001okay and here we are live so good evening everybody and welcome my name is Dan Murphy uh I am the managing director at the Broadway Rose Theater Company here in Tigard thank you thank you our studio audience and uh I just want to welcome you and for joining us here this evening for the tiger Tualatin School Board candidates forum now I'm happy to be here live at the dev fennel Auditorium where we celebrate a long history partnership between the school district and the Broadway Rose uh working together to engage young people in the Arts and bring theater to life in this community we call home so we are live streaming this event and you can catch it on ttsd's YouTube channel for those of you that want to go ahead and watch it again and
002again um it's my pleasure to be your host this evening's forum and to support engagement and leadership in our public school system now before we get started I'd like to recognize tiger Tualatin School District superintendent Dr Sue Ricky Smith thank you and our vice chair David heimes I know that our board chair is on her way Tristan Irvin so um she'll be seeking in I'm sure and uh so with that uh the only other person right now that I want to be able to recognize is Margie green who is the executive director of the foundation for the tiger Tualatin School foundation so thank you Margie that's right so tonight we'll hear from five candidates who are running for the director positions on the ttsd school board in the May 16th special election so before we
003introduce the candidates I would also like to start by introducing our student leaders that are here with me this evening these individuals are student Representatives serving on the ttsd school board this year and so representing Tigard High School is Owen Albrecht and Oishi King nag and unfortunately our Tualatin representative Nasi Lin is at a track meet so I'm sure that with the weather and the traffic he would rather be here so we will begin with each candidate introductions providing them with one minute to provide comments on why they're running for school board now following these uh introductions we will ask each candidate to answer three questions that are focused on School District governance and the last portion of tonight's Forum will be dedicated to the student voice and we will each of the students here
004uh representing the board will ask a question of our candidates each candidate will answer the same question and have equal opportunity to speak after the brief introductions candidates will have two minutes to answer each question and we have Patty and Lisa right down here in front with a yellow card and a red card when the speaker reaches one minute they will raise the yellow card but and then they'll flip it over for a 30 seconds left and then when they raise that red card it will be time to wrap it up stop or I will just thank you and so with that and once we hit that two minute Mark we'll know that we'll move on to the next candidate now I'm going to go ahead and read some of the the BIOS that they
005have provided us and then we'll go ahead and get started so running for position two Kristen miles Kristy miles was born in Salem Oregon and grew up attending Public Schools she began her career in education as a Pre-K teacher eventually moving into Administration and program oversight in Oregon's largest school district today she travels Oregon providing professional development to school boards and superintendents on collaborative governance the impact the impact boards have on Student Success and setting strategic priorities and goals Kristen is a proud mom of the seventh grader at hazelbrook middle school and has sat on ttsd community work groups The District budget committee and the health curriculum selection committee she has a master's degree in public administration and is currently finishing up an EDD program in educational leadership Kristen is passionate about providing an excellent
006education for all students by ensuring a safe and inclusive environment and meeting each student where they are and running for position four Gregory Horner Gregory lives outside of Tualatin with his wife and son he and his wife are expecting their second son in May congratulations he moved back to the Portland area nine years ago after accepting his current job as an engineer his hobbies include Home Improvement reading and listening to podcasts he has an interest in novel ideas that can be implemented to improve our civilization Gregory is running for school board director to make a different kind of school district the current School Board systems are designed to create the workplace for the 20th century however the economy is Shifting to more and more Automation in the 21st century many jobs have a potential to
007be outsourced to automation or artificial intelligence he believes schools can no longer be better than previous years they must become entirely different and also running for position four Jill sir schmeed so Jill zersmead is running for her fifth term on the TTS School Board because she's passionate about the public education and making sure students needs are met she is proud that during her tenure on the board ttsd has increased its graduation rates and expanded its high school course offerings to include more Career and Technical education courses that enable students to graduate ready for their future careers or college Jill's goals for the next four years include continuing to work to recoup pandemic learning losses and maintaining focus on rigorous academics for every single student in the district all while navigating the difficult financial situation of
008right-sizing our district in the face of decreased student enrollment now retired Jill has worked as a technical editor a writer instructor and instructional assistant and a board development specialist she has one adult child who attended and graduated from ttsd schools and Avid Gardner Jill works with the local non-profit neighbors nourishing Community to provide fresh vegetables to the 12 food pantry she also enjoys hiking kayaking and traveling now running for position five we have Wendy O'Reilly Wendy O'Reilly has always been a fighter and is very involved in her community she grew up in rural Clackamas County during her high school during her high school years at Malala Union High School she joined Church groups clubs Sports and found her love for volunteering which extended into her adult life Wendy went on to graduate from Oregon State
009University with the BS in mathematics and a minor in Psychology Wendy her husband and son live in Tualatin before anything else Wendy is a mom wife and a Christian she has beaten breast cancer volunteered as a youth sports coach throughout her son's elementary and middle school years is currently serving as treasurer for the Youth Basketball board volunteers at her son's school and is a corporate social responsibility leader at her work she listened and watched what was happening to her son's education with the actions of our government and school boards over the last decade she decided that enough is enough and it's time to join the fight against the career politicians and get back to what it could be basics Wendy says we need to make sure our children have the tools they need to ensure
010their own success and receive an education that will prepare them for life our kids are not being prepared for college if that's their choice of root it is time for parents to remind the school board they work for the parents not the other way around and we have running in position five Crystal Weston Crystal was selected to serve on the TTS School Board earlier this year in position 5 after the resignation of a previous director she grew up in Union in a union family that played by the rules and believed in education as the path to getting ahead Crystal is Latina and white and has always had a foot in both worlds with an understanding that education can deliver for everyone she attended a public university on full academic scholarship Crystal met her husband a
011Navy sealed veteran while pursuing an advanced degree at the University of Oregon they have three children currently attending tiger Tualatin schools she credits her family's hard-won success to coming from a strong Public School background and states that this has instilled in me a responsibility to safeguard such opportunities for others so there are your five candidates [Applause] and now it's time to hear from our candidates themselves we start by giving each candidate one minute to briefly add anything to your introduction and share what personal qualifications you bring to that position as the best candidate for the ttsd school board so we will start with position two Kristen miles thank you thank you for the opportunity very happy to be here tonight um all of my technical qualifications have already been stated so I'll just say that
012um as a board member and as somebody who travels the state uh teaching boards how to do their jobs I believe in good governance we know from research and from experience that a board has a measurable impact on student learning and achievement it is the board's job to collaborate with the community to collaborate with the superintendent to hear from students and to hear the voices of of those impacted by education by The District in consideration of fiscal priorities strategic priorities and I believe in equity in social emotional health and in listening to the voices of those most impacted by the priorities of the district to our students in making those big decisions and with experience in those areas and again in teaching board members how to do this all over the state and bringing those
013priorities to the job I think that I'd be the best candidate thank you okay thank you next up position four candidate Gregory Horner it thank you for having me uh as stated my name is Gregory Horner um and I'm running for the board because I'd like to provide an education for my children and I grew up in a public school education and I've noticed that uh in the decade plus since I've attended if there's been a significant shift away from academic performance and focus uh to more abstract ideas and issues that are not resulting in children learning to become adults and I'd like to address those in the school district by re-prioritizing the school's Focus so thank you great thank you and position four candidate Jill zershpeed about that um so my name is Jill
014zirschmidt and I am a current board member I think the skills that a board member needs they need to be able to listen they need to be able to listen to students and staff and also they need to then gather all of the information in order to make decisions and not be afraid to change decisions based on new information coming in and I think over the last 16 years I've proven that time and time again where I'm a lifelong learner and School Board is no different I've learned how to be a school board member on the job such that I then became a trainer of school board members um building consensus working with your fellow school board members is really important having respect for your public school board members and your Administration and the district
015are all really important skills that I think I bring to the job and finally I think a really important thing is I'm student-centered thank you position five candidate Wendy O'Reilly I um forgive me if I get tongue-tied I'm extremely nervous and scared to do this um the reason why I got into this fight is I've just been very concerned with the requirements of our students going down and I know that's not necessarily ttsd but it's the state of Oregon but there's no reason that ttsd can't make that change and go to the state and be an example instead of just following suit um I was very disappointed to find out things such as you know the only class required four years in school was English that's just as a huge disservice to our children I
016don't feel they're being prepared for that Global stage for example when I go to work I can't redo a project redo assignment miss a deadline I do taxes for a living and it would be detrimental to my job to miss a deadline I've watched the kids my son his friends they don't have the respect for those deadlines they don't have the respect in their work because they know they can redo it all the time I think that's a TTD ttsd issue and I really want to get it done time um and position five candidate Crystal Weston thank you so much and thank you for everyone being here tonight I'm Crystal Weston running for position five I'll start with my qualifications I have extensive experience working with the community and government roles with budgets and policies
017and I have a master's degree in public administration and also an undergraduate degree in Psychology now why am I running I'm well aware of the challenges we're facing right now students Miss time in the classroom Milestones were missed and they're hard to make up the pandemic years have also laid bare the larger challenges of our society our kids have watched us use their schools to debate about our issues some of our young people have had to navigate these things and they've had to speak up when Justice would have allowed them to be silent they've made sacrifices and we owe it to them to make this generation a whole instead of going forward from this hardship with a fully funded state budget we're coming at this at a deficit but I'm still here to do the
018very best we can to Advocate and to deliver with our full due diligence time thank you so thank you candidates and now we're going to transition to the official questions now a reminder each candidate for these will have two minutes to answer the question and with that 30 second warning towards those two minutes and we're going to shake it up so each one of you will be starting with the first question and then you'll have um and then the other questions you'll get a chance to hear what everybody else says when we shifted to number five so question one and we're going to start with you um for candidate Gregory Horner and the question is the district is currently wrapping up its Community engagement process focused on budget planning for the new biennium how have
019you engaged in the district or your school's budget process and what do you believe is the biggest funding challenge facing schools yeah so for the uh the budget of the school I mean I've actually read through it um and what I see is that there's a lot of money allocated for things that are not directly related to the Student Success in classroom and it's a concern that when you have an institution like a public school district that doesn't have any Market you know constraints that it's it's easy for the incentives to become misaligned and what needs to happen is the incentives in the school budget interview realigns the student focused so that the result driven and you know as an antidote I have uh you know I've had teachers that I've known who you know
020they left the teaching Workforce to become an administrator because they wanted the increased income and that's an unfortunate paradigm shift that somebody is going to want more for their life and they're going to have to leave the profession that has a significant impact and it happens slowly but it does occur and it's something that should be uh reevaluated we we need to put teachers as a center of our financial effort because those teachers have the impact on the students directly and that's really where the money should be spent um in a direct manner so thank you hey thank you so um Jill same question would you mind repeating it yeah you betcha the district is currently wrapping up its Community engagement process focused on budget planning for the new biennium how have you engaged in
021the district or your school's budget process and what do you believe is the biggest funding challenge facing schools so I've been no surprises I've been really involved in the budget process as a board member I've been to all of the budget Community meetings um and before that we had meetings to discuss what was going well in the district and what wasn't excuse me and so um yeah my level of commitment to the district and its budget processes is indisputable the biggest hurdle we're facing um from a financial standpoint is probably the fact that the state government currently believes that a 9.9 billion dollar budget for the biennium is a current service level budget and it's not for Tiger Tualatin that 9.9 billion budget represents roughly a 5 million dollar cut each year in order for
022us to stay whole as a district it would have to be a 10.5 and if we had the level of funding that we had in terms of the percent of the state budget for Education that we had when I first came on the board we would be seeing a budget of 11 billion dollars that would be 11 million dollars more roughly than what we're getting this year so I think that's one problem the other problem is that during the pandemic we lost kids we lost roughly 1100 kids each one of those is ten thousand dollars do the math we're down a bunch of money and so from a funding perspective from a fiscal perspective solely those are the two biggest challenges I think that we're facing um I would take exception to the fact that
023we are not allocating our resources to students and to student achievement we do that every day in every way 85 percent of our budget goes to teachers and staff so to say that we don't prioritize teachers in the classroom when we're funding is simply not true [Music] okay thank you same question Wendy O'Reilly I um I have to admit that I just started getting involved in the budget meetings I've been to the last two I will have to say it was very interesting um I didn't really see any numbers coming out of the last meeting it was more Concepts than if we the pros and cons of doing it so I was actually hoping to be in an in an opportunity to see more numbers um I will say that one of the biggest Financial
024hurdles for the ttsd and all schools is all these parents pulling their kids out of the public school system with doing that as Jill said the school gives gets less money but I really think if we had a higher quality in our curriculum and and really invest in the teachers that these parents would put their kids back in the public schools if they put their kids back in the public schools that's more money for the public schools I firmly believe that that is a huge hurdle to come across and if it's fixed and corrected will be an immense immense help to everybody involved but I also definitely want to have very effective teachers and I do know that maybe there are some ways that we can get some feedback from students to look at the
025teachers instead of us doing it or parents doing it actually get that feedback from your students I can tell you right now that I have a half a dozen kids that think that's a great idea and would love to do it we do it in college why can't we do it in high school okay thank you same question Kristen miles oh I'm a liar Crystal Crystal Weston my God and I have a pen in them I was just gonna sit back and relax so I think the biggest problem with our budget is that it's inadequate from a state funding level I've watched this picture get painted and it's not a good picture it's not what our kids deserve it's not what our teachers and classified staff deserve they deserve our very best and they're not
026getting it they've helped us come through the last few years and we need to stand up and deliver for them we can do some work to prioritize to put our funds as they are mostly pretty much directed into the classroom as they are we can be very careful with these things um we can prioritize maintaining mental health we can prioritize maintaining what we have for for supports in our classroom and for um core programs but at the end of the day we're we're sitting there with a plate of peas and we're moving around and we're trying to get the margins to work a little bit better and what we really need for our education to work is time with our young people and our teachers together in the classroom learning we also have demographic changes
027that we knew were coming and they're here where there's fewer young people per household and that will continue and our enrollment will be lower over time and our state needs to adjust to that but the good news is we can put the same amount of money in and serve our students at the higher level that they deserve that they've always deserved we're also a growing community and so going forward our enrollment will become higher and that will help our budget and so I hope we can all join in advocating for that higher level of funding and and and know as well that we will be working hard to deliver the very best quality we possibly can with the constraints that we are that we are given great thank you and now Kristin miles same question
028thank you I'll Echo a little bit of what I heard here in that um part of the problem is is that the state never funds the quality education model the qem um that we are constantly short on dollars um not to the fault of ttsd the every District almost every District lost students due to the pandemic and that's not because of the quality of our curriculum that's because um folks chose um unschooling they chose private schools they did not necessarily choose against ttsd every District lost students um but I and I will say one of the things that I've seen in this District that I've never seen anywhere else working at a Statewide level is a strategic financial plan and I think that this district has been really intentional about aligning its Financial priorities to
029the Strategic plan and a couple of things that that I have seen that I would want to continue to see is a focus on College and Career Readiness which I know is one of the the goals of the Strategic financial plan we know that a focus on CTE and stem can increase grad rate can increase college readiness and and um and kids going to school the other piece is a focus on early learning which I know is another one of the priorities Readiness for kindergarten is a predictor of future success and also those Early Learning years are where a lot of life skills are learned on non-academic indicators but brought that focus on College and Career Readiness and those Early Learning years are are really important and so to be able to allocate funds and
030resources to those priorities are things that I would want to continue to see and in the financial plan that that is years long which I got to have exposure to during the community budgeting group that our financial work group that I was on um there was that laser focus on those priorities and and that alignment with the Strategic plan that I would want to see continue even within a budget shortfall great thank you so now we're moving on to question two and this time we will start with position four candidate Jill zershmeet the tiger Tualatin School Board published its new five-year strategic plan last fall The Guiding priorities of the plan includes student achievement safety culture and climate and talent please speak to one of these priorities as a TTS board member what will be
031your what sorry what will you be looking for to demonstrate the successful execution of this plan thank you so I'm going to take one that I suspect nobody else is going to want to talk about and that's talent in our strategic plan we talk about our talent our Workforce mirroring mirroring the demographics of our students and I think that's a really important goal currently um we have something like 38 of our Workforce is diverse but something like 50 48 excuse me of our students are diverse and only about 24 of our staff is diverse and so we need to work to make sure that those are more equal it's important for a student sitting in a classroom to see a teacher who looks like them it is easy for a white student sitting with a
032white teacher to feel seen heard valued included it is harder I see you putting your thumb down but it's actually the truth I've talked to students about this so I know this is true when I do my board work I go into classrooms I talk to students I go into the high schools every month to talk to students so I know this is actually an issue and I challenge you that who are shaking your head at this that maybe you haven't been in the schools and talked to students about this students of color it matters representation matters and so that Talent piece is very important that being said it's also important that that Talent those teachers are really good teachers those staff members are really good staff members we have an amazing HR department and
033our new assistant HR Director has done a phenomenal job getting people of color into our schools we now need to make sure that they're supported and that we retain them so that we can have a Workforce that mirrors our students thank you okay next up position five candidate Wendy O'Reilly same question my answer kind of hits two different things I don't know if that's allowed but um it's it's kind of like the talent and the the forecast of the budget um one of the things that I noticed when I was in the budgets is there was a plan for five years ahead but I never actually heard what the plan was that is probably my bad because I have not been involved until late however I was concerned with the fact that we want to
034get our children 80 proficient five years from now one of the problems I think that we need to do is we need to stop just looking for goals that are in the future and figuring out goals that we can do now that will impact the future I think we're looking at this exactly backwards if we make a longer plan then you end up moving things in increments there's no uh reason you can't make a bigger change and see how it happens a very smart person yesterday told me that policies can change and I'm hoping that that can happen and we can get people together and work together I think those fundamental actions and decisions will help guide ttsd and hopefully motivate and support the parents to get more involved um that's pretty much it okay
035thank you Crystal Weston same question here we go thank you so um so for strategic planning I think it's important to maintain some of the gains we've already made but also to build on those and continue um increasing the quality of what we're what we're delivering I think it's important to focus on the challenges of our time and making adjustments as needed we're coming into a new phase in our society and we need to have our young people ready for the future that includes increasing opportunities for learning a second language that's a fantastic opportunity for learning it's easier at a younger age and it's something that should be available for more or all of our students I think our curriculum needs to continue to resonate with our diverse population so that they can feel engaged
036and develop critical thinking skills and be exposed to ideas and be able to really make their make their own decisions and and be ready for the future we also need to look at our Career and Technical offerings and make sure that those match with the careers of the future and lastly I'd like to say that it's so important to demonstrate our belief in the in the inherent potential of young people if they feel that we do not believe in them then it's hard to achieve at a high level and I think that it's important that all of our young people know that they can achieve at a high level it's expected and that our behavior and words match those expectations great thank you same question Kristen miles thank you what I appreciate about our strategic
037plan is that um all of it all of it overlaps there's no pillar that doesn't impact another pillar it's it's drawn in a circle Equity overlays all of it um I would also say that um one of the one of the smartest things that I ever heard uh said about a board is that a board can make a decision that impacts kids the next day and that can be very positive it can be negative and so sometimes change does have to be incremental and sometimes it can happen right away and So within the Strategic plan I would talk about the the pillar of the safety culture and climate to me this is about inclusion it's about connectedness it's about voice this is a there's a powerful connection within those things to student achievement and um
038and talent also has so much to do with this right again all of these things are interconnected but um but Talent has um a lot to do with this Jill talked about this has to do with professional development but the diversity of our staff that's students being reflected in the classroom but that safety and inclusion and students feeling welcomed feeling seen is a huge part of them feeling safe at school feeling a sense of belonging when you feel welcome and seen at school you can access learning you can access the curriculum that we all want to see um kids kids learning and achieving and the other piece that's really important for for a board to do a board's role is is governance and so collaborating with the superintendent and staff to monitor that that strategic
039plan to get feedback on are we achieving our goals what is the expected progress in what time periods that is the role of the board as well and um to to see that strategic plan play out and collaboration with the community and with staff thank you great thank you and finally position four candidate Gregory Horner do uh repeat the question for me please yeah you bet the ttsd school board published its new five-year strategic plan last fall The Guiding priorities of the plan includes student achievement safety culture and climate and talent please speak to one of these priorities and as a ttsd board member what will be you what will you be looking for to demonstrate the successful execution of this plan so um I've actually heard about all those pillars um and other organizations
040and I find that a lot of those like culture and climate are uh the sort of double entender us about what the particular goal is and it doesn't actually materialize effectively into the school district um I would I'd be working to scrap most of that plan except student achievement because the school's primary focus is how to get students educated and in education is really about how to spark curiosity in a student there's uh a shift happening in our society and our culture that's um going to affect everybody soon and automation sounds like a buzzword but the types of jobs and skills that are needed in the future are shifting quickly um you know Tesla is already working to try to automate semi trucks which is the number one job for high school graduate males and
041we don't seem to want to answer what we're going to do with that cohort of people once they're unemployed and I think the way to fix that is to take our schools refocus them on education achievement and finding ways to get students curious in Endeavors that they will carry through their life thank you okay thank you so now our third question and we'll start with uh candidate Wendy O'Reilly and the question is tiger Tualatin School District's strategic plan centers around Equity stating we provide Equitable educational opportunities and a school experience that is validating empowering and just and just for every student what do Equitable educational opportunities look like to you and as a board member what will inform you that this work is happening in our schools this is a fireball question one of the
042things that I see and I'm afraid is happening is that equal opportunity is starting to look more like equal outcome and we need to make sure that that's not a demand for the uniformity of our students not everyone is the same there's a reason we're different and we need to make sure that we're not hurting people who have special gifts or talents experience I know home life comes into it I hear a lot of people talk about the underprivileged honestly I grew up as trailer trash so I know what that's like and I'm white it doesn't matter what your color is you've got to make sure that those opportunities are there for children regardless we shouldn't be worrying about where they come from or what they do but more what they have what's inside where
043can they go I think that is one thing that we really need to promote programs and policies and actually get those the front and not necessarily worry about making sure that everyone comes out the same it's never going to happen we aren't the same okay thank you um candidate Crystal Winston same question I'd like to say that we can my mom started school speaking only Spanish and by the end of the year she was functioning well in the classroom could speak English well and went on to become the first college graduate in my family and that's not to say that it works for everyone but that it can work and we should believe that it can work and we shouldn't blame some groups of people or failing to achieve an outcome that I know we
044can deliver achieving Equitable outcomes for me means first of all a high standard for instruction a world-class curriculum and enough time in the classroom for students and teachers to do the hard work of learning many families lack the resources to supplement what schools provide and so Equity requires us to deliver to a high standard students have just one chance for an education we also need a supportive learning environment curriculum should instill a sense of belonging and young people should be able to show up as their full selves I also support multilingualism I think it's a fantastic opportunity for everyone that should be available to whoever wants it and I also think we need resources to our young people as needed if someone is hungry then a second helping should be provided and so that too
045is how schools should operate and I want to finish with we will not be divided it is not these young people versus this other group we can work hard to meet everyone's needs even under difficult circumstances as a community we can come together and deliver for everyone [Music] thank you uh candidate two Kristen miles thank you I'll just Begin by saying that there is a piece of research out there that says that the single belief held by all board members that all students can learn measurably impacts student achievement because the belief by held by anybody that not all students can achieve at high levels impacts the way that we make decisions if we other students and say that not all kids can learn it impacts the way we allocate resources it impacts the way we
046adopt budget it impacts the way that we adopt policy Equitable student outcomes to me is about the reduction and elimination of barriers to an excellent education for all students it is about again it's about um it's about voice it's about student voice it's about eliminating things like pay to play it's about eliminating those kinds of barriers it's about elevating CTE and stem it's about creating that welcoming environment it is about meeting every kid where they are and that means allocating resources in a way that that serves every student and that does not look the same for every kid in every school um it what does that result in that results in Higher Achievement higher graduation rates it results in lower exclusionary discipline it results in lower Dropout rates it insults it results in kids feeling
047like they are achieving their Highest Potential and the community benefiting from that as well and families benefiting from that as well and the board's job is to is to impact policy and budget and to work with the superintendent and to hold the district accountable and monitor those results to ensure that that students needs are being met and those goals those aspirational goals that are in the Strategic plan are are being worked on and and are being met as time goes on and um and that's why I see the work of the board thank you position four candidate Gregory Horner same question would you repeat it for me please yes ttsd's strategic plan centers around Equity stating we provide Equitable educational opportunities and a school experience that is validating empowering and just for every student what
048do Equitable educational opportunities look like to you and as a board member what will inform you that this work is happening in our schools all right thank you um so I've actually heard the other candidates talk about equity and what is happening is a clear definition issue some people think Equity uh is maybe synonymous with equality of opportunity um some people think it's about fairness and then some people think of it as you know sort of a a portion of something like you would have with your mortgage you know the equity in your house and that that actually creates the confusion that comes up often in these discussions and I I think the intent of equity is is probably a noble but the way it plays out you have to start to talk to about
049uh you know proportionate differently to each student and we really need to get to a fundamentals point of talking about getting the opportunities in front of students and addressing student achievement um and the opportunities do not equate to equity and that that's a bit of a challenge um for everybody I I think if we can uh change our goal from Equity to opportunity uh we we won't have conflict around it we will have a discussion of how to promote success uh when you talk about Equity you lose resolution into how you want to actually achieve it and what what the definition is and the context around it it's a very poor choice of words and it's a very poor choice of a goal uh our schools need to be measuring student academics right and they
050need to figure out if somebody's falling behind what is it that's they're falling behind because you know is it a skills Gap is it a talent Gap you know it could be many things and that you can address that with quality teachers and student engagement without resorting to discussions of what Equity is and I'm I'm concerned about that use and that phrasing and the context at which the other cans have brought it up so thank you thank you and the uh position four candidate Jill zershmead thank you so I couldn't be more opposed um in Viewpoint to my opponent it would not be possible to to think more differently than he does I think Equity is hugely important our strategic plan talks about achievement we don't push it under a rug it is hugely important
051but we know kids can't achieve if they're hungry if they're upset if they're scared if they have been sleeping in their car for the last six months and so culture climate safety they matter similarly if their teacher isn't willing to acknowledge them in the room they're not going to be able to learn so Talent matters so when we say those four things together it's not one over the other it's all of them together are important and Equity is a thread that runs through it because we have to meet every student where they are we can't just say we're teaching at this level and if you're down here well we'll figure out a way to catch you up we have to have systems in place from day one that say wherever you come into our system
052we are willing to get you to where you need to be the measurement for how we know we've done well is our kids able to read by third grade and our kids graduating from high school those are really our two measuring points and those are the ones that I will pay absolute attention to along the way different kids need different things some kids need IB some kids are not going to ever take an IB class they're going to do something different right they're going to take one of our amazing CDE classes that's terrific and I just have to say I am so looking forward to having Kristen miles on the board everything that I wanted to say she said first so I had to like scramble here to think of what I was going to
053say next so I'm really glad she doesn't have an opponent I can say that out loud thank you [Applause] so now it's time for our student voice part of the evening and each one of our students here Will has a question to ask our candidates and they as a reminder we'll have two minutes to answer and uh they'll have the cards showing you how your time is going so the first question please welcome Tigard High School junior Owen Albrecht [Applause] thank you one of ttsd's long-term objectives is students families and Staff feel a sense of physical and psychological safety and belonging in our school community my question is what does physical and psychological safety mean to you and as a board member how do you make that Vision a reality okay and the first person
054to answer this will be candidate five Crystal Weston thanks Owen I'm going to start with physical safety I think um we're going through a difficult a long difficult time with safety in our schools and so I think we want to have physical safety that includes designing schools to be as safe as possible from from violence it also means advocating for safe storage laws and Common Sense gun policies at the state level as far as psychological safety goes I think we need to address an atmosphere where young people can come to school feel belonging and feel safety that means having a curriculum that teaches about different people in different parts of the world at different times that offers a multitude of things to read to learn to interact with so that young people all feel welcome
055it also means having mental health supports or going through a mental health crisis and it's important to have positive experiences to build new memories and also there's research that shows the importance of supportive adults for young people and that's really important to make sure we have those resources and I appreciate this question because it's critical to have a supportive safe environment in order to learn if we're dealing with with mental health challenges or stress or feeling unsafe that makes our job of learning so much harder great thank you okay Kristen miles same question I also appreciate this question um very much as a as a mom of a seventh grader who re-entered the system after covet as a sixth grader who did not get to finish out her Elementary years uh in a building I
056know that we saw big behaviors and big feelings um entering the building again uh postcovid and and that wasn't um that wasn't just her school that wasn't just ttsd that was everywhere and and so there were a lot of feelings of safety physical mental emotional and and I know that those things are getting better I think that there have been great supports but in place I know that federal dollars have helped provide more counseling supports um physical safety means uh to me means feeling like you can walk into school and not feel like you're going to be hurt and um and and knowing that that you're in a physically safe environment which is one of those basic needs you need to feel basic safety um the the thing that I think about a lot too
057is how can how can students feel emotionally and mentally safe and this all comes down to me for um that social emotional health and learning piece when students feel belonging when they feel included when they feel like they can show up as their true authentic selves they can feel safe at school and that is kind of the invisible um lack of safety that sometimes kids feel and so um and so and and again and this comes back to me for with um the overlay of equity and of access and opportunity if you don't feel like you can walk into school and be yourself and feel safe in your emotional and mental environment and be who you are how can you access your whole education and so the safety of belonging and being and being included
058both physically knowing that you can walk around the building and feel safe and mentally is of utmost importance thank you thank you uh same question candidate Gregory Horner [Music] it's physical safety I think there are a lot of good practices that are being done I mean things as simple as having the school doors locked I take my son to a daycare and uh you know the parents know how to get in with the code but other people can't I mean it seems simple but it it does increase just the physical safety of a building um the other side of it is knowing what to do when things aren't going uh when there's an incident whatever that may be you know maybe it's a school fight uh maybe it's worse maybe it's somebody on the campus
059that shouldn't be uh just having an awareness of that can create a sense that I can handle this situation as a student I'll know what to do and we can tackle this leaving it ambiguous is where the sense of in safety comes from the physical safety is much easier to tackle um the psychological safety is a term that I actually haven't heard before and it's another one that has me a little concerned because it's it really isn't the issue the issue is how do you create a resilient student um how do you give that student the confidence to walk in the world to try difficult things to face adversity and then know that after that challenge you know success or failure that he or she did it well and that that really comes through I
060think fostering activities that teach it you know a simple one is partaking in a play you know being on stage uh when maybe you didn't think you could you will learn that you're actually more resilient to challenges um but spending time dwelling on it and not taking action doesn't teach you how to be resilient and that's a problem and so I I'd like to Foster activities that challenge the students and as a side benefit they learn resiliency thinking okay time thank you okay position four candidate Jill zersmead So Physical safety is it is in fact actually relatively simple and in our last uh Bond we went through and we made sure that every single School in our district has a secure vestibule and the school day starts kids can walk into the building once that
061school day has started those doors lock and the only way you can get into any one of our schools is to go through the office be buzzed in by by staff so I think that element of safety we've done a really good job of addressing we could go further we could get bulletproof glass um but that gets really expensive for diminishing returns really quickly and I don't think it's worth the dollars that we would spend on it psychological safety um is is trickier and we talk a lot about social emotional learning and I know that that phrase is probably a trigger for a lot of people in the room like oh my God what a waste of money but if you think of it instead as you're teaching students how to handle their feelings sometimes
062they get taught that at home sometimes they don't but if we do it at school we know every kid gets those lessons so we started early in elementary school we have the packs learning program where kids learn and they are specifically taught what is appropriate behavior in school what is not how to interact with your peers in a respectful way and we do that up all the way through the grades now we've been doing it at high school and it's not been the best program I know we have some teachers who don't quite buy into it we have students who don't buy into it and so that's going to be our next challenge is bringing that SEL or at least that that teaching students how to be good citizens of the world and be nice
063to each other for lack of a better term bring that into the high school so that our super smart high school students don't just shrug and say this is lame I don't want to do this and that's really the challenge we've got to face thank you okay and position five candidate Wendy O'Reilly hi again um physical safety I have to say I am a hundred percent of proponent of the officers in the school um I know with all of the stuff that's been happening one of the things that makes my son feel safe is they go through the drills and they do everything but they he knows there's that guy over there that's going to help him one of the things I really like about ttsd is not only is our officer in the school
064walking around the halls but I see him at ttsd board meetings I see him um they just had an ASB versus students game granted he was on the teacher side but he was involved I see the kids walk by and high-five the cop so those feelings they they grow and eventually those stigmas can go away we just have to encourage our kids that they're there to help I firmly believe that psychological help I honestly from my past experience when I was younger I would have loved to have counselors in the school and I am a proponent for more counselors because there are times where you can't talk to the family I unfortunately was one of those children that didn't have a great childhood but I had a teacher to talk to it would have been
065nice to have more of a counselor to talk to so I am a very big proponent in getting some more counselors in the schools they're just needed thank you and so for our next question please welcome to the podium Tigard High School senior orishiki nog [Applause] thank you okay so my question is regarding about how school districts across the country are facing pressures to ban certain media and curriculum that take away students rights to explore diverse perspectives and inclusive topics as a board member how are you committed to protecting a student's right to education and free speech and other Liberty Liberties when there are outside movements who oppose certain aspects of those liberties got it and we will start the answers with position two candidate Kristen miles thank you I appreciate your question um I'll
066just State uh out right that I'm against Banning literature Banning materials for students um I don't see the value in Banning materials for students and banning literature um I don't know who it's protecting uh and and I and I would stand against doing something like that um I you know as as far as I believe that that bands of of literature and and teaching materials propagate an already oppressive system and as somebody who walks in the world with a lot of of privilege um it is part of my job to do the work to understand bias and I think that what I have seen is that um Banning uh books Banning teaching materials actually propagates certain biases and um and and when when boards do that when they're banning materials from from kids and saying
067we don't want you reading about this they're also saying we don't want you to see yourself in these materials we don't want you to see yourselves or your friends um in in these books and in the classroom and um or we don't want you to know about these experiences sometimes we don't want you to know about history and um and I'm and I'm not for that and so as a board member um I would I I would fight to be um inclusive of of materials that are that are that are teachable that are teachable moments that are about um things that that we've used that are good stories for kids to learn to see themselves and um and and see their their families and their own experiences and their own histories in thank you thank
068you uh same question to candidate Gregory Horner yeah so I'm actually reminded of a time when uh the rules were reversed and it was intelligent design versus Evolution curriculum um in that case it was the opposite argument of one said that no these are the facts that Evolution exists intelligent design is spirituality or your religion and that doesn't belong in the school and there's uh there's definitely a thread to be uh to navigate when you have materials in the school and it's really about exposure at proper ages and proper context um the problem with curriculum is that it is a very narrow channel of information that you have to convey to somebody but if somebody walks into the library and sits down and wants to read the history of a particular event it's it shouldn't
069be the school's place to say that that can't be done um and what what the argument comes down to a lot of is specifically the context in which the information has been conveyed and I think the way to solve that is is to really open up the curriculum as much as possible to provide as many resources to students so they can dive into any point of history and learn about it and a really deep and interesting way you know history has been going on for you know we got 10 000 years of written history and you know we can't even agree on simple things that the Romans did let alone what we did in the 1960s let alone what happened during covid and in the way to navigate that is to teach the students how
070to embrace that information and to ferret through it themselves um Public Schools can be used as a mechanism to condition people away from the ideas and that shouldn't be the goal of any public school the public schools need to focus thank you time thank you okay position four candidate Jill zersmead same question so I'm very proud of the work that I did on the policy committee last year we rewrote our curriculum and school resources policy specifically to make sure that we had procedures in place for if a book in our library is challenged if a parent doesn't like a book that's in our in one of our libraries what do we do they fill out a form we look at the the book they have to explain very specifically what it is about this book
071that they find offensive and then we have a team teachers administrators board members community members where appropriate students when appropriate to look at the materials and and give it a good thorough review and I think that that's really important um I'm pretty sure your question is referring to say can be school district where recently uh two parents complained and the district pulled Brooks off of the shelves of the library I was deeply disappointed in that because Canby has a policy too and they didn't follow their own policy it's important that the books stay on the shelf and tell the review is complete and then if the book is found for whatever reason it doesn't provide something academic it doesn't teach students about a different culture or a different world it's not age appropriate if it's
072a an elementary school and it's a high school aged book obviously that's not going to be age appropriate so there are things that you've done then if the book fails those criteria then it could be removed from school but it needs to go through the proper process and I am very proud of the work we've done and I want to make sure that our process is always followed hey thank you same question candidate Wendy O'Reilly I agree with 99 of that there is one thing that actually two things that think that parents need to know and it needs to be enforced is personally I've noticed some books that have been banned that I grew up reading Like To Kill a Mockingbird some Dr Seuss I mean everybody has their own interpretation and no one's interpretation
073should be forced onto another that's a fact however I do think there's age-appropriateness for things there are some books in the high school that should absolutely not be in a Grade School they should not be in a middle school depending on that content but the more important thing is we need to get rid of opt-in sorry opt out and start putting in opt-in I think parents would be a lot more comfortable I know I would if I knew what the books were and I had a chance to scan them over and go you know that's really not part of our religion or our family values or whatever but the political views that people are having to ban books it's not a place for school people need to be able to make up their own decisions
074their own decisions what their children read and we just need to get back to that everybody has their own views and it's not appropriate to put your views on everybody else's so Banning books I'm not a big fan of myself but I do think there is a time and a place for each level of book and that may need to be addressed foreign thank you and position five candidate Crystal Weston so much for this question I would like to opt out of books and I would ask who decides what is standard traditional or appropriate and take a hard look at where that's coming from and who's deciding I think it's important for our students to have critical thinking and to promote that and a quality education means access to diverse viewpoints and full information of
075our history of all the information not a glossed overview or an overly simplistic curriculum when I was a kid we had the Brontosaurus and we were sure it was right but later come to find out that was actually the head of an Apatosaurus on the body of some other creature and it was actually not accurate at all and it was disturbing but the fact remains that science keeps progressing we keep finding out new information and our young people need the tools to weigh the evidence apply critical thinking form opinions and have the confidence to understand the information write their own story and have the Integrity to follow up our democracy depends on critical thinking and the ability to weigh the evidence and reach a common truth as we knew the end of our program we
076now have an opportunity for the candidates to share some brief final thoughts and each of you will have one minute to share your closing remarks and we will go ahead and start with position four candidate Gregory Horner yeah so I'd like to thank the school district for putting this forum together reaching out to me and the other candidates to Hostess it uh it does take quite a bit of work to make this happen and I appreciate that and everyone attending thank you for coming to listen to me speak listen to the other candidates and I hope I've made myself clear um I'd like to make a different kind of public school I'd like that to be focused on education and education to me is about uh sparking curiosity in students and providing them the tools
077to deploy that knowledge throughout their life and that's that's going to be my goal and focus after lecture for the next four years thank you hey thank you uh candidate um Jill zersh me thank you very much um I'd like to Echo my thanks for everybody who helped put this on today the fabulous Tracy Rose most importantly um for my final remarks I want to just address um the false narrative that I've heard today about Oregon schools failing I heard my opponents say that we need to get graduation rates to what they were when he graduated 10 years ago or so uh eight years ago the graduation rate in Oregon was 72 percent this year it was uh 82 so we've got taken it up 10 I don't want to go back I'd like to
078get it a little higher um thanks to the good work that we've been doing in this District at Tualatin high school last year at a graduation rate was 95 that's phenomenal that's absolutely phenomenal also when people talk about Oregon schools failing when we don't graduate enough kids they never buy their Dimension okay darn I won't have time thank you same question or same uh Crystal uh no sorry Wendy O'Reilly you're next I am looking at this from a mom perspective not a teacher not a school board member not a politician just a mom who's watched my kid for the last 11 years watched his friends I can tell you right now the preparation that I had to go to college which he has to go he doesn't have a choice he does not have that
079same background I did he does not have the same discipline he does not have the same go get attitude and a lot of kids that I see that he talks to and deals with are the same we need to put that back into their portfolio we need to make sure that even if they don't go on College they have that backbone for their careers whatever that may be um I do think that the parents need to be a little bit more involved maybe see the curriculums and maybe they'll have less questions maybe they'll be less less a holding back on doing things I think that's a big proponent okay thank you and now Crystal Weston [Music] if I'm elected to this position I'll allude with evidence-based policy including evidence-based reading curriculum that works I'll support
080academic Excellence a supported staff a world-class curriculum and also a belief in the inherent potential of all of our young people I want to thank the organizers and the attendees for being here and I think that is the people that come to events that care about our education our young people our community that are showing up I appreciate that all of your input at the end of the day we need to be there and deliver for our young people and believe in them because we know that they have potential and that we can help support them in whatever they choose to do in their lives thank you and position two candidate Kristen miles thank you I'll just echo my thanks to um to the staff for putting this on to community for being here um
081and especially to the students thank you for for your thoughtful questions and for for challenging us you should um we represent you um I will just say that um I I chose to live in this district and um and this is a good District I don't I don't approach uh running for board with a deficit mindset I approached this um this challenge with um the idea that ttsd is doing good things we can continue doing good things um the things can always get better and we should also celebrate our successes and I just foresee an opportunity to um to keep students at the center of what we do to provide good governance and to just ensure an environment where all kids can succeed at their at their highest level into their Highest Potential thank you
082great thank you and so with that our Forum comes to a close thanks to the school board candidates for sharing with us this evening thank you for all your service and your commitment to public education best of luck um our thanks to the amazing student leaders here we're very proud of you and can't wait to see what's ahead for you and here's a reminder of course that election is on May the 16th so make sure you cast your ballot because if you don't then you don't get a say um and then uh I would be remiss if I didn't say that the Broadway Rose will be appearing here this summer at the dev fennel Auditorium opening with Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat and Rogers and Hammerstein Cinderella so hope you're all back here for that
083and with that enjoy the rest of your evening