroom with students over the summer. So, they're going to come up and talk about their program in partnership. Good evening. It's really hard to follow the work of wonderful students, but yet here we are. So, we'll make this brief. I'm Julie Esparza Brown from Portland State University and my colleague Amanda Sanford, Portland State and of course you know our wonderful uh principal at Mezer, Jessica Swindle that we've worked with for many years. Um we would love to just follow up. I think uh my colleagues presented last year on some work at Mezer in the summer um and we came back stronger than ever last year. So next slide please. Um, so here's pictures of the fund that we had this summer at Mezer.
018Um, serving about 94 uh of your K5 students in reading. Next slide, please. Uh, here's the wonderful uh toolin uh tiger toolin team that worked with us. I'm sure you'll recognize many of the faces. And the next slide, please. Here's the project staff from Portland State. uh Amanda, myself and our colleague Dr. Lman and Dr. Shaheen Manir McKill that were also there on site in the summer as well as Dr. Pinkby. Um so next slide together we have partnered with TTSD since 2016 uh when we received a model demonstration grant for developing an MTSS framework uh for multilingual learners. And this was just one of three grants that were funded across the nation. So we were really fortunate to have received that and then to partner with uh Mezer and Bridgeport and Dwatin Elementary uh
019in that first uh four years. Since then um we have received more OEP funding uh for teacher preparation grants and through that we've continued to partner at Mezer uh and that's how we came to the summer tutoring experience uh and uh we really are focused on that high dosage reading tutoring for students as well as uh preparing or or offering our own graduate pre-ervice teachers amazing amazing opportunities for handson working with students um as they're working through their lensure program. Next slide, please. So, here's some of our wonderful accomplishments. I hope you'll think they're wonderful. We were able to offer PD and model best practices for our future teachers uh through video self-reflections and we were all on site really mentoring over the summer. um TTSD staff partnered to create PVD videos uh through since
0202016. And these videos we offer on a a website projected.org that's been vetted by um the US government. Uh, and the videos are free and they're used nationally and they're of your teachers in your classrooms doing amazing work and we've gotten wonderful feedback uh from uh colleagues across the country. Uh we're so proud this year that Jessica Swindle was awarded our PSU College of Education Community Partner Award uh for the wonderful work that she's done for years with us. uh and our um our graduates in this partnership to a few of them were our graduate speakers at Portland State University. And then of course our uh latest doctoral candidate that graduated over the summer now Dr. Jezebel Santenno who um through this project was doing systems level work on disproportionality. So there's many ways in
021which you know we've uh partnered with you all. We're really proud of the work. Next slide, please. Again, graduation and some of our candidates that work with you this summer with your students. Next slide. Uh, so central to the work that we've been doing since 2016 is to train students in the use of a framework that Dr. Stanford and a former student and I created back in 2012 that's called the plus framework and you can read for yourself what stands for. These acronyms are really it's a it's a framework of researched based practices for best practices for both teaching multilingual learners. Um and and we then instruct our students to use these practices as an overlay for both instruction in gened as well as intervention programs to ensure that multilingual learners have that language understanding
022that they need and the background uh knowledge to build on and to really learn from content. um and through systematic explicit instruction and also making sure that there's room for native language teaching for transfer and cultural opportunities. So this is the framework that we um teach our students and they've they are in use in your schools and that's a model that we used in the summer as well. Next slide please. Um so the summer practicum over time you can look at it yourself how it's really grown. We started a pilot in year one at Twality Middle School uh during the extended school year with students that were on IEPs and now up to year five uh year four where we um served 94 of your students. It was a wonderful experience and next year we
023hope to scale up and sustain the program and I will turn it over. Next slide please. So, as Julie said, we um served more students than ever and we did not increase costs at all and um we actually we'll see how it all breaks down in the end, but I think we spent less than we did the year prior and um serve so we are serving kiddos from CTF, Mezer, Durham, and Templeton. The kinder programs here, and we'll talk about funding in a little bit, it's um including Templeton and Mezer. Those are not the only schools that had kinder jump start programs, but they are the only ones that serve for two full weeks, which is the optimum model that we want to continue. Um, and again, you know, we did not change anything about
024the service to students. They still got that high dosage tutoring, still got the kinder jump start experience, did not increase costs, and jumped up to 94 students this round, which we were really proud of. Next slide, please. So, the high dosage tutoring, you all are familiar with this, but that's evidence-based reading intervention, 30 minutes at a time. Um, I think we we've been here a few times in front of you all, so you get the picture that these are um educational candidates getting their special educators license, but they're getting all of the on-site coaching from the professionals at Portland State University, as well as our own lit specialists and our coaches and our special education team. It's a it's a pretty incredible experience to watch and we do hope uh to be able to go
025through the same route and do this again and we would invite you all out. Um even if you come on site for a half an hour you'll see what's happening and the individualized attention that the students are getting. Um you can you can read the slide there in terms of who all was served and we had um great attendance this year as well. Next slide please. Um, so the Portland State candidates that that we um have seen, you can see all the numbers there and you can see the crew that goes into this. I think something that's worth noting is that just like our schools, any child that we can get in the door for kindergarten jumpstart. Um, they may have a wide variety of needs, they might be new to us, so we're really
026learning about their needs on the fly. Our team fully wraps around them. Um, and we see growth in those first two weeks of getting kids from maybe just stepping foot into the classroom to fully participating with their peers in that short amount of time. Anything else that you guys would add? >> Okay, next slide, please. >> Sorry, one more. Here we go. We wanted to give a shout out to Dr. McCall. Scoot back. There we go. Hey, um, the OD summer learning grant, she helped us to, um, I'll use the word persistent. we were very persistent and would not go away and got some money that might not have been um selected for us in the beginning, but we we got out there and I just really appreciate it because without that effort and the
027additional phone calls and the work and the communication, we would not have made this program happen. It it is literally the only way that it would happen. So, um we just want to say thank you so much and we hope to do the same thing this summer. Next slide, please. So, I just want to let you know how important this is for teacher candidate training. Really, it provides a foundation for them. They're learning about just instruct the arrival and dismissal routines, how to support students um who are multilingual learners and with IEPs, how they organize their materials, take data, teach effectively. So, it is a very powerful learning experience um for these teacher candidates. Next slide. and we see growth for the students that they're working with. Um we saw growth in both their phmic
028awareness and their letter sound correspondence. Um that was I mean really this literally was one week um from the first day that we took the first data point to the next day and they were growing at or above the rate that we would expect um during the school year. Next slide. Um this was kind of a plug. We made the front page of the Oregonian and um uh OPD came out and did a piece um where the title is the anigered summer program even the teachers are learning um really really powerful experience and the teacher candidates this is some of our research data 100% of them agreed the training strengthened their understanding and prepared them to more effectively teach. Next slide. Um, I'm just going to make these available for you to read, but students
029felt like this was an amazing first experience. They got real-time feedback on the spot. Very, very powerful and prepared them for being in their own classrooms. It really is an invaluable experience. Next slide. Um, more in terms of and I think this is a link to the OPB article. Um, just the feedback that they gave in terms of what they learned. Next slide. And we just wanted to kind of always tie back into our strategic plan around hiring and retention. Special education is a very challenging field. It's very rewarding. It's some of the most important work that we do. But our goal in this partnership is to always recruit and establish a strong relationship with the strongest candidates coming into the field and hopefully helping them to really explore and learn more about where best
030they want to serve. Whether that's elementary, middle, high. We try hard to open all those doors for them, specializations, whatever that may be, and make connections. Um it's an ongoing um mission or challenge I should say, uh to to fully staff in special education. And so this is really really critical work in that summer program is it it really is a hiring pipeline for us that we want to continue to foster. Next slide. So we we just wanted to end by saying thank you all so much. I know that we took a lot of time for good news, but we're really proud of this program. And I think um just dreaming about it and expanding in a time when um our dollars are more limited than ever felt like a huge accomplishment. We just want
031to say thank you to everyone involved. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Comments, questions from board members. Julie, I like how in that picture you're wearing the packs thing, you know. Thank you for Thank you for buying into that as well. Um, no, I mean, I remember this program from when I was at Bridgeport. It was amazing and it just keeps getting even better. And um, all the work that you guys do to um, further along are, you know, teacher candidates and um, the the kids that are coming be behind us, right? um the the young ones that are wanting or need to see somebody in the profession that um is enjoying what they're doing and will then get uh pushed into into teaching. We need we need more teachers. So definitely it's
032it's great and it's also great that it's it has grown, right? it has spread from me and Bridgeport to everybody else because um this this framework really does work for our English language learners and our students on IP. So it's uh it's an amazing thing. So I appreciate it. Thank you so much, >> Director Mah. >> Thank you. It's amazing to see as directors was just saying like how the program has grown. I love to see the exact numbers. you know, we started from here, we moved to here and then just the the information you showed about um the growth that students, you know, the the findings and then also the findings for for teachers, what they are reporting as well. So, just that those measurable pieces too. Um and then thank you for mentioning
033the alignment to the strategic plan as well. um this is something that we like to keep in mind as the board and that just this just really hits those domains of like talent and student achievement with equity at the center. So really appreciate you um aligning this work with that as well. So thank you for bringing this back and continuing that work. >> Thank you Director Weston. >> I just wanted to thank you um really important work and um I appreciate the efforts to bring in the grant and to put everything together. Um, I just wish all of our students could have um access to reading instruction over the summer who needed it. So, I'm um I'm it feels a little bit bittersweet to me because I know the need is so large. Um, but
034I'm really happy that the kids that were able to participate had that opportunity. Um, and also for learning for everyone. So, thank you so much. >> And I can really just again plus one everything my colleagues have said. I think we are so lucky and I it's one of those things you don't know because we're lucky to have it but such a robust program like this and because it's it's lucky for those the students that are incoming wanting to be teachers. It's lucky for the students that get that energy and get these people that are really excited to be doing that work. I love like what director Miles said that focus to the strategic plan and our ML student like that focus and I think the other thing that you it was sort of mentioned
035but I think we still are having particularly all of our little COVID cohorts we have a lot of kids that didn't come in with their EICES and so to have an opportunity for some of those pieces to be seen when they're coming in for the kinders or coming in for the to kind of put together some of those maybe missing pieces I think is really powerful um because then we do get to have you know our all of the best interventions or supports or you know enhancements whatever it may be for those students as early as we possibly can and that's also really powerful work. So thank you so much >> and I just want to say thank you to our partners at PSU and then also give big praise to Principal Swindle. um she's
036a fierce advocate and um the first the first one of my first days here on the job what she did is she gave me a tour of the plus program and made me a believer automatically. So and so I'm all in on that program and it's been really great to see the growth in the program as well that 94 to I think 133 that's just that's good work. So just thank you and keep up the good work. >> Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. All right, we have one more recognition and good news. >> Just really quick, um, in preparation for Veterans Day next week, we always want to take a moment to recognize um, our PTSD veterans and veterans within our, um, community. And so you um, I think in the consent agenda
037um, you have um a list of the names and then we have a list of names in the slide deck tonight. And so we have some um new staff as well um this year, Isaac uh Denzo and Eric Enzenberger at Tality. Um and so just in recognition of our staff and um veterans in our community, we just thank them for their service and for their continued service within um our community. So that's it. >> Thank you. I think we've said this in the past, but to sort of go from a kind of being of service in um the armed forces and then sort of switching gears and then being of service to students and their school communities is really sort of just a a double double whammy of like I'm here for service. And I
038think it's really spectacular to have so many folks in our district in our midst that have really taken that idea of service and community um to heart in such a deep way and really kind of dedicate whether it's in the armed forces or in PTSD their life's work to being of service I think is really powerful. >> Yeah, we reach out to staff every year. They're always very grateful that we're recognizing them. So thank you. >> Thank you so much. With that we will move to our student representative reports. Moss or Wagle or Wagle or Ryland. Um well this Friday uh football varsity football will start their playoff season against Jesuit and I couldn't grab the uh location for it but uh girls soccer made it to the second round of playoffs. They're going to
039be playing tomorrow against uh Grant High School. And then uh I've also been hearing from ASB that we've had some things fall into the suggestion box that students are feeling hungry still after having their first round of lunch. They've asked for some sort of like way to feel less hungry, more like things to eat, maybe like a snack bar. >> Is that because the time of the lunch? Uh, it could be, but they're getting their first round of lunch and then they will either try to pay for the second round or they will >> Oh, the first go pass through. Thank you. >> Yeah, first run through their lunch and then they will either pay for the second round or ask another student to go get some for them. >> Hello. Hi. Um, so in
040terms of of our thespians over at Tiger, they made a uh over $1,000 with their haunted house fundraiser that happens last week in the prior week. Um and then they also have the Merry Wives of Windsor play um that starts this Thursday and school ends I believe in like three weeks. Um and then in terms of sports, our cross country um girls team and then Paul Kanu, I believe is how you pronounce his last name, qualified for state. Um Paul is also our third time district champion with 15 minutes and 23 seconds. And then also this weekend over at Tiger Art in the Berb that's gonna be hosted. Um it's the annual art show that's put on by the foundation and approximately 20% of sales will be donated to TTSD. >> Thank you so much.
041All right. And now we are at superintendent and board reports. >> Thank you so much. I want to just start by saying that um last Friday or Thursday, it was Thursday, attended the the Talon versus Tiger football game. And you know, I love being out at any event where there's community and students and parents. Um, so it's kind of the trifecta to have both schools there as well. But one of my favorite parts of this is in like whatever whether I'm at the parade or whether I'm at the game is bumping into our student representatives and they are awesome and I'm like how much stuff do you all do? I see Moss out there taking pictures. I saw Ryland out there on the field and it was just really cool to see how involved you
042are and um and the pride that you have in doing the work and then just the energy that you bring to the those programs. So, thank you for all you do for that and I always love bumping into you all. Um I have a couple things I want to speak about today. I want to talk about um food insecurity. I know it's on a lot of people's minds and then I um want to speak about uh our budget situation. It's something that's been coming up often and it's there's always twists and turns and so I want to talk about the budget and also focus on on the PERS component and how that's impacting us. Um and then finally I just want to um uh talk about intercom and and some of the good work happening
043at both of our high schools with that mentor group. So to that end let's start with uh at the top with um food insecurity. So, um, if anyone's reading the headlines or or staying up to speed on what's happening with the government shutdown, one of the the big issues that are impacting our community and our families is that SNAP benefits have been interrupted starting on November 1st. Um, for those who don't know, SNAP benefits is supplemental nutrition assistance program. uh one in six Oregonians depend on on some form of SNAP benefits to make sure that they keep their covers full and are able to feed their families. And so we know that that's going to have a major impact on our community and we're bracing for it. Um last week I spoke with our acting
044city manager in Tiger to see how we can um partner up to ensure that we have a joint effort to ensure that families aren't going going hungry. And we also work are working closely with Margie Green at packed with Pride to ensure that we are doing everything we can to make sure that our families know what the resources are that are available. So we've updated our websites um so that uh families are able to see every food resource whether it's a a local sitebased food pantry or a community resource like Pack with Pride that has um resources available in schedules and dates. So, go on our website. Those are updated. I think um if you're on our um parent squared, there was a message that went out right around 6:30 that we probably all got
045buzzed on. So, we're doing everything we can to raise awareness because as we head into the holidays, we know our families are going to be impacted and we want to make sure that our families don't go hungry, especially if there's resources around. And u we want our community to know that we are um that we're there for them. So, uh, we'll keep, uh, folks updated. And I also want to make sure that folks know that we still have, uh, free breakfast. There's some poltergeist thing going on with the lights right now. I apologize if people are wondering online that we got it squared away. Um, we still, one of some of the things that we're working on is we still have uh, free breakfast and lunch for all. So, uh, that's a space that where
046students can make sure that they're getting fed. And then we're working on a concerted effort with the food drive that just ended to ensure that it gets into schools and the the hands of families that need it. So more to come on that. Last thing I want to say just as the impact on our community, uh Margie Green noted that uh at Packed with Pride last Thursday, whereas they normally have about 90ish families that are take advantage of that that program, they had about 133 patrons last week. So that's up by nearly a third. So it's it's definitely having an impact on our community. Again, we'll we'll keep you updated on that. Now, on to our financial updates. Um our chief financial officer, Jessica C, is going to have a more robust and detailed financial
047update for you all next board meeting. But for today, what I wanted to do is return to um return to the uh the issues that have been coming up around the state uh maybe not having enough funds and having to do a freeze mid year or even reductions midyear. And so here's what I want you to know and here's some concepts for just um the general public and the board to be aware of. So, um, this was pretty concerning news given that in the last June we, uh, the the legislature passed an 11.4 billion or 11.36 billion, um, state school fund or education school fund. That's the largest that we've ever had. So, a lot of you might be wondering, how could we have just had this record amount of money allocated towards towards schools
048and we're still in financial peril? what's going on here. And there's three issues that I just want to make sure that everybody's aware of. One is the financial health of our state isn't as strong as we thought it was. And that's important because our schools rely on the state economy to fund the schools. And so if it's not as strong as it was projected, then we're going to have less money for schools. So that's number one. Number two is uh kind of a hard one to wrap our minds around, but it's this concept of retirement and PERS. Every dollar that we have, a little portion of that goes to paying for our retirees. And um I'm going to focus a little bit more on that so people understand what the true impact of that is.
049And then finally, just rising wages. Um we know there's been a lot of inflation and to try to keep up with inflation, we're we've been um having more come out of payroll. Some of that is with the steps that we have. Some of that is with um some our our colas, our cost of living. But um even with the the inflation, the issue is that our state school fund isn't keeping up with that. Right? So uh those three things conflated are leading to us having um being in a financial bind. And the important thing for everyone to know is that we're still working diligently to weather the storm without um cutting programs without uh with having a minimal impact in the classroom, but it's hard to do. So, uh let me talk just a little
050bit about PERS. So, there's several factors that that play into the public employee retirement system that are impacting our budget. And the first is that the PERS relies on an index and the performance and the valuation of that index it fluctuates. And then we also have an E- rate and that E- rate is adjusted. That's the employee contribution rate that's adjusted um every couple of years. And then we have rising wages which impact our E rate. Right? So when um we put all of those three things together and you take inflation into account, if the amount that we need to pay for PERS uh is out and also the inflation is outpacing what the general um fund that the state has for for our uh school district. Then what we have is more money going
051towards paying towards our retirees. That means more if you look at the dollar as a little pie chart more of that dollar that pie chart is going towards having to pay for what we call pers service debt. Okay. So if that's the case then that's less funding that we have for schools and then we have to make some hard decisions to ensure that we're a able to pay for that service debt but we're also still able to have classrooms be at a certain size and have programming and have days on our calendar. So those things are just creating a lot of pressure and it's competing values. Now what we're trying to do is be really thrifty um by looking at uh what our priorities are doing academic return on investments and um and being really
052thoughtful about the way that we're spending money. But the unpredictability of that PERS funding or sometimes the predictability that it's going to be be an increased cost to our school district is something that we're going to continue to keep an eye on. So, here's what you need to know. There's a couple of key dates. One's in mid November. We're going to get an update from the state on our state school fund and if we're going to have midyear freezes or reductions. That's going to be in the next couple of weeks. And then we learn a little bit more about our PERS contributions in December. And we get PERS news in December. And that gives us a clearer picture on if we are um going to be on leaner times or if there's uh going to
053be on or if we're going to um uh have hard decisions to make when it comes to our finances. But right now, we're not pushing a panic button or anything. We just want the district to know and um the community to know what factors are kind of ringing these alarm bells right now. So, um, we're going to keep you updated as soon as we find out more information, but I just wanted to make sure that folks at home and folks in the board understood, uh, the general concepts of why PERS is so tricky for us right now. Okay. And then the last thing, um, I always like to end on a positive note. There we go. Thanks a lot, Thor. So, uh, last week I got to make an impromptu visit to the intercomio class.
054And so this is the Tiger um high school intercom class led by Chris Thompson who is an outstanding uh instructor and mentor to our students. For those of you who don't know the intercomio program started about 15 years ago maybe even longer than that like in the the mid 2000s 2005 2008 and this was before we became an AVID district. So what it was is it was a program that was designed to help bridge uh the racialized opportunity gap for students. It taught everything from study skills to how to problem solve um leadership planning, event planning, and importantly how to mentor others. And so the intercomio class still serves as a critical mentorship program. in a bridge program where we have our high school students that uh help our uh eighth grade transitioning to ninth
055grade students um learn important skills to be successful in school. Uh I think it is the cornerstone of what we stand for when we talk about um every student counting and when we talk about uh building character as well as academic scholars. When I went into Mr. Thompson's class. Every single student shook shook shakes your hand, introduces themselves, looks you in the eye, and are tr truly interested in you being in their space and welcoming you there. And then I had an outstanding student that I worked with, and we had a little um icebreaker, which was also a team building activity where you had we were like had to explain what we were drawing, but weren't able to actual look look at a drawing. Anyhow, we did f we did outstanding. And that's the way
056that they test out games that they might do with their mentees. So they're skill building games and programs that they do and they test things out and they give feedback in real time. So u if board members ever have a chance, I strongly encourage that you go and visit the intercom program. Chris Thompson does an outstanding job as well as Chris Llewellyn over at Dwalton High School. And the kids are just amazing and I'm proud that they're part of our district. That's it for my report. >> That's great. Thank you so much. Board updates. Dr. Heis. >> Um, thank you Dr. Rudo for mentioning the uh financial um I guess the situation that yeah that we find ourselves in. I think what uh you know I want to highlight is the fact that you know
057if you think we're in this situation again you know the Oregon economy or the way that Oregon funds schools right it's every two years it's a bianium so we have to be in this situation every two years but this year the the um trickier aspect is that the Oregon economy is uh not doing so well right so it's uh it's not something that um each school district is creating because of mismanagement of funds is the fact that we're seeing it from the state of Oregon and this possible midyear cuts at OD that could potentially happen or might not be happening. You know, all those things signal a something that we haven't seen since 2008 when it was the the recession that happened, right? And so that's um both something that could potentially be scary, but
058we just got to brace ourselves for uh for that, right? And uh you know, talking to the legislature and really making sure that you're advocating and and helping us uh advocate for u school, you know, proper school funding is going to be something that is going to be needed. Um, second, I want to congratulate Dr. um, Jesselle Centenno for getting her her doctor that we just saw. You know, just working with her, such an amazing uh, individual and, you know, with, you know, it's it's it's a well-deserved accomplishment. So, congratulations to her. I also attended the uh the football game and it was great um you know walking both sides and seeing twin folks that I had um been with before and tired folks um and unfortunately I saw some of my former students and
059you know they're like wow he's getting old and I'm like yeah yeah that happens. So so that was great. Um, I also want to thank you guys for all the communication that you're putting out about the uh ways to access food. Um, you know, and and the emails that that have gone out and um and the communication on social media for where our our families can access food. Um and then how you know we've seen that there's been an increase in immigration activity uh in our community in our neighboring communities. So thank you for putting out that communication towards the beginning of the year of how we're going to ensure that our students are safe. And I know that, you know, there's been people that have been uh picked up in our area already that
060could affect some of our students. So, as educators, we just need to keep in mind that that it's stressful and um as as community members, we need to ensure that um you know, when we're when we're having meetings or when we're we're doing these things that um you we're not sharing a lot of the details of the meetings or if you guys keep um a version or um a way to log in virtually is what I'm trying to say. Um, so that we're protecting our our communities that are most vulnerable. Um, that that's amazing. And then I wanted to go back to what Rayland was saying about the student food because he came up to me and was talking to me about it. And I just want to make sure like if we're thinking about
061maybe doing a survey of some sort of like um our our and I don't know if we can do anything about portion sizes or if there's a sharing table or if there's a way to make sure we're stocking the um the salad bar. I don't know. At elementary it's like you can go to the salad bar unlimited times but you only get one entree, right? So it's like is are we doing something like that or or are we having u any of the of the snacks or whatever easily accessible for for students. So you know just something like that to to bring awareness um to to that problem too. So I know if you from what he was telling me if you go one time you know it's free but if you want to go
062another time then that's when you have to pay. So, how do we how do we go about doing that? Anyway, that's all I got. >> Thank you so much, Dustin. >> Thank you. Um, wanted to say a few words about the conversations happening across the country around race and national origin. I think sometimes we um as leaders if we don't say anything it implies maybe it's acceptable. And I think there's been a lot of discourse that's edgy and provocative and people think maybe it's funny and maybe it's okay. Um, it makes me think a long time ago I read an article about the uh 1994 genocide in Rwanda. And one of the things that came out of it was if only people had just jammed the radio because during the genocide people were talking about
063cockroaches and how um, you know, they're not really humans, they're cockroaches. And I think what we're seeing across America is that kind of dehumanizing language. I think sometimes it's important to just say like it's not okay. I don't want to hear anything provocative or edgy. Um, I want to hear things that are honorable and to show solidarity with others. Um, and not to have dehumanizing language. And so, I just wanted to push back against that because I think that's an example that's being set for our youth. And, and I don't like it. Um, and I think it's important to um, set what our expectations are. And right now with cuts to food aid, people of all backgrounds are going to be hungry. And so it's an important time to care about each other. Remember that
064we're all human beings. Um we're we can all be hungry and um we all have the same needs. We all care about our families. And so I think that's really important to remember and that um when other people are trying to set this example, we don't have to follow it. We can have honor and integrity and speak the way we want to and not follow these kind of examples. Um, and finally, I just want to wish everyone um a great Veterans Day and um thank our veterans for their service. Director Miles, um thank you. Uh I don't have a ton to report. I just want to um I want to appreciate our superintendent for giving us a really uh clear vision of what we're looking at as far as um financial picture um and also
065what we're doing in the district to address uh food insecurity for our families and students. Um it is heartbreaking to know that um members of our community and our students um are are facing hunger as um as staff benefits are being cut and to know that our district has um ways of trying to address that to the extent that we can and I also appreciate director said that said this but um the um the communication that's being sent out uh to inform families about where they can get support and how uh we are trying to to help with that where we can and appreciating the suggestion from students about like is there a way we can do additional or um and even just getting the report about what students needs are and what they're asking
066for that is that's important. Um, and then also one of the things that I think that um that our our staff does really well and I and I think it's important for the community to know is that all all through the year we get really comprehensive financial updates and um and when things are shifting and moving at the state level like they are right now. Um I know and I think that um it's it's really good for our community to hear what we are looking at what we get from our our CFO and from our superintendent. We get these these reports throughout the year. We get talked through these things really comprehensively as we go. It is not just at budget season that we hear these updates. And so I would invite the community to
067tune into our meetings, to come to our meetings, to listen to these things because as decisions are made, um, we get a lot of information as we go and it's really important to learn about like how we're funded, how things change, and why we make the decisions that we do sometimes mid year, sometimes at the end of the year. And so, um, it will be really important to see what the state has to say in November and then as we go. and um and it's great to um be um on the board for a district that has such great um financial staff that keeps us informed all along the way. So, yes, it is a nerve-wracking time with respect to um finances in Oregon and um and thank you for keeping us updated and walking
068us through PERS. >> All right. I don't have a lot to add. Um it's interesting. I I will say what's because in my own sort of educational world that's also separate from PTSD, it's in times that are really hard and dark that you see true community kind of happen. And it's un it's one of those I don't really want that to happen because that means that there's some really unfortunate, hard, awful things happening. and the list of that we put put together because we have a lot of kiddos in the Portland metro area just and there are a lot here that are just opening doors like all these restaurants, all of these um besides the food pantries, the farmers markets, all of the different people that are really wrapping around their respective communities um to
069kind of lock arms with each other and make sure that as communities we are taking care of one another even when maybe some of the the bigger thing places and people that should be taking care of us aren't. Um so that's always um sort of like a tragically beautiful thing to see. Um and I appreciate all of the the individuals and the businesses and the services that are um working extra hard right now to make sure that they are locking arms with our community members. The only other two things I'm excited for the OSBA annual conference. Director Miles is gonna be tired. Um but excited to be there. that is upcoming this um Friday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Um and then just a quick update, I'm part of that OD task force looking at um Senate
070Bill 141 and sort of the metrics conversation. And just a quick update, there was a pretty robust conversation around the use of post-secondary enrollment versus a readiness metric. So, um, this is going to be kind of jumbled sounding, but, um, for maybe some folks that aren't familiar with kind of these metrics and how we measure if we are being successful, um, but sort of the reliance on OSAs versus other assessment tools, the importance of multilingual testing options, the number of high school versus elementary grade metrics, um, and then how metrics and outcomes can be linked to socioeconomic status, particularly for post-secary enrollment. Um, and really with all of that, the challenges of data review and privacy, particularly when you're in a smaller district. So, those are some of the pieces that are coming out of
071that task force conversation. And we continue to urge the process to slow down to the point of when can we talk to legislators about yes, it's in statute, this has to be done, but at what point can we pause this and and take a little bit more time because there is a lot of work still left to be done. Um, so I will continue to keep you guys updated on that. And that is all I have. Um we did have just for community um and board notice we did have one written public comment so that is in there and then I did have one person signed up is Josh Kates here. All right. Um so with that we'll move on to our first reports and discussion which is the enrollment and district transfer report with
072Dr. McCau. Okay, good evening uh Vice Chair Irving, other board members, student lives, Dr. Udo, and tonight uh I have with me just want to make sure you have the slides through I can send them. Uh tonight I have with me Lisa Burton who is our community relations manager and Emma Reid who is also in uh community relations as well as in our transfer office. Okay. So, what we're going to share tonight is give you some highlights on our current enrollment as well as uh highlights from our transfers and that includes our in district transfers as well as our interd district transfers. And so as you see on this slide, um as of uh October 13th, uh our total enrollment was 10,733 students. That is a slight decrease compared to the fall, probably around 116
073less students uh that we had at the beginning of the school year. And um as well as some um highlights from our elementary enrollment, which is about 4,62 students. Middle school a little bit over 2,500, high school um 3,609. And our uh as of uh today, our total district enrollment is 10,723 students. That does not include our charter schools, our life works, our transition programs and uh our prek students. So next slide is you look at gives a highlight of our inter district transfer. This is a summary for uh currently as well as last year. Uh you see here uh the incoming students those are the students that are um get approved on a transfer coming in to our district. So last year the total uh we had 53 students coming in from other surrounding
074districts uh and this year 56 of those students. So for the outgoing students, those are um students who are live in TTSD boundaries. They uh some of them have never attended our school and some of them currently and through um requesting a transfer uh by hardship uh we saw last year it actually went down. So um in 202425 we had a total of 59 students transferred to other surrounding districts and currently this year and uh there's 39 to date and that includes you'll see the breakdown of siblings uh as well as um uh any new students that uh we have but who never attended. Okay, next slide. >> Yeah, and we did have a lottery last year, so that's why the number was a bit higher for the interd district transfers. Um, so in district
075transfers, um, this is just a bas a snapshot of that information, but you can go to the full detailed report in the link to see, um, transfers by school and then where those students are coming from to those schools. Um it's kind of interesting to see um but over the years as our enrollment enrollment has gone down it's you know um gone up a little bit but that's just in district between schools. Next slide. Oh and I just want to thank Emma for all of the work around um the transfer process. She manages that throughout the year and um you know it's a lot of work working with the schools and and so thank her. and then she's going to talk a little bit about our um virtual um transfers. So, as you can see
076based on the calculation uh calculated data, we have now reached our 3% capacity in regards to resident TTSD families attending uh OD approved virtual charter schools. As you can see, that percentage has slowly increased over the school years and we have actually um surpassed that 3% slightly. Um once these calculations were made, we looked into the process of how to notify families that we have um indeed reached that capacity and that we would no longer be able to release them. Um as we were doing this research, we had found per OD, we can only deny these families these releases if we could provide them with at least two virtual options within the district for both primary and secondary levels. As we only have one virtual academy at the high school level, we will continue to
077be releasing these families to the OD approved uh virtual charter schools as we cannot offer enough alternatives. Um a breakdown of the enrollment numbers for each charter school is linked on that slide um as well going back to starting in 2023 to currently um receiving the rosters for the rest of October. Next slide, please. Any questions, comments? >> Director Weston, >> sorry. Could you talk a little bit more about the concept or um the requirement of having a charter school an online option before releasing? Is that a mandate? Yeah, it actually is in the guidance from OD that in order for us to deny um student transfers, we have to be able to provide um more than at least two options. Yeah. For virtual school. And so if a family were to apply at the
078elementary level, we don't have a virtual option for elementary. At the secondary level, we just have the virtual academy option. And you have to have at least two. And that's not based on any characteristic or need in particular of that child. >> No, the OD guidelines don't speak to that >> and that's just something that we're going to continue to look into as well. Um I know that Dr. McCall has had conversations with OD in the last couple of weeks just to get clarity because um because um the rule it is it is clear and that you need to have the two options but it seems like that there's um we we're still searching for some clarity and to what extent um those options need to be made K12. >> Yes. And so I've been
079looking into what other districts also offer. Some of them have um partnered with other uh online charters as well as providing some asynchronous coursework tied to a core teacher. So that work will continue and see what we can provide um options uh because we don't have an um online for our K through uh eight students. Any other questions, Dr. Miles? >> My understanding is that it doesn't even need to be the district's own virtual option. It can be another district's virtual option and there's some flexibility as to what that means, right? And so, Dr. Warhol, you were just talking about like what other districts have done as far as what program that may look like. And so there is some flexibility there. >> There's some statewide programs. I know like Baker for instance is one
080that stands out to most most folks and amongst others, right? And so again, um this is I want to say it's a technicality, but it's something that we need to to make sure that we understand thoroughly and then importantly give our students every option that they that they that are in our boundaries that they need. I just want to add that I think it's peculiar um that there's so many different things parents might ask for and that this must be provided. Um it's interesting. Um and I could see if there was some extenduating circumstance where the family really needed that. But for it to be um a required option is a strange priority in my view. But >> maybe there's some reason I'm missing. >> It's just one of our uh it's a uh our
081Oregon Department of Education requirements that every district has to provide at least the two options when they exceed that uh threshold. All right, that's it. Thank you so much for the update. And next we have some board policy first reads with director read All right. And I'm looking for my tab. So, just give me a second here. All right, good evening everyone. Uh we have a few um board policy updates um that have occurred since the last time we were together. So the first one to start us off with is BCF um which is the advisory committees to the board. uh they had did some shifts around the EEAC and so they deleted language around that because they created a whole new policy around the educational equity and advisory committee. So really that's just a
082removal of that advisory committee of the board. Is there any questions on VCF? And I'm just going to go to CA because that information that was removed went to CA which is a standalone educational equity advisory committee. So that became a new policy but they took the exact language and just had it as its standalone new policy. Any question on that? All right. Um the other one that was impacted with the shift of the EAC is policy DBEA budget committee and so it was deleting that language around the EAC. Any questions on that? Okay. Now I'm going to go back up to policy BHD which is the board member stifen and reimbursement. So, new legislation HB2753 remove the prohibition of district school board members receiving compensation and authorizing stipens. And so, we have the addition
083of that information to this policy. Are there any questions around that one? All right. and I'll keep going. Then the next um two are actually some additional clarity that um I felt it was important that we brought to two of our policies um that just really didn't call out the importance of having appropriate boundaries um with between students and staff relationships. So we adjusted GBCB staff conduct and responsibility with adding ver verbiage around boundaries and we also did that under the um suspected sexual conduct policy GB NAA um to also bring clarity. One of the things that I'd like to say is clear as kind and what we run what we run across is sometimes um we have challenges with employees on these issues and I think it's so super important that we although we
084do the vector training all do we do these pieces that we also want it clear in policy about maintaining appropriate boundaries. Any questions on that? All right, the third one there is in Spanish. And then last but not least, policy LBEA, which is denial for virtual public charter school student enrollment. So there were some changes um adopted to the OAR around this and on the process for parents to provide notice about enrolling their student in virtual public charter schools and a district response. So are there any questions around this particular policy and the changes in it? All right, with that said, that's all that I have this evening. Thank you. >> Well, that was easy. Thank you so much. Um, and because I forgot earlier, but before we get to our action items, I thought
085that since we're coming off of a time change and it's dark earlier and we need a little pickme up, um, and we haven't had them for a while, I brought some bun cakes because I thought, and there's probably, in fact, enough for literally everyone in the room to have one. So, I'm going to pass those out while we do our last two action items or pass them around. Um, and with that, I will have Director N come up for our first action item. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Urban. >> I would love to be associated with cakes. >> I think it's great. Thank you. >> Ready to Okay. Uh good evening everyone. Thank you for um making some time for us to connect about our uh next action item. Um so as you know um
086in the board update um I shared with you we got our um allocation for the student success plans unfortunately um we went uh our NHPI grant um got reduced by 75% and our Latina Latinx grant um got reduced to um 50 u by 50%. Of course, we are so grateful for the um uh supports that we were able to have and you also got to see the great work that our culturally responsive coordinators have been working on related to our welcome systems especially during times like um uh now. And so the action item that I have in front of you is a an approval to go for the immigrant and refugee grant. Um, and we are aiming to um apply for up to $200,000 um uh annually for two years. And um aligned to that
087work, we want to expand on some of the great pilots and development that the team um has been working on for our Latin students and to expand that to um our um Arabic, Ukrainian, and Somali um students as well. um and uh expanding our partnership with ERGO and GMAC, Greater Middle Eastern um center um as well as uh building upon um professional development for cultural competency um and culturally responsiveness as well as um supports for peer mentoring, building upon, as you heard from Dr. Udo, the the great work that our high school students are doing in in peer mentorship. Um so building off of those um the immigrant and refugees student success plan is aiming to um focus on those items while also um using some of those funds to pay up to one uh
088FTE which will round out or support more um staff for newcomers and recent ars. So those um that's the request. >> Oh, go ahead. Oh, I was going to make a motion, but if there's discussion. Okay. So, then I move that the Tiger Ton School District board of directors approve TTSD's application to OD's immigrant refugee student success plan grant 2628. >> We'll second. >> Motion is made by Director High and seconded by Director Weston. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, I'll move to a coral vote. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Congratulations. >> All right. And now we come to our final action item, the one that was added, and this is where we will vote on the
089matter from the um 11325 executive session. I move that the tire 12 district board of directors uh uphold the district's recommendation regarding the matter discussed in executive session on November 3rd, 2025 regarding OS 192.660 660 2B to consider the dismissal of discipline of or to hear complaints or charges brought against a public officer, employee, staff member or agent unless he requested an he or she requested an open meeting. >> Second motion is made by director and seconded by director Miles. Is there any discussion on the motion hearing? None. I we typically do these as individual votes. So I'll go one at a time. Director Miles >> I. >> Director Hi Mace >> I. >> Director Weston >> I. >> And I'm an I. All right. Thank you so much. And with that, we will adjourn
090this meeting of the TTSD school board at 7:52